Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
The EZ Bath Revolution: Transforming the Shed Industry
From simple storage structures to potential living spaces, the shed industry has undergone a remarkable evolution over the past four decades. Luke Miller, whose family began building sheds in 1983, takes us on a fascinating journey through this transformation while sharing his own innovative contribution to the industry's future.
Luke's story begins in the Amish communities of Michigan, where his grandfather pioneered shed building before tragically losing his life during a delivery. Following in these footsteps, Luke entered the family business at a young age, becoming a shop foreman at just 16 despite having only an eighth-grade education. His entrepreneurial spirit eventually led him to Montana, where he established Bitterroot Sheds and experienced both the exhilarating growth and challenging financial lessons of the COVID building boom.
The conversation takes a compelling turn as Luke reveals his latest innovation—the EZ Bath, a fully encapsulated bathroom pod that installs in about 20 minutes and addresses one of the biggest challenges in the shed-to-dwelling conversion process. This revolutionary product represents what Luke calls "a bear trap in a better mousetrap world"—not just an improvement on existing solutions but a completely new approach to making sheds truly livable.
Throughout our discussion, Luke's passion for both tradition and innovation shines through. He shares valuable insights about cash flow management, the importance of preparing for success rather than just failure, and why creating "wins" for customers is essential in helping them realize their shed-living dreams. His story exemplifies how deeply held values—including honoring promises made—can coexist with forward-thinking entrepreneurship.
Whether you're a shed builder looking to differentiate your offerings, a potential tiny home dweller, or simply curious about how traditional industries evolve to meet modern needs, this conversation offers thoughtful perspectives on finding opportunity at the intersection of practical problems and creative solutions.
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Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, a long, long time anticipated guest here, who I've had the pleasure to meet with on at least a couple of different occasions, but today's a very, very cool occasion to talk about his time in sheds, his life in sheds. He's a lifer, just like I am. I feel like we're just completely in it at this point, whereas there's no escape, it seems like, from the shed world, and he's got a very cool new product that he's launching that we want to talk about. So, without further ado, Luke, do you just want to introduce yourself and a little bit about who you are and how you know the shed industry? Start me off somewhere.
Luke Miller:There you go. Yeah, so I'm Luke Miller. I live out here in Western Montana. I grew up in Central Michigan. My grandfather, Yost Miller, would have started building sheds back in 1983, 1984. And then, of course, my dad did sheds, I do sheds, all my brothers do sheds. Yeah, there was nine of us kids and I think every one of them is involved in sheds other than maybe the one he's a, or my sister is, her husband is a butcher, but otherwise everyone is involved in sheds. And so, man, it's been a long, it's been a long family history of doing sheds.
Luke Miller:And it's at the place now, Shannon, where I can't, I can't drive past the shed lot, I can't drive past the shop. I mean, it's, it's, you know, that's where I'm at, you know, and I just, I love meeting the people, I love looking at the products, I love seeing the new ideas. There's all kinds of really cool ideas out here. Right now. I feel like the shed industry has really changed and, talking to my uncles and my dad and then me and my brothers, it's really interesting watching the trajectory of the sheds, whether it was you know the size of the sheds going back to 1984 when my grandpa started building sheds. I mean we're talking eight by eight, eight by 12, you know 10 by 16 was so big it was almost, you know it almost made the budget. So you know my Amish friends will get that one.
Luke Miller:But you know that that was a big shed back then and um, you know, you didn't, you didn't move sheds very far and um, it was just, it was a local thing, it was small. Um, I don't think my grandpa ever built more than 200 sheds, maybe 200 sheds in the last year. So, he started in 83, 84, 384. In 1997 he was delivering a shed over by Grand Rapids, if you go south on 131. I'm trying to think which road it was. No, it was 94, it was on 94, just over by Grand Rapids. They had a flat tire while hauling a shed and he was parked beside the road changing the tire and he, a semi driver, fell asleep and swerved over and hit him and um tragically passed away, him and his driver. So, he was Amish at the time. So, my um, my grandfather, was between the trailer and the truck and there was no viewing. It was it was, it was bad, you know. So, I always say my grandpa, um died while doing sheds. So that's how, that's how deep my, my history goes that's some.
Shed Geek:That's some deep roots. I didn't know that about. I didn't know that story about your grandfather. I'm so sorry to to hear that wow, he was a.
Luke Miller:He was an Amish pastor. He, um, he was very, quite famous in the in the Amish world at the time he wrote. He wrote the back page of the pathway publishers. If you've ever heard of like family life, young companion um, I think it was mostly the young companion. He would write, you know, almost every month, every month. He'd have an article in there. He was widely known as an Amish pastor and, um, it was a pretty big blow in the Amish community when he passed away, for sure.
Shed Geek:I'm sure, excuse me I'm sure, and you said central Michigan is where you guys were and so this would have been near Grand Rapids. Wow.
Luke Miller:So, my, my grandpa lived in Clare Michigan that's where the old traditional shop is still at Miller woodworking there right there in Clare Michigan and then my dad started building over in Hale, Michigan, which there's still a small Amish community over there, and the shop's still going over there. Actually, it was the last time I was over there, which was about five years ago, and then later we moved to McBain and started Mid-Michigan Barnes which is now owned by what is his name. Miller owns that now Met him once or twice, but it's been a while.
Shed Geek:Can't imagine it's a Miller, just so common. And you know I've been by Michigan was part of my territory years ago when I was working more I guess, an RTO rep, and I loved Michigan first of all, like got a chance to go up and I remember some of the small communities that I was in or near some that maybe not even the name might not be recognized, necessarily right away from a lot of folks, but like small communities like Standish I don't know if you know where standish is uh, it's sort of that central eastern Michigan north of like Saginaw, uh, but.
Shed Geek:I love going up into that area. I went all the way up to the very top there's this is terrible. Please forgive me, but there's a shed manufacturer small shed manufacturer right at the top of the of the lp. Um, probably about 60 miles east of Mackinac and um, I really wanted to go over the bridge. I wanted to go see the island while I was up there and it was just the wrong timing. I couldn't and I guess it moved forward about two years and me and my wife was able to go up there and go see the island, go across the bridge.
Shed Geek:We didn't get to spend much time in the upper peninsula and upper folks. I would love to come see you guys, interview you, because that's all the more reason for me to go see this beautiful landscape that God's made in Michigan. So, feel free, reach out, call text and give me a reason to come up there, because I want to be there. But on that trip, we got to hang out for a little bit, so that was kind of cool. I got to see you while we were there.
Luke Miller:Were you up in Mayo. At the time Was it Mayo Northwood Storage, I believe.
Shed Geek:I think we were going to try to get there. We ended up going by and seeing Joe BC Barnes, joe Bontrager, Seth Derby and then Henry Did some coffee time with them, got to interview with Jeff Hebner and went to Cadillac. I love Cadillac, I don't know why. I just really enjoy being there and got to do some interviews there and then eat dinner with like a dinner with a whole bunch of shed haulers a lot of shed guys and shed haulers I mean you kind of Co-co come together on that, like we co-opted that to get about 20 or 30 people there and I thought that was the most awesome thing because I got to meet people that just like those are the podcasts.
Shed Geek:I like to say, Luke, that they're the best podcasts on earth that will never be recorded and that's why I always encourage people get together for dinners, get together for lunches, go to these Shed events, sales events, marketing events, manufacturing events, expos, whatever they are. Whenever you go, do that. They really do give back. You won't leave empty with those, because those are those are the best moments to connect with people.
Luke Miller:So yeah, that was a great evening. It's a ton of fun.
Shed Geek:I enjoyed it. Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Luke Miller:Yeah, that was at her Aduras, which actually closed since then, which was the only good restaurant in Cadillac. So now there's no good restaurant in Cadillac that I know of that I know of.
Shed Geek:Let's see, I don't know what it is about, Cadillac, I love the, I love the, the lake there, um, there's just some really cool views from different sides that you come in and there's, there's, there's a few cool places. This is something I've learned about myself is like, when we get a chance to get out and travel, uh, we've slowed down a little bit since the grand baby has come along, of course, but uh, when we get a chance to do that, there's certain places that just feel like home away from home and it's going to be, you know this. These might be weird comments, uh, I guess to some people, but, like Cadillac always felt that way to me whenever I was in Michigan. Um, there is a, a, a place in Kentucky, um, and of course, if I'm on the podcast, my, my mind would just go blank all of a sudden.
Shed Geek:But south of West Union, Ohio, it's the first city when you get into Kentucky and you cross the bridge and for some reason, my mind decided I need to be old today. But they're just places you travel that you kind of feel like. You know very much feels like home away from home and I appreciate those. Central New York, I love Central New York. I love the Finger Lakes area and going across there it always feels amazing when I'm there. I've been surprised how much I've enjoyed traveling up north Because you know, everybody always talks about moving south, but I've enjoyed some of the more northern states.
Luke Miller:You just haven't been there middle of the winter. That's the only problem.
Shed Geek:I purposefully chased the weather, so I chased the sun.
Luke Miller:Don't go to Michigan middle of the summer or middle of the winter. You will not enjoy it. That's a good point. When that wind starts blowing up there on the northern end of Lake Superior and it blows all the way across Superior, across the Mackinac Straits, and starts hitting Cadillac, it gets cold, real cold. Cadillac's not as fun. Then you're saying it is not. It is not. Yeah. So, I grew up east of, or we moved to, McBain, which is east of Cadillac about 20 minutes maybe. So, I grew up right in that area and it's beautiful during the summer, just gorgeous. But during the winter the wind starts blowing, it gets cold, and then every about 10 years or so Lake Superior will freeze over. And when Lake Superior and Lake Michigan freeze over it's so cold there is no other. I mean it's straight off the Arctic right there.
Shed Geek:Yeah, that's a good point. All the more reason why I'll go in the summertime and not the wintertime.
Luke Miller:Yeah, go up to Pier Marquette and Painted Rocks area during the spring, probably about late May, when all those little waterfalls are. There's like a ton of little waterfalls up there and they're just gushing and like the flowers are all blooming, and then do the sunset cruise out on Lake Superior there by the Painted Rocks. It will be a memory like it's, an unbelievable memory. You will never forget it.
Shed Geek:Hey, we're going to have to make it happen now. I definitely I appreciate that we're wanting to try to get to Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota a little bit here this spring, early summer. So, any folks that are in those areas, that area, those areas building sheds, hauling sheds, selling sheds, feel free to reach out info at shedgeek. com. Uh, you know, call me, text me, email me, get on the website, fill out a form. We'll get in touch and we would organize something. I would I want to make sure to include everybody on the show and we want to be able to hit all the states at some point.
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Shed Geek:So, let's move on. Luke, after you, you were born there. We've had all the fun, we know all the things. What did you do? Your grandpa, you know, tragically passed. You sort of have followed in his footsteps and going into the shed life. So, what did sort of like the shed life have for you? How to lay it out for me? How did you get to where you are today?
Luke Miller:Yeah, so after my dad married he was doing sheds for a couple of years and he went, started farming and there's no money in farming obviously milking cows doesn't pay the bills. So in 2000 we bought a place over McBain. 2001 we moved over so he went to McBain lumber, bought enough lumber for two, eight by twelves in 2000, so this would have been 2002, and that was when mid Michigan barns was born and I remember very that day very well, um, the lumber truck showing up with the lumber and build out on the uh, out on the grass, and I guess, I don't know, it might run in the family, because that's what I did when I started bitter at sheds. I bought lumber and started building out on the grass till I got my shop built. But, uh, that was in 2002. And I would say about 2008,. I would have been in eighth grade.
Luke Miller:In eighth grade, after I came home from school, I always went out and worked and then, once I got out of eighth grade, I was an Amish boy, but, as you know, you only go eight grades. And so, I went to dad and I said, dad, I'd really like to get more education. Would you be open to me trying to figure out a way to get go to high school. And uh, dad got super angry. And uh, the next, uh, the next afternoon he took me into Home Depot and bought me a new nail bag and all the tools and said, all right, go work and forget about school. So that's, that's all the schooling I got.
Luke Miller:But, uh, I love my dad, but he didn't have much for more education, that's for sure. He was one of those guys that after eight grades, let's get you a nail belt and a hammer and some tools and let's go start working the shop. So I would have been probably 14 at that time. And then at 16, a couple stuff happened and my brother, David, who's just older than me, he moved out of the shop and into the David, who's just older than me, he moved down to. He moved out of the shop and into the office there to sell sheds. He would have been probably 17 at that time and I'd have been like 16. And my dad made me shop for, told me all right, you're responsible to get these sheds built. And I was 16 at the time and we had at one point there, probably when I was right that stage. A little later, I had, uh, 13 people working for me, and I was 16, 17 years old and was the shop foreman, so that's kind of I kind of got baptized by fire in that area. But my dad told me, my dad told me said David's gonna sell the sheds and you're gonna build
Luke Miller:them. So that's, uh, that's, that's how that went. And then when I was 19, I went, started teaching school at the Amish School. Obviously, I have a strong inclination toward academics and I really wanted to go back to school. I never was able to do that and then when I had the opportunity to go teach school, that was a big thing. So, I lost two years there in the shade industry by teaching school. I loved teaching school. It was one of the best times of my life, for sure. A little Amish school and there's two of us teachers you know these young kids and trying to impress them the, uh, the, the love of learning, for sure it was. That was that was awesome man, I, I.
Shed Geek:This is what I love about doing podcasts and why I constantly encourage people. You just never know what you're going to uncover, uh, as you start down a conversation with people, and what other people like enjoy about listening is these very things. You know, my son got us a book for Christmas. I'm super proud of him for thinking this way, but it's called Dad, I Want to Know your Story, and there's a hundred pages and it's just questions about my life. You know where I was born. You know favorite memories, things like that as a child and I'm filling it out right now, uh, to give to him an excellent Christmas present for me because it warmed my heart.
Shed Geek:But I got to a part about education, and you know I wrote in there just recently, you know. I said, you know education wasn't something talked about in our family very much like we were. We were. We were blue dog Democrats, Reagan Democrats, hardworking. You know you work hard. You know this is what I remember from growing up in the 80s. Right, you work hard and life is yours. And you know, join a union and they'll take care of you and you. You know, stick together. You know the rich man's always sticking it to us. You know it was. Oh yeah, you know this was kind of like the language that we grew up under. We didn't grow up under. You know, go get, you know, educated better yourself.
Shed Geek:My dad was one of 16, you know. Know, from a very broken marriage. There was a divorce and a divorce and they had both had four and then they had eight together. My mom was one of nine, so you'll appreciate that, being one of nine, she was the only girl and she was next to the youngest. But 10th grade education, or ninth grade, I think, for my mom, sixth grade for my dad, and then he had to guess what he had to. You know quit working, chop wood, that was. You know.
Shed Geek:His dad said, you know, boys would come over and they'd be like, hey, can you know they go play basketball or something. He'd be like, no, get out of here. These boys got work to do. You know, that's just, that's just the life they live. So, my dad kind of knew that life for us too. And it was like work hard, work hard, don't worry about school, don't worry about getting more educated. And because of that, you know, I barely got through high school. Luke and I went back to college when I was 28, and I realized I love learning, you know, and I still love learning to this day. I mean, it's amazing.
Luke Miller:Yeah, I've always loved learning. Learning has always been just it's such a. Yeah, I've always loved learning. Learning has been always been just it's, it's such a driving passion of mine. It's. You know, I can, I can have an educated conversation about so many different things when it comes to learning, just because I love reading. I love, you know, I love just opening an encyclopedia and start reading. It's, it's, it's amazing what you can learn. Of course, now encyclopedias are pretty much extinct, so now it's all wikipedia, you know. But and who knows how accurate wikipedia is? Of course you know, but uh, you go, you start with that for sure yeah, so so.
Shed Geek:So let's see. So you, you mentioned bitter root, so was that after working, you know, seeing mid Michigan get started, all of that thing? Did you just jump straight into that, or how did that come together? What was the story in between there?
Luke Miller:Yeah, and so we moved to Montana and I just got a job at a construction crew at $25 an hour and it's hard to raise a family at $25 an hour so we finally scraped enough money together to to buy enough lumber for three sheds and I built them out underneath that maple tree and built the sheds out there and put them out in front of the road, put a sign on them. I was Amish at the time so I didn't have any Facebook or nothing. So, an older lady that, uh the road, she put them on Facebook marketplace and started trying to push him on Facebook marketplace. She sold a couple and then kind of think how that all happened. She sold a couple and then I met a gentleman that that helped me set up my website, and so we got the website set up and all that, and then in 2000 we moved here.
Luke Miller:In 2017 I started in the fall of 18summer of 19,. My boss at the construction crew told me he said you're not investing in my crew anymore. Go build sheds. And he did it with love and it was the best advice I ever got. So, he kind of half kicked me off the construction crew, not fired me, but he was like just get off. You're not invested here anymore. Your passion is with your sheds. And you're not invested here anymore. Your passion is with your sheds. And you know, I was coming home from construction working four or five hours after I came home and next morning was time to climb out of bed. There was no. There was no get up and go in the morning, for sure. You know cause crawling around in pole barns and houses all day setting trusses and then coming home working four hours building sheds just it's, it's a lot, and my body pretty much broke down during that timeframe.
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Luke Miller:And then. So, we had our shop built at that point and 2020 hit and COVID hit and I was right on the right, right where I needed to be for sure, and just sold a lot of sheds in 2020, 2021, for sure, and COVID, covid, really. You know that that whole push was awesome. Unfortunately, it was. Also. I definitely grew faster than I should have during that time frame, and if there's any young man listening to this podcast that wants to talk about what it's like to not be able to pay the bills and to really struggle financially, don't be afraid to reach out to me. I'd love to listen to your story and I don't have a lot of advice. I'm just going to listen and say I'm sorry for you because it's tough.
Luke Miller:During that time and during 2020, I sold. During that summer I probably sold probably 60, 70 sheds and we were booked out three months and then in early August, lumber prices just absolutely spiked and I did not have enough lumber on storage to cover all the sheds I'd sold. So, the last 30 sheds I'd lost my tail on because lumber just doubled and I didn't have enough lumber to cover it, and that's something that I definitely learned a lot from. But when you're young and dumb and you're a good salesman, you sell sheds and you think sales fix all the problems. And it does, Shannon. Sales fix a lot of problems but it does not fix all the problems. And so, but those were some tough times, but it was also some good times. I mean, we sold a lot of sheds, and Bitterly Sheds was very successful, for sure, you know, at the end of the day it was very successful. But, uh, I also know what it's like to to really struggle financially and did not know how to pay the bills. And you know, you got a lot of.
Shed Geek:You got a lot of assets, you got a lot of profit, but the cashflow is killing you because the in the shed industry, cash flow is definitely the number one killer of shed businesses, you know you know, there's been so many shows I can think back on already now over 300 of these that we've done and a couple of them where we've really talked about you know what it's like to know your numbers, have your systems and processes that you know. When we, when we discuss, you know, I w I would say that we're sometimes I feel like we're doing a consultation without, without actually putting a title on it. You know, but, but I definitely wouldn't consider us a well thought out consultative company, cause that's not, it's not really what we do. We do it by default. We don't really do it intentionally. We do it because we want to help. Right, and I meet so many people in the industry and I've met so many people who talk about just different stories Some your stories about that, their experience, and some about their. What they offer is a solution to that and trying to make some sense of everything in between. There, you know systems and processes.
Shed Geek:Whenever we're talking with people about trying to increase their sales or boost their sales, either through some kind of like direct sales or marketing or whatever it is, I'm like, hey, you do understand, every action has a reaction, right, if you grow your business from five to seven million or five to eight million this year. Think about you know the amount of growth that is and think about all the other things that affects both negatively and positively. Right now you can order, maybe in more bulk lumber you can order and get a better price, but you're also going to have a place to store that. Maybe you don't have a place to store that. Who's going to store it? Whenever it gets there, who's going to move it from here to there? Are you going to be able to increase the efficiency of your manufacturing? Because if you grow in 3 million in sales, who's billing those? Who's hauling those? Do you have the trucks to take care of those? You know, I mean, it almost becomes a consultative conversation again, without meaning to. It's by default. It's like hey, this is a statement you know I would write down for anybody who thinks that anything I have to say is worth a nickel.
Shed Geek:Everybody prepares for failure. Think about that. Everyone prepares for failure. Hardly anyone prepares for success.
Shed Geek:And what I mean is, like you're even told at least we were from a young childhood, like you got to have something to fall back on, like these were words that were embedded in our head as children. Yeah, but then you need to have something to fall back on. It was always like prepare for the failure so that if it happens, you, you, you're not caught off guard. But what I've been most surprised at is the people who have had success and then didn't know what to do with it or what direction to go with it, because you're just used to the um. So. So, listening to your story there without knowing all the details, it's it kind of fits. It's not as much as bitter root sounds like it was failing because of the troubles you were having. It was having so much success you didn't know where do I go with this and how do I create systems and processes. And I'm young and I haven't been through this yet. I need a mentor, someone to guide me. Does that sound accurate?
Luke Miller:Absolutely. And it was just all these sales, all this cash coming in, everything looks good. Then it's like, oh well, let's do more of this. It's almost impossible for a young guy, ambitious like me and just a driven salesman, to say no to a sale. I really should have said no, not necessarily no, but just said we're not going to increase our production. I kept on hiring people and hiring people. We went from our first employee, um, in 2020 to having 13 employees by 2022 and um. You know, we just kept adding employees and put a bigger shop up and selling more sheds and putting more sheds out, which, which I mean it's all fine and good, but it also brings a lot of struggles, for sure, for sure. And then the—and again.
Luke Miller:You know, when I look back over my life, I've made a lot of mistakes, but in 2017, when we moved to Montana, we moved to like this super aggressive Amish church to Montana. We moved to this super aggressive Amish church. They had this thing that when you join, you had to promise if you ever leave their church, you will move out of the area. You will no longer remain in the area. We moved out here from Michigan and we made that promise. I'm telling this story because I have a point for here. I made that promise and I really regretted that promise. Since then. We chose to move on from there.
Luke Miller:Um, we and so when we left the Amish church, we knew we had to move out the area, and that was in 2021. And so, I reached out to Sam Byler from a mutual friend, and was like um, you know, I'm gonna have to have to sell Bitter Root Sheds because we have to move out of the area. And now a lot of people were telling me well, you know, that's a dumb promise. You never had to make that promise. It's America. You can do whatever you want. But I felt like I couldn't live with myself if I didn't keep my promise.
Luke Miller:It was a promise I made. I knew what I was making, the promise. And they came in and made me an offer and purchased Bitterroot Sheds. We were going to move out of the area because that's the promise we had made. Well, funny enough, about right.
Luke Miller:As the closing came in, just before closing, I found out all the Amish were going to move out of the area and the whole church was going to disband. So, I was like well, no, I don't have to move out of the area because they moved out. But I already made the commitment and signed the agreement with Coleman Brothers to sell Bitterroot Sheds. So that's why I sold Bitterroot Sheds, one of the main reasons why I sold Bitterroot Sheds, and so that's why I don't own Bitterroot Sheds anymore. And you know, it's a promise I made and I made and I. You know, it's one of those things that if you make a promise, keep the promise. You know at the time. And do I regret selling Bitterroot Sheds? Do I wish I would never had to sell Bitterroot Sheds? Absolutely. I regret it every day. The backside is I feel good that I sold Bitterroot Sheds because I kept my promise.
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Shed Geek:Well, I kind of remember that time and you know it seemed like you. You know you had plenty of opportunity, though at the, you know, the same time, I mean I think you were doing some stuff in Indiana, doing some stuff in Michigan, and we've at least me and you've connected at least a couple of different points throughout the years, and certainly I always admire reading your thoughts, like many others in this industry, you know, as they share things on social media and stuff like that. So, I hate to admit that certain people grab my attention more, maybe, than others. Don't offense to anybody who you know I suspect not everybody listens to every single podcast episode, so trust me, it's not as though I'm naive, to that right.
Luke Miller:So, I don't get them all done myself, Shannon, I'm sorry, but I totally get it.
Shed Geek:I always tell people I've got favorite podcasters I listen to and I don't even get to all of their shows and I love to listen to. You know some of these folks, but you know life is such that it's that way and we don't put it out there to try and get everybody we, we put it out there and you know life does its thing. So, when you can listen and hopefully, uh, you, you, you listen to the right ones. If nothing else. So, but, um, yeah, I love that we've connected on that. So now, um, you know, would you say that you've just jumped into this different alley altogether, this new direction, but still shed relatable.
Luke Miller:No, I'll never get out of sheds all my days. I'll be 80 years old someday and still be doing something in the shed industry.
Shed Geek:I mean you'll be talking about it on a front porch in Montana. How about that?
Luke Miller:Hey, sounds good to me, sounds really good to me. So just to back up, you know, like I was saying earlier, you know when my grandpa started back in the 80s, an 8x16 shed was big. We didn't even do white loads at the time, 10 wides were unheard of. And then you know my dad's era. You know a 12x24 was big. And then you know my dad's era. You know a 12 by 24 was big. So you know, until from about 19,. I say about 95, you know my dad would have started building. You know the bigger sheds started coming in a little bit more. You know 12 by 20 started coming in, the 12 by 24. And then about 2008, 2009, we did our first 12 by 32 and that was a big shed. And then we did a 14 by 32. And that was like how do you dare drive that thing down the road? You know type of scenario. You know, and we might've been, you know, a little later than some of the East Coast people, so they probably got in the bigger sheds a little quicker than we did. But and then inveterate sheds. You know, come 2015, we started seeing.
Luke Miller:I started at Bitterly Sheds. I learned pretty quickly that people out here they want their 16x32s and 16x40s and even bigger. Now there's a couple companies out here that are doing bigger than 16x40s, especially if you go down to Texas. They're doing 18x64s and stuff like that. You're like that's a lot to take down the road. I admire those drivers a lot. I mean, I take 16 by 40 through Missoula every now and then and I think that's bad and they're taking these big ones right through big towns and I'm like you guys are just nuts. But that's kind of the direction the shed industry is going and at the same time, especially since COVID there's been. So during COVID a lot of companies myself included grew a lot and since then I've seen a lot of companies that are kind of trying to diversify a little bit and a lot of them are going to the tiny home, you know, cabin, auxiliary dwelling type of stuff, and we got in that as well. So, toward the tail end there we did a couple auxiliary dwellings and stuff and I learned really quickly the pitfalls of doing auxiliary dwellings and that is cash flow. Cash flow and then dealing with subcontractors is a big thing. So, after I sold Bitterroot Sheds I was talking to an old gentleman who's been in the shed industry forever. We started talking about it and I started brainstorming and, man, it's been, it's been a journey.
Luke Miller:But now we're doing the EZ Bath, which is basically a fully encapsulated bathroom pod. The way I tell people to think about it, think of it as a bathroom that comes on a pallet a full, a full bathroom, including the hot, the hot water heater and everything. It all comes on a pallet. You set it inside your shed, anchor it to the floor and you have a bathroom done. And we say it takes about 20 minutes for the average guy to set it in the shed and put the anchor and screw it down to the floor and you're and you've got a fully, fully encapsulated bathroom right in your shed.
Luke Miller:And so, they're um, right now they're mostly going into the like the cabins, but we've got some tiny homes coming in, some tiny home manufacturers. We've got a guy that's doing park models. He's you know we're talking with him about to put him into his park models and you know he has it. He has, he has everything set up. But, like he was telling me, he's like all the subcontractors coming. Subcontractors are coming in and they're doing their thing. You know you have your plumber coming in doing his rough and you have electrician coming doing your rough end and then you, then they all have to come back two or three times and it's really hurting his, his workflow.
Shed Geek:And so we're talking about to him, about doing the putting the EZ Bath right into his uh, right into what he's doing, right there so you might have to walk me through this a little bit, because I like to think that I've got some construction knowledge of you know have spent a small amount of time building homes. I actually built my first shed ever at our first home. I did it all by myself, just based off my home construction learning, and it's still there today, so that's a good sign. It hasn't blown away.
Shed Geek:No, it's still there 23 years later. So, I'm you know, every time I drive by I'm kind of proud of that. This is long before I even actually got into the shed industry and at that time I think, let's see, my brother bought one. So, he would have bought one from Cook Sheds, which is I've talked about this before on the podcast several times in Southern Illinois. I think they started in 86 and they were just kind of notorious for sheds, at least in our area. You know, I felt like that was the biggest name and the biggest brand and my brother bought his, ended up selling it to my father-in-law.
Shed Geek:There's a really good shed hauling story there, if you ever want to hear it sometime, which includes uh using hydraulic jacks to get it up in the air, four wheelers to drag it down and uh moving it on the top of an angle iron 6x12 utility bed trailer with a, with a um, with a hd pickup, 14 miles, with the tires pancaking the whole time and a tractor. Oh, it got really intense. So we were, we were your 200 dollar or 250 guy before they ever existed, but we only did it one time. And uh, but. But I built my own and you know, um so. So, when I think of like EZ Bath, I think, well, walk me through the process. You have to have an open wall, I'm assuming. Uh, in order to put this in, is that? Is that accurate?
Luke Miller:Yeah, so the way, the way most people are doing it, and there's a couple of different ways to do it Most people they built their walls, all their walls, on top of their floor and so they'll set up the back wall, the back gable, first.
Luke Miller:That's the way most shed builders are setting up their walls, the back gable, then they set up the two side gables and then usually they slide the front gable off the wall or they build it off to the side. I see a lot of people build them off to the side on the floor or you know whatever. And then so you just grab your forklift You've got to have extendable forks, you've got to have, you know, at least six-foot forks and so grab the forklift, pick it up and just set it right on top of the floor of your shed. And then, if you want to move around inside your building and get it and it's just like moving a pallet around at that point and just move wherever you want it, and then there's four brackets that come with it you can screw that right, right down to the floor. Right, right, you need to hit a choice when you screw that down.
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Shed Geek:I'm assuming because I know I've seen them, so I'm not assuming at this point. But you've got some YouTube videos that kind of talk a little bit about that. Maybe we can put a link in, if possible, or something like that, but where people can go and find out more information, I'm assuming.
Luke Miller:Yeah, so you can go to my website, myezbath. com, or you can check me out on YouTube. My YouTube handle is Amish Lite, so there's a couple. That's my type of humor, you know. It's Amish Lite, so just look for me under Amish Light, and there's a bunch of YouTube videos on there as well, and there's a lot more coming out, so don't, if you don't find what you want, just ask for it. I'll do a YouTube video and put it out there for you so walk me through this a little bit.
Shed Geek:I'll ask questions that I'm going to try to play customer here. Or you know your customer not being the end user of the actual bath and the cabin, but the industry right, the industry that you want to be able to sell these units to you got a hot water heater. So, like, how does this work? I'm assuming it's an electric tankless, but maybe not.
Luke Miller:Yeah, so you can either get electric or the gas. We offer both. Okay. So electric or gas, they're both Rene, and so the electric is a 240, five and a half gallons per minute. So, it's more water than you'll ever use.
Luke Miller:You know, you can open multiple faucets at the same time, which is what I have in my house, and I was like that's something super important to me as an on-demand hot water heater. Um, yeah, so. So, there's a little utility closet in the back and there is a the hot water heaters back there. So, um, when you purchase this, you'll set it into the manufacturer, will set it into the building, and it takes them about 20 minutes to hook it up. And then the customer, after they receive the building and it's all set up, they have to hook it up to their existing utilities. So, there will be five basic hookups.
Luke Miller:So, you have the cold water coming in and then you have the sewer going out. So, there's one four-inch sewer line going out. Everything's connected. So, you've got a vanity. You've got a tub or a shower, depending which model you get, and a toilet, and it's all hooked up into one four inch line in the back. So, there's a access door you can just hook it right up there and then you have the electric um.
Luke Miller:It takes a 240 um, trying to think.
Luke Miller:It depends on how far you're coming, but most my electrician is telling me mostly three-gauge wire, two or three-gauge wire, and so it takes a little more electricity if you have the on-demand hot water heater electric on-demand hot water heater, whereas if you have gas then it doesn't take nearly as much electricity. And yeah, so there's a 100-amp breaker box in the back that the electric gets run into, and then you have the exhaust vent. So you've got your fan that everybody has to have, and then you have your drain vent, so all the drain lines have to be vented per code. So you've got five easy hookups, stuff that as a I'm going to do it yourself for a little bit, but I can do it in probably three, four hours, depending on how far I'm going with it. If I have to run the drain line up ways it takes a bit more than that, but three, four hours. So that's why our tagline is bathroom in a day, we say any half-competent DIYer can purchase one of these EZ Baths and have it set up in a day.
Shed Geek:Well, and it could probably eventually turn into upsells for manufacturers who really want to. You know, either take that on or subcontract that out. To some extent, you know, maybe there's a small residual amount that they can earn off of that. But more than anything is you said something that was key earlier. You said you know the shed industry seems to be moving more towards these large sheds and it seems like people are wanting more off grid or more affordable housing, just because you know the days of old just don't seem to be America.
Shed Geek:I don't know if they're coming back in terms of like you know how we live financially, but there seems to be a little bit more attempt at least to equally, equally distribute wealth among most people to where the average person is falling, falling behind. And we're going to get too political here, aren't we? But we're, we're almost falling.
Luke Miller:I was going to say that's that old Democrat coming out there.
Shed Geek:Hey, listen, I'm not saying I, I love you. You're an old blue collar Democrat. I was going to say that's that old Democrat coming out there? Hey, listen, I'm not saying I love you.
Luke Miller:You're an old blue-collar Democrat. I'm telling you I love it. Actually, that's where my natural inclination is as well, so I totally hear you.
Shed Geek:Well, I'm not saying that I'm a fan of the redistribution of wealth the infamous Obama line of the redistribution of wealth, the infamous, you know, Obama line. I would say I'm more inclined to want to see people have their basic health care needs met, right. So, you know what I mean. I'm probably somewhere in between. I'm somewhere in between. I like to consider myself a centrist on many things, but I find that I'm not always once it comes down to it.
Shed Geek:But my thought behind this is like people are looking for homes, right, like you know, maybe they can't afford what a typical American home costs now, your average American home and they're looking for alternatives. And it's been my experience, Luke, and I'm curious about yours and even others around. The industry is just how welcome that is among municipalities, especially the more larger the cities. Obviously, I don't like that, typically Right. But you're more rural areas that don't fall under HOA, but we all still fall under, like these, these IBCs, these international building codes and things that are necessary. But you've kind of addressed all of that with this and people are or at least I think you have and people are always looking for something finished out in a shed anymore, doesn't?
Luke Miller:it seem that way. Yeah for sure. And so what happens is a lot of people come in and they don't have much money, so they buy a shed, a cabin, on either rent to owner or cash, cash, and they purchase and they're going to finish this thing out. They're all fired up about it. Man, I'm going to make this thing gorgeous. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. Give it a give it a year.
Luke Miller:You go back and you either repo it or you move it, because they sold it and then they you know there's a couple, couple pieces she rock nailed up and some electric lines put in, and that's it you know, they, they, they got the, the building and they set it up and they're all fired up about it and they get out there with their, with their tools, and they got their hammer and they got their you know their, their cobalt drill, you know that barely works. Or their black and decker drill that barely works. I mean, sorry I do, old guys, but anyways and uh, and .
Luke Miller:They get out there and it's overwhelming, it just it completely overwhelms them, especially the bathrooms. The bathrooms are the big one, you know, because you got to do drain, you got to do the electric and you got to do the shower and you got to do the vanity and it's just, it's overwhelming. Now a fair amount of them do figure it out eventually, or they end up hiring people to do it. But yeah, I don't know, I mean I was, I think probably half of the shells I've sold never got, never got moved into by the original purchaser. Yeah, it's so overwhelming.
Shed Geek:You're exactly right about. You know, I used to spend a lot of time. A matter of fact, I had guys in in our sales office. It was like are you, are you trying to talk them out of buying it? Are you trying to talk them into buying it? And I was like, well, I'm trying to avoid problems as best I can down the road and while I while I don't you know want to spend people's money for them, I want to educate them as best as possible. And if you're really trying to help them, you can tell exactly what you said in most cases, you know, with just a few questions, whenever somebody would come in and be like do you really understand what this is going to like, what kind of project this is going to be? And I can remember one specifically, a couple that came in and you know, 16 by 60, one of the biggest sheds we ever sold. You know big one.
Shed Geek:Oh yeah, custom front door. It looked really nice, had a couple dormers, tall roof, sold it and this husband and wife did a tremendous job. They did an excellent job wiring it. You could tell they either done it professionally or had it done professionally. She found out she had cancer, um, and six months in they had to give it up, um.
Shed Geek:So, we got it back on our lot and, uh, I really felt. I really felt bad for her cause, you know, you could tell it was. It wasn't just like we can't pay for it, it was like a real situation and I wish I'd have followed up with them closer. But it comes back. We have somebody else come in. They want to buy it and I just know enough to ask enough questions to feel like I knew that they weren't.
Shed Geek:These new buyers just were not educated enough on what it was going to take to do this process. They saw some of the stuff that had been done and thought, well, we can just take it from here. But I began to ask questions. Look, I even had some leftover like bat insulation from a project and once the shed got delivered I took like two rolls over to him and said, hey, here's a small contribution, but here you go, really appreciate it. I could just tell, and I kind of wanted to get their, their mindset around it.
Shed Geek:And I guess it was a year later that the driver you know went out and, as exactly as you said, I had to go pick it up and they were very combative. You know the communication fell between them and the RTO provider over that course of that year and of course the guy pulls a gun on the driver whenever he comes out. Finally, to come again. Man, like you have this and you're like I'm trying to avoid every single bit of these problems with good education, good communication, and I was just stuck. I felt I felt very stuck because you know, they almost got really aggressive towards me whenever I didn't want to proceed with the sale. I felt I was profiling them perhaps and at some point I had to say, okay, let's move on here, you got the money, here's your shed. But then, you know, I tried to avoid the situation you felt like was playing out, just be, you know, because they didn't really have it.
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Shed Geek:It's Thank you maybe this is the way to solve that, right. You just have this bath all in one where you make it more financially turnkey for them. That's it.
Luke Miller:What I found is a lot of people, they need to win. You know, a lot of us get stuck on stuff and sometimes we just need a win. And the bathroom EZ Bath pod really it gives you that win that you're looking for. So, you get the cabin. It's overwhelming, but you've got the bathroom done. So, you know, okay. So, we got the bathroom done.
Luke Miller:Now let's figure out what are we going to do first. Well, let's run the vent, let's run the vent out, let's run the vent out, let's run the cold water in. I mean, that's stuff that is really simple to do. I mean, it's anybody can run packs nowadays with these, um, the, the, the new packs, where you just slide them in and they just click together. It's so easy. You don't need any special tools. It's so, so straightforward.
Luke Miller:Um, anybody can do them, and they start building up wins and I feel like that, really, that momentum is really key. I mean, um, whether it's your kids, whether it's yourself, in life, building wins is a huge thing. So, I'm a bit of a I'm not completely sold on him, but I'm a bit of a Dave Ramsey guy, and if you look at Dave Ramsey, he's like put $1,000 in savings and it's like $1,000 doesn't cover anything, no, but it's a win. You need a win, and then you need a win, and then you need a win, and then you need a win. And I feel like the EZ Bath does that to a certain extent. It gives you a win, you know, it gives you that win, it gets you started, it gives you a place to start at for sure, instead of just a big blank piece of canvas.
Shed Geek:So, what will your process be? Your buyers are going to be shed manufacturers, tiny home manufacturers, cabin manufacturers those are going to be your customers. You know the end customer will use the product, so we can talk about the two-sided marketplace there. But to reach your customers, what is sort of your approach? What's your message to them? What are things that you would like to say to them in this early exploration?
Luke Miller:Yeah, I mean, I think it's something that, as a shed manufacturer, you ought to think about is do you want to move into the, into the more move-in ready buildings, the more tiny homes?
Luke Miller:Whether you take it all the way and you have a, you have a, you have a completely move-in ready building, or whether that's you want to offer some level of finish out? For example, I'm I did a poll on the shed sales professionals Facebook group recently and it seemed like a lot of people are offering some level of finish out, whether it's just an electric package, whether it's electric and insulation, or maybe do electric insulation and some type of interior covering. Well, this gives you that next level. So, if you're already offering, say, insulation and electrical, this will mesh with you perfectly and get you into that next stage. If you're doing interior finish, um, this will, this will take you into the position where you're a fully finished tiny home and um, and that's the key, you know, is if you, if you're ready to go on the next level, you're ready to move on and differentiate, you know make it to get it you have differentiating a unique selling proposition from you and your competition.
Luke Miller:I think the EZ Bath is a very simple, very easy. It doesn't really require very many man hours to do and it really offers a huge step up and the profit margins are really good on it. I have a really good program when it comes to purchasing wholesale or, if you want to do it, on commission basis. There's great profit margins on them. Your, your salesman will love it. I mean you take a take a $15,000 sale and make it a $30,000 sale without that big of an upsell and without extra man hours on your end.
Shed Geek:really they, yeah, they they're, they're really easy upsell for sure. I'm a, I'm a huge fan of creativity. You, you, you may know that if you listen very often. And I, I can't be a big enough advocate for creativity. Because what is the one thing that we all say in the shed, industry, right, is we sell quality. We try to sell quality product, you know, at the right price, at a fair price.
Shed Geek:And I question, you know I'm going to, I'm going to there again, be an advocate for change or resistance to change here. So, bear with me a little bit on that. But why do you think that? At least my opinion is, and maybe you agree with it or not but the industry doesn't always necessarily embrace change in any capacity, whether it's new products. Lot to do with us being conservative in nature, right? So, I've went from, you know, democratic Party now to being Republican, right, or I guess you would say somewhere in between those lines now. So, to draw the parallel with the political discourse we've had, you know Republicans are known as what? The party of no, right, because they're conservative.
Speaker 3:They don't want to change anything right.
Shed Geek:Republicans are known as what? The party of no right Because they're conservative, they don't want to change anything right. And a conservative nature is that that you typically want to stay with what you've got, to conserve what you have. But change is also inevitable, it's necessary and creativity gives us that right. It gives us better medicines to care for our body. It gives us like we're living, breathing souls right, you know, that's the way God's revenge is to be. And we're getting deep here on political, religious, how they tie into EZ Bath. So, I want to kind of I want to bring it back in a little bit. I mean, I guess my thought is it seems like I'm a big fan of other products. You know some that advertise with us. I always push those products and sometimes it seems like the industry has a little bit of difficulty embracing new products. What's your message? So that we can help break that mold with EZ Bath, so that people just embrace this naturally, because I embrace it. I think it's awesome. I love what you're doing, you know.
Luke Miller:Yeah, I mean, you're completely correct when it comes to being slow to change, and I think a lot of that goes back to the Anabaptist. By far the biggest demographic in the shed industry is the Anabaptist people, whether it's Amish or Mennonite or you know there's a thousand different variations of that now, and the Amish had this thing, and I think the Mennonites have as well. It's a no until we say yes type of thing. The automatic response to any question is no until we say yes, and it really has served them well for sure. But I guess I kind of take it this way is you know, it's okay to be slow to change, but sometimes you do need to change in a very, very methodical, very thoughtful way. Um, I don't, you know, I don't want to sell these EZ Bath pods to somebody that's not going to be able to incorporate them into their business model, like I don't want to sell them, just to sell them. I mean, kind of back what you were saying about the cabins, you know, um, I want to work with manufacturers who actually where this incorporates them and takes them to where they want to go. You know there's and I'm going to drop a name here but Tough Sheds would never. You know, this would not be a product that would match with their business model, right, it just wouldn't, because they're out there, they're sheds, they're a huge company and to change quickly would be a poor decision on their part, I believe. Now would I love to work with them, absolutely. I mean, who wouldn't want to have a huge account? Right? But I don't believe it would be beneficial to them. So, I think I want to find the right people, the people who actually do want to move on and take the sheds to new heights.
Luke Miller:Right now, the shed industry is dominated by there's a lot of these big mega companies. You know, you've got Old Hickory, Graceland, Dirksen, I mean I'm missing a whole bunch of names when I'm saying these names, but it's dominated by them. But there's a nice niche underneath that, the people that build 200 to 600 sheds a year, and that's kind of the niche that I'm targeting. I'm targeting the smaller ones as well, but that little niche right there are people that you don't really have quite the buying power that these mega companies have. You know, you're paying more, that middle price when it comes to lumber and stuff, and so and there's one more thing that's really happening in the shed industry and that's the race to the bottom. Right now, out here in Montana, it's a race to the bottom. Now everybody's running a 10, 15, 20, I see 30, 40% discounts on their sheds, and it's a race to the bottom.
Luke Miller:Be the cheapest, and the thought is that, being the cheapest, you can get more sales. But my thing is, are you really out there to make the customer's lives better? If that is, your goal is to make the customer's lives better. Yes, price is one of the things that makes the customer's lives better. Quality is one of the things that makes the customer's lives better.
Luke Miller:But to really make the customer's lives better and to actually improve their lives and to fix the problem they're facing it, definitely you know you need to listen to them and you need to be open to new thoughts and new concepts and then say, okay, I'm trying to. If you, it's a mindset shift going from I'm going to sell every single building I can. I'll even lie a little bit, say a little white lies and maybe omit some things in order to sell a building. So I've been in, I've walked into sales lots where the salesman is saying, oh yeah, you can finish this thing out for, you know 800 bucks, or you know 2000 bucks, or you know even 5,000 bucks. Well, that's a lot. You cannot finish out a cabin unless you're getting free stuff. You know free, free, whether it's free labor or free materials. You cannot finish out a cabin for $5,000. And if you really want to listen to your customers and give them the best experience, like we were talking earlier, Shannon, I believe the EZ Bath really is a tool that people ought to consider.
Shed Geek:I embrace it. Naturally, I love new ideas that come to the forefront. I won't steal your thunder here. I don't want to mention a whole bunch of them, but just real quick. I mean, they're advertisers of us. We always support them, like the Solar Blaster fans, the Zula system that Ares has created, I mean and I'm not saying these are perfect for everybody, just to be clear. But, man, look into these things because, like you know, there's guys like you who are creating and now you're taking this to like this whole new level.
Shed Geek:Right, you know they're providing sunlight, they're providing solar fans and things like that that move the air man. That bathroom is definitely one of those things. That's like it's primary functionality. Whenever it comes to somebody who's wanting to finish this thing out, whether they're paying cash for it or however they're doing it, they have to hire somebody to come in here and finish this out. And I would imagine you've already looked at price points. Versus being able to order this wholesale, put it in all as one unit, versus hiring that labor out, it's much more cost effective.
Luke Miller:Yeah, I mean that's a great point. Now I'm going to say go back to the whole thing about the better, the better fans and the fan bands and stuff. I always, or I've been thinking of down this line. All the all the new products that have come into the shed world were a better mouse trap. It was just a better mouse trap. I'm introducing a bear trap into a better mouse trap world. That's a good point. Yeah, you know what I mean. It's. It's actually the first truly new product in the shed industry that I can think of in like a long since, probably since the mule Like that's a good point.
Luke Miller:It doesn't exist.
Shed Geek:You have you have first movers advantage and, trust me, it won't last long in the shed industry. I hope it doesn't. Sometimes that's a good thing because that means people embrace it and the product's a good idea, right? People ask me. They're like what are you going to do if somebody starts a podcast? I was like good, Good, you know what I mean. Good, Go for it.
Luke Miller:I'll be at the Shed Expo. It's in Grand Rapids this year, right, it'll be in.
Shed Geek:Knoxville this year. It'll be back in Knoxville 2025.
Luke Miller:For some reason I was thinking they were going to bring it back to Grand Rapids one more time but okay, I'm wrong.
Shed Geek:Probably 20,. I'm thinking maybe what? 2026 maybe, but this year, yeah, we just got to be in Knoxville.
Luke Miller:Okay, yeah, so I'll be, I'll be there and I'm hoping there'll be four or five other companies there with the same product. That's where I'm at, you know. If it, if it isn't, if the, if I'm the only guy there, I'm going to think I messed up on my communication somewhere. But, um, but back to the price point thing. Um, so my products and their MSRP. The manufacturer suggests a real deal. Price is between $13,000 and $18,000, depending on which products you want. If you want the really fancy deluxe ones, you know, and with the with the so, so you can either get the basic one, the classic, which has the vanity, toilet and shower, the Supreme, which has the toilet, then it has an actual bathtub and a vanity and then has a hot washer, dryer, hookup. And if you, and if you all take the supreme and match it out, it's 18 000. That's the suggested retail price.
Luke Miller:Um, I did some quotes looking at a lot of things here in Montana which I don't know how that goes across the entire nation. They plan on minimum $20,000. If you're building a house, your subcontractor or your general contractor will tell you to plan $40,000 per bathroom and a master bathroom to go more like $60,000 to $70,000. That's what they tell people out here. So MSRP between $ and 18,000 is a very price advantageous. That's a really good price point, I believe, and that's the MSRP. We offer wholesale pricing and then commission-based structures, which you know. So, there's an excellent profit for the salesman and the installer there for sure.
Shed Geek:Man, I feel like this is like your next adventure. This is like your next breakthrough. I feel, even talking to you about it initially before we had this conversation, that you were passionate about it and I wish I could find a way to you know, bring that passion to this episode, and I hope we have. We're almost at a point now where, Luke, we're either going to have to keep talking and make a part two to this episode, or we either going to have to keep talking and make a part two to this episode or we're going to have to cut it off here pretty soon. But you're just such an easy conversation to have and you're welcome here anytime. I definitely enjoy talking to you any chance we get together.
Shed Geek:I wholeheartedly embrace this. I certainly hope that the industry does too. I certainly hope that the industry does too, because you know, at the end of the day, the customer drives the innovation, typically the mindset for the creators. You know R&D guy, You're also the shed hauler. You might be the shed seller, you might even be the chief trash taker outer. You do all of it. But especially for these companies that are larger companies that are looking for a third-party option, they buy products all the time you buy your lumber somewhere, your metal somewhere and any other components that go into the sheds, and we're just seeing a demand for this more and more and more, and I completely embrace it. If people want to know how to get a hold of you, where's the best place to reach out to you? How can we be a resource to help you? You?
Luke Miller:how can we be a resource to help you? Yeah, so my website is myezbath. com, myezbath. com. My email is Luke (L-U-K-E)@ myezbath. com, or find me on Facebook, and then you can also give me a call. If you're a young entrepreneur, if you're a young shed builder and you just want to chat, just give me a call. My phone number is 406-370-3601. 406-370-3601. Don't be afraid to give me a call. Man, what a Unless you're a scammer.
Shed Geek:What an easy conversation to have. I always enjoy talking to you. I also always enjoy talking to your brother, David. It's fun when we get together and have a chance to chat. I got to visit his lot in Irvington. What a beautiful lot, one of the best looking shed lots I've ever seen. When you pull up and see it from the road, it's just gorgeous you want a lot of information about the shedding industry?
Luke Miller:talk to David. He's uh, he's uh. He's probably one of the best shed salesmen I've ever met I, I just enjoy talking to him, you and him both.
Shed Geek:Maybe we can get you guys both on here one of these days, or something like that, and get some stories from the days of old or something.
Luke Miller:The thing about David is David has never sold a shed in his life, but he sold himself a couple thousand times yeah.
Luke Miller:That's the big difference thousand times.
Shed Geek:Yeah, you know that's the big difference. We went out to eat lunch and I think we stayed longer than uh he probably cared to because he probably had work to do, but I felt like it was fun just sitting there talking to him. So we, I felt like we talked for a couple hours and, uh, I do enjoy it. My favorite thing about the shed industry is that, you know, uh, products and all that stuff do tend to come second place products and services to the people. I do really appreciate the people. It just means it means a lot to me to be able to continue to do something that we love and if we can help you or your company in some way, well, we love that too. I feel like it.
Shed Geek:What goes around comes around right, and that's not just a bad thing, that's a good thing. So, yeah, any other thing that you want to share, any questions you have to ask me, since I do this with everyone else. Any questions you want to ask me podcasting, sheds, just anything, life in general, anything that you're just curious about, in full transparency. I don't mind answering because I'm recorded here where I have to be vulnerable, so ask if you don't, okay, but I like to, I like to keep up my transparency.
Luke Miller:Yeah, yeah, I don't know that I have a lot of questions for you. I just I appreciate what you're doing in the shed industry. Thanks for the all the shout outs you're giving to the different people bringing common knowledge together. The pursuit of knowledge is probably one of the most pure and one of the most virtuous desires there is in the world. If you look at my life and the things I've done, my life has always been a pursuit of knowledge, because in knowledge there's power for sure. My mom says I'm too smart for my own britches, so there's always that. But uh, there's a. There's there that. I appreciate you bringing that pursuit. Um, and here's the one thing I want to throw out there yet and there's a bit of a plug, but uh, the EZ Bath is just the beginning. We're just the beginning. I've got like so many new, new products that we'll be bringing out here in the next five years, so just don't touch the dial. There'll be a lot of more stuff coming out.
Shed Geek:I love to hear it. Like you know, God is creative. You know, first thing we find out about his nature is he's creative. In the beginning. God created and we're made in his image, so we're made to be creative. So, I love any creative mind, I love just collaborating with them, sharing ideas and thoughts. Sometimes business happens, sometimes it doesn't, but I'm always a fan of being like oh dude, that's awesome, tell me about it.
Shed Geek:I, you know me and you. We live, eat, sleep, breathe, sheds. It's just kind of like what we do at this point and I appreciate your kind words I love helping people and sometimes helping people means I get to help myself. You know what I mean. And so, you know we want to keep just being a resource, try to be a light to the industry, help where we can. You know we.
Shed Geek:We know that we compete sometimes in some areas, but you know we're very unique, Luke, in that we even invite our competitors on the podcast, we invite our competitors to the table, we even invite them to advertise, because you know we're for you, we're not against you. We know that we want to win, we want to do good in business, but that doesn't mean that we want to dominate and shut people out and things like that, because, after all, they're brothers and sisters in Christ. So, like we know, we're not going to win them all right, but we certainly love talking to all of them and hearing their story, and that means you too. If you're listening today, feel free to reach out. Whether it's Steel Kings on Monday, whether it's myself on Wednesday or Sam Byler on Friday, we love talking to you guys.
Shed Geek:We love having conversations, and I believe that communication is that key that links us all together, because you get education through that communication, and that's why our tagline, Luke, over here at Shed Geek Podcast, is education through entertainment. You know, we love to have fun laugh, joke and cut up, but we love to be able to talk with people. Hey, listen, I'm a fan of prayer and I feel like it's been a long time since I've prayed on the podcast. Sometimes I get so caught up or we get long-winded. We have these long conversations that we forget to acknowledge and honor God in our process, and that's one area where I love this industry and your heart as well too that you are a Christian and you are loud about that, and I think that we need more of that in today's world.
Luke Miller:It's a dangerous industry. We need God's hand over it, for sure.
Shed Geek:Yeah, if you don't mind, we'll pray. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with Luke this day. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with Luke, such a such a just, a kind soul, a visionary and someone who's trying to bring a product to market in the industry that he loves. I'd ask that you just bless his endeavor and open up doors that couldn't have otherwise been open other than without having your, your touch and your hand on that. Ask that you'd continue to bless this industry.
Shed Geek:We love it. We absolutely love being able to meet people, not only in it, but those who come to our lots, those who are followers, that we get to go and deliver sheds to their house and witness to them in even some small way. Ask that you would just continue to provide us with those opportunities. Give us wisdom, give us discernment and all that we're doing continue to be a light as we walk. God, just as we can point all things and all gifts that we've been given towards you, the creator of all and the giver of all, and we thank you, we absolutely thank you for your son uh, for sending him, uh, uh, to atone for our sins, and, um, we just can't say thank you enough today, Lord, in Jesus name Amen.
Luke Miller:Amen.
Shed Geek:Luke, appreciate you being on the show. It's been a good one for sure. Thank you, hey.