Grace Sharkey:
0:35
You're starting to see this investment more in Vietnam and a lot of like Southeast Asia, Asia, but not fully yet, but China, specifically, a lot of their manufacturers literally have schools right next to them where they're training people how to make your product really well throughout their like, their educational progression, right? So, like, that was something you talked about. It's like understanding when you do make these moves, you're not just leaving a workforce and thinking about it in a tariff perspective, but there are chances that you know your product could change from that it might not be put together as well. So diversifying more, having that China plus three, so that not every part, every piece is being manufactured, you not only are diversifying your risk, right, but you're also giving yourself options in the future to move around without seeing huge losses, whether it's in your product quality or just product availability and how quickly it could be put together and shipped to you.
Unknown:
1:39
We're back. It's us. Mercy pod, favorite two hour podcast.
Blythe Milligan:
1:47
Well, we only have a little over an hour today, so in case you haven't recognized that voice that is Grace Sharkey, now of Orderful fame, and we are back with another Freight Friends episode. I almost said something else. We were back with another freight Friends episode. And last one we recorded, I believe, was in December of 2024, so it's been a little bit, you know, we catch up. We've seen each other a couple of times since then, so
Unknown:
2:15
we've kept the Freight Friends in the background, and now we're bringing it back to the front, to your screens. Hopefully you recognize already so far that you are listening to everything is logistics, a podcast for the thinkers at freight. I am your host, Blythe Milligan. We are proudly presented by SPI Logistics, and we've got a special episode for y'all today, because it is Grace's first show in her new role, about as the time of recording this three days into her new role. So Grace, welcome back. Tell us about the new gig. Look at me, new new job, new me. Pink hair. Who saw it? Saw it coming, not me. Actually, I did, because I planned it. Uh, hey, happy to be back, dude. It's been so long since we've done these. You and I had our heads down, grinded, getting some of our own personal stuff figured out. And I think we're, we're finally there. So happy to be back, dude, you're trying to figure it out. I me on the side with CargoRex, the site is kicking my ass still to this day, I got, you know, about a dozen emails I got to respond to about that site. But we're moving in a good direction, and it sounds like you're moving in a good direction too. Before we get into what your role at ortiful is, I would like to, kind of, you know, just briefly, talk about, you know, maybe some of your favorite stories, or, you know, things that you've covered for freight waves, because that's in reality, that's been a central part of this show, is being able to talk about those stories that you have talked about on freightwaves. And so for the sake of this conversation, I would love to know like, what are some of the favorite stories that you've covered maybe in the last six months or so, since people have last heard from you on this podcast anyways, or maybe just all time, any stories that kind of stick out that you really enjoyed covering. Well, it's funny you say in December is like the last episode that we had. Because if you were to ask me, Hey, what if, what stories have you been focused on? I'd be like, Hey, has anyone heard about tariffs recently? That's kind of a big Yeah, let's start off. We're talking about tariffs. Yeah. So that's has been a big focus, and I think for good purpose, right? I mean, it's feels good again, because our jobs are kind of like in the middle of the more common news you could say, and our relatives are asking us again what's going on. And I feel valuable with my friends and family around me once again. So that's always a good sign, and in my career. And so of course, if we cover a lot of tariffs, a lot of fraud, of course, in the industry, I think that's becoming a huge deal in terms of just its overall impact on planning and dealing with losses as a whole for retailers, etc. So those are, I think, our two big areas that people are probably seeing a little bit more coverage on, and for very important reasons. For sure, I had an absolute blast though, being a part of Freightways team. I mean, when I first started there, day one, I was looking at, you know, writing three to five articles a week. I ended up writing over 750 articles over the span of, yeah, like four years over 400 honestly, I'm guessing when I say 400 because I didn't really keep track, but basic math would tell me, at least over. 400 episodes on Sirius. XM, sorry, guys, stuffy nose for all those out there. So I gotta deal with it. But yeah, so it was an absolute dream to be able to learn. I think, I think what I took from that is, is this the importance of storytelling and especially freight tech as an industry as a whole. I mean, this is something that you are passionate about as well. It's about explaining the problems that you're solving, right and in a way that makes sense to people, and it hits people and resonates with people at the end of the day, for all those out there watching all our free tech salesmans, you know, finding those triggers that get people to say, you know, what this product might be for me, and I had a blast doing that. And I had a blast, you know, meeting some of the most incredible people this industry talk about, you know, the Shelley Simpsons of the world and Brad Jacobs of the world, and getting close to people like, one of my favorite friendships I made while at freightwaves is Kevin Nolen. I I love that guy, Kevin, if you're watching, I love you my dude. You know that. I don't have to tell you that, but I, when I was at Fifth Wheel, like I looked at Kevin Nolen as, like, my number one competitor, I was like, Who's this dude that owns? NTG, like, we're going to destroy him. And now he's just like, it's not only a friend, but just like someone I can talk to about business and this into about business in this industry, and and and all those within you know that that Nolen family, so Creek family, right, like Grace over at OTR and Brett over at marquee, like that. I love that group of people, and I'm really excited to watch them grow too. That's a big one. But you know, just being able to talk to so many different companies and and hear about people's problems and how they're fixing them, and and learn about not just technology, technology from the user side, but even the investor side of it, what they're looking for, what, what, you know, AI, right, took a boom during my time at freightwaves, and I got to Be a part of those discussions and explaining that those type of tools to to our audience too. And so it was very hard for me to leave because, of course, I love building those relationships. But what's really great is, now that I'm in this role at orderful, I hope to, you know, take all the industry experience and apply it to a company who I think is doing really great things and and really use that expertise, I think, in a different way. And I you know this, because, you know, we're friends, and those who are close to me, you know this, but my background comes from being in the trenches and getting stuff done at a company. And I'm not saying that didn't happen at freight ways, but at freeways, you know, you're kind of a little bit on your in your own island, like you're the writing schedules, up to you, the podcast, everything's up to you. You do work as a team, but I, I was an operations girl, strategy girl, that type of role, and I'm really excited to be a part of a team who has, at least, I'm only on day three, but at least on day three has made me feel like they want to leverage that and appreciate that and kind of get back into, you know, the work. And I think a lot of people say, you know, at least journalists, right? Oh yeah, journalists, they're working, but they're not doing it. So I'm like, I'm really excited to get back into doing it, if that makes sense. Yeah, it definitely makes sense. Because I think for a lot of folks, and I've said on the show for years, like you would, so many companies would benefit from having somebody with media experience to be within their company, because they can help them craft messaging, they can help them do research. They can help develop that human to human connection and with freightwaves, when you work for them, it's almost like on steroids, because you're not just doing it for one company. You are doing it for so many companies, and you're reporting on it and you're talking about it. But it is different from actually dealing with the 700 emails that you're going to get from support or from development teams or from customers, you know, just miscellaneous stuff. And you know, there's all these things that you don't anticipate seeing when you're covering it. And so I live in an interesting place where I'm on both sides of it, but I think for your talent and what you've built, and those relationships that you have at at or had it still have at freightwaves, and how that transitions into a new opportunity, think it makes a ton of sense for a company like Orville to be like, Yeah, we need media experience. We need the customer experience. We need to be able to convey that properly in all of our different digital channels. And it's cool to see that sort of evolution take place, because there have been a few different shows that have had that treatment, you know, on on freightwaves, where you kind of, I still have, like, instant credibility. Me, and that was the reason why I did a show with them for almost two years, was you could get that instant credibility, and it leads to so many more, like just getting a foot in the door with different companies because of that. And I don't think that this show would be as successful without that. You know, pathway in my journey. And I do call it a success because we are essentially, you know, a very small team. We run a lean, tight ship, but we do create a lot of great content. And so those were the reason I think the content is good is because of the creative team that you get to work around freightwaves. And it's the production the boiler room, boys, you know that we get to work with that are, you know, searching up different B roll and trying to make sure your show looks the best, and, you know, just all of these different intricacies that you don't see in an environment like this. But now you get to take everything that you've learned, not just from a media background, but also just from an industry landscape. And knowing what you know that the VC landscape looks like, the technology landscape looks like and not isolated in a single silo within logistics. It's very like your knowledge is very widespread across the industry. So kudos to orderful. And so I guess any sort of last words for because I would love to get into what your new role is. Yeah. So I'm really excited because I'll be managing PR and communications for the company. So a big part of the work that I'm like focused on right now is is, of course, getting orderful, becoming more of a I want to say family name, but you know what I mean, an industry family name. So when someone hears orderful, they know, okay, that's top Ed. That's who we go to for EDI integrations, right? So that's a big part of my job, but another part of that, and this is something, again, I think you see at freight waves. I've done articles on this stuff too, but is the importance of the partnerships aspect as well. So a lot of the work that we do comes from, for example, legacy systems, TMSs, etc. People are changing the systems that they're working on, ERPs, etc. And we all know that when those changes comes, usually some type of EDI integration. So working with some of those partners that we have those partners that our customers have in common with us, right? And and leveraging that a little bit more, starting a podcast, getting them to come on with us, getting on stage with those partners, so that they can hear about the successful stories that they have. I mean, here's the thing about orderful as well, and I'll say this because I've written a couple articles about them, but every waves, you know, of course, I get emails from companies and pitches and things like that, or, you know, I've worked with a founder endless amount. Yeah, don't even I'm sure my unread is insanely high still over there. But orderful is one of the first companies I ever wrote about that came to be from a customer, multiple customer requests. Specifically, there was a buddy of mine who was growing a startup brokerage, so we're not talking about a huge multi, maybe a couple million, but not a huge, huge three PL at the time. And he called me because he knew that understand the problem. And he said, Hey, there's this guy having me. He's running a company called orderful. His name is Eric, and I had to get set up with Walmart on Christmas Eve to finish a shipment, and we had to connect EDI in order to to work with them. And they got them up and running on Christmas Eve like the day. Wow. And that was unheard of from from most of those type of stories that I've heard. And I was like, that's crazy. I have to figure out why. So, of course, I got time to meet Eric. And Eric alone is an incredible person, regardless of the business. So that's always positive, right? When you're looking for new opportunities. But his shit works, you know, like his product works. And every time I've talked to customers, or, you know, you can check out our YouTube page. I'm posting more of this content. Of course, linking us a little bit more visible on social media. But, you know, edify and large carriers and logistics companies out there have used it because it's just, it's fast, it's easy and it's simple. And I love a product like that, right, who's built a reputation off of doing what it says it's going to do, especially for something that's just annoying and difficult to deal with. I was recently at a conference, a small a small conference closed room, and the EDI integrations came up, and I literally I laughed, because I knew I was going to make this transition soon. And almost everyone in the audience just at the same time was like, rolled their eyes, and was like, oh, collective grown. And I just got Yeah, and I got so excited, because that's like, this is a. Problem that's plagued the industry for such a long time. And I really want to be there to help tell the stories of of what those people are experiencing and and have them understand the wonderful work and team that's over at waterfall getting this stuff done. So yeah, if you guys are having issues with your EDI integrations, if you're building things out, if you're looking I mean, here's the thing too. Like, even if you're a very manual brokerage and you're like, we're growing fast, we're looking to kind of plan ahead this, you know, get us in the conversation. That's something that I think, for for me, like, I've always heard EDI, like the phrase, and it's always been in a negative connotation, like, it's it. I've never really, I knew it was like, some kind of way, you know, technology wise, to hook into, and I'm afraid, I'm ashamed to admit this, but I thought it was more focused on, like driver tech, where it's like a, you know, almost like a black box that goes into a truck and then that's how you're connecting into the EDI, am I off base in that thinking I probably am. No, you're you're really not. I mean, that's a part of, like, Eric's story, is that, when he started, he was working, I believe, for like, a consultant, helping a lot of, like manufacturers, of course, share their data, you know, upstream, of course, to to providers as well, and and started realizing that a lot of the companies just have no idea how to build these things out, because it is maybe itself a little bit of dated in particular, but it's also not going anywhere. It's trying to think of like a perfect example. Well, I think because I was listening to there was a show, an episode with supply chain brain, and I believe that Eric was on that episode as well, because it was somebody from eMERGE, and he was talking about how he needed these different and I think the way that you described it before we started hitting record is that it's almost like the pipes and the foundation of your house. And if you have those pipes like functioning correctly, then you can tap into working with not only better shippers, but then you can also work with them more, yeah, because if you plug into, if you're able to plug into the EDI system. Then from there, you can plug into so many different EDI systems without extra work on your part. And so because order fill already has those integrations with all of these different companies. Then once you get set up, which I think that it was like less than 45 days or something, that they were completely like up and running and being able to not just, and I think the way that he said it was, we not only were able to get more business, but we were able to put it on steroids, because we didn't have to, you know, have, like, a 12 month or a six month development cycle in order just to get our EDI working with one different shipper, working with Order fill. From what I understand is all you can work with all these different kinds of shippers after just one integration, exactly because they've already pre built all of the EDI guidelines. You could say, right? The which really to, kind of like, break that down to very small terms that, for instance, if we're talking about trading invoice data, right? You've, you've already selected that we want this, bll number, we want this. We want this. We want this. We want this all sent over into our system. So they've already built all those guidelines. Now they use modern API technology to make those connections. So you're, you're basically solving maybe an old school technology problem with newer technology. And it's, it's working, and, you know, there's incredible data behind it as well that we're hoping to expand on at some point. And that was another example that they gave in the eMERGE interview. Is, is that he said that a lot of times when they would, or in certain situations, they would set up an EDI connection, but then it wouldn't be done right. And so if they sent over an invoice, it would be immediately rejected because it wasn't set up correctly. And doing it with orderful Like, removed that tension, or removed that, you know, extra hurdle that the team would have to go through, especially from like, a development standpoint, like, if your devs are gone for the day, and you're trying to send an invoice, you know, at 430 at night, or 430 in the afternoon, and your devs are already gone, and it's rejected, then that's a problem that's going to have to be fixed maybe the next day, just depending on what the dev team is supposed to be working on. And so can't get an invoice fixed, and you can't get it submitted, and that's a delay in payment and receiving the payment and, you know, it's a trickle down, you know, supply chain effect, yeah. And I think one of the big problems that we see with, I think one of the reasons that people have issues with EDI so much is because they think they look at it too much from a like a they look at the technical debt a little bit. Right of what they're I think a lot of times people are afraid of switching because of the, you know, you kind of talked about this prior to recording, right? Like the cost of that switch, right? Well, we're already spending some money with maybe a competitor of ours. Why would we make that switch? And I'm happy that you brought up the eMERGE situation, because that's the perfect answer to why. And you know, our good friend Ron Schreiber talks about this all the time, switch it and start to accelerate faster, right? Like, get over the technical debt, if anything, that's not going anywhere. That's going to just continue to grow and continue a problem. Switch it, pull off the band aid and and watch that acceleration, right? And that's what I mean, especially right now, where I think a lot of people are maybe focusing a little less on investing in technology for their customers, a little bit more customer service, right, making sure they get through kind of like this economic period without losing people. Well, imagine if you make that investment now, which stuff starts to skyrocket and sellers need more help, etcetera. Is your system ready to accommodate those sellers? Right? Your marketplace ready to accommodate those sellers? A lot aren't a lot. Only accept API and can't work with companies that just have media. So, yeah, I'm excited. I think it's it. And I think you know this about me too, it's a little, I don't want to say it's a challenge, but I was explaining this to one of the people on the wonderful team today. There's like, absolutely nothing sexy about pipes, you know, like, Oh my God, what's your pipes? I don't know. They're the fucking ground. Like, I don't, I don't know what's I don't care. But I think what I'm really excited about is trying to to help this team explain the the storytelling behind what happens if those pipes aren't done properly, right? Yeah, can you, even if you want to do a second floor addition to your house? Can you, can your does your piping structure allow for that? Does if you, you know, decide to adopt seven kids, is your bathroom situation, you know, like, deal with that. I know I'm making crazy metaphors here, but like, those are the stories I'm excited to tell. Those emerge stories, those stories of what's the what if that you're not accepting because of this little thing called EDI that you're not fully wrapping your head around? Is there? Is there still a place, I guess, for API, or is it? Are they using both? Like, because I for what I understand too is like, there's a lot of like EDI versus API, but it kind of sounds like you guys are doing the best of both worlds. Yeah, you could say that word, but basically leveraging API technology to help the turnover, the onboarding issues that you often see with EDI. I will say, like the invoice getting rejection, you'll know right away that that's going to happen. You're not going to hear it from right like using the technology to tell you just that. And I will say, I won't talk about it. Now maybe this is actually this could be maybe next month's episode, but I we will have some fun stuff to talk about in terms of that type of product. So I'll keep it a little vague for now. We can get into that later. I, I want you to make one promise, though, is that you're not going to be the the PR rep that sends me 10 emails in a day. You know, I will promise you that, because I will just text you time. So for anybody who has even just, like a smidge of, like a podcast reputation in this industry, is just, we're putting together, like a, you know, a list of, like, all the podcasters in this industry, and it's over 100 now. But I would still argue that it's not enough, because of the amount of press releases that I still get, and I don't have the time to cover them. So when I get, like, the, you know, the you get the email back, and it's like, the parentheses is like a two or three. I'm like, no, yes. Do it pass? Yeah, I'll just text you 1000 times over and over again, and then you can send me back to Dylan saying that she hates us, which we haven't talked about a lot of we had to keep the show a little shorter time to get into Meghan Markle today, which I'm sorry to the folks who who Are anticipate, or anticipate, anticipating, waiting for our cover. There's got to be at least two people that listen to this podcast, specifically for Meghan Markle thoughts and opinions. I hope that person's out there. And if you want to comment down below, yes, we need to know that we we need the incentive, and even if it's just one person telling us that they enjoy us, you know, just talking about a traitorous prince and his manipulating wife that has separated him from not only his entire family, but also her entire family as well. You know, he's just so kind, you know, like he is just, he's so kind, is it? Mr. Sussex. That we're talking about here. Oh yeah, I think it's so funny that you like, don't call me Sussex. Oh, my God, wrapped around in a kitchen. That's not her. This woman spent the longest anti Sussex campaign of all that would be like me coming on this show and be like, that's why I work for Joc now. It's like, what? That's crazy. You just flipped. Oh, imagine, like, you live in Sussex, and you, this is your representation. Oh, my God, wait, you didn't know I was a Sussex I was like, I thought they kicked you out of that family. Because meanwhile, the Pro, we got it, we can't talk about the bad without talking a little bit of the good. Bit of the good Prince, William, full beard. It's very nice. Just William, keep the beard please. You know, I am, I'm still a little anti against William. That's just because when I was, Well, I think I said this long ago, but when I was like 15, I went to Tower of London Museum, and you can't, I can't marry it because I'm baptized Catholic, so then you have to be Protestant or something like that. So, oh, I didn't know that, huh? But hey, you know, Megan pulled it off. So all I have to do is, like, figure out how to cocaine or something, start yachting and then go to Soho House, and then, you know, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. I'm so close, dude, so close. Alright, well, let's move into anything else with orderful You You want to mention? Probably, you know, we'll mention more. It's only your third day, for God's sakes. Like, yeah, right. I was like, kind of on a meeting. And I was like, oh, what should we do? You know, ooh, pressure's gone. No, I would say, you know, just understanding kind of what I'm doing. If you guys are interested, if you're a partner of order fall already and are interested in making content and working on your partnerships more in terms of the marketing side of things, let me know. I love to hear it. And I also plan on just my personal brand writing a little bit more, maybe publishing those on LinkedIn or sub stack, you know, trying to get through first couple weeks of this job. And then you'll likely see me start to get into that, something I've put on hold for a long time that I'm excited to put some more time is logistics early, so you guys will see updates on that for sure this year, and just maybe a little bit more personal projects that I wasn't in the right. You know, when you're a journalist, there's a level of unbiased right, this that that I have to have, and now that I'm kind of out of that role, I'm excited to to be biased, like if you thought I had hot together, which will you unfilter me, and then it'll get hotter. So, no, that's a great point, because then you can kind of balance both of those things with the storytelling, yeah, of with orderful, and then also with your own, just sort of personal opinions and personal things that you are passionate about. I mean, that's ultimately, that's the dream, I think, and I and in the age of AI and, you know, companies that are just using it to make AI slop. And, you know, just write, you write me 1000 word article that has the word Delve and innovative in it, 20,000 times when I see the word Delve, I'm like, if I see Delve or 2m dashes in a row, I'm like, this was a I love the M dash. I will not let these LLM box and keep it freaking moving. The M dash is elegant, unlike a comma, which is, you're not supposed to use a lot of commas, right? Literally, okay, elegance, either you got a straight line or a beautiful curve, but it's so much better than like, one dash. One dash is not enough. Like, boy do I want a stick? Boy would I hate a curve? No one or it's a dramatic pause. That's how I like to think of it. It's like a dramatic like, this is an M dash, like, exactly. And for all those listening to this podcast, I just did a nice over the shoulder power pose. That's an M dash right there. Yeah, that's an M dash. I'm not going to let them take that from me. But if I see innovative or delve in your well, then no one in the history of this play has ever said I would love to delve into that. There is. I even learned that word like, Have you ever seen the chart? It's like a chart of like, how often the word Delve has been used on the internet, and within the last couple of years, it's just up into the right like our national debt. Very similar, actually. Hey, Doge, if you're listening, what was that one kid's name in Doge, like, big swinger. Hey. Big swing, or whatever your name was, if you're listening, I don't know if you guys still have a job. You probably do. You have our data, so you still have a job. Fix the Delve situation. I need you to delve into the Delve situation. Alright. Well, let's move into, I was going to say, let's move into our next topic. But we really only have this last topic because we have to make the show a little bit shorter than what we typically do is that we talk about a couple different news topics and then we get into, like, our favorite freight business or favorite freight marketing things like that. We will do that in future shows, but for the sake of time, we're going to get right into the meat of it, which is source to porch. And so that's, I think, both of our favorite segment to talk about. Of course, you know, the new segments are fun as well, but this is where, with source to porch like this is where we've covered like tug boats. And, you know, I don't know Matt the you know where magnets come from, and, you know Christmas trees and you know things like that. So it's kind of a chance to learn something new about this industry and the way products are shipped, and how we can, you know, use these stories in the future, maybe for trivia purposes or just to kind of WoW our our friends and family who care about supply chain news every couple of years. So with all that said, you have one, and then we're going to get into one that's kind of related to the the one you have. So you go first, and then I'll go, yeah, so I actually, you said this is about the shipments, right? Well, I actually wanted to touch on a little bit of the shift myths like that, the shift myths that we're seeing, the shifting changes that we're seeing because of tariffs. I actually got a chance to even though I'm technically not at freeways. We'll see this article up on the site, probably before this art this episode comes out. I was at a really great event recently, and I got to do a panel on tariffs, and I got to meet someone really cool. His name is Nick, stay chill, just like, stay chill, which is so cool, very chill guy as well. So it worked out, yeah, and he is works for a consulting group called ISBA consulting. And listen, I love, first off, when I meet people who are like, Hey, can I share data with you that I put together myself. I'm like, yeah, yeah, you can't. I would love that. And I love that you did that, you know, like, and so, shout out to him. It was his first panel. He killed it. He did awesome. And he really helped. I think that in that talk explain a little bit more of what retailers in particular are doing to deal with this stuff. I mean, guys, we're talking about a situation where things are changing every single day. I mean, even some of this stuff is data might have changed a little bit since the last time I talked to him, but we all know, you know what happens on Friday. Trump usually changes by Monday. And so it's a really hard environment for retailers, especially small retailers, that the small ones that were afraid aren't going to be able to eat losses or compete during this time with the big retailers what they're experiencing. So we really got into kind of how we're seeing these shifts happen. And again, shout out to Nick check out the article. It'll be in there too, and you can, I'll link back to him so you guys can check out his company as well. Um, but he, one of the things I thought was interesting is that we all have heard of the China plus one type of diversification, right? A couple of years ago? Well, actually, probably a little bit about a decade or so ago, people started saying, Hey, we gotta be able to include someone outside of China within our our supply chain, like Vietnam or India, yeah? Mexico kind of have that jumps. You hear about it a lot with, like, skipping tariffs, right zone, skipping that kind of solution. But was interesting as he started to hear from a lot of his customers what they're calling like China plus three, using multiple different countries to source in order to break up those tariffs into smaller amounts and smaller situations. But I think what's interesting about this is the problem with a lot of these tactics too, is that you have to do some real deep due diligence into what you might be leaving behind, okay, like, just like a breakup, you know? Yeah, is he a little bit lazy on Sundays, for sure, but does he provide for you the rest of the week and work his butt off, right? You know, things like that. And this is come up multiple times in a lot of the China discussions I've been in where, you know the thing about China, and you're starting to see this investment more in Vietnam and a lot of like Southeast Asia, Asia, but not fully yet, but China, specifically, a lot of their manufacturers literally have schools right next to them where they're training people how to make your product really well. Oh, wow, throughout their, like, their educational progression, right? So they have this a little bit in Japan too. But clearly, Japan's not a huge manufacturer. They don't have the population for it. But same too. A lot of times in Japan, when you go to high school, you're going to, like, a trade High School, you kind of figure out what you want to do beforehand, and you it's, it's a little bit earlier of a move, before college. And the same thing here. So like that was something you talked about. It's like understanding when you do make these moves, you're not just leaving a workforce and thinking about it in a tariff perspective, but there are chances that you know your product could change from it, that it might not be put together as well. So diversifying more, having a China plus three, so that not every part, every piece is being manufactured. You not only are diversifying your risk, right, but you're also giving yourself options in the future to to move around without seeing huge losses, whether it's in your product quality or just product availability and how quickly it could be put together and shipped to you, but also, depending on like this administration, what mood or situation Trump feels like, or leverage he feels like applying, doesn't hurt you as much. So we're starting to see a lot more of that. It's also a dual use sourcing, which is a tactic to let the Chinese factories in particular, continue supplying non US markets while building up alternative production, right? So you're kind of like slowly moving out, but you're, you're not fully out of there, but another huge one that he talked about, I think we're going to see more and more of this. And we've also, I think, already seen like M and A deals, kind of showcasing this in particular, but partnering with global manufacturers more So turning to companies like maybe Foxconn that already operate in multiple countries, so that when you do need to switch production, you can quickly switch to a different Foxconn location, yeah, not have to worry about that. So I thought that was really interesting, too, um, but of course, I think what's really cool, and what he got into that Freightways, I will say, go check out sonar, because they're starting to create data sonar tools for this is, is where is all this moving to? Right? I will say, if we really think this is all coming back to America, we all know that's silly. That's not going to happen. There are definitely some things that could come back to America. There are definitely some manufacturing that could come back. But like, let's be honest, we're not making T shirts in America anytime soon. We're not making socks. We're not doing any of that kind of stuff anytime soon, when it makes sense. And honestly, our workforce is better off for it. So like, Where, where is a lot of this going? So Nick pulled a lot of data. I was really happy to see us, because there's a couple of countries I hadn't really looked at recently, so a few that he's seen becoming more popular, Morocco, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, they've been for a while now, investing in becoming a contender in this global race. So this is kind of like starting to actually come to fruition for them, right? So what kind of commodities for those countries, textiles, textiles, I think, is a big one especially, I would assume, especially over Morocco, right? Would likely be a big textile one. They have a really big dying, like, they dye a lot of fabrics in Morocco, yes, yes, yeah. And I would, I would almost assume I'm trying to see Dominican. I know Peru, too is very big on on textiles as well, especially with, like, a lot of like, their cotton and their linen. I went to a shop last weekend in St Augustine. And I love Peru. Anybody who's you can see the different all the Peru memorabilia on the back of my wall, that's, that's my and this is, this is Peru. And with their, their country in general, when I was at that store, I it said, like, a giant tag, like, made in Peru. And I was like, oh, buying it. Like, I just know immediately that the fabric is going to be really good, like this blanket right here. It's so thin, but it's, it was made, I bought it in Peru, and it's so warm, like you wouldn't believe. It's so light and airy. But also, at the same time, it's very warm. A lot of their sweaters are very much like the same thing. So you'll see, like, a lot of those, like alpaca type sweaters. And so it's a lot of them. There's llamas and, like, alpacas and, you know, South America, of course, but I was just curious where maybe some of those other textiles were, were maybe coming from with, like the Dominican Republic or Morocco, like, where they may be getting some of those fire which you probably don't know, but I'm just thinking out loud here. Well, there's a lot of companies who've already made switches to some of those that eat in Rockwell, are two big ones that have moved more into the dominant Dominican Republic. In particular, medical devices are being, of course, produced there too. So I think a lot of these areas, they've seen again, some of these. This is the sad part for the smaller companies, but a lot of these larger companies have been kind of betting. Of this happening for a while now, and have started. So again, it's a little bit like, for instance, if you know en is producing manufacturing out of Dominican Republic, then I'm probably, if I'm producing some of the same type of products, thinking that's a population that's probably going to produce my product well too, right? So it's almost like this network effect that I think goes along with it as well. Also, of course, Mexico is, like a big part of this discussion is we're not going to talk about immigration. We'll keep that aside for all i could get. We only have so much time here. Yeah, talk about things. Grace could get hot on real quick to the side. But Mexico has a unique role, and we all know that. Why? Because when trucks come into Laredo, they have to be unloaded and put on another truck. So that's bringing a lot of investment into Laredo, a lot of jobs into Laredo, a lot of trucking jobs in particular, we'll talk about who's taking them, but still, at the same time, a lot of opportunities as well. We're Mexico, I think, right the United States, we've we saw this coming. That's why we saw Trump's first administration a lot. I think this partnership was grown during that too. I'll give him, give him praise there, for sure. Because, yeah, because, I think, because we were briefly going to maybe talk about, you know, I had sent you last night this new ad that, or it was new to me, a new a new ad from she in, of how, and I've been curious of how, like she and Timu, of how they're going to adapt, like they're not just going to crumble, like, there's too many companies that buy from she in, especially like clothing boutiques that get their clothing made from there, even if it doesn't show up in, you know, sort of the search engine ring, or the search when you're on The site, there are boutiques that I have a theory of that they do not advertise their products in the Sheehan search because they want to maintain that relationship with boutiques all over the world where they kind of have almost like exclusivity rights. But I was wondering how they would evolve with all of this tariff drama, but I had no idea that Europe still has the the de minimis rule. And it's, it's a slightly more than what the US is. So it's 1000 in the US, it was $800 and below of what you could import packages into the United States without having to pay a tax on it. With Europe, it's$1,000 or less. And they still have that rule. And so what was interesting is that she in is starting to, you know, they're, they're going to raise their they have raised their prices a little bit for us based customers, but they're opening up different storage facilities in and around the US and just North America in general. But they're also talking about expanding into those European markets so they can take advantage of that de minimis rule. So I thought that that was, that was really interesting, because I did this show. It's BBC show called What in the world. And so they invited me on to talk about all of the there was like a period of like two weeks during all the tariff drama, where all of these Chinese, Chinese manufacturers were going direct to Tiktok and saying, This is where your favorite brands are making all of your purses and your bags and different luxury clothes, even like laundry pods and things like that. So they were basically just spilling the tea on all of this different stuff, but for a lot of which, a lot of those videos like are now deleted. So I wonder, like, who kind of made them delete those videos? I'm a little curious in that regard. But in doing research for that show, I found that famous like Elon quote where he says, you know, that the factory is the product. And after doing research, and I was like, I really think that the supply chain is actually the product, not just one factory, yeah. And so I did this whole episode on how, you know, this is my sort of my new thesis is that the your supply chain is your product, how you're marketing it, how you are finding different avenues, like your china, plus three strategy that you just mentioned, you know, that marketing and maybe not marketing it, but focusing on that supply chain as a product, as your competitive advantage, I think, is the only way for a lot of these companies that they're going to be able to survive In the near future. One of the examples that I gave was, remember, we talked about it, I think, I don't think it was a year ago. It might have been even, you know, past that, maybe like two years ago. But remember that company that you could buy a sweater from them, and they would put it like a QR code on the tag inside of the clothing. If you scan it, then you can see what they were selling, like wool type fabrics. And so you could scan it and see the sheep that the wool was cut from. And it's called like sheep ink. I believe you could buy something that's quality made. They lean into they their supply chain is literally their farm and so and they take it a step further to like document the specific sheep that that wool was cut from and used to make it your sweater. And then you could follow that entire supply chain journey. They lean into it, they market it. And I just think that that's so brilliant. I. Obviously not a lot of companies can do this, but if you can lean into your supply chain as you're part of your product marketing, I think it's just a home run. It's a win win. I had somebody that commented on, they're like, No, respectfully, I completely disagree, because they're they're like, Coca Cola is a company that has been around for years. They don't share their secrets, they don't talk about their supply chain. And I was like, Well, yeah, because they're the only, they're the only company that could get coca leaves out of Peru. Yeah, totally. Like their supply chain is way different and way more complicated, not complicated, but established versus a newer company, maybe that's been created in the last five to 10 years. It's looking for a competitive advantage. That's who more I'm I'm referencing, not a behemoth like Coca Cola. Well, honestly, to push back against Coca Cola during COVID, Coca Cola in some places really hard to find. So I would have loved some some tea on what was happening in their supply chain. And they, I think, have been open about even becoming a little bit more globally involved with that too. I was going to say, what if, like the sheep situation was like a builder AI, though, and it was just like Indians dressed up as sheep. Like, are we talking like a furry situation? Look at all these shapes for this field. And it was just like he was just off to sheep. Oh, Jesus, that took a turn. Yeah, it took a turn. Watch the movie tusk. That'll that gets even weirder. Um, interesting. No, that is, it is really interesting. And I agree with you. I mean, I've had multiple retailers of all sizes on different shows, and they always talk about the fact. I mean, I was just talking to Eric about this yesterday, that we buy things based on the supply chain. We buy things based on how quickly to get to us, right? I'm going to buy, and even the channels we choose, I think, are that way, right? Like, there's times where I'll go to Walmart site and I'm like, well, it's it'll take two days to deliver, but I can just go pick it up in the store right now. Just go pick it up at the store. So it's like, that is totally changed, I think, in the last 10 years. Now, probably more five or six years than anything so but it's transparency too. It's transparency into what that shipping time is going to take. You know, what kind of products you're getting, where it's made, like, we're becoming, because of all this terror drama, we're becoming more savvy when we shop like, I it for me, like, for a lot of you know, there's a common thing among like, different brands, like, oh, you know, it's revolve is selling, you know, a $200 dress that's made out of polyester. It's like that they're not going to get me no more. Yeah, I am looking at the fabric. I'm looking at what the, you know, not just food label ingredients, but what's the ingredient on, you know, some of the clothing that I'm buying, and is it actually really worth that? And so I have made a little bit of a transition in some of my shopping habits, where I'm getting more 100% cotton, 100% linen. I think it's too hot, too damn hot for me to, you know, buy a sheep ink sweater or, yeah, Peru blank. Yeah, I'm like, It's freaking uh, shoot in Florida. What BLAKE Are you using? Well, I sit right under an air vent. So depending on the time of the day, it can just be freezing, and it drives me crazy. And everybody knows that women are much colder in like an office type situation, than than men are. So as much as I like want to turn the air up in the house. It's it's a whole it's a it's a thing, it's a thing. But so I will say, I want to wrap this up and let you get to yours. But I will say that Nick sent me some really interesting I just want to go over some interesting points on this is Nick from who I'm sorry, can you say that again? No, I just want to make sure I credit them in the show. I love that, and he would love if I if you could backlink to him too. I'll send you a backlink for that, please. Yes. His name is Nick stacill. That's S, T, A, C, H, E, L, uh, he works with ISBA consulting. It's I, Z, B, A, yup, and.co I think is their address. And, yeah, he'll be a featured in the article I write as well. But awesome guy. And I just love when people are, like, nervous about panels so that they just go up and kill it, and it's like, yeah, you're smart. Of course, you're going to kill it you. I'm sure you get that a lot where it's like, people think that panels are the same as speaking. It's not panels are so I think panels are so infinitely better than someone just getting up and just speaking at you for 30 minutes. I Nothing makes me want to, like, fall asleep faster than than listening. It's really tough to be an engaging speaker, but it's really easy, if you know your stuff, to be an incredible panelist. Totally. So here's some fun facts for everyone out there. Kind of think you know, what other ports are people going to? So Vietnam, great one to think of. They got about 50 different seaports. They have over two to three direct sailing. A week, and three of their ports are ranked in the top 50. There's a ton of investment going in there, so that's a good one. Indonesia, over 110 different seaports, one to three sailings per week for us, this is us vessel frequency, despite the high court count. Though their geography does post challenges, the government is working on modernizing their ports a little bit more. But of course, the complexity of the islands and everything makes it a little bit more slower to responsiveness than going to Vietnam. The Philippines only has about 20 ish ports. They're moderate us vessel frequency, one to three per week. And it's it is a very good international hub, so their moderate capacity, so it's a little less ideal for, like, large scale diversification just due to the the port depth that they have. Cambodia, not so great. Just two ports, one, yeah, just one sale at a week. Very low capacity. Could work for, like, niche products, but especially lightweight products, just because of what they can physically lift and move, but not of not. No one's going, Hey, I'm going from China Cambodia anytime soon. India is a huge one. They have 13 major ports, 200 smaller ports, high weekly sailings from all ports. Very, very mature infrastructure. Honestly, if I confess, we're in time 15 years, I can't wait to see what India becomes. I think that is a whole behemoth that we talk about China, what's going on in India? Personally, largest population in the world. And then also, because this is just the nature of how civilizations evolve. Like United States, we used to make a lot of stuff here, but then when you make a lot of stuff, you're less willing to I think it's something crazy, like 90% of the US population worked in agriculture in some form or faction in the early 1900s and industrialization changed that to where it took people out of the fields and out of these hard labor jobs and moved them into easier jobs. China is going through that right now. And typically when that happens, when your middle class rises, then they get paid more, they want to do less of that kind of work. That evolution hasn't happened in India yet. And so that's why it's theorized that India is going to be the big winner in all of this, because they have the population, and then they don't have the the the same middle class, or the same rising middle class like China has already kind of experienced. So India is kind of next on that list to sort of lift their population out of, you know, poor economic conditions, and lift them into a middle class. Love it. So that's my good old port shift to porch for you. Oh, well, I love that you said that because mine is also a little bit port related. It's talking about ballast water and how it contributes to invasive species, and how maybe that invasive species is turning to some food that might end up on your plate or maybe your porch, for lack of a better phrase, so I have, we've talked before on the show like I'm obsessed with, like to catch a smuggler, like border security, like those types of shows that just show, what a Good show. Yeah, yeah, it's such a good show. But they have, if you ever watch like the New Zealand ones or like the Australia ones, they are so sensitive about shipments coming into their country, even things like, like dried tea leaves, for example, seeds, it's a no go if it's like, fresh produce. No go. If it's like a shipment of, I don't know, bananas or something like that, that that's coming in, if there's like a single moth or a single larva on in any part of that shipment, the whole shipment is rejected because it cannot come into the country, because they are very sensitive, especially being, not necessarily Australia, but like a New Zealand for example, they very sensitive small islands, very sensitive ecosystem. So they cannot have any of these invas, any even the threat of like an invasive species that can come through. So this, that show, kind of highlights a lot of those different things. But historically, one place that has not been checked by a many customs programs all across the globe is the ballast water. And the ballast water is carried by ships to provide stability and trim especially when they are not fully loaded with cargo. It is typically taken on board in one location and discharged in another location, often at different ports all around the world. This practice is crucial for maintaining the safety and stability of vessels during transit, particularly in rough seas and or when the ship is partially empty. Now I say all of that because enter the green crab. The green crab has is an invasive species. It is native to Europe and North Africa. It was for first recorded in. In New Jersey in 1817 and has since spread across the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines and also globally as well. Now these crabs threaten other shellfish because they eat so much, but they also don't have a lot of like crab meat in themselves. Then they're also very small, so they'll eat a lot of juvenile crabs. They'll eat a lot of juvenile clans, sometimes up to 40 clams a day. And so when you are inter or I guess that they think that this came through, that the species came through in the ballast water, and then ever since then, it's just exploded in growth, not just on the Atlantic side, but also on the Pacific side too. But they're pretty small. They're only like, four inches. And so they haven't been kind of commercially available as, like a king crab, or, you know, different crab species that we typically will eat at a seafood restaurant, like turtle like, in a way, where they're, like, colored and everything, they are green. Like, they call them green for a reason. And so it affects, you know, a lot of different business, especially when you talk about New England. Because New England is very heavily dependent on, you know, like lobster and fishing and clams and mussels and things like that. And when this species is kind of overrunning them, then it affects the entire ecosystem within that area. They're also eating, like a lot of like the smaller fishes and things like that. So it impacts, like the areas that they grow in, and plankton and algae and all of these different things. So it's having a massive effect this little green crab. So in 2017 that's how long ballast water has not been regulated from like a Customs and Border Patrol perspective, the International Maritime Organization adopted the ballast water management convention in 2004 but it started being enforced in September of 2017 so this convention requires ships to manage their ballast water to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens. Ships are required to have a ballast water management plan and carry a ballast water record book. They must also hold an international ballast water management certificate, which is issued after surveys to ensure compliance with the convention standards. But they do not inspect them a lot. They especially do not inspect these different sort of, you know, ballast water management, not nearly as regular, rigorously as, say, like an air cargo shipment or truck shipments that come in across the borders. They're not looking at it that in depth. But back to the green crab is because the way to combat when invasive, invasive species situation happens, the way to combat it is, you know, sometimes they offer like bounty programs. Like in state of Florida, we have a lionfish that's incredibly invasive, and it's doing terrible damage to like the coral reefs. So what they'll do is they they either put a bounty on how many lionfish, if you just bring a bag of like dead lionfish that you've killed, they'll either give you a bounty or they'll hold fishing tournaments for whoever can catch the most. And so they try to, like, incentivize the public through, like, public awareness and things like that. Versus koi fish, yeah, that's Oh, because, you know, Koi is, they grow based on the body of water, so they all have Lake Michigan, and they're just like, what's that? It's like the Asian carp. I think that's also in like Illinois, and it's taking over a lot of lakes there. But the problem with like the carp in lionfish is that they don't taste good. So what New England is doing is they actually found a way to make green crab taste good. And so it for these animals, they're very small, so they're not really worth it to eat, you know, like a like you would a regular crab leg. But for them it it's really they're talking about, like, if you can't beat them, eat them. And so they've spent years trying to come up with different recipes to make the green crab edible, and they finally found a really good method, and that's the basis of a lot of different dishes, and that's a good seafood broth. So seafood broth, this soup. So there was, there was this company called St ours, and company officially debuted its crab broth powder after three years in the making, and it was named a finalist in the food service category at the seafood Expo North America trade show this past March, The broth is said to have a much sweeter taste to it than even like other crab broths or lobster broths. And the way that they do it is that they take the green crab, I mean, to be a crab and like, cooked alive, like, it's just crazy to me, moving crabs, and they grow them in like a giant pot, they boil them, and then they kind of separate them out. And then one lady was showing, maybe I should just show the video. But they, like, they they boil. Them. And then they pour everything into like a giant blender. And then, from the like, they blend the whole crab up, like Shell and all into one mixture. And then they make the broth front so strain it, of course, and things broth, yeah. And then that is, like the stock that they can turn into all of these different dishes, especially in Asian cultures. There was one, like Vietnamese, Vietnamese recipe, that I wanted to show y'all because it's just, I think it's fascinating that the fact that this is even happening to begin with, hold on. That has to be the the name of this episode. If you can't beat them, eat them, or maybe just like ports or something I need to come up with, like a very, like a very, we'll, we'll order full appreciate our crab titled episode, oh, we appreciate everything. Blythe, okay, let's hopefully they look so gross. I'll just say turtle. Yeah, they are so little. They're so ugly. Sorry, crabs. So let's she actually takes it a step further, where she uses the meat from the crabs, because that was the biggest complaint when I was researching the story, is that it's not enough to like because I was thinking like, oh, well, rock shrimp, or even like, crawdaddies or, you know, things like that, like they're so little and they're not worth the trouble. But I would think that a crab would be worth it, but she finds a way to make it work. So let me go ahead and play this Tiktok. Of course she does. These are invasive green crabs from coastal New England. They're a bit bigger than Vietnamese field crabs, but still too small to be eating them individually worth the effort. So we're giving them the Vietnamese treatment. This method involves crushing up the crab so that the raw meat becomes emulsified in the water, allowing it to be separated from the shells. Then when you cook that liquid, the crab meat clumps together into floating chunks. This is the traditional method of making gunju Ho. You can use the same method to make gang Vietnamese soups with greens like Malabar spinach, zaudai, jute and more. It is not, not a lot of work, but the end product is worth it. When we were back in Vietnam last September, I made wind with my grandma, as have done many times before, but this time, we recorded all the steps, which is the closest I'll come to getting a recipe. The measurements are non existent, and everything was eyeballed, but in the end, it tasted bright. So I'll call that a success. But I make, like, homemade mashed potatoes. I'm like, look at you work the kitchen. Girl, that girl just like, straight up, yeah. So if you were just, if you were just listening and didn't watch it, she literally took the entire crab and cleaned out part of it, and then she put the rest of the crab into a giant pot, and the meat, she said, emulsifies and gets you can just kind of skim the meat off of the top, and looks pretty good too, especially because you're right. I did read it. Someone said it's like, you get like a thin bowl of meat from them, but like, she was getting full on patties, crab patties. Yeah, and so that mean, that is just talk about, like, turning, like water into wine, for like, an example, like this, like it's you're taking, like, an invasive species. There's nothing you can do about it in order to eradicate them, because, from what I understand, they also, like, lay a ton of these green crabs, lay a ton of eggs everywhere. So that's really, really challenging to fight them. And if they're affecting one part of the ecosystem, then, you know, like the guy said, like, if you can't beat them, eat them. And they found a good way to cook them in a variety of ways, stock being the most, I guess, commonly used for it, but turning it into the st ours and company, they turned it into a crab broth powder. So you can have a several different ways of eating an invasive species. But these invasive species, like there's so many all across the world, it comes from the balance water. It's like, different allergies, different crabs. It's I had never heard of this before because I was wondering. I was like, Well, how did they even the crabs come over here? Because if it's just like one crab that kind of sneaks through, but it's much more than that, and they're literally in the water system of these different giant cargo ships, which is nuts. So it was kind of cool to learn about. That is cool. So do you think that, like, Do you think she's getting them priced at, like, absolutely nothing? Because it's like, at least they're getting eaten and taken out? Wow, cuz there's another, there's a, and I'm blanking on the name of it. It's almost like, kind of like a sea urchin type that's on the California west coast. And so obviously California west coast, but it's on the west coast and in California. And so for there are a lot of Asian families that just will go to the beaches and pick up a bunch of the sea urchins because the current California population, or let's just say, you know, the the lighter. Date of the population does not eat sea urchins, and it's a dish that the meat that comes from the sea urchin is is a delicacy, and some countries, the people that burn the most of the sun don't eat sea urchins. Alert, news, Flash, breaking news. But apparently, like this sea urchin is like a delicacy in certain Asian countries, and so they it's almost like, you know, maybe what one person's trash is another person's treasure, because they see it, and they immediately, like, they'll be on the beach and they'll I've seen this video of this couple that regularly goes down to the beaches, and they just find them, and then they end up cooking them, like, right on the beach, and they can have, like, a nice little like night. And it's the delicacy aspect, I think, is is wild that more restaurants wouldn't notice this opportunity, and especially with, like, the green crab too. Like, if it's starting to turn into something that people like to eat. Like, jump on this. Like, start. You know, I guess maybe that's where the argument of like, supply and demand comes in, where the demand is going to increase over time, and the supply is there because these three crabs, this episode, and all of a sudden there's not enough green crabs. Is it invasive if we want to eat them. You asking, destroyed the ecosystem? I would assume, yeah, the ecosystem, and it's it's also destroying the other wildlife in the area. So you're in because it's so little, it can only eat other little things. And so when it's eating like, it's eating, like 41 green crab can eat 40 juvenile clams a day, and those are clams that can never, you know, obviously mature and get older, and, you know, reproduce. And so that is a chain reaction of, you know, these green crabs and what they're providing or taking away. So it's, I think it's mussels, it's clams, it's other crab species. Because these green crabs, like, have no like qualms about eating other crab species as well. So they will eat juvenile crab species from from, you know, different variations from their own. So they're just, they're a little Hustler, hustlers out here, and, you know, different people are finding ways to turn it into a delicacy now, so I think that that's kind of cool, like you're turning trash basically into a treasure and helping the environment along the way. And freaking ballast water never crossed my mind. So I'm curious to see how maybe, like, some important maybe now that I'm paying attention more to it, I'm wondering if, like, some of these shows will start showing, like, the Dallas water situation. It is. It is really hilarious. Sometimes on those shows, when you have this, like, sweet elderly woman who's just trying to go visit her family in America, and they're like, Why do you have a bag full of seeds? She's like, Oh, I forgot they were in there. And I'm like, ma'am, no one is just going to America with a ton of seeds, Australia, New Zealand, they do not play. Like, when I'm watching these shows, I'm like, if this was in America, like Germany too, right? Is it like another episode? There's, like, there's, I haven't seen Germany, but I've seen Spain, I've seen Peru, I've seen Brazil. I've seen the like, Caribbean islands. Where else is there? Italy. So for a lot of like, especially with like, to catch a smuggler, they they have a US based series, but it's evolved into more like we're going to do, like drug stings. And I like to see the airport. I want to see the weirdos at the airport and the weirdos that try to bring, not necessarily like weirdos, but I like the combination of trying to bring stuff in with the weirdo personality, and I want that interaction. They're just like, No, I was trying to bring these, like tea leaves, and they're like, you can't. And you're like, why? It sounds stupid. I remember, coming from France, I stole a bunch of rocks from Versailles, and I had to hide those because you're not supposed to do that. Yeah, make me nervous every time I go through the customs, right? Not to talk about, you know, Peru again, but I really wished that there was a way that I could bring coca leaves into the United States, so maybe Cola, that's a, well, that's a drug Blythe, but not in the leaf. I can name a lot of things I'd love to take from South America and bring United States too. Is that where we ending this episode with a list of things we're trying to smuggle into America? I would so. And for those who haven't been to South America, like these leaves are everywhere. They're in hotel lobbies, like it's right next to they don't even start in the hotel that we stayed in, they didn't even serve coffee. It was just hot water, lemon and coca leaves. And you take the cocoa leaves, you put it in your little coffee cup, and you put some hot water on with a little bit of lemon. It helps with altitude sickness. Like it's normal, like it's you're not doing, like, lines of coca leaves. Yeah, it's. Coca much easier than that. Maybe illegal process is much more like chemically driven. And yeah, there's a lot of cooking going on with with that method. With coca leaves, it's literally like the leaf that comes off the tree and it's dried, that's it. And they sell them everywhere, like just bags of dried leaves. But you cannot take it with you, because no country can export those leaves, unless you're Coca Cola. So we're bringing it. We're wrapping it all back together. Epcot, I've got a new idea at Peru. Let's make the food festival fun. If anyone could do it, it's Walt freaking Disney, you know? Oh, well, he's in the grave now, and he would be turning in it right now if he saw all the changes that are being made to my parks. But we don't have that much time for to to cover all of those things rip Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. Glad we can make way for cars. Let's just make sure American industrialism living. What is it living on the land, right? If that could just stay forever. You got two happy creatures right here. I think there would be like an insurrection at Epcot. I would, I would show up. Hey, new job. I know I just took a job from you, but I need a few days off. We've got to go riot. No, yeah, go right. The oldest ride in Epcot. You will seize the Epcot ball, and then from there, we will protect, living with the land. Yes, love it, all right. Well, I think that that's that's a really good place to end the show after we talk about, you know, about different drugs and, you know, an insurrection. That's a great way to end the show and a great way to welcome you back for your first episode. Hey, us back. Free. Friends was gone. Meghan Markle in this episode too. So we just, we checked all the boxes. So hopefully you guys are excited as we are to, you know, listen to this episode as much as we are to record it. Grace, where can folks follow your work now? Do we have to update? We have to update the link tree? Probably, oh, my god, thanks for finding me. We do have to update the link tree. You can find [email protected] or email me at Grace dot Sharky, all spelled [email protected] and find me on LinkedIn. Reach out to me, like I said, if you're a partner, if you're, you know, interested in, just like if we get into, when we get into podcasting, etc, being a part of that let me know we're looking to not just, of course, talk about EDI, but continue to educate our customers too, through those channels too. So very excited. Lots of fun stuff to come. Awesome. Glad to have you back. You too, dude. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of everything is logistics, where we talk all things supply chain for the thinkers in freight, if you like this episode, there's plenty more where that came from. Be sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you never miss a conversation. The show is also available in video format over on YouTube, just by searching everything is logistics. And if you're working in freight logistics or supply chain marketing, check out. My company, digital dispatch. We help you build smarter websites and marketing systems that actually drive results, not just vanity metrics. Additionally, if you're trying to find the right freight tech tools or partners without getting buried in buzzwords. Head on over to cargorex.io where we're building the largest database of logistics services and solutions. All the links you need are in the show notes. I'll catch you in the Next episode and go jags. You.
