Top Economic Insights For Wholesale Distributors in 2024

[00:00:00] Welcome to Around The Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton. Sponsored each week by Lead Smart Technologies, Tom Kevin and their guests review the news of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers,

[00:00:19] Wholesale Distribution, Independent Sales Agents and the Global Wholesale Supply Chain. Whether it's M&A, Sass and Cloud Computing, B2BE Commerce or Supply Chain Issues, we peel back the young and with our guests into the topics that impact your business, the most.

[00:00:37] The first Friday of 2024 did is welcome back. My wife, lovely wife, Dernie asked me last Friday morning as I was wandering around last at 9 a.m. Pacific time. How did I feel about not having the broadcast today?

[00:00:57] I said, you know it's twofold. One is it's great not to have the preparation and that's a pressure right? The preparation that goes with it. But I kind of missed it a little bit too. I have to say yeah no I agree.

[00:01:13] I missed it. I missed doing the show but I didn't miss all the prep work and all that kind of stuff. Yeah believe it or not people might not even. People might think we wake up in the morning, look at a couple articles and just start talking

[00:01:26] about it. There's quite a bit of work and prep and an editor that works on all this and quite a bit of stuff that goes with it.

[00:01:32] So by anyways great to be here. It looks like we got, get some great folks popping in on the LinkedIn side of things. This morning, happy Brian Hopkins is good friend. R.P. Ron Paulson could see all of you folks.

[00:01:46] Good folks coming in if you're with us on LinkedIn live, YouTube live or Facebook live. This morning please feel free to chime in with questions, thoughts, comments and or just a hello and where you're visiting with us from.

[00:01:59] But Tom I think what we'll do is we'll take it away and we got a lot of stuff to talk about today from that. So really really quick. Yeah, I do the house eating it like full speed like you know, like I talked about. Like I talked about.

[00:02:13] Okay, so fast we'll do that. All right. Well let's first say who we are huh? So I'm Kevin Brown. This is with Tom Burton my co-founder of Leeds Mark Technologies as well as a lifelong friend and business associate as well from many years.

[00:02:28] Tom and are the co-founders of Leeds Mart as I mentioned, Leeds Mark Technologies is an AI enabled CRM and customer intelligence platform using AI tools and data from wholesale distributors and manufacturers to help them make better business decisions.

[00:02:43] Accelerate growth and deeply understand their customers and ways that they have not before. We are very fortunate that Leeds Mark sponsors this event that we do every week.

[00:02:54] And what we do is on Friday mornings, we publish a newsletter and how we do that is we gather news and information from around the globe. A little bit of information about the economy each week.

[00:03:05] Lots of information on technologies, a little bit of things about M&A, leadership, lots of different topics sales marketing. And how those relate back to manufacturing wholesale distribution.

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[00:03:44] www.aroundthehornpod.com, which we can sign up for there as well as you listen to all of our past episodes. What happens here is Friday mornings, we go live, we review the information in the news of the week and we look at that newsletter.

[00:03:59] So if you're listening on a recorded session of this on the podcast on apple podcast, Spotify Amazon, wherever it might be that you're podcast, you're not going to be seeing that newsletters.

[00:04:09] We'll remind you throughout the day that while we're looking at or the articles that the people that are with us live have an chance and an opportunity to see. So big guests coming up in the next few months, great topics this morning, Tom, you want to lead off?

[00:04:23] Let's do it. Alright, so a little quick one as we look at the newsletter here again. You're listening to the podcast you're not seeing this but interesting article. We talk each week typically a little bit getting started about a little bit about what's going on in the economy.

[00:04:38] This is particularly in the US and North America here, but some good stats about construction spending up in November. Those numbers came out last early this week actually. So 11.3% year over year construction spending, you know that typically boats well in manufacturing wholesale distribution, right?

[00:04:58] Somebody's making the processing the lumber, making the nails, deciding whatever it might be and selling that through wholesale distribution.

[00:05:06] As we explore, we have quite a few companies that are in the building materials business. So we follow that pretty close to you. So some good news to see that kind of a, I don't know, it's on what are your thoughts.

[00:05:16] You know, I'm a little more bullish, I've been throughout 2023 than you on soft landing and economic factors getting better sooner, but this is another piece of good news.

[00:05:29] I think we touched on something like this before the break. And you know, the question is here is this really the uptick more because materials were available, right?

[00:05:39] So it's the supplies available and then it kind of allowed a lot of these construction spending to get started or was it really more of an economic demand for it.

[00:05:49] Not a hundred percent clear, but it certainly certainly. Yeah. I would I would certainly look to and I've read a few other articles related to this at a big part of this is Closhoon and pot. So there's no there's a mix here right in construction spending.

[00:06:06] We look at commercial construction, they even talk about educational construction, people into the report. So residential commercial and educational, but on the residential side.

[00:06:17] The majority of the country has a short housing shortage. So there's been a need to do that. What some of the things that I've read about have been that builders, whether it's landowners and whole builders as an example or multi family units builders have been looking at is less about the supply chain issues and more about the issues that go with

[00:06:40] Interst rates, right? Because they're going to need you and talk. You've talked in the number of times recently about prior loans resetting and so forth.

[00:06:49] Interst rates confidence and things and there are people going to have the ability to pay the rents if it's a little flat family housing unit so far.

[00:06:56] So I think a big piece of this will see and we'll probably see more of the shake out soon to understand this better is really tied to seeing that lack of a better term right soft landing.

[00:07:09] And it's coming out of all of this that now it's time to start giving up. Yeah, so it could be affordability, it could be materials, it could be all of the above. Interst rates all those, yeah, my thing is combination of factors.

[00:07:22] But it's a, you know, for that neither one of us are economists or home builders. So, but interesting, the Institute for Supply Chain Management to publish the report this week about economic improvement continuing in 2024.

[00:07:38] A couple of quick statistics out of that they talked about a focus in the forecast of revenue on the manufacturing site increasing up 5.6%.

[00:07:47] I guess we would have some manufacturers listening with us today or live room, the podcast later that would expect a whole lot higher growth in their companies. But growth in general, they talked about capital expenditures increasing almost 12%.

[00:08:05] Two things that they, they hit on those was a capacity, capacity utilization that currently things are sitting at about 83%. So lots of room for growth in manufacturing. You know, kind of the downside is if that number is there, they talk about going to 86.5% next year.

[00:08:27] If that's the case, then you know, we probably don't need all that much new machinery. We probably don't need new buildings which would vote well for economic growth as well. But so be it.

[00:08:39] Yeah, it's interesting. I think there was actually a new ISM report that came out this morning, as a matter of fact. And it was 2.0, I think it was 50.6 which they were expecting 52.5%.

[00:08:53] So we get a lot of, I mean, obviously still about 50% or anything above that is showing growth among the way so it's not just growth. The question is, is the speed of the growth and are we going to continue to see?

[00:09:05] I don't know, a little bit of a roller coaster or as a straight up in vertical, not 100% sure. So that leads me to talk about, we have a little differing opinions on this which is good.

[00:09:18] I personally have a, and this is again, you know, I did okay in economics classes but only took the required ones.

[00:09:29] There's think there was only two of them. But the, I think there's a ground, while building now, it's interesting stock markets, you know, not how to great week. In comparison to just pre-holidays, but in the second half of the, in the last year.

[00:09:46] But I think there is a little bit of a ground, while building a reninurgical yesterday about one of the heads of the International Monetary Fund.

[00:09:54] This was the Wall Street Journal making some comments about, you know, soft landing might be an understatement for what they see things for the US. It's going to be even easier and better than a soft landing of things.

[00:10:06] So I think there could be a little bit of groundswell developing, you know, I'm going to hit the first plugs up next week. We're pretty excited. We've got some.

[00:10:17] Oh, and then maybe stop short elections, but I think a couple of people called them legends when we talked about this before the holiday.

[00:10:25] But we've got Mike Marks from Indian River Consulting Group who's could not be probably more well known in wholesale distribution is as a research or writer speaker, and also an author board member for a number of larger organizations, distribution companies.

[00:10:40] Dirk beverage runs that we supply America to our really thoughtful speaker. Human is to direct such a great human being as as Mike and Ian that are joining us as well.

[00:10:51] But next week when we get Mike, Dirk beverage is mentioned Ian Heller with the distribution strategy group together, I think we'll kind of dive in on more of the economic factors in their impacts on distribution.

[00:11:03] And we'll be interested to see right there thoughts, are they bullish or they, you know, rubbish where they act with all of these things and we'll get a good feel for that.

[00:11:12] That's a shy group I haven't been feeling we have a lot of debt air so people just not talking so we're going to need a lot of people to jump down. Yeah, we'll do a lot of well there we go.

[00:11:22] Paul Kennedy who's there are people out there that I'm a Paul Kennedy fan myself.

[00:11:28] There are people out there that would suggest the Paul's a legend as well, but Paul says all of those guys are legends so Paul I'm going to ask you Paul is the president CEO of the co-supply group with the SG wholesale distributor.

[00:11:42] HVAC plumbing pipe valves of fading electrical you want to build a building in the upper Midwest and upper northern northwestern part of the US then you're going to want to talk to the folks at Dakota supply group.

[00:11:56] But Paul we're going to be looking for some good feedback from you next week and Paul is going to be joining us on the broadcast again before long as well that was me putting out to the universe that Paul's going to say yes when we invite him next.

[00:12:08] So and Ron as we may need to expand the time next week I think we need to make that like a three hour teleponers. Well I mentioned that I sent a note to all three of the guys.

[00:12:19] The yesterday that we'll go you know, you know brought this up first is my father and dad's you know long since retired and is battling some serious health problems right now.

[00:12:35] And but he listens every week right if the final send him the link to the YouTube recording within 20 minutes after we finished dad sending me a text message because he's in his chair and probably as he has p and on in the background, but he's listening on his headphones to the podcast and his comment was.

[00:12:51] Why put a time limit on things just talk he goes people will drop off if they don't want to listen anymore. So I could have to do something.

[00:12:58] Yeah well you know what our RP and this comment here is right line with with my dad Charlie Brown so that's good stuff. All right, so um you know interesting news out of that you know.

[00:13:14] It's a flat change management study encouraging news right let's let's go jump ahead next article that we talked about. Comes to us from the Wall Street journal and it's talks about new disruptions geopolitics hangover 2020 for supply chain and you know.

[00:13:30] Come we've talked a lot and I'm really interested in some of the people that have trained in this morning and others that are listening with your thoughts.

[00:13:39] We've talked a lot in the past year right what do we look at last year we looked at on supply chain really to stuff right we had major concerns about and you know 11th hour you know deals put together for west coast port.

[00:13:55] Strike that was averted right then there was an eastern Canadian risk of a port strike then there was a then the west coast of Canada's.

[00:14:05] There was a port strike and it went on for a number of weeks really disrupted things cross border that kind of stuff hit the auto industry pretty hard because you got stuff.

[00:14:15] Parts coming in from Asia into the Canadian western ports that are going to the eastern Canadian auto manufacturing plants that then bring cars into the US.

[00:14:25] So there's a lot of issues that popped up with that well now we're starting to see more and more things happening and what we've got this issue now that's pretty pretty scary is what's happening to parts when we talked about this last year as well was the so weird it's the fifth you know and we're saying.

[00:14:44] Last last year last year it feels odd because it was just a couple months ago we had this discussion but you know the lake that's at the far side of the Panama Canal because of a drought is low.

[00:14:57] Panama Canal is lower fewer ships are getting through one time and now with the Middle Eastern crisis we have this issue with the Suez Canal as well so I don't know what if you really thought to take away from this article.

[00:15:10] You know I don't have anything specific other than a lot of the things that we've talked about before right is contingency contingency and contingency.

[00:15:20] And a lot of this stuff you couldn't have dreamed up right you couldn't dream up sort of the things that could occur now I think the Suez Canal aspect of it has a lot more impact on Europe.

[00:15:31] And it does here in the US but you know we're a global economy and a global peace and the stuff from China to Europe is really affected are Europe to China from the Suez Canal.

[00:15:42] I think it all comes back to again having that contingency and having more of that onshore capability I guess we're getting some of the things. Are you sure you know and sure you're sure?

[00:15:54] Yeah I think the only thing that you can predict is the fact that there is going to be unpredictable barriers and situations that are going to occur.

[00:16:05] So whether it's the Suez or the Panama Canal when I've heard some more on that is it's not just the drought it's the fact that they increase the size of the Panama Canal which took more water from the lake to fill the canal.

[00:16:19] Yeah so you went with a double double whammy on those things so I don't even know if you know it's not clear right if the.

[00:16:27] What what type of you know rain or what type of water would be required to even get it back to a point of quote unquote normal. So anyway, contingency I think is the is the key word there.

[00:16:39] Well some some the interesting points that came out of this article that I think are important you know said in 2023 Mexico surpassed China as the US is largest trading partner. That just stop and think about that for a second.

[00:16:58] 2023 Mexico surpassed China as the US is largest trading partner that I think in itself a huge part of that speaks to that near-shoring idea right is we're doing so much more there but.

[00:17:11] globally trade flows are you know huge as it's the you know the world's factory is China in essence but the Suez Canal thing it maybe maybe I'm overstating this but I've been watching this.

[00:17:24] Pretty closely yes we have this Middle East conflict going on and it's looking at other nations getting involved in that area and the risk of that conflict growing right we've got these these. I just lost the name of it.

[00:17:42] The I'm just looking at my notes here trying to get the name but that I think was the hootie group that you know that are in the red sea area Suez Canal area right that are coming after the shifts they they made you know they've sent some some some drones and stuff you know teasing US warships and so forth.

[00:18:04] You start seeing more that pressure in the Panama Canal and I did a little research edition this morning and one of the things that I found it suggested that 50% or more of both oil and gas.

[00:18:19] And from there coming to Europe is going through the Suez Canal in fact far more than 50% but from China in Asia well over 50% of goods that are traveling to Europe are going through the Suez Canal so you know we talked about the pressure and the things going on with the Panama Canal.

[00:18:39] And that starts to happen that there's a ripple effect that's going to hit this country as well through all of that especially with the way in gas you know so something I think be paying attention to so.

[00:18:50] And I think the thing you know going back to the contingency right you can look at kind of internationally where these bottlenecks Suez Canal Panama Canal those are places to create huge bottlenecks even if you have you know.

[00:19:03] If you're in Mexico or your other places in North America even if you have you know issues with.

[00:19:09] You know ground transportation or whatever the kid you'd be you don't have the bottlenecks that you have potential bottlenecks that you have with shipping and so forth so I think you get that contingency and I agree with Ron I was going to mention this actually but I was going to save it to later.

[00:19:25] I'm going to mention that our piece just feeding you stuff to make you look smart. Well yeah, I need what I need every help all I help I can get. I'll take our pieces and some heavy.

[00:19:35] But yeah is that you know again this is where AI can help to really support and look at sort of these different scenarios look at contingencies look at all of those things to help you. You know determine options are alternatives I guess along the way so.

[00:19:49] Well I I'm going to throw a wrench at that for a second and I don't disagree with with our peace comment or what you're saying with that but.

[00:19:57] That's big picture stuff right that that's when we're looking at planning things from a standpoint that says hey where do I how am I going to manage supply chain months and months out right the risks that we've kind of been talking about with in these disruptions that this article talks about right is no one was expecting right and I mean if we look back at events of.

[00:20:18] Of of of 2023 I don't think anybody was in October 7th was the Hamas attack in Israel. I don't think anybody was expecting that to happen of the magnitude and how it happened right Middle East conflicts been going on forever.

[00:20:37] But when you look at a an attack by a self proclaimed political group on a you know peaceful concert I don't think anybody was expecting something like that.

[00:20:52] You know maybe some conflict yes but these are the types things and might take away from this a particular article and the discussions we've been having about.

[00:21:00] The supply chain issues are the more sudden things that you could have the best AI models out there and certainly it will help you but when you've already got.

[00:21:10] You know 150 containers on a ship that's heading to a port and in the article also talks about the disruption in freight lines this year and tracking companies are not just yellow freight but a number of tracking companies large tracking companies in the US went out of business in 2023.

[00:21:29] These are the sudden things that yeah AI can help us with what to co-do but the planning piece of it I think is is more a long term in these things.

[00:21:40] Well I think right now that's correct I think that and maybe this is the point runs making here is.

[00:21:47] As you start to move forward though and you start to use AI you can look at a lot of what if scenarios in that and plan for things that you wouldn't.

[00:21:57] Or at least have visibility potentially into things that you wouldn't quote unquote normally think about and then plan for those for those situations that are right so you know right the second it's different story but.

[00:22:08] Yeah to your referencing like digital twin type plan right if it be I mean you'd be a lot of if I'm bringing X amount of goods by ship from why location what would I do if what is the scenario if X, Y's he happened.

[00:22:26] Yeah or even looking I mean believe it or not right there.

[00:22:30] You can probably even do this now on chat GPT is say give me you know give me a basically an executive summary of all of the different potential issues I could run into with supply chain based around worldwide events and tip you know geopolitical actions and things that are you know there's a lot of nuance right that are that are there.

[00:22:53] And and then help me come up with based on that sort of knowledge or projected knowledge then help me come up with some of the things like you said through a digital twin and so forth right and runs at scenario planning right what are the scenario look at a good example finish what he said.

[00:23:12] I didn't see anything else what he said just a scenario planning digital twin that I saw he said call it showed up on my comments.

[00:23:19] So very good you know just as a reminder to the people we missed run for the last couple weeks I don't think you're on a couple weeks.

[00:23:29] Yeah, you know what's what's as a reminder to folks I somebody talked that mentioned to me a while back in a conversation that they said you know you guys have some fun and poke at each other a little bit you know little disclaimer Tom and I are not young and.

[00:23:46] We we've been friends since kindergarten so we run a company together but we've been friends for you know. I guess we're approaching approaching 55 years coming up that we've been friends so my joke is that I give Tom one compliment a month.

[00:24:02] So there's some some zingers that go back and forth with this as well here and there so.

[00:24:08] We always like to see the compliments that we get an RP compliment at time it was gracious enough in his last comment to mention that I was right in one of my comments so makes our pee.

[00:24:19] So when you hear us poke at each other it's in good fun. We're lifelong friends and and we'll be fine later in the day. Yeah, I'll get over at least at least I will. Yeah. Very good.

[00:24:32] All right, well let's keep we're going to keep an eye and I think with a group we've gotten next week that might be a good discussion is to talk about a little bit about some of the geopolitical issues that are hanging over over moving goods right.

[00:24:44] Because we can't hit these growth rates that we've talked about and whether it's manufacturing or its indistribution that we're looking for in the growth in the economy and North American next year if we don't have goods coming in so.

[00:24:57] Yeah, good. All right, what's next, the friend? Well, I think what we just talked about follows in beautifully to this next article about. Manufacturers need to follow through on their digital transformation goals and basically the article is talking about.

[00:25:12] Manufacturers and I assume that you could probably include distribution of this as well. I'm glad you said that because you're right on yeah right have digital transformation top of mind as 2024 begin.

[00:25:25] But how fast manufacturers will turn thought in an intention to real action remains to be seen and we certainly see this we see this a lot about you know there's a lot of content ideas and a lot of.

[00:25:41] Things like that but how does it actually translate into action and results yeah and we're not and that's what they're saying is it's the actions and results aren't happening quite as quickly as the ideas and the intentions.

[00:25:52] Well, there's there's there's convert and you know this kind of leads to some of the conversations and we won't go in this to deep but we've been having recently two of us is related at you know.

[00:26:05] We're manufacturing and wholesale distribution is related to you know preparing for AI. You know we've had a nice conference last year about it that distribution strategy group put on for for wholesale distribution is great event right monitor distribution management has been coming up and.

[00:26:24] DSG is doing another one we're reading about this stuff every day there's a difference right and I think that's what this article and this is from digital commerce 360 to publish this article and I think you know part of the issue time that goes with this right is to your comment in the.

[00:26:39] And the first thing that's going on is that it's going to be a lot of different types of products of this is you got to get off the don't right and and I I have discussions I you know had one a couple weeks ago with a huge distributor with their.

[00:26:51] One of their digital officers that they've got there and and just looking at CRM and customer intelligence which is not new technology as most people know it was on the road meant for later in the year right.

[00:27:06] And so we're going to have a lot of information about the organization as hundreds of customer facing people without and I have these conversations every day it's right it's not to pinpoint one organization. But I was conversational with people pretty much every day that are.

[00:27:23] And so they're going to be a lot of people who know where they need to go and digital transformation or at least some steps that they have but they're still working with in many instances 1015 20 year old ERP systems.

[00:27:37] And so the other spot pieces of software maybe a little behind so for but the digital transformation is very different than just saying we bought software.

[00:27:47] Yeah, I think you know look I can totally understand where we're at right now is a really stay eye there's a lot of.

[00:27:57] Right there's so a lot of a known it's hard to make good decisions and there's a lot of and I get it there'd be a lot of fear of messing you know we call fear of messing up right there's fear of missing out of their spirit messing up.

[00:28:08] Right I think there is so that's understandable and I and I think this year will help really put some clarification in fact we're going to talk about some of those things here in just a minute. I think though right now.

[00:28:20] My here's my recommendation and I'm not this is not self serving really at all but just knowing where I know AI is going and what some of the things that are going to come about in the next six to 12 months.

[00:28:32] Is to everything you can for as far as digital transformation is to get your data organized and in a place where it can be utilized.

[00:28:43] And CRM what we do right is taking a lot of sales and business and customer related data and organizing that in making that so that it can be used and actionable when you're ready to move with AI your ERP is you know transactional accounting.

[00:29:00] Transactional inventory other sort of data to make that actionable and usable when it comes to AI whatever the case may be right. In my opinion it should be 911 to get your data organized and together through some of the traditional digital transformation actions.

[00:29:19] Then you now have your fuel tanks essentially to then be ready as then AI becomes more obvious on how you should be applying it you've got your data ready if you wait to figure out what your AI is going to be to then figure out your data you're going to be way behind where it needs to actually come together.

[00:29:38] So that's my my a two cents recommendation for today. Well I'm glad you shared that I mean it kind of makes me think back to this this fall by the presentation that I do for trade associations buying groups and so forth and it is.

[00:29:56] It's titled the four pillars of digital transformation and you were with me when I gave it in Denver for one of the buying groups the fall. And that that was the after conversation with most in his all wholesale distributors in the room right that was the after conversation.

[00:30:15] The presentation and you know the four pillars right are getting clarity with your data with the RP with CRM with Mark animation and e-commerce tools so that we're getting that data together.

[00:30:25] We're looking at them holistically to make decisions in our business and serve our customers better because we have what truly is finally custom.

[00:30:32] But that ended up being the after discussion at lunch that day and then later that night after a reception in the bar with people I was talking to and you had the same conversation somewhere we were together.

[00:30:45] Was about I've got all this data right it's not clean it's not ready for prime time and the way to get the best result out of any AI tool whatever you're going to use is going to be to your point right having.

[00:31:00] Data that is clean and I don't want to say scrub it per se but if the most organizations need to do a little bit of work and it's not that it's impossible or it's overly expensive or daunting it's setting a plan for the death.

[00:31:15] And again, it doesn't even have to be like you know squeaky clean from a machine.

[00:31:20] I mean it's not. I like to use the word as I have a place I have a repository to capture the data and to organize it you know that's any sort of ERP or CRM.

[00:31:31] I'll just take CRM as an example right you can you know people well we're you know tracking activity or whatever but if you think about. How you're using CRM to organize your data related to customer opportunities customer even issues potentially customer engagement customer conversations.

[00:31:51] Customer actions prospect or customer when I use that word right most companies if you don't have CRM that data is not being captured and it's certainly not being organized.

[00:32:02] So therefore it's not going to be in a place where it can be utilized as we get ready to go into AI. So even if all you you know you just and I like we tell people this all the time even if you're for no other reason.

[00:32:17] You just want to be able to capture and organize that sales and customer information make sure that you put that CRM aspect of things on to your roadmap as a sooner than later type of thing.

[00:32:29] Obviously there's a lot of other benefits potentially for that but is just as a place to organize and capture that data the other thing is that I know we have to move on here but.

[00:32:40] Yeah, we see a lot of you're going to roll we see a lot of people talk about their concern about data hygiene right my data is bad I got a lot of that a data.

[00:32:49] And that's true but that is less important there's a lot of things that even be done with AI as you move forward to kind of weed out some of that bad data or even help clean up some of that bad data hygiene issue so to speak.

[00:33:05] So again we want to focus more on the organization of it how is it organized how is it structured. Yeah, that's what it's called structured data how's it structured how is it structured and organized so that we can be ready to use that.

[00:33:18] And we can release some stuff on this because I've been doing some testing is if I look at what is the best data. I'm finding like what is the best data that AI thrives the best with like what organization of data.

[00:33:32] Is the best the best way to organize data to then maximize the results that you start to get out of large language models and AI stuff we can talk more about that you know separately but there is some best practices I guess on how to do that.

[00:33:44] But even if you don't have those best practices at hand just having some framework for organization will go a long way. All right, I'm done we can move on.

[00:33:52] I think you know that the key thing right is is visualizing that data that becomes actionable right and and we can have all the BI tools and all the ERP stuff that we want that will tell sales people.

[00:34:06] There's an example what they need or what they should be looking at if they go look but they need it in a single place where everything is there for them.

[00:34:15] And I think that's what's important is we get that data and again to your point right it doesn't have to be pristine or squeaky clean but we do need to do some cleaning with our data.

[00:34:23] We need to get data from across our organization bring into a central location that we get that visibility and accountability too and it's not just financial data.

[00:34:33] It's all of the things that go with that are our buyer behavior and what they're doing what the needs are what projects they're working all that data that can and then the e-commerce data.

[00:34:45] What what videos are they watching on our website what emails are they opening we bring all of that data together with financial data.

[00:34:52] That's where we truly get customer intelligence that accelerates growth so anyways let's move ahead we're way behind quickly next article that we have here comes this is a daily mail article from the UK but we'll cover it pretty quickly and the reason we're going to talk about Amazon reviews briefly is not because of what we might have bought the other day.

[00:35:13] And you pickleball paddle or whatever it might be but more about the business side of this is more more manufacturers are making their products available on Amazon whether it's a tool or some PPE or whatever it might be.

[00:35:29] And Amazon's business is I had an am I mentioned this before on our show is an Amazon executive at a dinner I was at number years ago in San Diego.

[00:35:39] And you know if it's if it's legal reasonably moral and fits in a box Amazon will sell it and ship it.

[00:35:52] And so you know if you think about it right if you're a PPE man you personal project of equipment manufacturer or a hand tool man you fact sure things like that that fit into reasonable size boxes.

[00:36:04] Having a present on Amazon builds brand not just for sales but it builds brand well now what we have happening in that is there are distributors and there's two camps that I'm learning on this there are distributors that have an e-commerce present.

[00:36:18] That are truly trying to sell one off items on e-commerce versus just taking orders to recombers.

[00:36:25] There's one camp that says Amazon is the devil and never have anything to do with Amazon there are others that are looking at their vendors and their supply partners that have an Amazon presence and their piggy backing off of that brand and they're also now has starting up their own Amazon store.

[00:36:46] The reason that because of that is why we will we'll talk about this topic which is really the nearly half of Amazon reviews right now are unreliable and oftentimes right.

[00:36:59] Yeah, you know I think there's two parts so they listed out I think the different categories I said what was close shoes jewelry and so forth so I don't know how to go ahead.

[00:37:11] I don't know how that actually applies to all that sort of business related type things on there but I think there's two things to be aware of.

[00:37:20] Is one that reviews themselves may be bogus but also a lot of times people evaluate and make decisions based on the quantity of reviews right so.

[00:37:30] You may end up seeing how they have a 10,000 reviews well a good majority of those reviews may be bogus or fragile along the way so. You if you look at the the qualitative and the quantitative part of it.

[00:37:43] It's probably not the again I don't know how this affects on the business side but if they also need to know this to second yeah some of the categories they were talking about here.

[00:37:51] To me it more due diligence needs to happen beyond hey I got 10,000 reviews and it looks like there's a lot of five stars or four stars there.

[00:38:00] Well what's really going on with this right is they've got and this is all tied back to what you were mentioning is about how this ties into you know wholesale distribution right is as people are moving there right they're looking at lots of if I'm going to open an Amazon store.

[00:38:17] I'm going to be in have a presence as you know Joe's industrial supply on Amazon I'm going to be wanting to work with my current vendors but I'm going to be wanting to solicit and sell other products that I could be looking at.

[00:38:31] So you know the problem that they're describing here is that people are like and it's is mostly are often times with third party sellers right which would be that if I set Joe's supply up there.

[00:38:43] I'm going to be talking about trying to manipulate these ratings to boost their own sales. There are companies out there that are using literally brokers to solicit fake customer reviews through social media and cryptid messages there's bots that are doing these things now.

[00:38:58] And it's important because if I'm going to have a store out there as I'm selecting what's going to be in my store.

[00:39:05] I need to be able to rely on something that I see reviews they're not just you know what I may have in my own mind of what I want to sell but I'm going to want to expand what I sell in my store because that's the beauty of Amazon right.

[00:39:18] I can sell so much there. Yep, so I don't know the answer to it it's just certainly something to be aware of.

[00:39:27] Well, it's just a completely closing on that right is Amazon says it's not as bad as some of this research says of course they're trying to crack down on it but as a I grows and bots it's something to pay attention to.

[00:39:38] But I do think we are going to see continued an ongoing growth of wholesale distributors having an Amazon presence.

[00:39:46] I know right there's probably people I can think and it could name a few of them right now that would probably be throwing rocks at me that they would never ever do that.

[00:39:54] Here's all the reasons why you shouldn't there's a whole another school of thought of why you know anyway let's move ahead let's say it's.

[00:40:02] You know we're 39 minutes into our broadcast this morning almost 40 minutes in and we've only roughly said the word a couple of times so so ready here we go. Hey, I. Hey, I. The household name of 2024 or the house.

[00:40:22] Yeah, so this article that we have here it's a writer's article about the New York Times suing open AI and Microsoft right open a eyes single largest investor now has a board seat. Then board seat or just board observing any of the other words.

[00:40:42] Yeah, yeah and they anyways New York Times is suing them about infringing on copyright there's tons and tons of I just thought think earlier today that some you know famous writers John Christian David Balbachi some comedians even are starting to jump on the bandwagon of starting to look into these lawsuits about copyright infringements so your hour.

[00:41:06] Science grew the day here what what's your first take on this yeah there I have a lot of just and I haven't done enough homework I'll go beast I haven't done enough homework to fully understand all the nuances and ins and outs of this.

[00:41:21] You know there's a lot of right you can go to search engines today now I know that let me back up I know the lawsuit here was based around the fact that the New York Times said somehow they were able to get past their paywall and get data from the New York Times.

[00:41:36] site that was only available for page subscribers right and we're make that data accessible and available on open AI so that I believe is the basis of this specific lawsuit. For that which technically I don't even know how that happens.

[00:41:53] And technically I don't know how open AI or whatever wouldn't have been cognizant or aware of this so I don't I don't again I don't know all the details of this it seems a bit odd in the general sense.

[00:42:07] And if you go to search right a lot of a lot of data is out there you mentioned authors and other people like that it is out there that's available to the public on search.

[00:42:17] And that's basically called fair use right right yeah but I mean most people want to put a lot of data out there you know get a find an author or whatever the case me is I want my my visibility of what I you know do I want my whole book out there whatever not necessarily so.

[00:42:33] But there is a lot of information like that already out there in the public search domain if you want to call that or the search world.

[00:42:42] So the fact that that data is then being used to train the open AI model and then people want it so because of that. That to me is a little bit of a I don't know potentially contradictory.

[00:42:56] I don't know again if it's if it again I haven't done enough research to be totally fluent on all of this it just seems like there's.

[00:43:04] A lot of potential conflict or maybe even contradiction between some of the things that are going on related to suing the the AI companies versus what's already been available and out there on search for for many years.

[00:43:18] So let me ask you a question related to that we got some some comments coming in some questions will get to here in just a minute but.

[00:43:26] What wasn't there I mean this was like 10 plus years ago wasn't Google trying to basically scan and and have available through its search model like the library of Congress. I mean just about and that's just full of copyrighted material.

[00:43:46] You know and so it's interesting to me to see this is and maybe this part of this is tying back to all of the frenzy that we saw during the the writer strike in the the actor strikes right about.

[00:44:00] I use in those settings is people are looking at you know since those in economic impact they're looking at with all of this and my assumption is that maybe. Is that as the New York Times was trying to throw the first you know the first bomb.

[00:44:15] Over the fence to get kind of this conversation started a little bit further so they can start getting some some court opinions and so forth on how they may or may not be able to protect things but opening I and Microsoft is saying this and this.

[00:44:29] This this could just transfer right across to. To barred and and llama from Facebook and all of these other tools that are going to see the scene popping up but you know the response from them is basic and this is all part of what's a legal doctrine governing.

[00:44:46] Unlicensed use of copyrighted material called fair use and that's I think what will end up being adjudicated in this setting is what is fair use. And and if I look if I'm a New York Times or a media company.

[00:45:00] I'm I'm nervous right I mean you sent me you sent me a chat GPT thread where you were going in and and asking chat GPT about some news related information.

[00:45:11] Well what a chat GPT to it when aggregated information for potentially multiple new sites and try to give us the most comprehensive and holistic.

[00:45:23] You know answer to that news event right that's very threatening to traditional news and media courses that are there so I I completely understand that.

[00:45:35] Why there could be you know fear and there could be a lot of disruption is part of this I don't know how this will it'll be interesting to see how this plays out legally.

[00:45:45] And if they win this case or how it actually ends up coming together but I.

[00:45:50] I don't know that it's something that's going to be sustainable as a long term I don't think it's a black and white issue as to what you know data is legitimately should be available and used for these models in which should not.

[00:46:02] I don't I don't know that there's a lot of shades of gray. Something to keep our eye on with all of this right. I think is is important I pulled that article together just because I think we're going to continue to see this. I'm I'm going to.

[00:46:17] William asked a question here he says we're specifically will I have the biggest impact on wholesale distribution. I'm going to talk about some trends in AI in just a couple of minutes it will also address that a little bit.

[00:46:35] But I think what we're going to be seeing here in this article you know before we go too far here that the idea of that.

[00:46:44] And it's out in the public domain whether it's however this these lawsuits play out is a little it's important because we want our our model right and you you're going to have an opportunity to correct me here but I'm going to.

[00:46:59] I'm going to give more layman's terms of our opportunity with AI within manufacturing wholesale distribution right we've talked a lot earlier today and lots and lots of past broadcast about. Right you talk today about the important seven.

[00:47:16] It's astounding to me and I'll mention this again because you know my background is 30 plus years in wholesale distribution your background although you're becoming an expert in wholesale distribution because you've been around it now for close to 10 years. Or seven eight years at least.

[00:47:31] But your background is in technology right computer science and so forth but as we look at these things that I'll reference to a comment that you make consistently is you've.

[00:47:41] You've rarely ever seen an industry or a market and just have to be the market I've spent my career when we look at both manufacturing wholesale distribution probably a little stronger even on the distribution side.

[00:47:52] About the treasure trove of data right when you stop and think about a company that has a digital access to 10 and 15 20 years of invoice data. The things that AI can do with that within a business is.

[00:48:08] Dramatic and overwhelming so back to Williams question we'll talk about it a little bit more his question.

[00:48:13] We bring that up for us sure we can see that real quick because I and we're going to talk further about this and and if you don't we'll even if you don't get the answer you're looking for out of this.

[00:48:23] Trying back in but I think what we're going to talk about this in our tech talk article that we post each week as well and again quick reminder if you're listening on a podcast and not seeing the screen that we're looking at today.

[00:48:34] We have the newsletter that we post every week it's called around the horn and wholesale distribution where we consolidate news articles and events from around the world.

[00:48:42] And how they relate to wholesale distribution manufacturing reach out to us at the email address would be hello at leadsmartek.com we'll get that email out to you if we happen to be connected on social media.

[00:48:54] You can direct message me or lead smart technologies and any of the platforms and then as well we have a website for this podcast which is called around the horn pod.com and you can sign up there so I think this issue though.

[00:49:09] Is that we're looking at is and by the way, we're totally good with them scraping our website and taking our material that's right. Very good.

[00:49:19] That's awesome thank you for that my point being is that article related to what open AI is doing and all of the other models out there are doing is looking at them basically scraping the web the worldwide web right.

[00:49:34] What we're looking at is and as we start talking about AI and wholesale distribution and manufacturing are the things that William talked about here right.

[00:49:43] Tactical ordering, optimizing websites more specifically e-commerce using chat bots really using those tool to tools to analyze data whether it's ERP data CRM data we have a tool built into our solution.

[00:50:00] We need smart channel cloud which is called our genius feet and genius feet is an AI tool that is monitoring all of the data to bring up alerts and remind you not just have it to go proactively look for.

[00:50:12] Who's behind on payments what quotes or closing things like that but proactively bringing this data that's data that AI is using from within your organization.

[00:50:23] In the right models that Tom's talking about Tom you can add to this or correct me if I miss anything here is we're talking about AI.

[00:50:32] Running against your internal data and then using that external data from the internet to bring even more data into helping make decisions so these things are important to the global AI this article we just discussed but that is a component of what a wholesale distributor or manufacturer will be able to do with AI with.

[00:50:52] their own data and external data. Tom anything to add to that or did I do okay for a layman? I think that's fine and I think going back to William's question in my argument. It was really well done that was a good explanation.

[00:51:07] I can't say anything more it's a mic drop moment. But I going back to William's yeah Mike in the answer is all the above and then some and just again I know we're really really not a time here but as a relates to data.

[00:51:24] You can look at it kind of like a matrix right you have your data that belongs to you belongs to your company call that first party data and then you have data that doesn't belong to your company which is you can call a third party data.

[00:51:38] And then you have data kind of that's on one that made us the y-axis of the matrix on the x-axis you have then two categories which is what's considered structured data which is stuff that you can put in a spreadsheet rose columns things like that that would be an

[00:51:52] traditional application and then you have your other data about all your documents and processes and best practice and you know safety requirements and everything like that so any of those things are you could kind of look at those and go there's kind of two combinations right you have first and third party and then you have structured and unstructured that is your and again this is very simplistic but that is your sort of data universe if you want to talk about that.

[00:52:19] Yeah, that data universe is what is ultimately now how you use that and how you use that with different models and all of those things but that is the fuel that.

[00:52:29] The drives that and then you add it you can add another layer into that with your partners and you know we'll or might there's you know there's kind of gray areas between that but that's the basic basic very good.

[00:52:39] Good, thanks for that great question really and we appreciate that you share that with us. Let's jump ahead each week in the news letter. We have a section called tech talk this week's article is five generative AI trends to look for in 2024 and I'm going to wrap it fire these to you time and get some of your feedback on first one was AI technology at work and bring your own AI you want to unpack that a little bit.

[00:53:06] Yeah well I mean that's happening right now right people are bringing their chat GPT log into to work and they're using chat GPT for for business and things like that so. That's what they're talking about is.

[00:53:20] You know AI is going to come into the business whether you do it from a corporate perspective or not because people are bringing it into the to the equation there.

[00:53:29] And I think there was a second issue about that is what do you do about that but that is going to be more and more of a trend is. And by the way the chat GPT store is opening I think next week.

[00:53:41] Yeah, that's going to be a marketplace on chat GPT where you can go and look for things like pre created basically agents or GPT's that have their purposes that are now going to be accessible because they're in a marketplace.

[00:53:57] You know the answer you know I'm interested to see what shows up in that marketplace on which of those are more business oriented or not but that's yet another example of. You know bringing your own.

[00:54:07] Bring your own AI right good so next topic was and I think this will relate backward back to. That first point about kind of monitoring bring your own AI and as I think there's the topic is that they mentioned the second one of their.

[00:54:20] Their trends to look for was enterprise will invest more in AI governance there's probably multiple sides to that what government is probably external data internal data what people are doing. You want to comment on that a little bit.

[00:54:34] Well, I mean I did yes the answer is yes it'll be around not just data but it'll be around use so how are we using the data and then I think even Kelly mentioned a minute ago something about hallucinations right.

[00:54:50] And you QA a little bit about what's coming out of the out of the AI and is it in fact after it and how is this being used. You know are you using hallucinating data with hallucinations in it or in accurate data in your or inaccurate outcomes are.

[00:55:07] In your organization as well so I think there's going to be multi-dimensional governments. Kind of and there'll be an organization I think in most work and most businesses called AI operations which will look at.

[00:55:20] In the same way you have dev operations right now in most companies development operations are going to have an AI operations team that's going to look at a lot of these different aspects of how we're using AI and in business. It's great.

[00:55:34] All right so next one little bit we get a little bit in the weeds here but this will be probably helpful to folks. Next thing they talked about is a trend to watch where was autonomous agents. Yeah, so.

[00:55:47] And this comes back even to Williams question right and this is an area that most people are used to using AI the way you use chat GPT right you put it a prompt and something comes back and you use that and you have a conversation.

[00:56:00] You're talking about it. Right autonomous agents are now think about taking a lot of different AI capabilities essentially linking them together and allowing them to run automatically or have one AI ask one AI tool then call another AI tool that then automatically does something else.

[00:56:19] So I want my my wedding anniversary is I guess 26 I want to go to Hawaii. What happens next in that autonomous agent right so I want to go to Hawaii and I want to.

[00:56:29] And I want to give it some basic thing and says create my trip and through a whole series of autonomous agents working together at the end of the day you have your trip.

[00:56:39] One is looking at flights one is looking at hotels one is looking at my schedule to see if I'm even available one can check my wife's calendar.

[00:56:48] All of these things start talking to each other to do duties and tasks for yeah and they're dependent on each other right so you may go.

[00:56:55] Okay well I've before I check flights I have to check the calendar now I go back and maybe you gave it a framework that says well I don't want to spend.

[00:57:03] $5,000 for airfare so it may want to go back and go live if you go on this date you know it's all of those titles of things that are.

[00:57:09] Conteniencies all of those things will end up sort of working together but yeah we there's a lot to talk about there so. And I just wanted to get it out to the audience and then this recorded and preserved in history that I know my anniversary date.

[00:57:25] So well they said it out loud so all right next one after I talk to the same agent some multi modal and open models these are these are kind of some big words if you're newer to AI right.

[00:57:38] So multi modal what that means is lots of different formats it could be visual it could be audio it could be pictures it could be all kinds of things not just text right or you're not just dealing with text or data but I think the bigger.

[00:57:55] The bigger you when they say multi model right your your companies and the way that I believe AI especially when you get into the autonomous agents. You could be using different models for different purposes.

[00:58:08] You know we I think we talked about this on the show a couple weeks ago is Apple is talking about releasing a model that will run on your phone right a personal model that will run on your phone.

[00:58:18] And you have your own business model your corporate models and so forth so there's a lot of different potential in fact there could be thousands of models potentially available and accessible some are more expensive to use another so the key is how do you kind of create a composite of those models.

[00:58:35] And use the right model for the right job that's going to be a big architectural conversation over the next I don't know if that's a tooth I mean it'll certainly be a discussion in 2024 but I think it'll become a bigger issue the next you know couple years.

[00:58:50] Well I think I think this and then the next the last topic that will that was brought up here is warrior startups and better sophisticated offerings.

[00:58:58] I think what part of this is going to play out as right and and I really think this is important for our audience of manufacturers and wholesale distributors that might be looking at this going oh my gosh you know.

[00:59:11] I don't want to bury my head in the same but this is overwhelming is that the DIFM models kind of come along right is who can do this for me in a way that's going to bring relevance to my business because you know.

[00:59:24] We've had some comments about chief ethics officers and all these types of things you're unlikely to see that in a. 75 million dollar year distributor with four branches and a part time my team person right.

[00:59:40] So I think this is the most important one actually on the list is all the things that we as as a vendor or as a company bringing AI to businesses right up until now most of you look at most of the AI that's come out.

[00:59:56] I think we've been slow and the least smart side even releasing some of the things mainly because.

[01:00:09] I haven't wanted to release stuff that's not doesn't take into account some of these other foundational issues that we just talked about right I think vendors are going to have to be.

[01:00:19] I mean to have to release your AI tools and capabilities keeping in mind how does that fit in with the companies AI governance how does that fit in with their integrity.

[01:00:28] How are they using the models what are the cost of them right our job as the vendor or the service provider is to think through those things so that the offers and the tools that we provide kind of have those.

[01:00:40] I think we've built into the DNA of what we're providing first it just saying here's another tool here's another tool here's another tool right.

[01:00:46] And well that in the depth and the in the vendor world of AI over the next year to two well next one to three years for sure.

[01:00:55] So we we see this and I thank you for that clarification we see this consistently right within within our company leads smart. Where we we meet with both distributors and manufacturers but I think my belief is more prevalent at the distribution level is we have.

[01:01:14] Tons of different pieces of software right but we have no text deck and no plan for why we have this or you know typically they're they're all not all but many of them are touching any our piece system to bring things out.

[01:01:29] But you know we were on the phone earlier this week with a distributor that we thought we knew you know your team is onboarding them you join me on the call of getting a customer onboard and.

[01:01:41] I learned about like three or four new pieces of software that they have that impact their roadmap right that in all of our other calls they've never disclosed so we have all of the whether it's a.

[01:01:53] A mapping software or it's a delivery software or it's a messaging software whatever it might be that they they bought all these tools with AI I'm going to throw this out there.

[01:02:06] Some may agree or disagree with me I'm going to suggest the idea of having a well thought out well planned well structure and organizing.

[01:02:15] Text stack these are the software pieces that I use in my business and how they relate to AI from my roadmap moving forward is probably more important than ever right now because the impact of the idea can. No, I agree.

[01:02:31] You're you're again we talk about data organization your technology organization if you want to call it that yeah how you're you know. I've said this over and over AI is going to really force businesses.

[01:02:44] Everybody's included right is to really get our stuff much more structured and organized you have no we have no choice if we're going to try and take advantage of the benefits that come from AI right so whether that's technology whether that's data whether that's process.

[01:02:59] Whatever the case may be it's going to force us to get more organized and more structured and great anyway that's a idea by product of all that.

[01:03:08] So we're going to continue these discussions as we go on each week we have a feature I'm going to kind of jump ahead and we'll wind down each week we have a feature called industry scuttle but we pop up three M and APs is whatever it might be.

[01:03:23] This past week stellar industrial historically headquartered in Pacific Northwest and else another acquisition acquiring I am see supply I think they were in Memphis if I remember correctly.

[01:03:36] SRS distribution record 22 new branches through both those these were green field opportunities that they were opening not just acquisitions but the third piece of we have here is. Modern distribution management and we get just as a kind of a side note.

[01:03:54] Today right we've had roiders I think CNBC tech target. Modern distribution management distribution strategy group Wall Street Journal and I think something from AP. Lots of different sources we bring together but MDM does a great job they put it together this regular.

[01:04:16] M and A round up and that's published here it's also published on the MDM website we're going to have my pocket from MDM on with us I think in late February and later in this quarter time gay I like to be joining us as well as a guest but.

[01:04:31] Quickly December they had they published 34 different M and A news items but there were 40 transactions several of them included multiple companies at once that was a big jump from the previous November and the same as October so we're seeing this there's this frothingness has continued throughout 2023 in.

[01:04:56] In M and A in distribution and certainly we've seen quite a bit in manufacturing as well I think that's only going to scale up this year is likely money becomes easier to get our hands on and financing options for for M and A becomes even more accessible so.

[01:05:11] Good stuff there thanks for all of the organizations we get data from each week for this.

[01:05:16] We added a feature last month actually was called in review so again we published this news letter we're looking at it now if you're listening on the podcast and can't see this would like our newsletter just reach out to us but then we'll get you to copy of that but.

[01:05:32] In review is where we post articles about things we've talked about many times potentially in the past this is a great article it talks about 10 of the biggest ransomware attacks of 2023 some related to distribution of manufacturing others not at all.

[01:05:47] Just I think we're going to continue to especially with AI tools expanding right that's going to be some of the bad side of the negative side of AI is is the bad guys are going to use some of these things so that's that's great there there's also special feature article that we added that goes into more about AI lawsuits we talked about when earlier today this article about it's titled AI lawsuits explained it's from tech target.com.

[01:06:17] Who's getting sued it's a it's pretty intuitive article tax further last thing I want to hit on today is each week we publish an article about it's called good reads and it might be about leadership might be about technology it might be about health.

[01:06:32] It's more of a let's get our head around something that can help us personally I just thought this it's talked about Costco employees at a project he was in Virginia voted to unionized.

[01:06:45] The company's response is just astounding to this and if you just you can just Google Costco unionizing but basically Costco CEO sent them letter out that said hey we support you and your decision to do that is on us right we didn't do a good enough job to make is the rest of them.

[01:07:09] Costco by my house everybody there has a smile and I think the people truly love work in there and this was you know people use that emotional intelligence mantra all the time or this was just smart right it was like okay what can we learn from this we had this location unionized I don't know if it's multiple or individual that unionized.

[01:07:30] We're probably doing some things that didn't make that the greatest workplace to be out so what can we do so they basically went back and apologized.

[01:07:38] That was pretty cool I was well written article are well written letter and definitely I think a good sign of leadership and good will and and handled it well so.

[01:07:49] All right my friend this was a good one we went long but I think people have started preparing for next week.

[01:07:55] Oh man next week's gonna be fun so back to those of you that join us late next week we have Mike Marks, Dirk beverage and Ian Heller I'm one of the first things I want to ask them together is have they ever.

[01:08:10] Been together on the same format of panel they might have been but I think it's going to be some fireworks and some fun and a bunch of giggles.

[01:08:19] Maybe we should have done this later in the day because it's so it's definitely five o'clock somewhere and and had an adult beverage with us one but if you if you're if you only two and sporadically listen to our show each week.

[01:08:36] Man come next week don't skip next week or at least listen to the podcast and recording you can always get our recordings on LinkedIn live Facebook live in YouTube live if you want to see.

[01:08:47] Handsome Tom and I both are you can get those there the leads for technologies page on again LinkedIn YouTube. Facebook on our pages there the broadcast so next week should be fun really looking forward to it.

[01:09:02] I have no idea that direction some of this might go it could be I can come out of this looking like the all state insurance mayhem man with some cuts and bruises but it should be fun so.

[01:09:14] Ian Helen distribution strategy group just you know an icon Dirk beverage one of the kind of human beings you'd ever meet. The phenomenal speaker writer does the we supply America tour where he works and travels and does videos with family owned enterprises across the country and also distribution.

[01:09:34] And Mike Marks him and he ever consulting group just going to be fun so hey Tom thank you my friend thank you for everybody. Hey look at that will come it.

[01:09:45] I'm probably being that a time when last week maybe go full screen and bring will's will's coming up to me. I wanted to thank James and Ron and Will for everybody staying on with us we appreciate it.

[01:09:56] James James has a new name as a new show too and we should yeah. James is now in the show business as well so yeah and Jeff we check out James is with the perimeter office products in Atlanta great company partner of ours good human being.

[01:10:14] And James if you're still there pop in the notes that the title of your podcast that you just want yesterday because.

[01:10:23] It's related to envelope it was a super cool title will post it will add it and we'll talk about it again of James is still there to plug that in.

[01:10:36] So anyways great for folks being with us will mention tune in early next week for the pre show dancing. That's could be fun and maybe I can get Mike and I'll probably be a little late next week. I'll probably be on it.

[01:10:49] I'm pushing the envelope on the on the same podcast formats that we're on check them out on LinkedIn. My hash thanks for your comment we're going to get me. I guess was one of our top rated guests from last year. I don't think I shared that with you.

[01:11:04] My hash as we're winding down so we'll get my hash back on hopefully soon. And so that was insightful. What a great day. I had a lot of fun in our first time for this year and so I'm going to say thank you to you my friend.

[01:11:17] Thank you for all the comments today. We're grateful for the growth of the show and it continues to get a wider audience each week. And we're appreciative of that. If you have thoughts and topics and ideas let us know that we should be covering.

[01:11:31] We'll continue to do that and we wish you a wonderful afternoon evening depending on where you are. Fantastic weekend please be safe, be kind and good do things. Do good things thanks. And we'll see you next week. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and our guests.

[01:11:53] Each week we try our best to dig into the topics that are impacting your business. So please reach out to us and let us know how you think we can make the show better.

[01:12:02] Or topics you'd like for us to tackle or talk about more often and even guests you'd like to see join us. We're looking forward to bringing you next week's session and hope that until then you stay safe, stay focused and do great things.

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[01:12:36] That's LeedsMart Technologies at LEEDSmartTech.com