“This is a philosophy I’ve practiced for over 30 years – to really show that you care. And that’s when people want to stick around; they want to be a part of your team. They want to be a part of your organization.”

-Rose Lee, TechCXO

You might need to think twice before typing your next snarky message on Slack. What if new AI technology could flag it and warn you about your tone? And why are so many of our favorite items taking so long to get to us, if at all? Which state has the greatest need for infrastructure improvements, and what should we do about it? Our beloved hosts are taking on all these topics, and more, with the help of fellow Supply Chain Now host Kelly Barner and Rose Lee, partner at TechCXO. Join us to learn more about Lee’s company – and get everyone’s hot take on the headlines of the day. This group simply must learn to form an opinion.

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:00:33):

Hey, good afternoon, Scott Luton, Greg White with you right here on supply chain. Now. Welcome to today’s live stream Gregory. How are you?

Greg White (00:00:41):

We’re doing quite well. Naturally. Let me just make one quick shout out. As we get started to my buddy Mike attachment, who just, just tried to call me right before we started here. So sorry, Micah. I’m on the air.

Scott Luton (00:00:55):

Well, any other announcements you need to make, uh, Greg here at first school of supply chain?

Greg White (00:01:01):

Uh, no, none really. Scott, thank you though, for this, this opportunity to air that personal note.

Scott Luton (00:01:07):

Well, Hey, here’s some good news. We’re going to be back in the studio, uh, making, you know, uh, getting ready to, to move in. Hopefully for some in-person and studio programming starting probably in September. Yeah, that’s not right.

Greg White (00:01:19):

I’m bringing the pizza. You’re bringing the beer, right? You’re not supposed to say that. Oh, sorry. I’m going to juice boxes. Yeah. I’m bringing the avocado toast and you’re bringing the kombucha. Thank

Scott Luton (00:01:33):

You. Thank you very much. But Hey folks, today got a special double dose of the supply chain buzz. There’s too much news and going zone to get to knock out in a single live stream. So we’ve got a couple of outstanding guests. Of course, our dear friend, Kelly Barner joining us. She also leads a Dow P here watching now, and she’s bringing a hard to get guests. We had to go through her agent to get Rose Lee with tech C O so stay tuned. We’ve got some great perspective, uh, joining us here momentarily. But Greg, before we do that, we’ve got to kind of work through some of that.

Greg White (00:02:11):

Yeah. Some announcements. And there may be a few people a while

Scott Luton (00:02:17):

Keeps growing. Absolutely. We were going to say hello to some of those folks here in just a moment. A lot of our good friends already logged on, but Greg, July 27th, we’ve got this webinar with our friends at Esker and Texas Christian university. Kevin and I are going to be hosting. It’s all about digital transformation, not just accelerating your supply chain, but strengthening your supply chain. So y’all join us there. July 27th, 1:00 PM. Eastern Tom, the link to join is in the show notes, bring your POV, bring your voice. We want to hear from you during that session as well. Greg, have you checked out this mini masterclass that we’ve got teed up for July 29th? I

Greg White (00:02:55):

See that. We talked about it a little bit yesterday. I think that’ll be interesting. I mean, if you think about who we’re brought together for this, we have the world’s renowned person, Rodney Apple, who is all about supply chain careers and helping people. And in fact, writing a book about it. And then we’ve got Peter Bolle who has end to end done his entire career in supply chain from right from the time he started until retirement. And now Peter is unsure, happily sharing his experiences with people. I mean, I mean, that’s really valuable for anybody at any phase of their career, not just folks getting started

Scott Luton (00:03:35):

Agreed. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, Maria crystal Mara, right? In addition to Rodney and Peter and folks it’s free. So we should thank this great panel of folks that’s looking to give forward and help people advance their career and find jobs and work with recruiters. So join us July 29th, 4:00 PM. Sharp. You can, uh, learn more@supplychainnow.com and then finally one last announcement, Greg, big deal coming up in September. The supply chain insights global summit, September 7th through the ninth, a supply chain now is the exclusive virtual host of the, uh, the stream from the event. Now folks you’ve got to sign up and there’s a look, there’s a little bit of a fee for this one, but for all good reason, two and a half days, you’re going to have, you’re going to hear from and be part of, uh, discussions with some of the movers and shakers across global supply chain, of course, kind of the emcee or the host for this whole shindig Loris, a series, the one and only Loris is Siri. So Greg, what are you looking? What are you looking forward to here in September?

Greg White (00:04:38):

Uh, I just think that first of all, we get to join. That’s great for us and we’re going to sort of simulcast. I’m not sure exactly if that’s what we should call it, but we’re going to be, we’re going to be sharing a lot of this live with, with the people who register. And you know, the thing that is always valuable about this event, every time that Laura puts it on is that it is a safe zone for managers, directors, executives, and above to really learn a whole lot from fellow practitioners and really take away something that they can change their business with. That’s what’s so powerful about it. It’s a community event and it’s not about learning how to use your software better. It’s about whether you ought to have software, what kind of software it’s even about business process or initiatives or as Laura posted about today, vendor relationships and things like that. So there’s a tremendous amount of value here. If it’s not for you, because it is not inexpensive. Scott, what is it? $1,400 to register $1,500 to register. So if it’s not for you and it, and it is for somebody that you think could benefit from it like C level or director level or above, encourage them to do this. It’s the most, what, what am I trying to say? Scott? It’s the best spent 1500 bucks. They will spend all year talking about supply chain. It really is. There’s no agenda other than improving the craft

Scott Luton (00:06:07):

Great point and very well said. And on top of everything, Greg just shared, you’re going to be able to be able to supercharge a super boost, your networking and add a lot of excellent additions to your network at all. Levels include, especially at the executive level. So y’all join us. Learn more at supply chain insights, global summit.com. The link is in the show notes too. Okay. Let’s say hello to a few folks, Greg, and then let’s bring on our dear friends, Kelly and rose. Let’s see here, David is back with us, Dave and hope. This finds you well. Great to see you. I like the new, I guess it’s not new anymore, but the relative a new headshot, right?

Greg White (00:06:43):

Yeah. He looks like one of my cousins.

Scott Luton (00:06:46):

You never know. Maybe y’all are fourth cousins, third cousins, or somewhere. A couple of times removed. Mucuna S welcome. Welcome. Uh, Macoun Kumar, uh, via LinkedIn. Great to have you here with us, let us know where you’re dialed in from course Peter bowler all night and all day. You saw Peter own the panel for our mini masterclass. Peter. Hope this finds you well. Geneva’s dialed in from India via LinkedIn. Great to have you back. [inaudible] looking forward to your POV here today. Of course, we’ve got Amanda and Allie and Jayda behind the scenes, making it happen here today. Thanks to all of them. Let’s see. Who else do we have here? Massawa via LinkedIn. Good morning to you. Great to have you here. Let us know where you’re dialed in from. We’d love to make the connection. Kelvin is, is, is dialed in via LinkedIn. Kelvin, let us know where you are tuned in from Marcos, from Brazil. Welcome. Good morning. See our friend Catherine McCleary is back. Catherine, how are you doing tuned in via LinkedIn? Let us know. I think, well, Greg, I think she’s in one of your favorite cities, Kansas city, I believe right?

Greg White (00:07:55):

Yes. Yes. My favorite cities one. Well,

Scott Luton (00:08:00):

I know you’re, you’re, you’re a fellow chiefs fan.

Greg White (00:08:03):

Yeah. I would say you could see it all back here, but it’s all blurry now since we got this cool new camera, but a bit, but people can make out what that is.

Scott Luton (00:08:15):

We got to listen to Jayda. Cause Jadah said no football talk. So, uh, that’s true. There’s a, we’ll get back to that soon enough though. Yeah. Hello, Gregory. Dialed in from LinkedIn. Great to have you here today. Uh, looking forward to your POV. Muhammad is tuned in, uh, via LinkedIn. Hey, let us know where you’re, you’re dialed in from. Let’s see here. Mervin is back with us Mervin from Ireland, Mervin. I hope you’re finds your family well, but, uh, uh, hope you got some, uh, recipes up your sleeve too, cause we really enjoyed the last one you shared

Greg White (00:08:48):

Also, uh, B B planning that, uh, what should we say that, uh, liquid refreshment. That’s right.

Scott Luton (00:08:57):

Finally. Uh, Dr. V it’s great to have you back with us, uh, from Bangalore India via LinkedIn. Great to have you back. You’ve been, you know, I think Dr. VAs was on our very first live stream. Gosh, a year and a half ago now. Wow. It’s so great to have you. I’m so sorry for him. Yeah. You know what, Greg though, today’s live stream is gonna be great because it’s not just you and me. We’ve gotten two heavy hitters with us here today, and I want to walk him in our two guests. I want to welcome in Kelly Barner with buyers meeting point and of course, host of Dial P and Rose Lee with tech CXO. Hey, good afternoon. Hey Rose and Kelly, how are we doing?

Kelly Barner (00:09:40):

Hey guys,

Scott Luton (00:09:42):

The lead time almost got us there, Greg. Yeah. Well,

Greg White (00:09:46):

The other thing that is, is a challenge is Kelly always dresses better than I do. And I am, uh, yeah, every time she comes on, I want it. I want to go grab it.

Scott Luton (00:09:57):

Are you saying that she was making a last minute war?

Scott Luton (00:10:01):

That was better?

Scott Luton (00:10:04):

Well, welcome Kelly. Great to have you back rose. Welcome to your first time supply chain now. Great to meet you.

Rose Lee (00:10:11):

Nice to meet you guys. Thanks for having me attend today.

Scott Luton (00:10:14):

You bet. And we enjoy talking baseball and your Padres and your Cubs. Appreciate it. We’ll have to, uh, we’re going to have a sports conversation soon, but first rose before we dive into the buzz and all the cool things we’re gonna talk about here today. Tell us a little about yourself rose.

Rose Lee (00:10:30):

Yeah, sure. Well, now you already let everyone know that I’m from San Diego. Since I’m a Padres fan. My brother would be really disappointed if I said some other team. Um, I currently live in orange county and I love avocado toast with a poached egg on top of avocado toast. So if you guys ever come out here, I’ll have to make you an avocado toast. So we have avocado grows everywhere in California, Southern California.

Scott Luton (00:10:57):

So, um, yeah,

Rose Lee (00:10:59):

I am a partner at tech CXO and the area that I focus in on is on revenue growth and what texts CXO does. If you haven’t heard of us as we provide on demand, executive support for your organization and texts here. Cause so started in 2003 in Atlanta and we’ve grown to throughout the U S as well as the UK. We help, um, startups to mid-sized businesses from CFOs. Now, COO COO myself, uh, CMO, CRO, and [inaudible]. So the model is pretty simple. We go in there, it’s on demand. We help you where you need us. We start from strategy, of course, all the way to implementation and we’ll scale up or scale back, depending on what your needs are outstanding.

Scott Luton (00:11:48):

Well, you know, as we are finding out, pre-show, you know, Greg’s, Greg’s collaborate with tech CXO, we’re going to have Marty Parker. Who’s part of the team. Uh, he’s also adjunct professor at UGA and their burgeoning supply chain program. Think he, and some bright UJ students are joining us next week. So Hey, the world’s, the world’s getting smaller every day. It feels like it’s great to have you here today. Yeah.

Greg White (00:12:08):

Thank you. All right. Yeah. Rose, I worked with the company back when it was still called tech CFO, because it was all financial people, right? Yeah. Um, and as a startup, that’s usually the weakest spot you have, it’s great to have a fractional leader there to help you obviously manage finance, but also there’s lots of mergers and acquisitions activity and funding activities in a startup. It’s a really powerful tool. And as you know, we kind of got to watch the, the organization evolve to all of these additional roles. It’s w it’s really been powerful to see. I, you know, I think I just mentioned the two folks, Mike Casey and Neil Miller, but I’ve also worked with, gosh, I don’t know, probably four or five other other folks as fractional chief revenue officers and chief marketing officers and things like that. It’s been powerful stuff.

Scott Luton (00:13:01):

Greg actually has a, a tech CXO tattoo on his right arm. Rose.

Rose Lee (00:13:10):

Yeah. It started off as tech CFO, and they rebranded to tech seat XO because of that exact same fact that people go in CFOs and inadvertently you’ll realize there’s other needs within an organization. And that’s how the company has grown. We have over a hundred partners now, um, from CFOs all the way, like I mentioned, all the way to CHRs, depending on when your needs are congrats. Lots of great to have

Scott Luton (00:13:38):

You here. Look forward to you, weighing in on some of the topics of the day here momentarily. Hey, before I go to Kelly and get a quick update on all the cool things going on over there, I want to say hello to as Leah Davis is with us as Leah stay tuned. We’re going be talking about your neck of the woods very soon. Oscar’s tuned in via LinkedIn from Mexico city. Oscar. Welcome. Look forward to hearing your POV here today, Gregory, by the way, Trinidad Tobago, south of the Caribbean region. So Gregory, great to have you back and demo Perez. Dennis, Dennis Perez is with us. Once again, demo, I enjoyed your interview not too long ago on supply chain now in a spaniel and Charles heaters back with us, Charles was bringing to goodness, uh, here in recent podcasts and Peter bullae, I’m stealing your term. Goodness. Uh, I think who was our friend from YouTube that we hadn’t seen in a while, always talked about the supply chain nourishment on these law. Oh, we’ll get them back soon.

Greg White (00:14:35):

Went by a code name on YouTube, right? We’ll

Scott Luton (00:14:39):

Track them down and get and come back. But in the meantime, Kelly Barner, no shortage of things going on. I think this is clone. Number three of Kelly, because there are seven, actually there’s seven Kelly. Barners y’all may not know that, but there’s just that level of activity, but what’s going on at buyer’s meeting point and what’s up next with DAPI?

Kelly Barner (00:14:58):

Actually, it’s funny. I was thinking about this. It’s only about an hour from right now. I’m huddling with my friends at una. We’re getting ready to kick off a quarter of dial, pay of working with them. So shout out to Anthony and Chris and Mackenzie, uh, we’re all gonna put our heads together. And actually it was just yesterday that we officially kicked their podcast back off the sourcing hero, which effective this season I am hosting. And so you have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen in any of those episodes. Probably the most surprised we could pack into a procurement based podcast. Um, but, um, I’m looking forward to having everybody hear the episodes, including Scott, the one that I interviewed you on, and I did rapid fire lightning, round questions to sort out all those little personal details. Everybody wants to know. Um, and then of course, three months of dial P with my friends at doona

Scott Luton (00:15:52):

Two had a blast with you and we’ve had a variety of, of conversations here lately. It’s been really fun, always a pleasure. Congrats on all the talk about burgeoning, tons of activity with Kevin Warner and buyers meetings and stuff. It is really is. And by the way, our dear friend, Adam controller, Vicky white says Kelly, that color is on you. I love you Vicky,

Greg White (00:16:15):

Literally our controller. So we have Tom Holden. We can’t promise you anything free.

Scott Luton (00:16:26):

Good afternoon, Tom, from Louisville. Great to have you here today. What a great, great city. We went there a few years back and our oldest still talks about it. Okay. So the folks we got to get into the news, or there’s a ton of stuff going on here, and I think we’re going to start Kelly. I just realized my slides are out of order. That is a, is that a bad thing to have? I think I’ve got it right here. So I want to bring in, let’s see, this will work, right? So first we’re going to be talking to Kelly about a story that hit your radar this morning with lit lingo. You have driven workplace communications, looking out over your shoulder. Tell us more about this story here.

Kelly Barner (00:17:04):

So first pass, this is just another AI based tech startup. That’s going onto a second round of funding. Uh, once they’ve completed the second round, there’ll be just shy of $10 million that they’ve raised this year. That’s not as interesting as what this solution does at least what it’s marketed to do, but what it could potentially do. So here’s the basic concept. They use rules based AI that can handle natural language processing to look at platforms like slack, Microsoft teams, Zen desk, even email accounts. And it trolls for things that maybe create some trouble, maybe regulatory compliance, maybe legal compliance. Oh, and then there’s that third one workplace culture. So basically the way it works is if you’re typing in a slack channel and you say something that the lingo has been trained to view as unfriendly or as risky to the company in some way, stage one is you get a little pop-up that says, Hey, that’s not really very nice. Maybe you want to rephrase that before posting, but it also tracks

Greg White (00:18:13):

The posting,

Kelly Barner (00:18:15):

Oh, before posting, it gives you a heads up, but it also gives sort of sentiment analysis in aggregate, which is fortunately anonymized. But if my understanding of this is correct, it also can flag managers if there’s too much trouble. So, you know, on the simplest level, this sounds very, it sounds very basic, right? If you are in a regulated industry, there’s legal risk associated with what is said internally on platforms externally to clients makes a lot of sense. You want to cover all the bases, especially with so much of the workforce being virtual now. But when you get down into that workplace culture thing, that’s when it just starts to kind of make the hairs on the baby or not go up a little bit. There’s a reason there’s a copy of 1984 in that stack of books over there. And so I, as I was looking through the paper this morning, cause this just hit, I’m thinking, okay, yet another investment in an AI backed startup. Okay. Maybe not so interesting on that front, but I don’t know. Do you really want people like sorting through and suggesting that the tone of your slack message to a colleague is, is not quite what the company wants to hear? I don’t know.

Scott Luton (00:19:26):

Kelly, does it rate any humor or jokes before you send it? Cause there might be. I might not be interested.

Greg White (00:19:34):

You mean like that appropriateness at the very least, I don’t know if it has humor, if it does

Kelly Barner (00:19:41):

The example they give on their own website is somebody typing into the slack channel. Like, Hey, don’t be a dinosaur and something, something do things the old school way and the little pop up says like, Ooh, yeah, that’s not, you know, like how would your mother feel about you? You know, kind of, uh, like nanny kind of message. But I, you know, I have to be honest, I think they’re missing the boat humor angle, Greg and Scott. You guys should definitely reach out and give them that feedback because it would at least create a more positive user experience for people who are being told that their tone is unaccepted.

Scott Luton (00:20:13):

Well, you know, and especially evaluating dad jokes, which is our favorite around here. At least my favorite run here. But you know, what’s interesting. Uh, someone mentioned Kelly, you or Greg mentioned, you know, maybe, uh, filtering out the F bomb. There was yes, there was a dear friend of mine, dear friend of mine that, uh, when we’d bring him out to networking functions, that was just part of his vernacular. And, and it was one of those things after the seventh time of getting, you know, what’s going on, I love that guy, but what’s the deal with that, but that was a coaching opportunity, right? Because for him and for, for many environments, you know, that, that can be, you know, just kind of how a conversation goes and for many others, that’s, it’s not right. So, uh, it’ll be really interesting to see how this, um, lingo I believe is the name of the company. How, how, uh, the investment and the growth and more importantly, perhaps is, is how widespread the application and how practical, uh, it gets adopted. Greg. I know you’re itching at the I’m chomping at the bit to talk about maybe just the overall MNA environment right now is crazy. You’re right.

Greg White (00:21:17):

It is. And you know, this, the conceptual aspect of this that we’re talking about, isn’t even new. I think it’s probably the AI and the real time analysis because companies have been monitoring our emails since email has begun. What they haven’t been doing is doing something with it necessarily. And certainly not something preemptively. So, you know, the preemptive nature of this is ha has the potential despite its downsides. And if they are not in substantial downsides, it has the potential to be very, very positive. And the truth is your email’s being been being monitored for decades if you’ve been using email for decades anyway. Um, so hopefully some aspect of this preemptiveness is positive. And as Kelly said, it, look, it is big brother, but face it, it’s not unlike how your, how your speech is monitored at school by the teachers were in their environment.

Greg White (00:22:18):

You, you acknowledged that you’ll play by their rules. If they have a new age way of monitoring the rules, you’re kind of stuck with it. You’re at home. And that happens. That’s a little bit different, but, but, but AI of course is very hot for investment right now. And here’s the here is the not so secret secret of AI. AI is not hard to do these days. And in fact, it’s not even expensive to enable these days. It has long ago in terms of development, talent been democratized and also, you know, made to be very cost-effective, there’s lots of AI talent out there. The difficulty comes in evaluating these companies in an M and a environment is do they own, or did they construct their own AI? Or are they merely using TensorFlow or an AWS AI tool that they have trained? Because if you are doing that, you don’t really have any intellectual property. So this is one of the challenges. And if you listen to my episode with, with St Azore Lou, this is one of the things that we talk about. It’s really hard to find technology companies who actually have intellectual property. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:23:32):

A great lesson learned there. Uh, Greg, I’ll check out. Maybe we can, maybe Amanda can drop that episode in the comments, but I want to bring in rose. But before I do, as Leah says, this is like supply chain, Sesame street. They, how about, I love it. Uh, and we got a lot more to come, uh, as Aaliyah. All right. So rose, whether you want to comment on, on what Kelly and Greg just were talking about AI or, or investment, or equally as important, uh, marketplace communication. Cause we’ve learned a lot in, in, in recent months, right?

Rose Lee (00:24:03):

Yeah. This recent, this past year has been a learning curve for all of us, just to really understand what is necessary in communicating with your internal team. There was an article that was in Forbes on April 27th this year. And it was talking about the 20, 21 turnover tsunami and what was the problem? And what’s the cause and what’s happening and what business leaders need to make prayer for. And I think what’s happened is, is last year when we all were locked down and working from home, people started thinking about their work-life balance. The culture does it fit in with who they are. And 52% of employees are planning to look this year. And I’m sure we’ve seen all that in LinkedIn and different places. And why are people looking? It’s really basic. So I, I hear what you guys are talking about AI and my background is technology and I get excited when I hear about technology, but what I’m going to talk about is really back to the basics, really increasing customer, uh, employee engagement, customer, uh, employee engagement, and being able to communicate effectively.

Rose Lee (00:25:11):

And I think this year, not only from zoom calls, and I know a lot of times we’re meeting with each other online, but you also have to have these really honest conversations and being transparent on a one-on-one basis with your team within the overall organization. And it’s talking more about more than just the finance side of the business. It’s really getting into what matters and what separates you from the rest of it. Um, your competitors and other companies. And it’s really understanding that or offering training opportunities, putting value and sharing, showing value to your employees. This is old school. It’s not, you know, all this other big brother technology, but this is just really old school human interaction, the best way that you can manage that type of communication. This is a philosophy I’ve practiced for over 30 years to really show that you care. And that’s when people want to stick around, they want to be a part of your team. They want to be a part of your organization.

Scott Luton (00:26:08):

I love that rose and, and you know, there’s some timeless leadership lessons, Greg and Kelly, that, that, uh, are just, that are timeless despite the changes in the environment and some of the challenges we’re seeing and, and, and, you know, Greg, of course, as we’ve talked about a lot, um, you know, best practices change all the time, right? Because what worked yesterday may is not guaranteed to work today, oftentimes, but these timeless lessons of, of, of leadership and leadership practices, uh, what what’s old is new again in that right? Reg.

Greg White (00:26:41):

Yeah, it is. I mean, you know, and I, I empathize with both points of view. I mean, Kelly doesn’t want somebody looking out, you don’t want somebody looking over your shoulder, sorry, I’m not gonna talk about you. Like, you’re not, you don’t want your shoulder, right. You’re from the original bastion of freedom, right? The, the Boston tea party. Right. I think there, I think there is a, there is a place for that. And if we need people to be watching us, as we slowly approach this line as a lay, it kind of goes to that point. What if, you know, what if AI gets so smart that it doesn’t just decide, it doesn’t like your tone. It doesn’t like your point of view, right. Which is easy by the way, as we have all evolved over time to be sensitive to that, particularly now, you know, it’s easy to see AI getting there.

Greg White (00:27:31):

It is just a child. Again, this is the way I always think of AI. It does what it’s taught. And, and depending on how it’s taught, it can be taught bias as well. So we have to really arm ourselves against that. But at the same time to Rose’s point, you know, there is a certain amount of, uh, cultural enforcement. Enforcement’s probably is a strong word, but whatever cultural enforcement, but I think it’s worth it because, you know, a company needs to, they need to guard nothing more preciously than the culture of their company, but that culture needs to have a solid tempering for variances of opinion and point of view. Right. As long as it’s kind and accurate.

Kelly Barner (00:28:14):

Yeah. I think the tricky part ends up being that people are so Wiley, right? And like you guys say, we all know the reality. Everybody’s been reading and monitoring our emails forever. Right? It’s it’s not a new concept, but having a continuously put in your face, like how many times a day is your typing in slack? Are you getting these little prompts? Maybe people start to worry after how many prompts do I get referred to HR for like a communications refresher. And I think what I would start to think about as a company, potentially putting this in place is not only how does it make people feel these little cues, but, you know, speaking of Boston, there’s an old time Boston politician that had this great expression and it’s like, don’t speak when you can whisper. Don’t whisper when you can nod, don’t nod when you can wink, right?

Kelly Barner (00:29:00):

It’s this whole progression of how to be as discreet as humanly possible, especially when you have something strong to communicate. And in a way it’s a little bit like telling your teenager, they can’t date. If you restrict people’s speech and get up in people’s faces about their communication style too much, especially on something informal like slack we’re hopefully at least in certain channels customers aren’t present, you’re kind of driving people into live conversation where you can’t monitor it at all. And so that’s part of the delicate balance. If you want to teach people that you can’t appropriately handle having access to their communications, if you do have to protect your company against legal and regulatory, but if you don’t trust your employees, and if you’re constantly pointing out to them that you don’t trust them, it’s just back to Rose’s point about employee experience. It, it creates kind of a funny vibe. I have to think, although it might get people back to the office, if that’s a silver lining companies, having trouble

Greg White (00:29:57):

Getting people back, that’s exactly the thought. I that’s exactly the thought I had when you said that it could. So when you go

Kelly Barner (00:30:04):

Meet in a park, right, and you sit on the park bench and you crinkle the paper bag of sandwiches in, so that like the bugs in the bushes, can’t pick up your conversation

Scott Luton (00:30:14):

So much to dive into your, I want, I’ll share a couple of comments and then, uh, we’re gonna move to this next door, but excellent. I love the conversation. Greg rose and Kelly, lot. So many great points made. Mervin says, Hey, imagine negotiation with a client via email with AI monitoring you and telling you to rephrase that I’d buy that

Greg White (00:30:34):

Or monitoring, monitoring the negotiation with the client and, and giving you some justification for your phrasing or something. You know, something like that that could happen as well. Agreed.

Scott Luton (00:30:47):

Terminator. Peter says the movie is not as far fetched as folks make it out to be about that. Andy welcome. Andy, let us know where you’re tuning in from via LinkedIn says the major drawback is that the consultants are not certain of the ROI for these cool technologies with a K. I love that. And I agree. It’s not an easy task. I agree with rose. Peter adds, frankly, why you never negotiate over email. That’s interesting. And then I’ve done some of that, uh, uh, like for my communication style, I like the stop pause and contemplate aspect of the email cadence. Um, but you know, it doesn’t replace a really good phone call and oftentimes a really good direct phone call, which is, which is not an about job. It’s been some of my best learning moments, um, as a entrepreneur, as a, as a leader.

Scott Luton (00:31:36):

Okay. So we’ve got to move on to this next topic. Um, lead times lead times, lead times. Um, I want to, but as I tee this up for Greg white, oh, you know, I was in a store yesterday, I’m on this, uh, this post vacation diet. Right. And I got the post vacation diet blues. I don’t know if y’all can relate, but pick it up fruit juice, like the a hundred percent natural stuff. Right. One of our local favorite brands, favorite local brands is Arden Arden. B’s I think he’s based here in Georgia anyway. So I’m at the store. A lady pulls up beside with her cart and she’s looking around and she can’t find her, this, this very specific curate blend of juice. And she makes this comment of, gosh, they’re out of it again. And whenever I see it, I grabbed these two gallon jugs. Cause it may be a few weeks before I see it again. And it’s just Greg, it’s just one of his latest, um, moments, right. That, that we’re probably having just about every day, if not, you know, uh, every hour it seems where everything we won’t like where we’re kind of used to in a spoiled manner, isn’t quite always there and lead times and, and, uh, product availability, these things are continuing to be big challenges. Right?

Greg White (00:32:46):

Yeah. And, and it appears getting worse. I mean, we talked before we came on the air about Kelly’s beautiful backdrop that she has there with her desk and, and bookshelf and all that. And I think you said Kelly, it took eight months,

Kelly Barner (00:32:59):

Eight months. And the hardest part about some of these lead times, which I also felt the impact of is that nobody knew with any accuracy, how to tell me what that lead time was going to be. I was told it like 60 days I’m okay. Two months, two months in eight months were very different now for me, selfishly, I wanted my bookcase, but if you’re a business and this is actually holding up a production line, or it’s holding up your ability to deliver to a client, that is an entirely different level of problem.

Greg White (00:33:27):

Yeah. Yeah. And this article is talking about, it’s talking predominantly about that, but you know, in my name and bull fashion, I didn’t, I wasn’t bounded by the topic. It just, it’s just what it, what did it make me think of? Right. And cause they were talking a lot about MRO, about indirect materials, the things that keep the lines running and the, and the, the, uh, portions or the products that, that go into a final and finished goods and, and those things and how those lead times continue to rise. And what they talked about were, you know, what it made me think about was, well, what did we expect? Right. We ceased, literally ceased the global commerce virtually overnight. And you know, this, this is going to the co the economy would have restarted in any way in any situation, more like a model a than an AMG, it’s going to take some cranking and it’s going to take, you know, messing with the timing and the carboration and, and having that foot on the starter at just the right time.

Greg White (00:34:35):

Yes. Cars used to be started by foot while cranking at the front end too, by the way. So it, yeah, it is, it is literally, it’s going to take that kind of time. And then, and then you throw on top of it, you know, the container shortages and, and whether they be accidental or, or intentional, all of the things that have driven up freight rates, and then you, and then you throw on top of it, the governments of the world, paying people an additional $600 a week to stay home. Right. What did we expect to happen? And I, you know, and I think I was thinking about the impact of that and labor is, is UN unquestionably the largest impact to the supply chain, right? I mean, if you haven’t, if you’ve been out of your house or you’ve talked to anyone who is in business, that is their number one discussion is I can’t get people to cook.

Greg White (00:35:35):

I can’t get people to drive. I can’t people to run registers. I saw a burger king closed at nine o’clock last night. Right. It aren’t most perfect things open almost. I mean that, we’re thinking about a Whopper now, Greg, I don’t want to the carrot juice go back to the carrot juice. So much of your diet. Yeah. I guess the avocado on it, which is the good kind of fat, by the way, by the way, rose a California burger burger in the eighties that had avocado on it. Delicious, sorry. Now, um, now I want a burger.

Greg White (00:36:18):

We can get a bean burger or, you know, and then you pile on things that always happen in the supply chain, the usual vendor shortages and weather, which happens every year, but made news this year because of the inherent fragility of supply chains when the storm in Texas occurred or when Elsa occurs and things like that. Because when the supply chain is already fragile and those natural consequences occur by the way, this year was not the first time that that a ship has gotten stuck in the Suez canal. Um, but the supply chain was already so fragile. And of course, all news, all news must be hyperbolic because as, as I say here frequently, traditional media is dying and they’re desperately clinging for ratings so they can sell advertising. So, you know, when you think about all of those things, then you can see why the lead times have trouble.

Greg White (00:37:14):

And because we have literally paid, at least in the states, I can’t speak for other governments, but in the states, we have literally paid people to stay home 51.9%. This is an interesting number. Considering the numbers, you were tossing out, Kelly 51.2 or 51.9% of people say that they don’t want to go back into the workforce because they’re afraid of COVID COVID is, is in many states at a lower level than, than March of last year when we shut everything down. And, and in many states or in many places, the infections are actually going down. Now, I know we have this new Delta variant. I can’t really speak to that. I’m not a healthcare expert, but, but I, I would argue that a significant portion of those people who are, who are afraid of COVID would be a lot less afraid of COVID if they weren’t making $46,000 a year to stay home.

Kelly Barner (00:38:11):

And then everybody who is working, they’re all new, right? Like back to your point, Greg, if you have ventured out of your house recently to go to a supermarket, a wholesale club or restaurant, apparently every single employee rose, you’re saying 51% or 50% of people say that they’re going to look this year. Well, apparently over the last four months, every single person in America change their job because nobody knows what they’re doing

Greg White (00:38:33):

And you try to be patient, right? Like

Kelly Barner (00:38:35):

I’m just so grateful to be in a restaurant. Thank you. But no one knows what they’re doing. They’ve never worked together before. There’s no critical mass of people that have been in the roles, getting this stuff done. And so God love these business owners. They’re bringing in whoever they can bring in, but it takes a while to ramp these things up and kind of get the people machine clicking. And I think it’s going to be a wacky summer from a labor perspective. And I think it’s going to drag into the year, even as some of these other issues start to go away. Undoubtedly, undoubtedly.

Scott Luton (00:39:05):

And, um, um, and, and we’re on Lambda now, Greg, uh, heading fast as ADA and that, you know, we talked about it. So the day Kelly, um, you know, trying to find there’s so much information out there, right? It’s information overload and, and trying to, to really find, um, good, accurate, um, uh, actionable information is, is, can be very, very challenging and let’s face it despite what you and Greg both have shared. There’s still, you know, there’s a lot of fear, uh, and it could be lack of information that could be in a personal set of circumstances. It could be, uh, I think, uh, as Catherine mentioned, you know, Missouri might be one of those places that, uh, has had some challenging, uh, statistics when it comes to, um, you know, kind of the COVID recovery. Uh, and of course our friends oversees a wide disparity of, of, um, kind of what the current status quo is.

Scott Luton (00:40:01):

But the good news is, um, as we’re going to talk about here momentarily, there is, you know, here in the states, we are able to get out more and, and, and, uh, able to enjoy just as small things. You know, Kelly, you mentioned eating out and dining out and enjoying each other’s company, uh, Greg, you and I will be together this afternoon, man, how we’ve missed those simple things. Um, so let’s do this, uh, rose, uh, I want to give you a chance to kind of weigh in on anything here before and, and Greg, I’ll give you the last comment on this lead Tom story, but rose, anything sticking out for you here based on what we’ve talked about with lead times and product availability. We talking porch furniture before we went live here today. Any, any, uh, any insights from you?

Rose Lee (00:40:46):

I experiencing the same thing. I’m not ordering porch furniture for next summer, but you know, but I, I I’m experienced the same thing I would built in refrigerator led light, went out. They’re not supposed to go out six months later, I’m still receiving emails about the led light is backwater, but you know what though? One thing that they’ve done well, this company it’s annoying, my lights are still out, but they’re telling me, and they’re communicating every single week. I apologize. And it’s the same thing. When we went back to talking about internal, how do we can keep our employees? So we don’t have all these newbies that really don’t understand the company culture, or understand how to serve a customer. It’s really that internal communication talking to each other and making sure that people are happy. There’s a lot of folks, not only are people looking because there’s something they’re evaluating, do I like this culture? Do they like me? Do they value me? I need, there was also people that were, uh, forced into early retirement and they’re kind of like, I’m done, I’m out. I’m not going back. So there’s a lot of that happening right now. And I think we just need to be patient with each other. It’s going to take some time. I think Kelly you’re right. It’s going to go into this fall.

Scott Luton (00:42:15):

Well said there a wide variety of dynamics at play for sure. Um, okay. So Greg, I want to, um, I’ll give you a final comment before I do, though. As, as a man has pointed out, I completely botched our favorite brand of juice. I think what I did, I combined Cardi B with Arden’s garden and came up with a new brand new brand RDB it’s garden is the juice that’s based here in Georgia, that we liked so much. So, all right, but Greg, your final word,

Greg White (00:42:47):

All pay for that spot.

Scott Luton (00:42:52):

But my oldest daughter is going to get a kick out of that. But, uh, Greg, your, your comments on final comments on lead time stuff.

Greg White (00:42:59):

Okay. It’s time to get back to work. I mean, they’re plentiful and lucrative jobs out there and you know, people are, they are staying home in droves. I recognize that people had to, or maybe were forced to leave their jobs, but that time it was long, past long past, there are plenty of available jobs and they’re paying more than they would have because of competition. Right. And particularly because all of this influx of capital, I mean, look that the inflation that we’re seeing and the demand that we’re seeing that exceeds the supply in many cases is because people have more disposable income, right? There’s this term, now look it up, Google it, revenge travel. They’re calling it revenge, travel where wow. I feel like I maybe subconsciously I am revenge traveling. I’ve traveled like three weeks left, but I felt like it was necessary every time.

Greg White (00:44:00):

Um, but you know, there are people trying to get their lives back to some sense of normalcy or some sense of health that they feel in, in many, many ways. One of the best ways to do that is to be productive in your mind and in your body to be productive. And I think it will come back around, but it’s really going to take a, what is it now? I think it’s like 31 states now are, are refusing the additional $600 a week from the federal government. And there being three states are being sued by people who aren’t looking for jobs on unemployment, which is another requirement by the way, uh, to still receive those, those, um, you know, those benefits. So it’s going to take taking that money, the government money out of their hands and placing requirements as we have had forever on unemployment to actually look for a job, um, to get people back to work. So

Scott Luton (00:45:03):

Kelly, I’ve got our next topic for a little side project. You and I have been working on this new series. We’re gonna have to get Greg and maybe Catherine together. It’s not about the juice.

Kelly Barner (00:45:12):

Is it? I don’t drink characters. I don’t do anything with carrots.

Scott Luton (00:45:20):

There’s a much fuller conversation. I think, to be had along regs talking about with, um, you know, the policies and the workforce policies that the variety of governments have embraced. So a lot of good stuff there we’ll save that for next time. Partially because this last topic I want to share under stake, none of that, no, this is why we do this, right. You never know where the conversation is going to lead. I really appreciate everybody’s comments. We can’t get to, you know, Paul makes a great statement about isolationism. I think we all may be underestimated the impact that might have pre pandemic. I think that’s a fair comment, Catherine and many others, uh, say some fair, fair things, but for the sake of today, let’s move forward. Let’s talk about interstates and Kelly. I’m ready for

Scott Luton (00:46:04):

The point. Counterpoint here.

Scott Luton (00:46:06):

Let me have my moment in the sun just for a second. Okay. So this, this is pretty cool. So, um, you know, we’ve been talking about, um, infrastructure feels like for years, uh, but certainly here in recent months, as Congress looks poised to do something. And I think from a fun point of view, thankfully we are, uh, here in the states lease able to get out. And of course, if you’re getting out traveling somewhere, you’re probably only interstates, right? I know we just spent a bunch of time with interstates coming back and are going to Florida and coming back a week or two ago, but what’s also needs to be pointed out. And we talk about infrastructure, you know, interstates, and some of these obvious examples are only just a, a part of the equation, right? Infrastructure holistically. There’s a ton that needs to be addressed, at least in my take.

Scott Luton (00:46:54):

Uh, hopefully, uh, a portion of that with the new legislation that’s coming, but this nonprofit called trip, you see the logo there in the corner. It’s a, um, well, as it says, national transportation research, nonprofit, uh, they have offered up a, a pretty deep, um, uh, um, bit of research here lately just published, uh, in the last a week or two. And I wanted to, to share some things that you may not know about our interstate system, Kelly Rose and Greg. So let’s dive in. So first off it was built 1956, you know, that makes it 65 years old, the Dwight D Eisenhower national system of interstate and defense highways it’s been called. Did you know the most ambitious public works project built since the Roman empire Kelly, the Roman empire for Greg? How many miles do you think makeup take a wild guess the interstate highway miles? How many miles?

Greg White (00:47:52):

I don’t know, 200,000, uh,

Scott Luton (00:47:55):

Close, uh, 48,482. And I say close, not close. Almost 50,000 miles. Of course carries a huge part of the $18.9 trillion in good ship from sites, uh, in the U S each year. So let’s look at the top states. If you’re living in Georgia, like two of us do, uh, others with roots here, you spend a bunch of time, uh, but this is a, from this trip research, they broke down where the worst kind of where the worst, uh, interstate conditions are. Look, if you live in Hawaii, 23% of your interstate miles are rated as in poor condition. I will surprise Greg not to see Georgia owned really this bad top 20 list. I’m not surprised to see South Carolina, uh, as, as I certainly feel the bumps whenever I drive back home. And I hear a lot of feedback about the miles, uh, about the, the state of the roads there.

Scott Luton (00:49:01):

Um, secondly, bridges folks, did, you know, the average age of interstate bridges is 46 years old, 3% of all interstate bridges, and think of like overpasses and stuff were rated in 2019 as being in poor or structurally deficient position. So if you look at these states of kind of where that 3% is a as LA at West Virginia, 13% of those bridges rated as in poor or structurally deficient are, can be found in West Virginia, 12% in Rhode Island who would’ve thunk it, uh, that wouldn’t have been a top for me, nothing in Georgia here. Once again, Greg, have you raise your hand folks, raise your hand if you’ve spent, ever spent any time stand still traffic on interstates. I think all four of us can raise her hands. Right. Um, I was kind of surprised. Okay. It was kinda, uh, oh, I gotta, I gotta share this here. Peter says pothole, avoidance and Clippers. Yeah. Um, so let’s see here. So this was kind of surprising to me when you look at this next bit of a, what they call, what percentage of the interstate in all 50 states is what they’d been congested, California, rose, number 180% of your interstates are deemed congested. Does that resonate with you?

Rose Lee (00:50:24):

Oh yes. Every day, even on the Sunday and we have six lane highways, freeways,

Scott Luton (00:50:32):

I am jealous of that. Uh, well also look at this. So interstate system makes up 2.6% of all highway miles, um, in the states, but 26%, uh, interstate carrier, 20, 26% of all travel. Um, and then finally, one, one more thing I wanna point out here as we start to wrap up is specific bottlenecks. So this study kind of pinpointed at least 20 top bottlenecks, Greg. And how was Boston not there? I was, Hey, I was kind of surprised, um, Kelly, uh, kind of surprised there, but, uh, this little portion here is known kind of very roughly known as spaghetti junction. One of the private, numerous places referred to as spaghetti junction, I’ve officially spent 42% of my adult life. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:51:26):

You know, it’s weird to 85. If y’all plenty of folks travel to Atlanta 25 meats at 85 northbound, there’s been a ton of growth via Gwinnett county and further places north there, ton of congestion. But yeah, Greg, to your point, that’s just one of the top, uh, one of the two bottlenecks and the top four that this study has put out there, uh, according to the folks over at trip. So, uh, Amanda think we’re gonna drop the link to the study in the comments of folks can kind of, uh, check out all the information for themselves, but know, again, folks not to be too simplistic. I grew up in Aiken county, South Carolina at 20 has bisected our county. And it was how we got to the state capitals where I went to school. I’m so lit, you know, living, growing up on the interstate, you know, it was just assumed it was there. And I think we can, we can easily forget about this, but Greg rose and Kelly Kelly, you’ve got some, a few counterpoints as it relates to the calls for the billions and billions of dollars that our understates may need. Right. I

Kelly Barner (00:52:28):

Do. And it’s actually interesting. So I’m going to start in, you know, the conciliatory way by actually offering up a nice statistic that, that backs up what you’ve been talking about. Uh, this is from a wall street journal article that published, I think on July 4th, by one estimate, the U S economy would be 3.9% smaller today without the interstate highway system that we got back in the fifties and sixties. So that’s the good news. The bad news is that we already have the vast majority of the interstate infrastructure that we’re going to get most of the investment that we’re talking about making now, which I believe represents about 20% of the current infrastructure bill that’s sort of working its way through through Congress is like you had said, crumbling, bridges, potholes, that kind of thing. So it’s a little bit like renovating your bathroom or kitchen to sell your house.

Kelly Barner (00:53:17):

You don’t get that money back in terms of economic growth GDP. What you get is how’s that you can sell or what you get in the case of infrastructure is roads that people feel better about are happy about, do less damage to equipment result in less insurance claims, that kind of thing. But if we’re actually looking to say that, putting this money into the economy, other than the jobs benefit, right, and the local benefits specifically when that money is invested, long-term, it’s just simply maintenance that needs to be done. There’s not actually economic growth that comes from that. That’s sustainable. So unfortunately this is money that while it does need to be invested, at least in some portion, maybe not going where they think it’s going to go or in the amount that they’re planning to spend, it doesn’t need to be spent. These repairs have to be made, right. But from an economic growth standpoint, we’re not going to get that money back in terms of GDP, just like you’re not going to get the money back on your house at the point of sale that you put into, you know, tiling your bathroom or replacing everything in your kitchen. Um, it needs to be done, but the return is not there. Gotcha.

Scott Luton (00:54:27):

I appreciate that completely. We’re going to get rose and Greg to weigh in on anything y’all might have found interesting or any personal experiences or your take on, you know, this infrastructure bill and what they’re talking about in DC. Roseanne, any comments, sir? Well, but no pressure.

Rose Lee (00:54:44):

So I hear what you’re saying, Kelly, but selfishly I think we need, we really need maybe not the entire portion, but we need some investments in our roads. They’re 50 years old. And if I were dry, if I lived in West Virginia and I’m a little concerned about going over a bridge and especially in light of everything that’s happening right now, I think we need to put some money into the infrastructure and the advantages

Kelly Barner (00:55:10):

Are there. We just may not get the economic payback that we’re hoping to get. Well,

Rose Lee (00:55:14):

And I just remodeled my kitchen and my bathroom.

Speaker 7 (00:55:17):

I’m hoping to get more money out of my house.

Scott Luton (00:55:23):

You miss a beat, I’ll tell y’all rose fits right in. I’ll tell ya. Um, but, but well said rose, uh, there is, you know, folks look at this differently, right? And I really appreciate Kelly that different angle because I think there are some out there that may be expecting that ROI to look differently. Uh, I’m thinking about some of the overpass problem, w we’ve we’ve seen just recent years, that is, um, you know, that I’m hoping speeds up the action, uh, and, and the right action, right? Because, uh, we’re all concerned. We want those dollars to be spent in a way that we, we get stuff rather than, you know, some other things, but Greg, um, you know, Greg, you never tell us how you really feel. And, um, I’m really, I want to push you to really, you know, give us a firm opinion here, but w what’s your takeaway, Greg?

Greg White (00:56:10):

Well, I mean, we have completely misspent infrastructure dollars to this point. What we don’t need is more investment. We need better investment that the funding for infrastructure has been adequate to keep our infrastructure up to date for the 60 years that our, uh, interstate system has been around, we have misspent or brother-in-law projects, or, you know, or completely wasted the funding to keep these roads in place. And I have to tell you that it frightens me to know in, to give federal and state governments more money to waste. And if I was in California, rose I would be particularly afraid of that. Um, and I’m afraid enough of it in Georgia. Right. But, uh, you know, let let’s to that point, by the way, in Georgia, we have the only interstate highway in America that does not cross the state line. Interstate 16 goes from Macon, Georgia to the, to the coast of, or to Savannah.

Greg White (00:57:16):

Okay. We have an interstate highway that doesn’t cross a state line. Should it interstate funding have paid for that? Absolutely not. Why did it, because we have very, very powerful politicians in Georgia, right? Thank you. Zell Miller or whatever. Senator got corporal project through. And it is projects like precisely like that, that have wasted trillions and trillions of dollars on infrastructure. So do we need it? Yes. Do I have any faith that our us government will spend it appropriately? Absolutely not. So that was an intrastate and all that rose until recently by far the worst interstate highway that we have, we have in, in Georgia. Right. That just my daughter, I had to go down that road to get to my daughter’s university. And every time I did it, I had to put in headphones because the, uh, just so it’s terrible.

Scott Luton (00:58:21):

I wish we had another hour. I know Kelly, you got, you’ve got a hard, a hard stop at one. So, um, as much as I’ve enjoyed you and rose and the conversation here, we’ll have to have you all both back, um, and rose, thanks so much for joining us here today. Uh, Kelly, of course, we’ll see you back on, on Dow P amongst other things really soon, but really quick. Let’s make sure folks know how to connect with you. Um, so rose Roseli with a tech CXO, how can folks connect with you?

Rose Lee (00:58:46):

Yeah. You guys can find me on LinkedIn and it’s rose Kaylee one wonderful.com. It’s just

Scott Luton (00:58:54):

That easy. And I think we’ll have her information, especially on replay and Kelly. How can folks connect with you?

Kelly Barner (00:59:03):

Same deal. You can find me on LinkedIn, either as Kelly Barner or as buyer’s meeting point. Um, dial P now has all of its accounts set up across LinkedIn and Twitter. So absolutely find me, follow me one of those places and send feedback. I can take it out of the conversation

Scott Luton (00:59:18):

That is right. And we’re going to have a fuller conversation on of these, these topics that deserve, uh, um, um, uh, more passionate, more time to be spent on all the different things we got to unpack, but regardless today was a blast. Thanks so much. RoseLee with tech, CXO and Kelly Barner with buyers meeting point in Dow, P we’ll talk with you soon. Thank you. Thanks guys. All right, Gregory man. Uh, tons of comments. I wanna share a couple of these. I’d love to have gotten to him when Kelly and rose were still with us. Uh, um, but let’s make up for lost time here. I want to share, let’s see here, your FOD says hopefully the maintenance and construction of newer and better roads, doesn’t just include sealant from home Depot or Lowe’s to patch the cracks. Excellent point there. And Susan says, hello, Susan Nicholas. I hear guerrilla group like glue is very reliable. Uh, so, um, let’s see here. As Leah says, with where we’re heading with tourism, she thinks it’s necessary. The, the added, um, uh, infrastructure spending, looking at West Virginia accidents because of poor road conditions. Let’s see your pity. Peter talks about flipping homes, its success there, which, which he is pretty handy, uh, from a construction standpoint, uh, he’s shared some of his

Greg White (01:00:35):

Very strong if you can flip an entire home.

Scott Luton (01:00:37):

Yeah. Yes. Catherine says hard to track businesses and people when they can’t get safely to economic centers. That is a very fair point. Let’s see here, Tom Holden says how much road slash bridge repair can be expected with only 20% of the funding bill and then finally Kenton and kilo Kenton. Great to have you here via LinkedIn says delivery dates for high-end bikes more than $3,000. That is high, high, high end used to be readily that used to be readily available or at August and September, 2022, four orders placed. Now how about

Greg White (01:01:11):

Right? Our friend Todd rains has been keeping me apprised of bike parts because he’s an avid rider. I would, I should say more than avid obsessed, excessive rider. And also he’s in the auto parts business. And he has been seeing his fill rates reduce to like, I think he mentioned for brake parts, like 13.5% fill rate. Wow. Ordered a hundred. Got 13. Okay. So that is a very real problem.

Scott Luton (01:01:42):

Mm. No five says, Greg, tell us how you really feel. I’m not convinced it’s fun and you’re fine. Oh, that’s fine.

Greg White (01:01:49):

You don’t want to hit if you, if you don’t like my comments on the U S government, you sure don’t want to hear my comments on candidates?

Scott Luton (01:01:57):

Oh goodness. We’ll save that for a tequila sunrise for sure. Um, Amanda says, nearly ran out of gas, headed to a bachelor party bachelorette party when I was eight months pregnant on our 16, because there’s like one gas station from Macon to Savannah. Yeah.

Greg White (01:02:13):

Now there are many, many more, it’s not nearly as, uh, drowse drowsiness or generating as it used to be Amanda. So it’s safe to go to your next batch where I believe,

Scott Luton (01:02:25):

You know, I’m just so proud that that my wife is eight months pregnant. We’re not going to turn down a good party. So yeah.

Greg White (01:02:33):

Well let me turn the tail on the donkey is really fun.

Scott Luton (01:02:38):

All right. Lot of good stuff there. I’m sorry. We can’t get there by his comments and questions. We’re a few minutes over already, but uh, outstanding session. Uh, y’all connect with RoseLee with tech C X O N Kelly Barner with buyers meeting point of course, tuning the Dow P third, Tuesday of each month, 12 noon Eastern time looking forward to collaborating with our friends at una and Greg I’ll give you what’s what’s 1, 1, 1 point heard here today. One take something focusing to be, uh, attuned to what would be your final comment here today?

Greg White (01:03:10):

A couple of things, one it’s really interesting to hear the Boston perspective from the California perspective, right? And to see the variance of issues that we have in the states. As I have told many, many people and have said frequently on this show, it is the United States of America states in the past have been small countries. And effectively what we have in the U S is 50 small countries trying to work and live together, sharing a common currency, common roadways, a common security and, and army and all of that to keep them safe. But I think it’s hard to overstate the impact of this being a democratic Republic, not a democracy, by the way, that’s a fallacy that we still teach in our schools, but this is really a representative Republic of 50 countries who have effectively come together for common security and other infrastructure type benefits. So to see the variance from state to state, it is really a collection of 50 cultures of 50 points of view. And of course their points of view within each one of those. So it’s really, really interesting to see, like, Catherine’s take on this versus Rose’s take versus, uh, Kelly’s taken my take in yours, Scott. It it’s, we are fortunate to be in a place that is so diverse. If you don’t like the state you’re in, you can go to one that fits you better, right. And have the border right.

Scott Luton (01:04:44):

And have the discussion publicly. And, and with the, uh, freedom to say what’s on our mind, right?

Greg White (01:04:50):

Not so much that anymore, but hopefully that comes back. Folks

Scott Luton (01:04:55):

Finding common ground, it can be found. I can assure you, but great discussion here today. Um, I agree with you as a lay, I’d love another hour. I’d love to dive deeper on some of the things we couldn’t hear today with rose and Kelly and Greg, and many others in the sky boxes. So folks join us for these upcoming events. We’ll share it on the front end, give us some feedback. Of course you can reach to Amanda, reach out to any of us on social media. We’d love to, you know, if there are topics that you see kind of maybe gaps in our programming things or people or companies you wanna hear more from, uh, we’ll take that feedback, but would, and we’d welcome it. Uh, feedback is certainly one of our life bloods here. Join us for the webinars. Join us for the sessions. You’re not gonna want to miss the mini masterclass with Peter bowler and many others going to be really good stuff well worth the price of free admission. And most importantly, whatever you do, money back guarantee, Greg, whatever you do do good. Give forward, be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see next time right here at supply chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (01:05:57):

Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now, community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain. Now.