Turning Financial Hardship into Success: Mervin Miller's Shed Hauling Journey

Can resilience and adaptability turn a financial downturn into a booming business? Join us as we sit down with Mervin Miller, a veteran of the shed hauling industry, who shares how he navigated the challenges of the 2008 economic crisis to build a fleet of seven trucks. From his early days with Woody to his own venture in South Carolina, Mervin takes us through the highs and lows of his journey, including his deep-rooted connection to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 

Mervin's story is a powerful testament to faith and perseverance in the face of financial hardships and unexpected challenges. Hear heartwarming tales of generosity, the importance of starting small, and the real struggles behind achieving success. We discuss the balance between maintaining practical equipment for employees and avoiding unnecessary expenditures, shedding light on the nuances of running a delivery business that many overlook.

Finally, explore the current trends and competition within the shed industry, and the significance of community and camaraderie among shed haulers. From the Shed Hauler Brotherhood to debates over modern delivery methods, our conversation is rich with insights and personal anecdotes. Don’t miss our reflections on the shared joy of good food and fellowship, crowned by dining plans at Miller's Bread Basket. Tune in for an episode that promises to inspire and enlighten!

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Transcript

Shed Geek: 0:08

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast and New Horizons today. So this is fun. You guys have been hearing all about the podcast expansion project with Susan and Sam, and this is your first official S ambassador Friday. I don't know what we're calling these things.

Sam Byler: 0:31

We don't have a tagline yet, so I can't lead it.

Shed Geek: 0:33

Yeah, we need to, we need to do something, we need to come up with something there, but whatever it ends up being, thank you guys for listening. This is a, this is the launch of Sambo and uh, and this is the launch of Sambo and being able to bring some haulers more into the limelight, if you will.

Sam Byler: 0:52

I guess you'd say yeah, I guess we're going to focus on hauling mostly. If it overlaps, obviously we all overlap, yeah, so that'll be fine, and I couldn't be happier to be anywhere else than to be at mervin miller's place, like I've never been here before I don't know how not but I don't either.

Sam Byler: 1:12

It's crazy um so introduced to you, mervin miller. Um, he's been in hauling a long time. I actually saw where you commented on uh susan's post the other day a little bit, and I found out that you'd done some stuff that I'd never heard of. So introduce yourself, give a short little synopsis on where we're at and what we're doing here. As far as what do you do now?

Mervin Miller: 1:41

Well, I guess, just to kind of comment on what you just said about her post, I first got into the shed industry in. I thought it was 1990, but Woody said it's 91. Anyway, I mean I know this happened in 91. Oh okay, that thing when I was working for Woody. But I was thinking I'd started in 90, but either way, it was back then sometime and started out with Woody building sheds when he started his own shop and then ran his delivery truck, that pretty sweet little 85 GMC with the 454 and the four-speed yeah.

Mervin Miller: 2:22

So that was a trip. And then I was totally out of sheds for 10 years, got back in it in 2001, started my own shed lot in uh aiken, south carolina. Bought all my sheds, gazebos, play sets, furniture, all that stuff out of pennsylvania, haul it down here, resold it and then 08 kind of put the kibosh on that. Oh, yeah.

Mervin Miller: 2:50

And end of 09 I shut that down. But by then we had already started hauling for old hickory when they opened the factory here in Blackville, five miles from my house, and they're like, hey, you want to haul sheds for us? I'm like, eh, why not from my house, you know? And they're like, hey, you want to haul sheds for us? I'm like, yeah, why not? And um, so I've been hauling for them for the last 17 years. Wow. So started with the one truck and trailer that I already had, and as they expanded the factory, I would add another truck, add another driver, add another truck. So now we're up to seven trucks and seven drivers. Wow.

Sam Byler: 3:26

And are we considered we're in Blackville?

Mervin Miller: 3:28

South Carolina. Yes, we are in Blackville, that's where we're at.

Sam Byler: 3:30

Okay, it's kind of crazy that Woody comes up now, because Woody's telling his story Forty years in the shed hauling business and it was just through his story that I found out that he actually built sheds at one time. I've never known, like it's crazy, where these stories go. Like we've got to get Woody back on again.

Shed Geek: 3:55

For sure, and we will when we go up to his.

Sam Byler: 3:57

He's throwing a huge 40th anniversary party. I'm guessing you're going.

Mervin Miller: 4:02

I'm going to try to for sure, I'm going to try it for sure.

Sam Byler: 4:05

I'm trying to, I'm gonna try really hard um, but yeah, it was through that stories where I first heard that he even built sheds at one time, like I always thought he was just in trucking. His story is incredible to be able to follow it where he's just um. You know, I've always kind of thought of him as a quiet, he keeps all his stuff to himself type of guy and he has really opened up and I love it's good. I like seeing this side and I think it's helped a lot of people that are new in the industry and even guys that struggle along. It kind of helps along with that to see where his story is. And I knew you had worked for him so I knew you were tied into that right. But, um, so how did? How did you end up in Pennsylvania? Because you're from here originally?

Mervin Miller: 4:47

right, right, I grew up down here. I was 14 when I guess I was 13, my sister married a dude from Lancaster County and then, uh, my brother and I, my next older brother can't throw my oldest brother into that, but my next older brother and I we were a little bit mischievous and so my parents decided it might be a good idea to move us to PA and maybe get us out of trouble, and so we went up there and spent 14 years up there. So you moved up there with your parents, right, okay? And then, of course, I met my wife up there. Okay, lancaster County Amish girl that I misled, of course, and got away from the Amish. Yep, so I met my wife up there. So when did you get married? 89., 89. Got married, moved down here for six months and decided that we had too many friends up there, we didn't like it here, so we moved back up again. Oh, wow. So it was interesting. It was an interesting period of time there.

Shed Geek: 5:50

I didn't know that you built Sheds with Woody, and that's a perfect example of why I love sitting down for these interviews. You know, seeing Woody at the Shed Hauler Bash get up on stage and kind of tell his story, there was something not just nostalgic but some a little bit of magic in the air that, like everybody can explain, can explain but they understand that comment and then to see them follow up kind of on posting about the pictures and the different things. I think that there's all of you know, there's a little historian in all of us and this is kind of like our little piece of history. Whenever your day in and day out consists of shed-related or some kind of shed or other related industry, it's just your whole life is kind of surrounded by that much of that. So it's molded by a lot of that, and I had no idea that you built sheds with Woody until this very moment.

Mervin Miller: 6:48

Yeah.

Sam Byler: 6:50

I found out the other night.

Mervin Miller: 6:52

Yeah, and then, to make it even more interesting, back in probably 07, 08, somewhere along in there, I needed a semi and I ended up buying one of his semis, second Chance, I don't know if you remember that one. Yeah, that's right. So I bought the truck from him, I bought a raggedy old trailer he had there and I went to hauling sheds from here to North Carolina and so, yeah, it was like years later we hooked up again and did business again for a little bit Pretty cool.

Sam Byler: 7:26

So it's interesting that I'm actually tied in with that truck in a in a roundabout sort of way. I was driving down 25 one day, had sheds on, and I met this other hauler coming the opposite way, four lane highway, divided center, you know. So I had plenty of time to see it and he was in a little Dodge pickup truck that had dual stacks on the back of it, painted purple, and was hauling sheds and I'm like that is the goofiest thing I have ever seen.

Sam Byler: 7:54

It had Peterbilt stacks on the back of this little Dodge and that was the first time I ever saw him was on that road. Well then, I got to see him around pretty regularly. He'd be in Andersonerson same time. I was in anderson and uh finally hooked up with him one day over at a wear place and stopped at the. We were both stopped getting fuel and found out who he was and, uh, dave sumi and where he was out of. And I asked him about his purple truck and he said ah, he bought that from merv miller that way because merv had it matched to a trailer. But apparently the trailer was originally matched with this truck. Does that sound right?

Mervin Miller: 8:34

So I bought the truck from Woody and of course it had the purple frame. And so when I built the Dodge I got the frame painted purple, block rack everything, fenders, you know, and Harley was driving that truck. Okay, harley Geyser. So at some point in time we talked about putting stacks on it. Well, I wanted to put bigger stacks on my Peterbilt. Oh, of course I took the stacks off the Peterbilt and we put them on the Dodge and I put seven-inch straights on the Pete. So, well then, I got the purple trailer built to match the Dodge.

Sam Byler: 9:14

Okay, so the Dodge got painted to match the Peterbilt to start with, right Cool, that was the best sounding Dodge. Like I'm partial to Dodges the way they sound anyway, with the inlines but that that truck with those stacks on it was perfect. It was like you couldn't have cut them an inch shorter or made them an inch longer and had the perfect tone. Yep and uh, so I ended up buying that truck. Um, I bought it, I told dave. I said, if you ever sell that truck, I want it. And uh, bought it after. I guess you had worked all the bugs out of it because apparently it was a problem child. And uh, I had that truck for, I think, close to two years and we never did anything to it, period, I mean, change oil in it, drive it. It had a little bit of a noise in the transmission but nobody ever worried about it. Everything worked fine. And then I turned around and I sold it.

Sam Byler: 10:08

Kevin Cook actually bought it and he had nothing but trouble out of it. So then he turned around and he sold it to a guy up in New York, daniel Yoder, who we all know Daniel Yoder because he won the Bash Peterbiltilt a couple years ago and uh, daniel is still running that truck today. Now he just did a whole I don't know if you've seen that post, but he did a whole bunch of work to that little truck and uh, but one of the first things that he had to do when he got that things he had to take the stacks off. New york would not let him have those stacks. That was depressing and I bought. I almost told him I you got to sell that truck back to me just so we keep that truck the way it is. But it's, yeah, you must have worked all the bugs out of it because that thing will not quit.

Mervin Miller: 10:57

Well, and that's like I commented on his post. I said I thought that thing was wore out when I sold it to Dave and then he sold it to you, and then you sold it to Kevin and Kevin. So I'm like it's been a crazy thing still going down the road Wow. Yeah, I bought that truck brand new. Oh really, yep Okay, oh seven.

Shed Geek: 11:14

Well, it's so interesting man is. This is a uh to me. This is a recorded version of of every shed barbecue, every shed hauler bash. I've been to hundred of these conversations that happen at those tables that never have a microphone.

Shed Geek: 11:33

That should have in front of them, yeah that I I always say will make the best podcast you'll never hear is really sitting down at those tables and just listening to this kind of, this kind of conversation. Right, because shed haulers are a breed of their own, they, they. I mean you see that when you watch the, the facebook page dedicated to them and that kind of conversation, I just kind of get lost in watching you guys have that conversation. I can't have that with you. I'm not a shed hauler, I haven't hauled sheds, but it's kind of interesting, interesting to just sit back and watch the dynamic of it. Constantly. You hear these conversations. What is your man? You've done this for a long time. If you were to sum everything up in your experience with shed hauling over this time, how would you sum it up? What, what would you say your experience has been like?

Mervin Miller: 12:30

well, I, I kind of, I kind of borrow from dave ramsey, I guess I always say we're blessed a lot more than we deserve. You know, shed hauling has it's. It's had its ups and downs. I mean, in the beginning it was, it was rough, I mean it was. That's why I can really is it sympathize or empathize, whatever with that you know with the guys

Mervin Miller: 12:54

that are that are having the struggles and going through, you know, trucks breaking down and don't know how you're gonna fix it. Where's the money coming from? I mean, I've been there, I've done that, yeah, and um, you know, I can. I vividly remember, um, the truck I used for deliveries 2000 ford power stroke with a six speed clutch went out on it and I literally I did not have the money to pay for a clutch. I just I didn't have it and um, I didn't say anything to anybody. We went to church that Sunday and after church a guy comes up to me and he's like I just feel like I need to give you this, so he gave me some money. Okay, thanks. Well, his wife went up to my wife and did the exact same thing to her. He gave me $1,000. She gave my wife and did the exact same thing to her. He gave me a thousand dollars. She gave my wife a thousand dollars, two grand.

Mervin Miller: 13:53

After church and I'm like there's my clutch yeah you know, and it was, it was totally a god thing because I I literally I didn't say anything to anybody, nobody knew my truck was tore up, you know, and it was just like they both felt like they needed to give us this money. So I guess that's kind of my thing to these guys that are struggling you don't give up because you never know where the help can come from, and um, but kind of get back to your question. You know that's, I've been there, yeah, I know what that's like and just trying to expand logically and reasonably, not too fast, not too slow, you know, not too fast, not too slow, you know. But literally, you know, it's been aggravating at times, but I can't imagine what else I would do that would allow me to have the lifestyle that we have now yeah.

Mervin Miller: 14:56

And I mean, it took a long time to get here and it's you know.

Shed Geek: 15:02

Do you think that's the bait, that kind of like as a new person, whether you're selling, hauling, building, you kind of see the success that's been built over years and you kind of anticipate that that's going to happen overnight yeah, I think that's a lot of it.

Mervin Miller: 15:16

Some, a lot of guys, they see the shiny trucks, they see the lights, they see the chrome and they're like, oh them guys are making big bucks. I want to get into that. You know, and you know it's the same thing. I tell my boys the same thing. I'm kind of a vehicle nut, so I buy vehicles, I sell vehicles. You know I'll drive a pickup and I'll drive by the car lot and like, ooh, I think I might like that one better. I'll trade the thing in in a skinny minute and get something else. Well, my youngest son is a lot like that and my oldest son not quite so much. But it's like I told him. I said I had to work my way up to this.

Mervin Miller: 15:58

I was driving beaters for a long time. You can't go from driving a beater to driving an eighty thousand dollar truck and expect everything to just be all hunky-dory. It don't work that way. You got to pay your dues, and so it's the same way with the shed haulers. You know, in my opinion, if if you want to start hauling sheds now, unless you have a really lucrative contract and they're guaranteeing you $200,000 a year or something, that's great, but generally that's not going to happen. And if you go out and you spend $200,000 on a rig, you're just asking for trouble. There's absolutely nothing wrong with starting out with a $20,000 truck, $20,000 trailer, $5,000 mule, whatever. Get your foot in the door, get started and then try to build from there.

Mervin Miller: 16:57

I struggle with the whole equipment thing all the time. Do I buy new trucks? Do I fix the ones I got? What's the best route to do? I don't know that I have an answer for that, but I do know. I mean, a lot of people saw my trucks at the North Carolina Bash and in my opinion they look pretty cool because they're all the same color. They're all silver with silver trailers, they all match and I think it's pretty cool. But anyway, that's my opinion. But you know, and they're nice, but they're not like. They're not decked out with lights, they don't have a bunch of extra chrome on them, um, but they're nice and they're optioned out nice. I want my drivers to be comfortable when they're driving and you know, they all get their satellite radio, you know all that stuff that I pay for, but you know. So I, I like to have nice equipment, but I don't feel like I need to have the latest, greatest fanciest, whatever well, and it certainly didn't start that way, absolutely not.

Shed Geek: 18:05

You know, a lot of times you don't see the struggle. I think in business, whether you're hauling sheds or you're an RTO, if you're in shed building, but if you're in some other industry, even outside of this, I think the bait of Satan. I think there's a book out there Dylan was telling me about. I think there's a message or sermon out there called the Bait of Satan. He said man, you should really listen to this. That's really what it is. It's like I can acquire that overnight. I can acquire that easy.

Shed Geek: 18:43

There's actually the struggle and the journey is part of the process. Is building the character you know like, are you ready for two hundred thousand dollars a year anyway? Are you, you know what I mean? Like are you, are you ready for it? Are you equipped for it? Can you handle it even if it, if it comes your way? So a lot of people definitely don't see the struggle and I think that's why it's really cool to talk about these things on the microphone is because you you know we can't go back and show you that, but we can go back and talk about it because it's a real memory, that that you can relate to people and I think you do that when you go to shed hauler events. Now, I mean, you see new guys in it and I'd imagine a conversation comes up that's probably a little less polished than we do on the podcast.

Shed Geek: 19:27

You know, when somebody says yeah, I went and bought me a new truck, got me a new set of rims, spent, you know, 300 grand on this new setup. Conversation probably happens a little different, but you, you know. What advice do you have to those guys? What? What would you tell them if they're getting into it now? You're a veteran in this industry, in this trade. What's your best piece of advice for a new shuttler?

Mervin Miller: 19:51

start slow, um, don't expect it to go nuts overnight. And I think my biggest thing is the cost of equipment. You don't need to go buy a brand-new truck and a brand-new trailer and a brand-new mule and a brand-new everything. I mean you can start with used equipment and the other part of it is keep up with your maintenance, keep up with your PM. I mean, if you're not doing your preventive maintenance, I know I've talked to guys and they're like well, I don't have time to get my oil changed, I don't have time to get my brakes fixed, I don't have time for it.

Mervin Miller: 20:33

I'm like you're either going to make time to do it now or it's going to bite you in the butt and you're going to do it. So you know. That's why I'm saying you can get by with used equipment. You may have a little bit more repair work. I mean, it's just a thing. I mean there's days I tell my wife some days, like man, I hate trucks Just because you know they're forevermore Something's tearing up on them. You know trucks just because you know they're forevermore something's tearing up on them, you know. But, um, you know you can do your repairs and if you do your your preventive maintenance and stay on top of that, used equipment can last you a long time. And so that would you know somebody just. And the other part of that is make sure you have work. Um, you know, if you're starting starting, because there was a conversation on Facebook the other day about you know, a guy said something about this guy comes up to him well, I'm going to start hauling sheds, you know and put you out of business, whatever.

Mervin Miller: 21:28

And it's like you better have the work lined up first and then you worry about. You know whether you're going to start doing it or not and the other part of all that is too. I see it so often with shed haulers in particular. It seems like that they know how to drive a truck, they know how to set a building. They absolutely hate doing paperwork. Paperwork's a part of it and that's what I do a lot of. I use people like I know a lot of people think I don't do anything, which I'm like, all right, whatever but uh, you know that I mean, there's some that actually think you do something.

Mervin Miller: 22:08

Well, my wife does, because she knows me better than anybody else but I usually tell people I do all the crap that nobody else wants to do, you know business, business licenses um, just the the paperwork junk that nobody wants to mess with, but you got to do it and you know, there again it's. It's just like preventive maintenance if you don't take care of it up front, it's going to come back and bite you yeah, as a business owner, it's not even what you want to do.

Shed Geek: 22:38

You have to do certain things. So, like you know, you think there's a lot of freedom in being self-employed and there can be, but there's. I mean, the customer is your boss, the equipment is your boss. There's something you're accountable to, you know, the preventive maintenance, like you said, is your boss, the, the, the vision, and implement implementation, the processes and systems. All of that stuff still has to be done and somebody's got to do it.

Sam Byler: 23:05

At the end of the day, you know the guys that say, you know they don't want to be an employee, they don't want to have a boss. I've always said I mean, I started my own business when I was 17. You have more bosses. If you're an employee, you work for. One superior Might not even be the guy that signs your check, but you have somebody that you answer to. If you start a business, you answer to everybody. I mean, it's just and the thing. I'm glad you brought up the thing about having work because it's okay. So some of the guys get into it thinking they're going to have work and then they land up losing that work. But these guys that they want to, they want to get into it because of the shiny rigs, the Chrome, the lights and it just looks like a good thing to do. And I'm like, who are you going to work for? I don't know. I'll. You know I'm like you know, and I get a little bit rough on them.

Sam Byler: 24:00

You know I made that post about sometimes the best thing you can do I mean not the post, the comment about the best thing you can do is go be an employee. Go drive for Merv Miller for a couple years. Go drive for Mervin Vargas or whoever it is. You know, there's guys like Paul Starnacker. You never hear nothing about that guy. The guy works harder than anybody I know, has a bunch of rigs running and nobody knows what he's doing or who his drivers are or anything. You just about don't hear about him. But I guarantee you that he's a good boss, he's a good employer and he has good employees.

Sam Byler: 24:38

Um, I'd like to put you on the spot and ask you are you a better hauler, a better business owner or better employee employer? Because you have great employees. Okay, so, yeah, you got great employees. But why are they great employees? You know, I always. You know everything runs up, everything runs down. Um, so I'm not going to put you on that spot because I think you can do all of them and you do them well.

Sam Byler: 25:01

But it's, it's a challenge to me. Sometimes I feel like I'm on a tight rope between trying to keep everybody happy and at the same time saying, man, you're looking at it completely wrong. Um, it's, it's like anything else. It's a business and it's a trucking business too, which can eat your lunch in a hurry if you're not careful. And I'll watch it happen over and over again. There are some guys out there right now that are doing a great job at doing what you said. They started out with junk and they're building their way up slowly but surely and they're doing a fantastic job at it. There's others that I just shake my head and I'm like you know what? At some point you just you're gonna have to learn, I guess.

Shed Geek: 25:42

But life teaches you right. Like you know, life has a way of teaching you it does um.

Sam Byler: 25:48

So which are you a better business owner or a better employer?

Mervin Miller: 25:52

you would have to ask my drivers on that one. I don't know.

Sam Byler: 25:54

Well, I know what your drivers are going to say.

Mervin Miller: 25:57

So but I think, I think personally, I think they're spoiled.

Sam Byler: 26:00

But you know, that's just me well, according to that truck sitting out there right now, they are pretty spoiled serious radio yeah, well, that's man, that's pretty, that's a pretty good deal, that's a good perk there.

Shed Geek: 26:11

I like that, every, every truck we need to get the podcast on Sirius. Yeah, you do.

Sam Byler: 26:16

Yeah, you do so. Interesting story about me and Sirius when I was buying. So I went through a spot there where I was the only like I was an owner-operator, doing all my deliveries myself, completely on my own, and I did it that way for five years and I could not afford downtime because downtime was more expensive to me and coming from the trucking industry, I understood that it costs me more not to run than it did to run. So I literally started out with a $3,500 shed trailer and a borrowed truck. That's my story. I'll tell it later. But what I learned through that was when I was down for a day, I lost more money than repairs would cost me sometimes. So by the grace of God and a miracle, I ended up in a brand new truck and when those trucks would get close to 100,000 miles traded in, get me another truck and I'd go. And it worked for me that way today.

Sam Byler: 27:14

The way rigs cost today or the way it is now there, I don't see any way that I could even do that now compared to what we did then. You made the comment that you bought that little Dodge brand new and ended up dumping a bunch of money in it. That's the worst thing that can happen. You buy something new and then you end up putting money in it and you're down. You're playing a risk. That's way out there. Sure, we all want the nice stuff you like mules.

Mervin Miller: 27:46

No. You want to talk about that a little bit.

Sam Byler: 27:50

All the new guys. We know they got to have a mule.

Mervin Miller: 27:52

I know, and that's another thing, I tell my guys that they're spoiled. We got these fancy trailers. They got the sideways wheels, the barn spinners, tail shift. You know all this stuff and I'm like you know, and I know I sound old because I am, but I'm like you know, back in the day, back when I was a boy, yeah, but you know, when I delivered sheds for Woody, I had a 24-foot trailer that had a tongue extension, that's it. It didn't even have a winch on it. You know. It had an up and down dump, that's it and a tongue extension. I rolled many a shed across the yard on pipes because you had no other option.

Mervin Miller: 28:31

That's what you did and I, I tell my guys, y'all are spoiled. You know, you got these fancy trailers. I mean y'all need to go deliver sheds the way I delivered sheds. But you know, oh, that's part of innovation and whatever you know gets better and easier and whatever I want. I actually do have two mules.

Shed Geek: 28:52

Yeah, I just bought another one I was gonna say like I'm curious about that question because there's like this dynamic between being a hauler that is trailer only, and then you know doing some, you know having a mule. I mean even hearing people talk. I talked to the I think it was the national sales manager at Cook one time and he's like you know it even took us a little while to embrace the, the mule and it's right there in the community but, it's, you know, like I, I, I think that you know whether it's innovation, mechanically or digitally, like you see, sort of a just an immediate kind of like firewall get put up whenever something new comes out.

Shed Geek: 29:39

There's almost, you know, to me, in this industry it works in a way that if there's a new invention, there's skepticism, heavy skepticism at first, right, you know, maybe the embrace later to to, to follow up on sam's question, like does that mean that you like to set sheds with a trailer? Is that your preference? That's your style. Okay, not that the mule's not handy or hasn't been.

Mervin Miller: 30:08

I mean so I've had a mule for I don't know when I bought the first one. I think 2011 maybe is when I bought the first one, bought the first one. I think 2011 maybe is when I bought the first one. Um, and I had it for six years and I think it had maybe 80 hours on it when I sold it, something like that. But all my guys they, they would much prefer to set with a trailer um, they used to all hate the mule and I don't think they all hate it anymore, but they don't really like it.

Shed Geek: 30:41

So, but, uh, because they prefer to sit with.

Mervin Miller: 30:45

a trailer Is it because just the ease of yeah, I was about to say the ease of getting it out and to kind of I don't know whatever justify that our area is different from a lot of areas. I mean, I realize some areas they're a lot tighter, they're a lot whatever and you almost have to use a mule. For us, you know, we deliver somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 sheds a year and we probably use a mule. If you would average it out, it's maybe once a week, maybe it might average to twice a week. But uh, we are starting to use a little bit more because now customers are telling the dealers, tell them they need to bring that fancy little forklift thing.

Sam Byler: 31:42

It's getting popular enough now to where people know that you have that, that it's a thing.

Mervin Miller: 31:48

I've had my drivers so I have two trucks that are set up for them to haul a mule. My regular trucks don't have mule carriages on it, but I do have two trucks that have carriages on them. So you know, if they know they need the mule, they'll just switch the truck and they'll take the mule truck that day. Well, there's times where they'll the customer's like yeah, they need a mule to put this thing in there, so the driver will switch the truck, take the mule out here for me. I can see that happening.

Sam Byler: 32:25

Do you find that the area that you're in? So I've done some deliveries down what I call south of 20. So we're both in South Carolina, I'm in the upstate and you're in the central kind of low country, but I know.

Sam Byler: 32:36

When I came down here, so when I was doing deliveries down here, I was running a semi so I had to have a mule, because you're not going to back a semi into too many people's yards. It happens occasionally. Not only was I running a semi, but it was a sleeper tandem axle big truck oh, that big KW.

Mervin Miller: 32:53

Yeah, the big.

Sam Byler: 32:54

KW and I was doing some deliveries down here. The aggravating part to me was and it was a five I had a mule five with a remote on it and I had zero issues getting sheds in. I had problems getting my mule back out by itself because it was so sandy that you almost couldn't get the mule out sometimes. Is that part of your, is that any of your logic, that you deal with a lot more sand than the typical hauler would, unless you're in florida? They would right um.

Mervin Miller: 33:22

Now, if I had a track machine that would be different, but my five did not like sand well, I've heard the track machines aren't that great in sand either, so I don't know what to believe there and I can you imagine all that sand getting in?

Mervin Miller: 33:33

the tracks and stuff, I can feel it yeah, so the mule that I just bought in january is a five with a remote and now nobody wants to run the four anymore, but whatever, um, but yeah, we do. We have a lot of what they call sugar sand and that stuff is.

Mervin Miller: 33:53

I mean, it will bury a four-wheel drive pickup yeah, yeah so what we deal with on occasion I shouldn't say a lot, but occasionally is where it's so boggy that you can't. Your truck won't even, you know, with six wheels turning it won't pull itself out. So you stretch the trailer out and use the hydraulics of the trailer to help push the truck and so, yeah, I don't know truck and so, yeah, I don't know. But you know, and my, my stance for years has been if I can back a truck and trailer in somewhere to deliver a building, I guarantee I can do that faster than if you got to park your semi on the road, unload your mule, mule that shed in, whatever. By the time you get that shed on the mule I'll be unloaded and gone. Yeah, and people, oh no, I can do it faster with the mule. I'm like, yeah, I don't think so I would.

Sam Byler: 34:47

I would definitely agree that, um, it's with the trailers that you run. It is definitely given that you're gonna, you're, it's, it's less work and it's going to be faster?

Shed Geek: 34:58

Did I hear a new competition proposed there at the Shed Hauler?

Sam Byler: 35:03

We've actually talked about doing that already and I keep track of the times. We've just never quite had the ability to set the courses all identical. All it would take like we've talked about doing it between the semis and the pickups set the course up identical, because if you're not on the Facebook page this doesn't make any sense, but it's a constant argument on the Facebook page. Can you do it as fast with a semi as a pickup? Can you do it as fast with a trailer as a mule? Throw out the bottom 20 and the top 20, like I always say, and take the middle 60% and that's what you would gauge it on. And we, we could, like I, if it wouldn't have rained, um, in north carolina we had that whole bottom area we could have set up identical courses and we were going to do that. And it was like you know, okay, let's just well now. Now you brought in the last and most important piece the operator. So, depending on who's operating, they are fast on a mule. Depending on who's operating, they are fast on a trailer. So that's a given.

Sam Byler: 36:10

The one thing I'm going to throw in on this first episode is the fact of how many people come to the bash and decide not to compete and then, once the competition starts, wish they would have. Yeah, just show up and compete, it doesn't matter, it's part of having the fun. It's, like you said, the conversations that happen around there. But the guys that show up and I could get them on podcasts, one after the other of guys that said I don't know why I didn't, because once I watched it was so much fun, I wish I would have done it.

Sam Byler: 36:41

Do you like know why I didn't? Because once I watched it was so much fun, I wish I would have done it. Do you do you like you had all your guys there this time? That was cool. Um, I know that's hard to do, but how much do you enjoy seeing that, seeing all your rigs? And back to your thing you said about all your trucks matching up and everything you actually won? I mean, you came in second on fleet right. Did you ever hear why you actually lost that? I did not.

Mervin Miller: 37:04

My theory is because I don't have a semi.

Sam Byler: 37:08

So the semi might would have helped. I actually asked them later what they like. I gave them five things they had to go by. You know how clean they are, how well they're kept up. You know how well they match up all that stuff. I don't even remember the other two. I should have my notes, but they had a list that I wanted them to use and the only the only thing that cost you was you had a whole row of rams. You had one ford so it's still silver it was.

Sam Byler: 37:38

It was silver. Um, the semi thing didn't come up. I'm guessing if you would have had a silver semi, that would have probably overlooked the Ford part of it. But they're like man, he had a row of hoods there and it was gorgeous, but the one hood just didn't look quite right.

Mervin Miller: 37:53

Well, that's Luane's fault.

Sam Byler: 37:55

He's a Ford guy, so I bought him a Ford. I was hoping you would say that, because that's why I think that you're probably actually a little better employer than you are a business owner, because you do listen to your guys.

Shed Geek: 38:09

He has a Ford literally because his one driver wants a Ford yeah that's the only reason, but just just the idea of like I, as I'm listening to it, you know operating a fleet and this is not to take anything away from a single hauler. But we've talked for I don't know three years now on the podcast about how you can make a living selling sheds. You could make a living hauling sheds. You could make a living building sheds. You can make a living rtoing sheds, you can make a living supplying products or services to other shed companies and some of those guys can do almost a little bit of all of that. Maybe maybe they scale in such a way that they're vertically integrated on everything.

Shed Geek: 38:50

But then there's you kind of see the diversity of the whole shed industry and in this particular niche of shed hauling, like there are guys that have a truck haul for a company, they're tickled pink, they get up every day, they go to work, they come home or they're not tickled pink at all, whichever. But then there's guys that scale that model that they enjoy. That's what you've done with the seven different, you know. So, like you've created a fleet, you've kind of created this, this enterprise, and I mean you know the numbers kind of support their self. You said you move six to 8,000 sheds a year. So I mean, you kind of begin to see how that business model starts to play out. Or maybe that goes to 10 or 12 or 15, who knows, you know.

Sam Byler: 39:35

Yeah.

Shed Geek: 39:35

So like, well, you've got like that growth mindset where you're kind of like, hey, I can, this is something I like, that I can scale. You could also probably be building sheds You've done that before, you could be selling sheds. But you kind of found the area that you were maybe comfortable with and you rolled with it Like literally no pun intended, you were, you rolled with it. Man, I need a little like too many of them.

Mervin Miller: 39:59

Oh, I've had that happen, not with a shed truck, yeah too many of them.

Shed Geek: 40:05

I've had that happen not with a shed truck, yeah. So I want to get the story because I was there, but I want to get the story on this cool looking piece hanging on the wall.

Sam Byler: 40:11

Oh, yeah, behind us, and so I want to, before he tell well, I don't know, I'm gonna tell my side of it first, and then we're gonna let him tell his side.

Sam Byler: 40:20

But in order to do that, I have to back up just a little bit. And uh, so we have the shed hauler brotherhood, um. There's a lot of people that don't know about it yet, but most of the haulers know about it, know what it stands for. Um merv is by far one of our biggest supporters. Um has always and that's the that's just not by funding or whatever that's he's always willing to do whatever it takes and I think, if I asked you where that comes from, it goes back to when his clutch went out. Somebody helped him and there's a handful of guys in the shed hauling industry that if I need something or if somebody else needs something, I can pick up the phone and I can call them and say look, we got to have this. And if you ask them why, they always said because somebody was willing to help me. These guys will always stand up and they'll always help.

Sam Byler: 41:19

This mirror back here is part of the brotherhood story and the fact that we helped a guy, phil Music. A lot of people know him on the hauler page and Phil is the most extroverted introvert that I know of. He's always around the hauler page. He's always nice selling sheds. He's not hauler page, he's always. Now he's selling sheds, he's not hauling anymore, but he still feels like his success is owed to the brotherhood and to the brotherhood of guys on the hauler page. But anyway, he wanted to do. He decided to come to the bash, which is not his thing he does not like being around big crowds of people but he decided he was going to come and he asked me if he could bring something in appreciation and he said you can auction it off, you can, uh, raffle it off whatever you want to do. Well, as you know, that bash actually got backed off a year, so it was almost like two bashes in one. Yeah, you know, not only did we give the semi away, but we had the mule to give away for that year because the semi was done the year before. So we had all that going on and all the excitement around all that. And then Brandon Suarez showed up with that semi truck and trailer and the building on it. You know, that was cool, everybody liked that.

Sam Byler: 42:34

Well, then Phil shows up with this mirror and he asked me. He said you know, I don't know what it'll bring. Do you like it? And I'm like I love it, it's great. You know, I don't know what it'll bring, because it's a mirror, but based on who it comes from, I said it all depends on what happens. And what happened was and it's on video somewhere this mirror. We auctioned it off and it started, um, at 50 bucks. Well, you know, like an auctioneer does, he starts at 500, comes down to 250, comes down to 100 and he ended up at 50. So I'm like, oh, we're gonna get about 1500 bucks out of this thing and we'll be good, and it it kind of it took two or three minutes to get the thing to even $1,500. And if you were there, you know something happened.

Shed Geek: 43:25

You could feel it.

Sam Byler: 43:27

Something happened in there and I still say to this day it's because Field Music needed it. Poor Merv just ended up having to pay for it. Um, but it went. It went fifteen hundred sixteen, seventeen, twenty one, twenty five, thirty five, forty five five, seventy five, eight and it's like this mirror's at eight thousand dollars and you probably remember the exact number. It was somewhere pushing. He tried to get 10 and I think it was 95, 9600, somewhere around 9500, and uh, I so bad wanted that guy to bid 10 grand one more time, just to say we got 10 grand for it, you know.

Sam Byler: 44:15

But uh, I asked merv later what made him do that. He couldn't give me a good answer. Do you have one yet?

Mervin Miller: 44:25

Not really. I guess I'm going to throw my wife under the bus because I'm sitting there, she's sitting beside me and I'm bidding, and then it got up to kind of ridiculous money and so I'd look at her and she's like it's for a good cause, so I'd do it again. Then it'd come back again and I'd look at her and I'd do it again and I just kept going and she didn't tell me to stop, so I just kept going, that's all and and part of it was because phil made it.

Mervin Miller: 44:56

Um, and I think, like you said, I think part of that goes back. It kind of took because I knew the struggles he was having, that he went through and just the fact that he made it and the fact that he was struggling and I knew what that was like, even though the money didn't go to him. It was just a correlation there that just I don't know something snapped in my brain, I guess, and I went a little cuckoo.

Sam Byler: 45:31

No, it was great.

Mervin Miller: 45:32

Yeah.

Shed Geek: 45:33

Sometimes it just works out that way. I was there at that event.

Mervin Miller: 45:40

Did you think I was nuts too?

Shed Geek: 45:41

No, I was actually going to let you know I was nuts too. No, I, I was here. I was actually gonna let you know, I was willing to go up to 94, 99 and not a penny more, so you really lucked out. I want you to know, uh. But no, it was exciting watching it going back and forth and since then just watching. Uh, other things at events, um, probably what I've taken away from it the most is coming in from the sales side, maybe sales and marketing, maybe relationship driven, um, you know, over promising what your hauler can do, kind of kind of you know mentality. Uh, I've learned so much about the shed industry from going to these events because I remember catching Sam early on and this is a story you don't want me to tell, but I remember messaging Sam on Facebook through Messenger and we talked for a while and I asked a question and Sam didn't reply to me for two years.

Mervin Miller: 46:39

Oh dear.

Shed Geek: 46:40

And I remember when he replied I said hey, I'm glad you, uh, I'm glad you finally got around to that. I know that you're, but I loved it. I love to tease him about it. But watching him and like these other events coming together, I didn't get to go to the uh, the one out at jason's but I was gonna go to cle, cleveland, and something came up that weekend but my, my plan was to head down there that weekend. We were supposed to be there, uh, and I think at the time I was working with Irvin at summit and the summit truck, I think, showed up, I think.

Sam Byler: 47:11

Kevin brought it brought it.

Shed Geek: 47:13

I think um.

Sam Byler: 47:15

Belvedere.

Shed Geek: 47:15

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Belvedere, yeah, uh, but we were going to be there. We were, you know, we were planning on being there. But then I began to see this whole ecosystem around just shed hauling. That's kind of been happening for years, you know, whether it starts with woody or guys like that. Just the same as going to that event in pennsylvania, that shed hauler event, and getting a chance to interview gideon and and listening to the shed manufacturing side of the story and how it started. He's in 1978, got two brothers building sheds and his dad says two of you boys are going to have to get out of this or you're going to flood the market. That's amazing to think about where we're at now versus 1978. The history of it is kind of cool. But then it's really just these other events and this, this somebody said on the youtube channel. They said the shed industry, question mark, question mark, question mark. There's a whole industry and I'm like you have no idea until you're in it, yeah you don't.

Shed Geek: 48:15

You don't really understand it. And uh, the haulers have led this circus better than anybody. You know what I mean. Like they're the most organized monkeys of the bunch of us.

Shed Geek: 48:28

You know, I don't know how it happens, but they have and I always say they lead from the front and we're trying to learn from them. The organizational side in sales I think the organizational side in manufacturing, how there's a higher calling than just your job. Organizational side in sales I think the organizational side in manufacturing, how there's a higher calling than just your job. I think there's a purpose for you here on earth and it means more than than just hauling or selling or manufacturing, and I and I think that's what they've represented well and the industry has represented their self well in that we we got a lot of backbiting and cat fights and all that good stuff, but at the end of the day, I think I'd rather be in the industry dealing with the good I've seen than worrying about the bad right. So it's been, it's been pretty cool and I think your story is a neat one. Any questions that you have? So like uh, I know this is Sam's podcast today.

Sam Byler: 49:23

This is. This is day one.

Shed Geek: 49:25

I forgot about. I still love doing this, man. Is there any questions that you have? Always, I always love to let the interview E turn the microphone around and say what questions do you have of us? Cause a lot of times people don't get to ask us questions, so fire away. If you have anything For me or Sam or whatever. If you want to put him on the spot, go for it.

Mervin Miller: 49:46

Hadn't really thought about that because I didn't know that would come up.

Shed Geek: 49:50

Good, we're done with that, sam's like.

Sam Byler: 49:53

All right, we're not going to start a new fad here.

Shed Geek: 49:56

Hey, move it on.

Sam Byler: 49:57

No, I mean it would be good we should start adding that in. I like that idea. That's cool, what's?

Mervin Miller: 50:08

your biggest takeaway of the industry where it's at today.

Sam Byler: 50:12

That's a loaded question. Yeah, don't study on it real hard. I know it's loaded because we could go a lot of different ways, but you know, we hear it every day.

Sam Byler: 50:20

There's guys that are covered up right now busy. There's guys that are business as usual pretty much, and there's guys that are like this thing's done, like we're in trouble, and I see all three sides of that, just like where do you fit? You've been around, what do you see? You know you're in deep state, south Carolina, where it gets hot in the summers and doesn't get real cold in the winter. You don't slow down the way.

Mervin Miller: 50:44

A lot of people Right, you know my personal opinion is obviously 20 was an anomaly, and I think a lot of people jumped in because they saw all the money flying every which direction and I mean, for me personally we're definitely well, I shouldn't say definitely. It seemed like we were slower now than normal for this time of the year, but we ran the numbers and we're pretty much right where we normally are, so it just feels slow.

Mervin Miller: 51:20

It feels slow. Yeah, much right where we normally are, so it just it feels slow. It feels slow, yeah, yeah, but, um, my, I just had this conversation with somebody the other day. We were, I think it was one of my dispatchers. Um, I know it happened in lancaster county years ago, um, because I, like, I spent 14 years up there and I remember thinking back in the 80s you, oh, there's sheds everywhere and everybody's building sheds. They're everywhere. They're going to run out of places to put these things, you know whatever.

Mervin Miller: 51:49

And there was a period of time I don't know exactly when it was, maybe you do where quite a few of the manufacturers up there just closed the doors. They couldn't make it anymore, and I'm thinking that it's a pretty good possibility that, uh, some of your upstarts are not going to be here in another year. Um, and you know, I've been pulling for old hickory buildings for the last 17 years almost and they're huge and I know there's a lot of people don't like old Hickory. I'm, you know, it's whatever. I'm not going to say anything bad about them because in my opinion, that's why I am where I am, because I started. I mean, I, I started, I had my own lot, but I started what I'm doing now with old hickory and as they expanded, I was able to expand. So, that being said, they've been around long enough and I think, uh, brian has got the the senses to to know how to how to continue on you know, even if you have to scale down a little bit or whatever.

Mervin Miller: 53:02

But I think some of these, some of these companies that came along the last few years, probably won't be here in the next few.

Sam Byler: 53:10

That's just my personal, that's that's kind of a cycle that everything goes through. Um, you know I'll watch that cycle. Growing up in the housing industry I watched that cycle from the time I was a kid Happened over and over every 8 to 12 years the housing market roll around and this time it's not doing that. And I say the bigger the balloon gets, the bigger the bang once it goes and it's slowed down a little bit. Maybe if we let enough air out of the balloon it won't actually pop, It'll calm down a little.

Sam Byler: 53:42

But if you come to upstate south carolina and you ride around with me for an hour, it's insane the amount of houses and subdivisions and industry that's going on in our area. I know it's not all the way across the nation that away, but that 2040 corridor I've always always said it's crazy and at some point there is a cycle. There always is a cycle. We'll always have four seasons. I don't care what anybody tells you or believe, but you can always believe there's four seasons. It's interesting. Who does Paul Starnaker haul for Old Hickory? Some of my favorite guys in the industry that you never hear from, they never complain or anything Hoff or Old Hickory. So yeah, I'd give a shout-out to Brian that when you're that big, you're going to have people that are going to complain. You can't have some Shannon, and I talked about it on the way here, Gosh, this was the whole way down here.

Shed Geek: 54:41

I feel like you know, I told sam, you know you, you hang out in a barber shop. You're probably gonna get a haircut at some point. You know they've been hanging around the barber shop for a long time, so they're gonna get some. You know and and and. The reality is, you know, uh, for every one person that says, oh, that situation didn't work out, it was ugly for me, there's somebody else that probably combats that by saying my situation and experience with them has been pretty amazing. It's been really good. Um you, the more level of success you see, the more oftentimes you see haters or or whatever you know, those, those things?

Shed Geek: 55:14

do happen and I get a few of those you know they're hey, they're, they're a large company and you cannot deny their presence in the industry a leader in the industry. So you know, if your situation hasn't been perfect, you know, find a way to build a bridge and get over that maybe right. That's exactly right you know, generally speaking, you can't deny that success they've had and you've given them a lot of credit here, credit here today for your story too.

Mervin Miller: 55:42

So yeah, and that's one thing I I will say about, uh, brian barryman. It's you know, I've known him now for 17 years and I try not to bug him about stuff. But I do know that if I have an issue that I feel like I can't resolve with my regional manager or whatever, I can literally call him on the phone, on his cell phone, and and he will answer the phone, you know, and he will help, try to help diffuse the situation if it needs diffusing or whatever.

Shed Geek: 56:13

So that's leadership, man. That's pretty awesome. I mean, that's what anybody would, I think, hope to, hope to accomplish.

Sam Byler: 56:19

So shout out to them, for I think at the end of the day, we all enjoy throwing shade on the big guys. Yeah, um, the problem is sometimes for me, I take myself too serious, and everybody else does too. When it's, it's literally like, you know, there there's not a one of the big corporations that I'm not glad is not there. I mean, I like them to be there. Um, when I see an issue, I do like to see it resolved. I'm who wouldn't right? Um, but at the end of the day they get. They get huge exposure for all of us.

Sam Byler: 56:50

We can all build off of yeah I still say I can beat any of them on a regional level and that's the way it should be man, there's there, should you know me, and you have toyed with this, this, this, uh, this collaboration movement.

Shed Geek: 57:03

We like to laugh and cut up at that among ourselves, but there's some value in collaboration and in competition. Competition makes you better.

Shed Geek: 57:12

It makes you improve. If not, you get in the ecosystem and you get stagnant and then it becomes monopolized. You know so. Like you know, good competition is healthy, but I think you know it should be done better, uh, in the right way. Like we should be able to compete with also, yes, still being fair and still being moral, like we don't have to be immoral about our, the way in which we compete, um, and I think that's okay. I think anybody who who watches a ncaa just got done. You want to watch a good ball game. You don't always want to watch a blowout, you want your team to win, but you really want to see a good ball game. So competition breeds that. It makes you know I do a little better, so it encourages you to do better and it's how we improve. Iron sharpens iron. So I mean it's okay to have that. We just want moral. You know there needs to be a moral compass in there somewhere that kind of keeps you from going too far. But otherwise we all laugh and joke. But we appreciate them for sure, you know, and what they do for the industry. It means a lot.

Shed Geek: 58:15

And I had something else I was going to say and I lost my whole train of thought. Oh, don't think I hadn't gotten some shade. You know Sam's doing a Friday show. You know what I mean. Sam's doing a Friday show and you know it's just like whenever I pray on the show and people say you shouldn't pray, it might offend people, I say, well, then, go be offended. What am I supposed to do about that? Go be offended, you know.

Shed Geek: 58:38

But you know people say, well, I don't know, what do you think about Sam? Let me definitively, on the podcast, openly say right now I've done 225 shows. Sam's episode is the most listened to. So so rectify that with me for those who who think, well, I don't know, you know is is sam the right guy? Sam's the guy that's got the most listens on something that I encouraged to go do to create a podcast. That was for the industry and and I kind of feel like man, if that many people want to listen to him, maybe they want to listen to him every Friday and I think he's got a lot to offer and a lot of value and a lot of wisdom and time and years and service and industry, and he's hung around a barbershop or two for quite some time. So excited for this adventure, dude.

Sam Byler: 59:26

I kind of feel like it's a lord throwing shade on me, because I was the one that told you originally you'll never make a podcast. You know what, man?

Shed Geek: 59:33

I think it's all set up there's there's some, uh, there's something to be said for tenacity and grit and just keep going a little bit of won't quit, you know, and and uh, and uh, that's really I don't know man. I I believe in people's stories and their testimonies. You know, uh, I believe in history, it's his story, and I believe that people sit down and have podcast it at the shed show and at shed hauler events and at shed sales events all across the country that don't have a microphone attached to them all the time And'd give anything to be able to slip one in there. Um, people ask well, you know, what about?

Shed Geek: 1:00:13

You know some of the the negativity and stuff say, well, we, we keep negative off the show not because we we ignore that negative happens in the industry or in business in general. But you know, we're not, we're not here to throw anyone under the bus. You know personal issues, you know those are things that should be handled in private, you know, and we like to encourage people here at the podcast. So, like I know, people want to go deeper sometimes and say get into some of that drama. But it's kind of like man, you know, we need to avoid as much of that as we can. So we like to talk with folks like Mervin and hear the positive stories and impacts they can help with future generations and just telling their stories. I appreciate you being here today and thank you, sam, for letting me be on your Friday show man.

Sam Byler: 1:00:59

My Friday show. I'm excited about this. I can't wait to see where it goes. We'll work the bugs out of it yet, anything you want to add that you didn't get to throw in yet.

Mervin Miller: 1:01:10

Oh, I was debating about saying something, but I think I'm just gonna pass on that so that'll be the second episode.

Sam Byler: 1:01:16

I don't know about all that?

Mervin Miller: 1:01:20

yeah, I don't know. But one thing I will say about him you're talking about. You know why people like to listen. One thing I've noticed about Sam and I've known him for quite a while now is some of his Facebook posts. Well, I guess they're on MeWe now maybe, but some of them. I'll read them and I'll be like what the heck is he talking about?

Shed Geek: 1:01:45

That's not just me.

Mervin Miller: 1:01:47

He goes places in his brain that I don't, my brain, don't even have them places, you know he had opportunity to ask the question.

Sam Byler: 1:01:55

There was his opportunity well, okay, how?

Mervin Miller: 1:01:58

how does your brain go to some of them places? How about that?

Shed Geek: 1:02:01

you have to ask my wife wow, we're all made from different experiences, man, and that's what makes it beautiful. Sam's a great content creator, yep, you know. And, um, he's got a big old heart and he, he really has a, I think, a heart for the industry that I've seen in private. Uh, his work through the, what we did, uh down there with the tornado, I, we, we, we set out to do these, um, these uh generators. And sam was like I got a new level, I'm gonna hit here and it's like wait a minute, we're handing out 20, 30, 40, 50 generators and I'm over here thinking that's good, that's a good deed. And he's like I think we'd come down here for six months and rebuild some homes. And I'm like, bro, you're on another level, you're on another level so that's what I'm talking about.

Mervin Miller: 1:02:47

He just kicks it up another notch, somehow or another.

Shed Geek: 1:02:50

Well, good for you, man. Hey, anything you want to say, man, welcome to the podcast. I'm excited.

Sam Byler: 1:02:57

I'm still working on all that, because I do feel like the Lord's throwing shade back at me, the whole, heaping coals of fire on my head, because I did. I shot you down right out of the gate. Um, I remember exactly where we were on what road, and where we were on that road when you said, hey, I think we're going to do a podcast, and I'm like a what? Yeah, you know where people sit and talk. I'm like no, there's no, no, no, no. And now it ends up coming around. So, yeah, we're past, we're on our time.

Sam Byler: 1:03:27

That's all good man I'm just so glad that it worked out to where I get to. I get to have one of my my main squeezes on for this. This guy, um, he's a behind the scene guy. You never hear much out of him or whatever, but that's the way all the good ones are. Yeah, um, phenomenal dude, it's been great to work with. And yeah, I just wish I'd have known him 20 years before. Um, we've had a lot of fun together, we've worked together and we've been through some stuff together and it's, it's been good and just uh, appreciate you very much, and I know, I know the industry does too yeah, amen, I don't know that we can leave it any better than that.

Sam Byler: 1:04:09

My stomach's growling and I think yeah, that's one thing we can throw in here, we can give a shout out. We're actually going to eat at his restaurant. Yep, we have one of those too, so Miller's Bread Basket.

Shed Geek: 1:04:22

So if you guys make your way down here, so there's two.

Sam Byler: 1:04:30

So he always posts on facebook about going to the aiken fish house and I've been there and I know what level that's on, so I'm really looking forward to finally getting to go to miller's bread basket, is that?

Mervin Miller: 1:04:39

right, that's it miller's bread basket. It may be a big letdown. We'll see, and I also know that you actually enjoy cooking brisket, and you do that there sometimes on occasion as well.

Sam Byler: 1:04:46

Once a month, I smoke brisket, and you do that there sometimes on occasion as well once a month I smoke brisket some restaurant so he has six at a time. Yeah so he has. He has a restaurant. They do very well at that. That's awesome. And here just lately he actually bought a hardware store and he's working on so you're not really ambitious you know, that's what I'm getting from this. It's great.

Shed Geek: 1:05:09

I appreciate you sitting down with us. This is why I love that. I know Sam will be getting more of these stories. I can't wait to listen to these episodes appreciate you coming on enjoyed it.

Mervin Miller: 1:05:24

Hey, this is Mo Lunsford in sunny Union Grove, north Carolina, and we want to say thank you to all the guests and listeners.