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
Turning Trials into Triumphs: A Shed Hauler's Journey PART 1
What does it take to build a successful shed transport business from scratch? For Daniel Yoder, founder of GDR Transport / Shed Movers, the answer lies not just in logistics and equipment, but in something far more fundamental—personal development.
Daniel's journey begins far from the shed industry, with military service in the 82nd Airborne Division and deployment to Afghanistan in 2009-2010. Through an unexpected opportunity, he received CDL training courtesy of the military, though at that point, hauling sheds wasn't remotely on his radar. Fresh from deployment and focused on healing, Daniel initially pursued biblical studies at Liberty University while working at a lumber yard. A series of connections eventually led him to drive for a shed manufacturer before taking the leap to start his own transport business in 2016.
With remarkable candor, Daniel shares how he launched his business with minimal savings, securing financing for equipment—a move he describes as potentially "dangerously stupid" yet born from the confidence his military experience and newfound independence had instilled. Now in his tenth year with multiple trucks on the road, he reflects on the growth that's occurred not just in his business but within himself.
The podcast delves into powerful metaphors that have shaped Daniel's philosophy: people as tea bags that reveal their true flavor when placed in hot water, the shed industry providing plenty of challenging "hot water" moments that reveal character. Through equipment breakdowns, difficult customers, and even a severe personal injury that required years of recovery, Daniel emphasizes taking responsibility for our responses rather than blaming circumstances.
For those in the shed hauling business or considering entering it, this conversation offers invaluable wisdom about maintenance practices, business relationships, and the mindset required for long-term success. Daniel's story demonstrates that sometimes, the path to professional achievement runs directly through personal growth and development—a journey well worth taking for anyone in the shed industry.
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Sure, and thanks so much for having me. It's amazing what you do Again. My name is Daniel Yoder. It's amazing what you do Again. My name is Daniel Yoder, based in upstate New York.
Daniel Yoder:Shed GDR transport, transport, sheds, shed haulers, primarily for backyard outfitters, Started in 2016. So, this is my 10th year. Lots of ups and downs throughout the process, but thankful for the opportunity. It's just amazing how much there is to learn in the shed industry and it's neat to see how much growth I've experienced in myself the last couple of years.
Daniel Yoder:And really I think, as this podcast goes on, that'll be one of the themes that I would like to highlight is is personal growth, personal development, and really the neat thing about that is you can't grow unless you acknowledge where you've been, the mistakes you've made, acting like those things didn't happen, not discussing them, not being transparent. All of those things is a great way. If you don't do those things, it just stagnates personal growth. But I have two drivers that are owner operators, essentially Marvin Beiler, Richard Abbey, then Henry is a driver. I'm kind of rotating out as a driver a little bit more. I'm on the road a couple of days a week and then I have a part-time guy, Mervin. So, when people ask how many trucks we're running, I say four and a half, and so when people ask how many trucks were running, I say four and a half.
Shannon:I got you Now. I didn't start there. I was reading your story and maybe I need to talk to you about it off air or something. But, man, I would love to be able to put your story in like a blog or something like that in our newsletter for people to read, for those who just enjoy reading. But we'll discuss that later now. Let me forget that. I'd love to talk with you about that. But how does your? You know we probably were getting started in this space about the same time and, um, um, how does your story unfold? How did you find the shed industry? How did you find shed hauling? What did that? What were the circumstances that brought that to be?
Daniel Yoder:Back on now. It essentially. Essentially it started before I was working. I worked in a plant in central PA, but it really started before that because I spent 13 months overseas in the military. Randomly the commander allowed me to go, my CO allowed me to go and get my CDL at a CDL school. So, I just had them. But it's sometimes hard to know where to start where to start.
Shannon:I want to start there, just by asking, out of curiosity were you in Army?
Daniel Yoder:What branch were you in? I was with the yes Army. I was with the 82nd for three and a half years active and then I did like five more years in the reserves 82nd.
Shannon:That's in Georgia, right, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I don't know why I always want to put them in Georgia. It's like the Screaming Eagles up here. The 101st is up here, close to us in Clarksville. So you were in Fort Bragg, so you were. Now. Was your MOS truck driving? Were you an 88 Mike?
Daniel Yoder:I was a combat engineer but we were an attachment for headquarters. So, when I was overseas, I did a lot of driving. When we were there, 2009 to 2010, we switched from Humvees to these MRAPs that are like 40,000 pounds and we drove them all over the place. I mean, we went. Some of the roads were so narrow that we had to be careful because the side of the road would literally cave out when we were going down mountain trails and stuff. So, about a year and a half after we returned home, my commander knew that I was planning to get out and I think they just had a connection or a slot somewhere. And literally he just came to me one day and he's like you want to go to cdl school? I'm like sure. And he signed off, relieved me my duties for a month, they paid for it and that's how I got my cdl I'm completely convinced, had I went active duty, that it's me and our paths would have taken the very similar course.
Shannon:There's no doubt because I think about all these guys. You know I was graduated high school in 98, and I was in basic training that summer. I was at boot camp that summer and AIT later and had I went active and even in my reserve status in the National Guard, I would have really wanted to go active but a lot of guys drove trucks over the road and it's just, you know, the shed industry wasn't what it was back then. Uh, you know, so like I didn't know anybody hauling sheds, or it's amazing because I I could see myself going down that route. Uh, just out of curiosity, where'd you go to boot camp? Or Leonard wood, Leonard wood and what?
Daniel Yoder:year did you go?
Shannon:2008, late 2008, 2008 so I went through Leonard wood in 98. So I went through about 10 years prior. Um yeah, c310, Charlie uh, third battalion, 10th infantry, Charlie Company, and I was at the top of the hill. It was a time of my life I'll never forget, because I just remember being 17 years old and scared to death, you know, and there was, like all these drill instructors around me that, just you know like, owned my world. You know, one of the best experiences I ever went through, looking back on it because it taught me so much hello.
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Daniel Yoder:Yeah, didn't really. You just don't know what it's like somebody to yell in your ears so loud that it actually closes your ear up and, and you know, spits flying everywhere.
Shannon:Uh, that shark attack moment when you first get there it's coming in on those cattle trucks, yeah, and getting released out there. I was the first one. Um, I was first, yeah, like first. Uh, I ended up being in 4th platoon but of course, that being the last platoon and I was right at the beginning of it, it changed my world. It was a summer to never forget. It was 105 degrees in the shade, it was terrible.
Shannon:But at the same time, looking back on it and I didn't respect my service back then quite like I do now I appreciated it so much and what it did for me. But it's a different world when you think about being in that. So, I was just curious to get all that on air. But thank you for your service. I know so many people say that as just a caveat, but greater love has no man than one who lays down his life for his fellow man. And when you sign up for the military, you write a blank check. You write a blank check with your name to say I will go out here and serve people, I will serve this country and thank you for that. We'll get back on track. So you got your CDLs. Your drill instructor, your commanding officer, got you to do that and you said OK, I'll go haul sheds. Is that how it worked?
Daniel Yoder:No, I had absolutely no plans to haul sheds. I didn't even. I was completely the opposite. When I got out of the military, you know people are like you gotta, you know, you gotta take some classes, you gotta get your degree. When you get out, you gotta, you know, have a plan. It's like I don't have a plan and it was really the end of my time in the military. I got involved with the navigators and was really probably one of the most. Those last year and a half is one of the times where I grew the most in my faith and I actually learned how to put it into practice, how to live it, what it looks like, because the navigators really tight group. I mean we did everything together almost in military style. You can look them up. Their ministry is focused on colleges and military bases. So, they got me started taking classes at Liberty University and literally my plan was to get out and study the Bible. That's it. I actually I made it three quarters of the way to my bachelor's degree in biblical studies at Liberty and you know I'm literally I got out there.
Daniel Yoder:There was. I left home in a very bad situation that we won't get into today. Grew up conservative Amish. There's just some things that happened that weren't good, and some of them were my fault, and I really needed to go back and work on some of those things. As hard as it is, it was the right thing to do. So, I was taking Bible classes, just enjoying them, and there's something about studying it opens your mind, you start to look at things differently. You have to research it, you have to think about it. That was new to me. I didn't know how to do that. I didn't know how to think on my own. So, it was just I mean, the time of learning there was just incredible.
Daniel Yoder:And you know, I had a friend that worked at a lumber yard and he knew I had my CDO and he said, why don't you come work with us? And so I I said yeah, I'll help you out in a couple of days. And the next thing, I know they want me full time. And the next thing I know they put me in a, you know, a big semi and I'm I'm setting trusses with a crane I hand here. You know I'm getting in deeper than I want to get in and um, throughout that process, somebody else I knew worked at the local shed shop there in central PA and, um, he enjoyed it. He enjoyed the I honestly don't even remember I don't think it was quite a year and the driver that was hauling there one of the drivers, got a different job. So the owner came to me and he said do you want to drive? You got your cd out. I said, sure, um, so after that I preferred staying in the truck versus being in the plant building. So that's kind of how I got started.
Daniel Yoder:And so, I drove for again, maybe a year or something like that. And again, I don't exactly remember the details, but I was talking to the owner one day and I said, hey, you know, do you just literally random? Hey, do you need, do you need another driver, because honestly, I think I could do this myself. And he says, yeah, we, we found a location in New York. We've been looking for a couple years and we just found it two weeks ago. And then and I'm like, then I like get scared. Okay, what did I just ask? You know, where are we going with this? Um, and then he came back and made me an offer If you move to New York which, interestingly, my wife's parents are from upstate New York here. Do you move here? Help me get the shop started.
Daniel Yoder:We moved in like September of 2015. 15 you say you can. You can plan to uh, buy a rig and start hauling sheds in like March of 2016. Um, there's a lot of details that that happen in between there. That's who I started with is backyard outfitters, but the whole thing. I mean I had absolutely no fear. I don't know if it was a combination of just finally thinking on my own, making decisions on my own and being in the military. You combine those things, you, you can become dangerously stupid. Um, but I mean, I was hauling sheds, you know if you do it, but it was interesting because I had probably no more than four to 5000 in our bank account and I think we were, we were just married, money was not even my priority and we were honestly thinking that if I get to my bachelor's degree, I would go to Liberty for seminary.
Daniel Yoder:And again, I had no plans for preaching, but I had looked at possibly, chaplaincy work in the military and you know, just, it was just kind of you know, seeing what, what happens in in the next step and how things come together. My time in the reserves. I actually switched to chaplain assistant because I wanted to learn more. So, you know, really just didn't have a definite plan. This is what I'm going to do. So, I had about four or five thousand in my account.
Daniel Yoder:I had a good reputation with the local bank. I bought my first truck 2016 Ram 3500, paid about fifty- two thousand dollars for it and I got a loan for one point. Nine Went to Pine Hill. I got a loan for the trailer brand new trailer through Foundation Bank and I went to USAA got a personal loan for like $35,000 for the bed and the mule and all that, and I did all this within three days and I got approved for all three. So I mean, obviously, if I spaced them out, they wouldn't have all gone through, so it was maybe $150,000, 145 for my first rig.
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Daniel Yoder:And it was a little scary because I started, you know I bought the truck six months kind of ahead. You know I was making payments ahead of time while the bed was getting put on and so forth. Yeah, beginning, I hauled about 700 barns from the beginning of March to like the end of October, beginning of November, and that was kind of the foundation of, of, of where it where it started.
Daniel Yoder:And really, I want to get back to personal development because I, I, I really marvel at how immature I was. I feel, you know, uh, some of us sometimes have a late start in life because of our background and because we grow up and we either learn fast, or we just accept being stuck. I mean that I wouldn't have known during those years because I was learning so much. My first airplane ride was to basic training and the second one I jumped out of. So, things were just happening so fast, and I was learning so much. I wouldn't have known it at that time. But now, looking back, I really was immature in a lot of ways and I don't even know if I would do the same thing over now, you know. But you know I worked hard, and I did with what I had and what I knew to do and really I just kind of had a modest goal. I simply just wanted to have a truck and maybe two trucks and haul some sheds and make a living, and that was that was about it. But uh, you know, growth happens. Um, the second year, we needed another truck and got a driver. So, then 2017, so it was me and Yuri. Yuri Detweiler was my driver, and then two others, two other owner operators working out of the plant here and the one owner operator four years. So, like two years later, four years into it, he decided that he needed to do something different and I said, okay, well, if, if I find a driver, I would do it. It's not that this is what I set out to do, and it just so happened that my brother-in-law, Richard, was available and I said let's do it. So, a lot of it has been organic and just taking the opportunities that are in front of it, but it's important now I'm sure you've heard it said that when you're given something, you need to manage it well or it will be taken away. So, it's really where the focus has shifted to manage what we are given.
Daniel Yoder:And I think it was John Maxwell I was listening to the other day who said talking about how people get to the top 10% of their potential and they love it. That's they love it. That's where they like to hang out, that's their sweet spot, they get comfortable. But he said going from an eight to a five or the top 3% is sometimes the most difficult but that is sometimes where the absolute most growth and impact happens. So that idea of personal growth and I was debating whether or not I should say this, but I think I will I think they're in the conservative culture, the culture I grew up believers.
Daniel Yoder:I really think that a lot of people unintentionally hide behind their faith when it comes to personal development because the thought process is well, I believe in God. I, you know, I believe in God. He's all I need and that's true. But there's millions of people that pack out football stadiums. They believe in football. They're crazy about football. They can pay money to go to football. They're crazy about it. They're not on the field playing. The people on the field playing are the people that have developed themselves to pay play. They have practiced hard, they've been working their whole life. So personal development is really where the rubber meets the road.
Daniel Yoder:And if you think about it, when God created Adam and Eve, he put them in the garden, gave them instructions, told them what to do when they were disobeying. God didn't come and stop them. That was a decision. They had the responsibility. They were told what to do. That was their decision to not obey, and you can follow that through so many scenarios. There's a balance in that. I'm not going to say we don't have no responsibility and it's all in our responsibility. You know there's just a balance there and and I can't tell you exactly what that is Like you need in your walk, you need to figure out what that. That's why it's called personal development. Personal, you know, personal development. So, it's, it's just so, it's just so powerful. And the interesting thing about that, I don't think I've maybe I said it at the beginning, yes, I did that that your personal development.
Shannon:I love the, the journey and everything that you're uh, everything that you're discussing hits home for me, you know, even down to your chaplaincy work. You know I'm a level two chaplain, uh, through the church of God I was attempting to be a level three. I did work in faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation. I have done some prison ministry and used to do local jail ministry for quite a while. And then there's other guys that are in there now that I know. You know we just went to church this last Sunday with my aunt and uncle and come to find out that that pastor's been there for 30 or 40 years is, you know, the chaplain for the Paducah area, for McCracken County. You know, just interesting to talk with those guys because the one thing I found in my search, you know, was two-thirds of the New Testament Bible written, you know, from a jail cell. You know, like you know, Paul and Silas spending all the time in prison, Hebrews 13, 3,. Be with those in prison, as though you're in prison yourself. And like all these things were like hinting at, like you know, even my father-in-law, who worked in a prison for 28 years, my brother-in-law, who's worked at one for over 20 years. Like you know, I worked at a jail as a shift commander. At one point my brother did, my brother-in-law did, you know, cousins of mine did Like all of that life was, and it's funny because, like my father-in-law said, he used to tell them, you know, when they were in the jail. The difference in me and you is I didn't get caught because sadly that was the truth for a lot of my life, you know, what I mean was was, uh, there's very little difference between those behind the bars and and those overseeing those behind the bars. Sometimes that's more uh of a thin line than you uh realize. Um, yeah, it was just one of those things where I don't know, chaplaincy was calling my name and, uh, I don't think I was as much on the police side, uh, of wanting you know, of having to do like the notifications of death and things like that. I feel so sorry for the guys that have to do that, because it's not just the families that suffer, even the people who have to give that news. I mean, that's taxing on you.
Shannon:Mine was always, you know, jail and prison and trying to figure out how we make a better society, and that led me into, you know, I remember talking to our sheriff one time in small jail here in metropolis holds 50 people and he said you know, 49 people are here for drugs. And I said what's the other guy here for? He said for stealing something to to get money to buy drugs. You know, it's all said and done. You know drugs, you know like nonviolent crime is more common than violent crime when we think about jail and prison and things like that.
Shannon:So, it just took me down this road of addiction recovery and looking at the epidemic that we have in the world right now of, like so many guys, I knew that started out on prescription and then couldn't get prescription. So, they started turning into things that they could get illegally and that turned into a full- blown addiction, you know, because their back was hurting, because they were off work, because they severely injured their back or something like that. And the next thing you know they're like how'd I get here in three years? It doesn't make any sense to me. I can't. I can't look back and make sense of the three-year journey that I just took. But of course and I'll digress but the mentality is like just lock them up, throw away the key, and there's got to be something better than lock them up, throw away the key. I mean, you know, 600 people get released from jails and prisons every year, like your community. If we're not doing anything to be better as people, then why are we locking them up and then letting them out? We're saying they serve their time, but did we? You know, is it our job to to help them? I don't know, I don't. I don't want to, I don't want to hijack the podcast and get on that conversation too long. I want you to bring it back for me to to your, your next step and what you did after after, uh, your journey ended there.
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Daniel Yoder:Yeah, but it goes along with what we're talking about, though, because in those situations, we all find ourselves in those situations where we wish we could do more. We wish we could. We all find ourselves in those situations where we wish we could do more. We wish we could say more, do more. But ultimately it comes back to the question what are you doing with you? What you're doing with you does matter. That one fish you're throwing back does matter. And, yeah, really want to get back to the shed haulers, and there's a lot of shed haulers out there working very hard. They come up against a lot of obstacles and kind of this. Next section here is probably one of the most personal ones, but have you ever heard the phrase that we're all tea bags and we get put in hot water? Our flavor simply comes out? I haven't heard that interesting yeah.
Daniel Yoder:So, you know we interact with customers or whatever happens when we react negatively. Um, whatever it might be, what's coming out of is is simply what's always been there. It's just, it's just. And the shed industry will get you in hot water, whether it's an upset customer, it might be rain, it might be a breakdown, it might be somebody on the road, it might be customer canceling I mean, the list can just go on and on and on. It's a, it's such a neat job and I think that's really something I've been learning in the last four years. Maybe it it what people do it like.
Daniel Yoder:I can never say it's because that person did that, my day is ruined because that person did that, my day is ruined because my truck blew up. No, I made the decision to drive that truck. I should know what that truck is capable of. I should know the miles on it. I should know the maintenance plan. I should know that If my day is ruined because of something like that happens, it's my own. It comes back on me. It just doesn't work to say, well, that's you know, because so-and-so, my day went this way. Um, so we all get. We all get it put in hot water, and that's where personal development is so critical and it's kind of the foundation of, of, of, of the rest of what I'm getting into, what I want to talk about, kind of losing my spot here. But oh, back to back to hiding behind things. When it comes to personal development, I think there's other things we hide behind. There's Like I'll behind, there's like I'll.
Daniel Yoder:When I come back from 13 months in Afghanistan, my mind was wrecked. It wasn't doing well. It would spin Like I couldn't. It felt like I couldn't control it. It. It just I wasn't with it. Yeah, if I would have taken the traditional path that most guys took, if I would have taken the traditional path that most guys took, where you know you, you get care with the VA and their counselors and you've got PTSD. You've got all this and the VA tries hard to help these guys.
Daniel Yoder:But the core of the issue is our soul. What are we putting into our soul? Like our, you know, everything functions off of how well our soul is doing. That's about the time I got involved with the navigators and I got into the word. The idea isn't necessarily to fix it, you just got put something better in it. Your motor blows up. You don't use the same. You know you put some better oil in it, you put something better in it so that whatever is there is going to leave and it's not going to come back. That's so. That was a big, a big thing for me.
Daniel Yoder:You know my and honestly, there was a there was times, four or five years into hauling, that some of these things surfaced for me because I didn't really understand them. You know, issues come up, this happens, that happens and you, you know, you think, well, it's because of that person or it's because of this person. No, really it, it's what I do with it. And about midway through, I was kind of, you know, getting we got, we just exploded. So we were, I think I mentioned we were about three trucks, 20, so 16, 17,.
Daniel Yoder:2019 is when we went to three trucks. Covid hit. I had just gotten a backup truck and we ran four trucks during COVID. I dispatched all of them. I drove, the roads were wide open, we worked nonstop. I think we moved 2,700 sheds that year and I was done. I was.
Daniel Yoder:You know, it's like when you operate with a lot of pressure. It's like a pressure cooker and the smallest little thing happens and it just sets you off. I know shed haulers. That cannot relate with that can relate with that. There's so much pressure in your life that it doesn't take much to set you off. And that's exactly where I was and, honestly, my thought process was this God could use me so much better if I was just a missionary somewhere. You know why am I stuck here, you know, doing this rat race stuff. God could just use me better somewhere else and that's literally where I went with it and it was. You know, I think it was well intended, but I my personal development wasn't where it should have been and that's literally what my plan was.
Daniel Yoder:Heading into the Lancaster bash, when I won that bash truck and I had actually the school I was planning to attend to, I had just gotten word that they won't accept the GI bill and this was, like you know, the best thing ever with winning the bash.
Daniel Yoder:I'm going to use that to go to school. A month later I injured my leg so bad that they don't know that they can put it back together and you know, still today it took three years for my leg to get to where I can get around well and to where I think I've kind of plateaued. Now it's been a little over four. The last year, I think, has plateaued, but it still has a crazy attitude. It some days it'll take an hour. Actually, the other Saturday it just. It just gets stuck in the morning and you start moving it and it sounds like grinding gears. It was injured so bad that at the very bottom they literally wired pieces together on top of my ankle. They didn't know if they wanted to put it back together or if they just wanted to fuse it all together.
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Daniel Yoder:That is not something I can hide behind, that's not something I'm going to hide behind. Yeah, we, you know. And back to I kind of moved away from where my mind was coming back from overseas. These guys, I know them, I know guys, you know they're, they're, they're, you know, been diagnosed with PTSD. They've been diagnosed with these issues and that's their life. They accept that this is who you are and that's. They live with it, they, they, they.
Daniel Yoder:You don't, we don't have to stay there, it doesn't. I mean, and it's, it's hard to say, but it doesn't matter necessarily, like, I say it with grace, like, whatever happens, you don't have to stay there. If you've ever seen the forge movie, the guy that, uh, the main, the main guy with the business I forget his name had his son, was killed by a drunk driver. The drunk driver got saved and he ended up mentoring him. This drunk driver had killed his son. You know, like, regardless of what happens, like it's it's usually, believe it or not for the betterment of you, what are you going to do with it?
Shannon:yeah, we're going to all face trial and, um, you know, I heard, heard. There's a couple of things that I wanted I write stuff down at this point in the podcast that I want to come back and address, because my mind begins to wander if I don't. It's hard, it's hard, it's hard to stay on track. You know one thing I wrote down. I don't know why I wrote this down, but I ran across this recently thing I wrote down. I don't know why I wrote this down, but I ran across this recently and something that you were saying talking about your body and you know aches and all that.
Shannon:And I read recently where somebody said you're not a body with a soul, you're a soul with a body, and that changed the way I look at things a little bit. You know, with personal care and things that are debilitating, even that we deal with illnesses. You know, one of the greatest men of my life was bound to a wheelchair through muscular dystrophy. You know one of the greatest examples of man I ever saw, you know personal deformities because of lack of muscle, loss of muscle, bound to a wheelchair, and it taught him a lot of patience and I'm willing to bet that some of the stuff that you've been through over the last few years from a medical perspective has really tested your patience and made you be patient even in areas you didn't want to you be patient even in areas you didn't want to.
Daniel Yoder:I was in bed for six months and I could. When I got out of bed, my leg would turn right, purple like it was, and it felt like it was going to pop. It was because it was so messed up, the circulation had problems to go back and it wasn't even healed at six months. But the doctor said put some weight on it, start using it. Just think. Now my leg is made to be used it's not made to sit around it and our minds are made to be used by god, like, like I said, he created Adam and Eve, gave him instructions. We're, by design that's our design to be used to think, and the more we do it, the stronger it gets.
Daniel Yoder:And really, like all of this I kind of wanted to say, before we get into too much discussion on hauling sheds, because all this has such a big impact in being a shed hauler, I wish I would have listened to something like this before I started hauling sheds, because really, you know, like I just went and bought a new truck and a new trailer, I didn't think about maintenance, I didn't think about longevity, I didn't think about what kind of truck I'm running what's best and there's so many opinions out there and honestly, you just need to block all of that out and you need to look at your situation. What is the best for me, what do I like, what's my plan, who am I, who am I working with, and some of those things, because it's so different in almost every area that you go, it's so different than this guy doesn't necessarily work for me and again, we've been just so extremely fortunate to organically develop relationships with mechanics, different people that that keep, um, like we don't. We're to the point where I don't plan to buy new trucks or trailers all of our trailers. So, I have. There's two that we bought at the beginning of 2015, 2017. There's another 2015 and a 2016 Pine Hill and we just run them.
Daniel Yoder:They're still in all good condition, but we're pretty meticulous in how we use them, how we take care of them. Meticulous in how we use them, how we take care of them, and I mean we run them in the salt, but we literally we mix up diesel and oil, we spray it on to keep the rust off. Every winter, we go through all the axles, we take out the bearings, we replace all the seals. There's a certain kind of oil by Mobile One that we found that works really good for the hubs, and the hubs and the wheels and the brakes are, you know, some of the biggest issues with trailers. You know there's somebody that cares, takes care of our engines and in all this, these things, I couldn't have figured it out, I couldn't have come up with all that, but it's just everything Good at everything, Daniel.
Shannon:Learn to be good at everything. That's why we need other people.
Daniel Yoder:I read a book this winter and I actually gave it to everybody I work with. It's called who, not how. If you haven't read it, actually, Matthew Weaver had shared a post about it and that's how I got my hands on it who, not how. It is literally one of the best books out there, besides the Bible, because it's on this idea of who you find a. Who you do it yourself, you will always limit you. You will always limit you. If you do it yourself, you will always limit you. You will always limit you if you do it yourself.
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Daniel Yoder:If you find a who and you find somebody that has done it, all of a sudden it changes completely and it really like in the Shed Haulers page. There's one thing that sparks a lot of conversation is when a driver has an issue with a, the manufacturer or the company I work for, before I even think about asking for something different. Do I know for a fact that I have put my best foot forward? Bring it back to me. Do they know that I can get the job done? Are they aware of that?
Daniel Yoder:What do your dealers say of you? Like, do they appreciate your work? Talk is really cheap. We can say a lot of things we can get involved with. Oh, that guy's done that.
Daniel Yoder:You know, guys, what does that do for you and what does it do for other people? And like, and when we talk about that a lot, the best thing and the absolute best thing we can do is to know our jobs and focus on our jobs. It doesn't matter what the noise is, that if we do a good job, we will always have a job. And you know I've, especially the last two years, I've gotten numerous calls from other companies that would love to work with us, but I turn them away because we're happy, it's not nothing against them.
Daniel Yoder:But I'm not looking to turn into a large company. We have a good thing going and it's just so important for the drivers to have that connection with the company they work for and I think sometimes there's a lack of communication where the drivers don't feel appreciated. There's not much communication, but that's not an excuse. Why are you doing what you're doing? Yeah, are you doing based things? Based off of the company treating you the way you think they should treat you? Or you know why are. If that's the reason you're doing what you're doing, then you're doing it for the wrong reason.
Shannon:I wrote down a couple of things here that things that have just stuck with me for years. You know, there's a saying that says people don't do things to you. People do things for themselves and whenever you absorb that, you start to look at the situation differently. They're not doing something to hurt you if they're doing something for themselves. If you get hurt in collateral damage, I think there's a certain amount of people that are either okay with it or not. That they're okay with it, just that they can't do anything to prevent it. Like, in other words, competition makes us sharp.
Shannon:You know, I heard somebody tell me like well we handle this one area. Someone else shouldn't get into our area and try to service that because we handle that area well, well one. It doesn't sound very capitalistic, it doesn't sound very American, and it doesn't sound very free. If they can come in and do it and do a good job, then that's a good thing because it increases that competition increases us to all be better. So, while collaboration is brilliant, it's fun and it's all of these things, there is a certain level of competition that keeps us sharp and makes for a better experience overall for everyone. The thing is like if you're called to compete with someone, it doesn't mean you're called to hate them, right? Like we're shed haulers, or we're shed haulers or we're shed sellers or we're shed manufacturers. We're not gangs. We don't have to hate someone else for doing something or doing it well, matter of fact. We can learn from it.
Shannon:And then I wrote this down because you were talking about hard work. You know, which is the only thing that my dad taught me growing up was really hard work. You're going to have to work hard. That's why I told you at the beginning of this you know, I've been a blue- collar guy most of my life. You know I haven't worked in these pristine, clean conditions for years. God's been really, you know, good to us and has blessed us to do that, which is probably good, because my back can't take the hard work quite like I used to.
Shannon:I enjoy hard work, love it. Work out in my yard all the time, daniel, I work hard and I love working hard. I love breaking a sweat. There's actually something about it I enjoy. I definitely mow my own yard.
Shannon:I heard someone say the other day there's three levels of rich, you know, or wealthy, maybe is a better way to say it. They said mow your own yard way to say it. They said they said mow your own yard, pay someone to mow your yard, mow your own yard. And I thought that was very clever because, like I enjoy mowing my yard, even if I could afford to pay someone to mow my yard, I don't want them to. I like it, I want to do it. I want to do it the way I want to do it, but you're talking about hard work and I want to do it the way I want to do it. But you're talking about hard work and I wrote this down Work yourself into a job.
Shannon:You can literally, just by doing a good job, work yourself into a job. You don't have to wait on anyone. We're taught this in this society that you have to wait or that you have to go through this process. College me and you just talked about the love of what you did with Bible studies and Liberty, and you know I've got a buddy who went to Liberty. I was looking at taking biblical classes myself online at Liberty and he's a big part of why I started this podcast. I'm going to be honest with you, but he sold sheds for me at one point. It's interesting, you know how things work out, but you don't have to ask someone's permission. You can just go work hard and people will see it and they'll notice it and they'll want to work with you.
Shannon:Thank you for listening to part one of a two-part series. Be sure to tune in next week for more engaging conversation here at the Shed Geek Podcast.