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
Faith, Business, and Life Eggs
What happens when two industry veterans sit down for an unscripted, heart-to-heart conversation about business sustainability, faith, and life? This month's Sambassador podcast delivers exactly that as Shannon and Sam reflect on five years of podcasting while sharing hard-earned wisdom about diversification in challenging economic times.
Sam Byler pulls back the curtain on his business approach, revealing how he maintains multiple smaller income streams instead of relying on one primary source. "If I accidentally throw one egg and it breaks, I haven't lost everything," he explains. This practical philosophy proves especially relevant as many in the shed industry face uncertain markets. Sam offers actionable advice for haulers and dealers feeling the pressure – from expanding service offerings to reconsidering pricing structures that still maintain profitability.
The conversation takes a deeper turn as both men discuss the integration of faith into their business lives. Rather than compartmentalizing spirituality, they share how their relationship with God fundamentally shapes their decision-making, business ethics, and response to industry conflicts. Shannon's recent purchase of a 100-year-old church building as office space becomes a fascinating metaphor for honoring tradition while embracing new possibilities.
Perhaps most compelling is Sam's vulnerable insight about relationships: "The number one tool my wife has to make our marriage strong is that she lets me fail." This perspective on giving partners space to take risks and learn from mistakes offers profound implications for both personal and business relationships. Their authentic exchange demonstrates why the Shed Geek podcast has remained a trusted industry resource for half a decade.
Whether you're facing business challenges, navigating complex relationships, or seeking to integrate your values more fully into your work, this conversation offers both practical strategies and philosophical depth. As Sam's podcast transitions to a monthly format, Shannon and Sam remind us that sometimes the most valuable business lessons come from simply being human with one another. Subscribe now to ensure you don't miss future episodes of this industry-favorite conversation.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.
To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro
Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our 2025 studio sponsor. Let's be real Running a shed business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all feeling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers while expectations keep climbing, and yet I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, Shed Pro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. Shed Pro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, rto contracts, inventory, deliveries and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek Marketing solutions, from website lead to final delivery. You can quote, contract, collect payment and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. Contract collect, payment and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth chaos. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner and, instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention Shed Geek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro. co/ shedgeek. Thank you, Shed Pro, for being our studio sponsor and, honestly, for building something that helps the industry.
Shed Geek:Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast. And this is like fun Friday monthly edition. I don't know what you want to call it, but we'll get into all the conversation. Sam, we do a podcast together but, to simply understate it, it's a conversation between a couple of buddies and a couple of guys in the industry that we just kind of love and that's just kind of served as our home and opportunity. You know, whenever people say, wow, man, like I really got something great out of that podcast, it always makes me wonder did I orchestrate that? And the truth is no, it's never orchestrated. It's always a conversation and you just don't know what's going to reach people. And in certain conversations and then and others, people are like I was very boring. You know I wasn't, it wasn't crazy about that episode or whatever it is, and it's like I get it. And then somebody else says it's the best one you ever had. I'm, I'm fine, you ever had.
Shed Geek:I was just telling you before we got on the air. We're five years in now and the only thing I can say that's different is it's more of a job now than it is a passion to be in this for five years and making my living off of it. Still very passionate about it. Don't get me wrong, love this industry. Still very passionate about it, don't get me wrong, love this industry. And. But man, it is a nail biter some days. There's no doubt about that. Where do you land after all of these years? You know you're usually interviewing people on Fun Friday. I'm interviewing you, I guess, today.
Sam Byler:Yeah, we're flipping around this time. Since you won't ever invite me on yours. I just invited myself on.
Shed Geek:Fair enough.
Sam Byler:So, you know we used to say there's only two laws that apply You're going to die and you're going to pay taxes. I don't know if you ever heard that growing up. I heard that as a kid. You know the old timers are always there. There's only two things you got to do in life You're going to have to die and you're going to have to pay your taxes. I've lived long enough to find out there's some people don't pay taxes. We're all still pretty much dying, so I've thrown those two out. I'm down to.
Sam Byler:What I'm building on. Here is what you said about when people listen to podcasts. They get something out of it and you're like, ah, it just happens. You know it's all. It builds on itself and I agree, I hear that a lot.
Sam Byler:One of the greatest things about this platform is to be able to have conversations that end up going places you never thought they would. And you know you get the aha moment out of it. And you know you get the aha moment out of it and I'm the two things that I'm convinced of today is I never know what's going to blow up on social media. You know, stuff I think that I write that's brilliant, goes nowhere, and stuff that I write out of pure frustration or just purely from yelling out to God takes off like crazy. And the other one is, when you do a podcast, you have no idea where it's going to end up going. That's why I enjoy them so much.
Sam Byler:I kind of hate that we're actually one of the things we're doing is talking about cutting it back to monthly, and it's not that I don't enjoy doing them and I don't want to do them. It's just it's been hard to stay focused on getting enough interviews to do it. I got too much other stuff going on. Absolutely completely love what I do here on the podcast. It's nothing to do with that, nothing to do with you. You are literally one of my closest friends in the industry. So, to be able to you know, I told you when you said something about what do you think about doing it once a month? I'm like man me and you could do one once a month. That's not an issue. But I do want to reach. You know, keep reaching out to the guys that have supported me, and they've got me here this far. Shout out to all our sponsors. I know you're redoing some of that, which is great, but and listen, if people are like hey listen.
Sam Byler:We want to hear him every week. We'll do the interviews. I'm still open to that. It's not that we don't have the time to do it. We just want to make it to where we're not frustrated with it.
Shed Geek:Well, and also, I think it's important to know that that you know there is some structure. We try to set some, you know, especially for our advertisers. We try to make sure that there's content there. But we don't want to get content. Uh, look, I'd rather give them their money back or, you know, not do something than to not bring valuable content to the table. So, I don't want to ever feel like I'm doing it just to do it to make some money. I want to feel like we're having good conversation that benefits people's day, and if someone's going to be willing to take precious time out of their day to listen to us, I hope that we've got something worthy of saying.
Shed Geek:And the way I've tried to always do that is to just be transparent and to just be vulnerable to the audience and just kind of be like. You know, at one point I even shared, you know, I think, with Jonathan Ulrich well, it's an oversharing, it's not necessary and it was like, yeah, I'm just trying to show that. You know, now we've gone to a place where, you know, there was a point where I was considering giving away advertising at no cost. Uh, uh, simply because I had to make my living off the advertising at one point. But other things have uh been built that have kind of helped sturdy up things for us, hopefully for long term, and I thought, how can I get back? And you and I both know freeze what you pay for it. So, like, I've decreased it by like you know, I don't know 75% of the cost, you know, just to be like, hey, there's some reasonable accountability here that you, you know what I mean. Hey, there's some reasonable accountability here that you, you know what I mean, you got to get us. But I'm not going to focus on that, because I really want the podcast to be a space that that that helps people, and we've talked about this.
Shed Geek:I've talked about this with Jared and eric on steel kings. It's, like, you know, doesn't have to be a steel like specific podcast. You know people that reach out all the time, different coaches, uh, uh, people that are in professional, uh, digital worlds. You know, I almost got the president of uh go daddy on one time and he backed out on me. You know, I feel like those would be cool conversations. You know, to be like, wow, these are. We could get into the you know in-depth part of different things. But we've had some cool people on and you've been part of that process and it's five years.
Shed Geek:It's kind of hard to believe that this has been. You know, and I'm sitting here going well, do we have five more in us? You know, like there's so many people left to interview, and the thing is, I like both the monologue style, and I like the dialogue. I enjoy interviews and sometimes I enjoy what is your product? Expose it to the industry, tell them about it. How can we help you get out there? And then sometimes I like the. You know, this is my testimony and let's let me tell you about my journey through the industry.
Shed Geek:I like it all. I like it all. I. I just want to constantly provide content that people feel like man, I tuned in today to listen to something that was encouraging, inspiring, educational, educational, entertaining, and it blessed me and I'm better for listening to it than I was for not listening to it. At the end of the day, you know, to think that a thousand people would tune in every episode to listen to anything me, or you have to say, is kind of like humbling, oh, absolutely.
Sam Byler:Yeah.
Shed Geek:So I appreciate all the listeners, all the advertisers, this, this industry, the ups and downs, ebbs and flows, the goods, the bads, the, the all of it has taught me something, you know being able to embrace things difficulty, difficult people, difficult customers, good customers, people, difficult customers, good customers moments that I believe will live rent-free in my head from not just good opportunities like money-making activities, but I'm talking about things that people share with you, that are in private, that are just. You just know that is divine, divine appointment, without a doubt. You don't know how to explain it. That's been kind of cool man. That's been kind of cool because we're still in perfect over here at Shed Geek. I bet you, Sam, will say the same about him.
Shed Geek:Dylan Cord Wyatt, josh Justin Titus, all of us, we'd all. Deanna, Cord, Wyatt, Josh, Justin, Titus, all of us, you know, like we'd all Deanna, Troy, you know we'd all say the same thing, like hey, we're still was. Jeff Huxman told me he said you know, I'm still learning how to be human. It's my first time, so I take that for what it is. So, let's talk about the meat of any kind of subject here. Moving forward, well, let's talk about Sam Byler. What's Sam Byler doing? How about that?
Sam Byler:That's not a good subject.
Shed Geek:No, no, nothing new on the horizon that I'm not aware of.
Sam Byler:So, it seems like I don't know why this has come up again. But actually the last two days I've been hanging out with my brother-in-laws, we've been having our own little mini golf trip outing thing, because normally we go when we're camping and my wife's mom which is mom to me because my mom's been gone ever since we're married pretty much she's been dealing ever since we're married, pretty much she's been dealing with some health issues that we just got to get through. It's nothing really major; it's just got to be done. So, we basically put off the camping trip, which puts off the brother-in-law's golf trip, because we normally go while we're camping. And so, I'm like you know what, let's just throw a couple days together, get a couple rounds of golf in, having, you know, nice dinner one night, breakfast and lunch, and, uh, we, we don't really hang out a whole lot. Um, we're, we don't really have problems with each other, we just don't. You know, we chat on our message group and whatever here and there, but we don't see each other a whole lot. Um. So it's like let's do it anyway. And we did have a total blast.
Sam Byler:But they started ragging me about what does Sam do? You know, Dallas, he does pills. Chad, he works at Yoder's, and Paul, you know he's law enforcement. You know what does Sam do? And it's like a couple of weeks ago when there was a couple of haulers in here, they're like you know what do you really do? And it's like you know what? It's not really important what I do. You know everybody's like, well, you know what's the secret and I'm like it's not really a secret. I just learned really hard lessons that I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket anymore. In fact, um, in fact, um, there for a long time, we get and I'm just going to throw this out there to the industry as a whole and anybody, not even in this industry. We live in a day and age where if you only have one egg and you're taking good care of that one egg, you better look out because you need more eggs.
Sam Byler:Um, I, I every day on the community pages that I follow and stuff. I've been on Facebook break for almost a month now. Most people don't know that because I said I'm not. I'm still going to put my, my content out there and I'll try to interact with my content as much as I can, but I basically shut down all my groups shut down all my private groups that I was in, you know, and stuff. And I'm trying to just tone in to where. What's the Lord trying Like? Can I even hear from the Lord right now? So, I had shut a lot of that stuff off. But the occasional, you know I'll spend 10, 15 minutes answering a tag or something.
Sam Byler:But people, people are picking up second jobs, they're picking up third jobs. They're trying to figure out how to supplement their income with something. The $175,000 house right across the street from me is all of a sudden $375,000. And they're all under contract. It's not like they're not selling. They're pending under contract. It's not like they're not selling, they're pending under contract. They're selling all the time.
ADVERTISEMENT:I got a big day tomorrow. I have a fully finished 18 by 40 cabin that's going to require two to three meals to get it delivered Way back in the sticks and down a dirt lane. With all the rain we've had lately, it's going to be a mess, but it needs a bigger mule. Well, when?
ADVERTISEMENT:you talk, Cardinal listens and you asked for it. With its diesel-powered 69-horse engine and capacity to move 40,000-pound sheds, the Mule 9069 is ready to turn your big days into just another day in the good life.
ADVERTISEMENT:Ah, that's right, You're talking about the one they had up at Michigan at the Shed Show. That monster mule, that man, that thing was awesome.
ADVERTISEMENT:That's right. It's the one you've seen at all, the Shed Holler barbecues.
ADVERTISEMENT:Man, yeah, there's nothing like a little diesel donkey to make my day go so much better.
Sam Byler:So, my point is, instead of Sam Byler having this one big egg that everybody knows that what he does he's got 10 of them and none of them are major. They're all just doing their part and if one of those eggs, if I accidentally throw it and it breaks, I haven't lost everything. I just got to replace that one egg. Keep focusing, but now instead of it being 90 percent of my income, it's 10 percent of my income. I don't really know what that, how that looks for people in the shed industry that are struggling right now.
Sam Byler:I know for a hauler that's out there hauling sheds if it's kind of slow and he's like I got to pick up more work up your ads on Facebook that you do private moves, start moving other stuff, start moving, lumber, move this, move that. Look outside the box a little bit. Get off the 650 number and get back to the 400 number, because I promise you, I can make money moving sheds at 400 bucks. It's the constant argument on the shed page. Oh, there goes the 250 guy, and I chuckle to myself and I'm like I do six 250s in a day. I've made good money Sorry buddy, and I still work less hours than the banker did. Some of that. Start a lot. Start selling sheds on the site. Find somebody to run a lot for you.
Sam Byler:There's all kinds Add yard furniture, add trailers, add something else and I see people doing that. I just I feel like we have to stay more open to what we're doing, and I get tunnel vision very quick, and I can't do that as much. I got to keep looking at the broader picture. Everything I do, whether it looks like it's just a redneck idea or whatever, it's all about making money at the end of the day. We put a charger on a $2,500 diesel frame and it blew up on some of the pages where we posted it. Where that kind of stuff goes, everybody else is like man, what is he doing? You know that's well. I mean, you know when you get a thousand shares on something, that's pretty impressive and it's like you know what. There is.
Sam Byler:There's a market out there for stuff that's unusual that you know we're going, we're actually going to do. You know I'll end up pulling the shed with it, just to make the point. And it's all marketing. You know what are you doing for marketing? How are you getting the word out there? What you do, you know on I see people's shed move pages, I mean advertisements come up all the time. There's like one picture we move sheds, and I'm like you: Facebook gives you the option to put a what is it A 45 second video on? Put a video on. It shows you moving a shed. Put a video on of the mule moving something. Put a video on of whatever else we have to. We have to learn to use what we're doing more to our advantage. Sorry, that was a way more spiel than you wanted. I still didn't tell you what I really do.
Shed Geek:I think it's good when you kind of get into those zones. To me, those are like my favorite podcast guests are always the ones who say I don't have nothing to say, and then they get on a riff and then all of a sudden it's like, yeah, like people are engaged and listening and they love it, and I think that's what it. What it comes down to is like, yeah, what does Sam do? Well, I don't know. You know, I got you know word the other day that somebody asked you know how does, how does he make his money? You know, I thought that was interesting. It's like you know, like what an interesting question. For what purpose is that? Is that necessary?
Sam Byler:You know we'll throw a couple out there just to make people. So, I do have a trucking company. Yet I never closed down my trucking company. We still move sheds. Aaron and I went moved to Gazebo on Monday morning, made real good money in about an hour and a half. And because I have the trucking company, we still have the truck repair shop. We're still rebuilding semis. We're still building pickup trucks. We're still doing all kinds of fab work.
Sam Byler:I don't push it really because it's Aaron and me and if we have to, we can pick up a flunky to help us here and there and I've got work. So, I, Aaron and me, and you know if we have to, we can pick up a flunky to help us here and there and I've got work. So, I'm not really asking or pushing for work. But yesterday morning had a guy call me he wants a semi done this year. Yet this morning had a guy reach out to me on Messenger. He's got a truck he wants to redo, probably the first of the year. So, we still do. You know we're still doing all that fab work stuff, still working on shed, hauling equipment, stuff.
Sam Byler:I just don't really push it. Multiple reasons. I'm just not really gung ho about having six shops, six shop doors, open down here. You know, with a ton of stuff going on, I got a sawmill that we picked up, that we're starting to work on and try to get that thing to where it makes some money. I do rent-to-own through Shed Geek. Most people don't know that, and I'm actually signed up with a couple other rent-to-own companies. If you don't like Shed Geek for some reason I'm not saying everybody has, We've talked about this. If you need help, we'll find you the right help. If it's us, great. If it's not us, we'll put you with the right people that can help you. I have a shed hauler app that's not making me any money, has took a ton of money that we're still working on and at some point in the near future, now that Shed Geek has decent advertising prices, we might actually do some advertising on that people that are asking about it.
Sam Byler:You know, what are you doing with the shed hauler app? And I'm like, listen, I just I've got to get focused back on. I've got to get it back out there where people know that, oh they're. Then right now there'll be a hundred people be like, oh yeah, that's right, he doesn't have a shed hauler app. What's he doing with it? Well, that's a good question. You know what are we doing with it, so I could take this whole episode and turn it into the shed hauler app. Yeah, you know, episode that we've actually never really done because I hate self-promotion, so it's been a struggle to do that.
Sam Byler:Um, I sold a shed company. Most people don't know that, but I sold my shed company, you know, way back in 2017. That that's still one of the ways I make money. I'm still involved with Shed Gal selling sheds, you know, helping her do stuff and keeping that going, and that's kind of the shed industry side of it, I guess. You know, the Shed Hall of Brotherhood is still paying me to run that thing, which drives me crazy. The only reason we set that up to where I get paid to do it was because at some point, I'm not going to do it anymore and whoever takes it over, there needs to be a precedent set that somebody gets paid to at least take care of some of the stuff that needs to be done with it, gets paid to at least take care of some of the stuff that needs to be done with it.
Sam Byler:In the meantime, the brotherhood thanks to Uncle Sam and the federal government keeps changing every year, so we don't really know where we are right now. Right now, we're in a discussion about how we're going to get set up. They don't like to make us a 501c3 because we have sharing plans, monthly plans, we have finance options and all this. And they look at it and they're like and I'm like, it's a nonprofit, nobody's making any money here. It's not that easy anymore. So, I don't know for sure where that's going. Yet we don't have a whole lot of people that yell about us not being able to give them write-off receipts. You know, because as a business industry, you're better off using this as a business write-off than you are as a donation write-off. That's a whole other subject. I don't know how I got on that. But we do have the brotherhood that we still run. That's a whole other subject. I don't know how I got on that, but we do have the Brotherhood that we still run.
Sam Byler:I do flip a lot of equipment that people don't see. That I don't talk about a lot. I have a total. So, I have these two other separate lives from the shed industry that most people don't know about, so to speak. One of them is automotive. I have a huge automotive following, and then I also have a big second amendment following, and I still buy and sell a lot in that industry too, and it's still a good industry to be involved in.
Sam Byler:I just don't, you know, you can't talk about it on social media. Yeah, so, but there's, like I said, I'm, I'm actually hopefully I dude, I'm sitting, I'm sitting on a bombshell and I have been for three months that I can't talk about because we haven't closed on it yet, but I'm working on my big golden egg. That's going to be my personal 25-year egg to hopefully get me finished out 25 years from now. Yeah, I'll be up there. I'm already feeling old, but this one actually is one of my hot buttons of where I get to do something I've wanted to do my whole life. I made a post about it three or four months ago, a lot of interaction with it and stuff. But until I actually close on it I can't talk about it. But I have a big one coming.
Shed Geek:That's going to be cool, really cool. I mean, you're kind of describing the definition of the, the culture word. Um, well, culture in itself was that was that buzzword for a little while. But there's a word called uh, a grinder, you know, like you just grind, you just figure out how to go out there and grind. Some people are like, oh, I don't like that word, I don't like the grind, it's just a buzzword. But the truth is man like uh, you know, men were made to work you know, that's the work I mean that's, that's when I'm the
Shed Geek:happiest. You know like it's. It's one of those things where you can either choose to uh, I don't know you can. You can choose to hate it, or you can choose to embrace it and uh, there is a lot of truth to the sayings. You know, find something you enjoy doing and you won't work. Uh, I mean it's still work. Like I enjoy mowing my yard, sam. Like a lot of people don't know how much time I spend outside. Like I I enjoy. You know it looks like what I do is very simple, you know, because you get on here and you talk or use technology for your benefit. But the reality is I've been.
Shed Geek:You know, come from the blue collar world. My parents were blue collar folks, for sure. You know we started out when my parents got married in a single white trailer, had no air conditioning. That's kind of the same way me and my wife started out. You know we hadn't gained too much in 20 years.
Shed Geek:You know, um, and who was it that posted something? Darren Warren posted something the other day was talking about how he could see the cracks through the holes in the floor when he was growing up and to see where he's come to from then to now and I think about my own journey. You know it's, it's, it's still the Lord's right. It's his time, it's his money, it's his business. You know what good are we of it If we're not good stewards? You know he gives, he takes away and I think at the end of the day you just have to give that really to. You have to give it all to God. You gotta give me a family. You gotta give him your work, you gotta give him your life, you gotta give him your. You know, if he, if he's not in the conversation, then I don't really make sense of life at this point.
Shed Geek:Yeah, oh, I guess, is what I'm saying. I'm too far gone. I don't know how to go back. It's like our pastor said one time. He said you know, once you have an experience with the Lord, sin doesn't even feel as good as it used to. You know, you try to go back to that lifestyle. It doesn't even interest you.
Sam Byler:I had a conversation with a really good friend of mine. In fact it's the guy that bought me out of the out of my shed business. He's been on a journey the last couple of years. That's been cool to see too. And the fact that we can so quick in our Christian life. I mean, let's just admit it, we're Christians.
Sam Byler:We would be nothing without the Lord in our lives. I can't even fathom and we talked about this yesterday with my brother-in-law's a little bit I can't even fathom how I would operate without having the Lord. I've got nothing, I'm not a steward of anything. All of a sudden, I'm responsible for all this stuff. He makes me responsible, but ultimately, he's responsible. As long as I do what he tells me to do, I don't have to worry about it and to think that there's I can't. I can't even imagine doing what I do today without having the Lord in my life, without having somebody I can rant and yell at and be like what do you want me to do here? What's going on? And then, okay, so now flip that around and say what if I don't do anything, but focus on the problems in my life, the sin nature in my life and then the more you focus, you become what you focus on. So, dragging my buddy back into it a couple of years ago, you know he's like why can't we just get over some of this stuff that we keep stumbling over? And I'm like, because that's what you're focused on, that's what you're looking at. If you get busy and you start focusing on the Lord and looking at the Lord, all of a sudden that stuff, not only does it not become a stumbling block anymore, but it's exactly what you said it's all of a sudden, it's not existing, it's not even there anymore. What are you focused on? It's not even there anymore. What are you focused on?
ADVERTISEMENT:Unlock the power of productivity with Cardinal Leasing.
ADVERTISEMENT:Are you looking to elevate your business operations with top-tier equipment? Look no further than Cardinal Leasing. We offer a wide range of reliable and high-quality equipment tailored to meet your unique needs. Flexible leasing options Whether you need short-term rentals or long-term solutions. Our customizable leasing plans are designed to provide maximum flexibility and affordability. Conventional financing available Cardinal Leasing also offers great conventional finance options for those of you that prefer that over-lease purchase options. Expert support Our team of experienced professionals is here to guide you every step of the way ensuring a seamless leasing experience. Boost efficiency leasing experience. Boost efficiency. With our top-of-the-line equipment, you can enhance productivity, reduce downtime and achieve your business goals faster. Why choose Cardinal Leasing? Competitive rates, exceptional customer service, hassle-free process, quick and easy approvals. Don't let outdated equipment hold you back. Partner with Cardinal Leasing today and take your business to the next level. Contact us now. Visit our website at equipment. cardinalleasing. us or call us at 618-803-4086 to get started.
Shed Geek:Yeah, I don't know what you're saying is ringing very true to me in so many different areas. I tell you about. You know, like this other podcast adventure that I was considering going down, I don't know if I told the audience. I don't know what I've told them at this point. What I haven't, I don't know. We bought a church. That's where I'm sitting right now. We bought a church. It's crazy, right, a hundred-year-old church. It's cool. I love it.
Shed Geek:Started in 1925. We were looking for a building. My son was also looking for a home and there was an apartment building that had a retail store below it that we were looking at buying. And then, all of a sudden, the realtor says there's a church over here and I'm like, a church turns out as a Church of God, which I actually went to, a Church of God.
Shed Geek:But there's two different Church of Gods. There's one out of Anderson, Indiana, which kind of operates more under kind of like the um, um, I don't know, like Lutheran, maybe you know, kind of uh, methodist. And then there's church got out of Cleveland, Tennessee, which is a charismatic, you know, Pentecostal movement, um and uh, this was under the Anderson, Indiana, and it had been the church for 100 years and, honestly, the church fell in turmoil, you know, and through COVID it ultimately shut it down and you know, and it's sad to see because no one ever tells the story of what happens to a church whenever it loses its ability to be a church after 100 years. That's kind of a, you know, a sad story. Selling all the pews selling all the stuff, you know, like all these they had historical data that went back 60, 80 years of ledgers and different things that just sat here. I mean, their checkbooks were still here. The accounts weren't open, obviously, but they were still left here, you know, and it was kind of amazing to see the pastor's, you know collection of books and stuff.
Shed Geek:I'm actually this desk is the pastor's desk. We saved it and I used it as mine. The bookshelf behind me was his bookshelf. We tried to keep some of the original stuff, but I woke up after six months one day and said why don't I buy a church? I don't what happened there. I don't, I don't know like what happened. Well, my son works for us, lives in the basement of the church. He can keep an eye on the building, plus, he works for the business. So that's kind of cool, he's 20, makes good, good work for him. We've fixed up one wing of it so far for our offices and I'm like, well, this is working really good.
Shed Geek:But then I was getting, you know I was, I was getting the idea one night of like, how can I be more involved in using podcasting to spread the gospel? Or you know, I've never been called a pastor, Sam. I've never been called a pastor, but I think we're all called to evangelize, and I've been. You know I've also struggled with the church home. To be perfectly honest with you, I've struggled with it. I did go to one particular church for about 10 years, and we still visit them, but you know, we're not actively in that church. And because I struggled with that, it was so weird because I was like man, could we do like a podcast, like a podcast, church, church podcast, something like that. I was like I don't know, I don't mean church as in traditional church, but I mean maybe you know like we still encourage people to go corporately worship, you know, with people. But a lot of churches actually create a podcast, you know, uh, to get the word out to community, and I thought maybe we could do that for people who've just been through similar experiences and started getting this thought in my head about podcast church.
Shed Geek:Church pod bought a church of God building used to go to a church of God. It hit me one night at three o'clock in the morning church of. I went and looked up and looked up the url and it was already bought and there was a guy who was already doing something similar at a stained- glass mirror inside of a podcast mic. Reached out to him for about three weeks. First time I reached out to him he didn't answer God. I told God, there we go. I did my job moving on and uh, he said no, didn't give me any peace till I reached out. I contact the guy, and he said well, you're relentless, aren't you? And I said yeah, and he said you know, this is interesting what you do and your podcast and all that. And he said you know, church of Pod has kind of just been dormant for three or four years.
Shed Geek:I actually did an interview with him on that podcast, and he said, if nothing else, you've inspired me to get back at it and go back to the vision that God gave me with this. So, he's talking to me about co-hosting with him and, I don't know, we're probably going to have him on the podcast on here, because I found out he does marketing in the post frame world. What a small world does marketing in the post frame world? And I was just like, so he seems like a really awesome guy. We had conversation; he did an interview with me and I'm excited.
Shed Geek:I'm hoping that it takes off. I don't know if we're going to be involved with it. I'm thinking I'm thinking about getting back into sales, but I'm thinking about doing it differently. We've got all this space, this sanctuary, out here. We know all these people and we really know all this digital and online stuff and I'm asking myself why aren't we just using the talents? One of the one of the biggest things I hear a lot of times is like the leads aren't working. Sales blames the marketing for leads and marketing always says the sales goes back and forth.
Shed Geek:And you, you know this is constantly, constantly going to happen. It's not going to change. I'm thinking, man, we see guys that are having closing ratios of yeah, off the charts, and then some guys that are spending the same ad budget and not seeing anything, and I'm questioning, you know, should we just jump in and take over that? Online sales? I would imagine there's 10 companies out there that would want to work with us almost immediately to be able to do this, cause we've got the online expertise, Sam, but I'm praying about it Cause I won't make a living. It doesn't matter if I can make money. Money's not the only driver of my ambition, you know. So I'm asking myself what can be done with it, how, what can be expanded? Can we help more people with it? Can we be more charitable? Can we create a job? Can we? Can we do the job? Should we do the job? I don't know there's I won't do anything without God's permission. And that's when people know about me in public and private, if they know me very well. So I just thought I'd throw that out there while we're just talking, just to be talking. Uh, I don't know. I don't know if we're gonna go down that road or not. I don't know if the church of pod thing's gonna open up.
Shed Geek:I'm just really staying open to God's will and just kind of what you want to do, man, I'm, yeah, I think I'm over my days of waking up at two and three o'clock in the morning and shaking my fist in the air, God, asking what do you want? You know, what do you want from me? Leave me alone, what do you want? I'm just at a point now to where I'm like hey, man, whatever you want, I know you'll make the way. So go ahead and go ahead and make it. Lord, I'll just do my best to follow and hopefully I can represent you and your kingdom well along the way. Hopefully I don't mess it up, because sometimes it's in the way. You know, I try to stay out of the way, but sometimes I get in the way.
Sam Byler:Yeah, you know, that's a prime example for me also for, like, coming off of nine months of donating tiny houses. You know to people and everybody's like, why don't you do this full time? You know you're good at this, why don't you do this all the time? And it's like, yeah, why don't I do this all the time? And you know you're like, all right, Lord, if you want this to happen, we got to have this, this, this and this happen. If you don't want it to happen, I'm good with that too. And it's like you know what? Why wasn't I getting any calls to rebuild trucks while I was in the middle of doing that? And now, all of a sudden, I haven't told anybody that I'm getting back into rebuilding trucks or doing that or that we weren't doing it. During that time Most people didn't know I had three projects sitting in the shop that were waiting to get done. They weren't on a timeframe, but I had three projects that were sitting in the shop to finish up. That the day we lost power from the storm. You know we're back working on those projects now.
Sam Byler:I never told anybody I quit, and I never really told anybody I started again. I did say that Aaron's back to working in the shop and we're getting back into the groove a little bit, so to speak. But it was never officially one way or the other. But it is amazing to me how God just moves If you're willing and you're not just beating on doors or not walking at all. You have to move a little bit. It is amazing how God just puts stuff in my hand, and we just keep proceeding with it where it goes. You know what, if you're supposed to do sales, it'll all fall together and six months from now they'll be like what's Shannon doing in sales?
Sam Byler:What's he doing in rent and loan? What's he doing in marketing? It doesn't take a genius me I'm not a genius to see that where you're at today is just where God has led you to be Dylan Street. He called me out of the blue the other day. I haven't talked to him in six months. He decides just to call me up and tell me a little bit about where he's at in life, some of his personal stuff going on, and it was just great to talk to him outside of industry stuff and to understand that God's just moving us along and we're just okay with it.
Shed Geek:You know, young guy I say young because he's younger than me I guess he's about 10 years younger than me, you know full of drive and passion, and for him, you know, so much changed with what he calls like his Damascus Road change in his life, going from prison and drugs and all these terrible things to really pushing people into recovery centers and being an advocate for the community. And, uh, you know, and, and one thing I find is that, like it's, it's hard to you know, to get people to offer grace for a lot of that. You know, uh, apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Know what I mean. Like what, what I think I think I'm quoting this right it's, uh, I think it's mark 6, 22 that says no man is without honor except in, uh, his hometown, among his family and his friends. And this goes back to, you know, book of James and Jesus's own brother, not believing him to be.
Shed Geek:Yeah, yeah, you know. And like that's the problem with being in front of your home crowd a lot of times is like some people will never forgive you for the things that you've done. Right, you know. And like, uh, you know, but he has, you know, attempted to give back more than he ever took right from the community, because he had this Damascus road thing and I just love to see his uh, his uh, talent, um, his ambitiousness. You know, and uh and uh, it, it, it feeds others, it feeds others him. So, I'm glad you had that conversation because, yeah, he's had a rough year, but he is.
Sam Byler:I mean, it's the same way with your RTO guys Titus and Justin and Josh. Those guys same thing. God just puts the right people in place.
Shed Geek:You know, I couldn't have asked for better partners.
Shed Geek:Uh, through that, through that opportunity you know, to, to, to get to know them and meet them, and the way things worked out. And, um, you know, here I thought, here I thought I was at, you know, ground zero and had no opportunity. And I'll tell you what man I've been pleasantly surprised at conversations I've been able to have that I wish I could say. I wish I could just be an open. I am an open book, but I wish I could be an open book for the case of others. There's some people that ask me questions or want to work with me and they don't want that known and I and look, I, even saying that today is kind of vulnerable because they might be like I don't want people to start asking him who that is, but it's been. I've sat in some offices that have surprised even me and I'm appreciative for those folks who believe that they see something there that's worthy of having me to sit with them and talk. And, um, some that probably would never come on the podcast, some that would rather have conversation quietly.
ADVERTISEMENT:Introducing the challenger, the revolutionary new shed mover that's taking the industry by storm. The challenger features a touchless design ensuring it only makes contact at the end of the skids and the bottom of the floor joists. So, rest easy knowing your gable walls will remain pristine. Worried about reliability? Fear not, the Challenger is always up for the challenge and will not overturn or scuff your shed. Harness the power of innovative wireless technology. Remotely control the Challenger via your smartphone. No cell service needed. And guess what? The cell phone remote comes standard with every Challenger, at no extra cost. Featuring floating forks, a four-directional tilting mast and sliding weight transfer, move the shed weight precisely where you need it to get ultimate traction, With self-loading capability, straight onto your truck. Say goodbye to the need for a hydraulic carriage. The Challenger makes your job easy and more efficient. Choose from two machine sizes 10,000 pounds and 15,000 pounds. Perfect for any job. Visit www. shedchallenger. com or email us at info@ shedchallenger. com, or call or text 828-220-3508 for more information.
Shed Geek:Experience the future of shed moving with the Challenger when we went to Pennsylvania, this would have been me and Kyle to interview with Dave at SmartPay. He had flown us up there. This is years ago this is even before you came on to SmartPay and we were talking about our journey back then and how long it had felt and how crazy it had been, and we were talking about writing a book back then long it had felt and how crazy it had been and we were talking about writing a book Back then.
Sam Byler:That's what I'm laughing about.
Shed Geek:You could have told me what the next five years was going to be. You know that was back then. I remember we were creating topics and the one topic that came up was the backbiting and the bad side of the industry. And I was like, oh, I remember saying I don't think we should talk about those things. I don't think that that would do any good. You got to worry about getting sued. You got to make sure you don't drop names. You gotta operate in so much mystery.
Shed Geek:I was like I don't know if that's, if that's, a good cause, but it does linger the inability for people to communicate effectively and get along well or have fallout or turmoil, and I think it really says something about who you are in the moment. Like when turmoil happens, what does your heart prepare you for? You know there was a time where I would lose to somebody, and I would go. We're going to go after them, and I've heard other people talk like that in the industry too, or have those same experiences, and I'm happy to say that now I'm, uh, at a place in my mind where I just tell people why go after them.
Shed Geek:You know God doesn't bless that. What, like that's just our human nature to want to like, prove something to somebody and I'm like I don't care. I don't care now, Sam, because I'm like hey man, I wish them well, but we have, me and you both, experienced a lot of the if you want to call it backbiting going to call it backbiting, oh gosh, downright rude, mean, mischievous things. You just you can't go through life and not experience those. But my heart still comes back to how can we avoid those things and make for a better industry?
Shed Geek:uh, because I don't think that people are, are mean or rude most of the time I there's a saying that says people don't do things to you, they do things for themselves, and, and I think even being offended is a choice. Yeah, you know. And I think it's like, how can we, uh, how can we just be better as an industry? And like, every time I say that I get hit right out of left field with some thing I didn't see coming, that you're like, well, that makes me angry. But how do I respond to that? As opposed to being, you know, letting that situation control your thoughts, I just I don't even care anymore. I'm just at a place to where I'm like, I don't know the. The only thing I can control is me, how I react, and I just want to try to be kind to even those who, uh, well, I just told you about this before.
Shed Geek:Well, you know, you know I was too dumb or too stupid for the hellfire and brimstone preachers to quote unquote scare the hell out of me saying like you know, I never really felt like I. I know that the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord and, and I understand that, but it really wasn't the hellfire and brimstone, or you better get right, or else that affected me or that broke through. It was love. It was love. It was agape love. It was forgiveness when I didn't deserve it.
Shed Geek:Those things broke my heart. When Jesus forgave me for my sin nature, my Judas nature, when God forgave me for that and said you're welcome, you have a place, you have a home. That breaks a man Because you know you don't deserve it. You know you don't deserve forgiveness and yet still you got it. So, who would I be to hold forgiveness from anyone ever at this point in my life? The problem is I got to try to mix that with not being stupid. Be forgiving, but how many times do you go back to the well before you say wait a minute, I'm going to love you, but, but I'm gonna love you from a distance and I'm sorry about that. You know.
Shed Geek:That's just the intelligence I feel like god's given me to say be forgiving, don't be forgetful yeah so this kind of goes back to something I know he's gonna have any conversation on, which is before the topic of the call Me, and you spent 25 minutes talking about the Lord and these very things, and, yeah, that's just. Uh. Where do we, how do we get there in the shed industry? I don't, I don't really know.
Shed Geek:I hate seeing turmoil. I hate seeing people not get along and what I do is I try to fix it and you're not. I get this from my mother. She's amazing, but my mom will take on the burdens of two people not getting along and I will tell her mom, it's not your burden. These are grown men and women trying to fix it. They are capable of fixing it themselves. You are not responsible for this, and you can't fix it anyway. I don't know how we got on that journey, but at their selves, you are not responsible for this and you can't fix it. You can't fix it Anyway. I don't know how we got on that journey, but I hope somebody's blessed by it, because maybe they are.
Sam Byler:Relationships, business relationships. When I think about the most important relationship I have here on Earth after my relationship with my Lord is with my wife, and how easy it is for that to get manipulated, you know through just not understanding um or one of us, you know just going on a tangent I mean we're talking about the most important relationship I have and the easiest one I have and how easy it is for it to get derailed sometimes. Why do we not understand that this can happen just as easily in our other relationships? You know, don't credit. So, I open my mouth and say some stupid stuff sometimes and she takes that to be vindictive or that I'm trying to do something. You know that I'm trying to manipulate her or something, and it's just pure stupidity. You know, don't blame. If you see what I'm there.
Sam Byler:There's a phrase that come up on one of my posts just recently I don't want to quote it that Herb Epley said it because, no, it was John Schmidt said it Something about don't blame all this other stuff, vindictiveness, whatever it is, manipulation on just pure stupidity. I just said something dumb, that's all it is, and you're like, oh man, this guy's out to get me or this guy see something, that's all it is and you're like, oh man, this guy's out to get me or this guy see something, sorry. And how hard it is to keep that relationship going. How much harder and easier it is at the same time to ruin other relationships with people that we don't have near as much interaction with, or whatever.
Shed Geek:You follow what I'm saying so much so, Sam, that I fear having this conversation on this podcast today and somebody sees something in me six months or a year from now that doesn't line up with this. I understand what you're saying so much that I regret the future Shannon that says or does something that makes somebody think he talks all this talk but then he doesn't walk all this walk.
Shed Geek:It's like, yeah, I'm not perfect yeah and I, and I may react out of anger or frustration to a situation or something that you see and then all of a sudden, it's like well, there goes that that you know that's where they're. The world definitely talks a lot about this. Oh, there's that old Christian mentality.
Sam Byler:Yeah.
Shed Geek:You know, and you're just like, well, yeah, because I've got to walk around in this perfect, you know, like light all the time. It's just, it's really not me. Like, please take me off that pedestal. Yeah, let me mess up because I'm going to.
Sam Byler:You know what? It took me 35 years to figure out, and I don't know if you read my post about it the other day, but I made a post about it the other day. Well, the post is yeah, the post is about that, but there's some other stuff in there too. What took me 35 years to figure out is the number one tool that my wife has to make our marriage strong is that she lets me fail.
Shed Geek:I did read that. I absolutely did, yeah.
Sam Byler:Bomb, yeah, yeah, if I don't. So, it's easy for me to let her fail because, number one, she lets me lead. So, when we fail, it's my fault and it's catastrophically. You know she fails, it's a little bump in the road. Nah, I'm fine with that, you know whatever? Um, but if, if I'm telling you, man, I'm starting to see the tip of an iceberg of probably the biggest issue we have with relationships is the fact that you know, and I've preached for years, that we judge others based off of their actions and we judge ourselves based off of our intention. Yeah, you follow what I'm saying. There's a huge difference in what I intend to do and what actually ends up happening. But at the same time, I hold you to what you did, not on what you intended. You follow what I'm saying. So, I've preached that part of it for years.
Sam Byler:What I haven't really wrapped my head around until here just recently is how much she just lets me fail. She's like, ok, you want to do this, we'll do this, and there was times I didn't even ask her. There's stuff that I'm doing. Today that's one of my eggs that doesn't have her blessings on it, and someday it's a struggle, but the more I learn to trust her and say, look, here's what I want to do. I think we can do this, this, this, this. And then she's, like you know, four years later it's a complete bust. And she could say I told you so. She never has. But it's the fact that she's willing to let me fail at what I do, and I don't think we're going to wrap our heads around how that applies. Apply that to what you're doing now with your business partners Ouch.
Shed Geek:Me and you are alike in that. You know we have that Probably my wife's been right more than she's been wrong about things that I've, if she shared with me, you should do this, don't do that, or something in somebody that I don't see, and I'm like I don't, I don't see it, I don't know what you're talking about, babe, and I'm trying to be in charge here and lead this family, and you know what I mean like I don't, I don't get it, and then it turns out to be right, but it's so hard for me to like blindly trust that you know what I'm saying. Like, uh, but I've been blessed in that, like I, I've been around other guys who are like you know, they, they, they hide even the most little tedious things from their wife, just the little things that doesn't really even matter. You know, and I'm like, why do you? Why do you hide that? It's like, well, I don't want to have the conversation and I'm like, oh man, I'm so thankful not to have to have that. I feel like I can talk with her about anything. She's my best friend. You know, there's very little in my life I feel like I've not been able to take to my to my wife and really have that conversation about.
Shed Geek:But on a daily basis people say I don't see how you work with your spouse. I'm like man, I don't see how I'd work without her. Yeah, no, kidding, for me that doesn't make sense. Like I, yeah, I love working with her. Like she, she compliments me very well. She, she just takes on, uh, things without me having to ask her. 25 years in now, you know married and couldn't have picked a better partner, to be honest. So, you got to get them. Yeah, man, I'm not, I'm not upset about you. Know, my struggle has never really been family, it's always been work. Work has been the harder, harder thing for me to overcome. But I'll tell you what man we've really been blessed with shed geek you, as part of that structure, I'm super happy to keep you on.
Shed Geek:Do this once a month, whether it's a mixture of monologues or dialogues between me and you or even an interview between you and someone else, just kind of keeping that out there in the air. And I've told you, even if we decide to just put it to bed, you're welcome back here anytime. I mean, anybody who's been on the Shed Geek is welcome back anytime. I hope that we have conversations. That encourages you, inspires you.
Shed Geek:Some days you're going to hear about products. Some days you're going to hear about services. Some days you're going to hear about marketing, rent, finance, who knows? You know solar blaster fans, you name it. But then some days you're gonna you know, you're just gonna hear about coaching or it's gonna be very matter of fact about our lives and trying to be I don't know man. It's worked well for five years and we've just I don't see any reason to change it. I will. I will repeat this message a hundred times over If you don't like that we pray. If you don't like we talk about Jesus, then don't advertise with me, we don't care. Yeah, no kidding. Sorry if that seems very blunt, but your business is not more important than Jesus.
Sam Byler:Yep.
Shed Geek:Sorry about your luck so um, if you do have a business and you believe in Jesus, maybe you should advertise. Well, you know, hey, I get it, I get, I get the pr people do what they do.
Sam Byler:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Shed Geek:Uh, you know like a religious fanatic. It it's like well, I don't know, I like the saying. You know, if you had to be convicted of being a Christian today, would there be any evidence to convict you of such a thing? That's true, and I would just like to say I sure hope so. I sure hope I've been given this platform To be able to spread the joy of Christ and the word of the Gospel, because if I don't give him His first, you know what he's owed. I don't feel like that. It's blessed moving forward. So now, with that said Again, please allow the grace to for us to be imperfect, because Lord knows we are. Woo, uh, harry, what is this? Is it a?
Sam Byler:Oh gosh, I can't think of his name.
Shed Geek:Oh, it's terrible. I got the book back here and I've said it a hundred times Philip Yancey prayers Do they make any difference? Yeah, anyway, the pastor, fame pastor. I can't think of his name right now, but he used to always pray the message Sam.
Shed Geek:He said before he'd get up and speak in front of people. He'd say, lord, forgive me, or thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of these people, because if these people knew about me, the things that you knew about me, they wouldn't listen to a word I'm about to say and that's the way I feel before every podcast that I do is if, if people knew about me with Lord, do about me, they really wouldn't care to listen to anything I have to say. But because of his grace, his mercies that are made new every day, it gives us a chance to get on here, talk about him, talk about his mission as the great commission, but also talk about things that we find inspiring and lovable to us, which is the shed industry, the carport industry, the industries we've built in, and I hope that people find that worthy enough to listen to. And if you don't, thank you for your time. And if you do, thank you for your time and, if you do, thank you for your time.
Sam Byler:Yep.
Shed Geek:I agree. Well, I guess that pretty well wraps up our thoughts for the day. I don't know. We had no agenda going into this. We wanted to tell people that we were going to one, one a month, and I always enjoy our conversations. People don't realize me. And you talk for 30 minutes before we even talk.
Sam Byler:This is true, and my hood is supposed to be here in two minutes.
Shed Geek:Well then, let's get out of here. I'm going to say a quick word Get us out of here, yeah, get us out of your day, lord. Thank you for this day, the opportunity. Lord, bless this business. Bless Sam and all his endeavors as he continues. Thank you for his friendship. Thank you for the friendships around the industry. Pray that you keep us on the straight and narrow, keep us doing what's right in the next right thing and all opportunities. Thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who came and died for our sins.
Sam Byler:In Jesus' name, amen, amen, go get your hood and let's talk soon. All right, See ya.
OUTRO:Yeah, thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geek's studio sponsor for 2025. If you need any more information
OUTRO:Shedgeek, just Shed Geek reach out. You can reach us by email at info at info@ ShedGeek. com just go to our website, wwwshedgeekcom, and www. shedgeek. com submit a form with your information and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the ShedGeek podcast. Shed Geek Thank you and have a blessed day.