Shed Geek Podcast

Thriving Through Market Waves: The Stoltzfus Brothers’ Journey in the Shed Industry PART 2

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 4 • Episode 66

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Curious about how cutting-edge technology is revolutionizing the shed-moving industry? We promise you'll learn about a groundbreaking touchless shed-moving machine and a custom-developed app that together make moving finished cabins and sheds a breeze while preserving their integrity. With only three contact points, our machine minimizes damage to vinyl and metal-sided sheds, and the wireless app can be operated via an iPad without needing cell service. Tune in to hear personal stories about transitioning from manual shed delivery to these high-tech solutions and the positive impacts on both the industry and individual wellbeing.

Ever wondered how smartphones could control multiple pieces of machinery? You'll hear firsthand experiences of failure and perseverance in developing remote-controlled technology for the shed industry. The journey wasn’t always smooth, but the results are game-changing. We delve into the entrepreneurial spirit that embraces failure as a stepping stone to success and the importance of continuous innovation. Our discussion highlights the potential of touchscreen devices and smartphones to completely transform the way we handle shed moving, showcasing the relentless drive for progress in this field.

Lastly, we share our heartfelt appreciation for traditional vehicles while also expressing excitement about electric ones like Tesla. Personal anecdotes bring to life our learning curve with specialized machinery and the balance between innovation and tradition. From collaborations with industry veterans like Sam Byler and Jason Kaufman to faith-driven connections that shaped our journey, this episode is a testament to the importance of open-mindedness and competition in driving progress. Join us in celebrating the innovations, partnerships, and personal stories that fuel our passion for the shed-moving industry.

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.

To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.

To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.

This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber

Cardinal Leasing
Shed Challenger

Sambassador:

Welcome back to part two of a two-part episode. Be sure to go back and listen to part one. You might have missed something. Hope you enjoy the conversation today. So give me your five best points and your five worst points that you still want to work on.

Merle Stoltzfus:

What we do really good, I think, is we. You almost call it touchless because our machine only touches the shed at three places one on the band board and two at the end of each skid. And so that's where all your pressure is, that's where all your you know you can push a 14 to 48 and literally you're pushing on the strongest part of the shed, which is the skids right. So, you have those arms that go out, catch the skids and that's the only thing you'll ever touch on that shed is those three places. So, the touchless, I think, is going to be what people really like, especially like your vinyl shed customers your metal sheds, your guys who primarily sell.

Merle Stoltzfus:

so, whether that's in the southeast or whatever, your guys who primarily sell metal-sided sheds, you're not crinkling metal. You can push a whatever size thing and you're pushing on the strongest part of the building, which is your skids, and so I think those customers are going to just absolutely love our product because of it being touchless. And then also, you get into, as we continue to develop it, you know you get into these cabins that are fully finished out and you're pushing these things into stupid places, right?

Sambassador:

Oh yeah.

Merle Stoltzfus:

And then you also got to reinforce your gable walls so much and all that kind of stuff, but again, we're pushing on the strongest part of the building, and so I think that is going to be what people appreciate the most about our product, and you know. The second thing is is you know, we worked with a developer and created the app for that runs this machine off of your cell phone, created the app for that runs this machine off of your cell phone, and so every machine that we sell will come with its own pre-programmed cell phone.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

Again, not a cell phone, a device. A device yeah, it could be an iPad that runs on.

Merle Stoltzfus:

It could be okay it could be in any, you know whatever a person wants, but it's going to be tethered to the machine. You don't need a cell phone service. So, the one question we always get is well, what if I'm in the backwoods of West Virginia and you know I ain't got no cell service? Well, you don't need cell service. You don't even sell plan. You just literally need a wireless device yes, to run the machine.

Sambassador:

So we're just because it kind of creates its own signal it does does? It has a.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Wi-Fi connection.

Sambassador:

Yeah, just like my printer does I mean my printer puts out a signal. It's the same thing, yeah.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah. So that is going to be huge because you know it's going to be included. Number one it's not an extra thing, you have to buy it's. You know my driver, I would say 98% of the time he's using the wireless remote you know the cell phone. He uses the sticks when he has to, but not very often Manual sticks there is manual sticks on it that do all the functions that are on the cell phone.

Merle Stoltzfus:

So if, for some reason you know, you forgot to charge your phone or you forgot to whatever, yeah, I was going to say what happens if my phone dies.

Sambassador:

Well, we're going to, I hope to you know, you forgot to charge your phone or you forgot to whatever. Yeah, I was going to say what happens if my phone dies.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Well, we're going to I hope to you know, maybe get you a battery pack right, you know what I mean.

Sambassador:

Yeah, well, if I let my phone die, I might let my battery pack die too.

Merle Stoltzfus:

So if your phone dies, you're not stuck.

Sambassador:

You have all the sticks, you can manually run everything Very, very well.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yes, and a lot of they're very progressive. You know, you want just an inch here, you want a little half inch there. I mean, you just got all that fine touches with this, with both of the sticks and with the app. So yeah, that's going to be huge. And again it's changing an industry and we realize that. We realize that people want something. You know, a question we get is well, I want my fingers to feel where they should go, like on a hard remote right. Well, you stick that thing in your hand and that question gets answered pretty quickly. You're running for five minutes, your fingers know where to go immediately. So it's we're changing.

Sambassador:

We went through that with the other remotes too.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Any remote it it just takes a minute, that's right, I'll tell you the hardest thing for me.

Sambassador:

So back to what Marlin said. A long time ago I delivered over 10,000 sheds without a mule. I delivered without a pine hill, without a scenic view, without any of them creekside or none of them. I had a 1982 homemade roller trailer that didn't even tilt. Bless your heart, yeah, bless my heart. So even when I bought my first roller trailer that had a winch on the front and tilted up and down, I was scared.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah.

Sambassador:

Because I couldn't feel my buildings the way I normally could. Let me just put this out there Feeling your buildings with an 8-foot LVL thrown in your shoulder and pushing them sideways is not the way to feel a building.

Merle Stoltzfus:

It's a tough way. Four-inch pipes.

Sambassador:

How's your back? Yeah, don't even ask. Anybody that follows me on Facebook says that's the most crippled up man. I was literally 39 years old when the doc told me I'm in a 72-year-old body. Oh, wow, I have beat myself to death my whole life and I actually get around fairly good, you know, until you see me get out of Bessie after riding in her for four or five hours straight and you're like, oh, that dude is old. So, yeah, there was no mules. We, no, we weren't going to do that. I had a fancy trailer that I got that finally had side wheels on it sideways wheels and you know you didn't need all the other stuff. Um, well, then I actually hired a driver because obviously I wasn't going to keep up, just no way. And so, I hired a driver, and we bought a mule and it came with a remote. It was actually one of the first ones that had a remote on it, and those first couple I don't know a dozen or so of them were terrible.

Sambassador:

The electronics on them would just shut off in the middle of a street and you couldn't get it to work and I'd fuss back and forth and we'd go back and forth and come back the next day, crank it up and they'd run for a week and do it again. It's all part of R&D, it is. You know, I have zero patience. When I'm in Jacksonville, Florida, with a 14x40, and I got a street block and the mill dies, you know it's just like no, we can't do this. We did and we got around it. But I remember when I first started using the remote to it.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I couldn't feel the building.

Sambassador:

Correct, like when I'm, when I'm on one of them and I'm running like even your machine. I promise you, I want to be on it and I want to feel it and I can feel the building. You get to a point to where you can almost feel the building breathe. You know, you're that connected to it.

Merle Stoltzfus:

You can feel what it's going to do before it does it.

Sambassador:

Yeah, now you get off of there and you go on a phone and it's like but I had that feeling before, so I can get past it. Yeah, so just because it's on a phone doesn't mean I can't get used to running it that way. You know, my laptop, it's the same way. It Laptop, it's the same way it's touchscreen.

Sambassador:

I can flip it all the way over and I can run it with my thumbs or I can run my keyboard. I use both. It took me a long time to get used to the fact that I could touch it and use it that way and stuff happens. That's what you're talking about.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

It is.

Sambassador:

When I first saw that, I was like whoa, you talk about big um, that's monumental in the fact that you're. You're pushing technology as far as you can push it right now and in five years from now we're all going to be like, I know it. What were we thinking there?

Merle Stoltzfus:

you know I mean you know it's like, anyway, sorry I wanted to interrupt you on the phone part because that part of it's I feel like and I may be completely wrong, but I feel like that technology that we're introducing on this machine will continue to change the industry, because eventually you'll run your you'll run your trailer off of that yeah, that's you know you'll run other devices off of that. You'll run stuff that we were thinking about. That you know I don't want to put out right now, but like it's going to continue to change the industry, that you can just all, do it off your phone, you know so.

Merle Stoltzfus:

And then also for myself personally, like I don't want to, I don't want to ruin my iPhone, right, you know. So that's why we're sending a another one that, hey, the phone gets crushed or whatever, we'll quickly send you another one. You know it's going to be easy to replace.

Sambassador:

It's going to be it's not your own personal one that's going to get muddy and wet and all that You're going to put magnets on it to where we can stick it on our trailers, and they fall off like we do all our other remotes. Why?

Merle Stoltzfus:

not you know we're going to, but I think that technology because we were pressed pretty hard to say, hey, why don't you just scrap all that? Why don't you just go with a box, why don't you just go with something. And I just said you know what, If we're going to change, to be that different, I've got to be different.

Sambassador:

Let's just be different.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I've got to do something different. And I think guys are going to like it. I think, man, I tell you it's really cool once you actually feel it with your, you know, on that little remote and that little cell phone. So I think it's going to change the industry. And I think you're going to continue to add to it. So you know what if you had on your cell phone the same device? Controls your trailer, controls your mule controls your.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Challenger, you know whatever. So I think it's going to be cool. And now that's technology that we don't own. We could if we wanted to be proprietary.

Sambassador:

I was going to say everything can be owned.

Merle Stoltzfus:

It would take a lot of investors to do that. But at this point that guy is fantastic. You know what they're coming up with. They're going to continue to to change industry with that technology. So I believe in it. I think it's going to be. Now the market proves me wrong, I'll say hey, I'll be the first one to say you know it's wrong.

Sambassador:

But hey, I'm always, yes, that. So, one of the keys to being an entrepreneur is you're always looking for the next failure. Um, if we would teach entrepreneurs that up front, that that's okay. Failure is not the problem, it's getting back up and going again. That's right. The more times you fail, the closer you are to success. You know how many times that light bulb was tried before it worked?

Merle Stoltzfus:

10,000? Yeah.

Sambassador:

Most people freak out about stuff like that. We just turn a light on it, know it's like it works. Um, such a simple thing took that long to figure out. Um, I am an entrepreneur, um, and I'm always tell me I can't do it, or let's see why that doesn't work. Um, it gets expensive. Um, at sometimes it's too expensive, expensive.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

but that's why some of us are just broke all the time, because we're always doing what people can't do I guess, um, but it's so.

Sambassador:

I love that part of it. So, the touchless part, the phone part, what else? Like, how do you feel about it? As far as what it can perform? Um, what, what can it perform? Like? As far as the environment it's in, it's easy to deliver sheds in Arthur Illinois. It's flat as a pancake. You're not in Arthur Illinois, you're in the mountains.

Merle Stoltzfus:

We are smack dab in the mountains, yeah what have you seen?

Sambassador:

Okay, I'll play devil's advocate for a minute and be some of the bad guys on there. The tracks are going to pop off. It's not going to be able to go up a hill. It's not going to work sideways. What are your answers to some of those things?

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Merle Stoltzfus:

So we have had, we've only had a year of testing it and the, I will say my driver prefers to keep, to deliver, shed off the trailer, so he will do everything he can to get it there without getting the machine off. So but the situations that we get into, you know it does. As far as you know, wet, soggy, I mean it's got tremendous grip. The reason for that and I think I showed you. But you just transfer the weight. It has so many options to transfer the weight.

Merle Stoltzfus:

You're on a hill and you transfer the weight to your top track to give that more traction, or you wanted the front of the tracks to bite in versus the back. You just shift the weight forward or shift the weight back and it can get up hills. It can get. You know, because of some of those features, it's going to take a little bit of a learning process and for that reason, you know, we hope to do a little bit of training with everybody who buys these things, because, hey, you can do this. It speaks a new language, Sam because what we're finding is that people are going to come into this thing and they're asking questions Well, why don't you have the straps? Why don't you have this, that and the other?

Merle Stoltzfus:

And I'm saying you're talking Spanish, bro, we're talking English here, because, you're talking a different language because we do it so differently. It's just the stuff that the mule does. We don't need to do it that way, because I remember one guy looked at us and said why doesn't it have this? And I said I don't really know what you're talking about, because we don't need it. It literally does not need it because all the weight is seated on those forks, and all the weight is seated on those tracks, and all the weight is seated on those tracks. And at that point, what can't go wrong?

Sambassador:

So in our defense, it's what we've got used to, exactly. I could bring up Tesla right now. We can talk about this for an hour. If you want to, I love it. I'm happy to talk about it Now. You've got to understand Bessie. If you're traveling behind Bessie B'm, I love it. I'm happy to talk. Now, you got to understand Bessie. If, if you're, if you're traveling behind Bessie, bessie is my truck. I don't know if you follow me on.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Facebook but it's.

Sambassador:

It's more than a pickup truck. It's my prayer room, it's my office, yeah, it's, it's so much. Um. I'm a little bit anal when it comes to my personal vehicle because so much happens in there for me, but the fact is, when Bessie and I get fed up with somebody, we pretty much can lose anybody because they can't see where they're going anymore, you know. And the people are like oh well, you know, black coal just means it's unused power. Well, fine, you can come up beside her and prove me wrong. But at the same time, I'm an American, I love God, I love guns, I love my country and I love black smoke.

Sambassador:

Tesla's are the next thing on my list. Go figure that one out, because I don't care about green. I don't care about. I know the whole green thing. There's stuff behind it that I don't care about. I know that. I know the, the whole green thing there's. There's stuff behind it that I don't like. I absolutely hate um and the push towards what they're trying to do. I do not agree with um. That's not what they're about.

Sambassador:

Yeah, and if you ever get in one, you ever drive one. You might just change your mind about some stuff. Um, will I ever have one to haul buildings and something? No, I'm probably never going to get to that point.

Sambassador:

I don't know, they might prove me wrong on that one day with the battery system they come up with that can actually produce the amount of power that I need and still go all day long. I don't know, probably it might happen. But the fact is to sit here and say that Bessie has 800 horsepower and there's no need to ever change from that is ridiculous. Yeah, it is. We should always be looking for something better, but we get comfortable and we know how to run what we run. So I guess this is a pep talk to you, you too, that when you do throw that out there on the page and half of them, you know, are the page, the shed hauler page for those that don't keep up with the page um, you know you, you got some pretty heavy negative comments back on it and I'm just sitting there and I'm just scrolling through them.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

I'm like I can answer all of these.

Sambassador:

I really could. I'm not gonna. Um number one we need competition. Competition is good for all of us. Yeah, um number two we get so comfortable in doing it in a way we're used to that, even if there's a better way. We can't wrap our heads around it, so you just gotta, you gotta, push through it.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah, um, you don't worry about that, I fully realize that, that you guys I say you guys, you shed haulers have a language, have a way of thinking, have and we're coming in with this thing and I mean referring to the page like I love those comments, like there's not a single comment on there that that I didn't read and say, oh, that's just a dumb it was amazing.

Sambassador:

It's because it's like oh, maybe I was amazing. It's because it's like oh, maybe I never thought about that, or maybe it's like oh yeah, that's fair.

Merle Stoltzfus:

You know we're not sitting here saying we've reinvented the wheel or anything Like. We're just coming up with another option, we're coming up with another way of doing it, and so those comments are fantastic and you know there's a lot of skepticism. There's a lot of love there too, and so I think it's just going to take a thing to where I'm saying, hey, put another pitch out there. Our coming out party is in September at the Shedd.

Sambassador:

Expo that's going to be cool.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Come see it, you know, because we're going to have a lot more answers for you. We're going to have some promos and all that kind of stuff that you can actually touch and feel and see it in action.

Sambassador:

Did you talk Marty into letting you build your whole stage on a slope?

Merle Stoltzfus:

Did not talk to him about that, but we're going to have some videos and answer that question. Yeah, Because I think when people actually see it, because just a couple features that I showed you guys before the show here was like oh wow, yeah, now I understand it.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

Yeah.

Merle Stoltzfus:

But to tell somebody that it's like bro, I'm talking to you in English and you're understanding.

Sambassador:

Spanish. Yeah, yeah, it just doesn't work. That does happen a lot, well, and we always say pictures don't do anything justice.

Merle Stoltzfus:

We're always talking about that.

Sambassador:

Yeah, don't do anything justice. We're always talking about that. Yeah, that's okay. Worst things what are you still working on? Like, what do you see that you want to improve on?

Merle Stoltzfus:

Refining the app would be one of the top concerns, you know, just making that. Now again we're fixing to send the machine and the app and everything up to get reprogrammed and add a sensor for the mass sensor so that it truly is touchless. And so, what I'm hearing, he's saying you're going to even love this even more, because when it went from version one of the app, I mean it was pretty rough, I mean it was like the valves were on, the valves were off. There was not much of progression there yes um.

Merle Stoltzfus:

So, then we come to version two and it's like, oh, my goodness, you got. Like, if you just need an inch, you got it. Um, now version three, they say, is going to be an even more of you know, more refining and that kind of thing. So I would say the app is something we're going to continue to refine, but man from there, we're just going to figure out what else this thing can do, because I mean, we're not even talking about you know picking up a little, you know a coop.

Sambassador:

Let's say you want to deliver a chicken coop. Yep.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Well, we've got fork extension for this thing and let's just drive the thing and put it in your backyard.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah, we've got fork extension for this thing and let's just drive the thing and put it in your backyard. Yeah, I mean, there's no way you're going to do that with anything else out there on the market. How about you know? You get into a space where I can get it. I can get my trailer there, but I can't get my truck and trailer. We'll just unhook your truck and we've got a little ball and attachment that we're going to put on there. You just pick up the whole trailer with the machine and now you've got a little power unit.

Sambassador:

Yeah.

Merle Stoltzfus:

So I would say, as far as with where we're at right now, man, there's just a couple things that we want to keep on working on, get touched up a little bit and just to say but as far as you know, percentage-wise I mean, I'm going to say we're pretty high, close to the 90s percent somewhere. This thing is pretty, really, really close and we just maybe need to make a couple tweaks. What do you think, Marlin?

Marlin Stoltzfus:

Yeah, one thing that I remember was a comment too, from people where do you stand on this thing? That's an idea that could easily be, yep, taken care of. We can easily make a little platform just to hang on the back there. It won't be permanent, because the machine is long enough the way it is, without something else sticking out the back yet well, I've got the stand on could easily be done I've kind of always wondered about that.

Sambassador:

If we wouldn't, if? Um? So I've got some guys in the lawn care business and a lot of them. It's crazy the culture is changing a little bit, at least down by us. You see more and more guys standing on the back of mowers instead of sitting on them because they're worried about their health.

Sambassador:

They're worried about being more active. It's easier on and off to do stuff and even your high-end, expensive mowers are going back to where you can have the stand on the back option, but most of them it's this little, just lock on thing and you pop it on and off wherever you want to, and it's the same thing.

Sambassador:

And some of them fold up even just to where, just to where. When you're loading and unloading it's out of the way. You got the same thing. You know, when you load it up on the back of the truck, you don't want a platform sticking out there, right? Um, I like that idea that it's an attachment.

Sambassador:

Don't make it like it doesn't have to be a part of it right um, the other thing is I'm suspicious when I get used to running the phone, the remote for it. I'm not even going to be on it much. So, I had to actually go back to me and my remote story. I got to where I hardly ever rode mine, I was always on the ground, um, and a lot of times I would even have that thing unloaded and rolling up the driveway. When I go, beat on the door, it's just cruising up through here yeah and they come out and they're like whoa, what's going on?

Merle Stoltzfus:

you?

Sambassador:

know, uh, repos, I picked repos up where I never got out of the truck. Wow, um, when a repo goes down and you got to get it and you know, you know the whole thing about you can't be on my property.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

Well, I'm not even just send the mule, send the mule in there sitting the truck right I did that many a time.

Sambassador:

of course we used to do it with trailers too, without getting out, just back up, load them and them and pull out. So, we've done that kind of stuff. So, I do see a trend where we're getting back to where we don't. Obviously, we've never sat on them anyway, but I never rode on it much anyhow, but it was nice to have it when I needed to and I like the idea of just being able to clip it on. So, the reason I asked where you're at as far as what you want to see, finished it or whatever how does it feel to come from an idea to knowing you're within the 90s of being having it where you want it?

Merle Stoltzfus:

it's amazing, yeah, it's amazing yeah he doesn't have anything, I really it's. It's deep.

Sambassador:

Yeah, it is because you know what I'm saying.

Merle Stoltzfus:

You feel that deep because you go from something to where. I mean who knows how the market's going to respond? Right, and I'm saying this back in 17 and 18 and 19. I'm saying who knows, because our goal was always to bring it to production. But then you're like how's the market going to respond? What's it going to respond? You know what's it going to do and again we still don't know how it's going to respond. But I'm saying, man, just yeah, it's really good to see it when you have a little bit of patience with stuff and can just continue to develop it and continue to develop it. And again, we may look back in five years and be laughing our heads off at the prototype too, but we think is pretty good because we're going to continue to develop it and we're going to continue to put new features.

Merle Stoltzfus:

We're going to continue to do it better and we want to come up with new ways of changing our industry and we're talking about some more of those things. But yeah, man, to get it from concept on paper to like actually doing something with it, um, and I will tell you this, my driver is has been crucial in all this, because I sat down him down at the office one time because he was having frustration with prototype one and he would, and I just felt bad for him, you know, because it's like you know that he's putting, gone through all kinds of stuff, so that we're proving a concept yeah yeah, and I said well, hey, well, here's our options.

Merle Stoltzfus:

We're at a fork in the road, we're at a y one. The one road says we just scrap everything that we've done, just literally put it to bed, throw it over the cliff. We, it's a bad idea, right? Or we have something, we're just going to perfect it. And I said which one do you want? And he said the concept works. I think you're on to something. Um, let's go down the road of.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

Let's continue to perfect it.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah, and so if, at that moment of time, if he'd have said you know what, it's just a bad idea this thing's awful, that's good yeah. We would have. We would have just scrapped it all and thrown it away, you know, but cause that's? He's the guy that needs to tell us that, because he's using it. And I'm telling you the stuff that he's had to put up with on some of these developments, and prototype one. I mean you've seen it.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I mean we're going to put pictures out there, I mean the thing is awful and I don't know. The pumps didn't work or whatever. The levers didn't work and you know. But to get from that to giving him a machine that's reliable, I mean it's a great feeling because he's put up with so much that's right Because these things again. R&D is just, you don't know, it's not a good idea until you test it, until you put it on the ground.

Sambassador:

Oh, absolutely, yep, I'm working on some myself and it's like I just want to get to test level. I want to go out and see if it'll fail.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

or you know, work, yeah, or what works and what doesn't, yeah but it's kind of like you're so close you, you can almost taste it like yeah just, you're just like almost and that's kind of where we're at right now. We're probably a little bit over, but there for a little while. It was, man, I wanted so bad to be at your last bash. Oh yeah, I pushed and shoved to be at the one. This year. I said we got to go.

Merle Stoltzfus:

It would have been ahead of time. It would have been way ahead of time.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

The thing wasn't refined at that point yet, it's just not what we wanted to put out yet. But I wanted so bad, because I could just feel these guys coming up and I was like, wow, yeah, but it wasn't the time that's and so it brings back so many memories of discussions that marona had in this house, because I work over here. I used to work a lot over here.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

You say two hours what I did I did a lot of horse barn sites over here and all kinds of stuff. Yep, but merle and I, we would sit up here in his living room and just chew this stuff. I mean, we would chew and chew. What about this? What about that? It brings back a lot of memories.

Merle Stoltzfus:

What's funny is that this thing ebbed and flowed tremendously.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

You think it's going and it just didn't go. It was immense.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I mean, I remember some of that stuff and I'm like you know where's it at. It used to be the rhino, that was her first name was the rhino right.

Sambassador:

I wish you all would have stuck with that, because I love rhinos. I think it will be a nickname for it.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I honestly do.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

I think because it's in our logo. The reason is because it has that mask sticking up like the horn on the rhino.

Sambassador:

Oh yeah, but I'm just telling you, I told Years ago I read that book about be a rhinoceros in a cow cud chewing world.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah. And when you just start the visual picture of that. Yeah, I'd be all for it, but that was intentional going with that rhino, because when you think of a rhino, like I say, I've never read their book. But I mean you're just talking, solid, you're talking beefy, you're talking, nothing stops and at that point. That's kind of what we're hoping to. You know, create some of that stuff and but yeah, just the ebbs and flows of that it's like sometimes you thought the thing was dead.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

I mean, it's like nothing, this idea is not going anywhere and the things that my shop for months sometimes oh, I know that.

Sambassador:

Oh, do I ever know that feeling there was?

Merle Stoltzfus:

a.

Merle Stoltzfus:

There was a moment that last year though, where it was at the point of saying I don't know how to continue to take it on and I'm a part of a book club, 10-member book club and I just brought to them guys because that's what we do share ideas, wins and losses or whatever go through books and we learn together. And I just put it out there and these guys just said do what? Where has this thing been Like? Why don't we know about this? But I mean, that's been very intentional because I didn't want to get anything out there because we had to go through the patent process you know all that kind of stuff.

Merle Stoltzfus:

So, you know we're patent pending now. As soon as that came out, it was like okay, now we can get this thing out there. But I remember those guys were also crucial in the stages of saying why aren't you doing more? How can we help you get this thing out, because I think you're ready for that.

Merle Stoltzfus:

So, that was all crucial. I look at just the items that we've had to go through and our talks, Marln and I, and then I talked about our guy the shed and I, and then it's, you know, I talked about our guy the shed hauler, and you know, if he just said no, we're not sitting here today, Sam.

Sambassador:

So shout out to him. Yeah, shout out to him.

Merle Stoltzfus:

And yeah, so it's, it's, it's pretty huge and again, with, with the favor of God, I, I believe that there's's, yeah, there's, nothing that can go against so is your hauler under wraps, or can he be made known public?

Sambassador:

oh, he's not under wraps. Who's your hauler?

Merle Stoltzfus:

crash esh yep you know, crash.

Sambassador:

Oh, and I know of him. I don't think I know him personally, so to speak, but it's ironic that you know that is his nickname.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah, probably couldn't find a better guy. What I don't do, though, is, you know, call my customers up and say I'm sending Crash.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

How's that go over?

Merle Stoltzfus:

Because it's not his nature at all.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

He is the best, smoothest, calmest.

Merle Stoltzfus:

You know just, you won't hear from the guy unless you know, and so he's been amazing.

Sambassador:

I've seen some of your video footage of him. It looks like he's always up for a challenge. He is which you have to be as a hauler. Oh my, I mean you're not going to make it. But, go to our reviews and it's just Amos this.

Merle Stoltzfus:

It's Amos, that it's Amos that Amos did a good thing the driver. It's just like oh my goodness.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

They don't show up every day.

Sambassador:

No, it's hard Because I have that page and I'm blessed to be known by 10,000 people is my favorite expression to use. I get calls all the time, you know, of anybody looking for a hauler position. They're looking to hire somebody to haul sheds.

Merle Stoltzfus:

And I'm like.

Sambassador:

You just can't hire just anybody to haul sheds. You just can't hire just anybody to haul sheds.

Sambassador:

You can go through some people maybe, but it is

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Sambassador:

Yeah, I think it got hot. For those of y'all that are wondering what's going on, the camera died again.

Sambassador:

I don't knock on builders. I am a builder. I can build anything. You give me a saw and a tape measure and a nail gun. I dream up some crazy stuff. I have a woodworking shop most people don't even know about, but I can. I can pretty much teach anybody to build um, as long as you got a little work ethic, you can. You know you can build. I have tried to teach guys the whole sheds have tried and if you have it or don't, miserable, you either have it or you don't. First of I mean there's so many variables to it. You know and then you throw, and you got to be customer relatable. I mean because you're dealing with customers all the time and you're yeah, it's, it's, it's a I.

Sambassador:

it's a mountain to climb sometimes to get to that You'd be taught to fly an airplane, but you've got to feel a helicopter to fly it. Yeah, true, that's where that saying comes.

Merle Stoltzfus:

you know the seat of your pants.

Sambassador:

It comes from the helicopter, yeah, from the helicopter guy.

Merle Stoltzfus:

You literally feel the helicopter doing it in the seat of your pants.

Sambassador:

I actually I used this. I made a post while I was talking with one of the big. I made a post while I was talking with one of the really big manufacturers, one of their reps, last week and we were trying to have a conversation. Why shed hauler pilot cars cost more than over-the-road pilot car drivers? And we kind of make a joke of it on the page.

Sambassador:

A lot of people call them escort drivers. They're not, they're pilot car drivers. But we call them escort drivers and all of a sudden it hit me. I'm like they are kind of escorts because they do so much more than a pilot does. You know, a pilot trains and trains and trains and learns how to fly a plane.

Sambassador:

And what do you do when you get on a plane? Pilot comes in, goes in a seat, flies you lands, goes back out. He does nothing else. An escort shows up and is with you through the whole process. You follow me. That's the difference in a pilot car driver that hauls big, huge, oversized loads down the interstate versus one that will actually show up on a little bitty country road where the manufacturers get you out on a big road, run you down the big road, get you back off in the woods somewhere running down the wrong side of the road in Charleston because the trees don't fit on the other side. So you literally just drive straight into traffic Used to do that and then back across the median, you go to the other side.

Sambassador:

Used to do that, and then back across the median, you go to the other side Shout out to Andrew Vess, who you probably know those pilot car drivers that are running for, you know, $250 minimum, I mean $200 a mile. They won't do that stuff, yeah, and they're for sure not going to hang around and help you get the building set in somewhere and they're not going to sling any block. You get a really good hauler pilot car driver and he does stuff like that. He needs to be paid good because he's worth having around. It's different. You can take a truck driver and you can, if he has the right stuff, you can make a shed hauler out of them. But not all truck drivers make shed haulers. Yeah, it's just a given. Yeah, very true, what do you uh, we're basically good to wrap up.

Sambassador:

What do you anything? Either one of you guys want to throw out there? Um, something that I haven't asked you? Um, want to ask me something? You're welcome to do that. What do you want to do in wrap up? Do you have anything you want to let everybody know about?

Marlin Stoltzfus:

I would say one thing would be that we're currently working on a webpage development marketing. Yeah, so be on the lookout for that Boy.

Sambassador:

You got the top of the mountain. We got them when you got your marketing guy.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I got to tell you that story.

Sambassador:

Yeah, okay, this is good. Yeah, this is a good story.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I was having chills that day because, again, some of these things I just don't look at. I believe that God directs every area of our life every decision, everything.

Merle Stoltzfus:

And so, I tried to work with a local guy here for marketing and photos, video, whatever drone shots, and he came back with just the craziest answer I've ever heard, like it was just bizarre. And at that point I'm saying, okay, whatever, dude you know, and that thing kind of shut down. I'm just saying I'm just kind of waiting around, like where do I go from here? And then that time James puts the, puts the videos out, the photos out, and Shannon had already worked with Creekside, with James, and so they're aware of him and it helped him build his website and stuff. And James and I have a conversation that day and James was like, hey, why don't you call those Shed Geek guys Like they could help you out with the website and all that stuff.

Merle Stoltzfus:

So that afternoon I called Shannon. He picks up the phone, props to him, man, I tell you those guys are good to get a hold of. And he picks up the phone and I said, hey, you know, related to James, and that's why I'm calling, because we need some help. And Shannon went into this thing. Well, he's got something good going on, doesn't he? And Dylan and him, I guess, had just gone out for lunch and at lunchtime that day they said we need to reach out to James and see if we can help him with this new product that he's gone on.

Merle Stoltzfus:

I said, well, that's the reason for the phone call, because we're kind of the guys behind it and we want to work with you. Can you help us? Yeah, and at that moment he was just like, oh my god, and I'm just sitting there like I say there's goosebumps going because I'm like you can't make that stuff up no, and you can't make this up and you know it's just again.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Um, yeah, we're super excited about getting the product out there, but you know, feedback um we're not saying, you know, hey, we've perfected it we're just saying man, I think there's a different way of doing it I think we, we just want to present this to you guys and say how are you going to respond? How's the market going to respond?

Merle Stoltzfus:

yeah, and you know, after we are done with this, we're going to go out and push some buildings around and we want you to yeah, you know, understand the process and and you know we're going to put the things, push it up hills, go inside of hills and you know we're going to do that kind of stuff For you guys to be able to understand it. Because, yeah, that's a really cool story how that connection happened with Shed Geek and I tell you I think we're on to something special. Yeah, dylan's pretty much more excited about being here today than I am Because it's like I've got to see this thing To work with that kind of excitement on both you know, it's just yeah, that's we're very blessed, I'll tell you

Sambassador:

that that's a tremendous honor to work with, with you guys and billings the bomb and, like you said for you to be sitting here taking your time and sitting here and doing this.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

We're very grateful I'm glad to be here. I would like to say this yet too Ever since this idea was conceived out in Colorado, where we were sitting in a family gathering, I always told Merle, I said, one thing we got to do first before we do any marketing. We got to get Sam Byler and Jason Kaufman on board. Oh boy, I said, if those two get behind it and they believe in it we're good to go.

Sambassador:

You were really pushing it back then because, Jason wasn't even on board with a mule period.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

No, he wasn't. No, he was not. I know all that story In fact.

Sambassador:

I have an old video in 2018 at the Montana Bash of him riding around on a mule I've seen those videos and.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

I grew up with Jason too.

Sambassador:

Oh yeah, in Bedford. Yeah, that's true, in Bedford he would have. That's what.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

I always said and so I'm very honored, Sam Well, thank you Even though this is the first day I've met you in person, I feel like I know you. Yeah, we've been around a while. Yeah, that's good. And what I see in your posts, the way you handle the whole Shed Haulers Brotherhood, the way you respond to these guys out here that haul sheds and don't haul sheds, you juggle all those things and I feel that coming from your heart in your posts, and so I'm honored to be able to meet you, and I'm honored to be here. I feel a kindred spirit in many ways.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

Yes, I think you and I we probably wouldn't get along in business, but we're alike in many respects.

Sambassador:

I think Many ways yep, I agree.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

I can pick up on that and Merle put it right on he said I'm more the mover shaker and you know, through it all, merle has been the steady one. I get into something and I just do it. If it wouldn't be for Merle, we wouldn't be here today. I can put it that way. So in one sense, we need each other.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Yeah, absolutely, I have the shop where we did the first prototype.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

Looks like a beast, but the idea works.

Sambassador:

My son LeVon made it.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

You have to start, we had to start. If it wouldn't have been for Merle, we wouldn't be here today. I don't have that kind of business finesse as Merle does. Merle is the businessman, so I want to give a shout out to him.

Sambassador:

Shout out to God. God is receiving the glory. I never had a Merle is a businessman, so I want to give a shout-out to him. I did, and a shout-out to God God is receiving the glory. I never had a Merle, so I had to become a. Merle when I need to be which I do not enjoy whatsoever, but I do it when I need to you.

Merle Stoltzfus:

Visionary guys are. You know, if you don't have that implementer right beside you, it's like my goodness, you know you just create a thousand dust storms and the dust settles, and what a lot of times the dust never settles.

Sambassador:

Yeah well, thank y'all. Um, it's been a pleasure to be here. Thanks for the invite up and thank you for being my official first sponsor. I don't know if y'all knew that or not. I don't know if shannon told you but, I'm starting to scoop up some other ones, but you guys managed to sneak in and be the first one.

Sambassador:

Well, thank you, um, we're looking for sponsors for the. Uh, Shed Gal is doing Mondays. Um, she calls it magnificent Mondays, I think, because I called it Friday fun day, so she had to come up with something better. You know, we all know fun days are better than magnificent days, but it's all good. But, yeah, we're. We're always looking for sponsors for people to be able to have a platform. Shannon has created a huge platform, um for people to be able to share their stories on, to be able to educate people, to be able to show people what they're doing. It's incredible and I always say this I'm the first guy that told them it ain't going to work. I remember exactly where we were at, riding around in a little red car, when I told them that I'm like you're crazy. Nobody listens to podcasts. And Lord has a sense of humor, yeah, because he brought that all the way back around to me. Now here I am doing podcasts. So, yeah, again, thank you so much.

Sambassador:

I'm looking forward to being here and hanging out. Dylan just walked up here and he looks like he's ready to go do something, so we're going to go work on your what do we call it? Is it a commercial? We're going to work on their marketing product? Probably is a fancier way to say it. Thank you all for listening today. As always. I appreciate each one of you for taking the time to listen. I don't know if you're driving up and down the road, what you're doing, or if you're sitting in a nice cool office, but thanks for listening to us. It's always an honor and a pleasure See you all next time.

Marlin Stoltzfus:

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