Ep 3 The Stern Truth: Taking a Leap of Faith in Business with Russ Harlow

In this episode of The Stern Truth, I sit down with fellow entrepreneur and small business owner Russ Harlow of Reliable Remediation. As a restoration business founder who made the journey from franchise to independent ownership, Russ shares invaluable insights about the entrepreneurial path that every small business owner needs to hear.

We dive deep into Russ's transition from being a franchisee to launching his own independent business, the challenges of understanding business financials, and why being technically skilled doesn't automatically translate to business success. Russ candidly discusses how he grew his restoration company while balancing family needs, the importance of taking leaps of faith in business, and why building systems is crucial for creating a saleable asset rather than just buying yourself a job.

As entrepreneurs, we both share our experiences with the franchise world, the myth that technical expertise equals business acumen, and how building a strong team around you is essential for sustainable growth. Russ also emphasizes the value of continuous learning and recommends business books that have transformed his approach.

If you're a small business owner feeling isolated in your journey, overwhelmed by the financial side of business, or struggling to grow beyond your technical skills, this episode offers honest, unfiltered advice from someone who's lived through these challenges.

Listen through to the end for Russ's biggest small business myth-buster and his book recommendations for entrepreneurs looking to level up their business knowledge.

https://reliableremediation.com/

Email:  russ@reliableremediation.com

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Transcript

 In just a moment, you're going to hear an interview that I did with fellow business owner, Russ Harlow. I encourage you to listen to the entire episode because you're going to hear Russ's journey in entrepreneurship, growing and scaling his business, and some of the challenges that he had along the way.

And if you could take one takeaway or have one insight from this, which I think you will, then it'll be well worth it. Enjoy.  Hi, I'm Marshall Stern, and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do all by yourself.

I've been through multiple recessions, and I've felt the highs and the lows. I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that. Every week, I will bring you. Bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar coat it.

If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place. This is the Stern Truth.  All right, welcome back everyone to another episode of the Stern Truth, business unfiltered.  Okay, I'm so excited because this is  yes, we're early on in our journey of the stern truth, but this is our first Sit down with another entrepreneur, another business owner, and I've picked this lovely man on my whatever side he's on.

If you're watching on YouTube, of course, if you listen, you can't hear what I'm saying or you can't see what I'm saying, Russ Arlo from Reliable Remediation, because he had an amazing podcast, which we'll also talk about, which had me engaged and it's called It's Just Business. And it's still out there, I believe, but, um, anyways, we'll talk further about that and other things.

Russ, how are you? Marshall, my main man. Glad to see you. Oh, I like that. Oh,  okay. How are things great? You know, it's funny. Once you were, you were a guest on our podcast, um, back in the day and you and I have stayed in contact with through social media and, you know, different, you know, it's been fun watching each other's journey, I think, um, and being supportive, you know, of what we're doing in our own, in our own markets and our own jobs.

And so this is kind of like, uh, a reunion. It's a reunion. It is, it is, it is. And that is the stern truth, but there's more stern truths coming your way. Everyone is welcome. Yeah, you're, you're part of our, our, uh, Facebook group, the Business Center Circle as well. Um, and I know I've had you in there. We did an interview there, um, probably a couple of years ago, but I loved your podcast and I'm really upset with you and Dana for not continuing it.

It's really hard to, uh, to try to maintain all of that. Um, and it, we were getting really tired. It was taking a lot out of us. There was so much benefit from it. Um, you know, making. Every, every guest we met, we learned from, uh, we had built relationships with a lot of people just like you and I, um, and so, so much great stuff came out of it.

It's just, we couldn't, it wasn't going to turn into some kind of, you know, Joe Rogan experience. So we. Kind of set it to the side, but there is some evergreen material out there. There's still some good information. Oh, there is. And I highly recommend after you've listened to our, our podcast, head on over to it's just been a business because I'm starting to re, re listen.

Um, and, uh, I wish you guys had had, uh, You didn't have it on YouTube, did you? We didn't. Um, yeah, it was before everybody did video and, um, it probably would have been better if we did. Well, just the dynamic between the two of you, which was just phenomenal. Um, and what, and what I want to get into is your journey into this whole thing we call entrepreneurship.

Business stuff. Um, you know, kind of the good, the bad, the ugly, but just maybe a little bit of how you got into this and your journey. Yeah, it's funny. Um, I needed to make a change in my life. Um, I was, we had some family issues that we were dealing with. They had a child that was very difficult for my wife to deal with.

They were, all the kids were homeschooled and, um, I needed to be home more. I was just I was out working and I just needed to be able to have a little bit more control over that and that give me some more presence at home and with my family and started looking for business opportunities when to a franchise expo, they didn't know where to start and it seemed like a reasonable thing to do.

You know, people have. Business in a box, you know, the whole franchise mentality is you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself, right? Everybody's heard the cliches and, um, we looked at dozens of opportunities, um, because we wanted to make a good choice. And we actually created a decision matrix to help us figure out, you know, what was important to us and what was Of these opportunities.

We're going to be good for us. Um, and through that process, I learned a lot about myself. Um, and I learned that while I don't get a lot of self value from what I do, I realized it did make a difference that I was doing something that helped people. And in the restoration industry, we see a lot of people on their worst days.

Um, you know, water damage, flooded basement roof, caving in all kinds of different things. Mold contamination. And, um, I realized that this is that was the opportunity I wanted to take and bought into a franchise that the founder was a very dynamic man. And I bought into him and his vision. And, um, that's how we got into business.

And there's a lot of, um,  similarities, correlations. We've talked about this before, because I did the same thing. And it was same, I bought into the person who's very, the franchise, he's very dynamic in the sign industry. Uh, how long were you in that franchise for? Uh, let's see, five years, right? Yeah. We had one franchisee of the year.

And then, um, a lot of things happened after a couple of years. Um, The founder sold to a larger franchise or which happens, uh, in the franchising industry. Um, and then that franchise or was bought by a bigger franchise or, you know, there's a lot of issues with private equity and other things. I mean, that wasn't art this situation, but.

Um, things went downhill for my particular brand and as a member of the franchise advisory council, it's kind of like an ombudsman between the owners and the brand. Um, I was, I had the opportunity to make a lot of noise about the things that we didn't think were going well. And they said, well, it seems like you're unhappy.

You're not like making, you know, millions of dollars a year. Why don't you just leave? And I was like, oh,  oh. I hadn't really considered that as an option, but I didn't, I, I allowed them to give me an opportunity, an opportunity to look at what they were offering. And so they, they agreed to drop their non compete clause from their separation agreement.

And, um,  in March of 2022, we opened our business and just transitioned right into not being a franchise anymore. That story is a lot different than mine.  Cause they, cause I was hooked, like, I know I was hooked. I was locked in, but they wouldn't let me out. Uh, so I, I had to wait and then I had to move, change my name to protect the innocent, all that kind of stuff.

Um, yeah, they didn't want me to leave. They, yeah, but I was a rogue, probably similar to kind of did our own thing. And, um, it's interesting. So you said, and I was, I was thinking as you were about to say it, cause it's the franchise thing, being in business for yourself, but not by yourself.  Let's talk about that for a second.

Sure. How did you feel about being in business when you, when you got, were you in business for yourself, but not by yourself?  Um, I was, I mean, I could never have entered this industry without the training and support that I got from the brand. Um,  there were some expectations about, you know, I had no idea how to run a business.

I, my, I had a liberal arts degree, man, and I've been working doing a lot of different things and none of them. I can't, I couldn't read a P and L. I didn't know what a balance sheet was. You know, I, I have caught up on all of those skills  since then. Um, but a lot of that didn't come from the franchise. A lot of it came from,  You know, being pointed in the right direction at least and giving me some guidance.

And so, um, in that sense, it was good because I could not have done this on my own.  Um, and the owner network in the franchise was phenomenal. Still connected with a lot of those men and women today. Um, we have a pretty good online social media presence. Um, YouTube channel and TikTok and things. And so I get calls from all over the country.

And I can't service them because I'm just in this tiny little corner of Connecticut in here in New England and somebody's like, Oh, I saw your YouTube video. Do you know anybody in Arizona? Like, you know, I kind of, I do actually. Um, and I can refer them to people that I was in the franchise with people that I know and trust.

And so, um, we still stay connected.  So yeah, so, so you're in Connecticut. We're like totally opposite. I'm in the, I'm in the Pacific Northwest up here in Canada.  British Columbia, right? British Columbia, yeah. Yeah, so it's cold. I know cold. The 51st state, apparently.  I don't know nothing about that.  I should put that in the hashtag for the YouTube video and, you know, I'll just get a lot of hits.

No, we're, we're not talking. We're not going there. Stop it. We're not going there. It should be bigger than Alaska.  Yeah, we're a little bit bigger. Yes. Um, so,  so you've been part of the franchise world, which I was, and then you're on your own.  What are some of the, uh, challenges? I know we just, we don't have like all day for it, but some of the challenges that you have faced growing, running, leading your business, doing this thing.

Sure. Um, I mean, from the franchise side, the challenge was always they had kind of certain vendors they like that might not be great for my region or my personality. Um, you know, and so you don't, there are, there are things there that make it difficult. And franchising, frankly, has changed in the last 20 to 30 years.

And I think.  Um, from that side of the business, it's a lot of people are just selling a brand and not really worried about franchisees being successful. And so the industry itself has changed. So if they're looking to do, go that route, they should do their due diligence. Um,  Other challenges that I've faced while you, I've already started with, you know, dealing with financials, you know, understanding, you know, honestly, talking to my bookkeeper was like, well, do you want to put this above the line or below the line?

And I'm like, I don't know what that means. And they're like, do you want this to be with cost of goods sold? Or do you want to be? And I'm like, okay, Cogs. What's that? Cost of goods sold. What are you talking about? So learning those financial things and wow, so important to running a business, to be able to look down at P& L and understand what you're looking at so that you can evaluate your business.

Um, very big. What's, what's P& L?  Profit and loss statement, right? And that's one of the things I did this year. I looked at every year, I kind of evaluate The previous year and I'll take a sampling of jobs that we did, see what our average costs were, you know, see how we did, you know, like my gross profit numbers were down 5 percent in 2024 from 2023.

And now that should not be, we've, we increased pricing. We did all these things that I'm not trying to figure out why those numbers were down. Our net profit was about the same. And, um, overall revenue was down about 4 percent cause 24 was a tough year. But I shouldn't have been losing ground on gross profit.

So I was losing something somewhere else. So knowing your numbers and understanding what that means really, really important as a business owner and  overly, um, really overlooked by far too many, especially in the contracting sphere, I'll say.  Yeah, I think it, yes, for sure. In that sphere, I would say sign industry as well, print industry.

Like when I started off in the franchise, um, they used to have a back in the  cue the harp. A long time ago, in the 90s, they would have like, uh, it was a physical newsletter that would be mailed out once a month, and it was like 10 pages stapled together, then it got into a fancy bound book, but it was basically a list of the top sales. 

Top units, right? Franchisees, uh, in the United States and in Canada, we were always, like, pretty much close to the top or top in Canada for a long time, but it was just revenue. It was top on revenue. Woo hoo. One of my most profitable months was one of my lower revenue months,  right? So, it's not always revenue.

And a lot of people think top on revenue, we've got to hit, you know, like for the longest time I wanted a million dollars in sales because I wanted to join, uh, entrepreneur organization and you have to have a million dollars us in revenue. That was my goal. But really it's profit like you want. You have a family to feed, you have employees to pay. 

You want to make money,  right? Yeah. And you know, I'll give you a perfect example of that. I meet monthly with a group of other independent restoration company owners in my area and we support each other. Um, we refer business back and forth, you know, if I can't get to something or if somebody has an overflow or, you know, this client isn't a good fit for me, they might be a good fit for you.

That kind of thing. We were talking about numbers, um, last month when we met.  And just, I just gave you that example where, you know, my net profit,  my top line revenue was one fifth of one of my competitors. We were talking about it, but my, his net profit was half of what mine was. As a percentage, so he did five times the revenue.

He did take home more profit because he made more revenue, but he was doing it at 3 percent when ours was at six, which both are very low. We both need to improve those numbers. Right. And, but I'm like, well, what are you working for? I, if you're doing all that work, I'm not making any money. Yeah. And so it's important to evaluate those numbers and know what they are. 

And take you one step, I mean, it's all part of really having a team around you, right? Sure. So it goes back to sort of being in business for yourself, not by yourself. One of the things I want to sort of, uh, I don't know if that's even a word, demyth. Like a lot of people think they can go into, whether it's a franchise or organization or something else, they can go into business for themselves.

And especially in a franchise, right? You have a skill set. But a lot of people, I find a lot of people interested in service. Businesses, franchises franchise, they have a skillset. So they start a business. It's like an email thing, right?  So they. You know how to use a hammer, so they start their own handyman or carpenter business or whatever it is.

And they know nothing about business and know nothing about the numbers and they wonder why they struggle. Right? So I think building a team is really important. Bookkeepers, accountants, I know you've had coaches or I don't know if you still have your coach. I think it was Christine. I remember her name coming out of my head.

Christine Eyre. See? Yep. Yeah. Um, so when I coach my clients, it's all about building a team, team with advisors, also employees, strong employees, a small, strong team around you. Um, what would you say  would be,  okay, here's the thing.  What do you think separates, because you are, you used to be in a big network and you still have a lot of network around you and you're in different groups.

What do you think separates those small businesses that achieve their vision or achieve the goals that they set for themselves from those. We struggle.  Um, well, I'm still struggling. So  let me be honest about this. I haven't achieved it. So, but I think it's consistency. I think it's discipline. There's a difference between motivation and discipline, right?

Motivation. You get pumped up to go to the gym or whatever it is. I'm like, yeah, I'm fired up or discipline is getting up and doing the things that you have to do. Yeah. Even when you don't want to do them and having the discipline to do those things. For me this year, the big commitment on that was, um, doing more local networking and working with referral partners and building that referral partner network.

Um, I had gotten out of the habit in 2020 after the pandemic and, um, You know, to be perfectly honest, I'm I am, I tend to be gregarious and outgoing, but I'm an introvert. So large groups of people drain my energy. Okay. I would prefer to be at home. So when there's a chamber event, I don't want to go.  But what I started doing, how can I force myself into it?

Well, um, now I tell my wife when it is, we put it on the calendar, we go together or I bring, you know, one of my kids with me and we go and we network together and they look forward to it. Now I've paid for the tickets and. I forces me to go, um, those types of things. So doing the, the discipline things, um, I think learning the things you need to learn, you know, you don't know what you don't know, find out what those things are, fill those gaps.

Like I said, with, you know, bookkeeping and understanding your financial statements and things. Um, and one book that I had recently, um, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Dan Sullivan, um, um, big name in your industry, But, um, 10x is greater than, or easier than 2x, I think, was the book that did it for me this year, because I said, you know, if you try to, we're going to double revenue this year, what you're going to do is you're just going to try to work twice as hard, and you're never going to hit it.

And so, the, the, the philosophy behind that was, if you're going to try to 10x your revenue, or whatever it is, you're going to have to fill in the gaps. With whose people you're going to need to bring in a marketing agency, you're going to need to bring in a bookkeeper. You're going to have to bring in a business development person and you're going to have to do the things that you love and allow them to do those things.

And you're all going to move towards that. Um, And so that for me, I put together, Christine helped me put together a great business plan. Um, and that was kind of one of the things that we were looking at. What are the key performance indices for 10 X ing our business this year? What are those benchmarks look like each year?

What are we going to have to accomplish? And I think. You know, I think that's what really makes a difference. Now, I haven't achieved it,  I just told you revenue was down 4 percent from the year before.  But I can't control the economy.  No, but it's also, it is a process, right? And, and, and I think, like, it's interesting, the 10x thing, like, we just talked, I've been talking about it on socials recently, because there are these people out there, and not Dan Sullivan, strategic coach on the whole program, really good program, um, I've been into a few of their events, but some of the other people out there are saying Do this 10X your business 10X, right?

There's this one specific person's really big into the 10X thing, right? You probably know who it is. And he's just all about 10X all about doing that. And, and other people see it as like, well, I don't want to 10X my business. And you know what? That's okay. That's okay. Everyone grows at different stages, but I think whatever, uh, you can disagree with me because this is the stern truth.

So there's no fluff here.  Whatever stage we're at.  We need to bring people around, surround ourselves with people who will help us get to wherever we want to get to. And it is, we were talking about before we came on, on the air here. Listen, some days it sucks.  Right? Some days it's hard  and some days it's not so sucky or not so hard. 

But if you have people around you, like a coach, a mentor, a team, employees, engaged employees, it's so much better than doing it by yourself. And there's so many people out there that try to just do it by themselves because they say, I will hire when, when what?  When I can afford it.  What's that going to be?

Right. You have to make that commitment. And I, and I think to go back on, to kind of revisit that idea, I think it really depends on what you desire from your business. It, you know, if you just want to own a job, you know, be a solopreneur, as they call it, That's okay. Like, I'm not saying that's not okay. If you just want to be chucking a truck, you know, and you just go and do your jobs and that's, there's no shame in that.

Not at all. I please don't misunderstand me, but if you want a saleable asset, you know, an actual business. You can't do it that way. It's just not possible. Well, or, or, I mean, you still, I understand what you're saying. I agree 100%. If you just want to have a, if you buy yourself, if you bought yourself a job, which a lot of people do, and that's fine, but those people who don't, and some of them might be listening or watching, they want to be able to go away and not be, not have their business shut down.

Then it comes down to systems and processes, right? You know, it's working yourself out of a job. Again, it's, it's the cliche things. Well, what does that mean? Well, take a Take a day off and shut your phone off if you have people, right? And you've talked about how to, how jobs go, right? And they understand those things.

And if something goes sideways, well, after that one day off, you go back, reevaluate it. Okay. What do we need to put in place? So if that happens again, you don't need to drag me in. So, that's how you just build it. And then you go two days, and, oh, hey, we're gonna take a long weekend. Hey, next week, I'm gone.

And I'm in Aruba, or, you know, British Columbia. I'm visiting my, my, my buddy, Marshall.  I'm going to the 51st state. The 51st state. Come watch a hockey game up here. We beat you guys. I know, I know, I know. It's okay. I mean, you guys, it's your sport. It's your sport. But you need to put those systems and processes in place.

And it, it's just Sometimes it takes I'll give you a perfect example. Sometimes it takes a leap of faith. I hired a marketing company last year at a significant monthly cost and we did a lot of vetting. I talked to three or four different companies, settled on the one I really loved and we started moving forward and it was awful.

They were fired within six weeks. Um, it was not good,  but that that's the opportunity. That was a leap of faith because that was money. I didn't have, but I knew I needed to offload a lot of my marketing stuff to somebody else who was better at it than I am. And so sometimes you just got to take that step, but trust and verify.

Things weren't getting done that needed to be done and expectations weren't met. We parted ways pretty friendly. You just, you have to, you have to do those things. You have to try.  I love that. Taking a leap of faith and you took a leap of faith getting into business with franchise. Then you took a leap of faith going out on your own.

You were voluntold, but that's fine. Um, somewhat maybe, but still like it's, it's, it's all a leap of faith. And I think that's where, um, a lot of people just, I don't think it's stuck. I don't know if it's fear, if anything, this podcast or episode here today and future episodes, I hope it encourages people and maybe inspires.

Someone to learn from us and learn from themselves of what it might take, and sometimes it is a leap of faith. Could be a financial situation, could be hiring someone, trusting, right? Um, what would you say, before we go, what would you say, I'm throwing you, I'm throwing you, putting you on the spot right now.

Cause this is the Stern Truth Podcast. What would be a myth out there or something that is a known thing? I know you're all about quotes too, by the way. I love the quotes. Cause you love to share quotes too. But something that it's like, you know what, that's bullshit. And I had only said that. That's not true. 

I think one of the biggest pitfalls or myths that people run into is if, if I'm really good at what I do, I can do it in my own business.  It's almost always never the case. If you're a great painter or a great printer or whatever it is, you're probably not going to be able to run a great painting business or printing business.

When I was looking at franchises, I used a franchise consultant and I was like, and I use painting because my dad was a painter. I grew up painting. And she's, I'm like, Oh, how about this painting franchise? I know all about that. She goes, no, because you're going to get stuck in the business because you are a technical type person and you're just going to be worried about being good at painting.

And you just, that's not what's important. That the biggest, that's one of my biggest challenges is I try to be really good at whatever I do. That's just my personality. And so I got into this business and I, yeah. Like, I just took a three day class on dealing with mold for sensitized individuals. You're getting good at what we do, still. 

But that's okay, I'm still in the field and doing those things and I need that experience, but just because you're good at what you do doesn't mean you're going to be good in business. If you want to go into business, you can, but find yourself people who are good at doing those things and pay them to do it. 

I love that. That's my, my first employer ever hired. And I went into the franchise and knew nothing about the sign industry. Uh, I was in advertising and I thought it was kind of a correlation. No one would hire me. It was a recession back in the nineties. So I couldn't get a job in that agency. So I did this, got the franchise, did that.

Um, and like day five, my one employee, uh, he saw me at the table and making a sign and he goes, what are you doing? And I said, I'm making a sign because I was trained to two weeks. I got trained to help make signs. And he goes, no, no, no, no. He said, and he said to me, I'll never forget. He said, me worker. You owner, you go out, you sell, you bring business, I make signs, right?

He taught me, that was the lesson back in the 90s. Um, that was, the e myth was just starting to take off and he had no idea what the e myth was about. But it really is all about, um, you can still be on the truck, you can still, look, I still coach my clients, but you have to block that time  for, To business development, working on the vision, being the leader of the business.

Otherwise, you're just going to coast along. And again, like you said earlier, if that's what you want, if you're okay with it, you're okay. That's okay. No one's telling you, you have to grow five, 10 percent every year, but it all depends on what you want your business and your life to be.  Yeah. So, I mean, that's the biggest pitfall, but I think I want to encourage people to the best thing you can do is just never stop learning. 

Even if you disagree with someone, there's something you can learn from them. If you don't get along with that individual, or you hate their business, there's something you can learn from them. I, personally, I have an Audible account, and I get a free credit every month, and it forces me to listen to at least one book a month.

And it's almost always a business book. And I've  When on our podcast, we used to ask people, what's your favorite book and, you know, or business book and or most influential. And that's how I built my, my, my reading list. And I would, I'm driving to a job or I'm driving to an estimate. I'm listening to that audio book.

I'm mowing the lawn. I'm doing, you know, doing work, whatever. I'm listening to an audio book.  Um, continue to learn.  Okay, that's perfect. And we'll end it on there in a second. What's your favorite book?  There are some really great ones. Um, right now, the one that's probably most influential is probably that 10 X is easier than two X by Dan Sullivan and his co author.

But one of my favorites right now who I've risked, I have turned it into. I'm going to listen to this every year is never split the difference by Chris Voss. Um, learning how to negotiate, communicate with people. Um,  Not to be manipulated, et cetera, et cetera, uh, really fantastic. Awesome. Awesome. Have you read, uh, Willing to Fail, WTF?

No. It's on my list.  It's a must read. For everyone listening, like I, it's the e myth of this, this generation. Very nice. Nice. I know it's a local guy, went in and got junk up here in Canada. But, um, it's a really good book. It's all about just leader. It's how he built a business and it's all about building the team around you.

So it's, I highly recommend it to everyone. I kid you not. It is in my read list. It's really good. It's really, and it's great audible because he does it. So I love it when the actual, um, authors are the Are the narrators of the book.  Oh, you know, Simon Sinek's start with.  Yeah, that was phenomenal. I just listened to that two times in a row because I didn't get enough out of it the first time.

Yeah. That's an amazing book too. So, um, Russ, this has been awesome. Thank you. It's good to see you, my friend. Good to see you all the best with you and Connecticut. And, uh, uh, I guess I think we talked, do you, are you a Boston Bruins fan? Like what do you, do you,  are you sports? Are you football, baseball,  um, you know, I grew up a Red Sox and, and Bruins fan.

Um, so you know, the Canadians, we hate them. The team, not you. Yeah. The  size of ball certain people. Yeah.  Um, but I also grew up a New York Giants fan because when my, I, I inherited that from my father and when he was little, the Patriots weren't even in the NFL. So.  Okay, well, Bruins, yeah, we want to hold it against you.

We're still in Vancouver. 2011 is still, you know. Well, Carolina stole my whalers, my man. There's nothing I could do. Still one of the greatest jerseys of all time. Brass Bonanzas, my favorite. Yeah. Russ, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for being my first guest. And I wish you all the best, my friend.

And one day we'll see each other in person, possibly. I'm honored to be here. Thank you. Right. And thank you everyone for, oh, actually, if you want to get in touch, follow Russ on his socials because you put lots of good YouTube videos in, especially if you have some mold issues, he's the man. So I will get that into the show notes as they say in the podcast world, which I'm finding out.

Um, take care, all the best, and we will see you, see you all next week. 

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