Building Strong B2B Brands in the Age of AI Marketing, With Guest Jonathan Bein

[00:00:00] Welcome to Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton.

[00:00:10] Sponsored each week by Lead Smart Technologies, Tom, Kevin and their guests review the news

[00:00:15] of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers, wholesale distribution,

[00:00:20] independent sales agents, and the global wholesale supply chain.

[00:00:25] Whether it's M&A, SaaS and cloud computing, B2B e-commerce or supply chain issues, we

[00:00:31] peel back the onion with our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.

[00:00:36] Good to have you both.

[00:00:38] Jonathan Bind, stop right there.

[00:00:41] Doctor, Jonathan Bind, we've got to say that as well.

[00:00:48] And Tom Burton and Kevin Brown here as we get together every week.

[00:00:52] It's happy to have you with us, Jonathan.

[00:00:54] Thanks for joining us.

[00:00:55] Honored, thank you.

[00:00:56] Yeah.

[00:00:57] Well, it's been a while in the makings to get you here.

[00:01:00] You're a sought after speaker and researcher and so forth.

[00:01:03] I'm going to do a little bit of our intros that we do every week, a little bit of

[00:01:07] our housekeeping, and then we're going to learn a little bit more about Jonathan

[00:01:10] as we go.

[00:01:11] But again, I'm Kevin Brown.

[00:01:13] I'm here with my lifelong friend and business partner and co-founder of Lead Smart Technologies,

[00:01:18] Tom Burton.

[00:01:19] We get together every Friday morning on LinkedIn Live, YouTube Live and Facebook Live.

[00:01:24] We do that at nine o'clock Pacific time and we get together and we review the news

[00:01:29] of the week.

[00:01:31] We do that through the format of our Around the Horn and Wholesale Distribution and

[00:01:35] Manufacturing newsletter that we review.

[00:01:38] That goes out to about 10,000 people every week.

[00:01:40] And what we try and do is take news from all kinds of resources, including Jonathan's

[00:01:45] firm, the Distribution Strategy Group and bring that data and information into our

[00:01:50] followers and our subscribers and share that information, not just about

[00:01:55] information about the economy and tech and M&A and sales and marketing, but how

[00:02:00] that impacts wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

[00:02:04] And we do this again every week.

[00:02:05] When we're done with the live show today, our editor and producer takes all of

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[00:02:49] The only way we're able to do this each week is because we have the

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[00:02:55] LeadSmart has developed an AI-enabled CRM and customer intelligence

[00:03:00] platform developed and designed exclusively for wholesale distribution

[00:03:05] and manufacturers.

[00:03:06] So we bring this show to you and we hope you enjoy it.

[00:03:10] And the best thing that you can do for us is if you enjoy what we do

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[00:03:19] review, forward the newsletter to your friends and whatever it might be.

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[00:03:25] allow us to entice guests like Jonathan to join us on an ongoing

[00:03:29] basis as well.

[00:03:30] So enough of the housekeeping.

[00:03:32] Did I miss anything Tom?

[00:03:34] No, you're good.

[00:03:34] Hey, I wanted to say good morning to Brian.

[00:03:36] It's good to see him back.

[00:03:37] I haven't seen him for a while.

[00:03:39] Good morning Brian.

[00:03:41] And yeah, if you're out there, please jump in, say good morning to Jonathan.

[00:03:45] Don't have to say good morning to Kevin and I, but Jonathan definitely

[00:03:47] say good morning too.

[00:03:48] So very good.

[00:03:50] So Jonathan, before we dive in, how about a recap of your journey

[00:03:53] to where you are today and what you're doing today with DSG and the

[00:03:58] famed Mr.

[00:04:00] Heller as well?

[00:04:02] You bet.

[00:04:02] So I grew up in the, in technology.

[00:04:05] My training is in computer science.

[00:04:08] Um, with kind of an emphasis in linguistics and music and these

[00:04:12] things actually all come together.

[00:04:14] Um, so I did a lot of things in the tech world before getting into

[00:04:18] distribution, I had about a hundred software developers working for me at

[00:04:22] one point and we were working with a lot of telecom companies, a

[00:04:26] lot of healthcare.

[00:04:27] I was the CEO of a healthcare informatics company that had a very

[00:04:33] successful exit.

[00:04:34] Um, I stepped out after 9 11 to have a midlife, my first midlife crisis.

[00:04:42] Um, and organized my sock drawer in my house and I was like, well, I

[00:04:47] better find something to actually do.

[00:04:48] So I started doing interim CXO consulting, uh, where X could be E,

[00:04:55] uh, M or T depending on the technology.

[00:04:58] And I did that for a number of years.

[00:05:00] And then I met Ian Heller in 2008 and I fell in love with distribution.

[00:05:04] And I'd been doing a number of very analytic focused, uh, types of

[00:05:09] consulting, uh, or it was understanding value of an offering the ROI of an

[00:05:15] offering value calculators, market sizing pricing, um, very left

[00:05:22] brain analytic approaches.

[00:05:23] I found that distribution was a much richer arena for the things that I

[00:05:28] love to do.

[00:05:29] Um, even a smaller distributor has probably a couple of thousand

[00:05:33] customers, probably 10,000 or more skews and multiply those two numbers.

[00:05:39] You get a bigger number.

[00:05:40] Um, and that ended up being a rich arena for the, um, analytic

[00:05:45] life that I want to pursue.

[00:05:47] So Ian got me involved and what we just say about he's the word guy.

[00:05:52] I'm the numbers guy.

[00:05:54] Um, you know, we have enough a corpus callosum that we can actually communicate.

[00:06:01] He's the right brain guy and the left brain guy.

[00:06:03] And we have a number of different descriptors, but distribution strategy

[00:06:08] very briefly is we've got two things.

[00:06:10] We've got content.

[00:06:11] Um, we'll talk a little bit more about the conference that

[00:06:13] we're doing later on, but we put out a weekly webcasts.

[00:06:18] Um, that could be a best practice.

[00:06:20] It could be a panel of technology companies.

[00:06:22] Could be a panel of distributors.

[00:06:24] It could be a show a little bit like this.

[00:06:26] That's one side of our business.

[00:06:27] Other side of our businesses, we've got analytics software for estimating

[00:06:31] the size of a customer's wallet, how much they're spending by different

[00:06:35] product categories, how much you have left that you could sell them.

[00:06:39] Um, and then we have another product for measuring

[00:06:41] and improving customer experience.

[00:06:43] So.

[00:06:44] That's fantastic.

[00:06:45] It astounds me, uh, because I'm a devotee of the content that the SG puts

[00:06:51] out, it astounds me the amount and the quality and the quality of guests.

[00:06:56] And so forth, uh, that, that are there each week.

[00:06:59] And we try and every week, in fact, I would be shocked if we went back

[00:07:04] to the archives of this show.

[00:07:06] And there wasn't a week that we didn't mention something from

[00:07:09] content from your organization.

[00:07:12] Um, so I'm excited that you're with us today.

[00:07:14] It kind of do a deep dive.

[00:07:16] Two things come to mind though, that before we move ahead, one is you

[00:07:21] and Ian have a lot, uh, I'd say Tom, the relationship that Tom and I have,

[00:07:27] uh, is very, very similar, uh, how our brains work and so forth.

[00:07:31] And I always say there's a Venn diagram that, that Tom and I meet

[00:07:35] in the middle with a lot of similar skills and, and while I don't

[00:07:39] have anywhere near the, uh, the technology skills, Tom's a computer

[00:07:43] scientist by education and started an exit at multiple software companies.

[00:07:48] And I'm a peddler of safety equipment and industrial supplies my entire career.

[00:07:54] And we came together to, uh, to start our technology company to solve problems

[00:07:59] that I had had in my entire career.

[00:08:01] Um, but there's a crossover where his technology comes into business

[00:08:06] and Tom enjoys marketing as well.

[00:08:08] And I love technology, but I don't understand it well enough, but there's

[00:08:12] that there's, I think a nice crossover similarity to you and Ian there.

[00:08:16] Although I would never for a moment consider myself anywhere near in the

[00:08:21] same stratosphere of, uh, of writers as Ian.

[00:08:25] So, but it's, but you have, you two have that relationship.

[00:08:28] That's terrific.

[00:08:29] Yeah.

[00:08:29] And so if we can just continue that path, so Ian would be the

[00:08:34] creative, I would be the analytic, right?

[00:08:35] So you'd be the creative for your business.

[00:08:37] Tom would be the analytic, but each of you has enough of the other,

[00:08:42] uh, that it works.

[00:08:43] It's not like it's split down the middle.

[00:08:46] Um, so yeah.

[00:08:48] Tom would suggest that I have all of his good qualities and he has

[00:08:52] none of my bad in that crossover.

[00:08:55] I've been really holding back on saying much of anything here.

[00:08:57] So let's move on to the, let's go on to the news.

[00:09:00] Yeah.

[00:09:00] The, uh, before we do that, I got a quick question for you though,

[00:09:03] Jonathan, um, you had mentioned that technology and music piece.

[00:09:08] Yes.

[00:09:08] Is that where you and, uh, and Dr.

[00:09:11] Lynn Chase first connected was through music or was it through science?

[00:09:16] It was through science.

[00:09:17] And I actually didn't know about her music background until about four years ago.

[00:09:22] But she and I worked at Martin Marietta back in the days of symbolic AI.

[00:09:28] We were among the first AI people in Colorado.

[00:09:31] She was doing stuff on, you know, Mars landing stuff, right?

[00:09:35] Mars.

[00:09:36] And I was working on space station stuff.

[00:09:38] So, okay.

[00:09:39] Gotcha.

[00:09:39] I just thought that connection might be there.

[00:09:41] She was a guest.

[00:09:42] I met her through your AI event last October.

[00:09:46] Got to know her a little bit.

[00:09:47] She's been on the show as a guest and was just phenomenal.

[00:09:50] And what a unique human being, huh?

[00:09:52] She's incredible.

[00:09:53] She's, she's, she's a giant.

[00:09:55] If we're talking about Dr.

[00:09:57] Lynn Chase, Lynn is, uh, I, Jonathan, tell me if I'm wrong here, but a world

[00:10:01] renowned expert in AI and machine learning, um, but just a phenomenal

[00:10:07] human being lived on a sailboat plays like 25 instruments.

[00:10:11] Who knows how many languages she speaks.

[00:10:13] If you're interested in any of what thing, what she has to say, you

[00:10:15] could go back to our around the horn pod.com, uh, website or to LinkedIn

[00:10:22] elites, more technologies page scroll back a few months, you'll see her

[00:10:25] episode there, so Tom take us to the news, would you?

[00:10:30] Yeah.

[00:10:30] So we're starting off with our usual economy and supply chain.

[00:10:36] Yeah.

[00:10:36] And the first article here, federal reserve minutes policy makers

[00:10:41] saw a longer path to rate cuts.

[00:10:43] So the only thing I can think of is they'd been finally listening to

[00:10:46] the show here and listening to what I had to say and realize that probably

[00:10:51] one rate cut this year was the right strategy.

[00:10:53] I think that's what happened.

[00:10:54] That's what if I'm reading.

[00:10:55] Jonathan, before we go any further, not sure if you're aware, but

[00:10:58] regular listeners to the podcast would know, uh, and by the way, I don't,

[00:11:03] I don't know if you know this, Jonathan, but Tom and I have been

[00:11:05] friends since kindergarten.

[00:11:07] Oh, so we don't pull a lot of punches with each other.

[00:11:10] Um, we were behaved when we're together with our wives, but

[00:11:13] otherwise not so much, but we have a big steak dinner and some wine

[00:11:18] riding on what I'm, I'm a believer.

[00:11:20] There's two rate cuts this year.

[00:11:22] Tom's that there's at the most one.

[00:11:24] And so each week we talk about this a little bit.

[00:11:27] So little context as we have this discussion.

[00:11:30] Well, you've been together since kindergarten and you're each

[00:11:33] sitting in your assigned spots.

[00:11:34] Yeah.

[00:11:36] Very good.

[00:11:36] We're used to it.

[00:11:37] Yeah, we're used to it.

[00:11:38] Yeah.

[00:11:39] Very so.

[00:11:40] So no, I mean, and it's interesting, right?

[00:11:42] Is the market really has gone crazy since the last meeting

[00:11:47] or whatever reason, but I think what they came through and said is

[00:11:51] we're not expecting to raise anymore or not anymore.

[00:11:54] And, um,

[00:11:55] I think a little bit of a thread of that there for a week or two.

[00:11:57] Right?

[00:11:58] Yeah.

[00:11:59] But I think we're still everything I'm seeing.

[00:12:02] I think we're still sitting at that, that one and seems like

[00:12:05] that's basically what's in so many words being said in here.

[00:12:08] So.

[00:12:09] Yeah.

[00:12:11] Well, you know, I think that this article talks a little bit about

[00:12:15] this from a standpoint of, you know, there were some people

[00:12:19] talking about some potential raises.

[00:12:21] Uh, you know, I, every time I see this, it just astounds me

[00:12:25] 11 hikes that there's been, you know, over the last two since

[00:12:30] 2022 and 23 of that being done.

[00:12:33] So they said that one of the quotes here was such concerns

[00:12:36] of race speculation, the fed might consider raising rather than

[00:12:39] cutting its influential benchmark rate in the coming months.

[00:12:42] Indeed, the minutes from that main meeting noted that various

[00:12:45] officials mentioned a willingness if it's a inflation accelerate

[00:12:49] reaccelerated, but then there was more talk later from Powell

[00:12:53] and others that kind of were like, no, no, no, no, don't,

[00:12:55] don't worry about that.

[00:12:57] Yeah.

[00:12:58] So we'll see what we'll see what cap happens next.

[00:13:01] I'm just, you know, we're going to talk in a few minutes about,

[00:13:05] uh, some, some other metrics.

[00:13:07] I'm going to throw this out before we even get to that

[00:13:09] article, the Jonathan, one of the things that I've been saying

[00:13:11] Jonathan for a long time is, and you know, neither Tom nor I

[00:13:16] claim to be economists.

[00:13:17] Should we just pretend for a few minutes on Friday mornings?

[00:13:20] But, um, I I've been questioning for a long time, whether we're

[00:13:24] using the right metrics related to inflation based upon the

[00:13:29] markets and the conditions.

[00:13:31] Uh, one of these days I'm going to stop talking about this and go

[00:13:34] do all the research about when, you know, did this 2% number come

[00:13:38] in all of the metrics that they use?

[00:13:40] Cause we just live in a different world.

[00:13:42] Uh, then we did 20, 30, 40 years ago.

[00:13:44] So I kind of questioned sometimes if we're using the right

[00:13:47] metrics or not, but that's one guy's opinion.

[00:13:53] Any thoughts on, uh, on rates, Jonathan, but sentiment wise.

[00:13:58] 11 and two years is a lot.

[00:14:00] 11 rate changes in two years.

[00:14:04] I, it feels like I missed some of those happening.

[00:14:07] Yeah.

[00:14:08] That's what happened when I read them.

[00:14:09] I got accustomed to them happening because they were so frequent.

[00:14:11] Yep.

[00:14:12] Yep.

[00:14:13] There were every, every other month or a little bit more than that.

[00:14:18] Yeah.

[00:14:18] So anyways, let's jump to the next articles cause this kind of ties

[00:14:22] in to the same thing that maybe this will help us a little bit

[00:14:26] getting to those reductions.

[00:14:27] Next article that we talk about here is from CNBC talks about

[00:14:31] consumers, punting big purchases like pools and mattresses, but you

[00:14:36] know, this ties right back to when we talk about consumer pricing,

[00:14:39] wholesale pricing, these are all tied back into the decisions that

[00:14:42] the fed looks to make on all of these things.

[00:14:45] And you know, what we've watched is this exuberance, I think coming

[00:14:49] out of COVID and you know, I was Mrs.

[00:14:52] Brown and I were talking about this yesterday that we looked back

[00:14:55] and we realized, you know, we spent more than we should have during that time.

[00:14:58] And we like to think that we're probably pretty, you know, responsible

[00:15:03] in general compared to some, but it now we're seeing this consumers are

[00:15:08] now we're starting to feel that slowdown is the conversation

[00:15:11] that's getting started now.

[00:15:12] Any takeaway on that Tom?

[00:15:14] Yeah.

[00:15:14] You know, I actually did a little bit of homework on this after our last

[00:15:17] episode because I really wanted to understand it a bit more and it's

[00:15:21] not easy to get clear data, but here's what I've discovered.

[00:15:25] Right.

[00:15:26] And some of this is pretty well known consumers as a group, and that's

[00:15:30] obviously a very broad group savings are at the lowest level that they've

[00:15:33] been in many, many years, credit card debt is at the highest level

[00:15:37] that it's been at many, many years yet.

[00:15:40] As consumers, what we're spending most of our money on right now is not

[00:15:45] these big purchases like they have here, but experiences and whether

[00:15:50] that's eating out, travel, whatever, which aligns with what I saw in

[00:15:54] Vegas a couple of weeks back.

[00:15:56] It was just people spending money by crazy on experience.

[00:16:00] Now, what doesn't quite resonate with me and I'd love you guys to take

[00:16:03] on it and or anybody who's listening is the reason that people, they

[00:16:07] say that so much money is still being spent on experiences is that

[00:16:11] people are still kind of, you know, coming out of the COVID lockdown

[00:16:15] phrase and they're going to go do everything and anything they couldn't do.

[00:16:18] But that's now getting to be two years ago, right?

[00:16:20] Or longer.

[00:16:21] So it seems a little, the pent up demand seems to be, you would

[00:16:27] think that would have reduced a bit.

[00:16:30] But again, that's what the quote unquote experts are saying is

[00:16:34] they're continuing to spend and the reason that they're continuing

[00:16:37] to spend is that they have equity in their home, they have the

[00:16:40] wealth factor of their home equity.

[00:16:42] They have the wealth factor of their 401k, even though that money may

[00:16:46] not be immediately accessible, there's still that feeling that,

[00:16:49] Hey, I've got this wealth.

[00:16:51] And so that's what's actually happening.

[00:16:53] So anyway, it's kind of ties into a lot of the stuff that's here.

[00:16:58] My immediate hit on reading the article was what you shared, Tom,

[00:17:02] which is that it's about credit card debt and people are tapped out

[00:17:07] on either credit card deadlines, credit, and so the big ticket items

[00:17:12] are getting deferred.

[00:17:13] Yeah, I made an interesting comment.

[00:17:15] One of the CEOs that was commenting here, it says that this is all

[00:17:19] happening at a pivotal moment for the national economy.

[00:17:22] The average Joe has been contending with the double whammy of high

[00:17:25] prices and borrowing costs while economists and policymakers are

[00:17:30] trying to gauge the impact this has made.

[00:17:32] So I think this is a different type of, you know, pre-recession,

[00:17:38] call it whatever you want than we've seen historically.

[00:17:41] And I think a lot of that, as we say, is the tied to what happened

[00:17:48] during COVID and so forth and coming back.

[00:17:50] In fact, Paul Kennedy with the Dakota Supply Group just commented

[00:17:55] that everybody buy their stuff during COVID when they couldn't

[00:17:58] have experiences.

[00:17:59] And I think he's spot on with that.

[00:18:00] I think that's exactly right.

[00:18:02] I think that's exactly right.

[00:18:03] Right.

[00:18:04] Yeah.

[00:18:04] And now it's gone from stuff to experiences.

[00:18:06] Right.

[00:18:07] Right.

[00:18:08] I think it's got to level out unless people are still thinking,

[00:18:11] okay, I got to get these experiences now because I never know when the

[00:18:14] next COVID is going to occur.

[00:18:16] Don't know.

[00:18:17] It's not my mindset, but I don't know if I represent the average.

[00:18:21] Average.

[00:18:21] What I think, I think to Paul's point there too, is by the way,

[00:18:25] Brandon Lee's with us.

[00:18:26] Thanks for being with us today, Brandon and signing in.

[00:18:29] You know, we see pretty regularly, we get like comments all the time

[00:18:34] from people that are like, Hey, I made a comment, but it doesn't

[00:18:36] show up if they're through LinkedIn sometimes, but that's okay.

[00:18:40] We appreciate those that are with us and trying, but you know,

[00:18:43] is I think one of the things that we see a lot of with this

[00:18:46] is, and it's maybe not as bad in my house, but it's there is

[00:18:52] I don't know that the Amazon stops have slowed down that much.

[00:18:56] Certainly as I look at my neighborhood, the Amazon truck and

[00:19:01] the UPS trucks here as many times a day, I think in the neighborhood

[00:19:04] as it was during COVID.

[00:19:06] So I think there's a lot of people that have just kept that buying

[00:19:09] spree that they've gone on is in the same way.

[00:19:13] So Brandon, did you notice Brandon's comment there before we move on Tom?

[00:19:19] Yeah.

[00:19:21] No, he said, I don't think it's a conscientious thing, but I agree

[00:19:23] that experiences are more important to people than stuff after COVID.

[00:19:30] And I think the stuff may have become a lifestyle.

[00:19:33] It's just a cycle that people are in.

[00:19:36] So those big tickets that they're talking about pools and, you know,

[00:19:39] big, big ticket things, maybe they're going to slow down.

[00:19:42] I don't know what that has, you know, good.

[00:19:44] And that all comes back to distribution and manufacturing

[00:19:47] potentially to some degree.

[00:19:49] But absolutely that comes right back around to that setting.

[00:19:52] One last comment related to this.

[00:19:54] And there was a quote out of the, out of this article and says,

[00:19:57] this matters because it adds to a growing picture of consumer

[00:20:01] spending finally slowing down as expert and long anticipated.

[00:20:05] That means that the federal reserve may get the sign it's been waiting for

[00:20:08] that interest rate hikes have had their intended effects of tightening

[00:20:11] the economy, which could be good news for investors and consumers.

[00:20:16] So that said too, I just read.

[00:20:21] Okay.

[00:20:22] Did it say two?

[00:20:23] Okay.

[00:20:24] All right.

[00:20:24] Well, I think there will definitely be a lot of cuts next year.

[00:20:29] I have no, I'm not, I would not, I just say in between now and the end of the year,

[00:20:33] I think it's going to, as we go into next year, it's totally going to start to kick

[00:20:36] in and I think we'll see a lot more cuts.

[00:20:38] Yeah.

[00:20:39] Good.

[00:20:39] So a couple of things before we jump ahead.

[00:20:41] Good morning to Mike Mortenson from ARG industrial.

[00:20:44] It's great to have you.

[00:20:45] Um, always like when Mike's with us, he's been on the

[00:20:48] show with us twice before.

[00:20:50] Appreciate seeing him.

[00:20:51] And then Brandon made a great comment here.

[00:20:53] He said it's all, this is, this is astute.

[00:20:56] So really astute, I think is that it's also a culture of a younger generation

[00:21:01] that experiences are more important than stuff.

[00:21:04] And I think you probably saw that on your Las Vegas trip, Tom is that, you

[00:21:09] know, there's people there, you know, their car barely got into the parking

[00:21:12] structure, but they're buying $40 cocktails, right?

[00:21:16] So it's an interesting event.

[00:21:18] $40 cocktails and a hundred dollar movies at the sphere.

[00:21:20] So, yeah, that's the experience.

[00:21:24] But that, that ties back to, you know, what my wondering about is how we track

[00:21:32] the economy in this country.

[00:21:34] If it needs to have some adjustments tied to it based upon who, how, and

[00:21:40] what people do and how our business life works, cause things are

[00:21:46] different than it used to be.

[00:21:48] So I think Kevin did that.

[00:21:49] And we're seeing new configurations of employment, wages, inflation and stock

[00:21:59] market that we haven't seen in the past.

[00:22:00] So we may be in a, in a different kind of world now.

[00:22:04] Yep.

[00:22:04] Great comment from Marty McLaughlin.

[00:22:08] And he's from the Mosaic group and formerly the chief marketing

[00:22:12] officer at affiliated distributors.

[00:22:17] So we've got some great comments coming today.

[00:22:19] Marty says, I think many are de-stuffing.

[00:22:24] I wish Marty was live with us to tell us how he came up with de-stuffing.

[00:22:28] That's from a marketing guy right there.

[00:22:30] Big purchases may align to real estate transactions and many aren't selling

[00:22:35] to keep their 2% interest rates.

[00:22:37] So good point there.

[00:22:39] And then I like this one.

[00:22:41] If lunch costs 80 bucks is now considered an experience.

[00:22:44] I like that.

[00:22:46] Right.

[00:22:46] The whole way for $10 is not an experience, but $80 for a

[00:22:52] hamburger and a drink could be.

[00:22:54] But you know what?

[00:22:54] It's, it's, it's ridiculous when you go to Jersey Mike's and get two

[00:23:01] sandwiches and two drinks and two chips and it's 30, 35 bucks.

[00:23:05] It's like, how did it happen?

[00:23:07] It's not fast food anymore.

[00:23:08] Might as well go to the restaurant and spend five more dollars

[00:23:10] and have something better.

[00:23:11] Hey Tom, before we jump ahead.

[00:23:13] And I know we need to for time.

[00:23:14] I wanted to welcome Jason Bader with us.

[00:23:16] Um, it's nice, nice comment.

[00:23:19] Jason's got a great podcast himself.

[00:23:21] Um, and we're appreciative of him being with us today.

[00:23:24] So thanks for joining us.

[00:23:26] Happy to have you with us.

[00:23:27] Um, I've invited him to join us on the show.

[00:23:30] If he's open to that, we'd love to have him sometime.

[00:23:32] And so we'll go from there and, uh, yeah, Brandon says to

[00:23:35] Mike Mortenson, Mike drop moment.

[00:23:38] So very good.

[00:23:39] All right.

[00:23:39] So now that ties into, as we're talking about how they look at

[00:23:43] things, another article here from Reuters about the New York

[00:23:47] Fed announcing announces a launch of a new supply chain

[00:23:50] pressure metric.

[00:23:52] I think this is an interesting piece, right?

[00:23:54] It, and I don't want to tie this to me being right.

[00:24:00] And I don't want to say that that's what they're doing,

[00:24:02] but it almost feels like somebody saying, okay, maybe

[00:24:05] there's more we need to look at and supply chain pressure

[00:24:09] has not been traditionally part necessarily of what the

[00:24:12] Fed looks at.

[00:24:15] Well, I think it's broadening, right?

[00:24:17] I think it's very smart to broaden the analytics and the

[00:24:19] metrics and Jonathan love your take on this as an analytics

[00:24:23] and metrics guy.

[00:24:24] I think, you know, I mean, look at, I agree with you,

[00:24:27] Kevin, that we probably look at it.

[00:24:30] Stop there.

[00:24:31] Stop there.

[00:24:32] Okay.

[00:24:32] I agree with you is enough.

[00:24:34] Okay.

[00:24:35] Okay.

[00:24:36] Did I really say that?

[00:24:37] You said it out loud and it's really important.

[00:24:39] Okay.

[00:24:39] Sorry.

[00:24:40] There are witnesses.

[00:24:41] Okay.

[00:24:43] I do agree that, you know, the number of metrics and that we

[00:24:46] tend to look at as small given the vast complexities of what

[00:24:51] we're doing.

[00:24:51] So I think adding different metrics and looking at

[00:24:54] different metrics and analytics is very smart, but

[00:24:58] Jonathan, what's your take on this availability index

[00:25:01] from what you're stamped?

[00:25:02] Do you think this is a valid metric or what do you think

[00:25:05] is the pro and con of that?

[00:25:07] Well, it depends.

[00:25:08] I think partly depends on the cost of creating and maintaining

[00:25:13] that metric.

[00:25:14] The cost of what we just went through was very high.

[00:25:18] So if the cost for this is reasonable and it's been,

[00:25:23] we can spot something and get ahead of it because of that.

[00:25:27] That's a win.

[00:25:28] Yep.

[00:25:29] It's an interesting point.

[00:25:30] I don't know what would be involved in actually doing it.

[00:25:32] It sounds nice on paper, right?

[00:25:33] But what is actually involved?

[00:25:35] And what they're talking about is that they reference a new

[00:25:38] gauge to measure how widespread supply disruptions

[00:25:41] are and understand if availability is improving and

[00:25:45] track inflationary pressures and that impact that it has

[00:25:48] on local firms.

[00:25:50] So, you know, we talk every week about supply chain

[00:25:53] issues, right?

[00:25:54] And how these are impacting things.

[00:25:56] And I think they're just going to look, start looking

[00:25:59] at at least that this is just the New York Fed, right?

[00:26:02] But if they start and put that gauge in and start managing

[00:26:05] and looking closer at supply chains, I think it may trickle

[00:26:08] across.

[00:26:09] And maybe that's just one more thing that helps versus

[00:26:14] the current metrics or stack of what would you call it?

[00:26:17] A metric stack in your tech world instead of a tech stack,

[00:26:21] a metric stack, a series of metrics.

[00:26:24] portfolio metrics.

[00:26:25] Yeah.

[00:26:26] Yep.

[00:26:26] So anyways, I hope that they do and continue with that

[00:26:29] and I hope it helps find a better balance.

[00:26:32] So as we go and move ahead, we have different segments

[00:26:36] of the newsletter that we send out every week.

[00:26:38] And as a reminder, if you're with us and only listening

[00:26:41] on the podcast, which you're not hearing or not seeing,

[00:26:44] I should say while you're listening is we have the

[00:26:46] around the horn and wholesale distribution newsletter

[00:26:48] up.

[00:26:49] We send out every week to about 10,000 subscribers.

[00:26:54] And this just brings together information about manufacturing

[00:26:58] distribution and e-commerce and marketing and M&A and

[00:27:01] sales and supply chain and distribution, the economy.

[00:27:04] And we try and unpack that news like we're doing now

[00:27:06] with guests like Jonathan and apply that to how it

[00:27:10] impacts wholesale distribution manufacturing.

[00:27:12] So if you don't get the newsletter, just please let

[00:27:14] us know if you'd like to hello at leadsmarttech.com

[00:27:18] and we'll get you on the list.

[00:27:19] Or we have a website for the show, which is

[00:27:22] www.aroundthehornpod.com and you can get that

[00:27:26] newsletter.

[00:27:27] So we're going to jump now into our manufacturing

[00:27:29] distribution segment, tracking the inflation reduction

[00:27:33] acts impact on US manufacturing.

[00:27:36] That's from manufacturingdive.com.

[00:27:38] I thought this was good talks about this.

[00:27:41] It's been around since August of 2022, but things

[00:27:46] are starting to get rolling with it.

[00:27:47] I know Jonathan, you had a few thoughts when we

[00:27:49] talked earlier.

[00:27:49] Yeah, I think generally with technology adoption,

[00:27:55] it's easier to predict the fact of it than the

[00:27:58] win of it.

[00:28:00] And so there's all these initiatives in the

[00:28:02] electrification programs and policies of the US

[00:28:07] government to get to certain things by 2030,

[00:28:10] by 2050.

[00:28:11] We've heard some news about the slowdown of

[00:28:15] those.

[00:28:15] It's not a huge slowdown.

[00:28:17] But I think that what we see in this article

[00:28:19] is the level of energy on the manufacturing

[00:28:24] side to gear up for this.

[00:28:28] And that is going to play out in a positive way if

[00:28:33] distributors get after it over the next several

[00:28:36] years related to electrification.

[00:28:38] Let me give you just one example of the scale.

[00:28:40] So right now, they're looking to build a

[00:28:45] million fast chargers over the next number of

[00:28:50] years.

[00:28:50] And they expect to have 27 million, 27 to 30

[00:28:55] million slower charges in houses or in

[00:28:59] multi-tenant units.

[00:29:01] Again, they're thinking originally by 2030,

[00:29:05] so it slows down to 2032, maybe 2033.

[00:29:08] There's a little bit of friction in the

[00:29:10] adoption.

[00:29:11] But that's a massive shift and the economic

[00:29:15] opportunities that will be driven for

[00:29:18] listeners to this show, I think are

[00:29:20] significant.

[00:29:21] Yep.

[00:29:22] I think that's a great point to look at from

[00:29:25] that standpoint.

[00:29:26] What's interesting to me as well is we talk

[00:29:31] regularly on the broadcast here about

[00:29:34] onshore and nearshoring.

[00:29:36] And I think this is spurring even more of

[00:29:39] that or spurring even more of that, I

[00:29:41] guess I should say, to get people to dip

[00:29:43] their toes in the water and bringing

[00:29:45] things mostly from China and Southeast

[00:29:48] Asia that can have some difficulties with

[00:29:51] supply chain issues and bringing that back

[00:29:54] onshore.

[00:29:55] So it's great to see they talked about 39

[00:29:58] states, a factory and other project announcements

[00:30:01] in the last first existence worth more

[00:30:04] than $86 billion and continuing investment

[00:30:08] pushes is happening.

[00:30:09] So I think this is going to be something

[00:30:11] to continue to watch.

[00:30:12] And Tom, I think it's something we should

[00:30:13] look at consistently is how that ties

[00:30:16] into the reshoring and nearshoring things

[00:30:19] that we see as well because the

[00:30:20] electrification side is a big part of it

[00:30:22] that we're going to continue to see.

[00:30:24] Yeah, and I'm wondering if is this

[00:30:26] going to breed kind of a whole new or

[00:30:28] put together a new breed of distributors

[00:30:30] that have that expertise to deal with

[00:30:32] some of these types of high-tech items

[00:30:34] right that are coming out.

[00:30:36] I mean, it's it'll be interesting to see

[00:30:37] how that evolves from from the

[00:30:39] distribution perspective.

[00:30:40] Yeah, I think you probably will see

[00:30:43] that. I mean, we have lead smart customers

[00:30:45] who are branching out and have hold

[00:30:47] of new divisions of their companies

[00:30:49] that are starting to work on.

[00:30:50] So it is definitely there's definitely

[00:30:52] some some expansion opportunities

[00:30:55] if not Greenfield with this as well.

[00:30:58] That's good.

[00:30:59] Well, as we move through this segment,

[00:31:03] I go now close their doors the big

[00:31:08] reseller wholesaler of a master

[00:31:10] distributor of industrial and MRO

[00:31:12] and construction and welding and

[00:31:14] safety products.

[00:31:15] All of a sudden this week there was

[00:31:17] a sign on the website that said

[00:31:20] closed down and you know,

[00:31:22] I've seen a handful of these in

[00:31:23] the past happen, you know,

[00:31:25] quite a few over the years.

[00:31:27] Jonathan, you've been following this

[00:31:29] for a long time too.

[00:31:30] And I don't think I've seen one

[00:31:33] of these where the announcement goes

[00:31:35] out and on the website is

[00:31:39] liquidations at their website.

[00:31:42] And in this month,

[00:31:44] but that tells me that this has

[00:31:46] been going on for quite some time.

[00:31:48] If when the immediate announcement

[00:31:49] has all of the information about

[00:31:52] the liquidation happening surprised me.

[00:31:55] I don't know if you guys

[00:31:56] had any thoughts on that.

[00:31:59] The the acquirer could be interested

[00:32:01] in the in the assets rather

[00:32:04] than the brand and the customers.

[00:32:06] Yeah, well that could be the

[00:32:10] that you know what I was looking

[00:32:12] at is that from this standpoint

[00:32:13] is that there looks like there's

[00:32:15] probably a receiver involved

[00:32:16] or potentially receiver already

[00:32:18] involved in this and that they're

[00:32:20] promoting the liquidation of inventory.

[00:32:22] I would love to see somebody come

[00:32:24] along and you know,

[00:32:25] it could be one of the other

[00:32:27] wholesalers, you know,

[00:32:28] makes a down and dirty offer

[00:32:30] on on a good part of that inventory.

[00:32:33] My assumption is some distributors

[00:32:34] are looking at that that have,

[00:32:36] you know, solid strong balance

[00:32:38] sheets that will want to go

[00:32:39] in and buy some of that.

[00:32:40] But never like to see when

[00:32:41] somebody closes their doors.

[00:32:44] You know, I think the

[00:32:45] announcement was was short on details.

[00:32:49] It was yeah everywhere and I looked

[00:32:51] a number of different places

[00:32:52] to find more information.

[00:32:55] You made a great comment

[00:32:56] when we talked about this briefly

[00:32:58] before we went live today that

[00:33:01] the founding of this group,

[00:33:03] some of the founders of this group

[00:33:04] were NAS or as NASCO refugees.

[00:33:08] And so I think one of the things

[00:33:10] that it says is that the whole

[00:33:12] concept of master distributor,

[00:33:15] wholesaler slash reseller on this

[00:33:18] is it's not an easy business to be

[00:33:20] in numbers or margins are thin

[00:33:22] and numbers are tight.

[00:33:23] So we wish everybody there the best.

[00:33:27] Right.

[00:33:28] Should we move on to e-commerce

[00:33:29] and marketing?

[00:33:31] Tom, what's the first one there?

[00:33:33] Yeah.

[00:33:34] So this first article from Adweek,

[00:33:36] some advertisers are rebuilding

[00:33:38] their search strategies as Google

[00:33:40] AI search engine grows.

[00:33:43] So, boy, this is going to be

[00:33:47] this is a big topic and one

[00:33:49] that's going to I think have a

[00:33:51] profound way of how we deal

[00:33:55] with search and how we deal

[00:33:56] with traditional what we've known

[00:33:58] with search engines and so forth.

[00:33:59] But what it's talking about

[00:34:01] in so many words, right?

[00:34:02] If you and I see this periodically,

[00:34:04] I don't see it consistently.

[00:34:05] But if you go into Google

[00:34:07] and you ask it a question like

[00:34:09] how to cook, how do I cook macaroni

[00:34:11] and cheese or something like that?

[00:34:13] It will use AI and actually

[00:34:15] try and come back and give you

[00:34:17] a detailed, much like you would

[00:34:19] get in chat GPT, right?

[00:34:20] Or whatever a detailed AI

[00:34:22] explanation of how to make macaroni

[00:34:24] and cheese or how to create

[00:34:26] make prime rib or how to make

[00:34:28] a Thanksgiving dinner or whatever

[00:34:29] the case may be.

[00:34:30] Now there's some search terms

[00:34:32] like restaurants near me

[00:34:34] or something like that

[00:34:34] that obviously don't apply right now

[00:34:37] from these AI pieces and is more

[00:34:39] traditional search.

[00:34:40] But what the point of this article

[00:34:42] is, is that as you know people

[00:34:47] how are Google selecting the

[00:34:49] information that they're putting

[00:34:50] into the AI response on how to

[00:34:54] make macaroni and cheese, for

[00:34:55] example.

[00:34:56] So if I'm Kraft, do I want

[00:34:58] to have my macaroni

[00:35:00] and cheese represented in there?

[00:35:01] And how do you do that?

[00:35:02] How do you do things that

[00:35:04] as you know potentially people

[00:35:07] out there that you want to be

[00:35:08] represented in there?

[00:35:09] How do you do that on your website?

[00:35:11] How do you make yourself known

[00:35:13] and very different than the

[00:35:14] traditional sort of keyword

[00:35:16] aspect of things that has

[00:35:18] existed predominantly from search

[00:35:19] in the past.

[00:35:20] So really some interesting

[00:35:22] concepts there.

[00:35:24] Yes, it's different inputs

[00:35:25] and different outputs, keywords

[00:35:27] versus sentences, right?

[00:35:30] Transactional versus narrative

[00:35:32] or informational.

[00:35:33] Exactly.

[00:35:35] Yeah.

[00:35:36] Go ahead, Jonathan.

[00:35:37] No, please.

[00:35:39] If you look at what's happened

[00:35:40] over the years, I wrote an

[00:35:42] article a couple of years

[00:35:44] ago called the SEO arms race

[00:35:46] and what we were starting to

[00:35:47] notice was notice in different

[00:35:50] sectors.

[00:35:50] You look at HVAC, electrical,

[00:35:52] industrial, picture sector.

[00:35:54] Companies year-over-year were

[00:35:56] growing the number of keywords

[00:35:58] that showed up in a Google

[00:36:02] search or in a SEMrush.

[00:36:04] However you want to measure

[00:36:05] what gets them to the first page.

[00:36:07] They were growing at 40 or 50%

[00:36:09] a year for a number of years.

[00:36:11] And as we know, the SEO

[00:36:15] game is constantly morphing.

[00:36:17] It's like a virus that you're

[00:36:18] chasing after that's constantly

[00:36:19] morphing.

[00:36:21] This is more than a morph.

[00:36:23] This is a...

[00:36:25] Yeah.

[00:36:25] I would say this is a pivot.

[00:36:27] Yeah.

[00:36:28] This is major shift.

[00:36:29] So I think we're going to see

[00:36:31] the same thing again though that

[00:36:32] the SEO with AI is going to be

[00:36:35] this arms race that people are

[00:36:36] figuring out it's constantly

[00:36:38] morphing.

[00:36:39] So yeah, I think to go with

[00:36:41] that and I'm glad you

[00:36:42] described it that way the

[00:36:43] morphing of it and pivot is

[00:36:44] a good word too.

[00:36:46] But you know what we're

[00:36:46] talking about now with this as

[00:36:48] well is we've historically

[00:36:50] done words, maybe some

[00:36:52] long-tail words or terms

[00:36:55] and phrases or even sentences.

[00:36:57] But now we're mixing in

[00:36:59] video, images and all of

[00:37:02] these different pieces.

[00:37:03] And this is the

[00:37:04] importance of what we try

[00:37:05] and do here every week is

[00:37:06] loop this back to manufacturing

[00:37:08] and wholesale distribution.

[00:37:09] Right?

[00:37:09] And there are some

[00:37:11] phenomenal organizations out

[00:37:12] there with large teams that

[00:37:14] are highly experienced at

[00:37:16] this.

[00:37:16] But we also meet throughout

[00:37:18] our travels, you know,

[00:37:19] weekly or daily sometimes

[00:37:21] and Jonathan you may as

[00:37:22] well who are we see,

[00:37:24] you know, it's not for a

[00:37:25] lack of money or a lack of

[00:37:26] being a strong good company,

[00:37:28] but companies that are way

[00:37:29] behind on these things.

[00:37:31] Right?

[00:37:31] We see quarter billion

[00:37:33] dollar a year companies who

[00:37:35] have one person in their

[00:37:37] IT department and outsourcing

[00:37:40] their web design and

[00:37:41] outsourcing, you know,

[00:37:43] SEO and all of those

[00:37:44] things.

[00:37:45] And this is a game

[00:37:47] changing potential deal

[00:37:48] because you might be okay

[00:37:50] with where you're placing

[00:37:51] right now in your in

[00:37:53] Google search and so forth.

[00:37:55] But as this evolves,

[00:37:57] you could go from having

[00:37:58] spent a bunch of money with

[00:37:59] the third party a year ago

[00:38:01] and not done anything since

[00:38:03] and you're, you know,

[00:38:04] maybe popping up a little

[00:38:05] bit on the first page to

[00:38:07] going way down in the

[00:38:09] rankings because you're

[00:38:10] not following up on this.

[00:38:11] So this is I think this

[00:38:13] is and the reason I

[00:38:14] wanted one of the reasons

[00:38:15] I selected this article is

[00:38:16] as a heads up right to

[00:38:18] now is the time to not

[00:38:20] only realize hey,

[00:38:21] there's a whole lot of

[00:38:22] new different things

[00:38:23] happening with SEO that

[00:38:25] I need to be aware of,

[00:38:26] but it could radically

[00:38:29] change where I'm at on

[00:38:31] my search functions today.

[00:38:33] And if you're just using

[00:38:34] a third party or somebody

[00:38:37] you know in on your

[00:38:38] team does a little bit of

[00:38:38] research on SEO here

[00:38:40] and there and changes

[00:38:41] some terms now is a

[00:38:43] critical time to really

[00:38:44] dig in and go figure

[00:38:45] out what is this going

[00:38:46] to do to impact your

[00:38:47] web presence?

[00:38:48] Well, and I want to

[00:38:49] have Mike's comment here

[00:38:50] or question here.

[00:38:51] He says how do you

[00:38:52] think the quality and

[00:38:53] overall content

[00:38:55] around product data will

[00:38:56] drive visibility given

[00:38:58] the AI search change and

[00:39:01] my take on this is,

[00:39:04] you know, traditionally

[00:39:05] right product data is

[00:39:06] here's what the product

[00:39:07] is the specs that

[00:39:09] the things like that.

[00:39:10] But now you take that

[00:39:11] one step further and

[00:39:12] you kind of if that's

[00:39:12] the wet then then

[00:39:14] kind of book in that

[00:39:15] with the why and how

[00:39:17] so why would I need

[00:39:18] this product?

[00:39:18] Why would it be a

[00:39:19] value so forth and

[00:39:21] then how do I use it?

[00:39:22] What do I do with it?

[00:39:23] How do I implement it?

[00:39:24] How do I if I have

[00:39:25] those the what the why

[00:39:26] and the how around

[00:39:28] that product data because

[00:39:29] that's what those

[00:39:30] answers are providing.

[00:39:31] Yeah, those answers are

[00:39:32] not just providing data

[00:39:33] about the what which

[00:39:34] is traditionally what

[00:39:36] has happened in the

[00:39:36] transactional world.

[00:39:38] It's also saying well,

[00:39:39] why would you want to

[00:39:39] do this and how would

[00:39:41] you potentially want to

[00:39:42] do it?

[00:39:42] So I totally agree.

[00:39:43] You're going to have

[00:39:44] to improve the quality

[00:39:45] and overall content.

[00:39:47] But the big picture

[00:39:48] that my takeaway from

[00:39:49] this article was and

[00:39:50] it talks about companies

[00:39:52] like going to their

[00:39:53] FAQ section on their

[00:39:54] website and putting

[00:39:56] videos on the FAQ

[00:39:57] section and images

[00:39:59] in the FAQ section

[00:40:01] besides, you know,

[00:40:02] how do I process a

[00:40:03] return?

[00:40:04] Right because what we

[00:40:05] don't know yet,

[00:40:06] but it's very clear

[00:40:07] from this article and

[00:40:08] Google is already saying

[00:40:09] in this setting is

[00:40:12] video and images

[00:40:14] and maybe even voice

[00:40:15] are going to be major

[00:40:17] major factors moving

[00:40:18] forward.

[00:40:19] So right now and I

[00:40:20] think this goes back

[00:40:21] to Mike's question is

[00:40:22] and it really ties

[00:40:24] a lot even to e-commerce,

[00:40:25] right?

[00:40:25] We've got our PIMS

[00:40:27] in these different

[00:40:27] solutions where we've

[00:40:28] got beautiful taxonomy

[00:40:31] of all of these things

[00:40:32] and we've done all

[00:40:33] this work and all

[00:40:34] of these people and

[00:40:35] Mike, my friend,

[00:40:35] I'm not saying this

[00:40:36] to, you know,

[00:40:37] light a fire or be,

[00:40:39] you know, doomsday

[00:40:40] about this.

[00:40:41] But I think we need

[00:40:42] to be taking a look

[00:40:44] at and following very

[00:40:45] closely what is

[00:40:47] happening because to

[00:40:48] Jonathan's point,

[00:40:49] I think earlier was

[00:40:50] we've already known

[00:40:51] algorithms change all

[00:40:52] the time,

[00:40:53] right?

[00:40:54] But now there could be

[00:40:55] this monumental shift

[00:40:57] in how these

[00:40:59] algorithms shift slightly

[00:41:01] typically,

[00:41:01] right?

[00:41:02] And now they could be

[00:41:02] a monumental shift

[00:41:03] in how they do it.

[00:41:04] Well, but it's also

[00:41:05] you said the multimodal

[00:41:06] yeah,

[00:41:07] and how you're

[00:41:08] how it's using those

[00:41:10] algorithms and those

[00:41:11] indexing to actually

[00:41:13] identify multimodal

[00:41:15] content,

[00:41:16] not just tech content

[00:41:17] along the way.

[00:41:18] So there's the

[00:41:19] context of the content

[00:41:20] which we just were

[00:41:21] talking about

[00:41:22] and then there's the

[00:41:22] modality of the

[00:41:23] content as well.

[00:41:25] Those are big words

[00:41:26] for me.

[00:41:27] Yeah, those are big

[00:41:27] words for a first

[00:41:28] Friday morning.

[00:41:29] So anyway,

[00:41:31] I'll fill you in later.

[00:41:33] Okay.

[00:41:35] Good.

[00:41:35] Any closing thoughts

[00:41:36] on that Jonathan

[00:41:37] before we go that

[00:41:38] this is

[00:41:39] right up your alley.

[00:41:40] I think a little bit.

[00:41:42] A picture is worth

[00:41:43] a thousand search

[00:41:44] attributes.

[00:41:46] I think this will reward

[00:41:48] those who've taken

[00:41:49] their product data

[00:41:50] seriously.

[00:41:52] And so if we think

[00:41:53] about the group

[00:41:54] initiatives like

[00:41:56] an AD,

[00:41:56] an iMark,

[00:41:57] perhaps an association.

[00:41:59] The people that

[00:42:00] take product data

[00:42:01] seriously

[00:42:03] are saying

[00:42:04] let's

[00:42:05] look at our top

[00:42:07] 10% of our

[00:42:08] SKUs.

[00:42:08] The 10% of our SKUs

[00:42:09] represent 90%

[00:42:10] of our revenue

[00:42:11] and by the way it is

[00:42:11] that

[00:42:13] pronounced.

[00:42:14] It could be even more.

[00:42:16] They've already been

[00:42:16] applying efforts to

[00:42:18] enhance

[00:42:19] and enrich

[00:42:21] those top 10%

[00:42:22] of the SKUs.

[00:42:24] I think the

[00:42:24] folks that are

[00:42:26] that are taking

[00:42:26] that strategy

[00:42:27] who don't want to just

[00:42:28] look like everybody

[00:42:29] else in AD or iMark

[00:42:31] or whatever the group

[00:42:31] initiatives

[00:42:33] are going to be better

[00:42:34] served.

[00:42:35] And part of what

[00:42:36] happens in those

[00:42:37] initiatives is

[00:42:39] you're adding more

[00:42:39] image and video data.

[00:42:41] So

[00:42:43] I think it's a

[00:42:44] it's a call to arms

[00:42:46] for

[00:42:47] those who are not

[00:42:48] already

[00:42:49] taking their product

[00:42:50] data as seriously.

[00:42:52] I think that's huge

[00:42:53] what you're saying

[00:42:53] Jonathan from a

[00:42:54] practicality standpoint

[00:42:55] is just focus

[00:42:57] on the most

[00:42:57] profitable

[00:42:58] the start at your

[00:42:59] top 10%

[00:43:00] right?

[00:43:00] Don't try and

[00:43:01] boil the ocean

[00:43:01] all at once

[00:43:02] start and then

[00:43:03] keep adding from there.

[00:43:04] That's very

[00:43:05] practical

[00:43:07] way of going

[00:43:07] about it without

[00:43:08] making it too

[00:43:08] overwhelming.

[00:43:09] Well and also

[00:43:11] utilizing

[00:43:12] the volume

[00:43:13] play that you're

[00:43:14] getting from the

[00:43:15] group initiative.

[00:43:16] Yeah.

[00:43:17] You may not

[00:43:18] yet to enriching

[00:43:19] the second 10%.

[00:43:21] You may

[00:43:22] we rely on what's

[00:43:22] coming out of the

[00:43:23] box from

[00:43:24] group initiative

[00:43:25] that you're in.

[00:43:26] Yep.

[00:43:28] But

[00:43:29] one of the other

[00:43:29] expectations

[00:43:30] from users now

[00:43:32] is

[00:43:33] they don't want to

[00:43:34] see no image

[00:43:35] available

[00:43:35] for the

[00:43:36] bottom 90%.

[00:43:37] They're going to

[00:43:38] expect to see

[00:43:39] better faceted

[00:43:40] data

[00:43:41] for not just

[00:43:41] your top 10%.

[00:43:42] So there's a

[00:43:43] there's an

[00:43:44] expectation about

[00:43:45] that that is

[00:43:45] driven by

[00:43:46] retail and consumer.

[00:43:48] No, I'm

[00:43:50] really glad you

[00:43:50] said that we talk

[00:43:51] about that

[00:43:51] constantly

[00:43:53] here is that

[00:43:55] the B2B

[00:43:55] buyer right

[00:43:56] there.

[00:43:57] We know now

[00:43:58] that 60

[00:43:58] plus percent

[00:43:59] are Millennials

[00:44:00] and

[00:44:01] and they

[00:44:02] expect

[00:44:03] a B2C

[00:44:04] experience

[00:44:04] in B2B.

[00:44:06] And so you

[00:44:08] to your point

[00:44:08] and I'm really

[00:44:09] appreciative of

[00:44:10] what you were

[00:44:10] describing there

[00:44:12] is and it

[00:44:12] actually elicited

[00:44:13] a comment here

[00:44:14] with emojis

[00:44:15] attached to it

[00:44:16] as well

[00:44:17] just pretty

[00:44:17] special but

[00:44:19] we don't get

[00:44:19] emojis very

[00:44:21] that's pretty

[00:44:22] cool.

[00:44:23] But

[00:44:24] but I think

[00:44:25] we expect no less

[00:44:26] from Mike

[00:44:26] Mortenson.

[00:44:27] Yeah, right.

[00:44:27] Exactly right.

[00:44:30] So

[00:44:31] Jason

[00:44:32] commented

[00:44:32] that might be

[00:44:33] the quote of the day

[00:44:33] and I think it

[00:44:34] might be

[00:44:35] right there

[00:44:35] but

[00:44:36] Jason you

[00:44:36] came in

[00:44:37] a little bit

[00:44:38] later you

[00:44:38] mentioned

[00:44:38] and

[00:44:39] there was some

[00:44:40] stuff out of

[00:44:41] out of a few

[00:44:41] others earlier

[00:44:42] that were

[00:44:42] pretty

[00:44:43] pretty funny.

[00:44:44] So we had some

[00:44:44] good

[00:44:44] they might be

[00:44:45] referring to

[00:44:45] so

[00:44:46] yeah that

[00:44:46] maybe

[00:44:48] this

[00:44:48] this week

[00:44:49] might be

[00:44:49] our top

[00:44:50] week

[00:44:50] and

[00:44:50] in special

[00:44:51] moments

[00:44:51] with all

[00:44:52] of that

[00:44:52] but

[00:44:53] in looking

[00:44:55] across the

[00:44:56] board at

[00:44:56] this is

[00:44:57] we have

[00:44:58] to be

[00:44:58] thinking

[00:44:59] about

[00:44:59] changes

[00:45:00] that are

[00:45:00] happening

[00:45:01] and what's

[00:45:02] going on

[00:45:02] with our

[00:45:02] buyer

[00:45:03] right.

[00:45:04] So our

[00:45:04] buyer

[00:45:05] is changing

[00:45:05] and now

[00:45:06] we see

[00:45:06] some technology

[00:45:07] are changing

[00:45:08] now is

[00:45:08] the time

[00:45:09] to pay

[00:45:09] close attention

[00:45:10] as I think

[00:45:10] the takeaway

[00:45:11] of the day.

[00:45:12] So

[00:45:12] all right

[00:45:13] Tom

[00:45:13] what's next?

[00:45:15] Next thing

[00:45:15] in the

[00:45:16] marketing

[00:45:16] e-comment

[00:45:16] marketing here.

[00:45:18] Sorry.

[00:45:19] Promises.

[00:45:20] Yeah, no

[00:45:20] B2B

[00:45:21] brands

[00:45:21] making a

[00:45:22] promise

[00:45:22] to

[00:45:22] customers

[00:45:24] more

[00:45:24] likely

[00:45:25] to grow

[00:45:25] market

[00:45:26] share.

[00:45:27] I was

[00:45:28] actually

[00:45:28] I was really

[00:45:29] surprised

[00:45:29] when I saw

[00:45:30] this article

[00:45:30] I've never

[00:45:31] heard

[00:45:31] this before

[00:45:33] but I

[00:45:33] thought it

[00:45:33] was really

[00:45:34] good.

[00:45:34] Basically

[00:45:35] the

[00:45:35] simplicity

[00:45:36] of it is

[00:45:37] if you

[00:45:38] make a

[00:45:38] promise

[00:45:39] to your

[00:45:39] customer

[00:45:40] and I

[00:45:41] what I

[00:45:41] what I was

[00:45:42] reading the

[00:45:42] article

[00:45:42] I was

[00:45:43] trying to

[00:45:43] separate

[00:45:43] that

[00:45:44] was that

[00:45:44] like a

[00:45:44] guarantee

[00:45:46] is more of a

[00:45:47] brand

[00:45:47] promise

[00:45:48] or a

[00:45:48] product

[00:45:48] promise

[00:45:49] but

[00:45:49] either way

[00:45:50] it's

[00:45:50] promise

[00:45:50] if you're

[00:45:51] if your

[00:45:51] company

[00:45:52] and your

[00:45:52] product

[00:45:52] is willing

[00:45:52] to make

[00:45:53] a promise

[00:45:53] you're

[00:45:53] more

[00:45:54] likely

[00:45:54] to grow

[00:45:55] market

[00:45:55] share

[00:45:56] fairly

[00:45:57] significant

[00:45:57] fairly

[00:45:58] significantly

[00:45:59] are nearly

[00:46:00] three times

[00:46:00] as likely

[00:46:01] to drive

[00:46:01] a market

[00:46:01] share

[00:46:02] increase

[00:46:02] than those

[00:46:02] that

[00:46:03] do not

[00:46:04] so

[00:46:05] anyway

[00:46:05] I just

[00:46:05] found

[00:46:06] this

[00:46:07] intriguing

[00:46:07] and

[00:46:07] interesting.

[00:46:09] Well

[00:46:09] I think

[00:46:09] this

[00:46:09] the

[00:46:11] real

[00:46:12] takeaway

[00:46:12] for me

[00:46:12] in this

[00:46:13] article

[00:46:13] talking about

[00:46:14] this

[00:46:14] was

[00:46:14] and

[00:46:14] this

[00:46:15] is

[00:46:15] from

[00:46:16] I remember

[00:46:18] who that article

[00:46:19] was from

[00:46:19] marketing

[00:46:20] world

[00:46:20] and

[00:46:21] we can

[00:46:21] start

[00:46:21] thank you

[00:46:22] and

[00:46:23] but

[00:46:24] this is a

[00:46:25] big

[00:46:25] an issue

[00:46:26] we can

[00:46:26] probably do a

[00:46:26] whole

[00:46:27] dedicate a

[00:46:27] whole show

[00:46:28] to this

[00:46:28] right is

[00:46:29] am I

[00:46:30] marketing

[00:46:30] product

[00:46:31] or am I

[00:46:31] marketing

[00:46:31] brand

[00:46:33] and

[00:46:33] when which

[00:46:34] is more

[00:46:34] important

[00:46:35] right

[00:46:35] and

[00:46:36] it's almost

[00:46:37] a chicken

[00:46:37] and egg

[00:46:38] thing right

[00:46:38] kind of have

[00:46:38] to have a

[00:46:39] little

[00:46:39] of both

[00:46:40] but

[00:46:41] the

[00:46:41] my big

[00:46:42] takeaway

[00:46:42] from this

[00:46:43] is

[00:46:44] that

[00:46:44] and it

[00:46:45] was a

[00:46:45] comment here

[00:46:46] says

[00:46:46] there's often

[00:46:46] a tiebreak

[00:46:48] where all

[00:46:48] things are

[00:46:49] equal

[00:46:50] and what we

[00:46:50] are seeing

[00:46:51] is that the

[00:46:51] buyer

[00:46:51] group

[00:46:52] picks

[00:46:52] the bigger

[00:46:53] brand

[00:46:54] so if

[00:46:54] if you

[00:46:55] are competing

[00:46:56] against

[00:46:56] an in

[00:46:57] and we

[00:46:57] think about

[00:46:57] let's just

[00:46:59] make this

[00:46:59] simple

[00:46:59] into

[00:47:00] you know

[00:47:00] distribution

[00:47:01] here is

[00:47:02] if

[00:47:03] if I'm

[00:47:03] a

[00:47:03] Milwaukee

[00:47:04] distributor

[00:47:05] and I'm

[00:47:06] displaying

[00:47:07] Milwaukee

[00:47:07] exactly

[00:47:08] the same

[00:47:09] as

[00:47:10] 142

[00:47:11] other

[00:47:12] Milwaukee

[00:47:13] distributors

[00:47:14] across

[00:47:14] the country

[00:47:16] with the

[00:47:16] same

[00:47:18] you know

[00:47:19] product data

[00:47:20] the same

[00:47:20] images

[00:47:22] and I'm trying to

[00:47:22] play the

[00:47:22] price game

[00:47:24] and probably

[00:47:25] better off

[00:47:25] to grow

[00:47:26] my brand

[00:47:27] to go

[00:47:28] with that

[00:47:29] and then

[00:47:29] worry about

[00:47:30] the other

[00:47:30] part of it.

[00:47:31] So I think

[00:47:31] there was

[00:47:32] some interesting

[00:47:32] takeaways

[00:47:33] Jonathan any

[00:47:33] thoughts on

[00:47:33] this one?

[00:47:35] I find

[00:47:35] the

[00:47:36] the headline

[00:47:38] and the

[00:47:38] content

[00:47:38] of the article

[00:47:39] very

[00:47:39] counterintuitive

[00:47:40] okay

[00:47:42] for this

[00:47:42] reason

[00:47:43] that

[00:47:46] differences between

[00:47:47] consumer

[00:47:47] and business

[00:47:48] brands is

[00:47:49] consumer

[00:47:50] brands

[00:47:51] create a much

[00:47:52] bigger emotional

[00:47:52] hook.

[00:47:53] Yep.

[00:47:56] Whereas

[00:47:57] in

[00:47:58] B2B

[00:47:59] buying

[00:47:59] unless I'm

[00:48:00] buying

[00:48:00] just a

[00:48:01] Milwaukee

[00:48:01] tool

[00:48:02] if I'm

[00:48:02] making a

[00:48:02] sizeable

[00:48:03] purchase

[00:48:03] in the

[00:48:04] B2B

[00:48:04] world

[00:48:05] there are

[00:48:05] probably

[00:48:06] multiple

[00:48:06] people around

[00:48:07] the table

[00:48:09] as part

[00:48:09] of the

[00:48:09] decision

[00:48:11] there's

[00:48:12] less

[00:48:12] emotion

[00:48:14] there's

[00:48:14] less

[00:48:15] about

[00:48:15] relationship

[00:48:16] brands are

[00:48:16] about

[00:48:16] relationship

[00:48:17] there's

[00:48:17] more

[00:48:18] value

[00:48:18] so it's

[00:48:19] more

[00:48:19] about

[00:48:19] value

[00:48:20] less

[00:48:20] about

[00:48:21] relationship

[00:48:21] and

[00:48:22] emotion

[00:48:23] but

[00:48:23] what I

[00:48:23] where my

[00:48:24] mind

[00:48:24] goes

[00:48:24] with this

[00:48:25] is

[00:48:26] what does

[00:48:26] this

[00:48:27] mean

[00:48:27] for

[00:48:27] distribution

[00:48:28] because

[00:48:29] distribution

[00:48:30] is

[00:48:31] very

[00:48:31] weak

[00:48:31] on

[00:48:32] brands

[00:48:33] yes

[00:48:34] I mean

[00:48:34] the

[00:48:34] Milwaukee

[00:48:35] tools

[00:48:35] the

[00:48:35] DeWalt's

[00:48:36] you know

[00:48:36] we

[00:48:37] can

[00:48:37] pick

[00:48:37] other

[00:48:38] we can

[00:48:38] pick

[00:48:38] other

[00:48:38] notable

[00:48:39] B2B

[00:48:39] brands

[00:48:40] well maybe

[00:48:41] they're

[00:48:41] writing

[00:48:41] the coat

[00:48:42] they're

[00:48:42] trying to

[00:48:42] ride

[00:48:42] the

[00:48:42] coat tail

[00:48:43] on those

[00:48:44] brands

[00:48:45] yes

[00:48:45] developing

[00:48:46] manufacturers

[00:48:47] right

[00:48:47] those are

[00:48:47] not

[00:48:48] distributors

[00:48:48] that you're

[00:48:49] correct

[00:48:49] yeah

[00:48:49] so keep

[00:48:50] going on

[00:48:50] that Jonathan

[00:48:51] on that

[00:48:51] point

[00:48:51] I just

[00:48:52] wanted to

[00:48:52] add

[00:48:52] that in

[00:48:53] yeah

[00:48:54] and

[00:48:54] so I

[00:48:54] think

[00:48:55] I think

[00:48:56] there's a

[00:48:58] there's

[00:48:58] an idea

[00:48:58] among some

[00:48:59] distributors

[00:48:59] that it

[00:49:00] is

[00:49:00] about

[00:49:00] relationships

[00:49:01] meaning

[00:49:02] person

[00:49:02] to person

[00:49:03] pressing

[00:49:04] flesh

[00:49:05] belly

[00:49:05] to belly

[00:49:05] whatever

[00:49:06] metaphor

[00:49:06] you

[00:49:06] want

[00:49:06] to use

[00:49:08] I think

[00:49:09] some of

[00:49:09] the best

[00:49:09] distributors

[00:49:10] do

[00:49:11] create

[00:49:11] effective

[00:49:12] brands

[00:49:12] obviously

[00:49:13] we can

[00:49:13] think

[00:49:13] of

[00:49:13] Brainger

[00:49:14] sure

[00:49:15] we can

[00:49:15] think of

[00:49:16] MSC

[00:49:16] there's

[00:49:16] a number

[00:49:17] of

[00:49:17] folks

[00:49:18] that

[00:49:18] do

[00:49:18] this

[00:49:18] well

[00:49:20] the

[00:49:21] broader

[00:49:22] dynamic

[00:49:23] of

[00:49:24] market

[00:49:24] marketing

[00:49:26] analytic

[00:49:28] world

[00:49:28] is

[00:49:29] starting

[00:49:30] to come

[00:49:30] to the

[00:49:30] four

[00:49:31] so it's

[00:49:31] going

[00:49:31] to be

[00:49:31] less

[00:49:32] about

[00:49:32] relationships

[00:49:33] more about

[00:49:34] value

[00:49:35] and I

[00:49:35] think

[00:49:36] that's

[00:49:36] where

[00:49:36] brands

[00:49:37] will get

[00:49:37] created

[00:49:38] and

[00:49:38] distribution

[00:49:39] is

[00:49:39] about

[00:49:39] is about

[00:49:40] value

[00:49:40] yeah

[00:49:43] well we've

[00:49:43] never

[00:49:43] been

[00:49:43] in a better

[00:49:44] time or place

[00:49:45] where there's

[00:49:45] more tools

[00:49:46] available to do

[00:49:47] that

[00:49:48] you know even

[00:49:49] the things

[00:49:49] that you know

[00:49:50] we've learned

[00:49:50] from early stage

[00:49:51] use of

[00:49:52] AI

[00:49:53] and marketing

[00:49:53] and content

[00:49:54] development

[00:49:55] and having

[00:49:56] a

[00:49:57] see Tom

[00:49:57] you're

[00:49:58] coming earlier

[00:49:58] about a

[00:49:58] promise

[00:49:59] it doesn't

[00:49:59] have to be

[00:50:00] a guarantee

[00:50:01] it has

[00:50:01] to be

[00:50:02] this is

[00:50:03] what you'll

[00:50:03] get from

[00:50:03] my brand

[00:50:04] in fact

[00:50:04] Mike

[00:50:05] Marty

[00:50:06] McLaughlin

[00:50:06] made a

[00:50:07] comment

[00:50:07] there about

[00:50:08] engagement

[00:50:08] beyond

[00:50:09] product

[00:50:09] and price

[00:50:10] brand

[00:50:10] promises

[00:50:11] culture

[00:50:11] values

[00:50:12] and

[00:50:12] community

[00:50:13] right

[00:50:13] and

[00:50:15] Marty's our

[00:50:16] marketing

[00:50:16] guy

[00:50:17] a resident

[00:50:19] and

[00:50:19] so

[00:50:20] I love

[00:50:21] to see

[00:50:21] that right

[00:50:22] so that

[00:50:22] someone

[00:50:22] needs

[00:50:23] to leave

[00:50:23] feeling

[00:50:24] that

[00:50:24] there is

[00:50:25] more

[00:50:25] to this

[00:50:25] than just

[00:50:26] I saw

[00:50:27] price on

[00:50:28] a

[00:50:28] DeWalt

[00:50:29] screwdriver

[00:50:30] you know

[00:50:31] whatever it

[00:50:31] might

[00:50:31] be

[00:50:31] so

[00:50:32] good

[00:50:32] stuff

[00:50:33] great

[00:50:33] great

[00:50:34] article

[00:50:34] if again

[00:50:35] if you

[00:50:35] don't

[00:50:35] get our

[00:50:36] newsletter

[00:50:36] and you'd

[00:50:36] like to

[00:50:37] please

[00:50:37] let us

[00:50:37] know

[00:50:39] and we

[00:50:39] can even

[00:50:40] get this

[00:50:40] particular

[00:50:41] one out

[00:50:41] to you

[00:50:41] so Tom

[00:50:41] we need

[00:50:42] to roll

[00:50:42] ahead

[00:50:44] fast. Yeah, so

[00:50:45] well, we're going to go late today everybody.

[00:50:48] We hope to have you stay with us but Reuters article about Europe Sets benchmark.

[00:50:53] We're moving into our tech and cyber and AI segment.

[00:50:56] So we've talked about over the months about the European Union

[00:51:02] and they're taking kind of the lead on AI

[00:51:05] and some from a regulatory with AI laws

[00:51:08] with some

[00:51:09] hard-hitting penalties that go with that

[00:51:11] and that is coming next month.

[00:51:14] So the rest of the world

[00:51:16] is a little bit behind.

[00:51:17] I would say there's a little milk toast

[00:51:20] to

[00:51:21] the

[00:51:22] US's

[00:51:23] response to that which was a

[00:51:25] is that

[00:51:26] a presidential

[00:51:29] executive order executive order.

[00:51:31] Thank you for that,

[00:51:32] right

[00:51:33] and from that standpoint.

[00:51:35] So this one has quite a bit of teeth behind it Jonathan any thoughts on this

[00:51:38] have you read through this

[00:51:40] what they're doing in Europe?

[00:51:41] Yeah, I think it's going to be very very tough to enforce.

[00:51:45] I agree.

[00:51:46] Yeah.

[00:51:48] And I would I haven't gone back and read it since December

[00:51:52] but I'm even wondering now

[00:51:54] how relevant some of the things are even that were looked at in December

[00:51:58] based around some of the changes that are coming sooner than later.

[00:52:02] I just I constantly I think I completely agree.

[00:52:05] It's unenforceable

[00:52:06] and I think the relevance of becomes out of date very quickly

[00:52:10] but

[00:52:12] anyway, we'll have to see right.

[00:52:13] We'll see how it actually comes.

[00:52:15] So let me ask a little controversial potentially controversial question to go with that.

[00:52:22] A lot of people said the same thing about GDPR

[00:52:25] right

[00:52:26] and

[00:52:26] and tons and tons of people that violated across the board

[00:52:30] but a whole lot of US companies that are doing business

[00:52:34] outside of the US or in Europe

[00:52:36] are now using GDPR standards

[00:52:39] with email marketing and list keeping and so forth.

[00:52:42] So I'm going to push back a little bit and say

[00:52:46] certainly they're going to try

[00:52:47] and do it

[00:52:48] and I think what we may end up seeing here

[00:52:50] is a lot of US based organizations

[00:52:53] specifically manufacturers and large brands

[00:52:56] are going to have to tie some of that together

[00:52:59] with how they're using AI and how they're doing things across the board.

[00:53:02] So we'll see what comes out of it, but they're not messing around with

[00:53:06] the providers

[00:53:08] on this standpoint at all.

[00:53:10] GDPR is a lot easier to enforce.

[00:53:12] Yeah, it's much less squishy

[00:53:17] and this what was described an AI in general is much more squishy

[00:53:22] and I just think because of that it's going to be a different

[00:53:25] kind of outcome.

[00:53:27] I agree completely GDPR is much more objective A to B

[00:53:31] type of things.

[00:53:32] This is very broad.

[00:53:34] I think there'll be some obviously some witch hunts and things going after

[00:53:37] people with deep pockets

[00:53:39] and things along those lines.

[00:53:42] I just I think a lot of stuff will get caught up in court for a long time

[00:53:46] and I agree with you Jonathan.

[00:53:48] I just don't think it's going to be very very efficient

[00:53:51] and enforceable.

[00:53:54] That's great.

[00:53:55] Well, thank you.

[00:53:55] That's a nice comment.

[00:53:56] We just got from Jason there.

[00:53:58] Thanks for being with us today.

[00:53:59] We appreciate it.

[00:54:01] Good way to end of Friday.

[00:54:03] I'd like to wrap up the week.

[00:54:04] Thank you for that comma.

[00:54:05] We're appreciative of it before we wrap up on this part.

[00:54:09] I think what my view of what we're going to see with this is

[00:54:12] they're going to go after and pay very close attention to what Google

[00:54:17] and Meta and a lot of these folks that the European Union

[00:54:20] is already putting the squeeze on.

[00:54:22] That's where we'll see all of this first and the hope is though,

[00:54:26] right?

[00:54:26] The big reason that they put these pieces in place

[00:54:30] is about anti-terrorism and everything from bullying to racism

[00:54:34] and so forth and maybe some of that is a value that comes out.

[00:54:38] I think there's some great guidelines in there for sure.

[00:54:40] There's no doubt about it.

[00:54:41] It's just some of the specific AI stuff like I said,

[00:54:44] I haven't read it again.

[00:54:45] I probably need to go back and take a look at it again,

[00:54:47] but I do agree with Jonathan and forcibility can be potentially

[00:54:53] squishy as his team is the word he is.

[00:54:55] So anyway, let's let's jump ahead to

[00:55:00] a little bit of info about AI attacks and cloud security threats.

[00:55:05] Either you want to get started on that one?

[00:55:08] I mean this is we've talked about this quite a bit,

[00:55:11] you know, we've talked a lot about security threats

[00:55:14] and you know, obviously there's a lot of black cat.

[00:55:17] I'm sure going on with AI and how do we use AI as a way to

[00:55:21] you know, get through and I think we're even seeing this

[00:55:24] now the number of emails that I'm getting fishing emails

[00:55:27] are getting more sophisticated than ever.

[00:55:32] Even knowing like who our vendors are and who we're paying

[00:55:35] and things like that, that we're doing things and AI is

[00:55:39] just going to potentially, you know, again allow them to

[00:55:42] be more sophisticated and more clever if you will on

[00:55:45] how they do some of those things that are there.

[00:55:47] Tom, tell Jonathan that story that we experienced at

[00:55:51] Lead Smart last month while I was on the East Coast for

[00:55:55] a few days.

[00:55:55] Yeah, it was pretty simple, but I got an email that

[00:55:58] came from Kevin Brown it said and it said please pay

[00:56:02] this bill and it even had the vendor, a vendor that

[00:56:06] we were working with and it had the number of

[00:56:09] the amount of money that we would generally be paying

[00:56:11] that vendor and Kevin had already paid that vendor.

[00:56:15] I didn't even as I unraveled it, it was a fishing

[00:56:18] email.

[00:56:19] So it really wasn't from him and so somehow they

[00:56:21] discovered a vendor that we were working with and

[00:56:25] but had I not, you know in a bigger company or had

[00:56:27] I not kind of pulled the string a little bit it

[00:56:31] could have easily been passed on to accounting and

[00:56:33] just gotten paid like, you know, was this a normal

[00:56:35] bill?

[00:56:36] Well, and the interesting piece of that it was going

[00:56:39] to accounting.

[00:56:40] Yeah, but you get copied on those emails as a

[00:56:45] chief operating officer of our company.

[00:56:47] So that's where you caught it.

[00:56:48] So Jonathan, I'm at a conference in Charlotte and

[00:56:52] between the hotel and the conference center and I'm

[00:56:55] getting these teams messages from Tom.

[00:56:57] It's like why is that so much?

[00:56:59] You said it was this much and I have no idea

[00:57:02] what you're talking about and four or five

[00:57:05] notes back and forth.

[00:57:06] I finally called Tom and then he dug into a

[00:57:10] little closer and when you saw where the

[00:57:12] routing was coming from and a few things and

[00:57:15] it was, what was it, four or five thousand

[00:57:17] dollars Tom?

[00:57:18] Yeah.

[00:57:18] But you know in a larger organization that could

[00:57:21] have gone right through and could have gone

[00:57:24] right through for probably a lot more money.

[00:57:26] So it's a scary time out there with some of

[00:57:28] this stuff.

[00:57:31] Ian told us a story a while back about a

[00:57:36] cloned voice calling to an electrical distributor

[00:57:39] to ship a bunch of copper wire to a

[00:57:43] location wasn't even a job site.

[00:57:45] So if this is something to stay on top of the

[00:57:47] last thing we all comment on related to

[00:57:49] this topic is it's more important than we

[00:57:56] might think because one of the things that

[00:57:58] this talked about was they were using the

[00:58:01] tax on organizations like GitHub, right?

[00:58:05] Where lots of software companies have their

[00:58:08] code stored and so an attack there could

[00:58:11] impact, might not feel like this is

[00:58:14] impacting me if I'm a manufacturer distributor,

[00:58:17] but it could if a cyber attack, an AI driven

[00:58:20] cyber attack happens at a location where some

[00:58:23] code is stored for some of the software that

[00:58:25] you use.

[00:58:26] So something to pay attention to.

[00:58:31] All right.

[00:58:32] Should we move on to this big conference

[00:58:34] that's coming up?

[00:58:35] Yeah, I've heard a lot about it.

[00:58:36] What's it called again?

[00:58:38] I don't know something about applied AI for

[00:58:39] distributors.

[00:58:40] Jonathan, you know anything about this?

[00:58:42] I've heard a little about it.

[00:58:44] I'll share what I know.

[00:58:45] All right.

[00:58:45] Yeah, tell us what you know.

[00:58:47] It's all rumors though.

[00:58:48] I mean, just kind of murmurs.

[00:58:50] Actually the last topic we have is a great

[00:58:52] lead-in to this because one of the speakers

[00:58:54] are going to have is Teresa Payton, former

[00:58:57] White House CIO talking about AI and

[00:59:00] cybersecurity.

[00:59:00] So she's one of the main speakers, but

[00:59:03] it's basically a follow on conference to

[00:59:05] what we had in October of 2023 and

[00:59:09] it was a terrific conference then where

[00:59:11] we're bringing together industry visionaries

[00:59:16] on AI.

[00:59:17] We're bringing together tech leaders in

[00:59:19] AI, bringing together smart distributors

[00:59:21] that want to get involved with AI of all

[00:59:23] sizes from 10 million to 30 billion.

[00:59:27] And really the goal of the conference

[00:59:31] is to give people the information

[00:59:33] they need to get going with AI around

[00:59:35] business. The assumption is that

[00:59:38] companies that take a leading role in

[00:59:40] AI are going to see outsized returns

[00:59:42] relative to fast followers and even more

[00:59:45] relative to laggards.

[00:59:47] So it's a intensive two-day conference

[00:59:51] where there will be immersion in

[00:59:53] technologies that can be applied today

[00:59:55] of different types and thought leadership

[00:59:59] from... We have one of the former

[01:00:02] C-level folks from OpenAI, Zach Cass

[01:00:06] who's going to be speaking. Absolutely

[01:00:07] visionary. He spoke last year.

[01:00:10] I'm still taking in some of what he

[01:00:11] said trying to parse it. Actually

[01:00:13] I'm hoping to corner him and bring

[01:00:15] those things to ground. But those

[01:00:17] are the kind of speakers we're going

[01:00:18] to have the CTO of Granger,

[01:00:24] senior CTO from WESCO, former CTO

[01:00:28] from Aeroelectronics, really

[01:00:31] significant players in distribution

[01:00:33] as well as technology companies.

[01:00:36] So I think if you are thinking

[01:00:39] about AI and how you get involved

[01:00:41] or are wondering, it's June 4th

[01:00:43] or June 6th in Chicago at the Marriott

[01:00:47] near O'Hare. So it's a very convenient

[01:00:50] get-in-get-out type of a situation.

[01:00:53] And you can find the agenda at

[01:00:56] W... at appliedaifordistributors.com

[01:01:01] appliedaifordistributors.com

[01:01:05] Great event last year. One of the

[01:01:07] things that in October, one of

[01:01:09] the things that I was really

[01:01:10] appreciative of at the event was

[01:01:14] the time at the meals and cocktail

[01:01:18] reception. You know, we've all been

[01:01:20] to a million cocktail receptions

[01:01:21] and stuff, but sometimes they're

[01:01:22] difficult. But I remember I was

[01:01:25] sitting at a table the night before

[01:01:29] the keynotes the next morning

[01:01:30] and hopefully Ian doesn't get

[01:01:32] COVID again this year.

[01:01:34] He's getting it now preemptively.

[01:01:37] Perfect.

[01:01:40] Because that was such a shame.

[01:01:42] And it was...

[01:01:47] because he got literally diagnosed

[01:01:49] with COVID or tested positive for

[01:01:50] COVID the night before the session.

[01:01:53] And I think you covered his

[01:01:54] keynote, didn't you?

[01:01:56] But and fine job of that.

[01:01:58] But I just give you an example

[01:02:01] and I've not experienced him

[01:02:04] and I shouldn't say I've not

[01:02:05] experienced but it's not common.

[01:02:07] I was sitting at a table

[01:02:09] at cocktail reception chatting

[01:02:11] with Lindsay from Three Aspens

[01:02:13] Media and having a great chat

[01:02:16] and over walks and sits down.

[01:02:19] I can't remember who else was

[01:02:20] with us, but there's a couple

[01:02:21] other people at the table.

[01:02:22] We were chatting and over walks

[01:02:24] Lynn Chase right that we were

[01:02:26] talking about earlier one of

[01:02:26] the speakers and we're talking

[01:02:28] a little bit and Lindsay was

[01:02:30] commenting about this podcast

[01:02:32] and and we were chatting

[01:02:34] about it and Lynn says, you

[01:02:35] know, she's one of the keynote

[01:02:37] speakers, right?

[01:02:38] And she's just stopping in at

[01:02:39] the tables chatting and it

[01:02:40] wasn't at all in the

[01:02:43] conversation I had was that

[01:02:44] cast in the hallway after his

[01:02:46] his presentation genuine

[01:02:49] conversations with keynoters

[01:02:51] that weren't just flying in

[01:02:52] for their check.

[01:02:54] Lynn Chase that discussion.

[01:02:56] She was heard the word podcast

[01:02:59] and Lindsay she said, well

[01:03:01] what podcast you talking

[01:03:02] about Lindsay described the

[01:03:04] show we're on today right now

[01:03:05] and Lynn was on her phone

[01:03:08] subscribing to the around

[01:03:10] the horn podcast on Apple

[01:03:11] podcast.

[01:03:12] So there was such a genuine

[01:03:15] group of people there and

[01:03:17] the way that things were set

[01:03:18] up was a nice opportunity for

[01:03:19] networking that you don't

[01:03:21] always see at these types

[01:03:22] of events.

[01:03:23] So yeah, it's very much

[01:03:25] not about golf events or

[01:03:27] a architectural tour of the

[01:03:29] Chicago River.

[01:03:29] It's really about getting

[01:03:31] focused very focused on

[01:03:34] well and in a great

[01:03:35] location that hotel

[01:03:37] I thought handled it really

[01:03:39] really well.

[01:03:40] So good event.

[01:03:41] We are Mike Mike said

[01:03:42] this is the best one he

[01:03:43] attended in two thousand

[01:03:44] twenty three and that he's

[01:03:45] going to be seen a big

[01:03:46] cruise.

[01:03:46] So that's a pretty

[01:03:49] good endorsement right

[01:03:50] there.

[01:03:50] Yep, that's fantastic.

[01:03:52] Good.

[01:03:53] Well, let's let's kind of

[01:03:54] move along.

[01:03:55] We're kind of running

[01:03:56] going to run short on

[01:03:57] times.

[01:03:57] We might not talk about

[01:03:58] everything today, but I

[01:03:59] did want to talk about

[01:04:01] this this article from

[01:04:03] Supply House Times

[01:04:04] because it ties back into

[01:04:05] the the economic discussions

[01:04:07] we had earlier.

[01:04:08] We're now in our sales and

[01:04:09] M&A segment and

[01:04:12] this is from Supply House

[01:04:13] Times dot com and magazine.

[01:04:16] This was about their

[01:04:17] two thousand twenty four

[01:04:18] premiere 150 survey

[01:04:20] results any takeaways

[01:04:22] from you guys Jonathan.

[01:04:23] I know you had a couple

[01:04:24] of thoughts on this early

[01:04:25] on kind of ties back

[01:04:27] to the economic stuff

[01:04:28] we talked about as well

[01:04:33] return to normalcy is

[01:04:34] the is the word that

[01:04:35] comes to mind for me

[01:04:36] for the

[01:04:37] that's the HVAC group,

[01:04:43] right?

[01:04:43] Yep, exactly right.

[01:04:44] Yep.

[01:04:45] Yep.

[01:04:45] So this was talking about

[01:04:47] PHP and PVF distributors

[01:04:50] which ties into HVAC

[01:04:51] as well.

[01:04:52] So they're seeing this

[01:04:53] drop off right in

[01:04:54] two thousand twenty three

[01:04:56] into your point earlier

[01:04:57] is this just is kind

[01:04:58] of this balancing act

[01:04:59] to where we were pre

[01:05:00] covid with all the work

[01:05:02] that was done afterwards.

[01:05:05] If you talk to CEOs

[01:05:07] some of whom are on

[01:05:08] this call twenty twenty

[01:05:10] two and twenty twenty three

[01:05:11] are tough cops to follow

[01:05:12] on.

[01:05:14] Your board's going to need

[01:05:15] to give you some

[01:05:16] forgiveness.

[01:05:18] Yeah,

[01:05:20] I really was appreciative

[01:05:22] of this and I think

[01:05:23] it's good.

[01:05:23] You know, sometimes you

[01:05:24] just read a headline

[01:05:25] right and that if

[01:05:27] you just read the headline

[01:05:28] about this, well,

[01:05:29] it's doom and gloom

[01:05:30] and then as you dive

[01:05:31] a little deeper you see

[01:05:32] so I think it's good

[01:05:33] news is what we're

[01:05:34] kind of seeing is a

[01:05:35] balancing of things.

[01:05:37] It would be nice for

[01:05:38] everyone if we could

[01:05:40] get back to some

[01:05:40] reasonable interest rates

[01:05:42] which will help on

[01:05:43] the investment side on

[01:05:44] distribution and

[01:05:45] manufacturing, which

[01:05:46] would be great.

[01:05:47] This was a phenomenal

[01:05:48] article just based

[01:05:49] upon the amount of data

[01:05:50] that's there.

[01:05:52] I mean, I would say

[01:05:53] of all of the articles

[01:05:54] in today's newsletter

[01:05:57] is that it's just

[01:05:59] phenomenal from a

[01:06:00] standpoint of

[01:06:02] segment size

[01:06:04] relevance to the segments

[01:06:05] and so forth.

[01:06:06] It was it's powerful.

[01:06:08] So I just wanted to

[01:06:10] hit address the question

[01:06:11] someone asked, you

[01:06:12] know, where is the more

[01:06:13] information on the

[01:06:13] conference we were

[01:06:15] just talking about

[01:06:16] if you click the link

[01:06:17] right here, it takes

[01:06:18] you right to the

[01:06:19] conference page, but

[01:06:20] it's applied AI

[01:06:22] for distributors.com

[01:06:24] maybe we can post

[01:06:25] in the LinkedIn feed

[01:06:26] that's there but applied

[01:06:28] AI distributors

[01:06:29] for distributors.com

[01:06:31] is the thing that

[01:06:32] I just wanted to

[01:06:32] hit that question.

[01:06:33] Thank you for that Tom.

[01:06:35] Good.

[01:06:35] All right.

[01:06:36] Any closing thoughts

[01:06:37] on the data out of

[01:06:38] that article?

[01:06:40] None for me.

[01:06:41] Okay.

[01:06:41] Well, as we dive

[01:06:42] kind of ahead, we'll

[01:06:43] just kind of we're

[01:06:44] going to pass a little

[01:06:45] bit by this.

[01:06:46] There's an article

[01:06:46] about DuPont

[01:06:47] splitting off into

[01:06:48] three separate

[01:06:49] publicly traded

[01:06:49] companies kind of

[01:06:50] along the lines of

[01:06:51] what 3M did

[01:06:54] recently with having

[01:06:55] spinning out their

[01:06:55] healthcare division.

[01:06:57] It's kind of funny

[01:06:58] in that article.

[01:06:58] I don't know if

[01:06:59] either of you know

[01:07:00] or remember this,

[01:07:01] but the number

[01:07:02] I think it was 2017

[01:07:04] they brought some

[01:07:05] groups back and then

[01:07:06] split some things off.

[01:07:07] So it's this it's

[01:07:08] almost a cycle and

[01:07:10] my guess is what

[01:07:11] we're going to learn

[01:07:11] at us this

[01:07:13] is that some of

[01:07:14] this is tied to

[01:07:14] the lawsuits

[01:07:15] that they call them

[01:07:18] forever chemicals.

[01:07:19] I think that

[01:07:19] they have some

[01:07:20] risk where 3M

[01:07:22] had some big risk

[01:07:23] within their main

[01:07:24] company tied to

[01:07:25] some earplugged

[01:07:26] lawsuits that

[01:07:27] was worth billions

[01:07:28] and so it'll be

[01:07:29] interesting to

[01:07:29] watch this one,

[01:07:30] but they're

[01:07:30] splitting off into

[01:07:31] three publicly

[01:07:31] traded companies

[01:07:32] at DuPont.

[01:07:33] So and

[01:07:35] if you're in the

[01:07:36] if you're in the

[01:07:37] safety or industrial

[01:07:38] world,

[01:07:38] you're doing a

[01:07:39] lot of business

[01:07:40] with DuPont

[01:07:41] as a distribution

[01:07:43] company.

[01:07:43] So we have a

[01:07:44] segment each week

[01:07:45] called industry

[01:07:46] scuttlebutt.

[01:07:47] There's just three

[01:07:48] key topics here this

[01:07:49] week.

[01:07:49] We won't spend

[01:07:50] much time on them.

[01:07:52] AD announced their

[01:07:53] newly elected board

[01:07:54] of directors for

[01:07:55] affiliated distributors.

[01:07:56] Congratulations to

[01:07:58] that group as well

[01:07:59] and then

[01:08:02] we look at Whitecap

[01:08:03] with some acquisitions,

[01:08:04] Ferguson with some

[01:08:05] acquisitions.

[01:08:06] Again, this is all

[01:08:07] coming from our

[01:08:08] around the horn and

[01:08:08] wholesale distribution

[01:08:10] newsletter

[01:08:11] as well.

[01:08:12] And so we can kind of

[01:08:13] skip over that Tom.

[01:08:15] I won't why don't

[01:08:15] we just kind of

[01:08:16] start wrapping up

[01:08:17] there's

[01:08:18] I was excited when

[01:08:19] I saw

[01:08:20] the members

[01:08:20] and the board

[01:08:21] of directors.

[01:08:21] We have lead smart

[01:08:22] customers now

[01:08:23] in there.

[01:08:23] We have

[01:08:24] a lot of

[01:08:24] friends with

[01:08:25] the podcast here.

[01:08:26] So that was a

[01:08:27] great great

[01:08:27] collection of

[01:08:28] members of that

[01:08:29] of that new board.

[01:08:30] That's a great

[01:08:31] point.

[01:08:31] Yeah, we have

[01:08:32] customers and

[01:08:32] friends there.

[01:08:33] So and that

[01:08:35] beautiful.

[01:08:35] We have friends in

[01:08:36] high places now.

[01:08:37] Yeah, well beautiful

[01:08:39] and audience

[01:08:39] members.

[01:08:40] That's right.

[01:08:40] And audience

[01:08:41] right.

[01:08:42] Exactly right.

[01:08:42] Yep.

[01:08:43] But Paul Kennedy

[01:08:44] that commented

[01:08:45] earlier with us

[01:08:45] today is in

[01:08:46] that picture

[01:08:47] and

[01:08:48] but it's not

[01:08:49] hard to find

[01:08:50] Paul Kennedy's

[01:08:51] face in a

[01:08:52] picture somewhere

[01:08:52] because he is

[01:08:53] moving fast.

[01:08:54] He's

[01:08:55] he never stops

[01:08:56] between his work

[01:08:57] with NAD

[01:08:59] and affiliated

[01:09:00] distributors

[01:09:01] and other

[01:09:01] industry groups.

[01:09:02] It's great.

[01:09:02] So

[01:09:04] that's good.

[01:09:05] So

[01:09:06] anyways,

[01:09:07] let's kind of

[01:09:08] wind our way

[01:09:09] down today.

[01:09:09] Tom before you

[01:09:10] do you want to

[01:09:11] hit that point

[01:09:12] about that

[01:09:13] must-see

[01:09:13] on-demand

[01:09:14] webinar?

[01:09:15] Yeah, so

[01:09:17] Kevin and I

[01:09:17] did a webinar

[01:09:18] earlier this

[01:09:19] week called

[01:09:19] What is Smart CRM

[01:09:20] and Why Does It Matter

[01:09:21] to Your Business?

[01:09:24] And we now

[01:09:25] have it on

[01:09:25] demand.

[01:09:26] So you just

[01:09:27] click that link

[01:09:27] go check it out.

[01:09:29] It's

[01:09:31] we've heard from

[01:09:31] a lot of people

[01:09:32] that it was very

[01:09:33] informative

[01:09:33] and educational.

[01:09:34] It's not a

[01:09:35] salesy webinar

[01:09:36] or anything

[01:09:37] like that.

[01:09:37] So

[01:09:38] if you're interested

[01:09:39] in kind of

[01:09:39] the future of CRM

[01:09:41] and

[01:09:41] AI

[01:09:42] and the role

[01:09:42] of AI

[01:09:43] and CRM

[01:09:44] and how

[01:09:44] and how to avoid

[01:09:46] how to turn,

[01:09:47] you know,

[01:09:48] avoid CRM

[01:09:48] becoming a

[01:09:49] four-letter

[01:09:49] word in your

[01:09:50] business.

[01:09:51] There's some

[01:09:52] good stuff

[01:09:52] in there.

[01:09:53] So

[01:09:54] it's just

[01:09:54] free just

[01:09:54] click it

[01:09:55] and it's

[01:09:55] right there.

[01:09:56] That's good.

[01:09:57] All right.

[01:09:58] Well our

[01:09:58] last

[01:09:59] segment

[01:09:59] there is our

[01:10:00] Good Read

[01:10:00] segment

[01:10:00] that we do

[01:10:01] each week

[01:10:01] if you're

[01:10:02] if you get the

[01:10:03] newsletter,

[01:10:03] take a look

[01:10:04] at that.

[01:10:04] It was kind

[01:10:05] of interesting.

[01:10:05] It said

[01:10:06] Biden,

[01:10:07] the Fed

[01:10:07] and everyday

[01:10:08] Americans

[01:10:09] can't agree

[01:10:09] on the economy.

[01:10:11] Nor can we,

[01:10:12] right?

[01:10:12] So I feel a lot

[01:10:13] better.

[01:10:13] We can't

[01:10:13] agree either.

[01:10:14] So I guess

[01:10:14] if Biden

[01:10:15] and the

[01:10:15] Fed

[01:10:15] can't do it.

[01:10:16] Yeah.

[01:10:17] Well,

[01:10:17] you know what?

[01:10:18] It will be

[01:10:18] interesting

[01:10:19] to see

[01:10:20] what happens

[01:10:21] this year.

[01:10:21] I'm still,

[01:10:22] you know,

[01:10:23] I'm still

[01:10:23] at my two

[01:10:24] cuts

[01:10:24] because

[01:10:25] I'm not

[01:10:26] sure that

[01:10:27] the Biden

[01:10:28] administration

[01:10:28] and their

[01:10:29] presidential run

[01:10:29] can afford

[01:10:30] not to have

[01:10:31] something happen

[01:10:32] with cuts,

[01:10:32] but

[01:10:33] we'll see.

[01:10:34] Jonathan,

[01:10:35] what's your take

[01:10:35] on how many

[01:10:36] cuts this year

[01:10:37] if any?

[01:10:38] I'm going to go

[01:10:39] with you,

[01:10:39] Kevin.

[01:10:40] Yep.

[01:10:40] You see two?

[01:10:41] Yep.

[01:10:42] All right.

[01:10:43] Enough said,

[01:10:44] Tom.

[01:10:44] Jonathan,

[01:10:45] you can

[01:10:46] come and join us

[01:10:46] for steak

[01:10:47] and wine

[01:10:48] when

[01:10:49] that happens.

[01:10:50] So

[01:10:51] yeah.

[01:10:51] Lynn said

[01:10:53] that Lynn

[01:10:53] Chay said

[01:10:54] she's

[01:10:55] she will help

[01:10:55] you the

[01:10:56] moderator

[01:10:56] of it all

[01:10:57] as well.

[01:10:57] So

[01:10:59] that's good news.

[01:11:00] Anyways,

[01:11:00] Jonathan,

[01:11:01] any takeaway

[01:11:02] from the day

[01:11:02] this

[01:11:04] your head spinning

[01:11:05] or you

[01:11:06] think about your

[01:11:06] lunatics here?

[01:11:07] Did you have a

[01:11:07] good time?

[01:11:09] Tremendous time

[01:11:09] and I

[01:11:10] love the

[01:11:10] amount of

[01:11:11] ground that

[01:11:11] you cover

[01:11:12] in the

[01:11:12] show.

[01:11:13] You move

[01:11:13] fast.

[01:11:14] Fantastic.

[01:11:15] Yeah.

[01:11:16] I had

[01:11:16] I had

[01:11:18] an executive

[01:11:18] from

[01:11:20] a major

[01:11:20] major

[01:11:21] player

[01:11:21] in the

[01:11:21] manufacturing

[01:11:22] side

[01:11:22] of things.

[01:11:23] Tell me a

[01:11:23] while back

[01:11:24] I've been

[01:11:24] trying to

[01:11:24] get him to

[01:11:25] join us

[01:11:25] for

[01:11:26] forever

[01:11:26] and he

[01:11:27] said

[01:11:28] I don't

[01:11:28] have anything

[01:11:29] to add

[01:11:30] and

[01:11:30] I just

[01:11:31] there is such

[01:11:32] a wealth

[01:11:32] of people

[01:11:33] out there

[01:11:34] that have

[01:11:34] years

[01:11:35] and years

[01:11:35] of experience.

[01:11:36] So

[01:11:36] we're

[01:11:36] continuing to

[01:11:37] work on

[01:11:37] our guest

[01:11:38] list.

[01:11:38] We've

[01:11:38] got

[01:11:39] I think

[01:11:39] next

[01:11:39] week

[01:11:40] is

[01:11:41] Eric

[01:11:41] Hoplin,

[01:11:41] the

[01:11:42] CEO

[01:11:42] of

[01:11:42] National

[01:11:43] Association

[01:11:43] of

[01:11:43] Wholesalers

[01:11:44] will be

[01:11:45] with us.

[01:11:46] Esteemed

[01:11:47] guests

[01:11:47] like you,

[01:11:48] Jonathan,

[01:11:48] we're

[01:11:48] kind of

[01:11:50] this is

[01:11:50] a

[01:11:51] cliche

[01:11:51] but

[01:11:52] it's

[01:11:52] true.

[01:11:52] I'm

[01:11:52] kind of

[01:11:53] humble.

[01:11:54] Right.

[01:11:54] Our

[01:11:54] podcast

[01:11:55] started

[01:11:55] out

[01:11:55] 91

[01:11:57] are we

[01:11:57] Tom?

[01:11:58] 91

[01:11:59] 92

[01:12:01] 92

[01:12:01] times we've

[01:12:02] put the

[01:12:02] pot of

[01:12:03] the

[01:12:03] newsletter

[01:12:04] out

[01:12:04] and

[01:12:07] probably

[01:12:08] 85

[01:12:09] live

[01:12:10] sessions

[01:12:11] like this

[01:12:11] and the

[01:12:12] fact that

[01:12:13] folks like

[01:12:13] you, Jonathan,

[01:12:14] and your

[01:12:14] business partner

[01:12:15] and our

[01:12:16] good friend

[01:12:17] Ian Heller

[01:12:17] and

[01:12:18] folks like

[01:12:18] Eric

[01:12:19] next week

[01:12:19] and Mike

[01:12:20] Mortenson

[01:12:20] that's

[01:12:20] been with us

[01:12:21] and Paul

[01:12:21] Kennedy

[01:12:21] we mentioned

[01:12:22] earlier.

[01:12:23] I'm

[01:12:23] grateful.

[01:12:24] So

[01:12:24] thanks for

[01:12:24] being with us

[01:12:25] today.

[01:12:26] Really

[01:12:26] appreciate

[01:12:26] the opportunity.

[01:12:27] Thank you.

[01:12:28] Good.

[01:12:28] Holiday weekend.

[01:12:29] Big plans,

[01:12:30] Jonathan.

[01:12:31] What's going on in

[01:12:31] Colorado where

[01:12:32] you're at?

[01:12:32] You're in the

[01:12:33] Boulder area,

[01:12:33] right?

[01:12:34] Yeah,

[01:12:35] just going to

[01:12:35] try to get

[01:12:35] into nature.

[01:12:37] Awesome.

[01:12:38] Yeah.

[01:12:40] Yeah,

[01:12:41] same here.

[01:12:42] No,

[01:12:42] you should

[01:12:42] be

[01:12:42] coding.

[01:12:43] Yeah,

[01:12:44] that's

[01:12:44] right.

[01:12:44] Yeah.

[01:12:45] I got

[01:12:45] some AI work

[01:12:46] to do this

[01:12:46] weekend.

[01:12:47] So

[01:12:47] all

[01:12:47] good.

[01:12:48] All right.

[01:12:48] Well,

[01:12:49] thanks everybody.

[01:12:49] Thanks everybody.

[01:12:51] Have a

[01:12:52] great

[01:12:52] holiday

[01:12:52] weekend

[01:12:53] and

[01:12:54] we'll

[01:12:54] see you

[01:12:54] next

[01:12:55] next

[01:12:56] Friday.

[01:12:56] That's

[01:12:56] right.

[01:12:57] Do good

[01:12:57] things

[01:12:58] and be

[01:12:58] kind

[01:12:59] and

[01:12:59] be safe.

[01:13:00] Yeah.

[01:13:05] We hope you

[01:13:05] enjoy today's

[01:13:06] episode and

[01:13:07] our guests.

[01:13:08] Each

[01:13:08] week,

[01:13:09] we try

[01:13:09] our best

[01:13:09] to dig

[01:13:10] into the

[01:13:10] topics that

[01:13:11] are impacting

[01:13:11] your

[01:13:12] business.

[01:13:13] So

[01:13:13] please reach

[01:13:14] out to

[01:13:14] us and

[01:13:14] let us

[01:13:15] know how

[01:13:16] you think

[01:13:16] we can

[01:13:16] make the

[01:13:17] show

[01:13:17] better or

[01:13:17] topics

[01:13:18] you'd

[01:13:18] like for

[01:13:18] us to

[01:13:19] tackle or

[01:13:19] talk about

[01:13:20] more

[01:13:20] often and

[01:13:21] even

[01:13:21] guests

[01:13:21] you'd

[01:13:21] like to

[01:13:22] see

[01:13:22] join us.

[01:13:23] We're

[01:13:23] looking

[01:13:23] forward to

[01:13:24] bringing

[01:13:24] you next

[01:13:25] week

[01:13:25] session and

[01:13:26] hope that

[01:13:26] until

[01:13:26] then you

[01:13:27] stay safe,

[01:13:28] stay

[01:13:28] focused and

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