Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
From Amish Beginnings to YouTube Success: The Inspiring Journey of Josh Swartzentruber
Imagine growing up in an Amish community, facing bullying, and then transforming into a successful shed hauler and YouTube content creator. That's the extraordinary journey of Josh Swartzentruber, our guest for this episode. Josh opens up about his early life struggles and the emotional toll they took on him. He shares how he turned his life around through self-education and personal development, leading to his unique career path in the shed hauling industry and creating content that has captivated an online audience. His story is a testament to resilience and the power of pursuing one's passions.
Beyond the mechanics, we discuss the complexities of balancing multiple roles—from dealing with DOT fines to handling the ethical dilemmas of repossession jobs. Josh emphasizes the paramount importance of communication and professionalism, offering invaluable advice for those considering a career in this unique field.
Our conversation goes beyond work to touch on Josh’s early fascination with trucks, his spiritual journey, and the profound impact of community support and faith. We reflect on his path from an Amish farm to his current life in Colorado, the evolution of Amish craftsmanship, and the quest for personal growth. Josh’s experiences offer a rich tapestry of life lessons, underscoring the significance of self-improvement and making a positive impact. Whether it’s through small acts of kindness or showcasing real-life family dynamics, Josh’s insights remind us that everyone has the power to contribute to a better world.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
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To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
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Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
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Shed Challenger
Well, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, the new Sambassador Friday Fun Day version. I'm your host, Sam Byler, and I'm honored to be out here in the middle of Ohio, somewhere, With I could almost call you famous. I was thinking about it on the way over here. Do I want to call you famous or infamous? Josh Swartzentruber, I've actually been looking forward to this one. So we had a little miscommunication. You thought that you were going to interview me and I came thinking I was going to interview you. So it's all good, we get done here. We'll turn around and, uh, you can ask me all the questions that's what happens when you don't ask enough questions.
Josh Swartzentruber:I guess you don't know what's going on.
Sam Byler:So, yeah you. You asked me about stopping in to do a podcast and I'm like I'll be happy to stop in and do one. Yeah. So it's all good. I think the first time that I ran into you was on Facebook and somebody had posted one of your YouTube videos. Yes.
Sam Byler:And I didn't even so I think I actually deleted it because I'm a little bit old school. On our hauler page and when somebody just shares stuff, that I don't think has anything to do with them. So there's 5,000 people on there. If we would let everybody just share whatever they want to share every day, you couldn't even find stuff. So way back we're. We're coming up on 10 years on that page really it's.
Sam Byler:It's pretty wild Merle and I were talking about the other day Merle Miller and I met on somebody else's facebook page, found out we were both in the shed hauling business and we're like, hey, we should start a page. There was actually a couple other people in that conversation that day and there was two pages started the same day. I honestly have no idea why ours took off more than the other one did, but it's always been that way. But that's bringing it back to say I like when people share their own stuff. It keeps it more relevant, it keeps it more in focus with what we do. Obviously, most of us are trucker-oriented. Yeah.
Sam Byler:So a lot of trucking stuff shows up on there and I try to use as much grace as possible to you know. If it's something that applies, leave it there but at the same time clean it up. So I think your first one I think I actually deleted it, and then somewhere along did we meet in Indiana the first time. Is that where we met? Yeah, I think it was.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah at the Midwest, Bash At the Midwest.
Sam Byler:Bash, and you intrigued the heck out of me because you come from the same background that I did. Obviously, I was a little kid when we left and you had to, but I've seen the battles come out of that. I've seen the good and the bad side. Yeah. And I watch people and I watch people. I basically feel like your reactions to other people's actions determine what you're going to be.
Sam Byler:That's good. You follow what I'm getting at. Yeah, I like to say that we should live life more proactive than reactive, but a lot of what we do is based on the reaction we give to somebody's action, and that's that's what you come from, that's what makes you um. So I want to, I'm just going to wade right in um, we got a, I got a lot I want to cover, and you, there's a lot in there that I want to know.
Sam Byler:you know, how does a guy like you you know you left the amish, you got into hauling somehow I want to know how you got into hauling, how you got into sheds and where did the YouTube come from? Did you just wake up one day and say you know what? I want to put my story out there. Where does that come from?
Josh Swartzentruber:Nope, it came from gosh. I could go way back. I don't know how far back to go. Go back as far as you want, I'll sit here and listen all day. You said, growing up Amish in a large family, I was in the middle and I was bullied a lot as a kid and that's a form of emotional abuse and that puts me in what I call a spiral of just depression addiction, feeling like I'm worthless, suicidal I mean up until I was, you know, 22 years old.
Josh Swartzentruber:There was suicidal, different times and, uh, just kind of a hard life lost, didn't know where to go and, man, where are we? You asked too many questions there. I don't know which direction to go yeah, just start wherever you want to.
Sam Byler:I'll bring you back to the ones you miss.
Josh Swartzentruber:And then I started finally educating myself and just kind of working on myself, got counseling, tried to figure out who I am Really working on myself. A lot is where it changed my life. And then, well, you asked about YouTube. So, yeah, at some point I said, well, I want passive income. This is at the time this is now, I mean fast forward where I'm 30 years old and I'm looking at how can I do better with my income and how can I get passive income so that I can get paid on Sunday and when I'm sleeping.
Josh Swartzentruber:And so I started doing research on that and one of the things was YouTube, real estate YouTube, some of the other things. So that's how I got YouTube the idea. And then this was a couple years after I started hauling sheds. One day, me and my brother-in-law we're both sick, we're at home, we're bored. So he says, you know, he's been watching this guy on YouTube that does. He's a tow truck driver, so he goes on there and we're watching this. And that was the day a light bulb went off. I thought we've been sitting here for 30 minutes. The guy has a GoPro on him and he's just out doing his job and we're entertained watching it, and boom. So the idea had already come before and I like to back it up a little bit to say, you know, some things come easy, but oftentimes it's. I did research on it and, you know, thought things through and it didn't come by accident.
Sam Byler:That's what I'm saying. Yeah, and then I picked that up.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, and it's. It's kind of like when you buy a new car, then all of a sudden you see a lot of those same cars out there. Oh yeah car. Then all of a sudden you see a lot of those same cars out there. Oh yeah, because your brain thinks that's what you like. So that moment of seeing this tow truck driver, that light bulb, wouldn't have come on if I wouldn't have been looking for that opportunity.
Sam Byler:That's the point you would have sat there and watched it. Yeah, been entertained, but it wouldn't yeah exactly that that's cool that you found it through, like you knew you wanted to do somewhere. You said that recently, something about wanting passive income, because that's why I wanted to know if the passive income, if that, came before, let's do youtube no, it was yeah, yeah you you see that as a way to have passive income. Yes.
Sam Byler:Yeah, yeah, so okay. So you see a tow truck driver doing it. So you just decide hey, I'm going to do this, I'm going to go out and buy me a GoPro and I'm just going to start filming everything.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, I spent $99 on eBay and.
Sam Byler:I'm like oh.
Josh Swartzentruber:I don't know if this is worth it, but it's paid off well.
Sam Byler:Yeah, I don't know if this is worth it, but it's paid off. Well, walk me through a little bit. What your YouTube? How many followers do you have? What are the ones that become big? Or go viral or whatever.
Josh Swartzentruber:Right now we have 140,000 subscribers. I believe it's where we're at. And the fights? Well, not fights, but they want chaotic. They want chaotic yes if you're doing repo and that's really what it was is the repo, and there are some deliveries I have. I haven't done much recording on deliveries but people like them. Anything tiny, house related is popular right now.
Sam Byler:Yes, yeah, but people like them anything tiny house related is popular right now.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yes, yeah, you know and uh, but yeah, repo, the stingier, the messier, the crappier you get into a little fight or something. So it's it's a bit of a balance or a challenge for me, because when I go out there I know the people on youtube. I know if I put up a fight and if I cause some chaos I could get a lot more views and make a lot more money.
Josh Swartzentruber:I'm not just trying to blow smoke and brag on me, but I look at it as that's not who I am. My integrity is to treat people nice. I'll sacrifice the views because I just want to be nice to people and change the world that way.
Sam Byler:I've noticed that some of yours so obviously, both of us being in shed hauling, both of us having done I've done a lot of repos.
Sam Byler:I just don't have a YouTube channel, but my friends at home, they always say you should have a TV crew following you around just because of the dumb stuff we get into you. And I both know that we can de-escalate a situation or we can escalate it exactly um, it's, it's pretty much in the drivers. Now what there is one out of 20, 25. I don't know that. You absolutely can't. They're.
Sam Byler:They're just off the wall you can't control anything they do, but the majority of them we have the ability to de-escalate or escalate it. One of my favorite ones of you is the one where and I don't quite remember what the deal was, but it was out kind of back behind the house a ways you went up and talked to her at the house. You went back there, you fooled around, you went back and forth. You weren't in a hurry.
Sam Byler:And you tried to stay as non-confrontational as possible, tried to stay as non-confrontational as possible, but I could tell that it was wearing on you a little bit, that you were a little aggravated with it. Yeah, it happened.
Sam Byler:And to me now obviously I'm not your typical YouTuber, a watcher, but to me you do very well at keeping it exciting but at the same time, not pushing them past where I know you could push them yeah um yeah and and I get that you know we watch all the tiktokers too and stuff, and I absolutely despise tiktok I don't have it um, I don't I don't like what our government's doing with it, but I despise TikTok in the fact that the more you bully, the more aggravating you get, the more people like it.
Josh Swartzentruber:Or the dumber you act, yeah, the dumber you get.
Sam Byler:I get that, but you did the one where you were delivering that shed that just insisted on falling apart, right, yes. One where you were delivering that shed that just insisted on falling apart, right, yes. And that's another one that I really like, because there's there's no drama involved.
Sam Byler:It's you fighting the shed yeah, and we've been there, you know, yeah, but but for somebody that doesn't know anything about sheds, it's like how does this get so many views? You know without, and you know sometimes you have something you're like I have no idea why that went viral. Yeah, that's true. Have you found that? Oh yeah.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, we had one that nothing was shared. My wife took a video of Amish man plowing and as of now it has 28 million views and we got over 20,000 subscribers out of that video Out of that video. Yeah, it's crazy and it kind of messes up because it's a short video and it was in India. The country of India is where the views come from, Because they're like what they use horses. We thought we used cows to plow.
Sam Byler:Oh, that's cool yeah.
Josh Swartzentruber:And so it messes your algorithm up, Because I can look at well, not algorithm my analytics, I can look at well not algorithm, my analytics, I can look at.
Josh Swartzentruber:Okay, there's just the age group that watches my videos. This is the country that watches the most and, as this thing comes in and messes it all up, because it's different age group, different countries, so I guess I want to ask you the question is what age group do you think watches my videos? Because it's 65 and older, 55 to 65 to 55 and then from there down from there down every 10 years?
Sam Byler:yeah, so it goes 30. So, as somebody that obviously knows almost nothing about it, I would say the most people watching youtubers are. I mean, youtubes are between 18 and 30 that's what I would guess.
Josh Swartzentruber:guess the people who watch the most by far have always been 65 and older. No way.
Sam Byler:That's mind-blowing. I know. I wouldn't even know anybody.
Sam Byler:I feel like I'm old in that category and I wouldn't be anywhere close
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Sam Byler:It's pretty easy to pick up on the fact that you're not a hauler doing YouTube. You're a YouTuber that just happens to haul. Is that a fair statement? Yeah.
Sam Byler:Where do you balance? Like well, you know, most haulers, most of us like chrome lights, smoke power. Do you have that in you?
Josh Swartzentruber:I do. Is that something that?
Sam Byler:you actually enjoy. Doing.
Josh Swartzentruber:I do. I had just for a little bit there I had my own truck. And boy did I get hammered by DOT? I spent $3,000 in fines in six months.
Sam Byler:I know how that is.
Josh Swartzentruber:It's like Satan just put the hammer down.
Sam Byler:Yeah, like you're not doing this.
Josh Swartzentruber:It was weird. But other than that, I've always driven somebody else's truck and so I just kind of drive, you know, whatever is available, whatever they have. Yeah, but no, I think you're you're thinking about. I'm a youtuber doing shits in a way.
Sam Byler:Yes, because we do other videos and that's the long-term goal is youtube, not shits yes, that's what I was looking for when I'm out there especially doing repost, then I feel like I was looking for.
Josh Swartzentruber:When I'm out there especially doing repos, then I feel like I have to reverse it.
Josh Swartzentruber:I'm there representing whoever my boss is or the company I hold for I'm representing rent don't company, I'm representing the whole shed industry and I'm representing God and I'm you know I'm doing all of that. Then, like I said earlier, dennis, I have to choose to make that priority, and there's things I want to say, there's things I want to do, but I still got a job, like you're on your job, yeah. So I'm going to have to do my job first and to make better videos. I could also slow down, explain things, but I don't know when the guys will come home. Was it gone so?
Sam Byler:I gotta get in and out, you know. So yeah, I used to say you move as fast as you slowly, can you know? You don't, you don't want the neighbors to think you're stealing it.
Sam Byler:You know this dude's in a major rush oh, I never thought of that I used to tell shane all the time, my son, when he would help me. He says I'd be like you get out and you move, don't waste any time. Yeah, but let's not get in a hurry. But at the same time when, when they were so, most times if they got to me they were bad, um, because that means my other haulers had already been, my drivers had already been run off, or yeah somebody else had tried and didn't.
Sam Byler:And you know there's probably a dozen guys on the hauler page that I consider professional retrieval, guys that I feel like are doing it to the best of their ability. They're doing it professionally, but we don't all do it the same way. We all have our own quirks. We all have our own ideas of what we think is the best way we can do it yeah, um and I don't agree with the other guys.
Sam Byler:I'm like man, I'd never do that, but then I do stuff and they'd be like what in the world you know? Do you? You notice that?
Josh Swartzentruber:I, I haven't noticed too much. Uh, yeah, I do see some stuff, yeah, but then I guess I mean you don't have to share if you don't want to, but what are some of the things that you shouldn't do?
Sam Byler:so so, for example, um I always call them even if yeah, so we, we always had this thing. You know, it was a, it was a yellow one, and then it was a red one, and then it was a purple one okay yellow one meant that you know, just go get it, there's no issues, it's just caution, just go get it, yeah it's a return um. I've actually had like volunteer returns go south yeah, really bad um so then when it goes red, that means somebody's tried, maybe multiple times.
Sam Byler:When it's purple, somebody's got their hands around the neck and it's losing air.
Sam Byler:You follow what I'm saying yeah um, so I don't care if it was, which stage it was in. I tried to contact those people and let them know that, hey, I'm the guy that's in charge of getting this building picked back up. Um, I know, guys, that they don't want they won't. Yeah, and they're friends of mine and and I trust what they do. I just can't operate that way. They're like no, we're not calling them. I don't want them knowing that we're trying to get it Right, yeah.
Sam Byler:You know. So that's probably one of the biggest differences about me, and the fact is that when I show up, the first thing I do is I go knock on a door. You know, it doesn't matter if I'm trying to hurry or if I'm trying to grab it quick Now, if I go knock on the door and I get run off and then I have to try to do it later. I've already did that approach.
Sam Byler:Yeah, so then it might change, but on average I tend to work with them as much as possible until they either well. I mean, you know we've had. How many times have you gone up and knocked on a door? Nobody answers. You get halfway through picking up the shed and somebody comes out that same door.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, you know you follow what I'm saying. Yeah, if you want to get them out of the house, just start unloading your mule and don't wake up.
Sam Byler:So I was one of the ones that never that said I'd never have mules um, you know we did it old-fashioned. Yeah, I was.
Sam Byler:I was one of those I gave it up quicker than a lot of them did, um, but I'd been at it a lot longer before that. So when I started having to hire some drivers, I was like, uh, uh, we're going to have to get a meal. It's just not going to work any other way there. You know, I can't expect guys to go rolling around on pipes the way I do all the time. Um, so we did. We got a meal and I got one of the first ones that had a remote and you'd be in the middle of doing the delivery and you'd be going down four blocks in the middle of Jacksonville Florida and it would quit the delivery, and you'd be going down four blocks in the middle of Jacksonville Florida and it would quit and there was nothing you could do to start it, it just had the first.
Sam Byler:the first ones had such electronic issues and you come back the next morning, they crank right up and run for another two weeks. There's no manual control, no there was no, there was nothing, nothing you could do on them. So you'd be in the middle of a pickup and it would do that. Oh wow, and then you're done. Well, anyway, I got to where I was. Pretty good I could go up and beat on the door and I'd be running the mule around over here on the side.
Sam Byler:It'd be headed for the building with the remote and they'd open the door and they'd be like what's? Going on over there. That's awesome. Yeah, so that used to be fun until the thing quit. So I guess what I'm asking is did you ever feel like you had to have a set system in the way you did pickups, or did you just kind?
Josh Swartzentruber:of always wade into them and say, well, if this happens, we'll do this. I mean, you go in you never know what's going to happen. So I guess I would say, why half a system?
Sam Byler:in you never know what's going to happen, so I guess I would say why half a system?
Josh Swartzentruber:because you don't know it's never going to work right, it's never going to go, it's just one or the other way. And I've thought about that a lot too is do you call them? I've done it. When I have my own truck, I would do that for return sometimes I call them but for repos. We never did. I was never taught that we nobody I know personally around here ever calls them yeah and I'm kind of in the cam buff.
Josh Swartzentruber:I don't really want them to know I'm coming, because then they can be waiting. But it's a it's a challenge to figure out where that balance is to me, because you know, do I? I've even thought about that. You're a repo guy, like for car repo guys. They don't go out there knocking their door, do they? They just show up and grab the car.
Sam Byler:Well, I did those long before I did sheds. Yeah so that's the world I came from before.
Josh Swartzentruber:But would you knock on the door? No, yeah.
Sam Byler:The dealer had already done that. Yeah. You know so we never so the little bit of difference in when I was doing car pickups versus shed pickups. Most times the people that had contacted the car pickup ones were more local to the area. Our rent-to-own companies are scattered everywhere.
Sam Byler:Yeah, it's true, and a lot of times there's just a communication gap because you have a guy from Pennsylvania calling somebody from South Carolina or you have somebody from Texas calling somebody in Indiana, you know, and there's, there's almost the communication barrier just in the different cultures. So when I would show up as someone from that area, I found out my communication sometimes would help to where I didn't have to pick up that shed.
Sam Byler:um, I could walk up to the door and let them yell at me for 30 minutes and I'd get payment yeah, um, yeah not always, but that's, and when I started I was so the first five years I did I never picked up anybody's shed except one I sold. They were all sheds that I had done and I had delivered them.
Josh Swartzentruber:So these are your customers, yeah these are my customers.
Sam Byler:That would be a little different. So my training was all done on my customers, yeah. And then you're standing there with a customer and you have the RTO company on speaker and you hear how they're getting treated by the RTO company. We've seen that go both ways. Yeah, you know we've seen that go both ways. Yeah, you know, we've seen rto companies treat customers very well and we've seen them treat them poorly. Yeah, well, as, as the owner of the company, that made a difference to me I'm sure it would.
Sam Byler:You know these are your customers, yeah and then you know I was having a conversation uh saturday at woody's party with a guy about. You know he had a customer that came in like over and over and he picked this shed and then he'd change his mind and pick that shed took him forever decide which shed he wanted.
Sam Byler:Well then, he never paid for it. After, after you know, six months of picking 12 different sheds, they finally get him a shed to get it out there on rent to own. Of course you know they could finally get the down payment and stuff. Well, he never pays on again. So when he goes out there to pick it up, there's like five sheds sitting out there. Wow, what does that tell you?
Sam Byler:he's done it with five different companies yeah, he did it with five different companies and he's probably going to sell them again, you know. And of course, this guy's shed is blocked in by the other sheds. You know. We see stuff like that all the time. Yeah, that's crazy stuff. So when we see that, it's like another brick gets laid in our armor. That's what we're dealing with all the time. Yeah. Do you feel like sometimes we get callous? Yeah. You know what I'm saying.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, because you're dealing with if somebody really ticks you off and that's something I recently actually made a video a little bit of my opinion and stuff about Shed Repoto. But that is something I did talk about, though, is be very careful If somebody really ticks you off and gets on your nerve. You cannot take that attitude to the next customer, though I mean is that what you're referring to?
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, but it's pretty easy to do that it is yeah, but you have to. I think you have to build good character to be a repo guy, because if you don't, if somebody can control you and get you angry really fast, then you're going to lose your control and you're going to do dumb stuff. No, say it ain't so. No, so yeah, it's so. So yeah, I know what you're saying. If somebody treats you bad or somebody did this, and then you're thinking, you just kind of think of man, people are just so evil or wrong or whatever, and then you go to the next customer and you don't know, they might be very nice and you're kind of using that previous, yeah, experience you're still in that state and you know this idea of just grabbing it and go or calling.
Josh Swartzentruber:The other thing that we've seen a few times I've seen it happen is where, especially at a trailer park or could be anywhere, you get there and they say, oh well, we bought the trailer house and the shit came with it oh, oh, yeah, now we're yeah. They're innocent most likely. They were told that and so if I go in and grab this thing with no communication, I feel kind of bad now because, hey, they didn't know.
Sam Byler:They thought it's their shit. We've actually seen some of those people make the news.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, I remember seeing that. Yeah, so that's where. But if they're not home and you're three hours, two hours from home, oh yeah, I'm definitely getting it.
Sam Byler:Yes, I am, and then we'll figure the mess out later. In fact, I've had a couple tell me that and I'm like, look, I've drove three hours to come get this. I'm paid to get this shed picked up. It is the right shed. I'm going to put it over here on this lot. Yeah.
Sam Byler:And we'll figure it out. Yeah, there again, I'm the one that's in control of that situation, if they're there. If they're not there, yeah, you make the news. Yeah. And then it hits the hauler page and we're all like, yep, we know what's going on. Yeah, so do you feel like us as a group of haulers? Do we get too callous towards it? Where's the balance? Do you think we're doing a good job at staying fairly balanced?
Josh Swartzentruber:I mean just from what I'm seeing gosh I don't know, I guess I don't follow it that closely or watch that closely, but I definitely do see things. That ticks me off a little bit. I guess I can't think of exactly, yeah, yeah, I'm yeah, which one? But just because you have to remember, you're representing the whole shed industry and and you know if you're doing repo repo, you're representing the seller to rent, to uncommon everybody. So Some people do, some people don't, in my opinion.
Sam Byler:But you feel that check in yourself? Do you feel like maybe at some point let's say I'm going to draw it to me so that we're not pointing at anybody and I'm not pointing at you? But if all I'm doing is being a professional retrieval guy, would you feel comfortable in saying at some point sam, you need to, you need to go do something else like it's it's you. You follow what I'm saying. We get so callous to it probably.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, yeah, you see what I'm yeah, and you also get burned out. People get burned out. I think that's my friends, but I think the focus is to work on yourself, because the more secure you are in yourself and you know where your identity is, you can handle it.
Sam Byler:That's a good point, yeah, but if you're insecure, that makes a huge difference.
Josh Swartzentruber:There was a video that I recorded. I took it off of YouTube because it was recorded in PA and I'll just say this real quick Some states PA is a state that you have to have consent two-party consent to film. That's a good point.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, I found that out later and I was like, oh, they're going to come after me for that. But this lady, I couldn't get through to her. I try, I even like she's, I'm gonna sue you and I'm gonna get hurt and I'm like actually, no, I don't want you, I care about you, I don't want you to get hurt. I thought I could crack something there in her heart, but she, she had a rock in there but that was my point.
Josh Swartzentruber:oh yes, she calls me everything under the sun. You're a this and that You're a so-and-so. Because if I sit here and tell you you're a piece of crap, and you get that into your heart and you start believing it, you're going to act different. Oh yeah, and you're going to leave there acting different.
Josh Swartzentruber:So you have to build yourself up, you have to know who you are, you have to know your identity, so that whatever they throw at you just bounces right off that's good stuff. You might have to leave there. You're trucked by yourself and, out loud, speak to yourself. That's not who I am. Yeah, because it'll, it'll break you. Yeah, I agree, I agree, I know what you're saying so that's all in in learning who you are and personal growth, yep.
Sam Byler:Um, a little bit more on the retrieval stuff and then we'll get off of that. Um, just because I've watched you and seen what you do with it, um, do you feel like um, a re, a good delivery guy is a good retrieval guy?
Josh Swartzentruber:I would say so. You would say so Well, if you're a good delivery guy, you should know how to not tear up the property too much. You should know how to not tear up the building. You should know the knowledge that you have and the skill that you have from delivery should be the same skill you have for retrieval. Sounds like a trick question, so oh no that's.
Sam Byler:you actually brought up something that I I'm looking at it from personality wise okay, um, a delivery, a really good deal. And I'm thinking of certain people, um, when I'm when I think of this, automatically you know my top 12 delivery guys that I know they, uh, they're, they want to, they want to make their customers happy, their pleasers, yeah, they want to do it right, happy, they're pleasers, they want to do it right. They don't want to tear anything up. It's kind of interesting you bring up not tearing anything up, because most of the good retrieval guys they don't care about that part. And I wish they did a little bit.
Sam Byler:But what I'm getting at was the really good delivery. Guys don't want to do pickups because they don't want to get in situation with customers, because they're about making their customers happy yeah you know. And then when you ask them, go pick up a shed, they're like no, I'm not gonna pick up any sheds yeah um, you follow what I'm getting at yeah, you're talking more their personality, not their skill.
Sam Byler:Yeah, not their skill, their personality side, because I see a trend right now and I'm not saying that some of the best retrieval guys we have in the business right now aren't good delivery guys.
Sam Byler:Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Some of those guys I know personally and I know they can deliver sheds perfectly fine. I know personally and I know they can deliver sheds perfectly fine they're seeing an opportunity to pick up sheds that nobody else wants to and they're going to have to get paid better to do it, so they make better money and you don't have to sling blocks while you're doing it. That's another discussion we can get into.
Sam Byler:You want to sling blocks or no, or you know all that good stuff you can get into. You want to sling blocks or no, or all that good stuff Yang it out and go.
Sam Byler:I hate blogging Back to my customers. We picked up the blocks afterwards because those were my blocks. I'm like we can bring those blocks back and I don't have to buy them from Lowe's or ABC or wherever I'm getting it. I would always try to clean up as much as possible. When I was done. I'd get my shims back up and everything there again. Try to do it as fast as possible. I actually got busted one time and the customer beat me because I was picking up blocks and I probably should have let him go.
Josh Swartzentruber:You beat your blocks and they're part of the deal, right? Well, they are.
Sam Byler:They're part of the deal, you know. So I don't know it was we offered. You know the blocks came with the delivery up to a certain height. So I wasn't charging customers for a block. If we did charge them, we left them because in my opinion, they bought them. Yeah, true.
Sam Byler:But it's always interesting to me to see how people that I feel like are like me think different, and you guys think different from what I do. Um, whether it's our upbringing, whether it's the way we train ourselves or, like you said a lot of times, it's situations that we come through. Circum, I mean not not circumstances people yelling at you three days in a row, and if you don't do something about that. All of a sudden it starts.
Sam Byler:It starts getting to you I had a guy tell me a couple weeks ago. He says, man, I just can't take it anymore you know and I'm like well, what you have is great advice. Get in your truck and listen to some good stuff again yeah and realize why you're out here doing what you're doing. You, you follow what I'm saying yeah um yep, let's go back to one of the original ones. Um what, what? What was your journey in? Uh, deciding to leave the culture that you grew up in?
Josh Swartzentruber:I mean honestly. I always say at 14 years old, my dream was a dry truck and trailer. That was my biggest dream. I even had a. We had this little wagon that you have on the farm.
Sam Byler:Oh yeah.
Josh Swartzentruber:Because we didn't have bikes, so we would put one knee on the wagon and use the other foot and pedal.
Sam Byler:With the handle, flip back over top the tongue.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, foot and pedal With the handle flipped back over top. Yeah the tongue. So I built a trailer with plywood and an axle about four feet long, 16 inches wide, little gooseneck on the front, JS trucking on the side, and I backed that thing around, drive it around the shop, practicing, pretending I'm driving a truck. So that's kind of where Potter's Dream started. And it's funny how many times since I left I have so many different jobs. I don't know if I can keep track, but somehow I end up going back to driving.
Sam Byler:To driving. Yeah, that's what my family says about me too. Yeah, so did you grow up on a?
Josh Swartzentruber:farm. Yeah, my dad had a small farm.
Sam Byler:Okay.
Josh Swartzentruber:So we did a lot of we would work for other farmers, or actually I started when I was still in school. I started working for the guy right next to the school had a bucky shop, like these guys, oh, and so I built buckies for him for many years and I enjoyed it, because I hate it farming oh did I not like farming. I hated milking. I would get sick every morning milking cows, so I loved to just go work in a shop. That's interesting.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, and that's you know, driving truck and freedom, and I just, I think, even at 10 years old, I thought this life is not for me, there's got to be more out there. And so finally, at 19 is when I finally had enough energy to jump that fence and kaboom, never looked back.
Josh Swartzentruber:I went back, actually three months after I left. Oh, you did, but that was mostly because I did not have a birth certificate For some reason. Me and my older sister, we were right in the middle of the family, there was nothing. You don't go to the courthouse or the health department and get. There was nothing. So I could have, just, you know, stayed nobody. I look back on that now and think why did I do that you?
Josh Swartzentruber:know, like no taxes, yeah. But to get a did I do that, you know. But like no taxes, yeah. But to get driver's license, you know you gotta have oh yeah so I kind of felt hopeless, and it was on new year's day in 06. I went back and I was back for four days, january 6th. January 6th is when they have old christmas, so they have like a Sunday, my buddy drives past the house with his car and this thing rose up in me again. It says I'm going to drive a car.
Sam Byler:You're going to figure out how to get out of here.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, and so I took the same note, I left for the first time and laid it out, and I ran away again.
Sam Byler:So how in the world did you find your like? How do you go about finding a birth certificate that doesn't exist?
Josh Swartzentruber:It's a God story in this case, because you really need your parents to you know, sign papers and stuff. I had a few things was my school grade carts that has my name on it and information. And then I had a paper from a hunter safety course I had taken when I was like 14 years old, I think, and I had a cart for blood donation. So those are things that have my name on it. And there were data you know back there.
Sam Byler:Okay.
Josh Swartzentruber:And so that's what I had. And then after I left I started going to church and the pastor talked to him about it and he said well, he's got an attorney there that can help me. So I gave him what I had and I had no idea. Attorney charges, money for anything, I didn't know anything. And then there's a guy, joe Kime, he lives kind of local here, he helps. And then there's a guy, joe Kime, he lives kind of local here Helps a lot of the former Amish.
Josh Swartzentruber:He ended up signing the paper that just saying what's on here is true, that you're actually a person. Yeah, that I'm actually a person, and I mean, I could have changed my name. You were anything.
Sam Byler:Yeah, it's crazy.
Josh Swartzentruber:I could be, you know, jimmy Trump. Yeah, you know, be rich now.
Sam Byler:But you are most definitely Josh.
Josh Swartzentruber:I'm definitely. Well, that's actually not my real name.
Sam Byler:It's kind of funny. You got a paper laying over there with Einstein on it and I know it because I recognize it as a smart pay pad.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, Richard gave me that.
Sam Byler:Yeah, so back to the buggies a little bit. Did you know you've met I'm guessing you've met dave miller, the the smart pay guy I'm I've seen him at the bash, but I've never met him so dave's family built the buggy boxes, the fiberglass boxes that are on the bottom did y'all have?
Josh Swartzentruber:those fiberglass boxes or we made them with wood, you, you made them with wood.
Sam Byler:See that's the way I remember it.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah.
Sam Byler:And when I was at Dave's place we went over there to that shop and I was just floored.
Josh Swartzentruber:So they're just like fiberglass.
Sam Byler:They're fiberglass buggy bottoms Nice, and they're yeah, they're really cool looking. I was like, and he's like oh, my family's done this a long time. Yeah, I'm like I've never seen that.
Josh Swartzentruber:I think they do the shaft Is that an English word? The shaft, shaft. I guess it's where the horse goes in. I know in Dutch it's shaft, yeah, but I know nowadays a lot of them have fiberglass.
Sam Byler:Oh, those are fiberglass.
Josh Swartzentruber:They weren't back in my day, but they probably are now. We used sassafras.
Sam Byler:Oh yeah, for the boxing stuff. Yeah, yep, yeah, that's cool. So I was a little bit that way. I didn't leave my culture because of what I had problems with. I left because of what I wanted.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, that's how more hot it was for me, yeah.
Sam Byler:You know, obviously I grew up around farms too. My grandpa had a farm and we spent us boys spent a lot of times there. We had to milk cows, put up hay, do all that stuff. And then Dad, he built houses. So we got into building houses. Okay.
Sam Byler:And I was probably 11 or 12 when my dad told me he says you need something with a steering wheel on it. I mean, at that point we were driving cars and pickup trucks and stuff like that. Really, I'd be working on a house and a semi would go by, and I'd'd be working on a house and a semi'd go by and I'd just stop everything I was doing.
Sam Byler:I'd you know watch a semi go by, uh-huh you know, and you know, there's a saying out there. You've seen the meme on facebook where it says my teacher said I couldn't make money staring out a window. Yeah, and here I am staring out the windshield I remember that you know that's.
Sam Byler:That's kind of where we come from. You know it was something more that we were looking for. Do you think that affects we're going to get away from sheds here for a minute and talk about personal lives, which that's what Shannon talks all the time about. This shows, you know it's not just about sheds, it's about life, it's about God and family.
Sam Byler:Yeah it's about sheds, it's about life, it's about God and family. Yeah, um, do you feel like it's easier to deal with? Uh, uh, what's the word? I'm looking separation when it comes from, you're not running away from something, you're running towards something man, I never thought of that.
Josh Swartzentruber:That probably does you know what I'm saying yeah, just the, the, what I think of if you're talking about running away from something. That means there's resentment there and I'm giving this, and that never leads to anything good. So hello yeah, you're gonna.
Sam Byler:That's gonna cause you problems it's like drinking your own poison yeah, yeah and yeah, yeah.
Josh Swartzentruber:It's a good point, and if you have something to look forward to, then you have a dream and you're always yes, and I've been in that place.
Sam Byler:You can't be bitter when you're chasing dreams.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, and it sucks being in a place where you don't know. That's where I was at, actually, before I start hauling sheds. And yeah, I talked about educating myself and learning is I have a guy that offered to mentor me and I just go and ask him. Like man, I'm like I don't know what to do, I'm lost like I, I don't know what to do what did?
Sam Byler:what did you do before sheds?
Josh Swartzentruber:oh, I did, for I did construction of course, and then, two years after I left, I started truck and trailer and then I upgraded, did a little bit of dump truck and then I did. I did over the road semi for a year. I still remember I'd be going down 68 across Maryland. That nasty road was not a very nice semi. But I remember looking over and I'd see my reflection in the passenger window and I'd just go. Really, is that me? Is that me in that reflection? I'm driving a semi, this little Amish kid.
Josh Swartzentruber:So not only did you get a driver's license, you got a class a yeah, I get that back in 08, uh, just before I turned 21, yeah, and I've had it ever since. So, yeah, I did semi over for a year and then I met. My wife, started dating and well, this ain't gonna work and her brother left the amish. He had a flooring shop making hardwood flooring, so we both ended up going working for him and soon after that we got married. We moved to Colorado. I did Bible college out there. We were there for two years back in construction.
Sam Byler:Yeah, See, this is why I love doing these stories. You just went to Colorado and went to Bible college for two years. Yep, I did a year of Bible college.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, but we were there for two years.
Sam Byler:You were there for two years.
Josh Swartzentruber:And there I worked for a guy building sheds for a little bit.
Sam Byler:No way.
Josh Swartzentruber:That was where I did my first delivery. Actually it was a nice new Toyota pickup truck called Sunset Sheds. I have to say that, really slow.
Sam Byler:Yeah, that's a mouthful Sunset Sheds. Yeah, you'll accidentally say something you don't want to say well, I?
Josh Swartzentruber:it sounds like, according to the comments on youtube, I always say something else.
Sam Byler:Yeah our amish accents get us in trouble, yeah, and then what really happens is you get a guy like Vargas, who also has a spanish amish accent and it for sure doesn't sound like he's in the shed business yeah, for sure anyway.
Sam Byler:Keep. This is man. This is what I love about this. All of a sudden, we find something that's like what that just
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Sam Byler:So you got married and then went out there. Yeah, I went out there.
Josh Swartzentruber:That was a few months after we got married. I got to tell you this. It always makes me almost cry.
Sam Byler:That's all right.
Josh Swartzentruber:But I got the idea. I'm sort of depressed, not knowing what to do. This is soon after we're married. You shouldn't be depressed, dad, I get it. So I'm out driving around one day and I thought I've got to call somebody. So I called my sister and she and her husband had already moved out there. She left the Amish too. They were out in.
Josh Swartzentruber:Colorado and I'm just talking to somebody to talk to. And then I said you know, I've been thinking maybe I should go out there to Bible college. And she said well, if that's what God wants you to do, he'll let you know. And boom, I started crying.
Sam Byler:Yeah, just emotion. Yeah, just the emotion of it.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yes, so then I go and I meet my wife and her brother at the restaurant and I tell her I think we're going to move to Colorado and she's like, yay, let's move to Colorado.
Josh Swartzentruber:And I'll tell her, I think we're going to move to Colorado and she's like, yay, let's move to Colorado. So a couple weeks later we're driving home from church and I'm in the passenger seat and I'm just sitting there thinking, come on. I said, okay, God can give confirmation. And I thought in my head I didn't pray, I didn't say anything out loud, it was literally a thought God, if this is what you want from me, I need confirmation Give me the word mountain. That night we go to a different church for a speaker that was there Afterwards. My wife's up front praying and they're doing their stuff On the way home. She says I don't know what this means, but when I was up there praying I felt like God says there's a perfect place for you in the mountain and that's where the chills come from.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, buddy, I know what that means. Yeah, yeah and uh. Do you have any napkins wipes or you know?
Sam Byler:any nope, but I need some but those men when we went out there, things were more expensive.
Josh Swartzentruber:My job, you know, I had to start over. Um, my wife wasn't working, income was hard it was tough. That confirmation is what pulled us through.
Sam Byler:Because later on you look back and you're like you need that later.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, because you question it, it's hard, it's the right decision.
Sam Byler:This is where so I've preached for years. In fact, if you listen to the podcast that came out this week where Shannon introduces Susan and I to his podcast, the only reason he drug me into doing podcasts is because of how important I think it is to hear people's stories, and the important thing about hearing people's stories is other people identify with parts of it. Thing about hearing people's stories is other people identify with parts of it. Yeah, and you know your confirmation of what you said. I heard that last week from somebody else and I hear if you take time to listen to people, you hear this stuff all the time yeah and you're like it's incredible how alive God
Sam Byler:really is.
Sam Byler:yeah, and what you said about a lot of times confirmation isn't for forward, it's for when you're there and you can look back and you remember that and you're like okay, I know you have me here for a reason. I have no idea what it is right now. Yeah. But you know, one of my favorite songs right now is a song by Shane, and Shane it's called You've Already Won.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've ever heard it, but I'm fighting a battle that you've already won. Yeah.
Sam Byler:And there's a part of that song where it says I don't know what you're doing, but I know what you've done. Yeah.
Josh Swartzentruber:There's a good point To have that?
Sam Byler:Yeah. Where would you be without your faith? Where did you find it? First of all, where did you find it?
Josh Swartzentruber:I mean. Well, we grew up believing in God, but it's not like you have to. My story is never that. I almost want to slap people. Sometimes they have this you know, I was a drug addict. I was this and then, boom, God changed me. I'm a complete different person. Like great, but I'm not that person. My snap is like 20 years of slowly evolving.
Sam Byler:Yeah, sometimes it'd be nice to have a snap.
Josh Swartzentruber:It would be Either way, it's fine, it's a story yeah, it's good. But no, I just you know, it's people Soon after leaving the Amish, somebody would invite me to church and so I'd go, and then you kind of and I was not the crazy party person, I wanted to party a little bit, but I was curious, I'm always curious I'm still curious and so it was sort of this is this real, is this God real, and what is this all about?
Josh Swartzentruber:So yeah, I mean, a couple years after I left I kept going to church and then I got baptized and one day I fell off of a—I went up on the roof of a barn and the ladder was on concrete and I knew it wasn't safe. Yeah yeah, but I stepped out on it and it slid out, it slid out.
Josh Swartzentruber:And it fell and I broke my bone right here somewhere. It's still a dent there. Yeah, I ended up in the hospital but it wasn't necessary. And then my pastor came down and, yes, if I want to get saved. And so we prayed the prayer and I would say that's the night I got born again. But yeah, at the same time I would say I've been getting born again for the last 20 years Like it's just nothing ever really just clicked but the and, like I said, I question everything.
Josh Swartzentruber:I was at a point, a few years ago actually, where I was not an atheist but I would tell my wife that I could be because I'm just questioning it again, and then those things of when God did this or when he said that or when I felt this. Those are the things that helped. But I'm kind of a person that there's got to be some evidence there's got to be something.
Speaker 4:It's not good enough for me, man, we are so much alike, it's creepy yeah.
Sam Byler:I kind of thought we were. It is unbelievable. Have you ever watched the video? Patterns of Evidence. No.
Josh Swartzentruber:You need to's patterns of evidence.
Sam Byler:Yeah, it's, it's. Uh, I'm, I'm not. I like history, um, and I know it teaches us a lot of things, but I'm not a guy that can just sit there and study history and study, and study, and study yeah um, I I kind of fault, but um, I have a friend, a real good friend of mine, that is just a student. Um, he just studies all the time and he studies history, he studies all kinds of stuff yeah, well he, he called me up one day.
Sam Byler:He's like, hey, this movie's coming out, it's in the theaters and it's like a sold-out event, patterns of of evidence. And it's literally this guy. I mean, this is digging in the dirt, archaeologist-type stuff. Yeah. And he goes back and he's got a documentary on, like Jericho, on Noah's Ark, on all this stuff, and he doesn't. The funny thing about it is he doesn't make a point one way or the other, he just lays it all out there.
Sam Byler:That's actually good it is At the end of the movie. It's up to you to decide, kind of what's happening there. Yeah, but I know what God's done in my life. I know like I could take five hours and share a testimony of time and time again where I needed that word and I got that word. Later on I could look back and see and I hear it all the time. Yeah. And I have been able to miraculously heal people at just a small prayer. And then there's other times I pray and nothing happens. Yeah.
Sam Byler:And then I'm like what's going on? Yeah, you follow what I'm saying. I had a discussion with one of my mentors this morning over here at Boyden Wortham. I'm like why is it that there's commandments in the Bible that have promises and I see people live in the commandments and they're not getting the promises. To his credit, he looked at me and he says I don't know. Yeah.
Sam Byler:Because some days it just takes faith yeah, you know, and and then later, when we see that faith, it moves on. Um. It's crazy how fast time goes we could do two episodes in one easy I want to. I want to move out of the. So I always, I always knew that your, your, uh, your spiritual side is important to you. You talk about it freely. You talk about God a lot. You talked about your wife a little bit and I know you got two kids and they're adorable.
Sam Byler:Getting to hang out with them in Indiana was awesome. We got to spend a little time there. Your wife intrigues the heck out of me because she follows you around. You guys get into some crazy stuff but I want to, I want to let's get back a little bit more to your professional side. Um, obviously your faith's very important to you yeah but you have a professional side to you that you mentioned a little bit in the fact that you do youtube, because you see it as passive income. You where does.
Sam Byler:Where does your professional drive come from? Where are you going with it?
Josh Swartzentruber:I'd say I want to change the world. I'm good with that, let's go Part of the YouTube. Yeah, it's the income, but then influence I finally. I asked God for a long time what's my purpose? And I finally felt like Danzy gave me influence. And I think when I say it changed the world, what's my quote that I always like it's? Abraham Lincoln says I want to leave this world a little better place, having lived in it.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, so that's the quote I have on my computer, but I'm talking about just treating people nice and um, so with like me and my wife and some of the videos we do, you know, we want to just show the world what a family looks like and show how you can, I mean, and at the same time but sometimes we put stuff in there that maybe you would think you would cut out. But we might fight a little bit or argue a little bit or whatever, but that's reality.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yes, I mean our world is starving for reality, true reality.
Sam Byler:True reality, not reality shows. No, not reality shows.
Josh Swartzentruber:True reality of just this is real life and just the real down-home family, redneck life, and I know there's more, but I can't think what they are right now.
Sam Byler:So you feel like you self-identify with a little redneck, yeah, a little bit. Okay, I do too.
Josh Swartzentruber:I mean, we live in the country we have a garden. You live in the country, by the way, your garden.
Sam Byler:You have a beautiful place here.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, well, thank you so.
Sam Byler:I've seen clips like glimpses of it or whatever, and I actually looked at it. So when I go somewhere new the first time I look it up on Google. So when I get there, I know it. You ever picked a shed up at the wrong place.
Josh Swartzentruber:I haven't, but I've used Google Earth a lot I don't think I have.
Sam Byler:So way back in the day we didn't have real good Google stuff. Yeah. And yeah, I've picked up the wrong sheds. That's not a good feeling. So I tend to look at people's places. So when I get there, like I knew when I was coming down the road, I'm like, oh yeah, that's the place. Yeah, but it's beautiful.
Josh Swartzentruber:Like I can tell you've done a all ripped apart. We're putting a new furnace in. Oh, so you're working, getting duct work upstairs. Never had duct work upstairs. Okay. So yeah, we've done a lot of work into it All right.
Sam Byler:so that was a rabbit trail. Let's get back. So, on your professional side, do you read a lot? I don't read a lot.
Josh Swartzentruber:I don't like reading.
Sam Byler:I don't either.
Josh Swartzentruber:I don't like saying that either. I listen. So I tell people like these guys, friends I have that are getting in a shed hall and you're a furniture hauler, I say your truck is your college. Turn your truck into college, you're out there in that truck for eight hours and I used to drive, you know, a lot of times. Two hours home, two hours out to get deliveries.
Josh Swartzentruber:Why are you listening to music? Sometimes I get burnt. I might listen to something for three days, just YouTube. I listen to a lot of YouTube stuff, and then audio books, I do some, but there's so much on YouTube and sometimes I just feel like gosh, I'm just overwhelmed, I need some music. So you jammed to some music.
Sam Byler:For the record, I've been overwhelmed for a little over a year. I'm starting to get back to where I can put something back in. But yeah, I know what you're saying.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, it is. Just listen to something. When I started, this is where my mentor told me to do this. So when I started hauling sheds, when I started doing it, I didn't know anything about investing. I always wondered, like when you? Talk about the stock market. What do you talk about? So I started listening to videos, and then you know youtube, of course. Oh, you like this. Well, you might like this too yeah, it'll start yeah yeah, they just keep popping stuff out there.
Josh Swartzentruber:And recently I'm obsessed with a guy named patrick bet David, you know that name. Nope, pbd Podcast. He gets more into politics, but he's a businessman. Okay, there's a lot to learn, but now just man, you just got to grow and learn, and I was thinking about this yesterday. How weird it is that the more I learn, the more I realize what. I didn't know when. I didn't know near as much as I do now. I thought I knew more than I do now.
Sam Byler:Well, you'll find, the older you get, the worse that gets. The older you get, the more you realize you don't know very much.
Josh Swartzentruber:Maybe it's that it's all good. It happens every day. Yeah, recently a friend of mine told me that he was working for a millionaire a little bit and he said don't worry about making money, just worry about growing yourself.
Sam Byler:That's a good point.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, and then yesterday I was listening to an interview with Patrick and he was talking about how they will pay him. Someone will cut a check for a million dollars for him to go speak overseas. He doesn't even want to do it but they'll do it.
Josh Swartzentruber:And he didn't promote that. He doesn't even want to do it, but he'll do it. Yeah, yeah, and he didn't promote that. He's now doing consulting, making millions of dollars, but he never wanted to do that. It wasn't his plan. It's because of who he became. Now people want his whatever he has to offer, so they pay him, okay.
Josh Swartzentruber:So that proved to me that, yeah, he worked on himself and then the money came later. And you know we're talking about being a Christian and now we're talking about being a millionaire and stuff. I don't think you should be chasing money and just trying to be rich, but I do think that a lot more Christians should be much richer and make more money.
Sam Byler:Absolutely.
Josh Swartzentruber:And then you can go change the world. And I'm tired of these.
Sam Byler:It's hard to change the world when you're broke change the world and we. I'm tired of these. It's hard to change the world when you're broke. Yeah, you can. Yeah, but it depends on what you're calling it.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, yeah true, but yeah, like we're supposed to do things, we're always complaining about facebook and or fake book. Sorry, yeah fake book and all these. You know these big billionaires and you know how they're doing this and it's wrong. Well, I'm like shut up and get involved and do something do something.
Sam Byler:Yeah, go join me, we yeah you know, I'm the guy that pushes me, we. But how's that going? It's, it's, you know, it's all. It's like everything else. You can push pretty hard and you can get another 50 100 followers over there yeah and then you slack off for a while because people get tired of hearing it. Then you push it again and you can get another 50, 100 followers over there, yeah, and then you slack off for a while because people get tired of hearing it. Then you push it again and you get another batch in.
Sam Byler:The frustrating thing is, if everybody would just switch and be done with it, you could move mountains with it yeah, but that's not the way people work and half of it's in fun. It always is with me. You're not going to get the real me a whole lot on social media. I'll put stuff out there that I feel like Lord wants me to put out, but I like to poke bears and I like to swat at hornet's nest you know, and it's.
Sam Byler:It is what it is for me. Shannon seems to think I have good content, so he lets me run my mouth.
Josh Swartzentruber:So that's fun. How do you keep up with it?
Sam Byler:you're replying to every comment on every, so I do like I spent a lot of time riding down the road too yeah you know, and I keep my notifications pretty handy, um and it's, it's pretty easy. I have been known take two days off to see if anybody notices um and nobody notices you know, one time I went two weeks without making a post and it's like when you're in jail.
Josh Swartzentruber:That's when you know when I'm in jail I'm going for 30 days.
Sam Byler:Yeah, I haven't seen that in a while well, I don't know what's going on with that. It's like, uh, maybe they've, I've got gotten under the radar again. Poor justin smith hasn't seen the light of day in over a year that's his last last name.
Josh Swartzentruber:I mean just in case, right, sorry, that's a very clever. My friend told me about that. Yeah. And then I'm like oh cool. And then one day I don't remember when it was it hit me like okay, just in case it comes from a state farm commercial.
Sam Byler:It's not original with me. Yeah.
Josh Swartzentruber:His name tag sitting on the front of his desk is just in case. So that would be so for insurance, just in case.
Sam Byler:Yeah, okay, so justin and jake, yeah but it's uh, it was so bad for a while there was people contacting my wife and saying this dude's hitting on you, you know. No, they would tell me. You know, hey, somebody, this justin dude's hitting on your wife. And they'd ask my wife like is there something wrong with you and Sam? You know like is there something going?
Josh Swartzentruber:on Because people did.
Sam Byler:No people did. I was hitting on her as Justin. Oh, I got you you follow me and my friends are like hey.
Josh Swartzentruber:That's how you find out who your real friends are. You know they're looking out for you.
Sam Byler:You find out in a hurry. Oh, that's hilarious. So where do you balance? Well, you did. You said. You know you feel like Christians could do better. Yeah, yeah get involved. The balance between professional and spiritual is the fact that most of us could be doing better in what we are. Is that what you would wrap up your life philosophy as? What's making you tick, what makes you drive? You want to leave the world a better place. How do you do that?
Josh Swartzentruber:I see all these broken people. So many people are broken and they're all hurt and that's where I feel like if I thought about this one day, like who hurt these people? It's other people. So if that's who hurt them, who's going to heal them?
Josh Swartzentruber:It's other people oh, and it's like they have a wound and every time somebody does something bad to them they put some salt on it or kind of open it up again and activate it, agitate it. But if I come along and I'm nice to them, then I can start heal that.
Josh Swartzentruber:You can be the salve instead of the yeah yeah can be the staff instead of the yeah, yeah, and if I can heal that wound, then they can be healed and then hopefully they can come together with another person and they can have children and then raise a good family. And it just spreads on and on and on. It's like a ripple effect. On the other hand, you have people that are broken. They have kits and they bring those up in the broken world and then you have more broken people and I've heard the saying hurt people, hurt people.
Sam Byler:Yep, I was fixing to say that a little bit ago because of what you said.
Josh Swartzentruber:I won't say that anymore.
Sam Byler:I don't like it because, first of all, you're putting a label we should be able to get past that.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, and you're putting a label on people. Yeah, oh, I was hurt, so I must be somebody who hurts people. You don't want to label people like that, and it's not true.
Sam Byler:I know, friends that are— that were hurt, that aren't hurting people Gosh horrible things and they're great people.
Josh Swartzentruber:So I guess that's what it takes me. I just feel like changing the world is much easier than people think it is. It's just you doing your little part.
Josh Swartzentruber:I believe in Mother Teresa that it said if you want to change the world, go home and love your family if I can take care of my family, love my family, bring up a good family and I can get, hopefully, a couple other people encourage them to do the same thing, and then they do that and it's just like because it's weird to me, like how old is this world? We don't know.
Josh Swartzentruber:Depends on who you have yeah, that's true but we've been around for a long time and a lot of lately here, a lot of this, you know, just love people and be nice and whatever. Why is there still so much evil, have we not yet? Yeah they're selling kits in other countries into slavery yeah how's this possible?
Sam Byler:it's 2024, yeah how is this possible?
Josh Swartzentruber:It's 2024. Yeah, how is this possible?
Sam Byler:And we have information at our fingertips. We find out, you know, as soon as something happens, the whole world finds it, and yet that stuff's flying under the radar.
Josh Swartzentruber:And I guess part of that ends with B is that it pretty much has to prove that there's a devil that's pulling people backwards.
Sam Byler:Yes, that's always fighting against it. Yeah, because— that's a good point and I think again, christians.
Josh Swartzentruber:Too many times they don't know who they are, they don't know the authority and power they have. They don't understand it, and that's my pastor always talks about is when that was me and my pastor says it was him. You sit in the corner waiting until you die to go off to La La Land. You're supposed to bring La.
Sam Byler:La Land here. Yeah, thank you, yes, until you die, yep To go off to La La Land.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yep, You're supposed to bring La La Land here. We're supposed to bring. Yeah, thank you. Yes, that's a good point, but then at the same time, I'm also all about having freedom, and I don't want to work all the time. I don't want to be. I'm not somebody that wants to just go out and work all the time and work hard.
Josh Swartzentruber:I'm not of ones. Just go out and work all the time and work hard. I'm gonna do it, just I. I I always think, and maybe you can. I'm curious what you think it is. When I say I'm gonna change the world, what do people think?
Josh Swartzentruber:oh, you're gonna be the precedent, or something yeah yeah, I'm talking about just these one little random act of kindness at a time, and if gosh, if we could just get so many more people to do that. We're supposed to kick the devil's butt and do it with kindness and love, but then there's a balance to that too. Oh yeah, let's not get into the woke stuff. Yeah, true, you can't say anything and that's of the devil too.
Josh Swartzentruber:So I guess that's what makes me tick is broken people, people that are hurt and those who hurt them. They need a two by four with their head sometimes.
Sam Byler:Too bad, we can't do that.
Josh Swartzentruber:So how does?
Sam Byler:somebody find you?
Josh Swartzentruber:I don't want to be found. You don't want to be found the listeners.
Sam Byler:they're like he's got a YouTube channel. Where is he?
Josh Swartzentruber:It's Life with Josh and Sarah.
Sam Byler:Life with Josh and Sarah.
Josh Swartzentruber:That's a long name. Yeah, it used to be called Shed Happens.
Sam Byler:Yeah, I remember that it was yeah, so you switched that. Yeah it was perfect.
Josh Swartzentruber:I felt like it wasn't very professional. Okay, and I would tell people and they'd come back to me like I can't find it.
Sam Byler:And like they would be searching S-H-I-E. Hey, this is Moe Lunsford in sunny.
Speaker 4:Houston, north Carolina, and we want to say thank you to all the guests and listeners Like creating content about Amish life.
Josh Swartzentruber:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Josh Swartzentruber:And just sharing our story and stuff like that and we're we're planning on doing more interviews, uh, with former omens, just getting their stories out there and it's heart telling you know where it goes. And on it's weird. On one hand I feel like I try to take control of my life and like here's where I want to go. On the other hand, just kind of let it leave it up to God, because one day I'm doing this and all of a sudden, hey, what if we do that? So I can't say, you know, go there and you'll find Amish videos. Go there and you find repo videos.
Sam Byler:No, I want to just know where to find you, but yeah, it YouTube Life with Josh and Sarah.
Josh Swartzentruber:And then I'm on Facebook, josh.
Speaker 2:Schwartzengruber, and that's about it. That's the best way to yeah. Okay.
Josh Swartzentruber:I don't do any of the other stuff.
Sam Byler:Yep, Well, thank you. I knew it would be fun and I feel like we could easily go another hour if we wanted to yeah, we could. It's an honor and a pleasure to be here with you all today. Love your family, love what I see. The authenticity is off the charts and I think ultimately, that's what intrigues people to watch, is they? Know they're watching something real.
Josh Swartzentruber:I've been hearing that lately.
Sam Byler:So definitely stick with that. Wish you all the best. Lord's blessings. Thank you for being on my Friday fun day.
Josh Swartzentruber:Joe. Thank you, sam, I appreciate it.
Sam Byler:Yes, it's good. See you all next time.