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
Small Acts with Big Impact - PART 1
What happens when creativity meets authenticity in the world of podcasting? We sat down to uncover the secrets behind crafting genuine monologues and fostering natural conversations. Sam shared his journey and insights on the art of letting discussions flow organically, drawing from the humility inherent in the shed industry. Together, we explored how bouncing ideas off guests can lead to more dynamic and engaging dialogues, encouraging everyone to share their unique stories.
Shifting gears, we tackled the often-overlooked impact of local politics on our daily lives. While national elections dominate the headlines, it's the local roles like sheriffs and county commissioners that truly shape our communities. Inspired by our own experiences of skepticism turned success with niche podcasting topics, we pondered the potential of a platform dedicated to raising local political awareness. It's a call to action for listeners to be more informed and actively participate in their civic duties, especially in the face of regional challenges like natural disasters.
Courage and community were central themes as we recounted a remarkable journey of faith and generosity. From the decision to donate a generator following the Mayfield tornado to a whirlwind effort that raised $50,000 in 24 hours, our story is a testament to the power of spontaneous collaboration and kindness. Highlighting contributions from notable figures like Chip Gaines, we celebrated unexpected acts of service that unite and uplift communities. Join us as we reflect on the profound impact of small actions, the challenges of standing for truth in controversy, and the miraculous outcomes that emerge when people come together for a greater purpose.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
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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.
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Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
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Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, Friday fun days with your host, Sambassador, also known as Sam Byler man. It feels good just to sit for a minute and calm down a little bit. I was actually going to do a monologue on this episode, but the more I thought about it what I want to talk about stuff I was like I got to figure out if I can get my old boss man on here, the shed geek himself, the king of shed geeks. He's looking out the back and looking around. He ain't got his white shirt on or his suspenders or nothing.
SAMBASSADOR:I kind of showed him up a little bit at the Michigan thing. He even got a little odd about it.
SHED GEEK:Oh, you did. You see what I got on?
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, what are you doing with that?
SHED GEEK:Innovations manufacturing. Our boys out in Denver trying to give them a shout out yeah absolutely.
SAMBASSADOR:Hey, you know what I haven't done my monologue. So, I got all messed up. I was going to do my monologues every Friday, first Friday of the month. Well, first Friday in October I was knee deep in chainsaws and trees and branches and house roofs and all kinds of stuff, so I never got around to doing it. And then I moved my daughter to Denver and I never got around to doing it. Then and, uh, your poor wife knows she's had it scheduled a couple of times already and I can't never get around to getting it done. So, yeah, the other day I was like you know what I got to get Shannon on for my monologue. Um, we can talk about a whole bunch of stuff. How long are we going to be here tonight?
SHED GEEK:Oh man, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes, you know, I'm starting to enjoy the monologues a little more. Especially, I'm encouraged by the positive feedback that I'm getting from them, because it's a little bit more natural, in my opinion. You are a natural content creator, especially whenever it comes to monologue. Uh, you know your lives, just your facebook feed, the way you've kind of built your, your brand, even if you weren't building it purposefully or if you were, and so like for me. It's taken me a little bit to get comfortable. I like to interview people and kind of gain off of their. You know what I'm saying. Like that back and forth helps me a little bit. So, it's tough for me to just go on and rattle. Not that I can't talk for 45 minutes. Yeah, I just want to say something about 45 minutes and I worry about being able to do that If it's just me, the guest. The guest helped make it a little easier for me but yeah, well, they did.
SAMBASSADOR:I mean, as much as I like running my mouth, I still do like it when I can bounce off of somebody else. Um, it's, I don't know, it kind of feeds you, I think, doesn't it?
SHED GEEK:um otherwise you have to feed yourself it's why I started asking questions, kind of at the end of the podcast, like what questions do you have? That way, yeah, I'm prompted and it makes it easier because you know, you know this in this short time what most people do, because you know there's a lot of humble people in this industry and what most of them say is like, oh, you don't want me on there, I really don't have much of a story to tell, and I get it, I get it. That you're not. You know, you might seem like if I come on there, I seem like I'm bragging or something along those lines, and that's the last thing I want to do. And it's really not about that, Sam, it's. It's the fact that everybody has a story, whether it's how you got here, what you're doing, where's it going.
SHED GEEK:The most meek you know meek personalities have been some of the best feedback I've gotten. So, like we're not, we're not a big flashy industry really anyway. So like your, your, your, your, your meekness is appreciated, your humbleness is appreciated, but, honestly, your story, whether it be something you don't really see as inspirational or not, that's kind of our job as the host to pull some of those things out and ask and get going and and you'd be kind of surprised at how you get lost in the moment and 45, 50 minutes goes by before you know it and then you're looking at me going. Well, that was. That was way easier than I expected yeah, I hear that all the time.
SAMBASSADOR:I got an episode coming out Friday that uh is with Vargas and it's a prime example of oh, I don't know that I got anything for that long and I'm like, hey, listen, it doesn't matter if it's not that long. Some of these guys are probably like if we did 20 minute ones every once in a while.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, I'm sure.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, but I mean, and when we got done, I just looked at him. I'm like, see, and he's like that's crazy. It's like it's like you just blow through it Like there's nothing to it.
SHED GEEK:If you can get lost in the conversation. It's way more, you know. It's way more important because the content that begins to get generated comes across as more authentic and less staged. Because, like, we have people ask me do you send over a list of questions or whatever? Oh yeah, and at first I was like, what do you want that? And now I just kind of go no, no, because I don't want it to be rehearsed, but I do want you to be able to think about your answers and I don't really know what I'm going to ask you. It just kind of it's a perfect mix of not just sheds and shed-related stuff and sometimes services and products. But it's life. You know what I mean. It's just life.
SHED GEEK:There's so many things that happen that people end up talking about addiction, prison ministry. I'm trying to think of things that have came up talking about addiction, prison ministry. I'm trying to think of things that have came up on the podcast have essentially been like well, what's that got to do with the shed? Well, maybe nothing, but maybe it was valuable for your entertainment. And guys come up to you Is it my, the guy down in Georgia? Please forgive me, sir, he's a hauler, the one that was talking all the junk on the Facebook page, he said across.
SAMBASSADOR:He's a Florida boy.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, the one that said Blouser. Myland Blouser.
SAMBASSADOR:Myland Blouser, Myland Blouser. Tony Becker. Tony Becker talks just as much trash as he does.
SHED GEEK:It was, hey, it was entertaining. It's entertaining to watch all of that play out.
SAMBASSADOR:You remember a couple years ago at the Georgia barbecue, when those two guys were yelling at each other all the way through the competition? Yeah, and then they chest bumped at the end. Yeah, remember that that's those two guys. Okay, it's those two.
SHED GEEK:He came up and said hey, man, at least I think it was him and that's some other guy but said hey, I just want you to know, I listen to the podcast. I appreciate it. I'm on a two, three hour trip, man. It really makes you know, gives me some value and takes away from my trip to set and dive in and listen to something. So, we just try to you know content's king. We try to create some good content, absolutely curate something you want to listen to you know content's king.
SHED GEEK:We try to create some good content, create something you want to listen to when you're when you're hammering away, sawing away, selling away, hauling away, whatever it is you're doing, it doesn't matter. We try to create that and like sometimes that's a wide range, kind of like today probably of what we're going to be talking about. Yeah, so, yeah, I know where I want to start, but maybe you have an agenda, so I'll sit back and be quiet.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, you know me, I've always got an agenda somewhere. People just don't know where it's at. You know, one of the key things to me you said something earlier and you've said this before about it's the way I work on my brand, whether I mean to or not, and I think that's when I am at my highest sales success level is when people don't even know for sure if I'm working on it or not. That's like the biggest feather in my cap you can give me.
SAMBASSADOR:Thank you, hey, it was true it's true some days I feel like I'm working on it, nothing happens and the next day it goes poof all on its own isn't that sales, though you know I've been.
SHED GEEK:yeah, you gotta keep that pipeline, that's right. I worked hard and worked hard and worked hard. I didn't see any results. I worked hard and worked hard and worked hard. I didn't see any results. I worked hard, I worked hard, I worked hard, and I saw a ton of results. So, all I got to do is work hard again. Not always, it just doesn't always yield the same results. You just got to keep putting in the effort. Yeah, deal with the ebbs and flows. That's been my experience. But yeah, you're, you're. You're more than a hauler, which is kind of the category that people put you in a lot of times, even myself. But you're more than that and I think it shows through things you're doing right now with, like you know, this North Carolina thing and all that. But yeah, go ahead and start where you want, but I'll tell you where I want to start on something.
SHED GEEK:something I want to start on this little thing right here.
SAMBASSADOR:Well, hey, let's just, let's do it, let's get that out of the way. So I I finally made a trash post again tonight. Um, you know, I'm a little bit of a junkie and I've I've basically for five and a half weeks I have not trashed Facebook whatsoever. Everything I've done has been straight up and legit. And then the day rolled along and tonight I finally got to scroll Facebook again.
SAMBASSADOR:For a little while I have not had time, hardly at all. I mean, I might spend five minutes trying to get through some stuff, and most of it's my popular guys that are popping up and what they're doing. But tonight I got to spend a little more time on it and I actually got stood up for dinner date tonight, so I had an extra two hours that I could use and I was, yeah, just scrolling around a little bit, checking on some of my friends and stuff, and I was like, oh, today's voting day, and so, yeah, I did. I made a trash post and then I made a comment on there that's even trashier, about the fact that I didn't even go vote today and that, you know, people didn't think too far, because a week and a half ago I made. I had a post that I made that showed that I had my I voted sticker on. I voted a week and a half ago already. I knew you were trolling.
SHED GEEK:I knew exactly what you were doing. I didn't see your sticker the other day, but I've learned not to jump at the first response with you when you say well, I didn't even vote today. He didn't say I didn't vote at all. He said I didn't vote today and I've tried to start watching your post when I see them. I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook but I have to spend a decent amount to brand and things like that. I was like, yeah, I'm curious to see where this is going. Looks like they called your state already, right before I came in here. They called your state.
SAMBASSADOR:I was a little disappointed that Kentucky and Indiana beat us this year. I think Kentucky and Indiana beat us this year, but yeah, I think Kentucky and Indiana got called then West Virginia and then I think it was South Carolina.
SHED GEEK:So, I'm going to share with you an idea. I'm never short on ideas. It's always never enough time to implement them. I'm going to share with you a thought that I had recently and it probably would never go anywhere, but in my opinion, you know what I think would make an excellent podcast, and perhaps one exists that's out there that I'm just not aware of. But how many times in the last four years, and especially over the last three months, have we heard about national politics, particularly the presidential race? And know, and we was joking, I was joking with somebody today, and maybe you don't want his name mentioned, I don't know, but he was. It was in a joking manner, but he, I said I got to go vote and he said, well, you vote in Illinois for it, it doesn't matter, your vote don't count, you know. And we laughed about it and I said, yeah, I mean, that's the thing. I know my state's going to go one direction or the other, always, or at least for the foreseeable future. But something that I told him I thought would be interesting is how?
SHED GEEK:How much does the national political scene play on your personal life? I know it trickles down personal life. I know it trickles down. I get it, it affects us. Whose president matters? But we spend so much time on Facebook other social media platforms in person talking about national politics because it becomes the easy part. But if you're like me, you get to a point where you get down to fill out your ballot and there's a lot of names on there that are locally oh yeah, local people that you don't even know what they stand for and you have more of a chance to make an impact in that race than you do. The national political post that can race that consumes the majority of your news feed and the majority of your time when you talk and discuss politics because it's just seen on such a big level. Yeah, what about your local coroner, your local sheriff or judge or county center? You?
SHED GEEK:know, and most of them don't even know the names, what they stand for. Of course, they don't have the budget to go out like they do federally and do these things, but you know how cool would it be to have a podcast on your talking to your local people and just creating, you know, awareness, because you could have way more effect on a small local level.
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SHED GEEK:Community sam. It's what? Oh yeah, it's something we all stand for playing community, the non-playing community. One thing we're all looking at is communion community. That's the purpose of it. That's a good point, man. We just don't come together and really understand what's happening. Even in our neighborhood I don't know the lady who even lives next door to me those kinds of things. You have these real strong opinions about this national political scene. That really affects us as a you know. The effect you have on that race is so minute. Yeah, just a thought. It's just a thought, and and I say a podcast just because you can use whatever media you want.
SAMBASSADOR:But so I got? I got two points for you. Okay. First point is in agreement with the fact that I just happen to have podcast equipment. Now I got a little more knowledge about doing podcasts. Who ever thought you'd hear me say that? Now I'm back to riding down I-77 in a little red car and I've told this story a hundred times already, and I've told it from day one and I'll tell it until the day end. You told me hey, I've got an idea, I want to start a podcast. And what did I tell you?
SHED GEEK:It won't work.
SAMBASSADOR:It won't work. And you said, well, I think I'm going to do it anyway. And I'm like I just can't see haulers riding around listen to us talk about sheds. I can't see builders riding, I mean swinging hammers, and listen to us. And you, bullheaded dog, you just went at it and found a way to do it anyway. And not only is that bad enough, but yeah, now you got me doing it too. And here I am actually saying that I actually like the idea of maybe starting me a local podcast on local politics.
SHED GEEK:Good, and not just you, but multiple people listening. Imagine the presence you could begin to have.
SAMBASSADOR:That's a freaking great idea, but who can you know?
SHED GEEK:you got to have people do this around the. You know, I don't. You know, my thought was just you go to the ballot and you're empty. You know, you see those names. Trump and Harris and Kennedy and all that stuff. And then you get down here and you're like who is John Smith? Yep, I don't know this guy. I got to tell you something, stuff.
SAMBASSADOR:And then you get down here and you're like, who is John Smith? Yep.
SAMBASSADOR:I don't know this guy. I got to tell you something. This is the first presidential race that I'm not watching since I got married. You know how long I've been married 34 years. I saw it the other day, just the other day. 34 years. This is the first year I'm not sitting glued in front of a TV and watching the states come down hour by hour, 30 minutes by 30 minutes. Whatever I'm not watching and it's not because I'm doing a podcast tonight. I wasn't watching it anyway. I was supposed to go have a steak dinner tonight, hang out with some friends, and that's what I was going to do. I just I went and voted. I did what I used the other day when I was talking about when we helped somebody in as big a situation as we're in with the whole hurricane thing here Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, the whole area that was hit. It's a huge area and you're like it's a huge mountain. You know we did the generator thing, mountain. You know we did the generator thing. Remember when we did the generator thing?
SAMBASSADOR:we did and you know, you know how you eat an elephant one bite at a time one bite at a time.
SAMBASSADOR:So, since that whole how do you eat an elephant thing in the generator thing? The other day somebody made the story and I put it on facebook. I don't know if you saw it or not, but people need to hear this and I know we get a lot of listeners on here that aren't on Facebook. You know, there's a guy walking along on the beach and every once in a while he'd reach down and he'd pick up a clam and he'd throw it back in the ocean. And this guy was sitting up on a deck watching him and there's millions of clams down there. Every once in a while he'd reach down, he'd grab one, he'd chuck it back in the ocean. Finally, the dude up on the deck, he couldn't take it anymore and he yells down there hey, what are you doing? And he says I'm throwing clams back in. He says there's millions of them. You'll never make a difference. Guy reaches down, he grabs another one, he throws it in. He looks back up at him and said made a difference to him.
SHED GEEK:Yeah. That's what I can.
SAMBASSADOR:I can almost hang my whole life on that. Yeah, it is, it's so big and like. I went up there yesterday and I mean it's just one story after the other. Uh, they just walk up and they start it's like they have to talk to you to get it out and uh, the Leningers went up there tonight, dropped those 10 sheds off. You know, they built me 10 sheds, completely donated labor, material, hauling everything. And they go to drop the sheds off and, lo and behold, there's a guy there that starts talking to them about being there in the middle of it and they get a story right out of the gate. And it's incredible, man, it's just crazy.
SAMBASSADOR:So, what I'm trying to say is your vote counts. At the end of the day, there's I don't know what are we up to now, 80 million people per site voting. So, 161 people, 163 million people are voting, and probably I don't know, I would imagine 20, 30 million if we did the work studying it 20 to 30 million of them. People are voting in states where they say it doesn't make any difference, and yet we still do. Look at the popular vote and the popular vote makes a difference.
SHED GEEK:So keep voting, Bubba. You know, yeah, I just this was my first election that my son got to vote in.
SHED GEEK:It was oh nice it was exciting to go there with, uh, me and and, uh, his mother, and uh, you know, he got a chance to exercise his, his rights and, uh, I'm still thankful for the opportunity to do that.
SHED GEEK:And, um, and I know maybe not every listener votes and feels that way, maybe they don't, you know, understand the story of the clam, right, you know, but it's yeah, to me it's still a very important part and you know, regardless of who you voted for, I'm happy that you went out and exercised your freedom and I think we should continue to do that. Of course, I have my opinions and we occasionally express them on here, because we're not we're not anti-political conversation, but we're not just made for that purpose and the podcast doesn't just exist for that reason. And you know, anytime someone says you could turn people away because your political views, or you can turn people away because of religion or, you know, praying on the podcast, we've done that. You know, like, oh well, that doesn't really fit the narrative of the big company. Cool, I mean, like what am I supposed?
SAMBASSADOR:to say after that you know, I'm like okay, it doesn't fit your narrative.
SHED GEEK:So now what? Being like oh well, you can't be affiliated with it because you know there's prayer and that creates division. Cool, don be affiliated with it because you know there's prayer and that creates division? Cool, um, don't be a part. Don't be a part of it. I mean, it's fine, it's okay. You know what I mean. Like don't come on, don't advertise whatever it is. You know what I mean. Okay, like we're, we can take that, we can accept that. Like, yeah, I think they usually want an argument or an agreement. You know well, we'll change what we're doing. It's like cool, don't, don't be a part of it.
SAMBASSADOR:Well, that's. It's kind of interesting. You bring that up because I've been rolling in my head, rolling around in my head for the last I don't know three or four weeks, about the fact that you know, we talk about and we tell big companies this, we, small companies this, that you know we're not going to talk bad about anybody, we're not going to. You know, um, and I've always got this big one thing in the back of my head that yes, I'm not going to do that, but I'm also not going to let the untruth get away.
SAMBASSADOR:I don't you're going to get me fired up with a comment like that well, I'm just saying we're both of us firmly and this is probably, this is probably our strongest bind between the two of us is the fact that both of us stand for truth. Um, it doesn't bother us so much when it's said about us, but when it's said about other people, it gets us fired up in a hurry. Um, and we have each other's back when it comes to that. Yeah, and I was in my monologue before I'd even decided I was going to have you on. I'd already decided that. You know what. I'm just going to put it out there that for the for the record and as a fact, um, I'm not going to talk bad about anybody, but I'm also not going to bend the truth. I'm not going to let the untruth get by. So I don't know. I just feel like there's a difference there. Why don't we have more of that? Why is it so hard to find people that want to just stand on truth?
SHED GEEK:It's. You know, yeah, well, I was going to make a post this morning. You know that you don't have to defend the truth. It does a really good job defending itself. So, if you just really like, you know we constantly feel the need to defend the truth, if you tell it. But? But when you defend the truth, you're putting yourself in a position of vulnerability, and I am going to share my thoughts on this.
SHED GEEK:You're taught to be meek. Jesus was meek, you know. You're taught to be meek. You're taught to follow Jesus. You're taught to be kind and exercise restraint and be decent, right, like. We were taught all these things whenever I was growing up. You know it was just. You know, hey, don't, don't start fights. Don't you know what I mean? Like don't, don't create controversy. But when the truth becomes controversial, there's an issue, you know it's like my, my father-in-law says you know they're, they're legislating us into sin. You know you're not going willingly. It's like you know, right, this way to the chamber, sir, you know like, well, we're, we're not. You know like we're trying to go through our non, through our, you know, through our compliance, yep, you know you get what I'm saying. Like we're trying to go through our kindness and if you're not careful, you can quiet yourself right into a mess, and I get it. God's supposed to fight your battles, but I don't. You know. I heard a preacher say the other day he doesn't give you the chair or the couch.
SHED GEEK:He gives you the tree. Sometimes there's things you got to do. You know faith without works is dead and you know what? If it's all works, man, you know where is? Where is the faith in the matter? You're supposed to step out into something. That's scary if you do what's safe all the time. Anyway, you're going to get me on a pulpit here in a minute. It's just. You know it. And and I and I and I think about my PR position too.
SHED GEEK:You know, being given this platform in the industry, I think about my own PR moves. You know, faith forward, try to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and listen and go and make a move. But I think some people just never cause any problem. Don't ever argue on Facebook. Never put yourself in a position to where you're defending yourself. Look, I make myself just about sick sometimes.
SHED GEEK:I think I've told you know you're defending yourself. Look, I make myself just about sick Sometimes. I think I've told you know I have tattoos. Oh, no, the. There's a segment of the audience it's going to be like wait a minute. We got to quit listening All of a sudden. I don't like him and I'm and I'm sorry if you feel that I don't have anything vulgar, I do have a life that I have lived. So, whether you agree with it or not, or you know whether I'm out there getting, you know, my entire body tattooed tomorrow, that's not my position. What I'm saying is we've all done things and lived life, and I'm so sensitive to that that I wear long sleeves in 98 degree weather because I don't want to offend someone Not that I have anything offensive on my body, yep, you know, by traditional standards of most of the people, I know.
SHED GEEK:But then I worry. I'm like you're so willing to make yourself uncomfortable to make someone else happy and that's a PR move, you know. You're always worried about, oh no, they. You know what if they stop listening because I'm just real and honest and raw? Yeah and uh I could probably go deeper on that, Sam, but I won't, so I don't get myself in trouble yeah, it's yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:Um, it's yeah.
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SAMBASSADOR:I'm trying to figure out how far I want to go with this, because I'm going back to my current disaster relief projects. Yesterday, I wrote a text message to an individual that's not on Facebook. He wanted me to text it out to him so he could send it to some of his people and I put in there in text. Now, this wasn't verbal, this is in a text message I put in there. In fact, if my computer was acting right and I wouldn't be using my phone to do this podcast, I'd pull it up and I'd read it to you. But basically I said, while I was standing out here talking to these four families about the really nice tents they were living in, a sheriff deputy pulled up and got out with this nice little lady with her. Now, the sheriff deputy was also a lady, so it was two ladies and they walked up there and they very apologetically explained Now, remember, this is in a text message. Explained Now, remember, this is in a text message. They very apologetically explained that this other lady was with Child Protection Services, whatever they're called. I don't remember the exact name she had, but she was with Child Services and they had issues with them, with the school children living in these tents. And I was kind of catching it secondhand off to the side, but I made it very plain that it was a sheriff deputy that came up and she brought the child protective service with her and they were apologetically explaining that they had to get better living quarters for these school kids to live in.
SAMBASSADOR:The next day I have a gentleman call me back from seven states away from where I sent the text and he's like is it true that FEMA showed up and threatened these people that they would take their kids away and they would never see him again? And I'm like that literally just happened yesterday. How did he get that far out of whack that fast? And that's what I told the guy. I'm like I don't understand. I said that's my story.
SAMBASSADOR:I'm the one that set that out and it was ah, listen, the only thing worse than having to defend big, bad orange man is having to defend fema. I don't want to defend fema but at the end of the day I'll stand for truth above my dislike for a federal group, because it's not the truth and we can just go ahead and get this out of the way. Right now, 90% of what you're hearing about FEMA in North Carolina is not true. It's not true. It takes everything in me. I literally despise having to say that, because it is a federal managed program that sucks. When you start throwing untruths around, you're going to get me in my grill pretty quick, and it's the same way for politics. It's the same way for my friends. I hope that at the end of my life, people will say that, above and beyond anything that dude did, he stood for truth.
SHED GEEK:Yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:And I'll die on that legacy, Not on the fact that everybody says I help everybody and I've got a bleeding heart and all this other stuff. I don't really. You know me, I get grout Kids all get out at people about stuff. It's just what. If Lord tells me to do something, I go do it. It's not because I want to.
SHED GEEK:You're talking about people and you know, here's a classic example of somebody that makes it easy for me to brag on Dylan. You know, Dylan, what you don't know or maybe do I don't know you spent some time in prison ministry or maybe do I don't know you spent some time in prison ministry. Me and Dylan met under the attempt to create some kind of like faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation ministry here perhaps Teen Challenge, because you know, we just it was something that was a heart of ours. You know what I mean? It was a heart that we had towards this goal is to see men become, break free from their addictions and be family again. Again, building community. It's back to that, you know. Building community. The first community, the most important community in your first ministry is right there at home, taking care of your family. That's your community. Then it grows into your, your, your neighborhood and things like that.
SHED GEEK:And Dylan's a perfect, classic example of like. You know, this guy was a troublemaker when he was young, you know, and that troublemaker, that troublemaking tendency, followed him around. You know, Dylan's a felon. Here's a good example of something that I'll get, I'll get passionate about on Dylan ran was going to run for city council in our community and probably none of our city councilmen are ever going to listen to this podcast, so don't matter.
SHED GEEK:But one guy you know, challenged his ability to run because he has a felony charge on him. Now he can run for mayor, he can run for governor, he can run for president, but he couldn't run for city council because there was a little bit of red tape there that kept him from my word and, and and you know he sits on the board of United Way, he sits on a couple other boards. He's been, he's really been celebrated because of his effort, but he's been to prison. He's been to prison and he's a felon and he also probably makes a better living than half my audience and I'm not bragging, you know about oh yeah, I'm not, I don't mean it that way.
SHED GEEK:What I'm saying is he had no option because he recognizes he did wrong in his life. He, he paid his consequences. He went to prison. He found the lord, he changed his life, he began to be a productive member of society. But society didn't forget.
SAMBASSADOR:Society didn't forget and somewhere we missed that last step in that whole process.
SHED GEEK:He's accountable now, so he couldn't get a job. You know he's logging, he's doing all these. He had to go create his own value and thank thank God he did. Because now he's went and created a massive value for himself, to where he's hiring people, you know, like crazy, and because he's been successful, maybe one of these days he'll hire the guy that wouldn't let him run for city council, because they'll get to see the true nature of who he really is as an individual. See for me to brag on. You know 630,000 people is going to get released from prison this year and are we going to write them off because that's who they were? You know it's like you preach all the time about helping somebody. You don't ask them their political party.
SAMBASSADOR:I actually talked about that today.
SHED GEEK:You're just helpful.
SHED GEEK:You're not asking are you a Republican or Democrat before you give them a building. Nope, because they're in need, and I know I'm probably in rare form, I'm just saying to segue. I want to kind of tell the story. Are you okay with me telling the story of, like, the generator? Oh yeah, absolutely so. I'm going to tell you where that started. First of all, Sam was here. How funny that the Lord would have him here. He lives in South Carolina. He drove through Mayfield that morning, came up to my house, stayed in the holiday drove through Mayfield that night yeah, you stayed and you stayed in Holiday Inn here in Metropolis.
SHED GEEK:I remember that because I remember me talking about the flutter on the on the rose bushes. Yep, and I'm gonna tell you what happened, how this come together, at least the way I saw it. Sam on my end was there's. There's a lady who I used to work for. I saw her at a church. It's actually the church Dylan goes to. It's a church that really supports the faith-based drug and alcohol community in Paducah. Um, and you know, I even appreciate some of the guys listening, cause I even know a guy who's went through a program that all of you guys know here in Paducah, or I even knew him. Yep, anyway, go squirrel. So, this lady who went to church there, I saw her on the day she got baptized. So, I've kind of followed her story because she used to be my boss and I just think, you know, it's neat to see somebody in their process.
SHED GEEK:Tornado happened. She puts on her Facebook post anybody got a generator that I can use to get to a friend Because they lost everything in the Mayfield tornado. I got a generator that's probably 10 years old. It's been sitting in the garage, got a plug with it, all that good stuff Probably fill it up just to run the carburetor empty about once a year, just so it don't get gummed up right. Yeah, I don't know what. I paid for it 800 bucks 10 years ago.
SAMBASSADOR:Yep.
SHED GEEK:I couldn't part with it. I saw that she had a need and I couldn't part with it. You know, I don't know if I get that generator down there. I'll never get it back, Ain't no way. It'll never show back up.
SHED GEEK:I went to bed and I couldn't sleep and the Lord convicted me and I woke up the next morning and first thing I did was message her and said hey, you still need a generator. I got one here, you can just have it. I'm in the position. I'm thinking to myself I can just buy a new generator. I have a need and I'm sitting here going oh no, I'll never get my generator, I never use back. What if I need it, just in case, or whatever.
SHED GEEK:The Lord really convicted me on it. Well, too bad, because generator was already spoken for. She didn't need it and I was like, ah, missed my opportunity to serve to give. So, it drove me crazy and I knew you were in town and I reached out to you, reached out to Kyle and said hey, you guys want to do a video and see if we can raise some money. If we could give 10 generators away, if we pull on the industry, that would be amazing. Kyle was busy. You came over me and you, sitting in front of my fireplace, asked for some money 50 grand rose in in the first 24 hours.
SHED GEEK:Obedience is greater than sacrifice. Just do it, don't worry about what it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you something, whether you do it. Don't worry about what it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you something, whether you do it or not. We go down. We offload 25 generators one day, another 25 another day, just happens it's. It's a. It's a buddy of mine. I used to work with Graceland. He's the tractor supply. Uh, general manager there in Mayfield says I got 800 generators come in overnight, boom there we go.
SHED GEEK:I'm still friends with him yeah, uh, yeah, Matthew Dowdy is his name, look him up. Um, but then you took it to a new level. I go down for two days, hand out some generators, and this is just Sam. This is all. Uh, my deed's done, I've done. Well, I came down, I gave away all these generators. We even Kyle, even jokingly just put it on Facebook and was like hey, Chip Gaines, why don't you give to this process? Chip Gaines actually reaches out. Why on earth he would, I have no idea Reaches out what do you need? Here's 10 grand. Lines it up. The joke sends us $10,000.
SHED GEEK:You know, what was beautiful was when I was handing out those generators. I was like if you use the name chip Gains and Magnolia Network and diy and all that stuff, people are going to know who he is 50 of the time in this country. But if you say the name Shannon Latham, Sam Byler, Shed Geek, you know who's going to know those who are in the industry Outside of that it don't mean to dime to anybody, nope, I was like I could go out here and say we handed these out, or I could go out here and promote the kingdom, because I don't know everything Chip stands for, but he seems to be a good Christian man. You know what I'm saying. Seems to spread the knowledge of Christ and can do it way better than I can, given he's got a way bigger platform.
SHED GEEK:So, when I start handing those generators out, you know these people are like bless you, thank you, thank you. It means so much. And I was like, hey, you know what Chip Gaines is? You ever watch DIY Network? And they were like, yeah, yeah, the home improvement people. I was like he actually bought this to give to you.
SAMBASSADOR:I remember when you were doing that.
SHED GEEK:And they were like oh my goodness, you know, Chuck. We said thank you, it means so much, that's great. And I thought to myself those people will remember that forever Now.
SHED GEEK:I can't zip up and just get him on the phone, but it didn't matter. The message that was put out there was that a Christian with a platform, hey, this to you. And he did in a, in a, in a roundabout way. It might not have been that exact one, but I was just telling everybody, hey, it gave this to you, you know, and I and I hope they watch his show and buy his products and all that stuff. You know what I mean. Because of it, whatever.
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SHED GEEK:You took it to a new level, and this is you. You said I'm not done. God spoke to you in some way and said I need to put together a platform of people. We need to come call them in from all parts of the world and we need to stay down here and start building a whole bunch of sheds back, homes back, barns, back. And you, you, you organized this big orchestration of help, and that's what I admire about you is. You know, I'm not saying I gave up on it, I'm saying I felt fulfilled in what I gave, but you took it way farther and that was the, the, the most admirable thing that I think that you did.
SHED GEEK:I was more impressed because I was like, wow, he's, he's got 80 people down there staying in campers. I mean, you know it's, it's, it know it's not real life. It sounds like a you know what I mean Something you can only make up until North Carolina comes along. Oh, and you told me. You said I'm about to do one of the biggest things we've ever done, and it's stepping out in faith, it's taking the chance that the people will show up and talk about it, Sam, because I think it's awesome and I think it explains the heart of who you are better than anything, so tell me about it if you want to. I just wanted to tell the tornado story because I think it was so fun how it came together to see.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, so the inexplainable part. I had a really good friend of mine go off on me last night. It was like I can't even get people to show up to chop wood for a widow lady and you just magically wave your wand around and there's people everywhere and he was being sarcastic. But yeah, so here's the cool thing. It's always a God thing, it's not a Sam thing.
SAMBASSADOR:I never planned on doing anything in Kentucky that was never in the, it was never on the schedule, it was never put into place. It was literally walking step by step and listening to the spirit as it came along. Shannon calls let's raise money for generators. Okay, let's see what we can do with it. And then, through the generators, it's like, hey, you know, look at all these needs here that need to be done. Well, I've got people and you throw it out there and you never make. You never make a decision that, hey, I'm gonna spend the next three months living in my old stomping grounds in Kentucky and I'm gonna do this. It was the same way down here.
SAMBASSADOR:I literally drove all night to get home before this thing hit hard. Um, everybody seen me at the shed. Show the shed. People in the industry, you know they. They all seen me up there with my hat that Wendell stover gave me I haven't even got to talk about that on an episode yet the big hat, you know. I went to Georgia barbecue the other day and they're like where's your big hat at? You know, and I'm like most people don't know, I didn't buy that hat, just tell them, you just brought your big head.
SAMBASSADOR:I'm like it's the only hat that makes my big, big head look small, other than the one I have on right now. I really this hat's been around a long time. So, when I got in I was beat. I mean, I drove through rain from Dayton, Ohio the whole way home off and on vans and stuff. I got tired in Kentucky. Dan drove for a couple hours and then I took back over again and I drove through some nasty stuff from Knoxville home. By the time I got to Asheville it had gotten pretty bad. I literally come through the gorge. Less than two hours after that road disappeared. And by the time I got to Asheville trees were falling pretty good, especially on the other side, and I knew it was an east wind because it was still the top side of the storm. So, I felt halfway safe driving home because I knew the majority of the trees were falling on the northbound side and I was, you know, pretty good shape on my side. But by the time I came down 25, there was actually trees on our side that had fell over the opposite way. So, I dropped Dan off way. So, I dropped Dan off and it. I'll never forget how amazed I was after I dropped Dan off.
SAMBASSADOR:It was a little after seven o'clock about, right at seven. The amount of traffic that was work traffic from people going to work in the middle of this huge hurricane. They were just doing what they always did and it wasn't going to be as bad as the way the guy said it was going to be. Now my wife had been talking to me since Tuesday about this thing. That's why I drove home all night. I got home 18 minutes later. Power goes off and I told her. I said, look, look, I can't do nothing right now. It's raining and storming. Too bad, I might as well catch up on some sleep. Um, two and a half hours later I'm like is it ever going to quit raining? Like it's still raining, the storm's gone, the I'd moved through, we'd got the secondary winds that had come through the opposite direction and blew a whole bunch more trees down.
SAMBASSADOR:Finally, I got up and I was like you know what? I might as well go out and start checking out stuff clearing the road. I did that, live walking down my backyard and I grabbed a chainsaw and 14 days later I put that chainsaw down. 14 days later, 35 volunteers later, I have no idea how many jobs later. We worked straight. We didn't know when Sunday was, we didn't know when Saturday was, we didn't know when Wednesday was.
SAMBASSADOR:I never made a decision that I was going to go cut trees up, that I was going to help anybody else. I never called anybody to come help me, they just started showing up. That's when you know that it's just a God thing. You never plan on it, you never make a decision. And I'll be honest with you.
SAMBASSADOR:I kept saying I'm not going to North Carolina because I got to take care of my own backyard. I felt very strong that I didn't have any responsibility to go anywhere else. And right now, if you ask me what made the decision for you to go to North Carolina, I don't know. I don't even remember when the when the switch flipped for that. All I know is, all of a sudden we're doing a 100 shed drive to get sheds into North Carolina and Tennessee. The stories up there are just incredible, man, every time you go up there.
SAMBASSADOR:I'm not quite to the point, to where I'm going to say it, but up until now I've not been willing to verbalize this. But I don't think it's going to stop at 100 sheds. And I said from the start that if we do this, this is a God thing, because there is no way any of us little peons can pull this off. Sure, they can go do a concert. North Carolina threw. That huge concert raised $35 million. Excuse me, which one of them? One of them is building 100 houses, I don't remember who it is. They have huge platforms.
SHED GEEK:Yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:We're just us. We're just guys living in our backyards hanging out with our buddies. I'm not even two weeks in. They're coming from everywhere. I got loads coming from Texas and they're coming from everywhere. I got loads coming from Texas. I got loads. We had sheds dropped tonight in North Carolina Seven sheds that were brought in from northern Indiana. I've got sheds coming from Michigan. I've got sheds coming tomorrow from Ohio. They're just showing up from everywhere and the majority of them want to be involved. They want, you know, they apologize because they're like ah, you know, we'd like the help, but the company we're dealing with you know, or they want to know where the sheds are going. And, man, I 100% embrace that. There's nothing that makes me happier than when that shed gets dropped, that they get to meet who the people are and they get to hear that story. And that's exactly what happened tonight with the Lonegar boys. You know, you remember how we got to know them.
SHED GEEK:They won the meal. Yeah, yeah At the bash.
SAMBASSADOR:At the bash. I didn't know who those guys were I'd had conversations with them, but I didn't know them personally and they came down and sawed. I didn't know who those guys were I'd had conversations with them, but I didn't know them personally and they came down and sawed trees. I've got videos of them standing on top of trees.
SHED GEEK:Even during the Mayfield thing. One of the things that sticks out to me that I remember is there was a group of Amish there that were looking to help but didn't have a lot of direction, and me and you pulled up with those yeah, the apartment, and you started speaking in Dutch, which is always funny to me, because the look on their face was like, say what now? And they start talking to me in Dutch and I'm like, hey, no habla espanol. I don't know anything that you guys are saying, but you were able to sort of generate this thing. That happened.
SHED GEEK:Naturally, they just began to sort of follow you because they were like this guy's on a mission, hey, he also knows Dutch and we need someone to help. I can certainly help this guy because he can. He can help us with the language barrier, direct us, whatever it looked like, and those boys jumped in and started helping out in in areas that we were asking. Uh, yeah, yeah, you know. So So, just really weird how some of these things work out. But you, you said something about one of these guys building 100 homes and that's amazing, let's be honest, that's just truly, oh, it's huge yeah, he's using his platform that's essentially saying you know, we just threw back you.
SHED GEEK:you know what'd you say? There's a million clams on the beach. Just threw back a half a million and maybe that's not an accurate description. Oh, it's pretty big Half a million out there, and what you're doing might only be 10 or 20 or 30 clams, but if everybody had that same heart to jump in and do that, it would get taken care of no problem.
SAMBASSADOR:Yep, thank y'all for listening to today's episode. This was part one of a two part episode, so be sure to listen next week to finish today's podcast. Hey, this is.