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
Cutting Insurance Costs For Shed Businesses
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What if insurance stopped being a painful renewal ritual and started working like a real competitive edge? We sit down with Rusty Barrett, a risk expert who’s helped shed manufacturers, haulers, and dealers turn non-renewals and looming hikes into measurable savings—without sacrificing critical protection.
We start by unpacking the biggest leak: wrong classifications and generic forms. When a shed operation is lumped into broad manufacturing pools, it pays the price for risks it doesn’t carry. Rusty walks through how shed-specific policy language—covering in-transit cargo, dealer lots, and multi-entity ownership—cuts waste and closes the gaps that leave products uncovered on the road. Pair that with complete submissions and genuine relationships with underwriters, and suddenly carriers compete for your business instead of avoiding it.
Then we get practical. A $10 “How’s my driving?” decal correlates with 24% fewer losses. Documented pre-trip checks for mules and trailers, driver coaching, and simple reporting habits slash frequency and severity—the exact signals underwriters reward with better terms. Rusty’s case studies show real swings: a client facing non-renewal moved to 30% savings in 60 days; another dropped a projected $140k auto premium to $38k while adding missing cargo coverage. These aren’t one-off miracles—they’re the returns you get from proactive risk.
We also open the door to captives and group solutions tailored for the shed sector. Not every company is ready today, but the roadmap is clear: stabilize losses, align forms to operations, document safety, and approach financing with a multi-year view. Group structures can lower overhead and share underwriting profit when performance is strong, turning a cost center into long-term value.
If you build, haul, or sell sheds, this conversation gives you a playbook: classify correctly, tailor your forms, invest in habits that keep people safe and claims down, and build trust with the market. Want help mapping your path or testing whether a captive could fit down the road? Subscribe, share this episode with your team, and leave a review with the top insurance question you want answered next.
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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro
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Host Updates And Community Contacts
ShannonOkay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast here in sunny southern Illinois. Very excited about the 58 and sunny that we're going to get today to melt off all the snow that has hung around forever. Today I'm joined by Rusty Barrett, and I'm going to let you uh I'll let Rusty give a little uh um introduction to who he is and what he does whenever we get started. But before we get rolling, just a few things to let you know how to stay plugged in with us over here at Shed Geek. Uh, if you ever need to reach out to us, it's my direct cell number, 618-309-3648. Feel free to give us a call. I am available, love to chat and want to interview you and hear your story about how you're related to the shed industry. Email info I-N-F-O@ shedgeek.com, info@ shedgeek, and go check out our uh uh website at shedgeek.com. Uh click on any of those things or services that you're curious about, fill out the lead form. We'll be happy to touch base with you. Uh please like and follow us on YouTube and our Facebook page, and go check out the Shed Sales Professionals group and other groups in the industry that help bring camaraderie together. For our folks uh that use the landline, the call-in landline, the Anabaptist Plain Communities, that number is 330-997-3055. We thank you for listening uh and your dedication to calling in uh and and listening. And if there's any way that we can improve that experience for you, let us know. Hot item of the day, as you can see, Nelson's Buildings down in Florida, my buddy Tristan Nelson. Love what he's doing with the pole barns, love what he's doing with sheds. Uh, big fan of those guys over there, and look forward to a future episode where we can speak with them. Okay, now that we've got all of that mumbo jumbo out of the way, all of our promotional stuff. Rusty, welcome to the Shed Geek podcast. Uh, introduce yourself, if you would, and tell us a little bit about what you do, what your company is here.
Meet Rusty Barrett And His Mission
From Quotes To True Risk Management
Rusty BarrettRight um, well, first, Shannon, thank you for having me. I uh I couldn't be more excited about being here and talking about what seems to be the elephant in the room, the the expense that nobody wants to address, but is is tough to address. And um, my name is Rusty Barrett. I am the president of the Barrett Group. We are officed out of Fort Worth, Texas. Um, I have made my career in commercial insurance. That's that's where I built my career. And along the way, what I've realized is a lot of these agents and brokers that we trust to take care of our companies, to protect them. When it comes time to consult and manage that risk, really what happens is they just go and get three or four different quotes, take the best number, and we move on down the road, right? And so, in that, I I've stepped back and I've looked at how I can best serve my clients? What role can I play with the skills and education I picked up along the way to best serve them? And a role of that and a piece of that is definitely being the best agent or broker that I can be. And I'm very blessed to work with an agency that I come from that has the opportunity to do business with all the carriers the large nationwide agencies have. So what sets us apart is we have committed, and they committed 20 years ago, to stay in boutique, to stay into where our clients can get somebody to respond quickly. And with me and my clients, if somebody needs something and they don't have it in 24 hours, we've got a problem on our side. And so that that's the first step is being that great agent and broker. But what I've learned along the way in my career is sometimes life happens, and it happens to our businesses where we have a good number of losses, and all of a sudden we get a non-renewal letter in the mail from our insurance carrier. And that that happened pretty recently with a large shed manufacturer here in Texas where we were facing that. And I had a great relationship with Jonathan, and we sat down and took a look at it. I stepped up, contacted the underwriter and said, hey, we're hands-on now. And what we did is we stepped up in a risk management role and began putting things in place to where we went from non-renewal to a 30% increase on the renewal to saving 30% in a matter of 60 days, which is incredibly quick. And they couldn't be happier and they're operating down there. And it's all because they had an agent or broker who cared, who knew how to get in there and handle the risk part of it. So the second piece of what we do is the risk management consulting. There are some minor tweaks we can make to our companies, placing small programs, hiring practices that make us so attractive to these underwriters at these carriers. And by doing that, it shows that, hey, we're serious about our losses, right? We don't want a bunch of losses. And instead of begging somebody to take our business, we now have multiple companies competing for our business. And competition only means one thing: market efficiency. So we're getting the best coverage at the best price. And then the final piece of what we do is kind of in the alternative risk financing realm. There are a number of mechanisms we can put in place depending on a company's risk tolerance, forms of self-insurance that can turn profitable down the road. You hear this term captive thrown out a lot. And I actually just came from the World Captive Forum down in Orlando, where we are picking up tools and learning the newest regulations and things of that nature in that industry to put our clients in the best position possible. But what I've learned through this journey and through the shed manufacturers that I've worked with directly is it's a very underserved industry when it comes to risk management, insurance, and risk financing. And with my faith and the way I've always done business, I just really think we have an opportunity to serve these people and these companies. And the money will come after that, right? But it's the servant's heart, and we want to help because and I'm going on and forgive me, I'm long-winded here, but what I'm saying.
ShannonSo go for it.
Turning Non-Renewal Into 30 Percent Savings
Rusty BarrettA lot of these companies are either individuals who have built it from the ground up with their blood, sweat, tears, time, they've missed their kids' ball games, they've lost sleep because they didn't know how they were going to make payroll this week. And they've been through those hard knocks, and now they're at a time where they're successful. And I want to help that person put their head on the pillow at night, knowing that whatever happens tomorrow, they're gonna be okay. Their families are gonna be okay, and the people that work for them and their families are gonna be just fine too. I've also learned that in this industry, there's a lot of generational owners where their grandfather or their father started the company or purchased it, and it's their legacy, right? And I can't imagine not making myself and my company be the best we could be for these people because this is what they do. And so, we've had a great and tremendous amount of success with the shed manufacturers that we've worked with, not only saving them money on premium, but getting them the coverages they need. We found giant gaps in coverage of some of these companies. We had one manufacturer here in Texas that their agent told them, yeah, when those sheds are loaded and they're moving, they're covered. Well, they weren't. When I got the policy and read through it, cargo was excluded. And they've been running for five, six, seven years with $30,000, $40,000 of product on the back of their trucks. And if something happens, that's a sunken loss cost. And that's heartbreaking to me because I don't know how your position, Shannon, but $30,000 or $40,000 moves the needle over here.
ShannonRight. Yeah, absolutely. And to think they're doing it multiple times a week or sometimes even in a day, depending on uh where business trends are. Uh, I got the I wrote down a couple of notes here because that's me of after doing nearly 500 of these, I got this little tablet where I like to uh jot down a few things and I was I was asking myself, you know, you go back to you know where you were already finding success in the industry with some of these manufacturers. What do you feel like kind of help uh was the attribution to like that 30% savings? Were you guys, when you got in with the underwriters, were you able to just really focus on narrowing down that risk to make that underwriter feel a little bit more comfortable or uh what share whatever you can in terms of like what help with lowering that cost?
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Proprietary Forms And Correct Classification
Relationships With Underwriters That Matter
Rusty BarrettSo it's it's kind of twofold. One is these underwriters that we work with, we built a reputation, right? Um, they know how we do business, they know that we write ethically, we know that we send in a complete story, and after I send in applications, I pick up the phone and I call the underwriter and say, hey, here's what we have. And we tell them a story, right? So with this individual, what we had was we had a renewal coming up. It was a great place for them to be, but they were classified as manufacturing, not otherwise classified. And Shannon, the insurance world, I call it capitalistic socialism. And this is why. When just with our personal autos, what we do is we all pay into a pool, right? And that money sits in that pool. And if you have an auto accident, money comes out of that pool and it pays for you and it makes you whole. And then this guy, I may not have any losses, right? But I'm still paying that. Now, I don't know if you've seen these commercials. I'm sure you've had. I've seen sure you've seen the billboards in Texas. We've got this guy, Jim Adler, the hammer. Have these truck companies ran you off the road? I'll get your money. And what's happened is these litigators, these ambulance chasers, and I hear if an insurance company's wrong and denying claims, they need to be held accountable. But they call it a tort tax, is is kind of the sling around the industry. What's happened is a lot of these litigators are now being backed by private equity firms. So, when they take on a case to come after a company, they have no skin in the game because a lot of them are paid on a contingency. I got to win to get paid. Well, when they're backed by private equity, they've got no skin in the game. And so, they'll chase anything up to insurance limits. And these nuclear and thermonuclear verdicts are being issued constantly: $10 million here, $20 million there. Well, remember that comes out of that pool, right? And so if there's not enough in that pool, those premiums have to increase. And I had no issues and paying a higher and higher and higher premium. And so, what we do is we look at and we have conversations with these underwriters, making sure we're classified correctly, right? Because if you're classified in a manufacturer not otherwise classified, you could be in with aerospace manufacturers, have a completely different risk profile, an ag manufacturer, who who knows, right? But when we can narrow it down to the shed industry, this is a fairly safe uh industry. We don't have a ton of losses here. And so that helps because the historical losses are lower, and so we pay a smaller premium. And so, piggybacking on that idea, one, making sure that we know we're classified right, we worked with a couple carriers to write a form, an insurance policy that fit what we do, right? We don't need kidnap and ransom, and I'm just pulling something crazy out of there, worked in our policy if we're not leaving the state, right? So we looked at it, got rid of the coverages we don't need, put in the coverages we do. The form is complete, it's right. We're not paying excess for anything we don't need. And so what we've done is we've created almost proprietary forms to fit the industry. And then the third piece of what we did after making sure they were classified right, making sure we had a form that fit the industry is these underwriters know us. And so when we stepped up and said, hey, we're gonna get in there and we're gonna make sure the loss controls are right, that we have programs in place to help us mitigate. I'm gonna give you a stupid fact, Shannon, and I don't know if you're gonna believe this. Have you seen on the back of these trucks, how's my driving? Call this number to report. Did you know that companies and trucks with those stickers on average experience 24% less losses than trucks without it's a staggering statistic, but there's enough data in to prove they work. What does a sticker cost? $10? And imagine the impact if you had 24% less losses to go and rate against, right? And so minor tweaks, minor things we can do to put it in. But the big thing is is we've got proprietary forms for the shed manufacturing industry with carriers to not only get them the best price, but complete and total coverage.
ShannonI was thinking about uh wow, that is a that is a fascinating statistic. And yeah, of course, I see those everywhere, and I it just makes you wonder why. Uh one thing that you said here that I'm just gonna go on a brief rabbit trail on is you said these underwriters know us. And I really just want to focus on that from a sales perspective or a manufacturing perspective, but and even a shed hauling perspective, but specifically shed sales. When you say my the underwriters know us, that talks about the power of relationship, the power of sharing in knowledge and conversation, and really just when you're trying to sell your customer. Uh I wanna I wanted to underline that simply for the fact that like I push all the time this narrative of putting out video, getting to know your customer, getting to know your people, how it begins to break down the barrier, barriers of traditional business from things that have existed because we've had to put them into place because people have been burned or people have been taken advantage of or whatever. And now, as you start to know the person more, you can begin to tear peel back some of those layers uh uh of the of the onion. Um, so if you were if you were doing this, is it safe to say you're working in the shed industry enough that it it's getting big enough that it requires enough attention that you can be very specific to the things around the shed industry, whether it's classifying them as a shed manufacturer, a hauler, a dealer, and really understanding the fragmentation of the industry, because it really is. There's a lot of different scenarios, you know, uh in the way that people have done business, uh, whether it's up in New England or you know, up around PA, where you have like a lot of dealers who floor plan and wholesale purchase, and then you have this mixture of large uh manufacturers who have multiple dealer locations across the states, and then you have logistics, which is sometimes you know hired in-house, and then sometimes that's done independently, and companies will hire multiple different shed haulers. What is kind of your approach to the fragmentation? And is it fair to say we're a big enough industry now that you're able to do some insurance that's very shed specific, whatever that might be?
Don’t Shop Insurance Every Year
Rusty BarrettA hundred percent. And we kind of touched on it previously, those proprietary forms, right? We have written policies specifically for this industry. And we, because we wrote them, we can pull things out and put things in as we need to. We have that clearance from the regulators and the department of insurance. But stepping back a little bit, the relationship, it's part of our code of ethics here at my shop. Relationships are our currency, and it's that simple. If we don't operate with integrity, if we don't do what we say we're going to do, and that's on both sides of the fence, both with the client, but with these underwriters as well, then our equity is burned, right? I walk into and compete against the nationwide agencies all day, every day. And they're really good at what they do. The problem is the relationship is compromised because if you have a loss, who do you call? Well, you don't call the producer, he he's just a sales guy. You don't call this person because, well, that's not their department. And I've heard it over and over again that when I look at the policy, I tell them, hey, this is written really well. This is a good job, but they can't get a hold of anybody, right? And so on that side, it goes back to our commitment that was made 20 years ago by the owners of the agency. We're going to commit to that customer service, we're going to be agile, we're going to be malleable, we're going to be able to respond the way we need to. My cell phone numbers on my business cards. And I tell my clients if you're if you have the thought, should I call Rusty? Should I call my agent? And you don't, we're going to have to wrestle the next time I see you. I need you to call me. If you have that thought, right? Because what's probably going to happen is something bad's happened because I need to call Rusty. But you're going to get that assurance that, man, we're okay, right? We did this right up front. You're okay. It's going to be a little bit of a headache, right? But we're going to be just fine. And then from the underwriter perspective, I um I don't dabble on social media all that much. In fact, I got off Facebook because it was just consuming, right? I had to know what Jenny was doing down the street, I guess. I don't know. But when I was on there and following these insurance, you hear guys saying, Well, I shop my insurance every year. I make sure I'm getting the best price. I would strongly advise against that. And here's why. If you go to big nationwide firm A, big nationwide firm B, they have all the appointments, all the contracts with the carriers that I have. And Joe down the street, or your brother-in-law at this agency, has some of those. But they don't have anything we don't have. And so, shopping it every year, what it does is you get that submission, land on your desk, and the underwriter thinks they have a chance at the business, so they work it. Well, they lose. Next year they get it again and they work it and they lose. Year three, when it hits their desk, it goes to the bottom of the pile. Right? They're just, they're not going to spend their wills on business they don't think they can compete against. What I advise my clients to do is find you an agent that will work it and work it hard and put you in the right place up front and then build that rapport with that company. And then every four to five years, let's test the market. But when you have somebody that is kind of become a subject matter expert in the niche in our industry, I know, I know the pulse, right? I know how travelers is responding with the new business I send them. I know how Liberty is responding. And so I know who's got better rates at the time and who doesn't. And I can advise accordingly. Hey, we need to look at making a move here. But what we're not going to do is shotgun it out. I don't know if you've ever bought a car and financed it, but there's nothing worse in the world than going back and checking your credit and seeing 27 hits because they shot-gunned it out to anybody and everybody to get the best rates. Same idea here. There's collateral damage to doing that. And so I would just advise don't shop it every year. But if your agent isn't touching base quarterly, six months at worst, to find out, hey, what's going on over there? How are you doing? Are things changing? Is business good? Have you taken on a new product? Or are you thinking about acquiring? Like, if they don't know what's going on to make sure you're insured properly, if you don't have a relationship with that person, there's a problem, right? Pardon me for that. You you've got to continue to work. And that's my job, right? You, as the shed manufacturer owner or the hauler owner, your job's to run your business. My job is to pick up the phone every quarter and make sure that, hey, let me buy you lunch. Let's sit down. I need an hour. Let's just see how things are going. And if nothing's changed, then you know what? We spend 45 minutes talking about kids and football. And we continue to build that relationship. But that relationship has to be strong and secure. And you just can't have people shot-gunning it out all the time.
Safety Tweaks That Cut Losses
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ShannonI'm not saying I get it right, but I came from this very unique background, uh, both as a jailer and then also as someone who uh worked at a casino. All right. Like I know you're thinking, wow, what a, you know, and really I was a shift commander at a jail, which was really weird when I was young, but that was something I was passionate about from more from a ministry perspective. And then the casino was like only job in town, right? You know, like we're a small community, you know, Merv Griffith put one in, and next thing you know, it's decent pay, and I went there in security and ended up doing so many other jobs. But I'm gonna tell you one thing they focused on that they knew very well, uh, Rusty, is they knew that you needed to provide the ultimate customer service experience, especially because it's like Disney World. You're going and leaving with an experience, you're typically not leaving with a product or even really a service, you know, other than joy or fun or some kind of like uh now look, I don't, you know, I don't know what's exciting about a casino after working there for 10 years. Trust me, it's the most boring thing on earth, personally, and I don't get it. But not to criticize those who go looking for uh some enjoyment in it and fun, you know, they taught you to really focus on the relationship, and I'll tell you what, I think retail in general is gone uh uh gotten worse over the last 20 years than it's gotten better. And I I don't have anything to substantiate that claim, no data or nothing. I'm just saying, based on my own experiences, it seems like you know, people don't answer the phone now. As a matter of fact, when the phone used to ring, you just answered it. Like I remember having a landline whenever you had a cord, you probably remember that. And the phone rang, you just answered it, you know, and uh and now it serves caller ID and all these things serve as ways to gatekeep, you know, communication. And uh that's why we put our cell phone out as well, too, you know, and just say, hey, give us a call if you have questions, if you hear something or there's some clarity or something you want to know, you know, we can we can do that really quick with a phone call, uh, as opposed to some something overly formal. Um I wanted to ask you about classification, uh, because you talked about that. You know, obviously you do have a plethora of companies that are some are vertically integrated, some you know, not, and they hire out for whatever it is, uh, from marketing to rent own to financing to hauling, uh sales, you know, uh, and then some people control all of that internally. Um, I think my question to you is how do you guys classify the shed industry? Do you put the logistics side and the shed hauling community sort of into a uh a bubble, if you will, and manufacturing into its own class, and then uh sales and you know, actually having a lot with physical inventory on that? Is that in its own separate how do you approach just the grand picture of the shed industry, being that there's so many different moving parts to it?
Classifying Manufacturers, Haulers, And Dealers
Captives Explained And Group Solutions
Rusty BarrettYeah, well, uh it depends. Okay, right? Yeah, so here's how it works in in the insurance world, it really comes down to common ownership. And if there's common ownership across the entities or across the divisions, then we've got options. What where we have some hangups is if you have company ABC, let's call it Shed LLC. If you have Shed LLC, and under that umbrella, you have the manufacturer, they hold their own stuff, uh, they've got a couple of inventory lots. Well, that's all under one umbrella. It needs to be insured together, right? Um, because what happens is if you start to parse it, there's bleed over, right? Who's responsible for what? It's one company. And the one company will face the lawsuit if something adverse happens. And so you put it together. Where we can catch some economies of scale, and you can hear flow now, bundle and save. Where we can package some of this together is when there's common ownership. The attorneys will say, hey, take the transport and put it in this LLC, and then take your operations on the manufacturing side and put it in this LLC. Perfectly great. It puts up that corporate veil, right? And I'm sure there's legal protections. I'm not an attorney, but I'm sure there are. We can still package that together because of common ownership. And what they say, an additional named insured. That's different than an additional insured. You get a certificate of insurance, you want to be an additional insured. An additional named insured is completely different. What you're doing is assuming all of the operations of the other company by being a named insured. You are effectively an owner of the policy. But we can put them together because the common ownership probably means the other entity's gonna get sued. The attorneys will get it thrown out, but they're probably gonna get sued. It's all in one place with one claims adjuster. The duty to defend is there, so you'd have one attorney working for both, and that works. But when it comes to parsing and deciding, what we've done is we've created holistic programs from the manufacturing to the hauling to the retail side. You could be a lot owner that buys wholesale, you can be a distributor, you can be a lease to own. We have all of that setting in that program, and we can grab and throw out what we need to, we can add what we need to. You're using that term. What is it? In the simplest form, a captive is a company that is a subsidiary of a parent company. So Shed Inc. is large enough to create a subsidiary company that becomes a licensed and operating insurance company, but they only serve the parent company. They can't write to the public. And by doing that, if the losses are good, the underwriting uh profits from that subsidiary flow back to the parent company. It's a long-term plan, it's a four, five, six-year plan. But once you get there, if you remain clean, and we put stop losses and controls in place so we don't bankrupt you, but if you're clean, it begins throwing 30, 40, even 50% profit of your premium back to the parent company. Now, there's this saying, if you've seen one captive, you've seen them, you've seen one captive. So, it's a lot like hedge funds. As long as you're within the regulatory bounds and as long as you're within the covenants of the contract, you can do just about anything you want to do as long as you're writing insurance, legitimate insurance. And so what we did is we worked to set up a captive for the shed manufacturing industry, where these guys that might not otherwise classify, because there's overhead in running an insurance company, right? You've got to pay for the underwriters, you've got to pay for the actuaries, you've got to pay for the accountants, there's overhead. But when you can group them together, you can distribute that overhead and reduce costs, and then we can begin to throw that profit. And so, the question was well, what about these smaller guys that are paying $150,000, $200,000 in premium a year? It doesn't make sense. The overhead to run a captive is too much for them on their own. How do we get them in? And we created a plan that I was told has never been done before, but we just got clearance from one of the regulators to do it. And so we have the framework to begin cutting premiums in a five-year period of 40%, maybe more. And so we are working really hard for these shed manufacturers and the adjacent industry to really put them in a position where they're covered properly, they have what they need as far as service goes, but we put them in the best vehicle possible. The mechanism in place is the right fit for them. Now, the losses may not be where they qualify for a captive right away. Well, we've got the relationship with the transfer market, with the carriers, we've got the forms. And so what we're doing is, and the reason I came on today, Shannon, was to plant a flag and say, hey, we want to serve your industry, right? We've made a run of it here in North Texas. We have really helped some folks here. And I mean, when I'm saying we've saved 30%, we saved almost $90,000 for that client. And it was facing a 30% increase and went to a 30% decrease. So I know the math isn't one for one, but you're talking about a hundred and eighty to two hundred thousand dolling just by us getting involved. Now, imagine what you could do in reinvestment into your company with that kind of money, right? It's real, it's legit. And what we've done is we've put these programs in place and we have these alternatives to really solidify the risk management so that it's a competitive advantage for whoever's a part of it, right? And if you're operating side by side and you're with us and your neighbors not, you just got $200,000 in that specific instance to go market, to hire new sales guys, to upgrade your facilities to produce faster. And so it can be a true competitive advantage to work with us. And what we're saying is this isn't a money thing for us. This is our hearts are to serve. We want to help, we want to protect. And by doing so, of course, we'll be compensated on the back end. But we're here to, my dad was a trim carpenter, my mom was a bank teller. The reason I got into this business was one, I'll be honest with you, I was able to take off at three o'clock and make my kids' baseball game. That that was the drive. I had to be there for my kids. But two, man, I can help those guys out that don't understand this business. And what we've done in this industry, and I blame those same attorneys, is we've convoluted the language. We we've ran through so much litigation that Main Street Joe, he has no chance at sorting this out. Much like the accounting world, much like the legal world, we've created a demand for experts that speak that language to where the common person can't do it. And my fear, and what I've noticed, is there are some really great professionals in our industry. There are. But there are a whole bunch of people who pass their 150 question tests and are out there writing insurance that doesn't understand what that what an indemnification clause is, that couldn't explain the coinsurance clause to you, that has no idea what a waiver of subrogation means and when you can implement it and when you can't. And that's a problem because all three of those can cost a client serious money. And so I I'm proud to say, I believe we're on that upper end of guys who really hone in on our craft. I carry every certification in the industry. I have the I have those ones, right? Um, because of my commitment to the clients. And so what we want to do is set down, and every company is different. No two are the same. Understand what you do, understand what your model is, understand what your risk tolerance is. And wherever that line is, we hit it and we hit it at the best price possible with the best tools available in the market. And I'm proud to say we have all of those tools.
AD-IdentigrowOh no.
AD-IdentigrowSam, what's going on? Are you okay?
AD-IdentigrowYes, I'm fine, Lisa. I was just trying to get a screwdriver and all this other stuff fell down. I'm ready to go buy a shed so we can have some space in this garage again.
AD-IdentigrowI agree. I keep looking at the shed Mr. Jenkins bought. Let's ask him where I got his.
AD-IdentigrowHowdy, neighbor. We're wondering, how do you like your shed?
AD-IdentigrowI love it. It's exactly what I needed, and I couldn't have asked for a better service. And where did you get it? I can't remember, but let me check. Something this nice will probably have the builder's name on it somewhere. No, I'm sorry. I can't find a name anywhere.
AD-IdentigrowWe ll, we finally got a shed.
AD-IdentigrowYes. I just hope we're happy. The thing is a lot more shoddy than I expected. And I'm sure I told them I wanted a window, but they didn't have it in the paperwork, so I couldn't argue. Boy, is this a lousy shed. We haven't even had it two years, have we?
AD-IdentigrowBarely. It was just a bad deal all the way around. Mr. Jenkins told me the other day that he likes his shed so much he wants to get a second one, but he still can't remember where he got it.
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ShannonI was so ready to ask you the question, which was like, hey, we're going to bring this down from a 30,000-foot view, which we did, really narrowed in on the underwriting and things like that. But I was just going to ask the simple question, uh, the more the more selfish question, if you will, which is how we think uh in terms of our cost and managing our own risk and business. You know, Rusty, how does this save me money? At the end of the day, that's what I wanted to ask was how does this save me money? I've seen conversations on the Shed Haulers Facebook private group here recently, as well as the Shed Sales Professionals group and maybe even the shed manufacturers group, um, discussing for haulers, you know, that's a that's a big undertaking. Insurance is a big part of their conversation around PL, right? Because you've got these big, I mean, semis, you know, a lot of them, you know, or like these large trucks that it takes. This equipment that it takes is a very heavy investment into the equipment alone. And then you have the asset, which is riding on the equipment going down the road. And where does that meet liability? Uh, if there's an accident, you know, either that you were involved in uh that was your fault or not. You know, you hear the horror stories and things like that. And of course, they always show up on the page because people kind of share when you know their truck caught on fire or their trailer caught on fire, or you know, the generator just got hot or whatever it was, you know, and created this mess, or somebody run into their trailer with a a perfectly loaded, you know, uh trailer full of sheds, you know, and somebody just runs into the back end of it. Now there's all these questions, and it's once you're in the situation, it's hard to prepare for. Right.
Service, Integrity, And Being Reachable
Rusty BarrettLike you want to be a chance, right? You cannot buy insurance after a loss. You just can't, right? To cover that loss. And so our mantra, it's on our website. Reactive is expensive, proactive is profitable, right? And insurance and risk management, whether you're in the traditional insurance market, the transfer market, or you're in a self-retention program like captives, and there are things in between, right? But regardless of where you're at, it is an expense. You can't get out of it, right? But 10 years ago, what happened is Shannon, if you had a great idea to begin hauling sheds and you saw a need in the market, you were going to meet that demand. You, you, you went through and you looked at what's my capital outlay, what do I have to buy? How do I market? And then after you were set up, oh yeah, we need insurance. The cost didn't move the needle 10, 15 years ago. It was just an expense you had to go through. Now, this is a significant line item, right? It's out of control. And we can talk about why that's happened, but in at least in the transport side, the biggest thing are these nuclear and thermonuclear verdicts that when you're in the open market, it touches you whether you did anything or not. There's no way around it. Um, but it moves the needle. And while it is something that a lot of business owners don't understand, the risk management, you know, when we come in to consult, there's a price tag associated with it. And it's like, oh, this, this, you know, it feels like a sunk cost. And my hope is it is a sunk cost, right? I hope it's a check you write, and what we do is right and successful, and where you recognize it is on saving money on those premiums in a year, two years, three years, uh, and you don't connect the dots, right? Because we did such a good job. I'll remind you because I'll be right at the policies. Hey, remember when we did this? Here it is, and but more importantly, from a dollars and cents perspective, it's real. But man, some of these programs keep people safe and keep them alive too. Right? I'm gonna give you an example. You haul sheds and you manufacture and haul sheds, and every day that that Peter built 370 goes out and drop sheds, well you just assume that everything's right until that engine light comes on that on that truck, right? You assume that that mule or that Moffitt's good to go as long as it's working and the battery's charged or the gas tank's full. But what if we didn't check that that pivot tire on that mule, that third tire in the back, and it's low and you hit a rock, that thing tips into a ditch and that shed lands on your guy. Right? That that's a horrible thought to have, but that's the world I have to live in, right? I can talk about what that costs you, and the bottom line is you're going to end up supporting that man's family for the next eight years. That's the bottom line. But let's step back. A quick hit of the tire gauge on those three tires would have prevented it all. 45 seconds before you went out, and so having a pre-trip checklist and documenting it, not only when we provide that to the underwriters as part of our story, does it save us money? And your guy gets to go home tonight to his baby girl, his little boy, his wife, whatever, he gets to go home tonight. And so, yes, there's dollars and cents and there's business to this, and it's real, and that's often the majority of the conversation. But there's also this layer of humanistic, this humanistic component that, man, us as employers, and I've got employees, right? Now we're in an office setting. I don't have to think as much about it, but we're responsible for these people, and we carry that burden of helping them support their families as business owners. And part of that support is making sure they're safe. And so there's a number of components to why we do what we do, the why, right? And so there's that piece. And as grim as it is, and as much as we don't want to talk about it, we have to. It's like life insurance, right? Nobody wants to think about that. But my gosh, as men, Shannon, who have families, we have to. We have to do the right thing and think about that what if. As business owners, we have to do it also.
ShannonAs someone who has had the done the state boards and sowed life insurance at one point, man, it's the hardest thing to sell uh because you're selling on the proactive side, like you said. And people are typically, you know, thinking about the here and now, but it's worth its weight and gold. I mean, I love the saying. This is I hope I can sell you something you never have to use or don't have to use for a long time. That was a beautiful thing to be able to uh, but it's uh, you know, it's one of the hardest things for people to consider. Again, once you're in the mess, you don't get to address the mess. You know, it's trying to take the proactive approach, like you said. Well, I mean, we've heard these things our whole life, right? Uh uh, what is it? Uh uh an ounce of preventions worth a pound of cure was always one of my favorite, you know, growing up that I would hear. And yeah, I mean, there's just there's so much to consume here. There's so much to take in. Obviously, you know, I was thinking about the classification of a manufacturer and the things that they deal with from flooding. I've seen that happen a lot here lately, you know, where people have lost buildings to a flood. Uh as a shed lot, you know, maybe not as a manufacturer, but as a reseller, redistributor of the products, you know, floods or lightning uh hit a building, or oh gosh, tornadoes, right? Storm damage. You know, luckily we see a lot of good quality in the industry. So whenever a wind comes through, we just usually see them tip over onto their side, uh uh, you know, and then they pull them back over, fix a little bit of metal. You can almost move on. I'm really proud to work in an industry where you have products like that, but floods and these big natural disasters like what you saw up in North Carolina, East Tennessee with the remnants of the hurricane or whatever, you know, there's just there's just so many things to account. Uh, we're looking at opening up a small shed lot. I haven't sold a shed in six years. I feel like I'm almost unu familiar with the industry. I've gotten so far out of it, I'm discussing things that I'm not a part of. So we want to get back in for the sheer nature of you know, just being able to be involved and understand and be current. And of course, you know, the first thing that come to mind was, you know, the property's gonna need to be insured, insured under falls or slips or falls. And then, of course, you know, the product itself, we want to make sure that it's covered, uh, or you know, uh, we get a big wind and a and uh and a uh carport blows over onto the school bus place next door and tears up a bunch of buses. I mean, there's a lot of things to consider when you're like, we just want to just jump in and do this. Um, yeah, it sounds like you know, you're very involved. I'm impressed that you're talking about the third wheel on a mule. That lets me know just how engaged you are in the industry, and that's really what people want, if I'm being honest. I think even the people who listen to the Shed Geek podcast regularly, they're almost sussing out, you know, who are you, right? Like what do you do? And are you, you know, part of our industry? Because I don't know you, and that's what we want to do. I think you're speaking, if I'm if I'm not mistaken, I think you're speaking at the Shed Expo this year.
How Proactive Risk Saves Lives And Money
Rusty BarrettYes, sir. We uh we're gonna be in Knoxville and we're gonna have I don't know 30, 45 minutes in a breakout session. And if I don't accomplish anything else, my goodness, I want people, I want people in this industry to at least know enough to have an intelligent conversation about it to know whether they're positioned correctly or not. Um perhaps arrogance, but I have taken the time through um through with Jonathan Ulrich and I go to church together, we're buddies, and we were able to help him out tremendously, enough that he put our name on us and referred us to a few other companies and you go from there. But I took the time to learn his business, and any good risk manager, agent, broker has to, because if I don't understand the operations, how can I protect them? Right. And so we sat down for hours. Um, and I was asking him questions I probably don't need the answer to. But it's better to have too much than not enough. And again, at the end of the day, we're talking about a 30% increase to 30% decrease. We're talking a 60% swing. That moves the needle, even for a company like his. There we saved with uh with a smaller company here um in North Texas, they their renewal is going to be $140,000 on their auto. They transported it. They were with progressive, their local hometown agent told them they were covered for cargo. When I got in there, there was no cargo coverage. Their sheds were running uncovered, exposed as they moved them. But more importantly, once we put them in our program, that bill went from a potential $140,000 to $38,000. And we took some of that money and put it back into coverages we needed in that program to where they are airtight. And at the end of the day, they netted a 30% savings from what they paid the year before. And so we are able to do these great things here. And it took learning the industry. Now, again, every business is specific and unique, right? But at least in my mind, I have the outline and I understand it, right? And what I can do is now our conversation's abbreviated because I don't need the foundation. What I need is your floor plan. I need to know your operations and what are you doing different from what's in my head so that we can get you covered correctly.
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ShannonThis is why you should be there. Uh, we're super excited to get a little piece of your time and conversation. If people want to know more, uh, how do they find out uh or how would they reach out to you?
Natural Disasters, Lots, And Liability
Rusty BarrettWell, first off, at Shed Week. Yeah, we're gonna be on stage, and I'm actually bringing a buddy to talk about this captive piece, right? A guy who knows more than me. Again, with the heart of putting people in the absolute best mechanism we can for them. That may not be for them, but it's an option in the tool bag. We're gonna have a booth, but more importantly, I'm there to network, I'm there to make friends, I'm there to answer questions, even if your business never lands on my desk. Come up to me. Let's grab a cocktail. I'm from Texas, let's grab a Dr. Pepper, right? Let's have a conversation. Because I again, I can't underscore enough. Our hearts to serve. If we serve, the business will come. And so that's one. Find us there. Let's talk. Um, I'm sure there will be a lot of, well, two years ago, it was a rainy Tuesday and we had this happen, right? We can run through the hypotheticals. And unfortunately, in the hypotheticals, the answer is it depends. What was in your form? What was in that insurance contract when that loss happened? That's the answer to your questions. So, I may not know was it handled right or not, right? I need to see the form. But what we can do is talk about how best to move forward. Well, what is it that I need that I don't have, or what do I have that I'm paying for that I don't need? And how can we help you? We can answer all of those questions. So that's first and foremost. Should we let's hang out? Let's grab that Dr. Pepper. Let's grab that cocktail and let's get to know each other. Number two, um, reach out and call me. Um my direct line to my office is 817-210-6100. That doesn't go through, it goes through a virtual assistant to queue it up, but it nobody else answers that line but me. Um, and then it rolls to my cell phone if it doesn't go here. So, 817-210-6100, and then my email address is rusty r-us-ty@ Barrett, B-A-R-R-E-T-T, riskmgmt.com. So rusty@ barrettriskmgmt.com. And I will respond immediately. And here's the deal: I'm on a plane to Pennsylvania in about two weeks to have a deeper conversation to understand operations of a client I'm working with in this industry. If I need to come to you, I will. And so, if we need to do this face to face, 100%, I would love to. Um, I'm kind of a foodie, but I'm also a gas station burrito kind of guy. And so, when you marrow them, I'm looking I'm looking for those greasy spoons across the country. So let's do it.
ShannonI can tell uh your history and uh and um sort of like broadcast and stuff like that. You're one step ahead of me for every question and get ready to ask. And I will get to that. I wanted to say also for those of you who want to know more information, uh, please sign up for the Shed Geek newsletter. You can just go click on Rusty's picture. That is going to take you right to his website. From there, there'll be lead forms you can fill out on how to get to them. As with Rusty or anyone in this industry that we have on, if you've got questions, guys, shoot me a text, shoot me a message, shoot me an email. I'll connect the two of you very quickly. As a matter of fact, I love it when I have the opportunity to connect because that gives the confidence to people like Rusty uh to come on the podcast and that they're seeing some uh some results from things like that. So, we want to honor and serve them too as they take time out of their day to come on and talk about what they've uh uh um spent so much time researching and developing and bringing forth uh uh a conclusion to uh to serve people in their own uh in their own way. So like we want to make those connections. There's nothing I love more than being able to say, hey Rusty, here's ABC Company and you know, wherever, and they heard the podcast, they want to touch base with you. Can you give them a call? That just means so much to me to be able to do that because we try to operate as a network here, Rusty, our ourselves. We enjoy doing that.
Rusty BarrettI wanted to ask you there's a flip side to that coin, right? There's a flip side, and I don't want anyone to think I don't understand this because it's huge. When somebody puts their name on somebody and they refer them out, you're putting your reputation on the line, and that matters, man. I live in a town with 680 people. If your word and your handshake doesn't mean something, you ran out of town, man. And so, I do not take that lightly when somebody says, hey, Joe referred me. One, it's the greatest honor I could get because Joe's done business with me and he was pleased enough with the outcome that he said you should use this guy. So that's one incredible honor. But two, I now owe it to Joe to do as good or better job here because his name's on the line too. And that doesn't fall on deaf ears. I carry that on my shoulders to make sure that we maintain the integrity of whoever referred us. And so, I'm a good old boy. I'm in boots and jeans today. Um, that's what I do. But and that handshake and that word, if it's not your bond, then it's probably not going to be a good fit for us to begin with. But I will hold up my end of that deal 100%.
Shed Week Plans And How To Connect
ShannonThere's not an individual who understands that any more than I do here. And uh the way we've rolled business through in the last five years, uh, understanding and learning some of those valuable lessons, even along the way. Uh, we've learned so much about trying to keep our own reputation and our own brand at a high uh at a high level. And the folks that we have that come on the podcast, like yourself, that bring value to the listeners, that means so much to me uh because that's invaluable. Obviously, we hope to have uh longer conversation, but we just want you to have success in this business. That's more than anything. We'd love to be able to see that. And what I want to do is I believe that people buy for people they trust. I want to take just a few minutes. Uh, for those that are still listening, if we still got you and you're still listening, who is Rusty as an individual and not just what you do? Uh what is what is some of the details of your life?
Rusty BarrettMan, that that is a loaded question. Um to me, that that leans to legacy. What do I want to be known for? Right. Um, I want to be known. My faith is incredibly important to me. I hope that I represent the gospel well each and every day. I will tell you this, I am probably the most broken person you will ever find. Um with without him, I I'm nothing. Period. End of sentence. And so I hope to represent the gospel well. And sometimes that means offering love and forgiveness and grace and mercy where the world doesn't see fit. And I'm proud of that. I'm proud to do that. I want to do that. So, first and foremost, my faith is number one. Number two, I'm a daddy. I got a six-year-old boy named Calvin Greer. He was named after my grandfather. Uh, he goes by Greer. I kind of joke with him that he hasn't earned Calvin yet, because my grandfather was the oak of the family, right? But the boy is brilliant, he's a great athlete. And I had kids older in life. Um, I was almost 40 when he was born, and so I really make it a point to be present. Um, where when I was 25, I wouldn't have been, right? I wouldn't have had that wisdom. I would have had a lot more energy, but I would have had the wisdom. And then I've got a baby girl that turns four in just a little less than a month. And her name is Charlotte, and she is in charge, and she will tell you that. And she is a princess, but they uh they are my world, they're my why, they're why I do everything I do. Um, and then past that, I enjoy hunting, I uh I shoot competitive archery. Um, and then I past that I just try to be the guy I want in my life. I try to be a good family member, a good son. I try to be a good friend. Um, I try to have fun. I just I pictured Jesus as he walked around in his ministry. I don't think they were straight laced and had on their suits and ties and walked in formation. I think they were joking and kidding and playing jokes on each other, and I think they just enjoyed life. And so, I kind of take that as directive. You know what? Yeah, we've got work to do, and yes, this is my craft, and I take it very seriously because of the consequences if I don't. But I like to have a good time too. And so Yeah, don't forget to smile. Yeah, and the mixture of that stew is me, and that's what I'm about.
ShannonSo, and you even have some broadcast background, if I remember correctly.
Faith, Family, And Personal Backstory
Rusty BarrettI do. So there was a point where I thought it'd be awesome to start a podcast, and that podcast grew very quickly. We were we were in political talk, um, and we ended up working with an affiliate. I worked under a pseudonym, so I didn't use my real name, but we even got plugged in here in Dallas and I had a weekend show and filled in and things like that. But it was a political talk show. And what I realized was my job was to make the phone ring, right? To get the whatever issue was of the day fired up. And some of them I cared greatly about. Some of them I didn't care much about at all, but I had to make the phone ring. And what I realized was off the air, I was becoming that guy. I was becoming polarized and I was polarizing. And I don't know. It just I think it was the Holy Spirit just kind of smacked me one day. I'm like, hey, you know, that that guy that is on the other end of the spectrum is you, I love them just as much and I died for them too. What you're doing doesn't help me. And it was just a light bulb. And so I ran out my contract and stepped away. And um that that was that. But yeah, I did spend some time on the radio, and it was a blast. Um, it was fun to hear people who didn't know it was me on the other end of the microphone talk about what we had talked about when you go to dinner or wherever. It would happen every now and then. And they had no idea that that guy was sitting right next to them. And you know, you would hear what a clown you really were last show, and so you clean it up and make adjustments. But yeah, it was great. It was great.
ShannonI feel like we're kindred spirits in some ways. I almost put out a post today just because we're the day after the Super Bowl, and there's so many things to talk about, right? From the politicization of our sports to, you know, just the way it's got into everything. And I too used to chase down comments and uh post and all of that stuff. And I was really going to put a musing out today that just kind of said, I'm glad I'm not captive to that today, to use your word. It seems to be the word of the day, but I'm not captive to feeling as though I have to do that or need to do that. And uh I'm really trying to figure out how to be better at moving the needle in a way that doesn't create uh uh uh division. But man, that's that can become so hard to do. So, I admire all the things that you said about your faith. They they're the way we feel. We've got family over here too, two uh two kids and two grandbabies now uh to love. And uh you just start to think about legacy, you know, to steal your word again is what do you want to leave behind? It's not as much uh there becomes a part in your life where you mature into a place that you're like, it's just not as much about me as much as it is about what I can do and what I can leave.
Rusty BarrettAnd that's probably Shannon. Not to cut you off, I'll tell you when that moment happens. And it's a different, but you know it's happened when growing up as a kid, you couldn't wait to open your presence at Christmas. That was it. But then there came a point, at least in my life, where I wanted to eat first, right? I mean, this is this is a meal unlike many that we have during the year, and I want to get on it. But then when your presence and the meal become secondary to your kids' gifts, and you want to see if you hit the nail on the head this year, or the gift you got one of your parents or a brother. Pardon me, when the giving becomes what you're most excited about, that that's when you know the just for men's coming out, right? And maybe we need to figure out how to grow some more hair because you've officially gotten old at that point, and there's some wisdom tied in, but it's that when that happens at Christmas time, you are there, my friend.
ShannonMan, I think I told someone the other day as mentoring, I think the 30s are the hardest time for a man. I don't know why, it's just something about the 30s, maybe, maybe 30 to 40 range for sure, you know. And I think when you have kids ties into some of that too, and things like that, you know, uh, because you just you do really see for a man, I feel like it's one of the hardest times. You're past your 20s, you're past really having fun, you're not old enough yet to really be considered that sage personality of the room. Uh, but what you are is this mid-management of life and this in-between guy that is just kind of like still searching for purpose a lot of times, uh, and trying to figure out like, I want to take life serious, but I don't want to take it too serious, too, right? I don't want to be that suit and tie you said. And dude, I just love it. You're an easy conversationist. Tell uh it's easy to see why you do well uh and why so many people are trusting you with their business. I wish you nothing but the best. I think that it's excellent. I'm so glad you're seeing some of the early success already. For those who come to Shed Week, you're gonna get a chance to listen to Rusty speak. Um any final thoughts that you just want uh to put out to anybody? Any shout-outs or any final uh I'll leave it to you for a final thought.
Walking Away From Polarized Media
Rusty BarrettYeah, well, no, I uh one we can help. I am so confident we can help. Um, and by help, that can look a number of different ways. It could be saving money, it could be putting you in the right program. It could just mean the assurance or reinsurance that you're great right where you're at. But we can help. And my heart's to help. I would love the opportunity to help. But past that, I um I just I'll tell you this. I used to close my shows out, Shannon, with um the we've got a local songwriter and singer native to Texas, very popular here. But he he's he's been on a few shows, national shows, but I doubt he's not mainstream. But he's got a line and a song. On the days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days. And it's that line that I used to close my shows out. And so, I just want to say that, man, I am so grateful for you and the way you serve this industry with what you're doing. Um, these guys that punch the clock before the sun comes up and leaves it after the sun goes down and carries that weight of the employees. Man, I I see you, right? And I appreciate you. And I'm just grateful for the opportunity to come in and maybe contribute just this much to what otherwise would be success well earned.
ShannonWiley Hubbard. Sounds like Wiley Hubbard. Okay, had to look it up just because of the Ray Wiley Hubbard is him, so he's a little rough, but that's uh that's it on the days of all my heroes, uh all my heroes from the Bible were in prison, you know, Russell. So, the way I look at it is sometimes rough comes with a lot of knowledge and uh changes and expectations. I, for one, can attest to the very same thing. And had it not been for uh uh not only Jesus's uh uh stripes to take on you know this imperfect person, but to continue to chase them down and love them even uh even throughout the entirety of their life. That means so much to me. Man, it's just been fun talking to you. And uh I look forward to getting to meet you whenever we're in Knoxville, and I wish you absolutely nothing but the best. I hope that the uh the uh audience picks up the phone or makes a makes a call or sends an email because I believe that you are the real deal and uh happy to support you in whatever way possible.
Rusty BarrettWell, brother, I appreciate it, and that's a two-way street, right? And my my hope is mutual benefit, and we've got some off-air conversations to have about some of that mutual benefit, but I'm positive this is the start of a long, long relationship.
ShannonExcellent. Thank you so much, uh Rusty, uh, for being on today. You guys go check them out, the Barrett group. Uh, I think you're gonna be in for a pleasant surprise if you do.
Rusty BarrettThank you, Shannon.
ShannonThanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geeks studio sponsor. If you need any more information about Shedpro or about Shed Geek, just reach out. You can reach us by email at info@ shedgeek.com or just go to our website, www.shedgeek.com, and submit a form with your information, and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you and have a blessed day.