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Unknown Speaker 0:00
If you have a child with epilepsy, the last thing you want to do is go to Colorado and buy a bunch of indica. That’s really high in THC to give to that child. It’s the wrong medicine, right? Whereas if you have a PTSD soldier coming back from Afghanistan, he might really benefit from some of that. So you really have to look at the plant, look at what it’s producing and see how you can use it in the medical field.

Unknown Speaker 0:21
Hey, it’s Nate Disarro, and welcome to Titans of Industry, the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In this episode, I sit down with Brad Fausett, co owner and co CEO of green remedies Group, a cannabis cultivation and refinery company rooted in Arkansas. Brad talks about the difference between hemp and marijuana, how he consults with organizations all over the country to bring consistency and quality to the industry and how his PhD in soil chemistry gives him an advantage to create some of the best and most beneficial strains of cannabis. To meet vastly different medicinal needs, from CBD products to cannabis solutions for your pet, you will love this conversation covering all things

Unknown Speaker 1:08
green. And now let’s

Unknown Speaker 1:10
get to the episode. But before we do, it’s important to know that whether you’re a small business owner or the face of a multibillion dollar industry, your organization has a great story to tell, and content Titan wants to help you tell it. We are a digital content creation powerhouse built for the 21st century, providing all in creative strategic production post production and distribution services for at 360 degree 24 seven worlds. In our world, Titans are passionate, creative doers. They have the experience to take your project from start to finish, minimizing your involvement so you can focus on what matters most running your business. So if you’re ready to take your content, strategy and production to the next level, our Titans are ready to help. Now here’s my conversation with Brad

Unknown Speaker 1:58
Fossett.

Unknown Speaker 2:01
Brad, thank you for jumping on the podcast with us. I’m excited about this one, our Titan of cannabis, as I like to call it. Just walk me through the process. How did you end up in this role that you’re in right now which is which is kind of an interesting story as well. So we’ll get to that. But how did you get into the cannabis world?

Unknown Speaker 2:19
Well, thanks for having me. It’s a really long story. I had a an interest in agriculture as a kid and always wanted to be in agriculture. And when I was in college really focused on soils and row crop production and actually got my master’s degree in soil chemistry and most of it was revolving around rice because here we are in rice country. You know, it’s college. So there’s a lot of cannabis in college and I ended up getting kind of involved with a lot of the cannabis back then. And a lot of people over time started coming to me and asking me for pain management into life. care you know, just trying to smooth out the services, you know of the pain that they had to deal with every day. And I think that’s really where you know my start and my interest in it started.

Unknown Speaker 3:12
So master’s degree in soil management, soil chemistry, soil chemistry, and that took you into the agriculture world. Yeah working in the rice industry and I mean so

Unknown Speaker 3:23
I was in rice and I got a job with Gerber foods and started working out in Colorado and of course cannabis is really big in Colorado and then I came back to Arkansas and I worked for a fortune 500 company here and and it was a great experience but I was still involved in cannabis the entire time I was still had people calling me going, you know, I have lung cancer and I can’t smoke this joint that I got from my buddy, what can I do with it and I would help them make brownies or help them make gummies or, you know, get it to where they could get the medicine that they needed. Most of these people did not want to take a lot of the They’re really strong prescriptions. And this was something that was mild and manageable for their everyday life. So I mean, again, it was all agriculture. You know, I really loved looking at the bird’s eye view of agriculture and seeing if we could fine tune the agricultural process here and make it a little better. What I really wanted to do was reduce pesticide and herbicide use and really dial in the fertilizers, you know, through a variable rate and use drones to help do that, you know, we were doing LIDAR and multispectral and hyperspectral analysis and overlaying these ortho mosaics of multispectral analysis over a LIDAR image, and by doing so we could fine tune our data points to where there was almost zero error. So we could see within centimeters and we could see bugs, we could see diseases, we could see them on big levels because we were up in the sky. And it wasn’t just drones, it was drones, planes, helicopters, satellites, it was any kind of data I could get. It was really more data analytics. Drones are just a great tool for it.

Unknown Speaker 5:03
Fascinating. So somebody who in college, learned a lot about soil chemistry, maybe grew some cannabis in the basement and ends up doing aerial surveillance and data analysis for correct. Some of the Lord, that’s an interesting journey for sure.

Unknown Speaker 5:20
So in 2014, I was at the Cannabis Cup in Denver, and I competed and I did really well. And then later on when Arkansas medical started coming up, we applied. We started that venture in 2016, so four years ago, and we’ve got a group and we have a dispensary license that we’re hoping will be issued soon here in Arkansas down in the Hot Springs area. We’re in the top 40. I have picked up several consulting gigs and some of those are with the cultivation. Some of the cultivators here. also deal with a lot of the cultivators in Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada. California, Arizona, I’m kind of all over the place these days. I even have business down in Baja, Mexico, for the CBD side because it’s really starting to take off in Mexico as well.

Unknown Speaker 6:10
I love it. Alright, so 2016 big year in Arkansas, the applications become available. But nationally, where was the national scope of medical cannabis and that whole industry at the time?

Unknown Speaker 6:24
Right, then, you know, you kind of had that transition on the west coast, from medical to recreational, you know, we’re still trying to catch up out here with the medical. And you know, my goal and my focus has always been medical more so than recreational. But cannabis is cannabis. So I mean, even on the recreational side, it has its benefits, especially from a tax revenue perspective and adding jobs and a new, a new form of business, right,

Unknown Speaker 6:48
like I live in Colorado until 2012. And it had just become legal there. And they were obviously on the front end of that.

Unknown Speaker 6:55
They weren’t Yeah, then when California where the front

Unknown Speaker 6:58
Yeah. So So kind of Give me just a brief timeline of, you know, the front end innovators in the states that took it first and then kind of where we’re at here in Arkansas now and the rest of the nation, wow,

Unknown Speaker 7:11
the the whole industry is shifting, you know, I mean, the more and more momentum this industry gets the bigger you know, the bigger players are starting to get involved. The mom and pops are starting to kind of go away and, and it’s a it’s a very money intensive, you know, industry. It takes a lot to grow and secure and manage in and comply with regulations. So it takes a lot of money. It takes the right people that can monetize that whole system. And so the mom and pops are kind of going away, they can’t really compete in some of this. I know, some of the guys that I consult with out in California, they were looking at a million dollars, you know, a license renewal, just for the renewal. And that’s, you know, you can’t do that as a mom and pop you know, So we’ve watched it kind of evolve. And now here we are in Arkansas. And it’s like in its nascent stages, like we were back in Colorado in 2012, and 2014. So it’s, it’s interesting. I’m really interested to see how it evolves here in my home state.

Unknown Speaker 8:15
And, you know, I’ve had minimal involvement basically from, you know, coming out to the farm and then seeing refinery, and yeah,

Unknown Speaker 8:24
the refinery, see,

Unknown Speaker 8:27
but it’s not what a lot of people wouldn’t envision, as, you know, just kids in their basement. Putting together No,

Unknown Speaker 8:34
this is a high tech industry. Yeah, we’re real scientists. Yeah. And we have compounding pharmacists on staff and we run everything through the doctors and for the pet products, we try to get everything vet approved and and we try to do the right thing you know, we really want to help

Unknown Speaker 8:49
so break the industry down for me, it’s it’s a little bit complex. It’s kind of hard to wrap our minds around. I think as the lay person as a person, just kind of looking from the outside in and A lot of people there’s still a stigma with the industry. But if you break it down to not just dollars and cents, but kind of practical like how does the NRA come

Unknown Speaker 9:09
together before my grandmother died last year she you know, questioned me a whole lot about the same thing you know, like break this down for me, Brad, I just don’t know. So I think the easiest way to do that is to first do that clear draw the line between hemp and marijuana, it’s still cannabis it’s still part of the same family it still has a lot of the same medical benefits but you know, there is that line there. The the legalities of hemp is a little bit easier to regulate through and you know, marijuana is marijuana, it’s going to be highly regulated.

Unknown Speaker 9:41
So just real briefly, what’s the difference from hemp?

Unknown Speaker 9:44
So there one thing that qualifies me to grow a hemp crop versus American one a crop is the point 3% THC threshold. So if I break the point, 3% THC threshold I’m in marijuana if I am below point, 3% THC In hemp, I have hemp farms and you know compliance is always you know, top priority on those farms you’ve got a lot, a lot counting on that, that analytics. So cannabis, it has cannabinoids, there are many, many, many cannabinoids and each cannabinoid has a different medical benefit. But let’s think of it like a chain. If you pull on a chain, you know it’s a chain, right? It’s it’s all together it works. You start breaking the links up and taking one link out of that chain. The chain no longer works. And cannabinoids are very similar, you know, they like to be together and they work really well together as a medicine The moment you start breaking it apart, they don’t really work as well together. They call it the entourage effect. It’s actually coined by Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Russo actually, out of Seattle, both coined the entourage effect back in, you know, 2010 2011 somewhere in there.

Unknown Speaker 10:55
Interesting. I like to think of sort of the way it all works and the different strains and all this kind of stuff like apples, you go to the grocery store, you’ve got a bunch of different types of apples. Each Apple tastes a little different. If you don’t know anything about them, you’re not going to know which one you like better. Which one’s better for apple sauce versus apple pie or whatever. So is that kind of how

Unknown Speaker 11:16
well having grown a lot of apples for Gerber foods? Like that’s a great analogy. So yeah, you have the eating apples, you have the processing apples for applesauce or food, big products and then you have like the apples for apple juice, right? They are all very different. Yes. And cannabis is very similar to that.

Unknown Speaker 11:35
What’s the difference in certain types of cannabis or like how does it work differently kind of like sour apples versus sweet Okay,

Unknown Speaker 11:43
so it’s back to that cannabinoids, right and the different ratios of those cannabinoids so really what it comes down to it comes down to what’s called an interview science. You have to breed a plant to get the cannabinoid structures that help the the condition on the back end. So first For instance, if you have a child with epilepsy, the last thing you want to do is go to Colorado and buy a bunch of indika. That’s really high in THC to give to that child. It’s the wrong medicine, right. Whereas if you have a PTSD soldier coming back from Afghanistan, he might really benefit from some of that or if somebody’s coming off an opioid, he might really benefit from some of those higher THC. So you really have to look at the plant, look at what it’s producing and see how you can use it in the medical field.

Unknown Speaker 12:25
All right, now let’s walk through the process. How

Unknown Speaker 12:27
do we go from a seed to a plant that has the right makeup to a finished product walk me through kind of how that whole thing very, very, very long and complicated. And the reason the main reason for that is you’ve got an industry that’s based off of genetics in a basement so in you know the hemp for victory back in the 30s you know, they they had all this hemp and a lot of it was for medicine. Some of it was for rope, some moves for you know, but they had all this metal And that they were making back then out of it, and then they banned it well, when they banned it, you know, everybody went to their indoors basements, you know, back 40s, you know, wherever they could get away with it and not not be criminally prosecuted for it. So the over the years, they kind of changed the genetics so that they worked better in a basement setting or a bedroom setting or some closet, you know, short little plants that you know, produced exactly what they wanted. So now here, we have this industry kind of opening up and we’re, we’re basically left with that breeding program. And we really, what we find is that there’s so much genetic variability when we crack seeds that you have to do what’s called a fino hunt. So let’s say for instance, I cracked 100 seeds, I got 100 seeds in a greenhouse, and I’m cracking on them, seeing what’s in them, and I pick one out of that hundred, the rest of those 99 just kind of go away. They don’t have what I’m looking for, but that one might have what I’m looking for. So then that one gets pruned. treated real well goes into a cloning program, we produce a mass of the clones. And then from there we start our breeding. And that really allows us to dial in exactly which cannabinoids that plants going to produce that we’re looking for. And with the growth habits that we really want for whatever growing environment because sometimes you’re going to put it indoors or greenhouse and then of course, if attempt it needs to be able to sustain that outdoor heat and pests and diseases and everything else. So from that we take our, our flowers, and you know, for the dried the floral industry for the flower industry, we dry and cure really, really slow. So that’s a nice smokeable product. And then for the extraction portion of it, we take what’s left or even some of those those top buds and we start extracting either using ethanol or co2 or even butane can be used as a as a solvent and we pull all that oil off. And then we wrote to evaporate off anything that’s left over and get all the impurities out of it. There’s actually some chemistry techniques that we can use to really clean up the oil and make sure there’s nothing in there but the medicine that we want. And then that oil or that extract can now be used in a number of different products. For instance, you know, we do a sunblock and a sap and dog treats you know, out of the hemp and then on the THC side we do vape pens and gummy bears and you know, your typical thing.

Unknown Speaker 15:24
So, now that we’ve got this raw product, talk me through the process of what you do to turn it turn the oil and that raw product into your finished products. Is this something that happens in a processing lab or facility? How do we get there? So yeah,

Unknown Speaker 15:40
it’s very much a processing lab. It’s very much a cleanroom. So we try to make sure that when we’re processing that there’s, you know, no dust super clean, every every hair on your body is covered. We don’t want to have any of that kind of stuff in our product. We make sure everybody wears gloves. Especially right now with COVID and everything it’s really important to wear your face mask and your gloves as you’re working with these products and PBE super important in the lab, obviously.

Unknown Speaker 16:10
And that’s always been the case it’s always

Unknown Speaker 16:11
been not just a COVID-19 to COVID thing Yeah, but it’s always it’s always the case. And anytime you’re you’re selling stuff to the public, you want to make sure that you’re giving them you know the quality every time and that’s that’s one of the things that really sets me apart here in Arkansas is we have a lot of guys in the cannabis into they’re starting to get into the cannabis industry here. And they’re really looking at quantity more so than the quality and I really want to be that guy that everybody knows in the state as yeah that’s the quality

Unknown Speaker 16:44
and and not all CBD is created equal.

Unknown Speaker 16:47
Not all CBD not all THC, not any cannabinoid is created equal. That is

Unknown Speaker 16:51
correct. How do we determine or no good quality bad quality good grower bad grower?

Unknown Speaker 16:58
Well, unfortunately, labeling Requirements aren’t quite there. Now we’ve tried to do a really good job with our products to make sure that we put the ingredients in there let everybody know exactly what we do we have a story behind most every product in and I always feel I never released something until I feel good about it until I’m ready to give it to my mother. I’m not going to release it right so it’s a good good qualifier.

Unknown Speaker 17:21
Right.

Unknown Speaker 17:23
So I i’m really looking at all of those things to make sure that our quality is right that the products right before we ever get out there now I’ve seen a lot of people they’ll order isolettes from China who knows how pure that stuff is, if it’s really good, how much fillers in it and then they’re just making you know, their CBD products and selling probably a lot more of their products than I am all over the United States. They have a great sales team. They don’t have a great and a lot of quantity but they don’t have a good quality product in any time back to that chain of the cannabinoids. Anytime you try to break those links off, you’re going to lose some of them. Benefits of that medicine. Or for instance, I’ve got family members that are pilots and they’re really worried that they won’t take anything that I give them because they’re Oh no, if I test for THC at all I’m, I’m done. Okay, I totally get that. So there are some uses for the isolette. But you just don’t get the same benefits from just using the isolette I believe in the whole plant medicine and keeping it full or broad spectrum is what we call it. Full Spectrum being that first pass it’s like the first squeeze out of the out of the plant, and then further refined in it to a broad spectrum to kind of remove some THC get the CBD where we want it. That’s that’s really the best medicine out there. Once you go to isolate, not all isolate is even created equal. And that’s something that I’m actually working down in Arizona to help a really large company streamline the supply chain of a CBD isolate because they found after buying stuff off the market, nothing was the same. The quality just wasn’t the same. And it should be But it’s it just wasn’t.

Unknown Speaker 19:01
So how do we get there? How does the quality become consistent? And the same? Is that is that obviously not an easy process? But is it a manageable process?

Unknown Speaker 19:09
So we’re still in that transition from the garage, right? I mean, as we move in, and really get the right companies involved in this industry, I think we’re gonna see that evolution, we’re gonna see the regulator’s come in and actually say, Okay, this is how we want to, this is how we want to see it. This is how we want it extracted, this is how the consumables need to be. And once that’s laid out, it’ll just be the roadmap for us to follow. And I think we’re really looking forward to it in the industry in a lot of ways. I mean, nobody wants more regulations, but in the end, it’s going to help the industry and that’s really what what it’s about. So,

Unknown Speaker 19:41
so we’ve got a complex industry, with mad scientists and PhDs in you know, agriculture industries, kind of out there consulting and growing and putting this stuff out to market. If you look at it and take the word cannabis or marijuana or whatever you want to call it out of it. It’s a very Well run professional science. But there is

Unknown Speaker 20:03
so much science. I think a lot of people don’t realize how much science we really put into this. What we don’t what we really lack in the industry, and luckily enough, I’m with a group that that has this is that, that upper management, that real business acumen that gets you to the next level as a company. And without those people, you know, it’s just another grower in a basement again, you know, so luckily, I’m with a good group that has that structure has that accurate. I have an investment group behind me that believes in this and believes that this is the right medicine, it’s been really interesting to watch the evolution of even the investors how and how they learned the industry,

Unknown Speaker 20:44
back pain, all these things that people live with, sometimes chronically. Sometimes they’re isolated events. We go to the doctor doctor prescribes a medicine. Sometimes it’s an opioid we get hooked on the opioid Is there any kind of long term big picture relief that CBD products can help with some of that. And is the medical community. Afraid of that?

Unknown Speaker 21:06
I think there’s always going to be a place for the pharmaceutical community and the right, the right medicines, right? I think opioids will probably always be used and will always be needed in some way or another. I think we’ve over prescribed them. And I’ve seen I’ve had a lot of people actually come to me personally and go, Hey, I need some products to help me get off these pain pills. I just can’t seem to kick the habit of them. And, and the pre rolls and some of the THC products have really helped those those people get off of those. And I think the medical marijuana program here in Arkansas has the potential of really helping our Kansans kind of break that opioid cycle, you know, is the medical community worried about it? I would think they would be more excited. It’s another tool in the toolbox. You know, the endocannabinoid system is a very amazing system. We have our own system to take care of these, these these problems in our body. This this plant and all it does is activate that system by activity. Those internal processes really allow I think the the the doctors to have another tool in the toolbox,

Unknown Speaker 22:06
there’s still a stigma with the cannabis industry, for sure. I think a lot of the country has sort of accepted it. But there’s still a lot of people that it’s, this should not be right. And obviously certain states are still struggling with that on their own right. And then there’s the medical use versus recreational use. There’s so many reasons why this is sort of a stigmatized industry still, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 22:28
we could sit here all day and go through the conspiracy theories. But you know, when it comes down to is, there is a stigma, the war on drugs was a total failure, that should have never been a drug in the war on drugs. I think we could have completely eliminated the importation of all those drugs back in the 60s 70s and 80s. By allowing cannabis to be in the market, but it wasn’t and here we are, and, and now we’ve got to move forward with that. So the stigma that’s a really hard one, and that’s been a tough one for my family, too, because my family has been, you know, they’re they’ve got great jobs and they’re not ever going to take anything that’s illegal ever. And a lot of my family grew up believing that marijuana was a drug. And when they found out that I was in the cannabis industry, I had to kind of, well, this is him. This is for horses. This is for dogs, this is for people and then you have marijuana, you know, and so you had to really break it down for for these guys to get them to understand that, hey, this isn’t going to get you high. This isn’t going to alter your mind this is just going to relax your shoulders or this is going to take that ankle pain away. Or if you’ve got a horse, hey, go ahead and use this on its knees You know, we’ve got great horse products. So that’s, you know, you start breaking that stigma when you see those kinds of things happen, but to really help people then you have to really look at it and and try to break that stigma and and use the plant for what it’s here for.

Unknown Speaker 23:56
The industry is getting bigger, a lot of money behind it. money behind a fortune 500 companies trying to get their piece of that money and industry and innovation and new products to market. How big does this thing go? I mean, the alcohol industry obviously is huge right? players, right? I’m running the biggest Superbowl ads back when we had football free COVID and

Unknown Speaker 24:19
NASCAR just jumped on the cannabis wagon as well. They’re gonna start allowing some advertising. We’re just in some meetings out there for that. How big does it get? Well, there’s two different sides of that coin. You’ve got, you know, the alcohol comparison and the recreational marijuana. And I think there’s uh, you know, tax revenue is huge from something like that. And I think every state needs to look at that option from you know, legalizing recreational and putting it right in line with alcohol would be great for our tax revenue. From a medical standpoint, and from just an overall population health standpoint, not just for people But for our livestock and our food sources, I see cannabis in the endocannabinoid system really providing a lot more benefits than we’ve really given it credit for. And I think what you’re going to see over time as we get more and more cannabinoids into our system consistently maybe through a beverage or an edible or you know everyday consumables, we might have to start to have some of these cannabinoids added. We might see lower inflammation, we might see lower anxiety and lower stress rates and people maybe heart attacks will go down maybe strokes will go down. We don’t know. We weren’t allowed to really look at this for so long. And this is the first time we’re really getting able to put the science behind it but everything that I’ve seen and everything that I’ve I’ve really witnessed with my own eyes is that there has been nothing but good that has come out of this down to feeding our cattle hemp seeds or feeding chickens hemp seeds so now the cannabinoids are The meat and are part of the whole food supply in the food chain system. I think you’re gonna see a benefit in human populations from from consuming that. I think, you know, hey, happy cow is a happy cow, it’s gonna taste better, you know. And if it’s fed right and is happy, then it’s always going to be a better steak. And I think the same is true for chicken and plants and anything right? So the more we can get the cannabinoid in our food supply, the better we’re going to all be.

Unknown Speaker 26:34
And again, that’s just biological science. That’s

Unknown Speaker 26:36
just biological science, the endocannabinoid system, it’s everywhere. And this is the only plant that has cannabinoids.

Unknown Speaker 26:44
So if we were to somehow marry the, the benefit of that with another plant that doesn’t have stigma associated with it, there wouldn’t be an issue. Right,

Unknown Speaker 26:52
right. You know, there’s a lot of comparisons with hops and stuff like that. There are I think there’s some cannabinoids and hops and there’s, there’s some cards That have, you know, very limited, but there’s nothing that compares to cannabis on the cannabinoid concentrations and production and being able to pull that out of a crop and supply it to the population in general, I think you’re just gonna see benefits. I don’t think there’s really anything negative that’s going to come from that.

Unknown Speaker 27:15
All right, talk to me about some of the players in the industry. every industry has big players on a national level international level. I mean, are there certain people setting the standards around the country from a company standpoint or industry leaders, thought leaders, people that you pay attention to? Obviously, you’re consulting with a lot of these companies. So yeah,

Unknown Speaker 27:35
I have a lot of mentors. And some of these guys are incredibly smart guys. And they’ve been in the in the cannabis world for a long time as well. But as far as the companies go, you know, we had a big push by some really big Canadian companies to really build up their stock prices and try to make it go bigger and bigger. You know, Anheuser Busch was bought by constellation and constellation owns Have some very large grows probably the biggest in the world up in Canada and they’ve got some roots here in the United States. But it’s been a little different to get established here in the United States than it was in Canada. But as far as the real big runners that we’re still waiting, we’re still waiting for the big guys we really are. nobody’s really come out and clearly been a leader with quality. There’s been some good ones for quantity but I’ve yet to see the right quality coming out of some of these bigger operations.

Unknown Speaker 28:29
And now there’s there’s also industries being created around the cannabis industry such as my friend Elizabeth and Michael that is a principal with bud agency marketing specifically to marketing is huge in the cannabis. It’s a whole different kind of marketing and seems Yeah, and then you’ve got Dan roto with a Baka that’s doing FinTech for in the financial pieces and interesting world if you want to,

Unknown Speaker 28:54
you know really streamline the process and, and have a good regulated environment to work with them. Then we need to get the feds involved a little more and start allowing trade and start doing more banking and investments and everything else just needs to open up at this point.

Unknown Speaker 29:11
So what is the issue there? If I didn’t know anything about it tell me about like, Why Why is there an issue? Fine. It’s still

Unknown Speaker 29:16
federally illegal. So it can’t you know, none of your money can be fdic. Yeah. So basically, if I go to a dispensary that selling CBD and I pay 50 bucks or something that $50 can’t go into an FDIC insured bank is that as far as I understand, no, still now, there are banks that are allowing some banking. So we are allowed to take cards. I don’t think we can take credit cards yet. I think it’s still just debit. But I again, I’m not the finance guy. Understood.

Unknown Speaker 29:45
All right. So being a leader in this industry, somebody who is is constantly looking at what can we do new and different and innovate, but it’s a new industry to begin with. So there’s a lot of people out there that have similar thoughts. How do you how do you streamline those things? How do you work with other people In the industry, and create a more streamlined process and allow the industry to move forward working within the federal regulations.

Unknown Speaker 30:08
So a lot of that is just the throughput, right? Its supply chain and throughput if the demands there then we have to increase our throughput of the processing facility. Right now we have the ability to take care of basically ourselves and in our farms and our gardens and maybe a few others but but we don’t have especially in Arkansas, we just don’t have the infrastructure for you know, farmers that want to grow CBD hemp flour to go take it to a large scale processor and it be efficient and in the pay we actually work out right. I mean, I think everybody lost money last year in the hemp industry, the ones that one were just really survivors more than anything, or they were breaking the rules just openly and we we don’t do that. We We try to fit right in those regulations and be super compliant because I don’t want any ripples You know, I’m right where I need to be. I don’t need any ripples So, but we’ve watched it happen in the industry where people just are blatantly ignoring the law so that they can turn a profit and then others that try to play by the rules end up losing. But last year was a weird year. You know, the 2018 Farm Bill kind of blew him out of the water. I mean, I’ve been I’ve been growing hemp since 2014. Oklahoma, and to come to Arkansas last year and grow for the first time it was, you know, under the 2018 Farm Bill was just a little is a little crazy.

Unknown Speaker 31:40
So walk me through that what what was the issue there?

Unknown Speaker 31:43
So actually Arkansas didn’t comply with the 2018 Farm Bill, they still had they still were going to comply to the 2014 Farm Bill under a pilot research program. So we we when we applied for our the hemp licenses here in Arkansas, we kind of followed the same practice as we did in Oklahoma. We’re looking at different genetics, genetics that would be better for processing pest and disease resistance to reduce fungicide loads. And then, you know, just kind of dialing all of that in this industry has to have a workforce and finding people with experience and qualifications to do what you need them to do. There’s not a long list of people with resumes that date back 1520 years that you can draw a major experience on. Well, it’s even more complicated than that because they experienced that we do have come from dry weather. And you come down here to Arkansas, it’s a whole nother growing environment. I remember when I was in college, Dr. Curt round, one of the best professors of the University of Arkansas told me he goes well, but it’s Arkansas. Everything grows well here, including your diseases and your weeds and the bugs and everything goes well here. And he’s right. You know, everything does grow well here. It’s Arkansas is the most challenging Place in my opinion. Now I haven’t tried Alabama or Florida yet. But Arkansas in my opinion is one of the hardest places to try to grow. humidity is high. The bugs are really thick here the weeds grow as fast as the crop. It’s a real challenge. It’s a real challenge.

Unknown Speaker 33:19
What’s next on the big goals list? How do you measure what you want to do next how you grow the business where where you take it.

Unknown Speaker 33:26
So next time, I mean we’re we’re waiting on our dispensary license. We’re hoping that gets issued you know very very soon and and then the gloves come off. We’re off to the races here in Arkansas for the dispensary. I do have some consulting to do some cultivators here in Arkansas to try to improve their quality. I have some very big things going on out in Arizona in Nevada for very large scale production for again back to like constellation type of companies and Just the development, the overall development of really my strains, I’m trying to develop strains that are adequate for, you know, different kinds of conditions or different kinds of production. You know, what I produce for smoke isn’t the same thing I’m going to produce for oil. When I produce for a horse is definitely not the same thing I’m producing for a PTSD soldier. So I’m really dialing in those strings. I think right now, my seed banks up to about 200 varieties that have already been hunted and found really dialed in. You mentioned seed bank, you obviously take your seeds and you grow them. Is that something you also sell to other growers? Is that something is how does that work within the industry? Does everybody develop their own strains or own seeds? Are you working to get those consistencies built out and become known for certain things? There are definitely some leaders in the street, the seed industry and and we were right up there with a lot of them. We’re trying to develop different strains for different additions like I said and and it’s not just seeds it’s clones as well. We had a big contract with EZ clone this year. They’re a national company under grow life I think their their trade name on on the market is is pot pH o t i think is what it is kind of funny. But we had a big contract with them and we produce clones for him but the clone market wasn’t there. There wasn’t a whole lot of farmers buy in this year. And I don’t think you know, most of the farmers around here are still kind of row crop minded. And agronomic and this isn’t an agronomic crop just yet unless you just want to grow rope. And we do have some of those crops as well. We have a really great rope crop going right now in like village Arkansas with a very large row crop farmer. But when it comes down to it, most of this is produced on a horticultural basis. You know, we’re it’s a hoard crop. So we’re taking clones and we’re trying to do you know, 500,000 a million clones and then go take a transplant and Put it out in the field. And the reason why is because that plants already been hunted, it’s already been analyzed for compliance, we don’t have to worry about genetic instabilities, we know exactly what we’re putting out. And that’s, that’s the route we’ve chosen to go right now. Now there are some, some autoflowers being developed that are kind of interesting. And that’s a much more row crop kind of thing. We are looking at combine harvests this year on some crops to see how that can be done and how drying is going to be affected by cutting the crop that way that will never be a smokeable product that will only be an extractable product. And then we still have, again, back to the you know, the top of the cream of the crop, the top of the top will always be you know, steamed dried correctly. 60 degrees 60% humidity, you know, all the right conditions and, and just dial in exactly what we were looking for.

Unknown Speaker 36:55
And that’s all grown indoors. highly controlled environment. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 36:59
a lot of love. Most of the smokeable is grown indoors highly controlled environment there are some of the hemp products that we have that that come out of the field but they have to be a certain kind of field. We can’t have dirt roads around it, I don’t want dirt my product, you know, there’s got to be zero sprays. I don’t believe in smoking, pesticides and herbicides. You know, once it’s extracted, I can clean a lot of that up, you know, so it’s not near the same issue. But when it comes to the raw flour, I want to make sure it’s done right.

Unknown Speaker 37:28
How do you stay motivated in an industry like this that’s constantly changing, constantly being adapted and, you know, everywhere you turn, I’m sure there’s another roadblock that you have to work around. Most people

Unknown Speaker 37:39
tell me they can’t keep up with my pace.

Unknown Speaker 37:43
And most people that work with me go, Okay, I need a break. You know, I just don’t ever have breaks. I don’t think my mom tells me all the time. I work too hard. Moms are good at moms are good at that. Yeah. You know, I really don’t know. I just wake up in the morning. And I know my end goal is to get that dispensary license going in Arkansas. And my end goal is to make sure my THC farms in Oklahoma are far superior to anybody else’s. And my end goal is to make sure I’ve got revenue coming in from these consultant agreements all over the country to make sure my guys are paid. You know, I’m more worried about my employees than I am me ever. But that’s, you know, that’s what I wake up in the morning and think about before I think about anything is, you know, what do we got to do to make sure everybody’s going to get paid, make sure everybody’s better today than they were yesterday. And that’s my job every day.

Unknown Speaker 38:37
When I think just segue into our current state of affairs, you know, here we are July of 2020. And a lot of business owners, that’s their mentality. A lot of industries. A lot of people have been hit hard. And of course, a lot of people have lost their work. There’s been certain subsidies that have helped people out but from business owner perspective, a lot of people are going through that right now. And there’s a lot of mental challenges that I know a lot of people are dealing with and you know, has that something you’ve been affected with is there

Unknown Speaker 39:07
we haven’t we haven’t had to be honest until I come to live rock I don’t even know COVID exists. I don’t watch the news I don’t listen to news on on the radio I’m always on the phone or I’m just driving from one farm to another. We’ve kind of lived in a little bubble throughout all of this you know, I mean it was right in the middle of planting season you know, we had outdoor crops to get out and this has been kind of crazy. But you know, we’ve had we’ve got 50 milligram CBD elderberry gummy bears great for you know, if you do get sick, what a great product to take. We’re looking at maybe doing some vitamin D additions to some of those because we’ve heard that you know, vitamin D is very beneficial for COVID. And, and I do believe that CBD You know, there’s the we’re still waiting on some of the science on it, but I do believe CBD has some effects on getting your endocannabinoid system to help you fight. That virus so I think our industry is sitting at the top right now of the COVID crisis because I think we have the ability to really be able to help without having to go through, you know, human trials of a vaccine and all that we have the ability to actually help people right now.

Unknown Speaker 40:15
So we’re not saying it’s proven, right, we’re saying, take your CBD take your CBD

Unknown Speaker 40:19
isn’t gonna hurt you. It’s like the same thing with elderberries. Right, it’s not gonna hurt you.

Unknown Speaker 40:24
So walk me through some of the products because and the brands that you guys represent, because I know you’ve got a holding company, multiple brands underneath that.

Unknown Speaker 40:30
Yeah, so we’re completely vertically integrated company and we have a hemp division and we have a THC division and then we have an Arkansas dispensary. And then we have a delivery company that we’re hoping the medical marijuana commission will approve in the next couple weeks. So we’ve got quite a few things going on. And then I’ve got what I focus on the most really is indigenous seeds, and that’s my genetics and the string company. We do most of our development of the strains out in in Oklahoma because regulatory issues and then and and I can do THC there you know in open air out there so it works out pretty good and then as we move into different states you know we we really look at what the market needs and which ones to really focus on from there. So talk me through the rest of the brands that yeah so the brands really we have hawgs hemp brand,

Unknown Speaker 41:22
not all THC 98

Unknown Speaker 41:24
non THC CBD hawgs hemp farm is a farm by Morton. We’ve got about 60 acres. I think we got 30 acres planted this year, greenhouses and refinery on site that’s hogs hemp refinery, and it does dog treats and horse savs and horse treats and sunblocks and human savs and then we do some pre rolls out there and right now the ones that are really moving are the sunblocks the horse savs and the dog treats seem to be the big winners right now.

Unknown Speaker 41:58
Talk to me about The sunblock because it’s kind of intriguing to me that we have CBD sunblock, what’s the benefit there?

Unknown Speaker 42:06
Your skin will feel amazing. That’s, that’s for sure. So we gave a bunch out to some people that were going to go camp out on the buffalo river for three days and we all knew how burned you’re going to get in a canoe on the buffalo River. First a summer, you know, you haven’t had that first summer burn yet. So we gave some to some people and they put it on and they they came back and I think they were wider than when they left. And I was like, wow, that stuff really worked or did you even go and they were like, this stuff really works. And I was like, well, it’s a sunblock, it’s not a sunscreen, you know? And, and that was really just the goal. You know, I wanted something for my, for my skin and my kids to be able to put on before they go swim and that’s waterproof and safe for them and all organic and I can look at the ingredients and know that it’s not something I can’t pronounce as a chemist. You know, it’s just the simplicity of the product makes it so good.

Unknown Speaker 42:57
And there’s a lot of conversation right now around sunscreen and Some of it how harmful it is for you and things like that. So is this a positive in the advancement of sunscreens? I Yes,

Unknown Speaker 43:06
I would. Well we went back in technology. You know when you’re talking about cocoa butter and coconut oil and a little bit of zinc oxide, I mean we kind of went back to the stuff your mom put on your nose, but we made it so that you can it spreads it dries it doesn’t, you know, make your nose wide anymore. And it works really really well.

Unknown Speaker 43:24
So so that’s hogs hemp. Yes, brand. Yes. And I need to look for that

Unknown Speaker 43:29
you do so hogs hemp refinery online. We have an online store. You can buy any of the hogs have products there that are grown right there just in beartown Arkansas, some laurelton ha WG ha WG That’s right. So it’s an old Hog Farm right. So we had an old Hog Farm. We’ve got a we got a mascot. You got to come out and see pretty soon her name. Her name is birdie for bird town, Arkansas. She’s a guest about five months old now and probably wait And about 181 90 and she’s just a sweetheart. And so she got real bark. She’s She’s white and black and so she gets real burned on the pink parts. And so we go out with our sunblock and we put sunblock on her and she just loves it and then we give her we’ve made her some, some CBD treats to try to see how she likes someone. She loves them. We use a lot of our stocks from the field and we grind them up for her bedding and it’s just it’s a great it’s just a great place.

Unknown Speaker 44:28
Speaking of CBD treats, dog treats, so our pets are benefiting from CBD as well. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 44:34
so we even took some of our dog treats and send them over to some vets that we were friends with and went through the recommended dosing because we started looking in the market we were like, that seems really high for a dog, you know, and that’s just and then we realized that hey, they’re not giving them full of broad spectrum medicine. They’re gonna isolate so we started really playing with the full spectrums. And the broad spectrum I have refined oils and adding it to a cod. liver oil which is really good for skin anyways, and we infused it in the cod liver oil and started making these treats and we realized that dogs that had anxiety would just sleep through their stress and dogs that had back pains were acting like they were puppies again and it’s been really cool it’s been a really cool process to watch the animal products really take off

Unknown Speaker 45:22
so if my dog scared of lightning Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 45:24
yeah. Thunder lightning. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 45:26
give him a little CBD infused dog bone and helps him a lot. Yeah. And it’s a beautiful brand shout out to our friend Carlton. A few beautiful design work great job.

Unknown Speaker 45:36
Few has been excellent to work with always has been excellent to work with. This isn’t even the first company that I’ve worked with few with they’ve done branding for several of my companies as an entrepreneur. I’ve gone through a couple of different branding exercises with few and I can’t draw this decent stick man. You know, I can’t I have no artistic ability at all. I mean, people ask me all the time. What do you want this to look like? And I’m like, I am No idea. That’s just not my deal. You know? Yeah. Aren’t didn’t choose me the plant chose.

Unknown Speaker 46:07
Love that. And of course, but he’s at kill also a titan on the show. So appreciate him being here. All right, I want to run through a few little quick questions I like to ask everybody. First is what’s your favorite or latest book you’ve read or listen to? Are you big reader? How do you obtain new knowledge? I mean, I read, I don’t really read books, I read scientific studies. Okay, so I’m not like the person that lays in bed at night and reads a novel. I’ve got way too much going on to sit down that long. Yeah. But I’ll run through some scientific papers and kind of look at research. And that’s really what I spend my time reading about.

Unknown Speaker 46:43
What’s my favorite one lately? I’ve been really intrigued by, you know, different types of extraction. So I’ve been really reading into the different types of extraction that that we can look at, that aren’t on the market right now and trying to develop something there. That’s a little safer. Some of the extraction processes can get a little tricky and can be you use some pretty volatile chemicals sometimes in the extraction process and I think there’s some ways that we can get around that and I’ve been reading a lot about that.

Unknown Speaker 47:14
You’re a data guy you’re dating. Yeah, so you’re reading for the numbers not for the ultimate daily routine. What do you have to do every single day? Are you wake up and go exercise kind of person? Are you a swim

Unknown Speaker 47:27
a lot? Yeah, I swim a lot. My kids you know, are getting into swimming. I actually just taught my middle child the other day how to swim. So that was great. Took the floaties off. I’m working on my three year old now I’m going to get on by the end of summer, he’s going to be swimming like a fish and he’s almost there. My daily routine really is just my family and my children. You know, I mean, I spend as much time as I can with them as I can before I leave for work and then when I get home, I just turn my phone off the best I can and Focus on them. I love to cook with the family. And so we’ll go out by the lake and we’ll cook and swim and almost every night I’m swimming.

Unknown Speaker 48:09
Nice. Now are you cooking with CBD as well? Is that an additive to connect? Can I cook with that?

Unknown Speaker 48:15
You can but when the heat just degrades, it’s so much it’s just not gonna be the same. Good to know.

Unknown Speaker 48:21
All right, what’s a relatively new habit that you formed? what’s what’s something you found yourself doing these days that you either from getting older because I know I look at myself, I’m like, Am I turning into my dad? Or is there anything beneficial that you’ve added to your, your daily routines lately? daily routines, you know, my wife works out every day. Every day. She’s like a bodybuilder.

Unknown Speaker 48:48
And so, you know, I try to just keep up with her. I try to cook something good every day. You know, I mean, there’s something about just getting everybody at the table. I think that’s something that’s been lost in so many families. And that’s something I’ve really, really tried to focus on with the kids

Unknown Speaker 49:06
love that. If you were to write a book or an article and publish it, what would what would it be titled? What I’m working on it? And

Unknown Speaker 49:14
yeah, I’m working on it. I’ve got a really interesting story in the cannabis world and how it kind of evolved from the 90s and where I am today, and I’d love to share that story with people. I think it would be you know, I talked to people all the time that the kind of followed similar paths with me like one of my you asked me earlier, you know, about some of my influences in the in the industry and, and one of them’s a really good friend of mine, who’s an astrophysicist from Raytheon, who’s now one of the biggest cultivation guys in Colorado. He quit, you know, Raytheon and went and started running his own gardens, and then I came over and consulted with them. And we’ve done a lot of really large scale design work, and he said, Man, you ought to write a book based on everything that’s gone on in your life. You know, I mean everything that you’ve seen in this you, he’s like, you’re the one that’s been all over the country. One of my friends that I grew up with is a publisher over a discovery channel and he’s like, let’s do a let’s do a documentary. You know, like, I was like, man, they already kind of have that. But you know, let’s do something different. Like a string hunters here in Arkansas. Right? I love it.

Unknown Speaker 50:19
Love it.

Unknown Speaker 50:21
So you cook a lot. You have a favorite food. A favorite dish that you’re always making are going to azulay

Unknown Speaker 50:26
it’s my favorite dish to cook. It takes all day

Unknown Speaker 50:31
for the special occasions, all right, and what what about music? You drive into the farm? Got got some music on the radio. What are you listening to?

Unknown Speaker 50:41
Oh, gosh, I don’t know. I’m not really an artsy music kind of person. But I mean, I like I like everything I like I’m so eclectic. When it comes to music. I like it all.

Unknown Speaker 50:52
Alright, how can people find out more about the brand? How can they get involved with what you’ve got

Unknown Speaker 50:56
going on? Well definitely hogs hemp refinery for here in Arkansas. And people outside Arkansas can order we can we can ship as a matter of fact we just had our first international shipment not too long ago to Italy so that’s pretty cool it’s hemp so it can be shipped it can you know it complies with all the regulations when it comes to the THC if you’re anybody’s over in Oklahoma please look for you know some of the brands out there I’m gonna buds is the biggest one that we associate with and that that I grow for out there and in Oklahoma you know in the West Coast there’s several brands that I’ve consulted with but I would have to say you know the Nevada market has the most of my stuff in it. And then here for THC in Arkansas look for green remedies dispensary to open up pretty soon I I have a feeling we’re gonna give these guys a run for their money in this industry.

Unknown Speaker 51:51
I love it. Well, Brad, thanks for being our Titan of cannabis.

Unknown Speaker 51:54
Thank you so much for having me. It was fun.

Unknown Speaker 51:57
Yeah. If you like this episode of tight Have industry head to content titan.co slash podcast for more episodes or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. And if you know of an industry Titan that’s doing amazing things. Let us know on social media or through our website so we can tell their story. Thanks for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Unknown Speaker 0:00
The definition of a website is really expanded to be a lot of different things these days. what best suits the end user or the customer is is really what’s going to put them in the best position to scale. We use that house building analogy, lay out the foundation, the structure and make sure the plumbing is in the right place. And it’s the same thing with the digital product.

Unknown Speaker 0:24
Hey, it’s Nate Disarro, and welcome to Titans of Industry, the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In today’s episode, I sit down with Zach Hill, the CEO of digital design firm. Zach tells us about the importance of creating a scalable foundation for your digital presence, his prediction for how companies will overcome the growing pains of working virtually, and his tips for leading a remote workforce, which he’s done three years now. And now let’s get to the episode. But before we do, it’s important to know that whether you’re a small business owner or the face of a multibillion dollar industry, your organization has a great story to tell, and Content Titan wants to help you tell it. We’re a digital content creation powerhouse built for the 21st century, providing all in creative strategic production, post production and distribution services for at 360 degree 24 seven world. In our world, Titans are passionate, creative doers. They have the experience to take your project from start to finish, minimizing your involvement so you can focus on what matters most running your business. So if you’re ready to take your content, strategy and production to the next level, our Titans are ready to help.

Unknown Speaker 1:45
Now here’s my conversation with Zach Hill.

Unknown Speaker 1:50
All right, well, Zach, pleasure to do this interview with you. Thanks for taking the time. You’ve been involved in the digital space for quite some time. I would venture to say the majority of your time career. So talk me through just kind of how you got into the digital world.

Unknown Speaker 2:05
Okay, that’s a Yeah, that’s that’s quite a story.

Unknown Speaker 2:09
So I started out very much background in education in advertising and marketing. My step into the digital world was very much kind of out of looking for a job right out of college and took a took a project management job at a group called flex 360, which is an entity of Arkansas business publishing, who had some relationships with due to internships and stepped into a world that I really didn’t know hardly anything about, did some web design in college as freelance and things like that, but had no clue about the true professional level of what all goes into the digital world. But it was probably I look back at that and say, that’s probably the one of the best decisions or things that I’ve ever done by happenstance, because that was 2007 And while there was a lot going on in the world between 2007 2008 financial crisis and things like that, the digital world was really taking off web 2.0 was a thing flash was dying, you know, social media, you know, Twitter, Facebook, all these things were just now starting to take off. It was really the perfect time to get involved and really learn while all that was scaling up, as opposed to having to learn new tricks along the way,

Unknown Speaker 3:30
however, so you get get started at web or flex 360 have the opportunity to kind of learn all these new things as they’re coming into the world, which is a big part of my story, too. I mean, I kind of told you I grew up analog, and then when digital, you know, and so you kind of understand how the analog world works. As you’re moving into digital so you kind of progress with it. Instead of have to pick it up 10 years down the road where all these things have already happened and you pick up the newest iteration, but you don’t have the history to go with it. Talk a little bit about how that served you well, and how that’s kind of put you in the role now CEO of, you know, dominant digital design company that’s doing some really cool stuff.

Unknown Speaker 4:13
Well, I mean, it’s very much like what you said, I mean, it was a ability to say, Okay, here’s, here’s where the world is going at just the right time. You know, the startup mentality was just kind of really developing, especially at a local level. I mean, I think it was something that was, you know, well established on your, on your co east and west coast, you know, but, you know, in Arkansas, the idea of a technology startup was really new. And, you know, it was a great opportunity to lay a foundational understanding of what, you know, what all went into a product or just a website that time you know, like what, you know, what’s the best way of creating a database driven, you know, or a dynamic, you know, website as opposed to static HTML and some of the things that, you know, was was the go to at the time. And so really set a tone of what the future was starting to look like. And you started to see these social media companies, you started to see, you know, these companies that were just completely living in an online, you know, world. And again, this is post.com bubble. So, you know, everything that was happening at that time, you know, wasn’t particularly new ish, the technology was finally catching up, to be able to support and scale, you know, companies in this fashion. And so, all of that really culminated in me moving into positions of working at large agencies, you know, building out digital apartments for them. That then layered on you know, the whole social and content directive and how important that is played into, you know, your digital presence these days. Which is then brought me to you You know, where I’m at now of really overseeing, you know, a digital solutions company. So, you know, building websites and mobile apps. And, you know, what we see is that digital transformation that’s happening, and it’s extremely prevalent right now in the world. So, you know, that all of those things have really built, you know, up on, you know, previous experience, to put me in a position to be able to kind of, from a strategy standpoint, bring a lot of value to the table.

Unknown Speaker 6:31
So, a lot of people now I still hear people say all the time, well, I need a website, and a lot of times that that term becomes very synonymous with, you know, a handful of pages on a digital platform that people can go to and get information from. But within that same window, whether it’s on a computer or smartphone or iPad, or you know, however it’s built out or displayed. A website can be a bunch of things now talked about Talk me through that transformation, as you’ve seen it kind of the web 2.0. And then now digital solutions across the board. And we can even parlay that into I’m sure some of the conversations you’ve had over the last 90 days, and how people now are realizing we can almost only exist in an online environment. And how is that affecting you guys and what you’re doing?

Unknown Speaker 7:19
Yeah, I mean, that’s really where so many conversations start is, I think I need a website or, you know, I need I need a website, or I need an application. But a lot of times people haven’t really, you know, really understood what all needs to go into that and and really, where do they get the most, you know, kind of value and not so much just them? It’s where do the users or their customers get the most value? And so yeah, the conversation often will start, well, I need a website. And then we start talking about, okay, what are you trying to accomplish or what are the problems you’re trying to solve here and it quickly You know, you quickly realize that, yeah, you know, this is the problem isn’t solved with simply a website, you know, the problem is solved by having, you know, maybe a front end, you know, marketing website to talk about this product or service that you offer. But then you also need this portal, which is more of a web application, you know, that people can log into and manage certain pieces of their business, you also may potentially need an application that talks to all three of those platforms, and interacts and allows people, you know, to get that value in to solve the problem you’re looking at. And so yeah, the definition of a website is, is is really expanded to be a lot of different things these days. And so we talked about whenever we’re, you know, kind of introducing ourselves as few. It’s very much about web enablement, or web based, you know, platforms so that can encapsulate websites, mobile applications, web applications, and all those things. In between, but you know, really what best suits the end user or the customer is, is really what’s going to put them in the best position to scale long term. Because if they, you know, you can make an investment in a website, and that may solve your short term problem. But if you haven’t thought through, okay, how do we expand on this? How do we really make this a digital centric product or service that we’re bringing to the table, you’re going to quickly have to throw something away and start over, you need to be able to be in a position to where, you know, scaling can also mean adding on top of the initial Foundation, and so you got to be thinking about it in that format from the beginning. Just to just to get the most you know, value and bang for your buck.

Unknown Speaker 9:48
Yeah, it’s almost like if you were going to build your own house and you knew you wanted to start with a two bed, two bath, but eventually you want to end up with a five bed, three bath or whatever you You kind of want to start with that end goal in mind knowing you’re only going to build the infrastructure for the smaller one now is that kind of the

Unknown Speaker 10:07
take, it’s funny because we use that house building analogy, almost exactly as you just laid out, when we’re talking to clients, you know, or potential clients about, not just about like, how to think ahead, but also the process that we take very much focused on. Okay, we’re in a blueprint phase right now we’re trying to lay out the foundation, the structure and make sure the plumbing is in the right place. We’re not really worried about you know, the interior decorator coming in with their you know, paint and color swatches and things like that, because, you know, what that’s gonna do is distract you from, you know, the core foundation of what you’re trying to build here. And so we want to make sure we get that right. Then we can come in and add the you know, the pretty colors and things like that. Now, we do take design very seriously and everything that we do, that’s the experience and all That’s all that really matters. But if you don’t get the core foundation, right, it’s not going to set you know, you’re not, you know, you’re going to move into that house, like you just said, and it may seem right, you know, out the gate, but as you live in it, you’re going to realize, well, this isn’t really functional for my family, you know. And so it’s the same thing you don’t see contractors pull you up to in front of a house and say, I built this for you, I hope you really like it, you know, it’s a process to get there. And it’s the same thing with a digital product, you got to have to, you know, lay the foundation in the right way so that you can build upon and expand upon if you’re going to want to in the future, but also forces you to think through what that future actually looks like. Because if you if you aren’t going to do that, then yeah, the contractor can pull up there and just show you your house and, and whatever you get you kind of have to live with at that point.

Unknown Speaker 11:52
Yeah. All right. So there’s there’s no escaping the fact that we’re post COVID economic you know, obliteration to the world as we knew it, some businesses have struggled immensely to get just to this point. So here we are roughly three months into this pandemic. But the conversation around almost every business regardless of size, operational capacity, whatever they do, how do we become more digital? How do we either display to our clients who we are, what we do, how we’re changing and operating, or how do we move our actual business to a more digital business? How does that change the nature of conversations you have with clients with, you know, colleagues, people in the industry, what what is the conversation looked like over these last few months?

Unknown Speaker 12:43
Yeah, the the conversations it’s been quite interesting, but I mean, it’s, it’s really been overall consistent with the type of conversation that we were having before. It’s just now at a different scale, and and from more of a necessity factor than it is from Hey, I think that is the direction I need to take my business. Now people have realized that, you know, through forced adoption, that that they have to go down this path whether they like it or not, I mean, if you’re a brick and mortar structure business right now, and you depend on customers coming into your store, especially high volumes of customers, year, it’s going to be a long time even if all if all restrictions are, you know, removed tomorrow, it’s going to be a significant period of time, before you ever return to that high volume scenario that you were, you know, at previous to this. And so, the best options is to look, how do you offset that revenue? How do you create opportunities to you know, to gain traction gain customers, and particularly not have to rely on them being in your office or in your store or something like that and you know, The problem I think most people are having right now is identifying, you know, what is that approach? What is because I think what we’ve seen is a lot of innovation around people just trying to adopt two different formats, whether it be zoom meetings, doing their, you know, workout classes and, or teaching or, you know, whatever that is, you know, they’re using all the tools that they they can find, at the best of their ability. And that’s fantastic. But what’s happening is at the, you know, as we start to move into a rebuilding recovery phase, everybody’s tools are not going to be set up to scale, they’re going to start to break down. They’re going to be inefficient, and you know, ultimately also it kind of levels the playing field a little bit because now everybody is doing, you know, used to one trainer may have done, you know, a virtual You know, fitness class or something like that, now everybody’s doing that. But they’re all doing it in different fashions, and some are better than others and things like that. And so, you know, now you’re not unique because you offer this virtual training solution. And and now your virtual training solution may pale in comparison to somebody else’s. And so it’s ultimately going to be about the experience that someone’s able to provide. And how do you kind of invest in that platform and be the one that kind of owns that and really could potentially create that next iteration of the great platform for virtual training courses or classes or whatever that may be? I think people have to kind of look at that and look at what is that unique factor that they bring to the table, whether that’s a community element, okay. Well, you know, you have a brick and mortar business that you know, maybe a restaurant bar, but you have a fantastic community. You know, because of what you have at your, you know, availability, why don’t we take care of, you know, take advantage of that, you know, do more, you know of a platform approach to the live streaming or the services that you’re bringing to the table. To again, it’s, it’s, it may not, you know, ever be equal to what, you know, your full volume capacity of the brick and mortar establishment might have been, but it can absolutely help offset the limitations that are being set on your brick and mortar establishment right now. The upside is going back to the scalability factor is that if you can find that right recipe, have that platform and that community element or whatever that might be that people can latch on to share and do whatever they need to do on the scalability of that as well beyond what that capacity of your brick and mortar, you know, building was and so that’s, I think, that’s what the conversations have gone to is. It’s less about people looking at this, you know, baling wire and twine version of the solution that they have right now. And even not focusing so much on what is the digital solution that they need to have? It’s really identifying what is that unique piece that can be packaged up and scaled, that people just can’t get, you know, in other in other fashions.

Unknown Speaker 17:22
And I would assume to that once, you know, let’s use the restaurant example. They’ve got this community that they’re moving into an online platform that they can essentially find ways to service and generate revenue. Once we kind of go back to where we want and are comfortable and the safety is there for the person experiences again, you’ve now just built an add on revenues solution exact so you’re in person is going to go back up and then but but there’s a pretty high likelihood this online solution is going to maintain its level of revenue if not continue to increase because like you said, the scale ability you can now expand that community outside of your local physical location.

Unknown Speaker 18:05
Absolutely. I mean, and the idea here is also taking advantage of what, you know, what, what does Facebook do or your Instagram algorithm do to you? It personalizes against your preferences and your experience that you’re looking for out of that platform. Well, that’s exactly what you know, the future looks like for people who have this, this digital interaction, you know, piece that can live alongside of their brick and mortar experience. But also, you know, in that format, they can have a more personalized experience. And it can, you know, it can even affect the personalization of their experience when they do walk into the brick and mortar establishment. And I think that’s, that’s where, you know, people sometimes in their minds, put limitations on Oh, well, this platform can only do so much and it’s really, you know, it really should be something that lives alongside of of, you know what this you know, there are other revenue stream is. But like you said, really build upon create a new revenue stream and really they feed off of each other. So that you know, so that being unique ways your brick and mortar experience becomes enhanced from the digital product and say that someone’s been invested in your that experience for a long time but then they’ve had to move to a location where they didn’t you know, you don’t have really a location, they’re, they’re still an opportunity for them to feel connected to your brand and that experience and really, you know, really build it out beyond just what you know, what’s in your backyard kind of thing.

Unknown Speaker 19:48
So talking about sort of forward thinking innovation, what are some of the things that you’re seeing are the trends that you think things are going to start moving towards, obviously artificial intelligence augmented reality? These things, you know, incorporating those into digital experiences are becoming more and more. I don’t wanna say commonplace but but usable, right? We can now interact with anything on our phone wherever we’re at. But what are what are you guys doing in that regard? As far as like what you see the next big thing? Maybe?

Unknown Speaker 20:18
Yeah, I mean, next big thing. I mean, I think is going to be the, you know, the use of artificial intelligence to start to create that personalization, create opportunities, unique interactions and things like that. I think, you know, if you had asked me the question three months ago, it might have been a little bit different because of the enhancement of an experience a live event or something like that, or putting or taking a live event and really scaling that out in a unique way. probably would have been more prevalent, but you know, before the, this pandemic, but still, I think It’s kind of the same thing it’s it’s really about someone filling a connection through the technology and removing a lot of those gaps that I think we a lot of times feel like that the the only option but you know of really interacting with something is is through, you know, a live stream or a video or something like that and it’s like, more and more you’re going to see like true in depth interaction, virtual reality, you know, playing a role into that or just even augmented reality and you know, just little ways of visual cues and things like that, that you probably would have never thought would be helpful as you’re just standing at a you know, on a street corner, but being able to layer in the data, the technology, the information that’s sitting in your pocket with Your location, you know, or with the man or with other people that are around you, I think you’re gonna see a lot more of that happening. And I don’t think that is going to be, you know, mitigated at all based off of the pandemic that we’re kind of going through right now. I think one of the big conversations around some of these ideas is because of the pandemic, it’s sort of an accelerant to make these things move to market quicker, as opposed to these new innovative ideas just coming up because a lot of these things have happened and been in the market. It just takes a minute for everybody to kind of adopt it and then technology to catch up. But because of this and social distancing, and the reason that we don’t all go have these shared experiences in person right now, I think it’s going to accelerate. You know, those experiences you’re talking about where we can interact digitally, but but physically being somewhere, we long for experiences. Yeah, as humans, we want those emotions. And we want to share those with other people. And I think the more that we can interact digitally, but feel as real as possible, I think it’s going to quickly become much more prevalent in most people’s worlds. Oh, absolutely not in I mean, you gotta also think that that part of the acceleration, it goes back to that forced adoption, and it’s one of those it’s one of those things that’s happening on both sides of the table, you know, whether it’s the business itself, you know, trying to, you know, being forced into doing, you know, ecommerce or online ordering, or whatever that is. There’s a whole group of people out there that are the general consumer population, and I think maybe myself and maybe you, I mean, you know, we’re used to probably doing, you know, a curbside pickup or something like that, but there’s a large population out there that if they were going to eat at their house, they were going to Cook their meal. But now you know, it’s kind of like if they were going to eat out they would go to the restaurant well now this is kind of forced a lot of people it’s like well if I want to support said restaurant or I want to purchase from said, you know, organization, I’m going to have to go online, I’m going to have to, you know, move in this fashion. And I think what a lot of people are realizing what you know, they might have saw it as a barrier of entry previously, but now they’re seeing it as Oh, there’s kind of a nice convenience factor of this. And so that’s why I think even if all the restrictions are removed, you’re still going to see an uptake a lot of those people that were they were forced into adopting this new way of operating aren’t going to leave that extreme you know very easily that they now already have all the apps on their phones they already have you know, the the you know, an account with, you know, this boutique or whatever they order from and they realize like an order and get it the same day dropped on there. Report. Okay, well, you know, there’s, there’s that’s going to stay relatively strong. well beyond this. And I also think, you know, you think of the the remote work structure and and kind of everybody having to be forced to work from home to a degree.

Unknown Speaker 25:20
It’s it’s only going to up the people wanting more that, you know, that’s going to be seen as a benefit. And when people are going to be asked to start coming back to the office, there’s going to be people that have kind of settled into this new, you know, working structure and realizing I’ve really haven’t missed a beat, you know, being you know, working from home. Why should I, you know, now an office is a great thing to have an option for but why should I have to be there to really operate and do my job, and it’s going to create a situation where if people are really recognizing that that the Those employees are going to look for that and other places. And so, you know, I think there’s a lot of things like that that are going to come into play over the next six months to two years. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 26:12
absolutely. I think the commercial real estate world is probably about to have a big shake up, we’ll see what happens. I mean, you know, I hope it’s not something that’s that’s detrimental to the industry, but I think a lot of corporate leases are going to not necessarily be renewed, especially if the same, you know, scale. But let’s jump into the remote working for a minute, because I know that’s how you guys operate. And you’ve done it since. Basically, it was before it was cool. And, and it’s worked well for you guys. So I know a lot of people right now are trying to figure that out. You know, they’ve kind of been forced into it. And now they’re at the point do we go back to the office full time? Do we keep this as an option? So talk about your sort of strategy with remote workforce and how that’s worked. Well for you what challenges have been there along the way?

Unknown Speaker 27:02
Yeah, I mean, the remote working in theory is a very easy thing to do, but it does have its challenges. We’ve been through that I mean, few has been operating as a remote based company for you know, probably past four years now or so. And it creates its is just as many opportunities as it does challenges. You got to learn how to communicate a little bit differently. But it also creates this format in which there’s kind of built in accountability. What you see a lot of times and especially big offices is kind of the the wallflower you know, like I am because my butt is in the seat. That means I’m at my work, I’m at my job and I must be I must be doing my job. People just say, you know, There’s there’s Nate. He’s here, the jobs getting done, you know, kind of thing that’s that was the, you know, the the accountability,

Unknown Speaker 28:07
you know, element, regardless of how many hours are spent at the watercooler

Unknown Speaker 28:11
Exactly, exactly. Because or how many, you know, what are you doing at your at your desk? Who knows, but the fact that you’re there, the assumption is that you’re you’re working, whereas, you know, in a remote structure, it kind of forces more open communication, which creates a lot more awareness of, you know, at what times are people working? Are they really getting anything done? You know, who who’s dropping the ball, you know, what’s the holdup, you know, you that becomes a lot more apparent a lot of times as opposed to when you can just shove everybody into a conference room of 20 people. That same person can kind of just sit back and let the conversation happen. And you know, and kind of slip by to a degree, not saying that that person isn’t doing any work, but they’re doing just enough whereas What? Well, I’ve seen, especially as other clients of ours have been forced into this structure that we are used to, and we’ve been able to kind of roll with right into no problem here. Other organizations I’m seeing, they’re getting the benefit of a lot more open and communication, and things like that the problems that you run into and challenges that you run into is that if someone isn’t a great communicator doesn’t mean that they’re not particularly not doing their job, but they can quickly be judged as you know, someone that’s not really you know, getting their job done, because they’re not communicating in the right way. So I think, you know, what we’ve learned is and in which a lot of technology companies do things like this, you know, daily stand ups and, you know, you know, things like that to kind of set the tone for the day check in. Understand, you know, you know what support is needed, where You know, and then leaning on tools, communication tools like Slack, and things like that, to create a bit more of a, an ongoing communication situation, as opposed to just relying heavily on email or phone calls and stuff like that. Obviously, the video conferencing, you know, capabilities are there. What’s been really interesting about this whole pandemic is, you know, is like, people have really adapted very quickly to wanting to have the videos on when they’re talking and seeing each other. But it’s also it’s kind of humanized everything a little bit because now I’m seeing everybody’s houses, their kids are breaking into their, you know, meetings, or at least mine or I mean, everybody’s got to meet my kids multiple times throughout this. So it’s, it’s kind of created this, okay, um, it’s not just a client, you know, client vendor relationship. It’s, it’s, there’s, there’s more to two people you’re getting a glimpse into, you know, People’s, you know, lifestyles and their livelihoods and things like that. But also, there’s infrastructure things that come along with that, whether that be internet speeds, if you’re in a rural environment, it’s a lot harder to operate in that, you know, format. And so yeah, there’s a number of challenges, but I think it’s, it’s absolutely here to stay, it’s going to be, you know, one of those things that I think is a benefit that people are looking for in their, you know, in their work structure. I

Unknown Speaker 31:31
completely agree. I think it’s been really fascinating. The speed at which people have adopted, you know, remote working and figured out tools and all that. But it’s also been kind of fascinating to see the learning curve that some people have had to figure out on their own, you know, even though a lot of people have tested out or done versions of remote work before. Some of these companies is funny, all the memes you see and all the things you see online people forgetting their own On an actual video call,

Unknown Speaker 32:03
you know, wherever they might be in the house,

Unknown Speaker 32:07
what they’re wearing or not wearing and stand up in the middle of an interview. But, you know, I think those kinds of things are going to become a trial by error. But But I think the productivity is an interesting aspect of it, because I do think, you know, I let my people work from home, basically whenever they can. And it’s, it’s interesting, the productivity difference, because you don’t have as many distractions. It also lets them feel the freedom if they need to run an errand in the middle of the day, nobody’s going to be like, Where’s so and so you know, they just kind of have the freedom to do it. And essentially, if you set the benchmarks and want the work done by a certain time, then give them the freedom to do that, you know, it allows for a lot less micromanaging. For most people, that’s a good thing. For some people, it’s a bad thing. And so you just kind of have to figure out I think, how do you manage these people on on their personality style and their, you know, work habits and so as a leader, how does that challenge you to make sure that you’re managing from a, you know, personality basis versus Can you manage the same for everybody remotely?

Unknown Speaker 33:09
Well, I think as, as a leader, it’s really tough to manage everybody in the same format in a remote structure. A lot, it’s there. I mean, the fact of the matter is that some people just aren’t really, you know, cut out for it, you know, if you give them too, too much leeway, too much, you know, opportunity to run that errand and do things like that and stuff. Not saying that that’s a bad thing. But you know, there’s there’s just like with anything in this world, people, the they’re, it’s in their nature to start to take advantage of things and stuff like that. What we focused on is more of the type of person that we look for whenever we are hiring and stuff like that. And it’s, it’s people who, you know, that we feel very confident in That there doesn’t have to be somebody really managing them, you know, not saying that they don’t have someone managing overseeing the work that they’re doing or something like that. But it’s really just this mentality of, of, you know, being a self starter, haven’t taken a lot of pride in your work and your capability of getting something done, really reduces the need for you to still be a little, you know, overbearing or, you know, in looking over someone’s shoulder virtually over, you know, of what they’re going to do, you know, and, and it goes back to like, saying, it’s like, there’s kind of built in accountability. If somebody, you know, I think the communication has to happen around expectations on the front end. When something can be done, and, and, and at what time period something is expected to be done. And if habitually, it’s not getting done, then you know, then there’s probably conversations to be had. If those expectations are And you’ll never have a problem with, you know, those expectations being met. I personally don’t care how many errands that person ran in, in the day, because they met my expectations, they got the job done. And in our scenario, most likely, it’s a fantastic job. So it’s like, you know, there’s some times where we’d get deliverables from, you know, one of our designers or something like that, and I’m just blown away by the clients blown away by it. And then you find out that they took their dog to the vet that day or something, and you’re like, That’s amazing. Like, that’s fantastic. You know, they’re like, the the balance is there, the work life balance is there and they’re killing it at their job. So, you know, there’s there’s no reason, you know, to suspect that down the road, that that person if the expectations that are set and they’re understand they understand those, that they’re going to put themselves in a position to where they’re not able to meet them.

Unknown Speaker 35:58
Yeah, and especially in a You know, I mean, I think there’s a line of creativity and technical ability that comes with most of your people. And it’s the way it is with with my team as well. And one of the things I noticed is, you know, some people don’t get really going until about 11am. And so if you require them to be in the opposite nine, you’re really burning two hours of what you’re paying them to be there for. And they’re just not ready to go yet. But they’ll work till 10pm Yeah, and they’ll have their best ideas late in the day. But if the office is already closed, everybody’s gone home, they feel like they should leave too. So you’re really missing out on sort of that the best experience you can get from that employee. And I think this is really going to be an eye opening thing for a lot of businesses to see like, we can actually get more for less hours or different times a day, depending on the business of course, because Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 36:49
and I mean, I think it’s not something that’s probably always going to be you know, it’s not gonna be an option for every business out there. But I do think that if anything goes last few months is really showed you what the options are, you know, and if it hasn’t shown the employer, it’s definitely shown the employee, and they’re going to know what they can and can’t do, and a remote structure and still get their job done and excel at their career. That goes back to, you know, if you’re not going to understand that as an employer, they’re going to find one that does, it’s going to be a benefit to them. But, you know, I will say that there’s going to be situations in which, you know, it’s, it’s going to help just not just the best work hours that somebody you know, brings to the table. You know, I live, you know, almost 30 minutes outside of Little Rock proper, it’s like, just by just by, you know, working from home or working in a remote structure. You know, that’s an hour a day. You know, that may not Go into work. It could though, it could be a situation where something’s happening, I’m waking up to, you know, you know, something’s on fire per se. And I’m able to address that immediately, and not have to worry about the whole getting ready and getting into the office and those situations, or it’s just an opportunity to have a little bit more built in time for your family for that errand, or whatever that is. So it doesn’t really particularly mean that you’re sacrificing work hours, it just means that now the hours that were probably sacrificing work beforehand for somebody to be able to do their online shopping or pay their bills or do whatever that errand might be, that was costing you, you know, within the constructs that you know, that you were wanting to work in. Now, there’s more flexibility for those things to fall outside of those work hours. And, and I mean, we’ve seen that before. For four years, and I think it’s something that people are getting a much clearer picture on what the what the options are, at least.

Unknown Speaker 39:10
I know every business has kind of had to deal with different things for these last few months and and some have dealt with an influx of business, if they’re in that sort of industry and others have dealt with the loss of revenue and had to throw or lay people off. And there’s just been a wide gamut of what everyone’s had to go through. So what’s one of the challenges that you’ve had to kind of overcome during these last few months?

Unknown Speaker 39:36
Yeah, just one channel. Okay. I would say, you know, just with everything, you know, the, the probably the biggest thing is, we are a as an agency, you’re a service base and very similar to you know, your operations vary service base. You’re kind of at you’re kind of The last one on the list, you know, kind of thing whenever whenever things are happening with these businesses you depict your livelihood is dependent on the success and the growth and the expansion of someone else’s business. And, and so I think the, you know, you kind of have to take the approach of, okay, where where are these? Where do these opportunities lie, to continue to just kind of maintain or survive and things like that. And, and you also are having to be reactionary to other people’s businesses. So it’d be a lot, you know, it’d be a little bit different if you were, you know, 100%, you know, self sustained and you didn’t have to worry about clients per se. So I would say probably one of our biggest challenges has been kind of feeling out what you know, each individual client’s situation, and understanding that this client may feel very confident and this moment but A week from now, you know, they can lose that one contract, which then, you know, a week later, they’re feeling like, well, we can we can continue to do what we’re planning on doing, you know, and hopefully, you know, close that gap. But then it’s, you know, the next week is when the wheels are coming off, let’s start canceling everything, let’s start. And so, you know, luckily, we haven’t had a lot of those situations happen, but it really has been us keeping our fingers on the pulse of a ton of other businesses, not just our own to say, okay, where, you know, where does everybody stand, you know, what is going on and trying to be as just, you know, helpful, transparent as possible on our side of things to create, you know, that reciprocity of, you know, Hey, tell us the real picture of what’s going on. Do we need to be planning on doing something different, cutting budgets, doing things like that, so that we just can plan, you know, as best as we can. And so I think that’s probably been, you know, probably, then it’s a challenge for anybody in the service space business. And so as those things happen, you kind of have to react to it. It’s a lot harder to be in front of, you know, in front of and ahead of the curve on on some of these things when you’re in that, that type of industry.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Unknown Speaker 0:00
Truck driving is a hard job in 2019. Right? I mean, it’s something that the people that do it largely choose to do it because they feel proud of it. They know that what they’re doing is essential. They know that whether you acknowledge it or not that without them there wouldn’t have been, you know, groceries in the grocery store. And so I hope that this service that they provide and the pride that they take in their job somehow resonates and that people are able to hold on to that beyond Coronavirus.

Unknown Speaker 0:28
Hey, it’s Nate Disarro and welcome to titans of industry the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In this episode, I sit down with Shannon Newton the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, which represents over 300 members ranging from independent owner operators to international companies like FedEx and JB Hunt. I talked to Shannon about the importance of the trucking industry amid the COVID-19 crisis. How great Leaders continue leading through hard times and how her woman led team is breaking down barriers left and right. And now let’s get to the episode. But before we do, it’s important to know that whether you’re a small business owner or the face of a multibillion dollar industry, your organization has a great story to tell, and Content Titan wants to help you tell it. We are a digital content creation powerhouse built for the 21st century, providing all in creative strategic production post production and distribution services for at 360 degree 24 seven world. In our world Titans are passionate, creative doers. They have the experience to take your project from start to finish, minimizing your involvement so you can focus on what matters most running your business. So if you’re ready to take your content, strategy and production to the next level, our Titans are ready to help.

Unknown Speaker 1:53
Now here’s my conversation with Shannon Newton.

Unknown Speaker 1:57
Well Shannon, thanks so much for joining us on podcast. Let’s jump right in and just tell me how did you end up in the trucking world.

Unknown Speaker 2:04
Thanks for having me, Nate. And my journey to be in trucking was purely an accident. I went to college at University of Central Arkansas. And I went knowing that I wanted a degree in accounting went all the way through graduate the accounting degree. And the opportunity that presented itself just happened to be with a trucking company in North Little Rock. So my first job was at Maverick transportation or Iraq. And at that time, it was really just, I saw a lot of value and opportunity within the company. And I didn’t really know that much about trucking. And so I kind of came in with a fresh perspective and no preconceived notions and haven’t looked back since then.

Unknown Speaker 2:40
So you essentially been in it your whole career. I won’t say you don’t know anything else, because you know a lot about a lot of things but talk us a little bit through where it was when you kind of got into it and then where it is now. I’m sure there’s been magnificent changes.

Unknown Speaker 2:55
Yeah, well, like I said, When as a you know, 23 year old going, you know, My first job, I don’t know that I had a lot of appreciation for where trucking was, quote, unquote, you know, I just I saw it and knew that it was an industry that was prevalent within the state, I thought that there would be a lot of opportunities for growth there with within the industry. And so, now looking back, knowing what I know, now looking back in the early 2000s, and where the industry was, you know, trucking as we know, it was really kind of Born in 1980 with deregulation, and, and mass, you know, entrance into the industry and just super growth in in the early 80s. And so, in when I came in this room, it was only like 20 years old. And so thinking obviously didn’t know that at the time. But if you roll that forward to now being you know, 18 years later, the industry is very different. I mean, at that time, you still had a lot of people kind of doing it their own way. And it was it was not a lot of sophistication in the enterprise of the trucking industry. You had, you know, people just find equipment in hauling loads and trying to make money. The the data revolution has happened in the last 18 years with just how much sophistication has come into ROI and pricing and the the details of the equipment and the mpg and aerodynamics, and just so much sophistication today, compared to where we were, you know, 20 years ago.

Unknown Speaker 4:21
So you’ve moved into a role that’s that you don’t directly affect one single company, talk a little bit about kind of what you do where you’re at now and what that role looks like day to day.

Unknown Speaker 4:30
Yeah, so I worked in the industry, quote, unquote, you know, in trucking for a year. So I was at Maverick for a little over a year, and then I came to the association, and kind of my, you know, concept of the association at that time, you know, Maverick was involved in the association. So I knew that, that there was this organization that was involved and advocating for, you know, the interest of the industry, but I really didn’t know what that meant. And, and so now, having been at the association And it’ll be 17 years, next month. And like just yesterday, it is one of those things that seems odd. But I will say that you know, Tom does file and you’re having fun and I don’t regret a minute of him I love being here and but the association represents the industry as a whole. So we have over 300 members and they span from, you know, individual operators who are in you know, South Arkansas and run seven trucks all the way up to, you know, international enterprises like JB Hunt and FedEx. And so we have a wide, fragmented industry and members all over the spectrum in the trucking space, but then also the service providers to the industry. So our membership also includes those who provide you know, insurance or trucks or service or all sorts of technology and safety equipment. So the membership is vast and in Arkansas, That, you know, because of the carriers that are located here because of the impact that the industry has on the economy here, representing them and working in the industry is certainly something that I take pride in and it makes it, it makes it more fun than perhaps representing trucking in some other parts of the country, or representing some other industry in Arkansas think the alignment of the industry. And the industry here certainly gives our organization a louder voice and a big platform to make an impact.

Unknown Speaker 6:33
I think a lot of people when they think of the trucking industry, they think the annoying Big Rigs on the highway that won’t let them pass or whatever they you know, we’re almost running off the road, talking about the importance of the industry as a whole especially and we can, you know, jump into this next but right now. And

Unknown Speaker 6:50
yeah, so, really, I mean, if you boil it down to the purpose of the association is to promote, protect and serve the trucking industry and so like the very core of reason that we exist is to help people understand the relationship between the standard of living that they enjoy and the service that the industry provides. And that it’s not just the truck that’s in front of you between here in Memphis, or the truck that didn’t negotiate the intersection in the way that you thought that it should. It’s actually your medicine or your milk or your couch, or the package that you would like delivered to your porch tomorrow. That is, you know, quote, unquote, in the way. So we’re constantly and always, even pre COVID, constantly trying to reinforce that connection to people and help them understand the sensuality of the industry and the hard work that the men and women in the industry do to make their lives more enjoyable. And then you as you alluded to, like certainly, over the last three months, what we have been harping on for years, has been under a big spotlight for the rest of the country to see.

Unknown Speaker 7:59
So there’s obviously no beating around the bush about it COVID-19 has caused such a dynamic shift in so many industries. But trucking has to continue. And and that’s been one of the number one conversations is, you know, how do we get groceries to the grocery store? How do we make sure people can still have the essential needs? So where does trucking fall in the essential category? And how is that? What challenges have you seen throughout this time?

Unknown Speaker 8:22
Yeah. So, like I said, we’ve always kind of marketed ourselves as being essential. And then that term kind of became in vogue and now everyone’s talking about what’s essential and essential and non essential became this differentiating factor before everyone. So, you know, we would say, you know, when the world stopped, trucking had to continue. So as, as you and I, you know, perhaps, withdrew and decided to stay home or particular employers or industries began to shut down and minimize interaction. You still needed water, he still needed gas. He’s still expected there to be, you know, medicine at the pharmacy. And then even to roll that into some, like more high impact, you know, the masks and the ventilators and the the hospital supplies, those are all delivered by truck as well. So definitely, as a community, as a state as a nation, we relied on trucking and expected them to continue to deliver and that was not without challenge.

Unknown Speaker 9:28
So talk talk through what’s been the biggest thing you’ve seen from your role and how have you kind of had to lead through that and communicate some of those.

Unknown Speaker 9:34
So I think the biggest challenge that that we as an industry saw or are dealing with in you know, the COVID-19 crisis is uncertainty. And and I don’t mean that to be like a cop out answer. But in anything, if you don’t know what the result is going to be, if you don’t know what the rules are, then that creates a degree of nx and so initially The uncertainty of just how, how are we going to be able to operate? The operational challenges of, you know, keeping rest areas open, keeping truckstops open? What were the rules for, you know, how can a truck driver use the bathroom? How did they renew their driver’s license when dmvs are shutting down? How do they maintain their, you know, medical cards if we’re discouraging going into, you know, medical settings. And so, all of those operational challenges initially, that was the biggest hurdle to overcome because, and initially, trucking continued to run. You know, during mid March whenever the initial stay at home orders or and, you know, States began to make decisions to encourage people to stay at home. Our industry was not affected by that in the first stages, and we continue to see delivery of essential consumer goods groceries, and if not, not only did we continue to deliver it, there was a surge in debt. And so we had more trucks on the road and increased demand for products. And then how do you do that in this environment where, you know, I’m driving from state to state to state, and I don’t know what the rules are from state to state. So that was a big initial challenge. And then you roll that forward about two or three weeks. And then it became the economic challenge. So we, you know, met that surge demand, we applied all the resources that we had to try to make sure that the supply chain was protected, and that people had the goods that they expected and the toilet paper was in the grocery store and kind of all those things. But then when you started to see the auto manufacturers close, and major retail outlets close and then institutions like colleges and cap, you know, you don’t think about all the food service that goes into those types of entities. And so when those major segments of our industry, you know, they’re hot, large carriers that dedicate themselves almost exclusively to those types of services. And when those disappear, you had this excess excess capacity in the market. So, while groceries continued to be delivered now you had everyone that used to be hauling car parts or used to be hauling, you know, clothing or used to be hauling, you know, dry goods to cafeterias and colleges. Now they all have that capacity, you know, went into whatever is still moving, which drove the rights down substantially for everyone. So really, no one was protected, even if you were in those protected sectors and the competition that came at you and really created an economic impact, if not crisis for our industry. Now, certainly. I’ve had this talk with some of our members. You know, they feel like it’s an economic crisis for them, you know, when things are down 1415 20% year over year, that feels really uncomfortable. But if you overlay that with Let’s look at the hospitality sector. Or if you happen to own a hotel or restaurant, you know, those those industries. So I have to kind of like reset, right? I have to kind of like remind them, like, I know that our industry is not performing at the capacity that you want it to, and that your numbers look, you know, unfavorable year over year. But compared to some other industries, it could be a lot worse. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 13:26
Well, and I think that’s, that’s an important parallel because I remember seeing a video that the CEO of Marriott put out to all of its people, and essentially talked about how devastating this was to the organization as a whole. I think they were down within two weeks 80% of revenue and think about that, how many companies can survive that? And so I know your members, like you said span from everybody from the independent owner operator to FedEx and JB Hunt and these massive international carriers and even in that light, there’s been a huge huge shift in because you know, we’ve all heard Amazon Walmart and all these big box and massive eecom sites search and there was a huge demand it still is. And everybody wants their goods, they don’t want to have to go out and get them. But that still affects the trucking industry in a different way. Right?

Unknown Speaker 14:17
Right, the supply chain looks different. Thank you know, you were all we already as an industry we were already trending towards more, you know, individual delivery more at how more ecommerce smaller packages with fewer miles, you know, distribution centers all over the contrary, that that was had already been a pretty significant trend in the industry over the last, you know, three or four years. But I think the COVID-19 crisis, certainly accelerated that. And I think perhaps we will, we will see some lasting impacts from consumer expectations on what that final mile delivery looks like. And so as an industry, we’ll have to continue to adapt To that, and, you know, how do you make money and what type of equipment and what type of drivers are necessary when the routes become smaller, and the delivery circle or just you know, everything’s more compact.

Unknown Speaker 15:15
You mentioned the industry really got started in the 80s, when deregulation happened, and then here we are a regulation or an industry that still has a significant amount of regulation to it, and it’s being shaken up just like everything else, but the importance of it is not going away. It’s increasing. Do you see additional regulations, different regulations? Do you see anything like that happening? Is that a state thing? Is that a federal thing?

Unknown Speaker 15:37
Yeah. So it’s funny, we say we’re the most regulated deregulated industry in the country. So there’s been a lot of activity and scrutiny forced upon the industry during this crisis, like I mentioned, if you start shutting down, DMV shut down, you know, access to local you know, health clinics or d o t physicals. So things like hours of service then Like, you know, CDL renewals, medical car renewals, hazmat certifications, all that stuff has kind of been shelved for the last 90 days. It’s been remarkable the number of federal regulations that have been either modified or extended or given some sort of grace to allow the industry to continue to operate. You know, certainly you’d be in a world of hurt if you were, you know, in early March. If your driver’s license was set to expire in late April, you would have had no foresight to think, well, I need to renew my driver’s license or my medical card 45 days early. But then when the time came, those services weren’t available. So a lot of that stuff has been relaxed. I anticipate them most of that stuff will come back online. And of course, we’re going to go back to renewing our driver’s license and medical cars on certain time frames. Cut unplanned there was actually a change in the hours of service rulemaking already started prior to Coronavirus pandemic. And so just last week, there was actually new hours of service. The final rule came out from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. It’s a rule that as an industry we advocated for it’s largely viewed as allowing more flexibility to the driver, it’s maintaining the same number of hours that they can work, but allowing them to be more flexible and how they use at rest when they’re tired or take a break when there’s traffic congestion or other some sort of adverse driving conditions. So that is something new that will kind of coincide with as we roll out of this, those new rules being in place. And there’s been some other maybe a little bit more nuanced things. Historically, states had been very territorial about their licensing procedures. And that’s been done on a state by state basis, as different states adapted to this or handle this crisis differently. Those regulations with regard to where you test and where you get So try to get a simple example. And let’s say you live in Arkansas, and you are choosing to to work for a carrier in Indiana. So they bring you to Indiana and they put you through their school, they’re on their campus for three weeks. Currently, you’d have to go back to Arkansas to test and get your CDL. Because that sort of state where you live, those rules were relaxed during this time, so that if you were already in Indiana, they let you go ahead and test there and then send you back home and reciprocate your CDL that’s something that the industry is kind of advocated as making sense for quite some time. And I think you’ll see some support for maybe that staying, you know, post COVID-19. And there’s some other little nuance things that you know, you’ve we do things because that’s why we’ve always done them, and then when we’re put into these extenuating circumstances, you think, oh, that really makes sense. Let’s just go ahead and, you know, make this allowance, and then allow that to roll forward.

Unknown Speaker 18:51
I heard an interesting perspective from a professor at Ohio State University in New York, recently talked about the shift in higher education. And how it’s gonna change because of course, the cost of higher ed has just skyrocketed. and the value is still about the same as it always has been, you haven’t necessarily gotten more value out of it, but the cost has gone up. And so what he was advocating was that online education is now going to become its COVID-19 has created an accelerant, as opposed to just an opportunity to pivot or innovation, like we’ve already been trending towards these things. This just accelerates it. Is that how you feel about a lot of these things in the industry?

Unknown Speaker 19:28
I do. I think that, you know, whether we’re talking about certainly the driver livability and some of the things that we had restricted and made their lives, perhaps a little bit more difficult than they needed to be. And their role and and highlighting the work that they’ve done throughout this crisis, has given a little bit of softer ear to some of those concerns. And so, I do hope that we’re able to utilize this and not, you know, we’re not asking for anything that would compromise you know, certainly the industry is dedicated to safety and all of all of those things. But some things that just kind of made sense that we were hesitant to change, because that’s the way we’ve always done it. And I think, certainly this, you know, circumstances, like you said, accelerated. And some things that probably would have happened eventually, should we, you know, once we’ve been able to articulate the argument and collect the data, but this was kind of you just collected the data because you had to. And so now the data shows that the world doesn’t, you know, in if we allow this process to continue, and so, yeah, definitely, there’ll be some things that are accelerated through that.

Unknown Speaker 20:35
So I’m curious from your perspective, along that same vein, we’re in a time where there’s been a lot of buzz lately about autonomous trucks, and which changes the nature of the conversation completely, because you’re not dealing as much with humans on the road. Where does that conversation pick up in light of all these events? And are we accelerating that side to or does it I don’t know where we’re at with that.

Unknown Speaker 21:00
Yeah, I think that the autonomous truck conversation is really attractive and sensational to people who are on the fringe of the industry. And I think when you talk to people who are in it all day, every day in irregular route planning, you know, the movement of freight, that autonomous tracking is a really really long ways away. And not necessarily because the technology doesn’t exist, but because the comfortability of the people who would be required to interact with it, the infrastructure that would be needed in order to communicate with it on a, you know, continuous basis. The liability concerns that, you know, the, the kind of the behind the scenes framework, that would need to be in place to allow that to be utilized on a large scale is a Really, really massive? And I don’t think that yes, can we put a truck on the road and automate it from, you know, middle America to middle America? Yes, we can do that. But not on a you know, you can’t just turn them all loose because the the infrastructure, the demand, and just the people in general are not comfortable with that just

Unknown Speaker 22:23
yet. So what do you see as kind of the next push into an innovative industry? Like how do we move the industry forward and what’s kind of on the fringe that’s ready to go, just

Unknown Speaker 22:33
staying saying in that vein, there’s certainly the technology that is in support of autonomous trucking. You know, when you say autonomous trucking, I hear driverless trucking, and those are not necessarily the same things. And so I think that there is all sorts of opportunities within creating the improving the job of the truck driver and utilizing that technology to make that job. less stressful, to maybe alleviate some of the constraints that are placed upon those types of injuries. I mean, there’s all sorts of, you know, health constraints and medicine and things of that nature that prohibit individuals from being truck drivers. But if you knew that technology was there to support them in the event that they did, you know, have some sort of health situation, perhaps we could open up the opportunity to more individuals or loosen the restrictions on the types of medicine, the types of health conditions. And I certainly think there’s a lot of opportunity to utilize that technology to make the trucks safer, more efficient and more autonomous. I just don’t think that he’ll see 80,000 pounds going 70 miles an hour down the interstate, you know, more than once.

Unknown Speaker 23:44
Understood when I think about, you know, airplanes, of course, have autopilot. You can take off land everything without a pilot, but we don’t want to put a plane without a pilot there and I think it kind of falls in the same vein kind of

Unknown Speaker 23:59
associated I think Yeah, the technology is there. But the the people’s desire to support it

Unknown Speaker 24:07
is lacking.

Unknown Speaker 24:08
Okay, so we talked a little bit about the economic impact. Do you think we rebound quickly? Does this? Is this something that we can come out of from a industry perspective without too much of an overall loss? I mean, a lot of people are saying it’ll be 2021 before you get back and you just, hopefully, like you’re saying accept the loss this year. Just stay in business.

Unknown Speaker 24:30
Yeah, I think certainly, you know, the members that I talked to, you now are still feeling very uncertain about what this recovery looks like. And I was just reading yesterday on some some April numbers that have come out that show that the drop in tonnage in April was the worst in truck tonnage. So the amount of freight being hauled by our industry dropped in April, greater than a head in 25 years. Well, so like we’re not talking about like an a recession we’re talking about, like 1994. And so just the huge, young just pulling that amount of activity out of the economy. And so the number of jobs, you know, just their recovery from everything that I’ve read and some of the, you know, industry experts that are advising now, our members, they liken it to, it’s not going to be flipping a switch, it’s going to be a series of switches that are flipped over a long period of time. And you never know, when you might flip a switch and the lights come on, you know, there’s certain segments of the industry like if you look at even food processing right now, like, despite their best efforts to continue to operate and continue to, you know, stay open and processed food in the event that there’s a virus outbreak but can’t Doesn’t matter how much you want to move that freight or you want to be open? You know, there are certain things that are out of our control. And so I think if you look at the economic recovery and the solution to the health crisis are related, and as we look forward, you know, I think we’re optimistic that, that there will be a recovery throughout you know, that that we’ve seen the worst step. I think that I do believe that that’s true. I think that just the the decisions that were made that halted the US economy. I think they were made with the best intentions, but the true cost of that wasn’t really known until that decision was already made. And so I don’t foresee that that decision will be revisited or they will try to that approach again. And so I think that we may, because of that the recovery maybe longer and maybe prolong to avoid some sort of health crisis that makes us feel like we need to shut down again. But we expect 2020 to be a slow recovery. Certainly the consumer demand is there. As you’ve seen, you know, continue, we continue to see that ecommerce, you continue to say people, you know, housing hasn’t really taken a hit automobiles for the ones that are available, you know, in the market hadn’t really taken that big of a hit. So if we can get Americans back to work slowly throughout the rest of the year, I think the economy, the fundamental, you know, the economy was so, so good, you know, six months ago. And I think if you look at you know, Wall Street, Wall Street thinks it’s going to come back and they’ve surged this week. And so I’m optimistic that we will recover in 2020. I just think it’ll be slower and then we desire for it to be

Unknown Speaker 27:54
absolutely I think, when when the conversation first started around the pandemic, The hashtag was flatten the curve, right? Everybody was about flattened curve was talking about the health care curve, you know, slow the spread of the virus so we don’t overwhelm the healthcare system. And I’ve talked about this a lot, but we only talked about one curve, it’s time. And really there’s a second curve, and that was the economy and the unemployment rate, and how dramatic that curve was overnight. Almost. And, and I think since like you’re saying, we’ve seen the worst of it that that curve has started to flatten. And but you’re right, it’s not just, we come right back to normal. It’s a slow drawn out recovery, for the safety and well being of everyone, but also because now we do have to do things differently have to figure that out before we can just put everybody back to work. So how does the ACA How does Arkansas Trucking Association play into that? I know, you know, obviously, from my perspective, a lot of this has to do with the stories we’re telling how do we get the stories out of what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it, how it’s going to keep people And ultimately put people back to work.

Unknown Speaker 29:03
Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 29:05
I mean, I think the fact that our industry never stopped, makes it a little bit more challenging thinking, how’s it gonna look different? Because we were kind of like doing it differently as we went. And you know, kind of we talked about earlier, like, the lifestyle of the driver and how do they find services and how do they find food and how do they keep themselves healthy? And how do they have access to mask and sanitizer, and that’s all been a really complicated thing to try to figure out while they continue to move. It’s not like we got to shut down and stock the, you know, trucks with hand sanitizer and you know, stock up on mask and then send them back out. It was trying to literally passing that stuff out at a rest area while they’re continuing to work. So that’s been a really weird thing to try to, you know, make sure that they were healthy and keep the industry moving. Maybe talk about, you know, what that looks like going forward. In the drive, the job of a truck driver is actually pretty safe. I mean, they think about this scenarios in which they have been identified as high risk. I mean, there’s they’re not engaged with a large quantity of people on a frequent basis. They do spend a lot of time on their own. But then you think about the things that they’re touching, or perhaps the scenarios in which they’re going into and those scenarios could potentially be high risk. If you’re delivering to a hospital in New Orleans, then all of a sudden, your low risk job just became, you know, a high risk exposure. And so we’ve been working on trying to make sure that drivers have access to testing. I think that’s been that’s something that we’ve been working on extremely recently just announced that yesterday, and we were able to make the argument that you know, the, again, the the position itself is not necessarily high risk that you don’t necessarily don’t know where they’re delivering to you don’t know where they’re going to continue. And move throughout the country and then return home to their families and their communities. And how can we help them do that and feel safe and feel valued and feel like they’re doing that with the best information available. And we think that is by allowing them if they so choose to have to, you know, be tested for COVID-19. And so, just yesterday, the Department of Health made being a commercial truck driver, kind of like a qualifying condition. So if a truck driver wants to be tested, they can go to their community health clinic and and get tested. So that’s something to help the drivers feel better about themselves and, you know, be conscious of not conscientious about their own health, but then also the communities that they’re returning to you don’t want, you know, the last thing that we want is for some community to have some negative perception of, you know, this truck driver went somewhere and brought, you know, COVID-19 back to our community. So, we’re doing everything that we can to try to make the drivers feel safe, but then also have the information access To protect themselves,

Unknown Speaker 32:01
that’s perfect. Because I think, you know, the reality is the whole travel industry shut down. Because we’re, that’s what we’re trying to do is avoid people having to go from one place to the other. But it’s the very nature of the job of a truck driver to go from one community to another, and like you said, put themselves in some sometimes fairly high risk areas. So it’s great that that you guys were able to help kind of push that along and allow the drivers to feel more at ease. And I think you’re right, the communities as a whole feel more at ease that they can have access to testing in the right gear. When we walked in here today, so boxes of mass and sanitize that you guys are passing out, I think that’s that’s all perfect,

Unknown Speaker 32:42
and all in kind of evolution of what our organization does, and and why and, you know, there’s certainly, you know, promote, protect and serve as a very broad umbrella for what should we you know, say that we do as an organization bet that has certainly taken on some some new meanings and, and new tasks over the last three months.

Unknown Speaker 33:09
Well, I want to shift gears a little bit. Because when the big conversations coming out of this whole thing as well is, you know, how are leaders leading through all of this? And so from a personal level, you know, when all this first happened, everybody sort of figured out are we going to work from home we’re gonna do we have to go to the office, whatever that looks like for each organization has been different based on your needs. But But as someone leading not only your own organization, but really kind of being a voice of an industry, what have you done to sort of, I mean, kind of keep yourself sane. Let’s be honest, everybody has to kind of figure out how to do that. Do I wake up every morning and get dressed like I always did, or do I do my zoom calls in, you know, but I slept in last night. I think I think that’s been a fun, interesting thing we’ve been seeing but but what does that look like for you?

Unknown Speaker 33:56
Yeah, so it is an interesting mix of You know, I don’t our association is not a trucking company. But we represent an industry that didn’t get to take a break. And so that was a very delicate balance. And you know, what, what’s safe and what makes sense for the actual type of work that our organization does? And then how do we reflect, you know, and be sensitive to the strains that our members are experiencing. And so we kind of split the baby on that. We had some members of the team and elect to work from home. I, you know, our offices, plenty spacious, and I have two kids, two dogs and two cats. And so working from home is not really that feasible for me. And so I continue to come into the office just because I felt like that’s how I identified or connected to the business owners that we were trying to serve. And it did feel like it really felt like a crisis. It did really feel like we were we were having not zoom calls, but conference calls on a regular basis to try to share as much information as possible. I felt like really, you know, in an uncertain time or in times where you feel like you don’t know, you know what to do, that the camaraderie of of knowing that everyone else felt the same way that there was value in that. And so we did have calls for our trucking executives, to just kind of have that community of this is what I’m experiencing, or this is what I’m in this part of the country, I’ve had this particular trouble. And so as an organization, we, we were doing everything that we could to advocate for, you know, the most consistent, operational, you know, groundwork, but then also just kind of being a facilitator and a counselor. You know, come together tell us what your challenges are, because that’s the only way that I’m going to know how to help you is if I know what’s you know, bothering you today?

Unknown Speaker 36:10
Sure, I think communication has been the key through all of this. If people aren’t communicating, if there’s not clear lines, then everybody’s guessing. And to your point, nobody feels like anybody else understands what they’re going through. This is just me, I’m dealing with it. Have you noticed that you’ve kind of taken on different personal daily habits or things? Or is it been pretty much business as usual, from your perspective?

Unknown Speaker 36:34
I have, I thrive on routine. And so for me, it has been as normal as possible, you know, continuing to get up every morning and get dressed and come to the office and turn the computer on and, you know, find out what the crisis of the day was for a while. That’s kind of what it felt like. And so, you know, my routine didn’t change that much. It’s different, it feels different. There’s no you know, you park in an empty parking deck and you ride the elevator alone. And you know, there’s no one here to answer the phone. And, and so it feels different. It did feel as though we were experiencing something that was unusual. But having that consistency for me it was it made me feel made me feel like there was something normal about navigating what was certainly not normal.

Unknown Speaker 37:27
Yeah. As I’ve talked to a lot of people as well, I think one of the interesting parallels is, you know, every organization wants to have a strong team, you want to bring in strong team members to get you through. But then when you’re faced with unique situations like this, the importance of that team becomes more and more paramount. So talk me through kind of your direction, how do you create a solid team and then how do they function and push forward on that vision and mission that you guys have created?

Unknown Speaker 37:59
Yeah, so I do think we’ve, you know, we do have a great team. And there are seven of us that work full time, at the association. And, and we each everybody’s different, you know, we have a small office environment, and everyone has their own roles and responsibilities. And it certainly works better. When we’re all here. It feels better when we’re all here. And we all are communicating regularly. And you know, you know, who’s pulling various ways, but in this particular case, like, as you mentioned, you know, communication, regulation, and being able to tell the story of the industry and what was happening were all really, really important. And we my communications directors, fantastic. And so she and I, I mean, we talked, you know, every day, she’s actually one of the ones that she has a health condition that made sense for her to work from home, but it really just kind of forced us to Be more communicative. I mean, I tend to I am an introvert like I, it’s easy for him, I’d rather just do it myself and I’d rather make a list and, and knock it out. But that wasn’t feasible. During this time we had to divide and conquer and we had to communicate and I had to, you know, delegate and rely on other people to be able to have the answers them, but I couldn’t give. And so it’s been I would say that probably most good teams would say this has been a good experience for them. I mean, like, no one would choose to or sign up to navigate through a health crisis and an economic crisis, but it has allowed us to know what we’re good at, and who to kind of rely on in those very in those different situations. And I think that will be better going forward because of this, you know, time of crisis that we live with very together.

Unknown Speaker 39:59
Is there anything About the industry as a whole that you feel like is often overlooked other than the industry. So what what do people need to know? Like, as they enter back into traveling more and things like that? I mean, what what’s something important for people to keep in mind?

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Unknown Speaker 0:02
Hey, it’s Nate asaro. And if you’ve been listening to titans of industry up until this point, you know that I’m your host. So thank you for tuning in. I want to take some time to say a few things as we continue to bring you more amazing insights from some of these great Titans. So far, we have talked to a variety of leaders and innovators in industries, from real estate to agriculture, culinary to creative pharmacy to broadcasting and the music business to the publishing business. If you’ve started out with this episode, I strongly recommend you go back and listen to the first nine episodes so you can catch up to where we’re going. You’re going to hear some awesome advice, tips, leadership principles, life hacks, funny stories, and the interesting journeys that these Titans are on as they continue to lead the charge in their businesses and communities. We have a long way to go with this podcast and I want to give a special thank you to all of you that have listened and supported us so far. Thank you so much. Now I only have one favor to ask Will you follow us on social media at Content Titan and share this with your friends, your family, your co workers, your neighbors, your mailman, your cashier, your Uber driver, which by the way, Uber is not a sponsor of this podcast. But if you’re listening, go ahead and drop some cash, Venmo, PayPal, whatever you want to do, and anyone else you may be coming in contact with Well, from at least six feet away. We want to continue to grow the audience and inspire all types of people through these stories. Now, on a more serious note, the other reason I wanted to interject this short episode is to address the obvious nature of where the business community stands as of today, I’m recording this on May 28 2020, which puts us in the 11th week since the economic shutdown that affected nearly every business in some form or fashion. My intention is not to be a broken record and address the obvious but instead to discuss how businesses have coped and moved forward in innovative ways. We will take into consideration how businesses And industries have been affected by COVID-19. And whether people will work towards getting back to business as usual or pivot and shift to do business differently for the foreseeable future. We’re going to speak with everyone from bankers who have had to navigate an incredible volume of inquiries for PPP loans to leaders in the trucking industry who have helped ensure the safety and mobility of products and groceries moving across our country to keep Americans fed and supplied when many industries had to shut down completely. We will of course, talk to healthcare professionals about what it’s looked like on the frontlines nonprofits who still strive to achieve their mission despite a reduction in donations and grants. And of course, we’re going to get many more tips, tricks and leadership principles, as well as life hacks that you can apply in your own life to achieve a better future. Once again, I would like to thank the incredible team behind this podcast for working hard to put it all together. And if you know a titan that is doing amazing things, feel free to send an email to Hello at Content titan.co reach out to us at Content Titan on social media. I speak from experience when I say that our team at Content Titan is learning to innovate and do things differently just like so many other businesses, we’re offering a variety of new services from producing professional livestream events to doing socially distance productions, all the way to low cost commercials and digital content, and of course, storytelling and branding consultation to ensure that you are getting the right message in front of your audience. If you want your customers to know how you’re handling the new normal, we are here to help if there’s anything we can do, we want to be that resource for you. We truly believe that sharing great stories is significant and getting your business back to normal. So once again, thank you for listening and make sure to subscribe for many more episodes of titans of industry.

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