May 9, 2025 • 57 mins
There's a profound wisdom that emerges when business expertise meets humanitarian purpose. In this revealing conversation, Irvin Plank brings both worlds together as he explores untapped opportunities in the shed industry while sharing transformative experiences from disaster relief efforts in North Carolina's mountain communities.
The discussion begins by challenging industry norms, questioning why shed dealers rarely offer pure rental options when the demand clearly exists. Irvin shares fascinating customer stories that highlight a market gap—people who completed entire rent-to-own contracts without ever removing buildings from sales lots because they simply needed accessible storage. This practical business insight opens doors to innovative service models that could create new revenue streams for forward-thinking dealers.
Yet the conversation takes a powerful turn when Irvin describes his work in mountain communities devastated by Hurricane Helene. What began as cleanup efforts evolved into something deeply spiritual. "If you want to find Jesus, go up in those mountains and help somebody," Irvin's young colleague often says. The disaster literally and figuratively cleared barriers between neighbors who had lived near each other for years without connection, revealing how crisis can rebuild community in unexpected ways.
Perhaps most compelling is Irvin's perspective on helping others regardless of differences. "Did we ever think about asking these people who they voted for?" he reflects, highlighting how political divisions become meaningless when facing human need. This refreshing viewpoint offers a powerful reminder about priorities in an increasingly divided world.
Whether you're seeking business insights or deeper purpose, this conversation delivers both. It's a masterclass in seeing business opportunities while never losing sight of the humans we ultimately serve. Listen now and discover how combining professional expertise with genuine compassion creates impact that extends far beyond the bottom line.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sam (00:08):
Welcome back to part two of a two-part episode.
Be sure to go back and listento part one.
You might've missed something.
Hope you enjoy the conversationtoday.
Um you, you said something that, um, I've been hammered on this
a little bit in the last coupleof years and I kind of forgot
about it the last six months orso.
(00:30):
You said something about youjust rent them.
You don't rent to own them, youjust rent them out because they
want a six-month rental.
Irvin (00:39):
Yeah.
Sam (00:39):
Right.
Why is nobody doing that onsheds?
Irvin (00:46):
We've had some people ask about that.
I don't know why people aren'tdoing.
You can do it.
I mean, it's just like anythingelse.
You figure out the economics ofit.
Shed a shed is going to loseits value.
You take a brand new shed andstart renting that thing out.
You know how they are a yearlater that thing's going to be
depreciated, but still you justadjust your price board.
(01:09):
I mean, uh, you know everybodythinks the rent to.
I don't know what everybodythinks, but the, I think kind of
the common, the common thoughtabout rent to own thing.
Man, that's just the coolestthing as far as economics.
Man, this thing here, this hereis the mother of.
Well, ain't no differentanything else.
You got it.
It is not a uh you just walkaway from and don't take care.
(01:33):
You gotta work on that thingyes sure it's a.
It's a.
It's a good business, same asanything else.
If you work at it and you haveyou have people, you have a
demand for it and a way to fillthat demand.
Any business like that is goodbusiness.
That's just kind of the nutsand bolts of all businesses, are
(01:54):
them things right there?
But you know what's even betterrent-to-own.
See, when a rent-to-own deal isdone, they're paying a certain
amount.
You know you got a rent fee onthat thing.
Yeah, when that rent-to-ownthing is done, they're paying a
certain amount.
You know you got a rent fee onthat thing, yeah, oh, when that
rent to own thing is done, yougot to go find another contract.
Yeah, when somebody's rentingfrom you, you don't have to go
(02:17):
get contracts.
You don't have to go do nothing,that's yours.
It's a little different thing,it's the same.
It takes a lot of capital.
It takes a lot of capital for itto work.
Now, when it's empty, you ain'tmaking no money on it.
One thing that's good aboutrental contracts is generally
(02:41):
you don't start one unless youhave a customer.
What I'm saying is you don'town a building unless you have a
customer.
What I'm saying is you don'town a building unless you have a
customer.
That's how a lot of people doit.
Now there are some people thatown a factory and all that sort
of stuff, but the idea that youcan, and there's rent to own
(03:01):
people that don't, that are late, they don't pay their bills.
They don't pay for a long time.
It's the same as your containersitting there empty and not
getting paid on it.
That happens too.
Yeah, the nice thing that Iliked about it.
I don't know that you can do it.
You can't do it near on thescale as you can rent-to-own,
that's for sure, but it's apretty nice little profit center
(03:24):
.
Can rent to own, that's forsure, but it's a pretty nice
little profit center.
The container thing, really Ilike because they appreciate
Sheds go down, sheds go down toa certain place, and then
they're just going to stay there.
Yeah, yeah, but I don't knowwhy people another thing sheds
ain't going to handle as muchmoving.
Sam (03:43):
Oh yeah, you can move a container a hundred times.
It's a steel box.
Irvin (03:49):
Yeah.
I'll tell you where you run intoa little bit of problems.
So, I'm sitting here at myplace here and I want to rent
containers, and then I havecontainers and sheds that I want
to rent to own.
So, when you go out theremarketing to people, you know
like one of the big things aboutsheds is hey quit.
(04:09):
You know, you don't have to paythis dead- end self-storage
rent if you buy a shed, we'llget you taken care of over here.
Well, if I'm the self-storageguy, I'm taking money out of my
self-storage pocket to do that.
Sam (04:22):
You are.
Irvin (04:23):
But, I still want the customer to you know, I want to
serve them in the way that'sbest for them, including
financially.
Sam (04:32):
Yes.
Yep.
I agree.
Yep.
And.
I think for the majority of thepart.
If you sell with that attitude,your customers realize it.
You sell on trust and you buytheir trust because they're like
, hey look, if we couldself-story cheer with him and
(04:53):
he'd be fine with that.
We could rent to own it andhe'd be fine with it.
We can pay cash and he'll stilltreat us the same.
Irvin (04:59):
That's right, and I've had people rent to own and leave
their stuff on my property andI rent them.
I leave their stuff on myproperty and I rent them.
I charge them lot rent.
Yeah, yep.
And I have one here now who'sbeen.
I've been charging a lot rentafter they paid their container
off for two years probably now.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,it's one of those things If I
(05:22):
run out of space.
I would need to move it, butright now I don't really do that
regularly, but I have done that.
Sam (05:30):
Yeah, yeah, I had two buildings, one in Georgia and
one in South Carolina, that theyboth paid out the whole
rent-to-own contract and thebuilding never left a lot.
Irvin (05:45):
Did they ever deliver?
Did you ever?
Sam (05:48):
No, I never delivered it.
They used it where it was onthe lot.
Irvin (05:52):
Oh they used it there.
Sam (05:54):
And they paid their rent-to-own contract all the way
out.
Wow.
One of them was 24 months inGeorgia and the other one was 36
months, and they paid themcompletely out and never moved
the sheds like.
We never delivered them, wenever picked them back up.
They, they didn't have nowhereto put them.
The one of them lived in atownhouse and the other one
(06:14):
lived off a cliff somewhere upabove Easley and they, they
would.
You know, I'd work Saturdaysometimes to give the sales guy
a day off or whatever, and I'dbe sitting in there and here
he'd come rolling in his littlered pickup and he'd get
something out of his shed andhe'd go back home.
Later on, He'd come rollingback in again and he wanted to
know when he came in can heleave his shed here?
(06:36):
Because he tried to buy a shedfour or five different places
and they wouldn't let him leaveit there.
Oh yeah, why not?
Irvin (06:44):
Yeah, the marketplace is telling you to do something, man
.
There's a thing In fact, I wasjust telling you earlier that I
set up a shed for my neighbor tobuild a house.
Make a house out of Well it wasa 14 by 40, I think it was a 14
by 44, and it was a rent to ownthat never left our yard in
(07:06):
Fallon ever and the people neverused it.
And I don't know how long.
They paid on it for quite awhile and then and then she was
going to sell it to her cousin.
So, I, yeah, we'll do that.
They're in California.
Well, their County wouldn'ttheir County?
All of a sudden got goofy aboutsomething, about the drawings
(07:27):
they needed and we could not getthem.
There was no way we could getthem drawings and make their
county happy and they just said,well, we'll just keep it.
It never left our yard, yeah.
Sam (07:41):
Yeah, it happened.
It's crazy.
So where are you going the nextfive years?
Irvin (07:48):
Oh boy, in the next five years.
Sam (07:52):
Yeah, what do you see out there?
What are you looking for?
I mean, like, is the shedindustry going to hold up for
five years?
I mean you said you know youdon't want all your eggs in one
basket and everybody says thatthese days You're preaching to
the choir.
I've got 10 eggs right now inmy basket and I'm looking for
two more yet Because I have zerofaith in any of my 10 past.
(08:15):
You know further than I can seeright now Because, dude, I
don't know what's coming.
Some of these guys, they'rejust going wide open, straight
into their one big egg.
I guess more power to them,maybe they're more focused, but
what do you got?
What do you see?
Irvin (08:33):
Well, I mean, as far as the shed world man, I don't know
, I'm not in the middle of thewhole, near as much you know, in
the middle of the whole, nearas much, you know, in the middle
of the whole environmentindustry as you would be.
There's not, as you know, asmany people out here in this
industry and you hear peopletalking about consolidation,
(08:57):
acquisitions, those sorts ofthings, and I don't, frankly,
know that much about that.
How, how much of that's goingon.
I do think.
I mean, just when I go, look atwhere we're at today, where we
were at what what COVID did toeverybody.
Covid brought a whole bunch ofpeople in and.
I'm pretty sure COVID, ourcompany, ain't much different
(09:22):
than it was before COVID started.
Frankly, we thought when COVIDhit and we were going through
that storm, we thought we werepretty cool people because, I
mean, whatever we did wasworking like magic.
And whenever that disappeared,you know, everything was back
pretty much like it was beforethat, and so demand has stayed.
(09:47):
One thing I was going to saydemand has stayed steady, and I
don't know that I would expectthat to change.
I don't know if regulationswould get a whole lot different,
but I've been around this since2002.
I wasn't around it that muchwhen my dad started, but yeah
(10:07):
you know, I really got into itin 06 and there were times in
there when I wasn't around itmuch, but it's.
I mean I have six brothers andthey've all I think every one of
them has been in the shedbusiness a little bit somewhere
along the line as a builder or ahauler or all the above, and
whenever, whenever my family'stogether sheds are a thing that
(10:29):
get talked about, and for allthese years it's not really.
I mean, it has its ups anddowns, but it stays there.
Sam (10:37):
Yeah.
Irvin (10:38):
I don't really have any reason to think it wouldn't do
that.
I think for us out here, kindof, I think our weak spot is
just taking care of our people.
Getting how would you sayhaving uh, getting better at
taking care of people andattracting the right kind of
people yeah our road, even if wejust stay right where we're at
(11:01):
and dollars sold and just getbuild efficiencies in our
processes.
That for for up for ourparticular company.
I think that's a big, that's abig uh uh runway in front of us
that we can.
We can quite easily get betterat yeah, but I, I don't, I mean,
(11:22):
people just buy too much stuff.
Sam (11:28):
They need sheds and when they get like me.
They need barns.
Sheds don't work anymore, yougot to put up a big barn.
It's like, you know, some daysI'm like what?
No, I don't know, man, I feellike I've always said I'm an old
soul.
And I feel like I've alwayssaid I'm an old soul and, you
know, I'm growing up 30, 40years later than I probably
(11:50):
should like, where I feel like Ifit.
But some people think I musthave come through the Depression
because I can't get rid ofnothing.
You know, I got trucks that comein and we fix them up.
You know, we throw all the oldcrap off of them to put new
stuff on and I almost man, ittakes everything in me to load
(12:11):
it up in the dump trailer andhaul it to the scrapyard.
You know, and my poor wife'slike, can it not just all go
away?
Irvin (12:15):
yeah, that's how my wife would be it's, it's uh.
Sam (12:18):
Yeah, you know we're.
We're in a constant battleabout what's out there that's
good stuff and and what's junk.
Irvin (12:24):
Yeah.
Sam (12:25):
It's terrible.
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(14:18):
Boy it doesn't fit in the house.
So you got to put it in theshed.
You know, even if it's a closetthat has your winter clothes in
it, because your closet ain'tbig enough for all your clothes.
You know, whatever it is, youknow it's.
You know I mean, yeah, some ofour stuff's necessity, you got
to put your lawn, you should putyour lawnmower in a shed, in
the tiller or whatever you got.
And you know anymore, if it'soutside you better have it
(14:39):
locked up.
Yeah, um, so, so I, I get that.
You know I'm one of the firstguys to say I don't understand.
I do not understand how you goout and you buy a ten thousand
dollar and above camper and youdon't put an rv shelter over it
yeah it makes zero sense to me,well, how you can do that.
(15:02):
It should automatically be justpart of your budget.
Irvin (15:06):
Part of your purchase yeah, yeah.
Boy, that $10,000 don't get youmuch of a camper anymore.
No, it doesn't, I'm just sayingyou can put a $10,000 camper in
a little shed almost.
Sam (15:22):
It's a true story.
I'm still buying those tenthousand dollar campers.
No, they're not new no no, no,no, yep, this is true.
So I, yeah, you know you guysdo carports.
Do you deal with that?
Irvin (15:36):
no, no, and that's probably.
It's kind of been lookingaround and I've got it.
I looked around a couple yearsago uh, anytime, Uh, anytime.
I've looked around, talked topeople, I couldn't get service
worth a flip for many of thecompanies I talked to and I did.
I did talk to one here in thelast few months that that we
(15:58):
could work with but the problemthey had was getting crews to
come out.
Sam (16:04):
Yes.
Irvin (16:05):
To come out and do the work.
That was kind of a bottleneckin their system.
Boy, if a guy could, I'm surethere's people around.
We have, in fact, the companythat I was talking to.
They have a dealer just downthe road.
That's a fairly good.
I mean our acquaintance, ourfellow business owners just down
the road from our shop and filethem and they wanted I mean we,
(16:29):
we could outsell her all day,every day.
But there was no way I'm goingto go in there and I told him, I
said I'm not going to go takeher business away.
Yeah, yeah, she's a feed store,yeah, and doesn't does store and
does them things as well.
But they had another town thatwe could sell in.
(16:52):
We really weren't set up to doit that well, and they were
going to have a harder timegetting their people to go up
there.
They were about the only peoplethat I've talked to that
possibly would be able toservice our part of the country.
That's interesting, I meanthere's companies all over
California.
I think the West Coast has abunch of them, but you get out
(17:13):
in some of these more remoteplaces and it's a little bit
tougher to have the manpower andcrews that will run out and
make it worthwhile.
Sam (17:27):
You almost need your own install crew that can work
part-time and that would be away of doing it.
Irvin (17:35):
That would be a way of doing it Back there where you're
at.
To do that, do they have to becontractors?
Sam (17:44):
No, I say no Um in, as so I it's been about.
Let's see, when did we last doinstalls?
2014, I think it's the last.
We had two crews running doinginstalls and all you gotta do is
go get a specialty license, aframing siding specialty license
(18:05):
.
okay, and you could do it.
I guess if they really wantedto get wicked with you they
could say you have to have aroofing license, um, and I would
probably do that over top ofthe siding license.
But no, you can.
You can run off a specialtylicense and I'm 90 sure that
most of most of the carport guysthat are coming in install them
(18:27):
around here they're notlicensed yeah, no they're just
no yeah, I they're not likebuilding pole barns or nothing
like that, it's yeah.
Irvin (18:39):
I know companies that do that, what you just said.
They buy the kits and installthem.
Yeah yeah, use their crews togo do it.
That would be more.
That would work better for us,I think.
Plus it would give our guys alittle bit more to do in slow
season.
Sam (18:57):
Yeah, it is, yeah, yeah, it is, it's worth it's something,
um, I actually bought.
I bought a carport kit today.
Um, I got that sawmill out hereand there again it's like a
camper.
I can't stand seeing that thingget rained on you know, got a
lot of money tied up in it.
It's got sawdust sitting on it,you know, and fluids around on
it.
And I told Aaron, I'm like wegot to cover that thing, you
(19:19):
know.
So go buy a carport kit andthrow it up over.
Irvin (19:22):
What kind of saw mill did you get?
Sam (19:25):
Oh, I got a Wood-Mizer LT40 .
Nice Dude, I love it.
I told somebody yesterday thatif, if I can find Aaron a helper
, I could.
That's, that's one of my 10eggs.
Um, I'd actually put a Facebookpost up, I don't know.
(19:45):
We two weeks ago probably,about if we should like I was
looking at it from, should weput it into the mission projects
that we're doing or should I doit as a business project?
And I immediately had threepeople step up and said they'll
do it, like they'll help fund itif we do it as a business.
So, I just kind ofautomatically did, I just rolled
(20:06):
it into another business.
It's my 10th and I those guysknow me, they know what I do,
what all my eggs are.
You know my poor sister up inOhio.
She goes crazy because peopleask her all the time what in the
world does your brother do?
She's like I don't know what hedoes.
Nobody knows what he does, youknow what does he not?
do?
Yeah, what does he not do?
Um, so it's, it's just um.
(20:28):
But I'm telling you, man, I'veI remember as a little kid
cutting trees down with Grandpaand hauling them to his cousin's
sawmill, and it was likewaiting for baby chicks to hatch
, waiting for that lumber tocome back so you could build
something cool with it.
You know we'd have to use20-penny ring shanks and
(20:51):
two-pound sledgehammers to drivethem.
You know we built all ofgrandpa's barns.
They're built out of oakmaterial, metal, and that's just
what you did yeah and I alwaysman, I love, I love wood chips.
You know, whether it's from achainsaw, a sawmill or a table
(21:12):
saw or a, you know, a planer,that's still.
That is still.
My passion is working with woodand if I can build something
out of this sawmill wood thatyou know we.
So the whole thing that got megoing this time about it was we
had all those volunteers come inthe first three weeks.
(21:34):
Um, after Helene hit here, localin my backyard, clean up, clean
up neighborhoods, clean uptrees, and all I saw was all
this huge oak wood just going towaste.
And I dude it's like you know,if we can't get anything else
out of doing all this free laborfor all these people.
They couldn't afford to buy tohire the tree services and they
didn't, their insurance wasn'tgoing to cover them.
(21:55):
Um, I was like somebody needsto saw it up, something needs to
happen with it, instead of FEMAjust hauling it all off and
chipping it.
Yeah, it took too long to getaround to doing it.
I've probably lost.
I'll probably have 10 of thelogs I could have had good grief
and you have a lot and I have250.
(22:16):
I could easy have over 2, 000 Iknow, is this all on your
property?
That the 250 are on my propertyright now, which now you
understand why my wife's yellingabout always need uh yes, I
guess.
Irvin (22:34):
Yeah, that's I know I'm with you on the wood thing.
I've never I helped directsteel buildings for a little bit
in Colorado.
I do not like working withsteel, I like working with wood.
I'm not a builder.
That may be a bit confusing topeople.
I own a shed company, but I'mnot a builder.
(22:56):
I'm an agriculture man.
I milk cows for a living andwhen I wasn't doing that I was
looking at cows' butts, chasingthem through the mountains
horseback.
I did not do, I don't have, butI know some about it by being
around it, of course.
I'd rather work with wood.
Even my dad had a sawmill.
(23:17):
He had one of them wood misers.
He just sold it a couple yearsago.
No way yeah.
Sam (23:23):
Nice.
Irvin (23:27):
I tell people, there's a reason my last name is.
Plank, it ain't.
Steel.
My name is not Irvin Steel,it's Irvin Plank.
Sam (23:34):
You even added to it for Facebook.
Aren't you still wooden plankon Facebook, or did you?
yeah, yeah, oh I got people.
I got people ask me all the timeabout they're like is that his
real name?
Like wooden, plank?
And I'm like, well, of courseit is.
I'm like, if your last name wasplank, why wouldn't you name
your kid Wooden?
I'd have a Twisted and aCrooked and a Straight.
(24:00):
I'd have all kinds of weirdkids.
Irvin (24:02):
There you go.
Sam (24:03):
Yeah, no, it's.
Yeah, I do I still.
You know that's part of thereason I'm still tied up in
sheds is because I still like tobuild stuff.
You know, that's part of thereason I'm still tied up in
sheds is because I still like tobuild stuff.
You know, man, if my body wouldlet me, I'd build sheds.
(24:23):
Wouldn't bother me in the least.
But oh no, I tried that acouple years ago and I paid
dearly for that.
I'm like nope oh man.
Not doing that again.
Irvin (24:32):
Yeah.
Sam (24:34):
So, even when we had all those volunteers in here on
thanksgiving week and we builtthose sheds here and Jeremy,
he's building sheds up there inBarnersville right now for us,
um, I, I, you know, I lovetelling them how to do it or
what's up with this or that orwhatever, but, man, it doesn't
take long at all for me and, andAaron will tell you, I can't do
(24:55):
anything slow so if I'm gonnaframe a wall.
It's gonna get framed quick.
You know we ain't got time toscrew around, do this or that it
just doesn't work.
Irvin (25:03):
You think you're still 22 .
Sam (25:05):
That's the problem yeah, that is the problem.
Irvin (25:07):
It sucks, but hey, speaking of your, your operation
in North Carolina, are youstill?
Is that still things going upthere?
Sam (25:17):
It's still going.
It's a little bit.
It's frustrating right now, tobe honest with you, because we
can't get all three pieces towork at the same time.
And my three pieces are gettinga shed, finishing a shed and
delivering a shed.
Those are my three, that's mythree-headed beast.
And you know, back in January,in the first part of February
(25:40):
well, most of February actuallyJune, December, January and
February, it was a well oldmachine in we pretty much had
all three pieces whenever weneeded it.
Um, currently, um, I don't havehaulers.
They're all busy and I get it.
And you know the ones that Idid have, I probably wore them
(26:01):
out.
They're like I never want tosee a mountain again.
You know I don't.
You know it was, it was brutal,it's hard.
So, it's pretty much right nowit's uh, if it's the B, it's up
to me.
On the hauling side, and now,even the last two or three weeks
, you know, it's been a littleharder.
I think I've probably got ninesheds that need to be finished
(26:23):
out on the inside they're wired.
Electrician came in and wiredthem all up, you know, and now
we need them insulated.
Well, most of them areinsulated, they just need to be
paneled and floored um, are yousaying when it, when you?
Irvin (26:37):
I never thought about that part.
I mean, I know it's hard, it'sdoing it in the mountains, but
you're saying when you godeliver it up there it ain't
like it's.
It's just a pain in the butt inevery language.
That's just how it is so.
Sam (26:52):
When we had the bash in Tennessee this is hilarious
because I'm going way back, uh,2019 we had the bash in
Tennessee.
There was, well, we were allpretty much no namers.
That was the first big one.
Um, we knew each other onFacebook and some of the pages
and stuff.
And then you know you have 500haulers and 500 supporters show
(27:14):
up one weekend and everybody'strying to get to know each other
a little bit or whatever.
And then all of a sudden, thisone guy in the mule competition
just stomps a mud hole and allthe rest of them and you're like
what?
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Sam (29:13):
What just?
happened here, we were doing sogood, everybody was doing good,
and this guy just comes up andblazes I mean stomped a mud hole
in everybody.
Well, a lot of those guys, andsome of them even admitted on
Facebook, you know, when theycame and hauled in Marlon
coblins's territory.
They're like we were a little.
You know, martin Hostetler evenlaughs about it, he's like.
(29:34):
You know I was a little upsetthat I thought I was a pretty
good mule driver until that dudeshowed up.
Well then he came up and hauledsheds for me one weekend,
delivered a whole bunch of them.
And Martin ain't a slouch, hegets it done, yeah, and he left
and he's like I understand whyMarlon won the mule competition.
Irvin (29:58):
Because nothing you do up here is easy and most of it is
ridiculous and it's yeah, yeah,if you imagine, I don't, I mean
I've been up there some andthat's that's every nothing is
nothing is level, everything isup and People put houses at
places.
You just go, good grief.
(30:19):
And then they want you to put ashed up there.
Sam (30:20):
Well, in your case, the shed is their house.
There you go, and now you runinto people that are desperate
for a shed, and they'll put itanywhere.
Irvin (30:29):
Yeah, yeah.
Sam (30:31):
It's poor old Roman.
He came in here.
I finally got some.
I had like 22 sheds over inMemphis that a guy over there
Shoot I don't remember his namenow.
But he basically said, if yousend me drivers, I'll load them
with sheds.
I was like what do you got?
What are you going to send me?
He said, I don't know, you senda driver over here and we'll
(30:53):
make sure he's loaded.
Irvin (31:00):
We'll send him with sheds .
So, roman, he's from fort wayneflat country.
Sam (31:01):
You know, flat as a freaking pancake up there.
Yeah, I'll guarantee you, hebrings a shed down to a show in
Nashville last week and he's gotfive days to kill before the
show ends.
You know, by time set up threeday show and then tear down.
He's like, hey, I'll run toMemphis and get you a couple
loads of sheds and run them overthere.
He's in a semi-truck First,okay, so obviously he probably
(31:26):
the mountain.
Just what's the word I'mlooking for?
It just showed a problem thatwas probably hiding.
Already Exaggerated the problem.
But he's like man, I lost highrange in my transmission.
No, no, no, no.
Yeah, he's got 18 speed, sohe's got a splitter.
(31:47):
He's got low and high range andthen he splits those gears.
He lost the splitter on thehigh side.
Irvin (31:55):
Oh yeah, 18 speed, 500 horse, and then he splits those
gears.
Sam (31:57):
He lost the splitter on the high side.
Oh yeah, and you know, 18 speed500 horse semi truck, you know,
and he's like dude, thatmountain showed my, but they
pulled our weaknesses out in theheartbeat.
Yeah, you know, he's all toreup because he's disappointing me
, because he said he's gonnabring two or three loads and he
brought one load and I'm likedude, I'm just happy to get one
load in here.
Yeah, so it.
Oh dude, those.
(32:18):
I literally roasted one set ofbrakes going down a mountain,
icy mountain, with a cabin oneday because I didn't have no
trailer brakes on the cabin andit was a completely finished out
Texas cabin.
It was heavy.
I don't know what it weighed,but it was heavy.
(32:40):
We were going down the side ofa mountain that I found later is
like 12 to 14% halfway down itwas iced over, bad enough that
the Canadian was outside thetruck walking.
Irvin (32:53):
This is a pickup truck.
Sam (32:56):
Yeah, this is my 2500 white truck and we listen.
The next day you heard thebrakes start Like you could feel
.
It was like the feelers werestarting to squeal a little bit.
Irvin (33:07):
Yeah.
Sam (33:07):
And the next day they were gone.
They weren't just bad, theywere gone.
All new rotors, all new brakepads, all new everything.
I'm pretty sure that I'vekilled my transmission.
My, so that's another longstory.
The transmission that was in itfrom factory was fine.
I wanted a bigger transmissionbecause I'd built my motor
(33:29):
bigger and I put a builttransmission in and it's been
terrible ever since we started,but at least it's been working.
Pretty sure I've pretty muchkilled that thing good grief
it's brutal up there man, manwell, I'll tell you what I'm
going to right now.
Irvin (33:47):
We're kind of putting a plan together to make a bit of a
trip back there this summer and, um, by the way, yeah, there's
a reunion just down the roadfrom your house.
Yeah, yeah, we're, we'replanning to take that thing in
and, um, and I I don't know yetwhat I definitely want to come
(34:07):
up there.
I have no idea yet.
You know how it is.
You got, I got up in Ohio aswell, so we got yeah, yeah.
Virginia, and.
But I really want to figure outa way to get a day or two, or
um, oh man, what things aregoing on.
Maybe even a little bit moretime than that, if, if you're
still in the middle of stuffover there, that work you're
(34:28):
doing, man, that's, um, that's.
I was listening to your podcast.
With what is it, Jeremy Was?
Sam (34:36):
that the guy.
Jeremy Barger.
Irvin (34:39):
Yeah, yeah, and I know there could be.
There's all kinds of ways oftalking about that work.
People got all kinds of ideas.
I don't care about none of thatstuff.
I like the way you think aboutit.
There's people that need help,and that's something we just
don't do well enough I don'tthink as uh, as people just help
(35:00):
people, as other people who arecreated in god's image.
That's just another you know,creation here in god's image
kind of a thing.
And I know there's that boy,there's.
It sounds like there's a realmess back there.
I mean and some of the thingsthat y'all talk about.
I'm not that familiar with.
It makes sense, but theemotional and mental stress
(35:23):
these people go through and itjust it'll be there for years.
Yeah, it will It'll.
Those seeds are going, thefruit's going to come out of it
down the road if there ain'tsome help and.
Sam (35:40):
I think that's just a tremendously valuable thing that
you're doing for that communitythere it will wear on you even
the emotional side that comes infrom having to tell people
every day that you can't helpthem anymore because you just
you're maxed out, you justthere's like, there's no.
(36:02):
You know, I'm, I'm like, Idon't.
I'm not going to give you falsehope and tell you I'll put you
on the list and then you know,six months, a year from now,
you're still not like, I'llnever get to you.
Yeah, and they're like.
Well, still put, they're like,they're like.
I don't care, I still want tobe on the list.
Irvin (36:18):
Yeah, yeah.
Sam (36:19):
And I'm like no, I'm not.
You know, I I'm not going toput you on a list when I know I
can't and it's it's some days Ifeel like I got the PTSD of all
of them on me.
I don't know, I got the PTSD ofall of them on me.
I don't want to cry about itbecause I don't want to, but
it's like it does.
(36:40):
And Aaron will tell you know,young, young dude like him,
fixing turn, 25 years old, wholelife in front of him, never
really has been into anythinglike what we're doing now.
He will tell you in a heartbeattwo things.
He will say if you want to findJesus, go up in those mountains
and help somebody.
That's where you're going tofind Jesus like you've never
(37:03):
seen him before, he said.
And the second thing is wedon't help each other enough.
Irvin (37:11):
Just in a circle of friends or just as humans as
humans yeah yeah, we don't helpeach other enough yeah we've.
Sam (37:20):
We've somewhere along the line.
We've become dependent upon thegovernment helping people.
And then, you know, people likeus want to say that it's we,
the people, we want we, thepeople, to be in charge of this
country, but we, the people,ain't willing to step up and do
what needs to be done boy.
Irvin (37:36):
That's a fact and.
And we also talk about how,back in the good old days, and
you know all the differentmindsets and the way community
work, maybe not, maybe not somuch about community, but other
things that were different 30,50 and 100 years ago.
Well, one of the things thatwere different 30, 50, and 100
years ago, well, one of thethings that was also different
(37:58):
was sense of community that welost in a lot of ways and that
right there where we just helpedeach other and we talked to
each other and do thesedifferent things, I mean I live
out here in the middle ofnowhere.
Now.
I lived in some places veryremote.
I lived in one ranch I lived on.
(38:18):
They did a study or I guess astudy, and they were trying to
find the most remote location inthe United States and they went
by five things how far you werefrom the post office, a power
line, paved road, a railroad,and I guess town was the other
one, and that ranch I was on wasthe furthest one with all five
(38:43):
of those things.
But there's other places thatare further away from town but
they got electricity orsomething.
I don't know, maybe the otherthing was a telephone line.
In those remote places you havethat sense of community.
You might have a neighbor thatlives.
I think our closest neighborwas 20 miles away and when they
(39:05):
drive by.
They stop and talk to you andthey don't care.
Like they do not care what timeof the day it is.
No.
They don't want to stop and talk, but when they want to stop and
talk, nobody cares yeah, yepyou're in the middle of a
project.
If you are, they'll just jumpin and help you while they talk
yeah, yep you're eating, it doesnot matter, it's it's.
(39:25):
And now where I live it's aremote area, but it's remote as
in when you get away from thiscentralized, there's a lot.
I see a lot of houses fromwhere I live and I got neighbors
that moved in next to me Umshoot, it's probably a quarter
mile of their house and we nevereven went over and seen them.
(39:48):
I don't, why do we do that?
Why didn't we go see that whenthey like take him.
I did go visit him with him oneday.
But yeah, I mean, we live right.
now, but we all get chop chopchop running.
Yeah, Looking at our stupidphones doing all kinds of other
stuff.
Yes, sir, yep, that's acommunity man, that's a big,
(40:10):
that's a powerful thing.
Sam (40:12):
Yes, it is, it is.
You know, that's something thatwe brought up there, though.
Um, even the mattress sisterssitting there talking to them
one day, and Cynthia made thecomment that that river that's
right there behind them, she'slike I never.
I never saw that river before.
I've lived here for six yearsand I've never saw that river,
(40:34):
because there was always tooyeah, there always too much
shrubbery and bushes and treesand stuff in the way.
She said all those neighborsover there?
I didn't even know they wereover there, and now they're
right there.
And I asked her.
I said Cynthia, how many ofthose neighbors did you know
before the storm?
That one, and she pointed atthe one house up there.
(40:54):
I said what about those andthose and these and this and
this one?
Nope, they drive by, we'd waveat them.
I said how many of them, do youknow?
Now she goes all of them.
Yeah, I'm like so do you thinkthat's a good thing or a bad
thing?
She says, oh, it's very much agood thing.
Yeah, and you hear, you hear itall over those.
There's 25, 30, 35 communitiesup there that are like
(41:18):
Barnardsville and every one ofthem will tell you that you know
now, they know people theynever they.
Irvin (41:25):
They know neighbors they never knew before yeah it's and
and just just a little bit ofcommunication.
Man just know, and and you'rein the same boat.
I was thinking about some ofthat stuff here the last couple
days, about something else.
I can't remember exactly whatit was, but it was kind of how
you know how we get.
We do it in families a littlebit Well.
(41:46):
We fight with each other untilsomebody picks on us and then
we're all of a sudden bigbuddies, picks on us, and then
we're all of a sudden bigbuddies and as soon as it's the
same thing.
If you, if you were wanderingaround in Hong Kong, and you run
into an American and he mightbe a flaming liberal Democrat
(42:07):
but he's an American, you'regoing to be happy to talk to
that guyyep, you are like it's us over
here kind of a thing, and all ofthem little.
You are like it's us over herekind of a thing and, um, all of
them little you know, but it'syou know you could we're a whole
lot more.
We have way more in common thanwe do not in common and it kind
(42:28):
of would help each other workon those things a little bit.
Think about those things we, wewould probably connect a lot
better and I'm just the next guyon all that
Sam (42:39):
yeah, that was something that came up.
You know, working up there toois the fact that you know, Aaron
and I would talk about thiscoming home some days, about the
people we helped that day, and,uh, you know, they'd cry, we'd
cry, um, they'd cry, we'd cry,they'd be happy, we'd be happy.
(42:59):
You know, it was all kinds ofemotions across the board, yeah,
and on the way home I'd pull upyou know Facebook or something,
and here are two of my buddiesranting about the opposite
political party and I'd look atAaron and I'd be like, look
seriously, like did we, did weever think about asking these
(43:21):
people who'd you vote for?
You know, are you, are you aTrump fan or are you not a Trump
fan?
You know, and, man, it has,like most of my friends are
probably say, you know, thedude's done went off the deep
end because he doesn't supportanybody anymore.
I don't care, it doesn't matteranymore when, when people need
help, you don't care who theyare.
Irvin (43:40):
Yeah.
Sam (43:42):
You're back to the human race.
And even when I find out threemonths later when some of them
start posting up stuff, I don'tcare if that's.
If that's where they are andthat's what they want to believe
, I'm fine with that.
I made a friend with them.
I'm going to be a friend withthem.
If they want to walk away,that's on their part, but I'm
not going to.
Irvin (44:00):
Exactly.
I got a big day tomorrow.
I have a fully finished 18 by40 cabin.
That's going to require two tothree meals to get it delivered
Way back in the sticks and downa dirt lane With all the rain
we've had lately, it's going tobe a mess, but it needs a bigger
mule.
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(44:43):
Ah, that's right, You're talkingabout the one they had up in
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That thing was awesome.
That's right.
It's the one you've seen at all.
The Shed Holler barbecues wasawesome, that's right, it's the
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Yeah, there's nothing like alittle diesel donkey to make my
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(45:04):
Yeah, their raw issues on both sides are the exact same
thing.
In fact, in the grand scheme ofthings, there's very small
differences.
We make huge and some of them,if you go down them, you know
they do.
They do manifest themselves.
Down the road is significantlydifferent.
(45:27):
But if you're going to get, ifyou're going to connect with
people, and you first all ain'tme or you no human being is
going to change the whole worldor even a very big part of it,
like yeah those people by farare only going to influence,
really influence a small numberof people I heard a guy talking
(45:50):
about that, I think yesterday.
Do you know who the richest guyin the world was 30 years ago?
Sam (45:57):
30 years ago.
I'm going to take a shot andsay it was Sam Walton.
Irvin (46:01):
Do you know who the richest guy in the world was 60
years ago?
Sam (46:04):
No.
Irvin (46:06):
What about 90 years ago?
Sam (46:07):
No clue.
Irvin (46:09):
Rockefellers this was the richest guy in the world and
nobody knows who they are.
Oh, I know you made a guess.
And so even the richest guy inthe world today?
And I don't.
I was thinking this guy saidsomeone else.
I had never heard of the guy hesaid.
Whatever the case, his pointwas even the richest guy in the
(46:29):
world doesn't have but so muchinfluence.
Oh no.
That's the end of the line.
The influence he has is usuallynot deep with huge amounts of
it.
What you're talking about thereis if you can put aside those
differences, or if thosedifferences keep us from loving
(46:54):
each other and caring for eachother.
We need to look in our heartsand see what's going on.
Sam (47:00):
No kidding, yep.
Yep, yeah.
I don't know.
You know, for me it even goesdeeper.
For me, as a Christian, it evengoes deeper in that, in the
fact that when you look at Jesusbeing from Nazareth, which was
looked down upon, and then hewas always bringing up the
(47:22):
Samaritans, or helping theSamaritans or getting them
involved, you know the woman atthe well, she was a Samaritan.
She went back and turned intothe biggest evangelist during
Jesus time.
She brought the whole city backaround.
You know, based on him, andit's like I'd rather err on the
side of not caring about allthis stuff that I'm supposed to
(47:44):
care about than err on the sidethat I care too much about it.
You follow me.
Irvin (47:49):
Yeah.
Sam (47:49):
Because I'm going to err on the side of loving people and
doing what I feel like is thehuman right thing to do.
You can take it or leave it.
Irvin (48:04):
Yeah, no, I don't think there's enough of that.
There's room, I mean, there'sroom for concerns and all that
sort of stuff.
There's room for concerns andall that sort of stuff.
There's always that.
But in a crisis like this typeof thing, is man somewhere along
the line?
Somewhere along the linethere's room to just humans
helping humans.
Sam (48:26):
Yeah.
Irvin (48:29):
Yep, it's not like you went into a.
Well, I don't even know.
I'm not even going to say whatI was thinking, because it's all
of it can get.
You can make an angle about anygroup of people to not help
them for whatever reason oh, youcould, yeah, you could.
Sam (48:45):
You could a little.
Well, you can people do.
You can make an excuse and talkyourself out of helping anybody
yeah yes, very true buddy.
Irvin (48:55):
Yeah, yes, very true.
Yeah, I definitely think, andif you study the life of Jesus,
what you're talking about, thatthat was not, and that's what
everybody likes to talk about.
How, especially when they'rethe ones who are in a pickle
about something.
Well, you know.
Jesus helped everybody, so youshould help me why ain't you
(49:18):
helping other people?
Sam (49:19):
in a pickle like me yeah yeah, yeah, I've got people all
the time that I you know.
They're like well, I wish Icould help and I'm like well,
you can.
Every dollar helps and everyprayer helps.
You can always.
I mean, oh my word, have I everlearned how important like I've
done disaster work my wholelife yeah this is by far by far,
(49:42):
I mean, I'd almost put a 10multiplier on it by far the most
demanding physical andspiritual one we've ever done.
I see, I know it's always been alittle cliche to say that well,
first of all, pray for us,second of all, fund us, but it
(50:08):
has never been truer than inthis case.
That I don't know.
There's all kinds of conspiracytheories and all this bull crap
.
I don't buy any of that, youknow for the record Um but I'm
saying that the spiritualwarfare that has happened in the
last seven, almost eight monthsnow hold it.
It's coming right up on eightmonths in a couple of days.
(50:29):
Um dude, it's crazy.
And almost everybody that'scome and helped us that's been
here for at least a day or two.
They will tell you they havefelt it.
Irvin (50:41):
I see.
Sam (50:44):
When I tell people on Facebook that you can always
pray for us, it's a mostdefinite always pray for us.
Yes, we are.
I mean I've been blessed beyondmeasure for the people that
have funded us.
You've helped us.
A lot of people have helped us.
Yes, we are.
I mean I've been blessed beyondmeasure for the people that
have funded us.
You've helped us.
A lot of people have helped us.
But at the end of the day, wewouldn't have gotten anywhere
(51:05):
without the prayers we've got.
It's crazy.
Irvin (51:09):
And the fact that you can sense that or feel that tells
you that there's a battle goingon.
I mean if there's no tension,then there's nothing pushing
against good.
Sam (51:27):
Yeah, yeah.
And so that ought to tell youthat, that that preaches right
there, man yep, yeah, it does,and that's why Aaron says what
he says about you want to find,if you know, if you're going to
church every Sunday and youcan't figure out where this
Jesus guy is they're talkingabout, go to the mountains and
work on it, you know, just go upthere, you'll find them in a
(51:51):
hurry.
It's, it's unbelievable.
So, wow, yeah, it's, it's beenamazing.
It has been.
You know, two weeks ago we kindof halfway open the shop again,
um to start taking some workback in, because I mean, at some
point a turnips dry.
(52:14):
Um, I, you know, I got to dosomething and so we're starting
to build back up a little bit.
Try to get some funding, youknow.
Try to get some.
Try to keep ourselves afloat sowe can.
Actually, you can't helpanybody if you're not living
anymore.
Irvin (52:28):
That's right, that's a fact.
Sam (52:30):
So we're kind of focused on that a little more right now,
which the sad thing about thatis we don't get as much done as
quick as we did, but at least wecan keep going.
Oh yeah, so that's before Iforget, between Hartwell,
Georgia, where that reunion is,and Martinsburg, Ohio, where
(52:54):
you're going on that same tripat some point right along the
way is Barnardsville, andthere's a really nice place
there you can stay at.
Irvin (53:03):
I see.
Sam (53:04):
So there you go, just for the record.
Irvin (53:06):
Well, very good.
Well, Barnardsville, yeah,that's definitely on the
planning board.
Try to figure out how to dothat.
Yeah, absolutely.
Our plan is actually go toHarrisonburg.
(53:27):
We have a bunch of friends inthat area as well.
Sam (53:30):
Oh nice.
Irvin (53:32):
And then go to Ohio.
But you can do the same thing,oh yeah same thing Still runs
you up.
You're still going up to Ohio.
Sam (53:35):
You can do the same thing, same thing.
You're still going up to 81.
Yeah, that's cool.
When is that reunion?
Irvin (53:47):
I think it's the third week in July.
Okay, that's what it is yeah,yes, sir.
Sam (53:59):
Cool deal.
Irvin (54:00):
It's been good chatting with you absolutely, man I've
really enjoyed this.
I like, I like listening to youguys's conversations keeps me
yes sir, the loop with the Idon't.
I'm not very like.
I said, I'm not I I can get inthe loop pretty quick but i'm
not in the day to day loop ofthe shed world to fill out here.
But yes, sir, my pleasure.
Sam (54:23):
Anything you want to throw out there for anybody listening.
What do I want to?
Irvin (54:29):
throw out there for anybody listening.
Help.
Sam get those people taken careof.
Sam (54:38):
I'll take all of that we can get but, like I said, I've
been blessed.
Irvin (54:41):
Yeah it is, it has been amazing yeah yep no, yeah, we'll
keep plugging yeah, just man,there's, there's so many
opportunities and one thing, onething that I've learned this is
I like business, I've, I'velike I was telling you earlier,
I was in the cows and I got mychildren at the age now where
(55:02):
they can help in that kind ofwork and I want to do more of it
, mostly because of them um Ispent 20 years doing it and it's
still a good, a good exerciseto get out, do other things
doing that sort of stuff.
But, um, one of the things thatI learned in the in away from
the cow business and in justregular business, where you're
(55:23):
helping people every day, is theinfluence or the difference you
can make in people's lives.
Man, if you'll just listen andthis is to all the people in
this industry and any, any typeof business man take advantages
of those times that you can,that you got somebody in front
of you that's in a pickle, andpray with them, help them you
know, listen to them justsometimes they just need
(55:45):
somebody to listen to.
Sometimes I want them to get onout of here cause I got other
stuff to do but, it's kind of ait's.
it's a healthy thing for me tosit there and slow down and
listen to my fellow humans andbe there for them in some manner
100%.
Sam (56:01):
I agree Cool deal.
Well, thank you, man.
I appreciate you coming on,appreciate you as a fellow
businessman in the shed industry, but also as a friend and a
cousin.
Look forward to many good times.
Irvin (56:18):
Absolutely man Hang in there we're praying.
Sam (56:22):
We'll keep plugging away, thank you.
All right guys.
Thank you once again forjoining us and listening to
another episode.
Actually, I think we talkedlong enough.
This probably turned into atwo-part episode, so that's
perfectly fine.
That's good stuff.
Anybody that wants to come on,reach out to me.
I need people.
(56:43):
Shannon's always asking me.
Hey, you got more guys comingon the show, so anytime you guys
want to just chat for a whileand come on and talk, just reach
out to me.
I'd be happy to set up a Zoomcall.
Come see you, do whatever weneed to do.
But thank you once again forlistening to another episode of
the Shed Geek Podcast.
Sambassador Friday Funday style.
(57:05):
Until next time, thank you andGod bless.
Welcome back to part two of a two-part episode.
Be sure to go back and listento part one.
You might've missed something.
Hope you enjoy the conversationtoday.
Um you, you said something that, um, I've been hammered on this
a little bit in the last coupleof years and I kind of forgot
about it the last six months orso.
(00:30):
You said something about youjust rent them.
You don't rent to own them, youjust rent them out because they
want a six-month rental.
Irvin (00:39):
Yeah.
Sam (00:39):
Right.
Why is nobody doing that onsheds?
Irvin (00:46):
We've had some people ask about that.
I don't know why people aren'tdoing.
You can do it.
I mean, it's just like anythingelse.
You figure out the economics ofit.
Shed a shed is going to loseits value.
You take a brand new shed andstart renting that thing out.
You know how they are a yearlater that thing's going to be
depreciated, but still you justadjust your price board.
(01:09):
I mean, uh, you know everybodythinks the rent to.
I don't know what everybodythinks, but the, I think kind of
the common, the common thoughtabout rent to own thing.
Man, that's just the coolestthing as far as economics.
Man, this thing here, this hereis the mother of.
Well, ain't no differentanything else.
You got it.
It is not a uh you just walkaway from and don't take care.
(01:33):
You gotta work on that thingyes sure it's a.
It's a.
It's a good business, same asanything else.
If you work at it and you haveyou have people, you have a
demand for it and a way to fillthat demand.
Any business like that is goodbusiness.
That's just kind of the nutsand bolts of all businesses, are
(01:54):
them things right there?
But you know what's even betterrent-to-own.
See, when a rent-to-own deal isdone, they're paying a certain
amount.
You know you got a rent fee onthat thing.
Yeah, when that rent-to-ownthing is done, they're paying a
certain amount.
You know you got a rent fee onthat thing, yeah, oh, when that
rent to own thing is done, yougot to go find another contract.
Yeah, when somebody's rentingfrom you, you don't have to go
(02:17):
get contracts.
You don't have to go do nothing,that's yours.
It's a little different thing,it's the same.
It takes a lot of capital.
It takes a lot of capital for itto work.
Now, when it's empty, you ain'tmaking no money on it.
One thing that's good aboutrental contracts is generally
(02:41):
you don't start one unless youhave a customer.
What I'm saying is you don'town a building unless you have a
customer.
What I'm saying is you don'town a building unless you have a
customer.
That's how a lot of people doit.
Now there are some people thatown a factory and all that sort
of stuff, but the idea that youcan, and there's rent to own
(03:01):
people that don't, that are late, they don't pay their bills.
They don't pay for a long time.
It's the same as your containersitting there empty and not
getting paid on it.
That happens too.
Yeah, the nice thing that Iliked about it.
I don't know that you can do it.
You can't do it near on thescale as you can rent-to-own,
that's for sure, but it's apretty nice little profit center
(03:24):
.
Can rent to own, that's forsure, but it's a pretty nice
little profit center.
The container thing, really Ilike because they appreciate
Sheds go down, sheds go down toa certain place, and then
they're just going to stay there.
Yeah, yeah, but I don't knowwhy people another thing sheds
ain't going to handle as muchmoving.
Sam (03:43):
Oh yeah, you can move a container a hundred times.
It's a steel box.
Irvin (03:49):
Yeah.
I'll tell you where you run intoa little bit of problems.
So, I'm sitting here at myplace here and I want to rent
containers, and then I havecontainers and sheds that I want
to rent to own.
So, when you go out theremarketing to people, you know
like one of the big things aboutsheds is hey quit.
(04:09):
You know, you don't have to paythis dead- end self-storage
rent if you buy a shed, we'llget you taken care of over here.
Well, if I'm the self-storageguy, I'm taking money out of my
self-storage pocket to do that.
Sam (04:22):
You are.
Irvin (04:23):
But, I still want the customer to you know, I want to
serve them in the way that'sbest for them, including
financially.
Sam (04:32):
Yes.
Yep.
I agree.
Yep.
And.
I think for the majority of thepart.
If you sell with that attitude,your customers realize it.
You sell on trust and you buytheir trust because they're like
, hey look, if we couldself-story cheer with him and
(04:53):
he'd be fine with that.
We could rent to own it andhe'd be fine with it.
We can pay cash and he'll stilltreat us the same.
Irvin (04:59):
That's right, and I've had people rent to own and leave
their stuff on my property andI rent them.
I leave their stuff on myproperty and I rent them.
I charge them lot rent.
Yeah, yep.
And I have one here now who'sbeen.
I've been charging a lot rentafter they paid their container
off for two years probably now.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,it's one of those things If I
(05:22):
run out of space.
I would need to move it, butright now I don't really do that
regularly, but I have done that.
Sam (05:30):
Yeah, yeah, I had two buildings, one in Georgia and
one in South Carolina, that theyboth paid out the whole
rent-to-own contract and thebuilding never left a lot.
Irvin (05:45):
Did they ever deliver?
Did you ever?
Sam (05:48):
No, I never delivered it.
They used it where it was onthe lot.
Irvin (05:52):
Oh they used it there.
Sam (05:54):
And they paid their rent-to-own contract all the way
out.
Wow.
One of them was 24 months inGeorgia and the other one was 36
months, and they paid themcompletely out and never moved
the sheds like.
We never delivered them, wenever picked them back up.
They, they didn't have nowhereto put them.
The one of them lived in atownhouse and the other one
(06:14):
lived off a cliff somewhere upabove Easley and they, they
would.
You know, I'd work Saturdaysometimes to give the sales guy
a day off or whatever, and I'dbe sitting in there and here
he'd come rolling in his littlered pickup and he'd get
something out of his shed andhe'd go back home.
Later on, He'd come rollingback in again and he wanted to
know when he came in can heleave his shed here?
(06:36):
Because he tried to buy a shedfour or five different places
and they wouldn't let him leaveit there.
Oh yeah, why not?
Irvin (06:44):
Yeah, the marketplace is telling you to do something, man
.
There's a thing In fact, I wasjust telling you earlier that I
set up a shed for my neighbor tobuild a house.
Make a house out of Well it wasa 14 by 40, I think it was a 14
by 44, and it was a rent to ownthat never left our yard in
(07:06):
Fallon ever and the people neverused it.
And I don't know how long.
They paid on it for quite awhile and then and then she was
going to sell it to her cousin.
So, I, yeah, we'll do that.
They're in California.
Well, their County wouldn'ttheir County?
All of a sudden got goofy aboutsomething, about the drawings
(07:27):
they needed and we could not getthem.
There was no way we could getthem drawings and make their
county happy and they just said,well, we'll just keep it.
It never left our yard, yeah.
Sam (07:41):
Yeah, it happened.
It's crazy.
So where are you going the nextfive years?
Irvin (07:48):
Oh boy, in the next five years.
Sam (07:52):
Yeah, what do you see out there?
What are you looking for?
I mean, like, is the shedindustry going to hold up for
five years?
I mean you said you know youdon't want all your eggs in one
basket and everybody says thatthese days You're preaching to
the choir.
I've got 10 eggs right now inmy basket and I'm looking for
two more yet Because I have zerofaith in any of my 10 past.
(08:15):
You know further than I can seeright now Because, dude, I
don't know what's coming.
Some of these guys, they'rejust going wide open, straight
into their one big egg.
I guess more power to them,maybe they're more focused, but
what do you got?
What do you see?
Irvin (08:33):
Well, I mean, as far as the shed world man, I don't know
, I'm not in the middle of thewhole, near as much you know, in
the middle of the whole, nearas much, you know, in the middle
of the whole environmentindustry as you would be.
There's not, as you know, asmany people out here in this
industry and you hear peopletalking about consolidation,
(08:57):
acquisitions, those sorts ofthings, and I don't, frankly,
know that much about that.
How, how much of that's goingon.
I do think.
I mean, just when I go, look atwhere we're at today, where we
were at what what COVID did toeverybody.
Covid brought a whole bunch ofpeople in and.
I'm pretty sure COVID, ourcompany, ain't much different
(09:22):
than it was before COVID started.
Frankly, we thought when COVIDhit and we were going through
that storm, we thought we werepretty cool people because, I
mean, whatever we did wasworking like magic.
And whenever that disappeared,you know, everything was back
pretty much like it was beforethat, and so demand has stayed.
(09:47):
One thing I was going to saydemand has stayed steady, and I
don't know that I would expectthat to change.
I don't know if regulationswould get a whole lot different,
but I've been around this since2002.
I wasn't around it that muchwhen my dad started, but yeah
(10:07):
you know, I really got into itin 06 and there were times in
there when I wasn't around itmuch, but it's.
I mean I have six brothers andthey've all I think every one of
them has been in the shedbusiness a little bit somewhere
along the line as a builder or ahauler or all the above, and
whenever, whenever my family'stogether sheds are a thing that
(10:29):
get talked about, and for allthese years it's not really.
I mean, it has its ups anddowns, but it stays there.
Sam (10:37):
Yeah.
Irvin (10:38):
I don't really have any reason to think it wouldn't do
that.
I think for us out here, kindof, I think our weak spot is
just taking care of our people.
Getting how would you sayhaving uh, getting better at
taking care of people andattracting the right kind of
people yeah our road, even if wejust stay right where we're at
(11:01):
and dollars sold and just getbuild efficiencies in our
processes.
That for for up for ourparticular company.
I think that's a big, that's abig uh uh runway in front of us
that we can.
We can quite easily get betterat yeah, but I, I don't, I mean,
(11:22):
people just buy too much stuff.
Sam (11:28):
They need sheds and when they get like me.
They need barns.
Sheds don't work anymore, yougot to put up a big barn.
It's like, you know, some daysI'm like what?
No, I don't know, man, I feellike I've always said I'm an old
soul.
And I feel like I've alwayssaid I'm an old soul and, you
know, I'm growing up 30, 40years later than I probably
(11:50):
should like, where I feel like Ifit.
But some people think I musthave come through the Depression
because I can't get rid ofnothing.
You know, I got trucks that comein and we fix them up.
You know, we throw all the oldcrap off of them to put new
stuff on and I almost man, ittakes everything in me to load
(12:11):
it up in the dump trailer andhaul it to the scrapyard.
You know, and my poor wife'slike, can it not just all go
away?
Irvin (12:15):
yeah, that's how my wife would be it's, it's uh.
Sam (12:18):
Yeah, you know we're.
We're in a constant battleabout what's out there that's
good stuff and and what's junk.
Irvin (12:24):
Yeah.
Sam (12:25):
It's terrible.
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(14:18):
Boy it doesn't fit in the house.
So you got to put it in theshed.
You know, even if it's a closetthat has your winter clothes in
it, because your closet ain'tbig enough for all your clothes.
You know, whatever it is, youknow it's.
You know I mean, yeah, some ofour stuff's necessity, you got
to put your lawn, you should putyour lawnmower in a shed, in
the tiller or whatever you got.
And you know anymore, if it'soutside you better have it
(14:39):
locked up.
Yeah, um, so, so I, I get that.
You know I'm one of the firstguys to say I don't understand.
I do not understand how you goout and you buy a ten thousand
dollar and above camper and youdon't put an rv shelter over it
yeah it makes zero sense to me,well, how you can do that.
(15:02):
It should automatically be justpart of your budget.
Irvin (15:06):
Part of your purchase yeah, yeah.
Boy, that $10,000 don't get youmuch of a camper anymore.
No, it doesn't, I'm just sayingyou can put a $10,000 camper in
a little shed almost.
Sam (15:22):
It's a true story.
I'm still buying those tenthousand dollar campers.
No, they're not new no no, no,no, yep, this is true.
So I, yeah, you know you guysdo carports.
Do you deal with that?
Irvin (15:36):
no, no, and that's probably.
It's kind of been lookingaround and I've got it.
I looked around a couple yearsago uh, anytime, Uh, anytime.
I've looked around, talked topeople, I couldn't get service
worth a flip for many of thecompanies I talked to and I did.
I did talk to one here in thelast few months that that we
(15:58):
could work with but the problemthey had was getting crews to
come out.
Sam (16:04):
Yes.
Irvin (16:05):
To come out and do the work.
That was kind of a bottleneckin their system.
Boy, if a guy could, I'm surethere's people around.
We have, in fact, the companythat I was talking to.
They have a dealer just downthe road.
That's a fairly good.
I mean our acquaintance, ourfellow business owners just down
the road from our shop and filethem and they wanted I mean we,
(16:29):
we could outsell her all day,every day.
But there was no way I'm goingto go in there and I told him, I
said I'm not going to go takeher business away.
Yeah, yeah, she's a feed store,yeah, and doesn't does store and
does them things as well.
But they had another town thatwe could sell in.
(16:52):
We really weren't set up to doit that well, and they were
going to have a harder timegetting their people to go up
there.
They were about the only peoplethat I've talked to that
possibly would be able toservice our part of the country.
That's interesting, I meanthere's companies all over
California.
I think the West Coast has abunch of them, but you get out
(17:13):
in some of these more remoteplaces and it's a little bit
tougher to have the manpower andcrews that will run out and
make it worthwhile.
Sam (17:27):
You almost need your own install crew that can work
part-time and that would be away of doing it.
Irvin (17:35):
That would be a way of doing it Back there where you're
at.
To do that, do they have to becontractors?
Sam (17:44):
No, I say no Um in, as so I it's been about.
Let's see, when did we last doinstalls?
2014, I think it's the last.
We had two crews running doinginstalls and all you gotta do is
go get a specialty license, aframing siding specialty license
(18:05):
.
okay, and you could do it.
I guess if they really wantedto get wicked with you they
could say you have to have aroofing license, um, and I would
probably do that over top ofthe siding license.
But no, you can.
You can run off a specialtylicense and I'm 90 sure that
most of most of the carport guysthat are coming in install them
(18:27):
around here they're notlicensed yeah, no they're just
no yeah, I they're not likebuilding pole barns or nothing
like that, it's yeah.
Irvin (18:39):
I know companies that do that, what you just said.
They buy the kits and installthem.
Yeah yeah, use their crews togo do it.
That would be more.
That would work better for us,I think.
Plus it would give our guys alittle bit more to do in slow
season.
Sam (18:57):
Yeah, it is, yeah, yeah, it is, it's worth it's something,
um, I actually bought.
I bought a carport kit today.
Um, I got that sawmill out hereand there again it's like a
camper.
I can't stand seeing that thingget rained on you know, got a
lot of money tied up in it.
It's got sawdust sitting on it,you know, and fluids around on
it.
And I told Aaron, I'm like wegot to cover that thing, you
(19:19):
know.
So go buy a carport kit andthrow it up over.
Irvin (19:22):
What kind of saw mill did you get?
Sam (19:25):
Oh, I got a Wood-Mizer LT40 .
Nice Dude, I love it.
I told somebody yesterday thatif, if I can find Aaron a helper
, I could.
That's, that's one of my 10eggs.
Um, I'd actually put a Facebookpost up, I don't know.
(19:45):
We two weeks ago probably,about if we should like I was
looking at it from, should weput it into the mission projects
that we're doing or should I doit as a business project?
And I immediately had threepeople step up and said they'll
do it, like they'll help fund itif we do it as a business.
So, I just kind ofautomatically did, I just rolled
(20:06):
it into another business.
It's my 10th and I those guysknow me, they know what I do,
what all my eggs are.
You know my poor sister up inOhio.
She goes crazy because peopleask her all the time what in the
world does your brother do?
She's like I don't know what hedoes.
Nobody knows what he does, youknow what does he not?
do?
Yeah, what does he not do?
Um, so it's, it's just um.
(20:28):
But I'm telling you, man, I'veI remember as a little kid
cutting trees down with Grandpaand hauling them to his cousin's
sawmill, and it was likewaiting for baby chicks to hatch
, waiting for that lumber tocome back so you could build
something cool with it.
You know we'd have to use20-penny ring shanks and
(20:51):
two-pound sledgehammers to drivethem.
You know we built all ofgrandpa's barns.
They're built out of oakmaterial, metal, and that's just
what you did yeah and I alwaysman, I love, I love wood chips.
You know, whether it's from achainsaw, a sawmill or a table
(21:12):
saw or a, you know, a planer,that's still.
That is still.
My passion is working with woodand if I can build something
out of this sawmill wood thatyou know we.
So the whole thing that got megoing this time about it was we
had all those volunteers come inthe first three weeks.
(21:34):
Um, after Helene hit here, localin my backyard, clean up, clean
up neighborhoods, clean uptrees, and all I saw was all
this huge oak wood just going towaste.
And I dude it's like you know,if we can't get anything else
out of doing all this free laborfor all these people.
They couldn't afford to buy tohire the tree services and they
didn't, their insurance wasn'tgoing to cover them.
(21:55):
Um, I was like somebody needsto saw it up, something needs to
happen with it, instead of FEMAjust hauling it all off and
chipping it.
Yeah, it took too long to getaround to doing it.
I've probably lost.
I'll probably have 10 of thelogs I could have had good grief
and you have a lot and I have250.
(22:16):
I could easy have over 2, 000 Iknow, is this all on your
property?
That the 250 are on my propertyright now, which now you
understand why my wife's yellingabout always need uh yes, I
guess.
Irvin (22:34):
Yeah, that's I know I'm with you on the wood thing.
I've never I helped directsteel buildings for a little bit
in Colorado.
I do not like working withsteel, I like working with wood.
I'm not a builder.
That may be a bit confusing topeople.
I own a shed company, but I'mnot a builder.
(22:56):
I'm an agriculture man.
I milk cows for a living andwhen I wasn't doing that I was
looking at cows' butts, chasingthem through the mountains
horseback.
I did not do, I don't have, butI know some about it by being
around it, of course.
I'd rather work with wood.
Even my dad had a sawmill.
(23:17):
He had one of them wood misers.
He just sold it a couple yearsago.
No way yeah.
Sam (23:23):
Nice.
Irvin (23:27):
I tell people, there's a reason my last name is.
Plank, it ain't.
Steel.
My name is not Irvin Steel,it's Irvin Plank.
Sam (23:34):
You even added to it for Facebook.
Aren't you still wooden plankon Facebook, or did you?
yeah, yeah, oh I got people.
I got people ask me all the timeabout they're like is that his
real name?
Like wooden, plank?
And I'm like, well, of courseit is.
I'm like, if your last name wasplank, why wouldn't you name
your kid Wooden?
I'd have a Twisted and aCrooked and a Straight.
(24:00):
I'd have all kinds of weirdkids.
Irvin (24:02):
There you go.
Sam (24:03):
Yeah, no, it's.
Yeah, I do I still.
You know that's part of thereason I'm still tied up in
sheds is because I still like tobuild stuff.
You know, that's part of thereason I'm still tied up in
sheds is because I still like tobuild stuff.
You know, man, if my body wouldlet me, I'd build sheds.
(24:23):
Wouldn't bother me in the least.
But oh no, I tried that acouple years ago and I paid
dearly for that.
I'm like nope oh man.
Not doing that again.
Irvin (24:32):
Yeah.
Sam (24:34):
So, even when we had all those volunteers in here on
thanksgiving week and we builtthose sheds here and Jeremy,
he's building sheds up there inBarnersville right now for us,
um, I, I, you know, I lovetelling them how to do it or
what's up with this or that orwhatever, but, man, it doesn't
take long at all for me and, andAaron will tell you, I can't do
(24:55):
anything slow so if I'm gonnaframe a wall.
It's gonna get framed quick.
You know we ain't got time toscrew around, do this or that it
just doesn't work.
Irvin (25:03):
You think you're still 22 .
Sam (25:05):
That's the problem yeah, that is the problem.
Irvin (25:07):
It sucks, but hey, speaking of your, your operation
in North Carolina, are youstill?
Is that still things going upthere?
Sam (25:17):
It's still going.
It's a little bit.
It's frustrating right now, tobe honest with you, because we
can't get all three pieces towork at the same time.
And my three pieces are gettinga shed, finishing a shed and
delivering a shed.
Those are my three, that's mythree-headed beast.
And you know, back in January,in the first part of February
(25:40):
well, most of February actuallyJune, December, January and
February, it was a well oldmachine in we pretty much had
all three pieces whenever weneeded it.
Um, currently, um, I don't havehaulers.
They're all busy and I get it.
And you know the ones that Idid have, I probably wore them
(26:01):
out.
They're like I never want tosee a mountain again.
You know I don't.
You know it was, it was brutal,it's hard.
So, it's pretty much right nowit's uh, if it's the B, it's up
to me.
On the hauling side, and now,even the last two or three weeks
, you know, it's been a littleharder.
I think I've probably got ninesheds that need to be finished
(26:23):
out on the inside they're wired.
Electrician came in and wiredthem all up, you know, and now
we need them insulated.
Well, most of them areinsulated, they just need to be
paneled and floored um, are yousaying when it, when you?
Irvin (26:37):
I never thought about that part.
I mean, I know it's hard, it'sdoing it in the mountains, but
you're saying when you godeliver it up there it ain't
like it's.
It's just a pain in the butt inevery language.
That's just how it is so.
Sam (26:52):
When we had the bash in Tennessee this is hilarious
because I'm going way back, uh,2019 we had the bash in
Tennessee.
There was, well, we were allpretty much no namers.
That was the first big one.
Um, we knew each other onFacebook and some of the pages
and stuff.
And then you know you have 500haulers and 500 supporters show
(27:14):
up one weekend and everybody'strying to get to know each other
a little bit or whatever.
And then all of a sudden, thisone guy in the mule competition
just stomps a mud hole and allthe rest of them and you're like
what?
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Sam (29:13):
What just?
happened here, we were doing sogood, everybody was doing good,
and this guy just comes up andblazes I mean stomped a mud hole
in everybody.
Well, a lot of those guys, andsome of them even admitted on
Facebook, you know, when theycame and hauled in Marlon
coblins's territory.
They're like we were a little.
You know, martin Hostetler evenlaughs about it, he's like.
(29:34):
You know I was a little upsetthat I thought I was a pretty
good mule driver until that dudeshowed up.
Well then he came up and hauledsheds for me one weekend,
delivered a whole bunch of them.
And Martin ain't a slouch, hegets it done, yeah, and he left
and he's like I understand whyMarlon won the mule competition.
Irvin (29:58):
Because nothing you do up here is easy and most of it is
ridiculous and it's yeah, yeah,if you imagine, I don't, I mean
I've been up there some andthat's that's every nothing is
nothing is level, everything isup and People put houses at
places.
You just go, good grief.
(30:19):
And then they want you to put ashed up there.
Sam (30:20):
Well, in your case, the shed is their house.
There you go, and now you runinto people that are desperate
for a shed, and they'll put itanywhere.
Irvin (30:29):
Yeah, yeah.
Sam (30:31):
It's poor old Roman.
He came in here.
I finally got some.
I had like 22 sheds over inMemphis that a guy over there
Shoot I don't remember his namenow.
But he basically said, if yousend me drivers, I'll load them
with sheds.
I was like what do you got?
What are you going to send me?
He said, I don't know, you senda driver over here and we'll
(30:53):
make sure he's loaded.
Irvin (31:00):
We'll send him with sheds .
So, roman, he's from fort wayneflat country.
Sam (31:01):
You know, flat as a freaking pancake up there.
Yeah, I'll guarantee you, hebrings a shed down to a show in
Nashville last week and he's gotfive days to kill before the
show ends.
You know, by time set up threeday show and then tear down.
He's like, hey, I'll run toMemphis and get you a couple
loads of sheds and run them overthere.
He's in a semi-truck First,okay, so obviously he probably
(31:26):
the mountain.
Just what's the word I'mlooking for?
It just showed a problem thatwas probably hiding.
Already Exaggerated the problem.
But he's like man, I lost highrange in my transmission.
No, no, no, no.
Yeah, he's got 18 speed, sohe's got a splitter.
(31:47):
He's got low and high range andthen he splits those gears.
He lost the splitter on thehigh side.
Irvin (31:55):
Oh yeah, 18 speed, 500 horse, and then he splits those
gears.
Sam (31:57):
He lost the splitter on the high side.
Oh yeah, and you know, 18 speed500 horse semi truck, you know,
and he's like dude, thatmountain showed my, but they
pulled our weaknesses out in theheartbeat.
Yeah, you know, he's all toreup because he's disappointing me
, because he said he's gonnabring two or three loads and he
brought one load and I'm likedude, I'm just happy to get one
load in here.
Yeah, so it.
Oh dude, those.
(32:18):
I literally roasted one set ofbrakes going down a mountain,
icy mountain, with a cabin oneday because I didn't have no
trailer brakes on the cabin andit was a completely finished out
Texas cabin.
It was heavy.
I don't know what it weighed,but it was heavy.
(32:40):
We were going down the side ofa mountain that I found later is
like 12 to 14% halfway down itwas iced over, bad enough that
the Canadian was outside thetruck walking.
Irvin (32:53):
This is a pickup truck.
Sam (32:56):
Yeah, this is my 2500 white truck and we listen.
The next day you heard thebrakes start Like you could feel
.
It was like the feelers werestarting to squeal a little bit.
Irvin (33:07):
Yeah.
Sam (33:07):
And the next day they were gone.
They weren't just bad, theywere gone.
All new rotors, all new brakepads, all new everything.
I'm pretty sure that I'vekilled my transmission.
My, so that's another longstory.
The transmission that was in itfrom factory was fine.
I wanted a bigger transmissionbecause I'd built my motor
(33:29):
bigger and I put a builttransmission in and it's been
terrible ever since we started,but at least it's been working.
Pretty sure I've pretty muchkilled that thing good grief
it's brutal up there man, manwell, I'll tell you what I'm
going to right now.
Irvin (33:47):
We're kind of putting a plan together to make a bit of a
trip back there this summer and, um, by the way, yeah, there's
a reunion just down the roadfrom your house.
Yeah, yeah, we're, we'replanning to take that thing in
and, um, and I I don't know yetwhat I definitely want to come
(34:07):
up there.
I have no idea yet.
You know how it is.
You got, I got up in Ohio aswell, so we got yeah, yeah.
Virginia, and.
But I really want to figure outa way to get a day or two, or
um, oh man, what things aregoing on.
Maybe even a little bit moretime than that, if, if you're
still in the middle of stuffover there, that work you're
(34:28):
doing, man, that's, um, that's.
I was listening to your podcast.
With what is it, Jeremy Was?
Sam (34:36):
that the guy.
Jeremy Barger.
Irvin (34:39):
Yeah, yeah, and I know there could be.
There's all kinds of ways oftalking about that work.
People got all kinds of ideas.
I don't care about none of thatstuff.
I like the way you think aboutit.
There's people that need help,and that's something we just
don't do well enough I don'tthink as uh, as people just help
(35:00):
people, as other people who arecreated in god's image.
That's just another you know,creation here in god's image
kind of a thing.
And I know there's that boy,there's.
It sounds like there's a realmess back there.
I mean and some of the thingsthat y'all talk about.
I'm not that familiar with.
It makes sense, but theemotional and mental stress
(35:23):
these people go through and itjust it'll be there for years.
Yeah, it will It'll.
Those seeds are going, thefruit's going to come out of it
down the road if there ain'tsome help and.
Sam (35:40):
I think that's just a tremendously valuable thing that
you're doing for that communitythere it will wear on you even
the emotional side that comes infrom having to tell people
every day that you can't helpthem anymore because you just
you're maxed out, you justthere's like, there's no.
(36:02):
You know, I'm, I'm like, Idon't.
I'm not going to give you falsehope and tell you I'll put you
on the list and then you know,six months, a year from now,
you're still not like, I'llnever get to you.
Yeah, and they're like.
Well, still put, they're like,they're like.
I don't care, I still want tobe on the list.
Irvin (36:18):
Yeah, yeah.
Sam (36:19):
And I'm like no, I'm not.
You know, I I'm not going toput you on a list when I know I
can't and it's it's some days Ifeel like I got the PTSD of all
of them on me.
I don't know, I got the PTSD ofall of them on me.
I don't want to cry about itbecause I don't want to, but
it's like it does.
(36:40):
And Aaron will tell you know,young, young dude like him,
fixing turn, 25 years old, wholelife in front of him, never
really has been into anythinglike what we're doing now.
He will tell you in a heartbeattwo things.
He will say if you want to findJesus, go up in those mountains
and help somebody.
That's where you're going tofind Jesus like you've never
(37:03):
seen him before, he said.
And the second thing is wedon't help each other enough.
Irvin (37:11):
Just in a circle of friends or just as humans as
humans yeah yeah, we don't helpeach other enough yeah we've.
Sam (37:20):
We've somewhere along the line.
We've become dependent upon thegovernment helping people.
And then, you know, people likeus want to say that it's we,
the people, we want we, thepeople, to be in charge of this
country, but we, the people,ain't willing to step up and do
what needs to be done boy.
Irvin (37:36):
That's a fact and.
And we also talk about how,back in the good old days, and
you know all the differentmindsets and the way community
work, maybe not, maybe not somuch about community, but other
things that were different 30,50 and 100 years ago.
Well, one of the things thatwere different 30, 50, and 100
years ago, well, one of thethings that was also different
(37:58):
was sense of community that welost in a lot of ways and that
right there where we just helpedeach other and we talked to
each other and do thesedifferent things, I mean I live
out here in the middle ofnowhere.
Now.
I lived in some places veryremote.
I lived in one ranch I lived on.
(38:18):
They did a study or I guess astudy, and they were trying to
find the most remote location inthe United States and they went
by five things how far you werefrom the post office, a power
line, paved road, a railroad,and I guess town was the other
one, and that ranch I was on wasthe furthest one with all five
(38:43):
of those things.
But there's other places thatare further away from town but
they got electricity orsomething.
I don't know, maybe the otherthing was a telephone line.
In those remote places you havethat sense of community.
You might have a neighbor thatlives.
I think our closest neighborwas 20 miles away and when they
(39:05):
drive by.
They stop and talk to you andthey don't care.
Like they do not care what timeof the day it is.
No.
They don't want to stop and talk, but when they want to stop and
talk, nobody cares yeah, yepyou're in the middle of a
project.
If you are, they'll just jumpin and help you while they talk
yeah, yep you're eating, it doesnot matter, it's it's.
(39:25):
And now where I live it's aremote area, but it's remote as
in when you get away from thiscentralized, there's a lot.
I see a lot of houses fromwhere I live and I got neighbors
that moved in next to me Umshoot, it's probably a quarter
mile of their house and we nevereven went over and seen them.
(39:48):
I don't, why do we do that?
Why didn't we go see that whenthey like take him.
I did go visit him with him oneday.
But yeah, I mean, we live right.
now, but we all get chop chopchop running.
Yeah, Looking at our stupidphones doing all kinds of other
stuff.
Yes, sir, yep, that's acommunity man, that's a big,
(40:10):
that's a powerful thing.
Sam (40:12):
Yes, it is, it is.
You know, that's something thatwe brought up there, though.
Um, even the mattress sisterssitting there talking to them
one day, and Cynthia made thecomment that that river that's
right there behind them, she'slike I never.
I never saw that river before.
I've lived here for six yearsand I've never saw that river,
(40:34):
because there was always tooyeah, there always too much
shrubbery and bushes and treesand stuff in the way.
She said all those neighborsover there?
I didn't even know they wereover there, and now they're
right there.
And I asked her.
I said Cynthia, how many ofthose neighbors did you know
before the storm?
That one, and she pointed atthe one house up there.
(40:54):
I said what about those andthose and these and this and
this one?
Nope, they drive by, we'd waveat them.
I said how many of them, do youknow?
Now she goes all of them.
Yeah, I'm like so do you thinkthat's a good thing or a bad
thing?
She says, oh, it's very much agood thing.
Yeah, and you hear, you hear itall over those.
There's 25, 30, 35 communitiesup there that are like
(41:18):
Barnardsville and every one ofthem will tell you that you know
now, they know people theynever they.
Irvin (41:25):
They know neighbors they never knew before yeah it's and
and just just a little bit ofcommunication.
Man just know, and and you'rein the same boat.
I was thinking about some ofthat stuff here the last couple
days, about something else.
I can't remember exactly whatit was, but it was kind of how
you know how we get.
We do it in families a littlebit Well.
(41:46):
We fight with each other untilsomebody picks on us and then
we're all of a sudden bigbuddies, picks on us, and then
we're all of a sudden bigbuddies and as soon as it's the
same thing.
If you, if you were wanderingaround in Hong Kong, and you run
into an American and he mightbe a flaming liberal Democrat
(42:07):
but he's an American, you'regoing to be happy to talk to
that guyyep, you are like it's us over
here kind of a thing, and all ofthem little.
You are like it's us over herekind of a thing and, um, all of
them little you know, but it'syou know you could we're a whole
lot more.
We have way more in common thanwe do not in common and it kind
(42:28):
of would help each other workon those things a little bit.
Think about those things we, wewould probably connect a lot
better and I'm just the next guyon all that
Sam (42:39):
yeah, that was something that came up.
You know, working up there toois the fact that you know, Aaron
and I would talk about thiscoming home some days, about the
people we helped that day, and,uh, you know, they'd cry, we'd
cry, um, they'd cry, we'd cry,they'd be happy, we'd be happy.
(42:59):
You know, it was all kinds ofemotions across the board, yeah,
and on the way home I'd pull upyou know Facebook or something,
and here are two of my buddiesranting about the opposite
political party and I'd look atAaron and I'd be like, look
seriously, like did we, did weever think about asking these
(43:21):
people who'd you vote for?
You know, are you, are you aTrump fan or are you not a Trump
fan?
You know, and, man, it has,like most of my friends are
probably say, you know, thedude's done went off the deep
end because he doesn't supportanybody anymore.
I don't care, it doesn't matteranymore when, when people need
help, you don't care who theyare.
Irvin (43:40):
Yeah.
Sam (43:42):
You're back to the human race.
And even when I find out threemonths later when some of them
start posting up stuff, I don'tcare if that's.
If that's where they are andthat's what they want to believe
, I'm fine with that.
I made a friend with them.
I'm going to be a friend withthem.
If they want to walk away,that's on their part, but I'm
not going to.
Irvin (44:00):
Exactly.
I got a big day tomorrow.
I have a fully finished 18 by40 cabin.
That's going to require two tothree meals to get it delivered
Way back in the sticks and downa dirt lane With all the rain
we've had lately, it's going tobe a mess, but it needs a bigger
mule.
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(44:43):
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That thing was awesome.
That's right.
It's the one you've seen at all.
The Shed Holler barbecues wasawesome, that's right, it's the
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Yeah, there's nothing like alittle diesel donkey to make my
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(45:04):
Yeah, their raw issues on both sides are the exact same
thing.
In fact, in the grand scheme ofthings, there's very small
differences.
We make huge and some of them,if you go down them, you know
they do.
They do manifest themselves.
Down the road is significantlydifferent.
(45:27):
But if you're going to get, ifyou're going to connect with
people, and you first all ain'tme or you no human being is
going to change the whole worldor even a very big part of it,
like yeah those people by farare only going to influence,
really influence a small numberof people I heard a guy talking
(45:50):
about that, I think yesterday.
Do you know who the richest guyin the world was 30 years ago?
Sam (45:57):
30 years ago.
I'm going to take a shot andsay it was Sam Walton.
Irvin (46:01):
Do you know who the richest guy in the world was 60
years ago?
Sam (46:04):
No.
Irvin (46:06):
What about 90 years ago?
Sam (46:07):
No clue.
Irvin (46:09):
Rockefellers this was the richest guy in the world and
nobody knows who they are.
Oh, I know you made a guess.
And so even the richest guy inthe world today?
And I don't.
I was thinking this guy saidsomeone else.
I had never heard of the guy hesaid.
Whatever the case, his pointwas even the richest guy in the
(46:29):
world doesn't have but so muchinfluence.
Oh no.
That's the end of the line.
The influence he has is usuallynot deep with huge amounts of
it.
What you're talking about thereis if you can put aside those
differences, or if thosedifferences keep us from loving
(46:54):
each other and caring for eachother.
We need to look in our heartsand see what's going on.
Sam (47:00):
No kidding, yep.
Yep, yeah.
I don't know.
You know, for me it even goesdeeper.
For me, as a Christian, it evengoes deeper in that, in the
fact that when you look at Jesusbeing from Nazareth, which was
looked down upon, and then hewas always bringing up the
(47:22):
Samaritans, or helping theSamaritans or getting them
involved, you know the woman atthe well, she was a Samaritan.
She went back and turned intothe biggest evangelist during
Jesus time.
She brought the whole city backaround.
You know, based on him, andit's like I'd rather err on the
side of not caring about allthis stuff that I'm supposed to
(47:44):
care about than err on the sidethat I care too much about it.
You follow me.
Irvin (47:49):
Yeah.
Sam (47:49):
Because I'm going to err on the side of loving people and
doing what I feel like is thehuman right thing to do.
You can take it or leave it.
Irvin (48:04):
Yeah, no, I don't think there's enough of that.
There's room, I mean, there'sroom for concerns and all that
sort of stuff.
There's room for concerns andall that sort of stuff.
There's always that.
But in a crisis like this typeof thing, is man somewhere along
the line?
Somewhere along the linethere's room to just humans
helping humans.
Sam (48:26):
Yeah.
Irvin (48:29):
Yep, it's not like you went into a.
Well, I don't even know.
I'm not even going to say whatI was thinking, because it's all
of it can get.
You can make an angle about anygroup of people to not help
them for whatever reason oh, youcould, yeah, you could.
Sam (48:45):
You could a little.
Well, you can people do.
You can make an excuse and talkyourself out of helping anybody
yeah yes, very true buddy.
Irvin (48:55):
Yeah, yes, very true.
Yeah, I definitely think, andif you study the life of Jesus,
what you're talking about, thatthat was not, and that's what
everybody likes to talk about.
How, especially when they'rethe ones who are in a pickle
about something.
Well, you know.
Jesus helped everybody, so youshould help me why ain't you
(49:18):
helping other people?
Sam (49:19):
in a pickle like me yeah yeah, yeah, I've got people all
the time that I you know.
They're like well, I wish Icould help and I'm like well,
you can.
Every dollar helps and everyprayer helps.
You can always.
I mean, oh my word, have I everlearned how important like I've
done disaster work my wholelife yeah this is by far by far,
(49:42):
I mean, I'd almost put a 10multiplier on it by far the most
demanding physical andspiritual one we've ever done.
I see, I know it's always been alittle cliche to say that well,
first of all, pray for us,second of all, fund us, but it
(50:08):
has never been truer than inthis case.
That I don't know.
There's all kinds of conspiracytheories and all this bull crap
.
I don't buy any of that, youknow for the record Um but I'm
saying that the spiritualwarfare that has happened in the
last seven, almost eight monthsnow hold it.
It's coming right up on eightmonths in a couple of days.
(50:29):
Um dude, it's crazy.
And almost everybody that'scome and helped us that's been
here for at least a day or two.
They will tell you they havefelt it.
Irvin (50:41):
I see.
Sam (50:44):
When I tell people on Facebook that you can always
pray for us, it's a mostdefinite always pray for us.
Yes, we are.
I mean I've been blessed beyondmeasure for the people that
have funded us.
You've helped us.
A lot of people have helped us.
Yes, we are.
I mean I've been blessed beyondmeasure for the people that
have funded us.
You've helped us.
A lot of people have helped us.
But at the end of the day, wewouldn't have gotten anywhere
(51:05):
without the prayers we've got.
It's crazy.
Irvin (51:09):
And the fact that you can sense that or feel that tells
you that there's a battle goingon.
I mean if there's no tension,then there's nothing pushing
against good.
Sam (51:27):
Yeah, yeah.
And so that ought to tell youthat, that that preaches right
there, man yep, yeah, it does,and that's why Aaron says what
he says about you want to find,if you know, if you're going to
church every Sunday and youcan't figure out where this
Jesus guy is they're talkingabout, go to the mountains and
work on it, you know, just go upthere, you'll find them in a
(51:51):
hurry.
It's, it's unbelievable.
So, wow, yeah, it's, it's beenamazing.
It has been.
You know, two weeks ago we kindof halfway open the shop again,
um to start taking some workback in, because I mean, at some
point a turnips dry.
(52:14):
Um, I, you know, I got to dosomething and so we're starting
to build back up a little bit.
Try to get some funding, youknow.
Try to get some.
Try to keep ourselves afloat sowe can.
Actually, you can't helpanybody if you're not living
anymore.
Irvin (52:28):
That's right, that's a fact.
Sam (52:30):
So we're kind of focused on that a little more right now,
which the sad thing about thatis we don't get as much done as
quick as we did, but at least wecan keep going.
Oh yeah, so that's before Iforget, between Hartwell,
Georgia, where that reunion is,and Martinsburg, Ohio, where
(52:54):
you're going on that same tripat some point right along the
way is Barnardsville, andthere's a really nice place
there you can stay at.
Irvin (53:03):
I see.
Sam (53:04):
So there you go, just for the record.
Irvin (53:06):
Well, very good.
Well, Barnardsville, yeah,that's definitely on the
planning board.
Try to figure out how to dothat.
Yeah, absolutely.
Our plan is actually go toHarrisonburg.
(53:27):
We have a bunch of friends inthat area as well.
Sam (53:30):
Oh nice.
Irvin (53:32):
And then go to Ohio.
But you can do the same thing,oh yeah same thing Still runs
you up.
You're still going up to Ohio.
Sam (53:35):
You can do the same thing, same thing.
You're still going up to 81.
Yeah, that's cool.
When is that reunion?
Irvin (53:47):
I think it's the third week in July.
Okay, that's what it is yeah,yes, sir.
Sam (53:59):
Cool deal.
Irvin (54:00):
It's been good chatting with you absolutely, man I've
really enjoyed this.
I like, I like listening to youguys's conversations keeps me
yes sir, the loop with the Idon't.
I'm not very like.
I said, I'm not I I can get inthe loop pretty quick but i'm
not in the day to day loop ofthe shed world to fill out here.
But yes, sir, my pleasure.
Sam (54:23):
Anything you want to throw out there for anybody listening.
What do I want to?
Irvin (54:29):
throw out there for anybody listening.
Help.
Sam get those people taken careof.
Sam (54:38):
I'll take all of that we can get but, like I said, I've
been blessed.
Irvin (54:41):
Yeah it is, it has been amazing yeah yep no, yeah, we'll
keep plugging yeah, just man,there's, there's so many
opportunities and one thing, onething that I've learned this is
I like business, I've, I'velike I was telling you earlier,
I was in the cows and I got mychildren at the age now where
(55:02):
they can help in that kind ofwork and I want to do more of it
, mostly because of them um Ispent 20 years doing it and it's
still a good, a good exerciseto get out, do other things
doing that sort of stuff.
But, um, one of the things thatI learned in the in away from
the cow business and in justregular business, where you're
(55:23):
helping people every day, is theinfluence or the difference you
can make in people's lives.
Man, if you'll just listen andthis is to all the people in
this industry and any, any typeof business man take advantages
of those times that you can,that you got somebody in front
of you that's in a pickle, andpray with them, help them you
know, listen to them justsometimes they just need
(55:45):
somebody to listen to.
Sometimes I want them to get onout of here cause I got other
stuff to do but, it's kind of ait's.
it's a healthy thing for me tosit there and slow down and
listen to my fellow humans andbe there for them in some manner
100%.
Sam (56:01):
I agree Cool deal.
Well, thank you, man.
I appreciate you coming on,appreciate you as a fellow
businessman in the shed industry, but also as a friend and a
cousin.
Look forward to many good times.
Irvin (56:18):
Absolutely man Hang in there we're praying.
Sam (56:22):
We'll keep plugging away, thank you.
All right guys.
Thank you once again forjoining us and listening to
another episode.
Actually, I think we talkedlong enough.
This probably turned into atwo-part episode, so that's
perfectly fine.
That's good stuff.
Anybody that wants to come on,reach out to me.
I need people.
(56:43):
Shannon's always asking me.
Hey, you got more guys comingon the show, so anytime you guys
want to just chat for a whileand come on and talk, just reach
out to me.
I'd be happy to set up a Zoomcall.
Come see you, do whatever weneed to do.
But thank you once again forlistening to another episode of
the Shed Geek Podcast.
Sambassador Friday Funday style.
(57:05):
Until next time, thank you andGod bless.
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