Dave Gulas:
0:43
And I mean, as a founder, I think you should be the best sales person within your company, right in terms of telling the story, in terms of doing the promotion, getting the message out there, and AI, and all these other you know, there's a lot of tools you can use to scale and to make things more efficient, but just the core message of being able to talk about your business, whether in person, on a podcast, on whatever type of medium you're on, I think is powerful as a founder.
Blythe Milligan:
1:14
Welcome into another episode of everything is logistics, a podcast for the thinkers in freight. I am your host, Blythe Milligan, and we are proudly presented by SPI logistics, and we've got another great episode for y'all today. Happy to welcome in Dave goulis. He is the president and co founder of easy DC three PL, a third party logistics provider, and he also hosts the beyond fulfillment podcast. So we're going to talk a lot of E commerce, a lot of fulfillment, and, of course, logistics, podcasting. So Dave, welcome back to the show. Hey, thank you, Blythe, it's great to be here now. It looks like are you traveling? In the background is, is that what I see in the back, I see like a, what looks like a hotel fridge. Oh, no, this is, that's this my office. So I do have a fridge here. Yeah, gotta have food and drink and all that. But, yeah, that's, that's what it is. Oh, I was, because the last time we spoke was at manifest, and so I have conference content still, you know, kind of fresh on, on the brain. And we're going to get into a lot of, you know, the different, you know, conferences that you maybe plan on going to this year and how you're recording, you know, content at those conferences. But I saw the fridge in the background, so I was like, Oh, he's gotta be, he's gotta be traveling up to, you know, another conference, because it is conference season. This the spring time is conference season, for sure. So we'll get into that in just a second. But
Unknown:
2:35
e commerce, let's talk about everything that's going on, because it's a lot of drama that's going on between potential trade we're not potential a trade war that's going on between Canada and the US and Mexico us pretty much against the rest of the world tariffs, you know, all of these things that are keeping e commerce brands up at night. So for, I guess, from like a very, like high level Eagle Eye View, what is, what is an E commerce brand experiencing right now? Well, I mean, it depends, it depends on where they're located, what their business model is, what their supply chain looks like, and many other variables. So, you know, we, we had numerous brands because we, we service companies from overseas and whatnot, or that have, certainly have made goods overseas. So many of them, and a lot of people basically rush to get inventory in before the initial tariffs were supposed to take effect. And then, you know, so some people did that. And then, obviously, you know, busy sales season for the three PL world is really q1 and q2 so in talking to a lot of people as well, there a lot of people are, you know, want to see how the dust settles and what exactly is going to happen before they talk about making a move, particularly if their supply chain is, you Know, overseas, or they're based overseas or whatnot. So, yeah, just, just a lot of conversations, a lot of moving parts, and it really the answer is unique to to what each person's business looks like. Do you find that a lot of E commerce brands are sourcing globally? Are there, you know, I guess, are there a lot of maybe success stories of E commerce brands that are sourcing from the United States, or is that kind of just non existent right now for sourcing from the United States, I wouldn't say it's non existent at all, but I mean, many of them source from from overseas, particularly China, right? And clearly, right. We're seeing a shift. We're seeing with the new administration. There's a heavy focus on bringing manufacturing back to the US, not only for a number of critical industries, but just, you know, as a whole. So we're starting to see that shift, and you know, a lot of other policies taking place. But again, right? It's supply chain is not something that's easy to change overnight or as these policies change. So, you know, some people too, right? Even if they want to make a change, it takes time, and then there's still maybe consequences in the short term, with tariffs. And then, I know, there's been exemptions floated, and there's been all types of changes. And, you know, as we record this, right? It's, it's March 25 you know, we've got April 2 right around the corner, which is, you know, supposed to be the reciprocal tariff implementation, but again, right? So much negotiation going on, and so many moving parts that it's we don't really know how all this is going to shake out yet, and before we hit record on this conversation, you had mentioned that a lot. Of your or a lot of brands that you know of are just pausing. They're, they're not, you know, maybe, you know, storing a bunch of inventory. Maybe that happened before the tariffs, and that was one strategy. But you're also seeing a lot of other brands just kind of sit and wait for the dust to settle. It is, can you kind of, I guess, break that down for us of what that strategy is. Are they storing goods in the US? Are they, you know, shipping them off to, you know, Canada or Mexico and storing them there and just waiting, you know, to until that April 2 deadline, or what's kind of the strategy that that's going on right now? Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say, I mean, I wouldn't say necessarily, like a lot, but like several, right, if they're maybe based, I know some that are based either in Canada or Mexico, right? And they're literally wanting to, you know what I mean, expand their US operations. And before they commit to moving into a three PL and doing that, they want to see exactly what the tariffs are going to look like, being that they're maybe their products are made in those in those countries, right? So, you know, everyone and again, right? You see that. You see the point from the administration, right, where everyone wants the US market. It's so big, it's so lucrative for a brand, but you know that we want to make sure that we're treated fairly, you know, in terms of, you know, all the way around. So beacon, obviously, we have to leverage based on our you know, how big the US is, and the type of consumption we have for all these other brands. So again, I think ultimately, at the end of the day, we're going to see everything work out, and it's, it's, it's going to be okay. But I mean, yeah, a lot of people are just pausing in the in the short term with with the uncertainty, you know, especially depending what their business looks like and where their supply chain is currently located for you and your fulfillment operations. Can you kind of give the audience a sense of, I guess, maybe the scale or the location. I think, I believe that you have a couple different warehousing locations. Can you kind of give us an idea of where you're situated at and, you know, maybe the commodity, or maybe not the commodity, but the niche that your your business, kind of caters to, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, we, our main location is in the Bowling Green, Kentucky area. You know, we had a smaller location in Maryland that really we experimented with, and we've really moved everything to Kentucky. So it's a great central location where we can reach the vast majority of the US within two days ground. So if a brand is looking for one central location, Kentucky is an excellent option. And yeah, we focus on really direct to consumer Shopify sellers is where we specialize and ideally smaller types of products like beauty apparel, nutritional supplements, Home Goods, that sort of thing. So I mean that that's really our niche. And then we we focus on personal service, fast response time, and really helping emerging brands that are at the point where they need to outsource fulfillment, or they're with, you know, with three PL and they're not getting the service they know they deserve, you know, we want to give them, you know, an option to where they can get excellent service. They can get a very fair price, and they can have a partner that's a true extension of their business that can help them scale during that critical time when they need to outsource. But maybe they don't have the volume that maybe some larger national three PLS, are going to insist that they have, oh, that's interesting, because I would imagine with those types of brands in particular, that maybe a lot of you know that this news cycle of what we're kind of in with the trade war and tariffs, and, you know, all of maybe the uncertainty that that I would if I was there, if I was those brands that would be keeping me up at night, and I think I would be trying to learn as much as possible about, you know, what could drastically impact my business. Are you finding that you know, more of your current customers or even leads are are reaching out to you and kind of asking, like, what should I be doing here? You know, we've had some of that where they just ask our opinion, and again, right? Like we're all watching this play out on the news, and, you know, we don't exactly know how it's going to work out, but I, I mean, I, I tend to think that, listen, all these, all these relationships are important, particularly with our northern and southern neighbors here, right? And I think it's just, you know, as from the US perspective, we want to be treated fairly. We want to have, you know, systems in place to where it's it's a fair deal. And if that's not happening, clearly, you know, something has to change. So I get from that perspective, and clearly we value what, what Canada brings, what Mexico brings. We want to have good relations with them, and I think ultimately, we're going to get to a place where that's solid and you can have a deal that's sustainable for everyone, and everyone's treated fairly. But yeah, in the short term, it's it, you know, it. There is uncertainty, but everyone is just doing what they feel is best for their business, and that that looks different for everyone. Oh, so it sounds like it's kind of. Like, not maybe a huge cause for alarm. It's just, you know, just something maybe outside of your control, and you'll handle it when you can handle it. Is that maybe a safe assumption? Well, yeah, and, I mean, again, right? Like, from our perspective, it's, you know, e commerce is going to tend continue to grow, right? You the way people are shopping continues to move more and more online, and people continue to, you know, everything needs to ship. So whether, whether the makeup of our customer base changes, or where they make their products, changes, I mean, that could kind of shuffle around in, you know, in the coming months and thereafter. But I mean, our our mission doesn't change, and our value proposition proposition doesn't change in terms of what we offer to brands. I mean, granted, there's going to be some changes potentially in the supply chain, and more US manufacturing may come in, and maybe people switch where they buy things and how they how they do that. But I mean, ultimately, our our mission in terms of what we're offering to customers and how we're planning to grow is, is, you know, constant? How does a brand know that it's, it's ready to take that next step of outsourcing their fulfillment? What does that, I guess, process look like for them? What? What are maybe some like, I don't want to say like red flags, but maybe orange flags that you know they're experiencing, they're in their business, that they're close to getting ready to take that next step. Yeah, I mean just, just again, spending way too much time on order fulfillment and all the complexities there, you know, if they, particularly, if they're scaling up and their volume increases, and they don't have the systems in place to handle that increase, they're certainly going to feel it, you know, software issues as well. I mean, again, depending on what their inventory or their ERP system may look like, you know, depending if they have to invest or upgrade their software. Clearly, that's not that's not cheap, and they may want to leverage, you know, a partner that that has those systems in place. Parcel rates, again, right? If they look at their margins and they see, you know what? Again, if they don't have, if they don't have a big enough volume to negotiate the right rate on their own. It certainly makes, makes sense to leverage someone else who who has a much better rate. So that's that's certainly an area to look at labor, of course, like they they can weigh the cost of what it would cost to outsource to a three PL versus not only having the labor in house, but then the the stress and the potential headache and managing it. And you know what happens people don't show up? What happens if you can't retain the right talent, and then wages, you know, with the inflation right? And we've seen over recent years, that's certainly a concern with labor, and what it looks like to really manage a staff, versus outsource that to to someone who has those systems in place. So all those are things that you can see creep up as a company scales, that could be potential, you know, red flags, so to speak, or reasons that you might want to look at outsourcing. And so when they, when they're getting ready to, I guess, make that step of outsourcing, or trying to find an outsourcing, you know, three PL partner in that regard. Or do they a lot of times, maybe have their own warehouse already, maybe have their own sort of, maybe WMS. Or is that when? Or is that a situation where maybe they're shipping out of their garage, or, you know, an office space down the road? What is give us like a picture of what an ideal customer looks like for you before you come into the fold and help them with their shipping. Yeah. I mean, all those things oftentimes, right? They have some sort of small office slash warehouse space when they're fulfilling, and they reach a certain point and they said, You know what? This is just a headache. We don't want to do this anymore. We want to hire a three PL oftentimes, if people are getting into the US market, maybe they're fulfilling from overseas, and that's too cost prohibitive, and they say, Hey, I just want to have my stuff warehoused in the US and fulfill from there. I mean, that's certainly one option. Sometimes too, when people launch they want to start right with the three PL, and not even do the either because they have experience doing it, or they just know that it's not something I want to focus on. So we see that as well. Yeah, so it just really depends. But yeah, oftentimes too, people have a small space and they're fulfilling, and they say, You know what? This is not how I want to scale. Yeah? Because, I mean, if I was say, if I had like a beauty brand or something, I would have, maybe, like an idealistic view that, oh, you know, I just hire friends and family and they could help me ship the goods like I'll, you know, I'll cross that bridge when I need to, as far as you know, finding a partner. So I'm just wondering, you know what that landscape looks like for them, before they realize that they're in over their head. And I. They need to find a partner who specializes in that, because transportation is typically the most expensive part of anything that any product that you buy, and so when margins are already tight is that is, at what point does that become an option for these brand owners to start outsourcing their fulfillment to, you know, a company like yours. And so I'm just curious about what that, I guess, landscape looks like. And then, so, since you've already explained that, kind of walk us through what it looks like when they've realized that they need an outsourcing partner, maybe they've reached out to you. What are those first couple of months maybe look like as they're making that transition, and you're taking over those shipment operations. Yeah. So we, I mean, we always have a discovery call whenever we were introduced to someone new, whether they find us on the web or, you know, we get a lead, whatever kind of way, we always have a discovery call. We want to understand their business from top to bottom, what it looks like, what the order flow looks like, what the product is, how they want, whatever customizations they require, you know, etcetera, etcetera. So we get a clear picture of it. And then obviously there's a quoting process, there's questioning process, and that that looks different for every single deal, right? Sometimes, I mean, typically, a sales cycle is a couple months on average. I mean, sometimes it's super short, if they're in a bind, sometimes it's longer depending but, you know, several months on average. And yeah, so you go back and forth, and, you know, they're always, typically talking to more than one person anyway, right? So they're, they're talking to different people. They're comparing quotes, there's that, there's questions back and forth, and when they make the decision to go with us, then, yeah, we start mapping out the plan in terms of, you know, what's, when do they want to move in? What makes the most sense? Well, based on our availability, you know, we have several onboarding calls, and just depending on the complexity of the brand, you know, for a variety of things, sales channels, skew, count, amount of inventory, order volume, you know, etc, etc. So we take all those things to an account, in account, and then yeah, we create a plan, and then we start executing. And, you know, obviously do testing prior, and we have a go live date, and, yeah, we just want to make sure the goal really is to make it as smooth as possible for them, to be thorough, that everything's covered, and we're both sides are on the same page about what's expected. You know, we have receiving, like, a routing guide, you know, that's very detailed in terms of how we receive shipments, what's expected, what's required, etc. And yeah, brands appreciate that as well, so they know everything's labeled properly, so it's easy to receive, and everything can be as if, as efficient as possible. And then, yeah, we have the go live date and make sure everything's smooth, and then continue to proceed from there. So when you based on all of the customers, I'm just curious as to, do you have a favorite product that you ship, or a favorite type of product? Maybe it's, I don't know, does makeup like have to be refrigerated? Give us, I guess, some fun facts about fulfillment, if that is a thing. I mean, every three PL will tell you they, you know, you want a lower skew count just because it's, it's simple, there's less room for error, that type of thing. You know, yeah, it's really nice where it's in a ready to ship box and you just slap a label on it. That's really nice and easy for everybody. You know, of course, lightweight and smaller is, is ideal. But again, every every business and every product is so different, you know, so it's, it's, again, right? We're, we're, you know, those are maybe some preferences, but we're willing to handle whatever. But I think for us, what we really enjoy is just seeing how happy the customers are when, you know, we can, you know, take this off their plate, and they have a great sale, a great week, a great month, and they're happy, and they know their customers are happy, and the everything's running smooth, and they, you know, even, like we just, I mean, I know it was a few, few months ago, but it was the holidays that just comes to mind. And so many people just were so appreciative and thankful for the year they had with us. And, you know, just even getting cards and just hearing how much it means to that they have a fulfillment partner, that that really is doing a good job, and how happy that makes them for, I guess, for us and our team. That's really the best part. So Well, speaking of of the holidays, because most of these brands will will start planning their campaigns and just their holiday campaigns in just a couple of months, if they haven't started planning them already, which sounds crazy, because, like you said earlier, we are recording this, you know, on March 25 this episode of. Probably air in the middle of April, but I imagine a lot of brands are already planning for the 2025, holiday season. Is it too early to tell what the holiday season is going to look like? Or maybe, how are some of your brands maybe pre planning in that respect? You know, we haven't started talking about holidays with anyone this early. But I mean, just in general, you know, as we had the whole New Year's thing couple months back, just I noticed a lot of optimism. Just in general, around 2025 in terms of the just what people were expecting, what their plans were, you know, so I recall that. But as far as specifically what the holidays is looking like, we haven't started talking about that yet. Well, let's switch gears a little bit into the content side of things. Because you've How long have you been a podcaster with the beyond fulfillment podcast? About a year and a half nice. And what made you get started with podcasting. You know, I just had this idea one day where, because, you know, while I was, you know, growing the company and whatnot, I would have a lot of conversations all the time, whether networking or what I would, I would meet people at trade shows. And I always found that was the best source of learning in terms of talking other entrepreneurs and understanding challenges they were facing, how they got through it, and different strategies and whatnot. So was having all these conversations, and got a lot of value out of it, and just one day the idea hit me, hey, if you started a podcast, you could have these conversations and, you know, make them public. The audience would benefit. The guest would get exposure would help you. Just seemed like a great idea. And again, I knew nothing about podcast. I had been on one podcast, you know, for like, 10 minutes, and I also, too, saw the type of reach and response it got, and, you know, all that. And that was probably playing in my mind, but it just seemed like a great idea. So I said, Yeah, let's do it. And we found a way to throw it together quickly, and I just started and never stopped. And yeah, now here we are, and it I tell people all the time that you don't have to technically start a podcast. You know, very similar to what we're doing here, you could start a podcast as simply as a means to communicate with your target customer, and you can use it as an educational resource for your current customers. Do you find that your audience and your, you know, maybe current customer base is interested in in the nuance, or maybe the the niche focus of, you know, E, commerce, fulfillment, you know, everything that's going on within this space, do you? Do you find that they're genuinely interested in that type of content? Well, yeah, I mean, I do. I've got numerous, numerous, hey, we saw your podcast, and people have found us because of the podcast customers. I mean me personally. So everyone, every one of our customers, right? And I'm, you know, get, we're still young companies, so I'm, I'm the Sales Department, but every single one that I've enrolled is an entrepreneur, right? So I, I thought, too, as this is going along, I thought, you know, again, focus on the entrepreneurial journey and what it's like. Because there's so many people have said, Oh, yeah, you know, because people just, they think it's something that it's not. And boy, let me tell you what it's really like. And you know, I hear that so often. So I just thought those type of stories kind of appeal to people that are in business. So if I can put that type of value out and have engaging content that that has that people can learn from, again, right? That's going to be a great message as well. And again, people like other entrepreneurs can find it, listen to it, and any of them that have a physical product, we potentially have a solution for. So that's where I thought there could be a great synergy with not only putting out valuable content, but using it to also, you know, as a lead generation tool. What have been some of the, I guess, your best episodes that customers, or maybe even potential customers, have reached out about and said, Oh, I really liked that episode, you know? So there's one with Brian Esposito, which he's got a crazy story. I mean, that one's got a lot of views on YouTube. He's got a crazy story about getting hit by a drunk driver and being heavily injured and not able to work, and his businesses, you know, collapsed at the time, and he basically came back from all that. And he's got like, equity in 100 plus companies, you know, and he's, he's really had a, like, a successful turnaround. So that's one people enjoy. Jageth from order, oh, I don't know if you know that company, right? He he's got a really great episode where he just talks, you know, about what it was really like in his journey, all the mistakes he made. And he's got some valuable nuggets in there too, about increasing your Lux surface area by just and that's something I don't know if it's almost. Sounds cliche. I've heard it elsewhere, but he really digs into that too, how that was valuable in his story, and how the company started was so like, just the chance that some of the chance things that had to happen for him and the you look at the way they've grown, I mean, that was a really inspiring episode. So, I mean, those are a couple that come to mind. Yeah, I think those are the the kind of stories that I mean any entrepreneur would would resonate with, because you have to go through the struggle. And I think for a lot of folks, you really only see when they they reach the mountain top, but all the other struggles, and all the other, you know, mini mountains that they had to climb before that is, is where I think a lot of the growth comes from, both personally and professionally. So it's cool that you're, you're sharing those stories over all the podcasts. I'm curious how you maybe, how do you find out what your ROI is from creating content? Because I think that that's one of the top questions that I always get asked is, you know, you know, if I'm going to do this, how am I going to know that it's successful? Or, how am I going to know that, you know, I'm the audience is getting value from it. So what are maybe some ways that you've seen value of, you know, creating the show and creating the podcast and having these conversations? Yeah, I mean, we've had numerous direct customers from that that have mentioned it that, you know, that's, that's where they saw us, or even relationships that it's created that have directly turned to business through an introduction or whatnot, based on a podcast episode, those have been some ways, and, you know, in terms of direct, I look at it as too is, right, particularly as a founder and trying to grow a company into something significant, right? It's, it's most, you know, barring some exceptions, it's going to take some time, right? It's going to take years. So you're always going to be, you know, needing to, to focus on that input and, you know, content too, right? Like I've been doing, I've been posting consistently on LinkedIn for, for about, you know, about two years now, I've been dropping the podcast episode every week now, twice a week, for about a year and a half, right? So you have to build the consistency of these inputs. And you know over time too, when you see what it does to your search, your your online visibility, and just the fact that people see see you out there consistently, and they know you're someone that, that you know isn't like fly by night, I mean that you know that matters, right? And it might not happen today, too, but again, right? You never know what's going to happen next month, a month after thereafter. So I look at content creation as a long term strategy. And you can't just look at it like, well, I did this today, where, what, you know, what, what did I get for it, right? You have to build that in, or put that input in over a long period of time to really, really, you know, see the full benefit. Now, you mentioned that you release, you know, an episode each week. How do you balance podcasting and your quote, unquote normal job. Yeah, you know, right? You're always, you're always trying to optimize your time and move most efficiently. So, I mean, I try to limit the amount of episodes I'll record in a given week, and I do have specific time blocks to where I can set that aside, but yeah, it's just right, there's always, there's internal operation calls, there's sales calls, there's customer calls, there's whatever, there's networking calls, potentially. So any given day, and then you need that white space to actually execute and get other things accomplished. So any given day, you're always trying to manage your energy and your efficiency and based on your schedule what needs to be done as best you can. So I just, you know, I try to optimize with a variety of systems to record and prepare efficiently, and then I have a team that does all the the editing and whatnot. So yeah, I just, I just try to, you know, operate the best I can each day, given, given the workload. Now, you mentioned that you you have a team that helps with maybe some of the the distribution process. And I've heard you, you know, use the phrase inputs. And, you know, there's very much a parallel with content creation to just the the overall supply chain, and like the verbiage that we can use in supply chain versus content creation. I'm curious around the distribution of your your content. How do you think about the, you know, recording an interview and then getting it out to the world? Is it, I know you're very active on LinkedIn. Are you, you know, prioritizing, maybe any other social networks or email or anything like that? I Yeah, So YouTube is our main channel for the podcast. So that's where we started it. I think it was only on YouTube for the first six months, and then thereafter, we're on all the audio channels now. But YouTube is still kind of the the go to. I suppose anyone. Wants to see it, I'll send them the YouTube channel. And then, you know, Apple podcast tends to get a lot of traction as well, that that seems to be the main player in the audio space. And yeah, social media is LinkedIn, by far, is the one that I spend time on. I mean, we post on some of the other ones. I don't really spend time on there, but, yeah, LinkedIn, I definitely, I use a lot to engage with others and connect and network and whatnot. Now, what about conferences? Because we saw each other earlier this year at manifest. Are you going to a ton of conferences for content, for customers, you know, maybe a, you know, a little bit of both, yeah, yeah. I mean, every every year looks different, right? So, yeah, we were at manifest. I went to the health and fitness show just couple weeks ago. That was in Vegas. I went out there real quick for a day, and that was, that was worthwhile. I'm going to one here in early April. It's called the retail collective. It's more of like a networking event, but I got invited to that. So I'm going, I'm going to home delivery world this year, which is in Nashville. I'm going to IWA, which, you know, we're a member. We go to every year. I'm going to go to sub Summit. Check that out, that's coming up in May as well. So, yeah, there's and then beyond that, there's probably more, but I don't, don't have anything else booked at the moment. Are you recording at each one of those? Are you going more to, you know, meet customers, you know, get educational sessions, that kind of thing? Yeah. I mean, it's always, it's always to network, to meet people, whether it's customers, potential customers, potential partners in some capacity. I don't know of of any, maybe at home delivery world. I'll be on someone else's Podcast. I'm not setting up the podcast anywhere as of yet. Work to record at these conferences. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, manifest was great. I mean, the the way, the way they, you know, they set it up for everyone. They give you, like, a nice time block and, but yeah, even that, just booking everyone and getting that all set up, certainly was, you know, I was right down to the wire booking people that morning just to kind of fill up all my time slots. So, yeah, it certainly, certainly work. But yeah, I'm always open to it. And I guess, if nothing else, I can do the selfie thing with the iPhone. I've done that too, where, if I just run into some people, you know, I can kind of record something on the spot. But yeah, I'm not not setting up to podcast anywhere at the moment. Yeah, it does. It's super helpful to be able to because iPhones have just, you know, or just phones in general, have come so far where you don't have to have, you know, the the big, fancy cameras and the lighting and all of that. I'm sure that's nice, but especially for for folks like us, it's typically just us that are traveling to and from these conferences, and the camera equipment and recording equipment, it takes up a lot of space in the suitcase, and it's a lot of trial and error. And a lot of times you're recording on site, and you don't know if you've run into an issue until things are too late. I ran into a couple of issues, you know, at manifest this year, of just my own recording setup, I feel like you learn something new at every every time you record at a conference, and sometimes it's just super nice just to go to a conference and focus on meeting people, not in a recording environment. So I definitely feel you in that regard, on if you know you want to even record with people, but if you want to, there's you guys had a you, and Joe Lynch had a great device at, I think it was the DJ Osmo camera that you were using at manifest, and it was really compact and great sound, great video. So there's, you know, you guys taught me that trick, so I might be borrowing that, that trick in the future of using that little camera. Yeah, big shout out to Joe, because when I had no idea what to expect. So I traveled. I brought my mic and, you know, a camera, and it was laptop. And then when I got there, I was like, I don't know how this is going to work. And then he just said, Hey, you can just use this. And I said, Oh, this is perfect, so that our interviews came out really well, and it was seamless. And yeah, like you said. So I learned something there as well. But yeah, that that worked. That worked out. Great, awesome. Well, okay, so one last question on on the content side of things, if you if another founder in logistics, or maybe just a founder in general, was thinking of starting a podcast, what would be three tips that you would give them on getting started, oh, boy, yeah, I would just, I would say, right, just start to, you know, take action and make some sort of progress as quick as you can. And just get some momentum. And even if you don't have it all. Figured out, start and do something and and keep going. Because I've talked to people that say, Wow, that's great. I really wanted to do it, but I whatever. I couldn't, or I didn't, or, you know, I got equipment, but then this happened, or that happened, right? I hear so many of those stories, and I literally just started recording on my laptop, and we put through it together real quick and just started and just kept going. And you're gonna, right, you're gonna have to do it over a long period of time to really build it into something meaningful. But I mean, again, if it's so much easier, if when that idea is red hot and you have that desire, if you just take some sort of action and get an emotion and keep the momentum going, I would say that's, that's your best bet to really build into something you know, lasting now for for both of us. I think we can both agree that, you know, a podcast is a great sales tool. It's a great way to have long, in depth conversations with people, and hopefully those conversations resonate with others who are who are listening to the show as well. I'm curious as to how, you know, sales has just evolved so quickly, especially in logistics. Over the last couple of years, we're starting to see a lot more, you know, conversations around AI and how that's being utilized. I'm curious as to what you think are some foundational sales tactics that people should still be doing, in addition to something that's kind of seen as as new with respect to podcasting, what are maybe some foundational sales tips that you would be able to give the audience? Yeah, I mean, like for me, I think sales is just, I would say, and again, right? I'm biased. I'm a sale. I've been in sales my entire adult life, right? So, you know, I'm I'm always going to default to sales, but I think it's such an important foundational skills, because really nothing happens until a sale is made, right? You have to bring in business before there's anything else for anyone you know someone else to do. So I just think it's important to be comfortable just with the process, meaning, comfortable telling your story, comfortable talking about the value you provide, whatever it is you're doing, comfortable fielding questions and what you whatever you want to call it objections or feedback. And, you know, because, again, right? You're always selling your ideas. You're always selling you're always engaged in, you know, when you're in business and selling, selling something, right? So it's, I just think it's important, particularly for founders, where I see people try to outsource it, and it doesn't work as well. And I mean, as a founder, I think you should be the best sales person within your company, right in terms of telling the story, in terms of doing the promotion, getting the message out there, and AI, and all these other you know, there's a lot of tools you can use to scale and to make things more efficient, but just the core message of being able to talk about Your business, whether in person, on a podcast, on whatever type of medium you're on, I think is, is powerful as a founder? Yeah, absolutely. And so let's switch gears a little bit, because you are also an agent for SPI logistics, proud partner of this show since the show's inception. So let's get, let's talk a little bit about, you know, working with SPI, I'm curious as to how you, how you first found out about them? Yeah, so I found out about them via Joe Lynch, and I think I was on, was he on my podcast? I think it was. That's, that's how I even got the conference we were talking around that time, because he was on my podcast. But you know, as we would have customers in house that would need, you know, freight moved, whether in or out or whatnot, and so at the time, I didn't really know anything about the market or whatnot, so I would go out to some other freight brokers and just, you know, customer, and had some experiences where customer wasn't happy. There were some issues. And I was like, oh, man, now, you know, I referred this person, and now they're like, customers not happy. That's that's not a good look. How can I fix this? And Joe had told me about the SPI model and about the guys Mike, Mike mcluck and Joe Chandler and them, and so he was just telling me. I said, Oh, that sounds great. And so I got in touch. Got in touch, and, yeah, I was able to become an agent. And it just makes it super easy in terms of, you know, when people need, you know, freight moved in whatever capacity, whether they're a customer of ours or not, they have someone that they know can give them personal service, can keep them in the loop, can ensure that, you know, all the eyes are dotted and T's are crossed, and they, they stay in the know about what's happening. They get the right price, and everything's done properly. So SPI has got a great system. They make it super easy. They're very agent friendly, so to speak, in the way that you you know they work with you to. Really provide a great customer experience for the people, the shippers. And yeah, it's just been, been a great experience. And everyone on the team has been, is, has just been excellent to work with. And yeah, I couldn't, couldn't be happier with them. How long have you been with them? Maybe because I think the last time we spoke, you had just joined with them. And so maybe it's been close to a year now. I believe it's Yeah, little little over, yeah, just over a year, I think of right around the beginning or the end of 23 probably not, not long after I started the podcast, I got involved with SPI and how did your onboarding process with them look like because I, you know, I think it's interesting that you have helped a lot of E commerce brands get on boarded with fulfillment in general, and then now you're, you're, you're being able to utilize a greater freight network by working with SPI. So I was curious how your onboarding process, you know, how long did it take? You know, were there any challenges that you faced? You know, maybe new tech, or anything like that, that. But now you're, you're kind of rolling, pretty good working with them. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was pretty smooth, right? They have, you know, there's training material, there's a test, there's, you know, they schedule calls to show you, there's the their TMS, how it works and whatnot. And then they have, like, senior agents too, right, that they can kind of match up with, particularly as a new agent, to basically help you and kind of mentor you, so to speak, within the freight world about, you know, how everything works and whatnot. So yeah, and they're, you know, all the top people there. They're always available if you want to have a conversation or you want to get guidance on anything. And yeah, they have an excellent supporting staff, supporting staff that's, you know, that can respond quickly. And yeah, the customer service is excellent too. Like, if there is a customer issue and I need to get someone on the phone, I mean, I can, within 30 seconds, I could have a live agent available that can can help me with whatever I need. So, yeah, it's it works. Well, that's a I hadn't heard that, that they offer you, like a senior agent to help guide you and help kind of mentor you. That that's pretty cool. Can you maybe double click on that for us and tell us how that kind of process works? Are you meeting regularly? Maybe? What kind of challenges are they helping you to avoid? Tell us a little bit more about that aspect of it. Yeah, and I don't know if that's a regular thing, right? I think in the beginning too, right, where I reclassed something the wrong way, and I was trying to understand, you know, how it worked. And then they just, they introduced me to someone that had expertise, and they've been around a lot of years. And yeah, we just clicked. And yeah, it became, you know, so you know someone that you know I work with regularly, and I can go to for help. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know if that's like a standard thing, but it's more of like a family type atmosphere. When they saw, you know, I was having an issue with a certain thing, they said, Hey, let's help you figure this out. And that's that was the their solution. I love that because I they so we've done, you know, several energy interviews with their agents. And one agent comes to mind, Tynan Guthrie, and he mentioned that, you know, he didn't necessarily have a book of business to go right out and become a freight agent, so he was able to work under another more experienced agent, learn the ropes, and then slowly start to build up his own book of business. And so he'll have his own freight agency. And I just thought that's so interesting, how they are really SPI meaning that they are really they don't have any in house brokerage. They only the support team, only exists to help their agents be successful, and so that, you know, you bringing up that point that you know you almost have, like, another mentor, another freight agent, that you could be working with on a regular basis. I think that that's that's super cool that they have, you know, different flexibility in that regard. Last couple questions here. So if somebody maybe was, you know, experiencing, you know, maybe not experiencing is the right word here. But maybe have it, have a book of business, or maybe they're afraid agent with another company, if they were going, if you were going to give them advice on making the switch to SPI, you know, what kind of thing, what kind of pieces of advice would you give them? Well, yeah, I don't know, kind of how the other agencies work. Like SPI was the first one that I found, and I've been with them, right, you know, right away, and it's been great. But I would just say, talk to them and see but I mean, I've heard, you know, I know I've heard about agents coming over from, from other, other, whatever you want to call it, agency programs, and being super happy with SPI, but I just think they've got a great, great system set up for agents. And there's certainly very, you know, custom, customer centric, I guess you could say where they want to they want to do business, they want to expand. They. Excellent carrier relationships, and they really take care of their agents. And, you know, through a lot of different situations, they always what I've noticed, too. They're always just focused on, you know, doing the right thing. You know, even if it means they take, they take a hit or or whatever, right they always want to make the customer happy and do what's right. So I just think they're a great partner to have for something, you know, as important as freight. Okay, last question, anything that you feel is important to mention or important to talk about that we haven't already discussed. Well, yeah, just listen, if you're an E commerce brand and you're looking for a three PL, where you're not getting the service that you deserve, or you you know it's time to outsource. By all means, if Kentucky is an excellent central location, if you're in that position, so happy to speak to you about that. You can email me. Dave at easy DC three PL, or Dave goulis on LinkedIn, very important last second to last question, because I lied about it being the last question. If you're based in Kentucky, are you a Wildcat fan or Louisville Cardinal? Well, so I'm not. I'm actually based in Detroit, so our warehouse is in Kentucky. Okay, so you don't have a dog in the race. That's good? Yeah, yeah. So I'm or an animal in the race, I guess I should say, yeah. So I would say we're, we're closer to Louisville. So I suppose if that, that might be the the tie breaker there. But yeah, listen, we're, are you? You're a Louisville fan as well, yeah, yeah. My for folks who are just listening, I just threw up the L because that's where you know Louisville Cardinals is, is throwing up the L's and not. Well, they actually just experienced a first round loss in March. Baptist. So yeah, L's all around and but no, half of my family is all up from or from Louisville, Kentucky. They my grandparents worked for CSX rail, or LNR railroad, and then CSX bought them, and then they moved with the headquarters down to Jacksonville, Florida. And so that's kind of how, you know, I guess I came to be, is that, you know, my parents met in Jacksonville, but my dad and his side of the family moved down after the merger. So with Louisville Cardinals merchandise all over the the house is still exists to this day. So if I, if I root for a college team, it's going to be Louisville. And there's been many a household, or many a times that you know, you wear blue around my dad and he wants to disown you as a child. It's red all day, no blue, which is interesting because it's, you know, kind of the color scheme that we're looking at right on the computer right now is we have the giant, you know, red recording button, but we have a blue background that we're recording on, so I might have to change that before my dad sees it. So Got it. Got it all right. Dave, well, where can folks find you? Where can they get connected with you? Listen to the podcast, all that good stuff. Yeah, beyond fulfillment, podcast on YouTube or anywhere. Podcasts are heard. Easy. DC three, pl.com, check us out, send us a message, and then you can find me on LinkedIn. Dave goulis, that's g, U, L, A, S. Dave goulis on LinkedIn, perfect. We'll add all of those into the show notes. So if you guys are listening and you want to get connected with Dave, we hopefully will make it very easy for you. So Dave, another great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Blythe, appreciate it. 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 everything is logistics.com 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 coworker'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. 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 of. On digital dispatch.io, 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. You.
