Rachel Pinkus, Bill Seibert & Robert (Bob) Poutre - Get Ready for the Premier Roofing Show of the Midwest - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Rachel Pinkus from the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association, Bill Seibert from Fisher Roofing Company and Robert (Bob) Poutre from Roof Tech. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro/Outro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Hello and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. This is Heidi Ellsworth and I'm road tripping to the Midwest to talk to the leadership of the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association about the upcoming conference in 2023, MRCA. I'm so excited. It's going to be in Omaha, Nebraska. So Bob, Phil, and Rachel, welcome to the show.

Robert Poutre: Thank you.

Rachel Pinkus: Great. Thank you for having us.

Bill Seibert: Thank you, Heidi.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Ah. I love it. These are my favorite things. I just love to talk to you all, hear what's happening, and let everybody else know so that they can be sure to attend, to be a part of, 'cause MRCA does such great things. So let's start with some introductions. So I'm going to start with Bill. If you could introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your company.

Bill Seibert: You bet, Heidi. Thanks for having us. My name's Bill Seibert. I'm the president CEO of Fisher Roofing Company out of Kearney and Hastings, Nebraska. I'm also your current 2023 MRCA President and I'm excited to be here chatting with you today about the upcoming conference and expo.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Bill, I'm so excited that you're president. I've watched you. We've known each other for many, many years and it is just so cool to see you as president of the MRCA. Congratulations.

Bill Seibert: Well, thank you. I say it all the time and I truly believe it. I'm just a lowly roofing contractor in Nebraska and I just got dumb lucky to be a part of something that's so amazing and so good for the roofing industry. Thanks for those kind words, Heidi.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Bill Seibert: I've absolutely enjoyed watching you do the same thing too, all the way back from the win our days of the early MRCA winner and now what you're doing with Roofers Coffee Shop, it's amazing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's fun. It's fun.

Bill Seibert: Congratulations to you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you. This journey we take together in this roofing world is very cool. Well, Bob, please introduce yourself and tell us about your company.

Robert Poutre: I am Bob Poutre. President of Roof Tech in Stillwater, Minnesota. We are celebrating our 30th year this year. We are a commercial contractor. Much like Bill, I think it's all dumb luck. I thought, "I can do this on my own without a clue of how to do it," and 30 years later, here I am. I'm the current vice president of the MRCA. That's something I've really enjoyed, learned from my peers, and made some truly great friends over the years.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. MRCA is really lucky to have both of you. This is-

Robert Poutre: Well thank you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It takes all the volunteers and all these awesome roofing contractors and it takes the people who make it all happen and that is Rachel Pinkus. Rachel, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company.

Rachel Pinkus: Yeah. My name is Rachel Pinkus and I am the managing director of the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association. I am, for the most part, in charge of planning the entire conference and expo, obviously with the help of my colleagues, but I get to do all the fun planning that I get to see come to fruition when we're all together in Omaha.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. And you and I have worked together for many, many years too-

Rachel Pinkus: Many years.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And you have an awesome conference, but I want everybody to know a little bit more about MRCA and what it's all about because of the great things you do overall for the industry. So Bill, maybe you can kind of just give us an overview of MRCA and some of the initiatives that you're working on.

Bill Seibert: Sure. So the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association prides itself on being the roofing contractors advocate. Those of us in the roofing industry understand that we put a lot on the line day in and day out, no matter what we're doing, whether it's our employees or our equipment, our trucks, anything we got going on out there, we need somebody looking out for us and the MRCA is the firm that helps do that for us. Really with MRCA it's about training and education and technical research that looks out for the roofing contractor. We've got plenty of manufacturers and distributors that are associate members and it's fantastic that we have them now because in the past, you had to be a roofing contractor to be a member of the MRCA and now that we got the associate members, it's really helped grow our association and grow what we're trying to do, which is realistically look out for guys like Bob and I and the rest of us in the roof contracting industry.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I love it. I love it. And the technical, I'm always just so amazed and impressed with the technical part. The reports and the research that goes on, it's so impressive.

Bill Seibert: I tell people all the time that to really understand MRCA, you got to know the TNR committee and the technical research that we do because the MRCA has been known to upset the roofing industry a little bit in different ways.

Rachel Pinkus: Ruffle a few feathers.

Bill Seibert: We've ruffled some feathers. And I'm going to tell you right now, there's a very real possibility of some feather ruffling to come out of this Omaha show with the two research projects that we're doing right now that hopefully the information will be released at in Omaha.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I don't think there's anything better than ruffling some feathers when it comes to product performance and to system performance and protecting homes and buildings. Let's ruffle. I think you should ruffle.

Bill Seibert: Well, believe me, there's one one that's going to come out, whether the whole report comes out at this show or we release it next year in St. Paul, there's some feather ruffling coming, I guarantee you that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. Wow. Well, Bob, tell us a little bit about the show coming up in Omaha and I want to hear from all of you about what's your favorite parts, what are you looking forward to, some past experiences, but Bob, let's start with you. What's some of your favorite things and what are you looking forward to?

Robert Poutre: My favorite things, both past and present, it has to start on Wednesday with the YCC, the casino night. It brings all of the contractors, all of the associate members, and anyone that's anyone that wants to have fun. It's for such a great cause. The money they raise goes straight into foundation. We use that for scholarships for TNR, like Bill mentioned. I think my next favorite part would have to be the foundation auction. Again, we do so many good things with the monies that we raise. It's fun, the people that you meet, some of the competitiveness of all of us really gets to shine through. Then the rest of the shows, being the contractor's advocate, I know two of the things that I have really taken out of MRCA are the business management portions and the safety and they're both so important in our world. Our safety committee has come so far in the last couple years. It's just important for the industry.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. That's really what it's all about, the education and what you're able to take back to your company to help grow. Rachel, you do an amazing job with these expos and you have for many years. So maybe what are some highlights from past years? Some of your favorite things.

Rachel Pinkus: I like the fact that we really try to have something there for everybody. So I think we've done an excellent job, especially these last three years, of really making not only the commercial roofing contractors feel like they have a home, but also our steep slope contractors. So I think we've done an excellent job of trying to bring in education and training that also applies to our steep slope contractors. Some of the things that are highlighted in the past and that we're going to continue to do this year, we are still going to hold our CERTA train the trainer and applicator training again and then we're very excited to be having our second year of our hot training, which is the heat weld training that MRCA has conducted here and has brought to our members as another way of training their members and bringing safety into people's companies.

So both of those are also going to be happening this year. A couple other exciting things. We are going to have Malarkey and GAF bring their demonstration trailers onto the expo floor this year and give them a little bit of extra room. And they are also going to concentrate on doing some demonstrations for both the steep slope and the commercial contractors. That is something new this year that we have not done in the past. Something that's gone well the last several years is our architectural sheet metal committee. They have brought in the Copper Alliance to do soldering demos for our architectural sheet metal roofers.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Very cool.

Rachel Pinkus: And we are going to be doing some soldering demonstrations, again on the expo floor, both days of the expo and we're also going to be having some demonstrations of both good and bad soldering and what contractors should look out for when they are on jobs maybe that other people have done work on that maybe they need to keep an eye out for.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Rachel Pinkus: So those are some things that are past and present that I feel like are moving forward into the show as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That is cool. I love the demos on the show floor. I think that's so important and to have everyone coming in and the architectural metal and the soldering, that's cool.

Rachel Pinkus: We have a space in the back of the trade show floor where we're also going to be doing the hot training, the hands-on training portion, so that people can get a good look at what that entails as well in case that is something that they need to bring into their company.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. And CERTA came from MRCA.

Rachel Pinkus: It did.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's your program and is so well known across the industry and everyone uses it, but it came from MRCA.

Rachel Pinkus: It did.

Bill Seibert: That's a good example I think of the contractors that are a part of the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association. I don't know what years that was, but that was early '90s probably when CERTA was developed. And that was definitely a bunch of Midwest roofers that knew what they were doing and what they were dealing with and to see what CERTA is today in conjunction with the NRCA, I wouldn't be surprised to see the hot program become the exact same thing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Exactly. It's such great work and so important for the industry. So Bill, I know we've already talked about a lot, but do you have any other exciting highlights or fun highlights that you'd like to share, either past or coming up this year?

Bill Seibert: Well something that I think is always a pretty fun highlight is the MRCA Foundation auction. The last couple of years, let's see, I think it was in Milwaukee when we had our auctioneer kind of back out at the last second and my good friend Rachel Pinkus gave me a call on the phone and says, "Hey, Bill. Would you mind being our auctioneer for the foundation auction?" And I'm like, "I've never bid called in my life, but you know what? Who am I to tell anybody no, just ask my friends around here. There's no such thing as no it seems like."

Rachel Pinkus: And you did such a good job. We're going into what, year three?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Bill Seibert: Year three now. Yeah. And so what I enjoy about it is I feel like it's almost a little bit of a comedy routine as well and with Greg Bloom on the stage, him and I feed off of each other. We got Rachel up there always doing the bid cards or the product cards and it's just a really fun, not your typical boring auction atmosphere and when you know the people that you know, you can really call them out and make them spend their money. That kind of fires them up. Sometimes that backfires on me. I've bought a Harley Davidson gas tank for a lot of money one time, but I love the foundation auction. It's a blast.

Rachel Pinkus: Yeah. And the great part about this year is I think so far we have three of our scholarship winners who are going to be able to be in attendance. So the money we raise at the foundation auction obviously goes towards things like education and technical and research, but it also goes towards our scholarships, which are for employees of MRCA member companies and their children. So we have three people coming this year who are actually going to be able to be there in person to see what goes on and how the money's raised and then the people who are spending their money are going to be able to see who it's benefiting and I think that it's going to be great to have a couple of the college kids there to really see what's going on and vice versa. I think people being able to see what their money is going towards really helps them spend it easier.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. No, I was just going to say, I love the fact that you're going to have the students there.

Bill Seibert: Yeah. What's really cool about the scholarships is we have awarded $32,000 worth of scholarships this year.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow.

Bill Seibert: And I remember last year being on the stage doing the auction and people were kind of sitting back sitting on their hands a little bit. And when you explain to them, "Hey, look. This is what we're doing with this money," and you can prove it to them when it's all said and done. 15 scholarships, total of $32,000 this year. It's such a fun thing to be of, especially for those of us that we know, "You know what? It's going out to member companies of the MRCA's kids or family members," and to be able to do that, it's awesome.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well you did a great job last year. I was amazed at our podcast, that it did so well at the auction and you actually sold two of them, Bill. So-

Bill Seibert: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know you were working that crowd. It was really cool. But I know the money also goes towards other sorts of grants also from that along with the scholarships. So Bob, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Robert Poutre: Well, a lot of our money flows from foundation to TNR for these very important technical and research programs that we have. I really can't, or don't think I should speak about what we're doing, but as Bill said, some of these things will be cutting edge when these are released. We work with an engineering firm out of Illinois. These people are amazing. They understand our industry and some of the challenges and again, I think being the roofing contractor's advocate, we're bringing things back from these foundation auctions that truly help everyone. The first one is a hail study on mod-bit membranes and this was actually my first year of sitting on the TNR committee as the first vice president and, like Bill the year before, I have learned so much. I sat there in awe of some of these guys that come up with these ideas and how can we do this and prove it?

They're taking samples from rust 10 years old, five years old, two years old. It truly is amazing. The next is a plywood and OSB study, very close to Bill's heart. In the steep slope world we know we have hailstorms throughout the Midwest, sometimes two a season, sometimes one every season. Bill has clients that he's re-roofed their homes five and six times. So what happens to that plywood and that OSB when those nails are constantly being driven and removed, driven and removed? As a commercial contractor, it's not something that I would've even really come up with, but I'm really excited to see what this research brings back to us.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Bill Seibert: Yeah. And Bob hit the nail on the head right there. The Steep Slope Committee, prior to about 2009, the steep slope contractors were not big members of the MRCA because back then MRCA was really focused on commercial low slope roofing only. Well, Bob Swanda, Independent Roofing out Omaha, Nebraska, called me up one day and says, "Hey, would you be interested in being on the board of directors?" And I said, "You do know I'm a majority steep slope contractor?" We do commercial as well, but at that time was still a lot more steep slope. And he says, "Yeah. That's fine. We feel like you'd be a good fit." Well, when that happened, I started pushing everybody saying, "Hey, you know what? The low hanging fruit in the roofing industry is a steep slope contractor. So why do we not have a steep slope committee or something along those lines?"

And believe it or not, they were able to put together an ad hoc committee and made me the committee chairman on the Steep Slope committee and so here I was, everybody else, all these other committees have these nice boardrooms, they're in these great places, having these meetings with multiple board members, and here's Bill and one staff member sitting in the hallway like we didn't belong, but we made a way to get us to belong. And since then, Steep Slopes became a full-time committee, not just an ad hoc committee. And this testing of OSB substrates, I've been asking for that for over four years.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great.

Bill Seibert: And we finally got it done. Two years ago we finally got TNR to admit that, "You know what? This actually has some potential." And so when they approved the $75,000 budget to start that testing this year, or actually it was last year when we were in Big Sky? I think we were in Big Sky when we approved that.

Robert Poutre: Yes.

Bill Seibert: I was just tickled because I've done residential roofing long enough to know that we live in the hail belt, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa. We're in the hail belt. And when I first brought it up to TNR, I said, "Well what happens when you're re-roofing a structure three, four, or five times?" And one of our TNR committee members says, "Well, where I'm at, if you re-roof a house three times, that roof's about 120 years old so it needs re-sheeted anyway." And I said, "Man, we've done houses three times in the last five years." And then when we took it to Wiss, Janney, Elstner, our engineering firm that's doing this study, they were giddy because they can see where this can continue to keep going.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That is great. And the thing is-

Bill Seibert: It's pretty fun.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Talk about walking the talk, right? You see the problems or the challenges, you raise the funds through this great auction and through all the different events you do, and then you put the reports out. I just think this is the stuff that really changes roofing company's business. It helps them and takes them to that next level because they can do what's right.

Bill Seibert: Absolutely. And if you look at this mod-bit study that we're doing, we were at the RCMA actually with you, what was that-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes.

Bill Seibert: Heidi? About three weeks ago?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. We were.

Bill Seibert: By the way, when you moderated that panel, that was awesome. I sat there for that whole thing and was so impressed with all the questions and the contractors that were on that stage and their answers and your ability to just really dig in. That was fun. I enjoyed that immensely. But this mod-bit study that's coming through is a perfect spot because when is a mod-bit roof a great candidate for a coating job after a hailstorm? Well some of this stuff's going to be getting figured out as it continues working through the study.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Bill Seibert: So that was kind of fun to be a part of that to see what a great example of where things can go.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's really good. So one of my questions was what are you hearing from contractors? What's the ROI that they take away from going to the MRCA show, the expo, and all of those kinds of things? You're already answering that question somewhat because this is stuff that's going to change their business. But I would love to hear along with, everybody's going to want to go right now 'cause they're going to want to hear the results of these studies, but what else? For your businesses, and Bob let's start with you, for your business, why do you and your team and who all do you take, how important is this to your business, and what do you take home from it?

Robert Poutre: Well it's very important. The last few years it's been just myself going to the shows. We're a smaller firm. I've got to leave someone back here to run the shop. But-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know that.

Robert Poutre: I think these shows, I have gotten so much in the new products, the new equipment, the new methods. Labor shortage is something we all deal with. So some of these new products that save labor, save time, along with some of the equipment that's used to apply, it's changed the way that we do some of our commercial roofing. I think there's more to come. One of the other aspects, again, I love safety. I headed the safety committee for a number of years. We have a certified safe contractors program where contractors sit through webinars, learn new things, attend a couple things at conference, and then they receive an award for being certified safe. Those things I think, the show itself are very important.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Rachel Pinkus: I think also the networking is invaluable. We've all taken this spot in our lives where meetings are a lot of times on a conference call or a Zoom call or over the phone and everybody's so busy with their families and their kids and traveling for their jobs that I think taking this couple of days to get together with all of your peers, even your competitors, and being able to be face-to-face and talk with everybody and learn from everybody else's successes and mistakes and all the things that everybody goes through, I think that the networking at this event is just invaluable and I think that's also why some of our more social events are so much fun. They're fun and you get to buy things and spend money and help kids and do all these wonderful things, but the whole time you're also in their bumping elbows with the people who probably have the most valuable information to help you and your company run. So definitely the networking.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love the networking. I love seeing everybody. It's so awesome. Bill, if you're talking to contractors out there who are maybe on the ledge about whether to come or not, why should they take the time and bring some of their folks to the show?

Bill Seibert: Sure. So I definitely would agree 100% on the networking side of things. Some of my best friends that I have today are the result of the MRCA and being a part of and being active as well, but realistically, the show aspect of it is our educational sessions and the things you can learn at our sessions. I can remember one of my very first MRCA conferences, it was Kansas City, and a couple of past board members and one past board president, Larry Stock and Larry Marshall, were doing a presentation on knowing your numbers 'cause everybody talks in the roofing industry, "Do you know your numbers?" Well, you know what? Some people do, some people don't, and I would say the majority of them probably do not. So I sat in on that educational session and actually walked out of there saying, "Holy smokes."

"I've been doing things right 'cause I did understand my numbers, but these guys are way ahead of where I was in the contracting world and it kind of reconfirmed that I was doing things in the right direction." But this year, for example, as roofing company owners, I tell people a lot of times, "I have a lot of problems and a lack of spare time is my number one problem." And we've got Melanie Towey with EOS Worldwide coming in with entrepreneurial operating system and she's going to do a presentation on October 18th that EOS is a real thing and it works and I'm extremely excited about that because I've been looking at implementing some of that into my company just to try and figure out how to give myself more time and opportunity to do some things outside of work.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. We use it, Bill. It's good deal. Yeah.

Bill Seibert: I'll guarantee you, if we were to talk this time next year, I'll have something implemented 'cause I'm done running as hard as I run.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know. Nice and early. We're always in early and staying late.

Bill Seibert: Yep.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. I think I'd love to, Rachel, have you just kind of go over how to register, the schedule, kind of give us just that overview of the schedule. We talked about a lot of different things, but let's start from the beginning through.

Rachel Pinkus: Absolutely.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So how do you register, hotels, all that?

Rachel Pinkus: Super easy. So everything is very easy to find, right on the front page of mrca.org. You can find the hotel information. We are going to be at the Hilton Omaha. It is directly across from the Omaha Convention Center, which is also the CHI Health Center. If it is not so great weather, there is a breezeway that you don't even have to go outside to get across the street to the convention center. So super, super convenient. We're also super close to the airport. I'd say it's not even 10 minutes drive and there's a nice shuttle from the Hilton to the airport as well. So we're very close to the airport, very easy to get to. You definitely want to make sure you come in probably on Tuesday so that you're ready to go on Wednesday the 18th. We're going to actually switch our schedule around a little bit this year and try something a bit different.

We are going to be holding some educational sessions, three different tracks of educational sessions, that first day. So a business management track, a safety education track, and a technical education track. So that first day we're going to have six educational sessions to kick off everything and one of those is going to be Mr. Mark Graham from NRCA and he's going to be doing a technical update and that is one that is always very well attended and everybody's very interested to hear. Then that same evening, we are going to be doing the Young Contractors Council casino night and fundraiser and that will be in the Hilton Hotel. So that first night is going to be action packed.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Fun.

Rachel Pinkus: Then the second day we'll start the morning again with those same three tracks of education and we'll be bringing six more educational sessions. And then we're going to lead into our keynote speaker, which is going to be Mr. Rulon Gardner. And if anybody doesn't know who that is, he is a Olympic medalist and he has a very, very interesting life story and story leading up to his Olympic days and after his Olympic days. So he's got a great story to tell and he's going to be kicking us off before we do the ribbon cutting and open up the expo floor for the first day. Expo floor will open up on the 19th in the afternoon right after we have our membership meeting and our keynote. And then that second day is also the evening of our foundation auction. And we are going to do a black and white ball theme. So you don't have to get dressed up. Black and white is the color theme, but you can come as you are if you wish. If you want to put on your top hat and tails, go for it.

If the ladies want to wear cocktail dresses, that's great too, but don't feel obligated. And we're actually hiring a string quartet this year. So the atmosphere is going to be beautiful. So definitely want to make sure that you attend the foundation auction. If you are unable to come to the auction for some reason, we are still taking foundation auction donations. You can do that right on the website as well or you can call our office. So even if you can't be there to bid, you can still help us out with raising money by donating an item. So definitely take a look at that.

And then the last day of Friday is going to be just expo and we're going to have everything wrap up by noon, but that's also going to be an exciting day because we're going to be incorporating some prizes and giveaways. That is when we're going to be doing the Malarkey shingle contest that is always such a big gathering of the people on the expo floor. It's always a lot of fun and they give away prizes as well. And registering's easy, online form, securely register online with your credit card online. You can do a full registration. You can come for just one of the days. If you can only slip in for the afternoon and can't make it to the education, but you're a contractor, you can come onto the expo floor free of charge and you can also have your employees come and sign up separately for the CERTA and the hot training.

So if they are not there for the education, they can sign up for a separate registration fee and just come to the training. So we definitely have lots of different options for everybody in your company depending on what level they're at and what they need to be to and what they need to be learning.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That is awesome. And just so everyone's clear, that is October 18th through the 20th in Omaha. It's going to be great. I love everything. Rachel, what a great lineup. Congratulations. Just so awesome. So Bill, any last words for everybody on why they should come to the show?

Bill Seibert: Well, number one, Rulon Gardner is a Nebraska Lincoln athlete and also an Olympic gold medalist. So his story and what he's going to be discussing is going to be awesome. The MRCA, we are all about the roofing contractor and that's what we'll be about. And Rachel tapped on a couple of the things, our educational sessions coming up, but something that I find really intriguing as well, and we're starting to see a little bit more of this, is on Wednesday, October 18th, Lynn Foster with AccuLynx will be doing an educational seminar on eliminating language barriers with crews.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Awesome.

Bill Seibert: We all know, the roofing industry has really changed in the last, I don't know, 15, 20 years, and language barriers are real and that's something that, over the course of the last year I think, we're starting to see more and more discussion regarding that. And so to be, once again, MRCA on the front end of getting this discussed and getting this out there is going to be great also. It's the networking, it's just everything about it is amazing. Yesterday I had the privilege of representing the MRCA at a golf outing in Omaha that Beacon put on down there, which Ruben Ramos is the Midwest marketing guy for Beacon and that guy number one is incredible. Man, I have so much fun when I'm with him, but he had 220 golfers on this golf course yesterday and it was 105 degrees.

I thought for sure people were going to be walking out. But I talked to just about every one of those guys as they were coming through my hole and they were all planning on being there and we're going to have a heck of a turnout, it's going to be the real deal, and if you're in the roofing industry, this is definitely a place to be. Omaha's easy to get in and out of. In fact, I don't know if you can get to an easier airport or location-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So close.

Bill Seibert: To get in and out of. Oh, it's simple. It's so simple.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well Roofer's Coffee Shop will be there.

Rachel Pinkus: Definitely.

Bill Seibert: Awesome.

Rachel Pinkus: And Bill, that reminds me, I just also wanted to say that we are almost a sold out show. So if there are any manufacturers, suppliers out there who are still thinking about getting a booth, you need to get on it because we're down to the last handful of booths.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great.

Rachel Pinkus: And also, if for some reason you cannot make it to the show, we are still looking for and are always in need of sponsorships. So there are still a handful of sponsorships available that also can be found online.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, Bob, bring us home. Why should everybody come to the show?

Robert Poutre: I have a list of the exhibitors and I know just last week we got an email that we were closing in on selling this show out and I certainly hope it happens, but for anybody that hasn't looked to participate yet, this is a who's who of our distributors, equipment people. It would take me 10 minutes to go through the entire list, but every big hitter is on here. Every little hitter is on here. Roofer's Coffee Shop is on here.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yay.

Robert Poutre: I think you need to be there or be Square.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Robert Poutre: You won't regret it. If it's one of your first conferences, you're going to go away with a lot of good things. This is what's drawn me into MRCA. I went my first one in 2010 and look at me now. I'm first vice president behind my friend Bill. I've made some of the best friends in the world through this organization and that's what I've got.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. That's what it's all about right there. Well, thank you all so much for being on this podcast. Like I said, Roofers Coffee Shop will be there. This is going to be a great event. Thank you so much for everything you do for the industry and for being the contractor's advocate. That's just awesome and very amazing.

Rachel Pinkus: Absolutely. Same right back at you, Heidi. We appreciate Roofers Coffee Shop and your support. You guys have always been so great to be right behind MRCA and help us get the word out and look forward to working with you for many more years. Really-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're all in it together. I love it. Well thank you all and thank you all for listening. Please, go to the MRCA show. You can find all the information on the MRCA directory on Roofers Coffee Shop or going to the MRCA website directly. Please go. It's going to be great and this is the kind of stuff that grows your business. This is what we keep bringing. So check out everything on the directories along with all the podcasts that we have under the read list and watch navigation and on your favorite podcast channel, be sure to subscribe and set those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. And we will be seeing all of you next time on Roofing Road trips.

Intro/Outro: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the rooferscoffeeshop.com.