Blythe Brumleve:
0:05
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is Logistics, this special episode of Freight Friends, a podcast for the thinkers in freight. We are proudly presented by SPI Logistics and my name is Blythe Brumleve. We are joined once again with Grace Sharkey and we have not recorded since right after Thanksgiving, so we had a lot of topics to get to. We've already spent the first hour of our available time talking on the back end unrecorded, so we're going to try this again and bring and start talking on a recorded version. So, Grace, welcome. Happy 2024.
Grace Sharkey:
0:40
Thank you, yeah, I was trying to do the math the last time we chatted and it has been a while. But they'll get some because we'll get some manifest content into. So, if anything, we'll squeeze too much in the February.
Blythe Brumleve:
0:51
I know you're going to be sick of us in the next few weeks because we are recording live at manifest.
Blythe Brumleve:
0:57
We'll get into a little bit of that the conference later on. But just to sort of set the stage for this show, Since we haven't talked in a while, we're going to hit a bunch of topics pretty quickly before we get into a few different stories about our favorite freight hustles, freight businesses, and then, of course, everybody's favorite segment and ours, I think, personally our favorite segments that we like to sort of scope out, is the logistics of sourced to which, finding out you know how different products and things and animals and people and how they make it from point A to B. So that's a little bit later on in the show. But for this first topic I want to bring up this cage match between Project 44 Fourkites. You wrote this awesome article and now everybody is talking about it feels like it's everywhere on my timeline. So if you could, I'm going to, while I bring up the article, if you could kind of set the stage on what the hell is going on between these two companies.
Grace Sharkey:
1:57
Well, if you know anything about these two companies, you hate each other is probably just like a very nice way of saying it. They're not fond of each other in particular. I mean they're in the same market, they're servicing the same customers, the biggest visibility players out there, and they've gone back and forth in court for numerous reasons. This one, I think, is the most entertaining and just kind of crazy one out there. So I mean, this goes back to all the 2019 where, unfortunately, there was email sent from and I'm going to use words like allegedly, because the interesting thing about this case is it hasn't even really gone through a trial yet. It's been thought of whether or not it can go to trial at this point. And again, since 2019, well, 2020, it would be the best way to explain it but in 2019, in the summer, good old Project 44 number of their board members, two in particular started receiving emails from a Ken Adams and later on that same month, actually Tim Bertrand, who used to be their Chief Revenue Officer new Chief Revenue Officer at the time received some emails from a Jason Short just going into just like really odd rumors about the company, saying that they're tied to the Chicago mafia, that just accounting issues weren't right. They weren't worth as much as they say they are. Technology didn't work, all the fun stuff in particular, and because of how they mentioned a few things more than one say. Really quickly companies start putting together. Maybe this is from the same person, so I will say allegedly. The reason I said allegedly and kind of showcased in the article how I came about this information is because it hasn't been proven yet in court, but they did tie the emails back to IP addresses coming from Fort Kites, india, and underneath a number of their directors. And one of the emails addresses actually the Google, the Gmail account went back to a phone number. You all know like when you get a Google account or you have to tie it usually with a phone number, and that phone number is the old phone number of their current CEO, not his number. Now, a lot of people got me for that like, wow, you're just gonna throw this dude's number out there. That's his old number. I will say that. So to that out there. I didn't put your number, but your old number and it was his number at the time and it's also listed on numerous things online as well. So that is something. If this does go into trial, they're gonna have to kind of prove to a jury and things that nature. So again, allegedly, we'll put that out there.
Grace Sharkey:
4:41
Now the interesting thing about this is that this might actually be a case that you end up seeing in future cases. Is it's making a true statement and precedent when it comes to defamation law? So in Illinois, another thing to people are like slander defamation, like liable slander. How does this work? Well, in Illinois defamation is actually written or stated, so that's why it's underneath that claim. And now there's two different types of def defamation per se and per quad. I believe I'm saying that right, a quote per quote. Now, per se, you don't have to actually prove there's like real harm to you, so you don't have to prove. In this case, project 44 doesn't have to prove that they were, how they were harmed in order to come up with damages. Right and per quote, you do have to prove that. And the reason that it's under per se is because it falls underneath the five different types of statements that you can make in per se.
Grace Sharkey:
5:49
For this one I mean committing a crime. Right brought up the Chicago mafia situation, also the lack of integrity and performance of the jobs. There's numerous ways that you can go about that. Now, what I love about this, too, is like four kinds isn't like even fighting that. It like wasn't them. That's at the email, like their. Their main argument is like I don't know, just funny to me you think that would be what you'd say is like this isn't us, let's take it to court. Instead, what they're trying to say is that because they said this information to someone in the company, right, they didn't call freight waves, they didn't call Blight, they didn't call someone or shoot someone else in email and say, hey, this company is bad because they said it directly to the company, they don't think that's defamation. So what? The court in the?
Grace Sharkey:
6:36
It's all the way now gone to the Supreme Court, which is a very big deal, and Matt Lepler said it on what the truck he said to me as well, like in our interviews like this is this is actually a big defamation case that a lot of lawyers are looking at across the country. Even speaking to to Jett, you know he was saying that a number of different firms are reaching out just interested in the suit, in particular, because this could set some really interesting precedents when it comes to you know how you're defining a company's role in something like defamation, and so I agree with with the armchair attorney and he brings it up in the article. And then some of the statements is like, you know, these were said, these statements were said to the company to cause chaos within the company, and that should make it that my third party in this situation and so that's what they, what the Supreme Court about is is is is that true? Is saying this directly to a company technically a third person, or is it not? And I mean, consider that race, this whole thing, who really cares? Right, fortress Project 44, but into, I guess, more of like business law? I mean, think of of the ramifications of what that could say if this does set a precedent. I mean, in Illinois in particular, right, you could there could be a lot of companies who potentially could sue for defamation and never thought they could get away with that as a third party before. So I think that's what's really cool is like this is a great tech type of like war that could potentially be brought up in future business cases. Right, like per the Project 44 versus Fort Kites claims this, this is legally true in court, and I think I think that's what's really interesting and I was hoping that people would get from. This is, like you know, this could really set a standard for defamation law in Illinois and we, if anything, we know that right Like that's carriers, brokers in particular. A lot of them are located in the Chicago area, which would fall under this ruling too. So I agree, I think we'll hear sometime this year, probably summertime, from the Supreme Court.
Grace Sharkey:
8:51
I asked Project 44 if they knew when they would hear back.
Grace Sharkey:
8:54
They have no idea as of right now, but if the courts do side with Project 44, it'll go back to to the trial and I'm excited to see what more comes out in the trial, right, like especially how Fort Kites is going to fight this.
Grace Sharkey:
9:09
I have a feeling, honestly, probably should have been settled a long time ago, but I have a feeling and I would hope that maybe Fort Kites would settle this if it did get back, because I think what we could find out in the back and forth arguments like some some really nasty stuff about how maybe some leaders have been behaving behind Gmail accounts, but so for that reason, I assume that if it does get denied by Supreme Court, we'll probably see this fold and be dismissed at the end of the day.
Grace Sharkey:
9:45
But I mean, at this point especially, I have a feeling Project 44 is going to want their money back in terms of how much of lawyers that they've used, I mean at some point when it first started. I think they're looking for like $80,000 in damages. I can't imagine what those legal bills have turned into now. So, yeah, it's, it seems very petty. It seems crazy that it's continued to go on. But now it's like gotten to such a point that like there might be some businesses that can really fight some really interesting defamation cases in the future because of it.
Blythe Brumleve:
10:20
With these two companies. Is this the first time that it's hit the legal realm, or have they been going at it for a while now? What's the historical history of these two companies versus each other? Are they just simply competitors or is there something a little bit more to it that they're not just competitors? They're maybe one side or the other is fake emails, allegedly, of course. Is that all four kites to come after me either?
Grace Sharkey:
10:53
Allegedly allegedly, yeah, so allegedly here too.
Blythe Brumleve:
11:02
So you got to be careful with talking about it, of course.
Grace Sharkey:
11:06
Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think I'll keep my personal views aside from this. I do know that I believe four kites has also sued Project 44 in the past. I can't remember what it was for, but I want to say it was some type of a project 44 was hiring people and so I think four kites had tried to sue them for the non-compete classes and stuff like that. Okay, so that that's been there. These two have been notoriously back and forth for some time now. I mean I think I remember reporting when I first really started here even four kites had won a patent on some type of visibility aspect and solution, and I think that's another part of this right they really want. Four kites wants to protect what they feel like they is proprietary technology to themselves that potentially others could be using or trying to use other visibility companies.
Blythe Brumleve:
12:18
So yeah, these two are, I'll say, notorious that's probably the safest word I'll use for this back and forth, and I think the red socks and the Yankees, they're never going to get along and they're going to probably both be doing a little bit of the same things. But because it's a competitor, they're going to take it at the extra level, the extra step.
Grace Sharkey:
12:38
Yeah, it's funny too, because I saw a couple people posting like about whether or not one would purchase the other. Of course, like with four kites, purchase project 44, etc. That's interesting to me. I don't know if that would happen either, just because I mean I think the business case makes sense. I just don't know if that would happen out of the back and forth aspect of it, like if one would just rather see the other one die, then just like actually purchase it for a discount. It kind of feels that, like if they wouldn't I could be wrong, but it kind of feels that way. But it's, yeah, it's.
Grace Sharkey:
13:25
I will say this, though I think that, looking at this space, that both companies and a lot of companies in this space not just these two, I'd say even some of the other ones out there all really have to be asking themselves at the end of the day, is what am I bringing to my customers?
Grace Sharkey:
13:45
And, like Lefler said something like this on what the truck like, just focus on making a product that works.
Grace Sharkey:
13:51
And I think that's kind of the energy I feel about a lot of this stuff is like you got some big dollars moving around, you got a huge investments, you've got workers that really want to build really great products Focus on that. And that's why I'm surprised that this has been going on for so long. And I think that there's still in this space, like what, what visibility companies are doing to truly solve some of the problems that's notoriously, over the last couple of years, been like the. The pushback on visibility is like yeah, yeah, yeah, I thank you for telling me where my truck is, but like how do I avoid this not happening again and how do I now figure out how to fix this problem? Like that, sometimes I wonder, if we took that energy, a lot of this energy in particular, put it towards the product, if we would see happier customers and a better experience around visibility tools as a whole. So that's the critique I'll give both sides if I, if I, had to do that.
Blythe Brumleve:
14:50
No, that's a great perspective, because that is I'm actually moderating a panel at Manifest about visibility, and just why has it and one of the the questions that we're going to bring up is sort of you know, a preview of our talk is why has visibility been a problem for 25 years, where you have multiple players trying to solve this problem and I think your, your, your cat is in the background? Is that your cat that I hear purring on the mic?
Grace Sharkey:
15:17
No, is it me? Maybe it's me.
Blythe Brumleve:
15:20
I thought your cat was almost, like you know, giving like the yes, as you were giving.
Grace Sharkey:
15:25
Maybe it was me. No, she's on my foot right now. Okay, Well yeah, okay.
Blythe Brumleve:
15:32
Well, that was a little sidebar about you know, for great Grace's cat makes her appearance typically during these shows.
Grace Sharkey:
15:38
Yeah, I know I'm waiting for her. I got a lot of new trinkets over the holidays and so you've got. I've updated my the back a little bit, so I've been waiting for her to destroy those trinkets, but not yet, not so far.
Blythe Brumleve:
15:50
But yeah, just to you know, it was one of those stories where I'm like I feel like I've missed out on a lot of of the details of why this is such a big deal. It just feels like two big companies that are, you know, competitors that are going after it, but that that's kind of what it is. It says two competitors that just don't really like each other. They never really have, so they're looking for, you know, a variety of different ways to sort of stick it to each other. And I think that's sort of just the crux of, you know, operating a business in general is that sometimes you're going to get into some of these situations and what does that next step look like? Are you going to escalate it yourself or are you going to focus on your customers and make a better product? So that that was a really good breakdown which kind of just goes into, you know, sort of the basics of running a business.
Grace Sharkey:
16:35
I think I also just like love the concept of like a grown man, like in a dark like room somewhere, like creating a fake Gmail account Like you know someone.
Blythe Brumleve:
16:45
I think that's just like so funny which I don't know if people know this but you can make fake Gmail accounts. There's actual. You know websites too. I mean, of course, you can make a fake Gmail account, but there are fake or there are websites where you can go in and you can create different images and screenshots to look like you've sent an email or a text. I've actually been a victim of this long story, but I was. This girl was trying to blackmail me. She created fake text messages using this website and then sent it off to several people, making it seem like I had said certain things when I didn't. And yeah, it was a whole issue. So that's how I found out that you know these kinds of tools exist.
Grace Sharkey:
17:31
I like want to make a skit out of it. Sometimes it's like, you know, it's like a Saturday Night Live skit or something, where it's like just the fray drama.
Blythe Brumleve:
17:42
I love when you wanted talking about this kind of stuff because you know all the insights and the details behind it. Or I'm just kind of looking at from the side. I'm checking social media. I'm like why is everybody freaking out? Okay, on to the next story.
Grace Sharkey:
17:55
Yeah, I know it's hilarious and again I really hope. I mean, listen, I'm not four kinds of lawyer, but like, if this goes back to trial, like squash this because like it's a campy guy and anyone from over the team maybe here's this or sees this, like I'm not even saying no, I'm saying yeah, that was wrong. But still like end it now. It should have been ended a long time ago.
Blythe Brumleve:
18:20
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Blythe Brumleve:
19:49
Well, let's talk about our next hot topic that I want to get into and that is essentially around. So how I want to frame this story is that there are signs in the economy that things are improving that capacity and the tight market is kind of starting to favor the shipping industry again. But there's these recent stats that have started coming out, especially from Kevin Hill, who has the company called BrushPass Research, and he specifically focuses on freight brokers, and so he's been releasing a lot of different studies that I'm not sure that have ever really been done about brokerage before, and so I wanted to bring up this tweet that comes from Ben I don't know how to say your last name, ben, sure, he's. Anyways, he's on lots of different social media channels, but he's VP of sales over at Cowan Logistics, and so he's part of the freight meme community obviously freightX over on Twitter formerly or ex formerly Twitter, whatever, but anyways, a lot of these.
Blythe Brumleve:
20:55
One key point that Ben brought up that I thought was really poignant is shipping managers still have 33% more freight brokers calling for their business than they did in 2019. So that means you are competing call-wise, cold outbound, cold email all of these different things from a marketing perspective that you are competing with. From a brokerage standpoint. That yeah, 33% more freight brokers now than existed in 2019. And so that stat comes from Kevin Hill's Brush Pass research, and I just wanted to bring this into sort of like an overall argument around building an audience in 2024, because, as Ben's tweet points out, 33% more freight brokers out here are calling your customers.
Blythe Brumleve:
21:41
So what are you doing about that to maintain a great relationship with them? Obviously, freight is very much a relationship driven business, even with the addition of all these digital media and marketing tools. But what is sort of? I guess maybe, as a former freight broker, you worked in a brokerage, led leapshipped roles within that brokerage. How would you be handling building an audience right now with all this new competition that's in the market? You mean like building?
Blythe Brumleve:
22:10
my book Building, your book of business, getting new business, how would you approach that? I mean, I would run on my personality as hard as I possibly can.
Grace Sharkey:
22:22
When I was in sales I honestly did that more than anything else. Honestly, a lot of my calls first calls were like much less about business and more about like who am I talking to, getting some information from them that will at least showcase that I care about them as a person. The next time that I call, a lot of that right, like if someone's having a bad day, what's going on? It's all issues with my daughter or something like that. So the next time I call, I hope everything's going better and your daughter's not causing you any headaches and stuff like that. I mean it's just like kind of how did you remember that information Unnotes, like I would keep notes in the CRM and stuff like that. Okay, I always find it funny looking at people's notes and things like flatbed move steel and stuff like that. But it's like what about the notes of the actual people and what their jobs are and who they work with? The type of sales person I was was like get someone hooked on your personality at the company and then expand from there A lot of my sales. Maybe it wasn't the best at grabbing new customers. It was really good at expanding the freight that I was getting from a particular customer. Because there's like I remember one time working with someone for the longest, and over and over and like what other lanes are you moving? Nothing, nothing, I'm moving. And then, like one day in the conversation, bringing up another customer I was working with who was coming out of a steel company in Huy G, south Carolina, and she's like, oh wait, is it this location? Like yeah, and she's like, oh, our other procurement team runs out of there. And it's like, well, then, let me talk to them. And that was after like a year of relationship building and like just her hearing another town reminded her like, and then I ended up working with a whole another site, the company. So for me it was like I like to almost like kind of spider web off of it. I was very into there's a company that we use that would it was like like drainage data that would showcase, like kind of like this, the supply chain of a company. So it's like I would start with one person and, okay, like then how do you get the steel here? Then who's stamping it? And like, how do these all work together? And especially in the steel industry, like you know, you know, you know you get together and especially in the steel industry, like you'd be surprised, like how many people were connected. You can tell you how many times they'd get a customer and say, hey, we got a new customer and it's they're out in New Jersey and they name a city and I'm like, oh, isn't this company? And like, yeah, oh, I pick up by there every other week, so no issues, send it on over. And so that was like.
Grace Sharkey:
25:08
For me is like, just like you said, in these times, it's about building a relationship and your reputation and the fact that you are taking those extra seconds out of your day to to talk about something that has like nothing to do with free. I would say a good portion of even my relationships in this job are things that have absolutely nothing to do with framing. That's something we could talk about all day long at the bar, but it also has to do with like both of our parents did the same job when we were growing up. Right, both of our moms are teachers, or both of us love the Vikings, or, or I may say, our heartbroken by the Vikings, or, you know, we went to Michigan State, or we, you know, just finding something in common and running with that, and it's so much harder for someone to break up with a friend than it is to break up with someone who's just servicing your account. And that's what I think in all sales is like what people, especially in this industry, when we talk about the human element of it all right, like the human element is that piece is like being able to hit up people and say like, yeah, thanks for sending those loads over, but I was actually just calling to hear about how your daughters play went on Friday. You know like or like us about the oh, did you just watch? Like the real house, wise, it's all like. Cities are like, wasn't that crazy?
Grace Sharkey:
26:40
And that, I feel like, is what gets you by in these times is those relationships where it's like and I would have a number of people that would come back and be like listen, grace, like my stupid boss got a quote from someone random and they want. I told them, like you're the one person I trust, can you honor it? I know, do my best. You know those situations, but I rarely had freight just taken from me because of some unknown reason. Most of the time it was. If freight was taken from me, it was because a whole. Another company was taking over.
Grace Sharkey:
27:17
You know, sometimes it's like we're not moving anymore. It's the customer that's moving it. And what happened in those situations? I was the number one referral. So, yeah, I think you brought it up. It's relationship building and I think that's the biggest key is understanding. There are probably that many more people calling at this time and are they talking about that fun stuff? Are they remembering the small details? And I mean they're still shippers that I had talked to and drivers to that will reach out to me just just because they, well, they're really interested in like what I'm doing now, but, like they, we just built such a great relationship that it's like, well, I know that you're not moving my little loads anymore, but like, how's life going? So that's, if you know me, you know it's. You probably have to obviously understand that that's likely my sales pitches.
Grace Sharkey:
28:08
I hate pitching. I hate pitches. I hate them so much. I used to work with someone who was like so pitchy and I remember being at a bar there's. I lived in downtown Grand Rapids, right next to, like our convention center. So a lot of times I lived above a bar that a lot of people would go to afterwards and it was kind of a cool way to like meet, oh, interesting stuff, yeah. And I remember just like shooting shit with this dude about like something so random, and like one of the guys I work with like coming in and starting to pitch and I was like like gagging, I'm like you are dropping this ball right now, dude. Like he does not care at all about what our rates are. He wants to talk to the girl who's batting her eyelashes and loves. I want to say it's like the cubs, like when they're doing good back in the day, so like I I hear a pit, especially when you're talking about like going to manifest. I like it makes me gag like that.
Blythe Brumleve:
29:13
We're both dealing with a little PTSD right now because our inbox is just flooded with PR requests. I mean, we're talking close to 100 right now. Could you imagine trying to meet a hundred people in addition to normal, like, I guess, normal for us? You know speaking engagements and panel. You know all woe is us. You know I don't want to play that card, but at the same time it's just so much.
Grace Sharkey:
29:38
We're telling you how we have the best robotics Like.
Blythe Brumleve:
29:41
if I hear one more line about revolutionary or transformative, I'm going to, but you know what if you send me an email and you mentioned my blue hair?
Grace Sharkey:
29:50
I'm answering that email Right Exactly. You're invested in me. That's what you're showing me.
Blythe Brumleve:
29:58
And I think that that's where to bring it. I guess full circle with this conversation is that you have to do the hard work. There are no easy levers to pull in a time like this. I don't, you know. I think this kind of goes without saying. But building relationships is a lot more than sending a cold email or sending a cold call. It starts very slowly and then when somebody is ready to make a jump, hopefully you're the first person that they think of and you know.
Blythe Brumleve:
30:26
It's not just the matter of you know keeping up with personal details I think that's definitely important as well but it's also staying in front of people. You know, consistently, you know to take it, I guess, more like street level. It's more you know creating content, creating video content, putting it out there for the world to see. Maybe, if it's not even video but it's text-based content, putting it out there on LinkedIn. Staying in front of people, staying on top of mind. It's very similar to like a freight forwarder with brokerages and what they're going through. Freight forwarders competition is worldwide and so a lot of people give a lot of shit to Ryan Peterson's EO, flexport, but he's the best marketer in all of freight and he, consistently is putting his face out there. So when people think of a freight forwarder, they think of him, and that is a smart move.
Grace Sharkey:
31:22
Yeah, you know. One other thing I do want to throw out there, and during these times as well, it's like if I was to give someone advice on what to go after like do not try to go grab freight you can't service. Like stick to what you're good at and a market that you can't find you can't get the loads that you already the potential thing you can get, especially like working in the brokerage before there's nothing more irritating. We are really heavy, flatbed, oversized, really good at like that kind of stuff, raw materials, all that and sometimes I'd hear new reps that would be like calling just like more e-commerce, cpg goods, and it's like we're not good at that. You know. Like we're not gonna have competing rates and van loads in the short hauls, like we compete very well and oversized.
Grace Sharkey:
32:15
So it's like also like know what you're good at, like be realistic during these times and don't like shoot for the moon or shoot for the stars laying on the moon situation right. Like be focused and driven and realize like I can build the best relationship ever with someone on the phone from like at least that brokerage like Walmart, but like I'm not gonna compete rate-wise. So it's like be smart, focus on the relationships that you know that you can service well and build those up from there, because the best part about those relationships is like when the market turns and they start having more freight, you're gonna get all of that, you're not gonna have to lift a finger for it. And even on the opposite side on the market flips like the ones that we can have, like true relationships, conversations with we would have a better chance at not having to push out terms or add days to pay and stuff like that. So yeah, relationship is all the way.
Blythe Brumleve:
33:20
It's all good stuff and I think sort of you know combining that with continuing to build an audience online. There was a tweet thread and this is very related to what we're talking about here and it's about building audience tips in 2024 from one of my favorite podcasters, sean Purry. He is the co-host of my First Million. If you don't listen or follow that podcast, it's so great it's. I think it's probably it's in the top three of like my favorite podcasts. But his Twitter presence is pretty good and he released on how to build an audience, whether you're a founder, whether you're a leader at a company, and some of these I really loved and so I'm gonna run through just a couple of them. Number one he mentions who you follow is far more important, or who no, who follows you is far more important than how many people follow you, which is sort of, I guess, akin to.
Blythe Brumleve:
34:15
You know a lot of the vanity metrics that people pay attention to. I see you know some folks in you know freight creator mediums that you know they publish. They work really hard on a video and then they publish it and it kind of you know it'll maybe get like 30 views on it or something like that, and they get so frustrated and they just want to quit making all together. But what if those 30 people are all CEOs or all part of the C-suite? You know, ask yourself what would really matter, and so I loved that point. The next one is you want to be known well, not well known, I. You know, I kind of dig that one too, just because of the fact of like kind of having like a low key profile, especially in person, but then online, you know, of course you, you know we're media operators like we want to get attention on the work that we're doing Nice like LinkedIn trolls.
Blythe Brumleve:
35:06
For number two and then let me see that number three was there's no such thing as too long, only too boring, and I think that that is a perfect encapsulation of you know sort of the debate the short, yeah, the short form content versus long form content. With this show in particular, this is one of as far as like recurring episodes. This is definitely up there. You know, some of our episodes that we've done together are pushing two hours over two hours.
Blythe Brumleve:
35:42
And but people listen to them because they like them, and so I think a funny phrase I heard recently is Cat Williams. He was on that really famous podcast interview with Shannon Sharp. It became the number two most downloaded podcast of all time and he single-handedly and this was the comment that I read is that he single-handedly fixing our attention spans is because it's a three hour podcast and people listen to all of it because it was entertaining the entire time. So I really liked that point of there's no such thing as too long, only too boring.
Grace Sharkey:
36:17
Yeah, a thousand percent.
Blythe Brumleve:
36:20
All right, and then running through these last ones, and then we'll kind of talk about oh, there's actually, oh my God, there's like nine of them. Okay, so I'm gonna quickly run through them and then you tell me which ones stick out to you. Next one, number four on the list, is don't worry about your writing style or production quality. Yes. Number five is Creative Binge Bank. Number six is the rule of 100. Essentially, the advice that comes from Mr Beast. He tells them all the same thing Everyone sucks at the beginning, make 100 videos and each time try to make one a little bit better. So that is the rule of 100. Right, just make sure you're happy.
Blythe Brumleve:
36:54
Number seven is pick the platform that suits you. I see this all the time with a lot of freight companies. They wanna get started in freight marketing and they decide to join all of the channels and all of the programs and they do all of them very mediocre and they don't really do one really well. So that is one that you should definitely pay attention to is picking one platform and going all in on that one. Number eight is no matter what platform you pick, don't stop writing. That was one of my personal favorite ones. And then, lastly, number nine people don't want information, they want a feeling, thinking of your channel as a little shop of the world's most crowded market. People don't follow you because of what you know. They follow you because of how you make them feel. So that was a few of some of my favorite ones.
Blythe Brumleve:
37:42
Well, that's the entire list, but as far as like my favorite ones was the number five, creating a binge bank, and so his explanation for this one is your content should be bingeable. In a one to three hour sitting, let people stumble down the rabbit hole of you. A lot of content will get no attention until you finally break through, and then your back catalog of content becomes super important. So I loved that idea and that's not one that I have really thought about before that creating that binge bank. Which ones did you have? Any that sort of stood out to you?
Grace Sharkey:
38:21
Well, actually the last one I liked because it kind of goes back to what I was saying in terms of, like, build a relationship and don't like just focus on the product. Right, like they want to feel like they are friends with you. They don't want to just feel like, oh, you're selling them some product and you'll never hear from again. Like that's just not how I feel. Like this industry particular works and a lot of sales jobs in particular are the same, I do, like the 101. I mean that's just practice makes perfect. I mean same. I think I have over. I think I just passed 550 articles on Freight Ways. Yeah right, that's what I thought, and it's funny too. I was even thinking at the radio the other day and it's like I do that I mean I've had to have passed by at least 500, if not close to 700.
Blythe Brumleve:
39:13
I don't know how you do that show every single day, even during the holidays. I'm like does this girl take a vacation?
Grace Sharkey:
39:19
I know a lot of times I prerecord some of those, but it's still like now it's like second nature and I think that's. But it also like keeps you fresh. Like when you do that, do that much content, you start to realize okay, this is kind of like getting old and you start to like think of new ideas and things that actually make it better. So I like those two big time for sure.
Blythe Brumleve:
39:42
I think too, going back to the, to the binge bank, one for a second is essentially making that as easy as possible. You know, right now, on a lot of the website projects that we're working on especially, you know, for my own, you know, content heavy sites is simplicity. Right now I feel like there's way too many options on our sites and that there's, you know, seven different CTAs and you know called actions that are going on on one single page, and I'm like this is entirely too much. And so when I read the binge bank content kind of hack, I was like I need to incorporate this into the website to make it as easy as possible that for someone, if they want to check out, you know, one of your 500 articles that they kind of you can kind of funnel them in a way that makes the most sense for them. Maybe they only want to hear about technology, maybe they only want to hear about freight technology or trucking technology or visibility technology in creating those binge banks based on those specific interests. So just trying to make it as simple as possible. And so that's my big task right now, especially trying to get that site ready before manifesting Godspeed, please, please, let's get this done. And then the last one I'll say that really impacted me is no matter what platform you pick, don't stop writing.
Blythe Brumleve:
41:04
And I think for a lot of businesses they want to jump right into video or they want to jump right into a podcast and they forget the most important aspect of it and that's your research, that you're prep and writing it down. Writing it down helps you to formulate your thoughts, helps to structure your thoughts of what you're actually going to be talking about. So you don't just jump into a podcast and just start riffing. I can tell every time when a show does that and I'm not just frankly, I'm just not going to listen very long because they don't respect my time. And in order to respect people's time, because there's so many ways for people to have their attention kind of taken away from the message you're trying to get out, you want to make sure that you're putting the legwork in into the notes.
Blythe Brumleve:
41:48
So for like a show like this, for example, I'll write up it's nothing to write up 2000 words in order to prepare for a show like this or to have 30 questions that I'm going to ask an interview guest I might not get to all of them and they might answer them and other questions that are asked, and then I'm not asking those. But at least you come prepared and hopefully the audience recognizes that and they respect it that you're trying to respect their time as well. So the writing one. What was a big one to me is don't stop writing, because writing is thinking. Good writing is good thinking. Writing is like a doctor's checkup for your brain. So that was my favorite one. Any others that you wanted to point out? Or are you ready to move on to favorite freight businesses and hustles?
Grace Sharkey:
42:40
Well, I actually have an advice one. Do you want to bring that up? Oh sure. So I will say for the audience that Blight said cringey people we love to take advice from in this segment. She forgot the cringey aspect just a second ago, but so I said, yes, I know the answer to this one, because I'm a big fan and you can hold this against me as much as you want, but the number one person who I love to take advice from is the number one momager of all freaking time, all fucking time. I'm just going to swear and if you don't believe me, check her bank account Because I don't want to hear anyone's.
Grace Sharkey:
43:23
Kardashians haven't made their money. The Kardashians have made their money. They're in our brain. There's products back there behind me that have their names all over it. They got me hooked, they got you hooked. Don't even lie. We love them. They're America's first family and who's leading that family? The mastermind behind it all? Ms Chris Frick and Jenner. And this is her number one quote of all time, and I think this deals with this industry and pretty much any sales job ever. So let's roll this Forbes clip, by the way.
Speaker 4:
43:56
Any tips that you have to negotiating effectively, Like how do?
Speaker 5:
44:00
you do it Well. If somebody says no, you're talking to the wrong person. That's always my motto. But I think in a negotiation, a great negotiation is when both sides win. If you can give a little and they can give a little and you can come to terms. You know it's interesting. You asked me this question Because I had a meeting this morning with somebody that we were negotiating with for one of my daughters about a year and a half ago and it didn't go great because both sides were unhappy. And we had a meeting this morning and he looked at me and I looked at him and we both just said that didn't go well, did it? Let's start over. That taught me a lesson. Like you know, I wasn't willing to back down, he wasn't willing to back down, but then we both came to the table today and said you know what? I can live with that if you can live with this.
Grace Sharkey:
44:52
Like, come, if I could work with anyone, it would be her. I mean, ok, first of all, let's break that down. So, first of all, the whole if the answer is no, you're talking around person 1,000%, this industry and look at it as so many different ways. You call someone they're in charge of shipping. I don't handle that decision or no. I'm not looking to change who I'm working with right now. Who's in charge of money in a business CFO? Try the CFO. If you talk to someone and our CEO makes all the decisions of changes, talk to the CEO. Talk to the sales guy who can't get the margin that he wants because the shipping costs are too high. Talk to procurement who can't bring in the materials because the shipping costs are too high. Like that, right, there is this industry 1,000%. I think that's a lot of times when I talk to people about maybe a sales not going through, it's because they're building the relationship with the wrong person. And a lot of times I mean that takes to having a tough decision and going above someone or even building a relationship with someone who eventually could help down the line. So I love that aspect.
Grace Sharkey:
46:13
And then the other point that she brought up too is like I see this a lot of times in the tech side. It's like both parties need to win. So many times I think people just close tech deals in this industry to just close deals and keep it moving forward. But it's like did you actually really help them with their process? Did you make sure that you have a change management process in place? Are they well trained on how to use this system?
Grace Sharkey:
46:38
Again, when I hear people say a tech isn't working, it's a lot of times not the tech. I mean it's like saying like it's like rising, like my mom who says a lot of times will say, oh, netflix isn't working. It's like, no, you just keep forgetting to update your iPad and it's not casting correctly right. It's like that's teaching. It's definitely not the tech. It's likely you Sorry, and then maybe the product's not right for you and where your business is right now right. A lot of times that could be it as well.
Grace Sharkey:
47:12
So I think I love that piece too is like how are we don't just do a deal to do a deal? How are we looking at and helping both of us? And, yes, at the end of the day, closing a deal is going to be best for that sales rep on the tech side. But if it's someone who's going to be constantly going to your customer service desk asking for help, like it's not good for the company. And a lot of times that happens, even in brokerage too. Right, like you land a customer. But like, for instance, if you're a small growing brokerage and you land GM who wants you to pay in 100, or is going to pay you in 120 days, like that's not a great customer to have 25% of your revenue into Like. So I love Listen. I'm again. I stand for the dashians over there, the Kardashian's. I love to hear the arguments because I'll look right through.
Blythe Brumleve:
48:10
I mean, when all else fails, you just pimp out your daughter on a sex tape and then blow up your entire family in order to make millions and sometimes billions. You know what?
Grace Sharkey:
48:19
Don't worry about millions. No, I'd say it's incredible and it's interesting. I remember there was an episode, oh, when she wore the Marilyn Monroe dress. This is exactly. Chris saved the day. She came into the room and said they weren't going to let her wear that dress. They were like, well, she couldn't fit in it. So she lost much weight. But even when she could fit into it, they were not. It wasn't until like 24 hours before the show that they finally agreed to it and it's because Chris said we're talking to the wrong person and I guarantee you called the because I think it's Ripley's, believe it or not, that owns it technically oh, wow.
Grace Sharkey:
48:55
The big thing like listen, you're going to get the, you're going to get the marketing from doing this. Clearly, she wants to get this done, like that only happened because the savior, kris Jenner, came in last second and talked to the right person. I remember her coming into the episode. It's like you're not talking to the right person, kim. Give me 24 hours, we'll get this done.
Blythe Brumleve:
49:17
And so I mean, she is a hell of a manager. I can't, you know, fault her. I can fault some of the and I agree with some of the messaging and some of the methods, especially around Kylie. I think Kylie is just such a disturbing case of setting beauty standards so high with two of your daughters that then the third daughter, chloe, is pressured into getting all of this different plastic surgery and just unrealistic establishing those unrealistic beauty standards. So then your youngest daughters, especially Kylie, are, you know, getting lip injections and fillers before she is at the age of 20. If you look at photos of her now, she's like 26, 27. She looks 40.
Grace Sharkey:
50:02
And so I think we work all the time she makes a hell of a lip liner and she licensed her name to the companies that make a hell of a lip liner Colour pop. That's how all of this is working, she licensed to Colour Pop, and boy have I enjoyed myself.
Blythe Brumleve:
50:19
Which is all I cannot fault. Again, I cannot fault them for some of these business moves, but I do think that Chris is sort of the brainchild behind this and that the daughters are just benefiting from it. Kim, I think, has another level I think she's on the same level business understanding of her mom, but the rest of them are just sort of just following sheep and just doing whatever.
Grace Sharkey:
50:41
Chris says she's not going to come on now. You need to get Nadia from Skims on your show to talk about their supply chain, because she's told me some incredible stories about Kim as a leader. But no, I, yeah, I love it. I love this argument. This is wise. This is my favorite. It's like arguing about who's better, rihanna or Beyonce. It's like no, your argument's down and it's Beyonce, but I'll listen to it.
Blythe Brumleve:
51:08
See, that's it. Yeah, that's a whole other argument that I'm not even qualified to give.
Grace Sharkey:
51:11
You need standards If I was a billionaire, oh man.
Blythe Brumleve:
51:16
Well, it's just. It's a lot of the malicious things too, Like selling diet pills or selling things like this and pretending as if that's working no one that your audience is excuse much lower.
Blythe Brumleve:
51:30
So you are. You're not just. It's not just Skims and makeup lines and perfumes, which I think are reputable businesses, but it's some of these other decisions that the Kardashians have made that I do really have a problem with, and that's pushing a lot of these different unrealistic beauty standards and then lying essentially too. Yeah, I mean, kim got sued for lying for selling some of these diet pills, and so I just think that that's a good point too, I think, but that, yeah, exactly, and so it's like these kinds of things, it's like that's not responsible. You have enough money, you have enough prestige. Why do you feel the need to push these products that are never going to work, knowing that you have access to so much money personal chefs, personal trainers, the best cosmetic surgeons in the world, even though Kylie's face is falling apart but you have access to all of these things that nobody else really has access to, when you're pushing as if it's achievable, and that's what I don't like about how they've evolved into. I don't know.
Grace Sharkey:
52:32
I do want to put on a public record I am not a Kendall fan.
Blythe Brumleve:
52:39
I used to be a.
Grace Sharkey:
52:41
I've heard some real world stories about her, because I know.
Blythe Brumleve:
52:43
No, she's in that job.
Grace Sharkey:
52:45
And they are not fun Allegedly, but I would work for Miss Kris Jenner any day of the week.
Blythe Brumleve:
52:55
I'm just, I like a lot of her deals, but I'm just saying you know, pipping out your daughter, I remember she was like a Grisela or whatever.
Grace Sharkey:
53:02
That, like the new Netflix show, is right.
Speaker 4:
53:06
I bet you there's some crazy stuff.
Grace Sharkey:
53:08
Yeah, that she's got in business stuff. I bet you she's just done some wild stuff and I'd love to know it. Some projects for some four kinds email type of stuff, you know.
Blythe Brumleve:
53:20
Which I'm, I'm sure you know. I've heard you know, especially from like internet rumors, that you know that that Kris Jenner has, you know, direct contacts with folks at Google, a different search engine.
Blythe Brumleve:
53:33
So if there's a story that she doesn't, like she calls people at and she will bury it, and I think that that level of power is is fascinating. I just I don't know. I've watched a couple of recent documentaries on them or, like you know, internet style documentaries, and I just you know I was a big fan of them for a while, but now I just think of it as so exhausting to have every moment of your life just managed from the aspect of making more money. Like when do they take a day off, Like when do? They just say enough is enough.
Grace Sharkey:
54:10
Well, listen, thank God Northwest is here and she's picking up the bag now. To be honest with you, I was going to actually send you a bunch of Northwest clips.
Blythe Brumleve:
54:20
Oh my God. This is even more disturbing is that they're starting to employ them. They have a mini daycare, at their home, on all of their shows, and now that's the next sort of line is getting all of these kids to start and it's like please just don't do the immoral things or the things that are immoral. I guess that's a right phrase when Northwest.
Grace Sharkey:
54:40
there's an episode. Northwest comes in and she's like you need to get an apartment, mom, because dad has an apartment. It's awesome. And I was like that is the advice. We just really thought our house she's like a dad's cooler because he lives in an apartment, mom, and they're like love that that's going to make her not sleep tonight.
Blythe Brumleve:
54:59
So that's pray for those kids. Pray for those kids because the men that the Kardashians have left in their wake and that is also a little concerning. I just stood oh come on, Lord Disick to my dog, Lamar Odom, Chris Humphries even though he's kind of an asshole but still like his career was ruined.
Grace Sharkey:
55:22
Kanye's If anyone sees me on the plane in Manifest, I'm watching the latest season of the Kardashians. It's like my go-to on flights. It kills the time and I'm just dying, laughing all the time.
Blythe Brumleve:
55:37
Okay, let's move on into another part of hustling. Let's move on to pick our favorite freight businesses hustles going on right now. I think that you have one that I definitely wanted to talk about and that is making swag in to merch. So let me go ahead and share this tab and can you kind of set the stage for us here? What are we?
Grace Sharkey:
56:02
looking at. I just came in and sent in an important email, done the though. Okay, perfect, we'll take a look. So this is so I have the picture up, perfect. Yes, I saw this the other day right after I wrote an article about Optum, and I was like what is this t-shirt I must have? And so my side hustle. I think that more companies should consider I mean, we clearly freight band it with as a magazine is going for it. We need to stop giving out so much awesome free swag and start selling merch. I would buy that shirt.
Blythe Brumleve:
56:41
That's how cool that is, and for folks who maybe just be listening, it's what it's like skull and bones driving a truck. Is that an accurate?
Grace Sharkey:
56:48
Yeah, it looks like a truck driver. He's got a beard, he's got a cool cowboy hat on, but it's like he's a skeleton man and he's Way to get loaded.
Blythe Brumleve:
56:57
That's what's happening.
Grace Sharkey:
56:58
Yeah, he's got a cool. Yeah, exactly, detention forever, which is again, add that to the back of the shirt even bought it even more. I just think we see so many artists in particular that's like. This is like generation of merch. I mean, you see people even buying old school like lettered skinnered shirts and for well over a decent price of a shirt these days. I would love to see this industry get more and more into merch. I'm working on some of it myself, but I love it. Who doesn't love? And it's clever too. I don't want just your company name on it, I want I mean, I'm gonna explain just thinking of merch I bought. I'm wearing the Matt's merch right now. I love this stuff. I think it's so cool and this shirt is so cool.
Blythe Brumleve:
57:54
I see so many different things, like doon or post as well, and it's like why aren't companies selling this, the ornaments, the Christmas ornaments is one thing that he does that I love and I think that's so smart because it's one of those things that, I'll be honest, I'm kind of, especially when it comes to companies. I really have to love your company in order to support the merch, and it has to be good quality merch. Don't be making like this heavy, thick cotton t-shirt. That's I can't stand it. It needs to be really high quality merch.
Grace Sharkey:
58:28
OTR clutch. Shout out to you guys that shirt. I got it on the mail. Softest shirt of all time. Siege Robinson shout out to you Softest shirt of all time.
Blythe Brumleve:
58:38
I would Well. Softest freight shirt that I own right now is Convoy so RIP. Yeah, I could do that, because it's a great shirt.
Grace Sharkey:
58:45
I would like giving out Convoy swag as gifts, as now, tokens of history. I've got so much of their swag and I'm just like here, this is cool, right. I've got a magazine back there that's like the future of trucking and I'm like, wow, this should be Frank.
Blythe Brumleve:
59:07
So, yeah, I definitely agree with you there. Definitely more merch needs to be coming out from our industry. But for God's sakes, we're about to have to manifest next week. I do not need any more water bottles, pens. I do not need any more of notebooks. I'm good, I'm trying to think. Is there anything else that you're absolutely just like I'm tired. I would kind of put hats on that list too.
Grace Sharkey:
59:30
Yeah, Just Frank and I are going to wear them. Yeah, unless they're cool. Convoy had some cool hats and I've been giving those away. Yeah, I would take like a bucket, like a safari hat, you know. Like, at least get cool with the hats. Oh, that's a good point. Don't give me a trucker hat. Do not. God's sakes, please, god, don't give me a trucker hat. It doesn't look good on any woman. That's a statement I'll make. Just don't give it to me. Give me a dad hat, worst case. Okay.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:00:05
So real quick, because I know that we're running up against the clock here. One that I didn't want to mention as far as freight businesses. The reason I want to mention this one is because I really noticed how the shift was happening. So Matt Silver everybody kind of knows him within the freight industry. He just came, he was stealth, coming out of stealth mode, I think, is how real it is. He came out of stealth mode, launched his business, cargato, and I wanted to talk about this one because I noticed a very strong shift in his social media. It was basically, you know, kind of everyone that joins Twitter, they kind of just start shitposting and you know, kind of it's kind of what I kind of shitpost for. The majority of a lot of my tweets and a lot of my posts, a lot of it is, you know, of course, comes from old shows that I've done. But for him in particular, I specifically noticed this because he kind of I don't want to say like shitposting, but he went from normal posting to very strategically talking about cross-border shipping and it was so much that I noticed that I'm like huh, I was like he is making a very conscious shift with his social messaging and then come to find out like I'm reading through a lot of the you know the official announcement after he came out of stealth mode and one of his investors is a guy named Sahil Bloom I believe is his full name, but he's very like Twitter famous. He does a lot of like inspirational business type messaging, but he specifically has been consulting Matt on how to upgrade his social media presence and so, if you really want, like a good use case of freight marketing and in freight media, it was enough. I didn't know anything about what Matt was doing on the side with building this business cargo, but I did notice the shift in his social media messaging and so I think that was it. You know, the reason I wanted to bring it up is that I thought that that was a brilliant shift for him in retrospect, because it's a good case study of what other founders, other business leaders, can do as well that even though you've started up on a platform, maybe you've talked about one thing, but you can consciously shift how you're interacting on social media and what you're talking about and who you're communicating to, simply by making more of a conscious effort about what you're going to talk about and why that target audience should care. So kudos to him for, you know, really nailing in on that messaging. And so that was one of the investors in Cargato and to that company was the guy who is, you know, kind of breaking down of what what he should be sharing and what he should not be sharing and so that kind of rounds out that part of the show.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:02:44
Let's head into our last segment and that is basically our source, source to porch. So the logistics of let's run through them pretty quickly. Do you want to intro yours first? So you want me to do mine? You can do yours first. Okay, so I am kind of a nerd about magnets. I love magnets ever since I was a kid. I just thought the way that they work is so interesting because you can take the sides of it. You know, I just vividly remember being a little kid and trying to, you know, push the magnets together and feel that force against it.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:03:21
I'm like what's happening here? How is that created? And so I thought to myself the other day I said how the hell are magnets made? And just to, I would play a clip about it. But it's essentially the. You know electrons, you know, basically electrons. No, I'm just going to play the clip. Let's just play this because it needs to be played. Let's do this. Here we go. How the f***?
Speaker 4:
1:03:49
do you want to work? Onstand showed us that if something is moving in your point of view, it looks shorter in the direction of movement where there is an electric current. Thus the moving negative electrons look like they balance out the stationary positive nuclei. But in the electrons point of view the positive nuclei are moving and therefore closer together Negative and positive charges attract. So an electron moving outside of the wire can be attracted to the higher density of positive charge. In some materials, like fridge magnets, the atoms act like small loops of current. If these loops are all in the same direction, they add up outside and cancel out inside. They're left with an effective current on the surface of the magnet. That makes a magnetic current that can attract things containing movable charges, like metals.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:04:33
And so, if that is not cool enough, now we go to the part about actually like magnetizing the different metals. And so you take different metals and how are they actually like manufactured? And so I found a manufacturer over in China that has post videos on how magnets are actually charged. So familiar with magnets, but do you know how it's made Exactly?
Grace Sharkey:
1:04:58
What do you know how it's made?
Blythe Brumleve:
1:05:00
It's for magnetization. What.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:05:17
Magnetization completed. Now they're magnets, and so if you are just listening or just watching this or no, if you're just listening and not watching the actual video, I needed to get that right. Basically, what they did is they took a box full of metals, little metal objects like what you would picture. You know a bunch of magnets, but they're not magnetized yet, and so then they put them in a giant machine, a giant, another magnet, and it helps to magnetize them by firing in those different electrons and, you know, making the different magnetic fields around it. And it's such an interesting process because then you have to think about the aspect of how to.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:05:58
How do you ship these things? Because commonly when magnets are shipped, especially if you order them in small quantities, they're shipped in just regular envelopes, and so it's a common issue whenever you're shipping them that they'll just get stuck to the envelope itself, will get stuck to the side of a delivery truck and your package just gets lost. So there's relations around different magnets and how you can ship them. Like they're over a certain level, they can't go on an airplane because it will mess with some of the electronic equipment on an airplane, and so what a lot of these shippers do or a lot of these manufacturers do to ship their goods is they package the magnets in a creative way, and so then it has less, or they fill it up. Essentially, some manufacturers will put wood around the inside of the box, all around it, and so the magnets, hopefully, will stay contained within the box and not mess up during the shipment process. So it's a special kind of packaging that they need to go through.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:06:59
There's a lot of regulations around it, and so I thought that that was just an interesting sort of side note of just the coolness of magnets. And then how the hell are they actually shipped? Because then they're used in all of this different industrial equipment. Some trains are powered by magnets, so it just brings up that interesting use case of we have this really cool technology that's existed for as long as I know that it's existed and that we can actually create new magnets that hold that magnetic power for hundreds of years. And so I just thought that that entire process was cool and the fact that it's kind of funny that if you try to ship them then they just end up getting stuck on the side of a UPS truck.
Grace Sharkey:
1:07:41
Well, it's like the imagine shipping like the little to the little toaster. Remember that movie. Oh the little toaster. Yeah, I remember the end of it. That giant magnet gets all the cars and stuff.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:07:57
Imagine trying to ship one of those, right oh, yeah, I should probably bring a picture of that up, but I know we don't have time to sort of bring up that portion of it because we're both up against the clock here. So let me bring up yours the logistics of Valentine's Day flowers.
Grace Sharkey:
1:08:15
Yeah, I just want to play, like the first minute or so is fine, and then I can go through some of it too Perfect.
Speaker 3:
1:08:23
Every year, more than a billion flowers come into the US for Valentine's Day. Most come from massive farms in Colombia, but these roses have as little as 48 hours to get cut and flown to Miami before they wilt.
Speaker 4:
1:08:36
They take a short lifetime and thus require the most rapid form of transportation, and that is by air.
Speaker 3:
1:08:42
It takes a vast network of farmers, air cargo coolers and customs officers working 24-7.
Speaker 4:
1:08:48
Leading up to Valentine's Day, the amount of flowers coming to the airport double and triple.
Speaker 3:
1:08:52
Treating these flowers right is even a matter of protecting the US.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:08:56
The danger of an exotic pest to establish in the United States our food supply is affected.
Speaker 3:
1:09:01
From greenhouse to gift. We follow the journey of your Valentine's Day bouquet.
Grace Sharkey:
1:09:05
You can pause that there. So, interesting enough, it's actually a manifest of someone on my panel for kind of refrigerated cold chain shipping. This is like their brokerage that does mostly flowers, oh, wow. So hopefully you guys will be able to hear some stories, but interesting stuff they kind of bring up in this video. Plains themselves can hold up to a million flowers at a time. They bring it up.
Grace Sharkey:
1:09:34
Yeah, 70% of flowers in the US for Valentine's Day come from Columbia and one or two of the largest flower producers down there. 80% of those flowers that come in for Valentine's Day come in through the Miami airport. They set it on there. They have 48 hours to pick and deliver them. That's crazy, that's insane, right? Yeah, crazy. And then this is the other part I think is cool, and I think Noy actually wrote an article slightly about this a couple of years ago when it first started In order they've actually done the math and in order to make sure that bugs and drugs and all this stuff don't get in through this mass group of flowers, they have to inspect at least 2%, which is kind of cool.
Grace Sharkey:
1:10:17
I think maybe it would be more, but 2% is like the number where they're going to catch most of the issues. The big problem is bugs. There was a situation a couple of years ago where they did unfortunately let a bug into Florida and they lost over in that year $3 million worth of produce from the state. Sunflowers are actually more risky to bring in different pesticides than roses. Roses are the least risky flower to import in and last year 700 million stems of Valentine's flowers were inspected through that Miami airport. So talk about that 2% right? So, yeah, consider that. Don't be the guy who buys flowers last minute, because it takes 48 hours to get here to begin with. So make sure you order those flowers now so they're good to go. That's the moral of this story.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:11:13
Yeah, I think too. It's one of those moments, because I covered the logistics of Mother's Day flowers, which is very similar to Valentine's Day flowers, but I never knew that airplanes could be refrigerated. That was the first time I ever found out about that. And they have to be refrigerated to ship the flowers from point A to B, which is just an insane amount of logistics involved from picking to delivering 48 hours, which is nuts.
Grace Sharkey:
1:11:42
Well, unfortunately, we have to end this here because it's our fault we talked for too long beforehand. But don't worry.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:11:50
We'll be on there. We'll be on there, yeah. So let me round it out here. Another great show. Glad to have the first one under our belts for 2024. All of us will be at Manifest next week, where we'll be recording another special edition of Freight Friends live on the conference floor. Shout out to Zelle Logistics in order for helping to make that happen and providing all of the equipment too. That's always a nice bonus. But yeah, until then, grace, work with folks, follow you, follow more of your work. All that good stuff.
Grace Sharkey:
1:12:20
You can find me on LinkedIn, twitter. You can listen to my radio show on Series 6M, channel 146, from 5 to 7, monday through Friday. And, yeah, find me reach out to me if you have. I'm actually working on some Freight Waves events for 3PLs and Small Carrier Summit too, so if you're interested in being a part of that too, let me know.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:12:40
Heck, yeah, great work. See you next week and that's all for now, shout out to Manifest.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:12:45
We'll see y'all soon. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Everything Is Logistics, a podcast for the thinkers in Freight, telling the stories behind how your favorite stuff and people get from point A to B. Subscribe to the show, sign up for our newsletter and follow our socials over at EverythingIsLogisticscom. And in addition to the podcast, I also wanted to let y'all know about another company I operate, and that's Digital Dispatch, where we help you build a better website. Now, a lot of the times, we hand this task of building a new website or refreshing a current one off to a co-worker's child, a neighbor down the street or a stranger around the world, where you probably spend more time explaining the Freight industry than it takes to actually build the dang website.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:13:33
Well, that doesn't happen at Digital Dispatch. We've been building online since 2009, but we're also early adopters of AI, automation and other website tactics that help your company to be a central place to pull in all of your social media posts, recruit new employees and give potential customers a glimpse into how you operate your business. Our new website builds start as low as $1,500, along with ongoing website management, maintenance and updates starting at $90 a month, plus some bonus Freight, marketing and sales content similar to what you hear on the podcast. You can watch a quick explainer video over on DigitalDispatchio. Just check out the pricing page once you arrive and you can see how we can build your digital ecosystem on a strong foundation. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'll see you all real soon and go Jags.
