Freight Friends on How the Attention Economy is Changing, Taylor Swift Concert Logistics, and More

May 16, 2023

Episode Transcript

In this episode, Grace Sharkey and the host discuss the new era of media, including the recent shake-ups in the legacy media world and the influencer economy.

They also introduce a couple of new segments to the podcast, including discussions on their favorite logistics stories of the month and intriguing conspiracy theories. The episode ends with a roundup of the latest freight tech and media stories from Grace.

LINKS:

Instagram influencers are getting jobs and legacy media is dying
Britney Spears AI conspiracy
Feral people of National Park conspiracy
Logistics of a Taylor Swift concert
The Logistics of Lipstick
Connect with Grace and scope her work

TIMESTAMPS:

[00:02:24] New era of media.
[00:05:05] Influencers gaining more power.
[00:09:03] Influencer marketing and its flaws.
[00:12:16] Influencers and media companies.
[00:16:23] Going Direct to Twitter.
[00:19:39] Spotify's User Interface Challenges.
[00:23:24] Influencer lifestyle and platforms.
[00:29:45] AI in podcasting.
[00:31:22] AI Instagram account realizes truth.
[00:36:03] Princess Diana's Infamous Interview.
[00:38:15] Royal family fashion.
[00:42:41] The logistics of music tours.
[00:45:21] Low margins in music industry.
[00:50:10] Lipstick logistics.
[00:52:18] Lipstick logistics and the economy.
[00:56:10] Press on nails and nail salon economy.
[00:59:28] Britney Spears conspiracy theory.
[01:06:30] Feral people in national parks.
[01:11:29] Mountain lion encounter.
[01:13:35] Hiking in bear territory.
[01:20:27] AI in retail.
[01:20:57] 3D imaging with AI.
[01:25:12] Getting the most out of technology.
[01:28:27] Mental models in business.

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ABOUT THE PODCAST:

Everything is Logistics is a podcast for the thinkers in freight. Follow the podcast to never miss an episode.

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See full episode transcriptTranscript is autogenerated by AI

Unknown: 0:00

LinkedIn presents

Blythe Brumleve: 0:10

welcome into a another episode of everything is logistics a podcast for the thinkers in freight. I have now dubbed this episode series as freight friends with Grace Sharkey. So Grace, welcome into the show freightwaves fame, all that good stuff. Got another edition on on our hands.

Grace Sharkey: 0:29

Yeah Freightways freight friends try saying that10 times fast.

Blythe Brumleve: 0:33

So it was a little like my list was coming out there a little bit hard to bring it in. Well, we've got a really a jam packed show for you guys today. And we're going to be talking about just to sort of lay out the land of this recording. We're going to talk about the new era of media.There's been a lot of shakeups especially in the legacy media world, but also in the influencer economy. So we're going to talk about that. Then we're going to introduce a couple new segments, which I mean, they're conversations that we've had separately, but now we're going to incorporate them into the podcast. If you followed any of my previous stories on the logistics of maybe you followed some of Grace's stories on following you know some of the logistics stories that are kind of more fun like concert logistics or lipstick, logistics, things like that. We are going to talk about our favorite ones of the month and then we're going to talk about you know, some of our favorite conspiracy theories.Maybe not favorite is not the best word but maybe the most interesting conspiracy theories that we've been hearing and then we will round out the show with the stories that grace has been working on she is a powerhouse when it comes to freight tech and media and if you want some insider knowledge she is the one to go to as long as you're like a good person to trustworthy person. So let's go and kick you had a little girl and they're like no don't let me

Grace Sharkey: 1:57

honestly I want the opposite of a trustworthy person if you're telling me this skew bring your shady selves to my inbox

Blythe Brumleve: 2:09

Yes, you should absolutely do that and then hopefully she will tell me all the hot new freight costs that's coming out of the market. But where I'm going to try this for new for folks who are new maybe listening to this or maybe haven't heard any episode in the past. I'm gonna try to play this one clip for our first topic and referring to the new era of media because barstool CEO Erica Ayers that's I thought it was Erika Nardini a shot for a Marriott forest Oh whoa whoa so our subject Yeah cuz

Grace Sharkey: 2:41

I think she was like like messing with like a hockey player something too oh wow there's like a whole Oh draw here's a whole story Yeah. Oh wow.

Blythe Brumleve: 2:50

So okay, well media I guess makes media news but she had a really fantastic breakdown of what's going on in the media landscape so I'm just going to share my screen really quick and then play this audio so let's go ahead and roll the clip.Okay, so really really interesting clip there and I'm going to remove this from you know, I guess our screen so whoever's watching like this is a live trial that I'm trying to work out here with these sound clips. But But how initial thoughts after hearing that clip

Grace Sharkey: 4:49

even though it's so interesting, because I she actually talks about that Joe Rogan situation right? And even bringing up like how cool it'd be if Joe Rogan would come there. And it's interesting because the answer to that is Joe Rogan doesn't need to go there. And that's I think, kind of her point is like these influencers are becoming, have the capabilities of, of going off on their own and creating their own space in their own tribe, that you really have to almost leverage if you are going to be a platform like barstool,right, you have to one thing that you've probably noticed from the work that they do is a lot of people that start there don't end there. And even a partner has been like, loud about that. Like, I don't expect someone like Alex Cooper, right?She gets she grows her her platform, and she gets an offer from Spotify for like, what was it $20 million, or something like that, like, we can't afford that. And we wouldn't afford that. Like, that's not a good business model for us. And she has the complete capabilities of going out there. And, and probably even at some point, if she wanted to, maybe the Spotify grind is too much work, work for10 million, I'm building her own situation, right. And I think what's really interesting is like, kind of comparing this even to what we see in our own space, and even like what you're doing Blythe it's like you can if you if you want to grow your audience, or you have personal goals of what you want to achieve as an influencer, and you do gain that influence. And,you know, it's something that I'm just starting to see now with the amount of followers on LinkedIn, and growing more on Twitter, etc, like that. That is powerful. And that's your you're essentially a billboard, you know, like you're a, you're an online in the space built like a NASCAR car. Yeah. Is that No,yeah, that's actually that's a really great way of looking at it, right. And then you can add on these sponsors, and they can help support you. But at the end of the day, like you can really control how you want to how fast you want to go or how much you want to drive. And that might you might lose and gain sponsorships from there. But I think the biggest point is known as seeing the leverage change,right? It's gone from, oh, boy,like what I would do to be on CNN to, man, if I probably grow my influence to the point where I could be on CNN, CNN should be asking, you know, asking me to come on excetera. So I just think it's really great that at least forward thinking media teams like barstool are understanding that. No, no, no,we are the influencers, gaining much more of the power their audience and who they bring, and who how people respond to them is, is much more powerful than just the message that we're trying to achieve as as our own whole.

Blythe Brumleve: 7:46

And I think that that's really well said,because there's almost two things that's happening right now. So there's the rise of like, the creator slash influencer, that's actually creating content. That's not like the perfect Instagram aesthetic. So it's the real the realness of what you see from like, you know, tic TOCs rise to fame, which is the anti thesis of what Instagram was so Instagram, especially with you even five years ago, even just a few years ago, before, you know,COVID hit, of course, there,I'll give an example. There's a there was a local influencer networking groups. So it was called like northeast or North Florida influencers group. And I remember going to these dinners and feeling so out of place,because these people weren't making real money. Like they all had full time jobs. And they all were, you know, buying clothes off of, you know, Amazon, or you know, any anywhere else. And they were trying on these clothes, taking photos, and then just sending them back, they were conveying this lifestyle that wasn't honest. And they weren't making anything from it.I remember this one woman who was a lawyer, and I said, and you know, she would always put,you know, the like to know it, I don't know, if you remember the like to know it, if you if you like this Instagram post, then you'll get notified of where you can buy those outfits. And so it was kind of like a an out like,if you see something on Instagram that you liked, you liked the photo, then you would get a notification of where you can buy those items from that influencer. But if you were to actually take those steps, as you know, say, you see the outfit that you like, you like the photo, you go to it and you make that purchase that influencer would get maybe 10 or12 cents off of that purchase,which is crazy to me. And I remembered like the light bulb going off that moment. And I was like, I can't I can't follow this lead of what they're presenting because number one,they're not making anything. And number two, they're completely I don't want to say fraudulent but it just wasn't it wasn't interesting content that's going to set you apart from anywhere else. It really was just all about the grid and all about,you know, catering to one single platform. And now Instagram has kind of fallen off a little bit.And now all of those influencers that were part of that group,they don't really do any have that anymore. And so the longevity just wasn't there. And then I think on the flip side,we also see a rise of this independent media funding where you're not even contingent on you know, affiliate deals, which is kind of what like to know it is, or you know, sponsorship deals, which is where I get the majority of my revenue. And then on the flip side, you have a show like breaking points or you have a, you know, a journalist like Matt Taibbi, who is getting directly listener funded. And they don't they can, they can,they are the only people that can truly say that they are free from any kind of influence,because they're not beholden to a sponsor that is writing them a check.

Grace Sharkey: 10:41

Yeah, it's interesting. You bring up like the own personal brands, I am a huge Tim Dylan fan, too. And he,he's working on his own personal stuff, one of his recent podcasts, is you actually making fun of Joe Rogan, who like yeah,Joe's just too lazy to do any of this stuff. But he gets to be lazy, because he doesn't need to do much anymore. Right. And that's, that's the ultimate, I think influencer goal, if you're looking at it, like get to the point. But I think it's something like Dylan is starting his own kind of like production network where he can start working on different projects himself. And it's like that, I think we'll see more of that kind of stuff come out, right,where it's leaving. You grow,you grow your brand, you develop maybe the type of content that people expect from you. And then you use that too, to leverage what you want to do next in life. Right? And that's what he's basically saying, it's like, I, I want to get into movies and scripts, and so why not leverage what we're doing here? Of course, so do what others do making movies and stuff, right, you still get investors and things of that nature, but you have a really strong business case for them with the audience that you've been able to grow. And I again,even if that fails, I mean,these guys on Patreon alone, I'm sure can can pay his bills at the end of the day. So I think it's, it's interesting. I think it's interesting to see like,the employee in leadership dynamic maybe at some of these media platforms, because they know I mean, if you look at like Tucker, right like I highly doubt that Fox really wanted to fire him they got into the situation they got themselves into and they had to let him go but he's gonna be fine with without them and it's it's just interesting to think like that type of of Lead or that type of influence. And maybe yeah, these media companies having to to really put up with they're the influencers that they choose to backup, because that's what's actually bringing the followers it's not not even that they love Fox News in that case, but they they love Tucker. So yeah, it's kind of interesting. I like I like the growth and watching it in our space to like yourself even Chris jolly writes been able to grow Trey Reese really great audiences and now you get to to focus on your passions.And well what do you know LinkedIn realizes that the power that you have to and adds you to that LinkedIn group so yeah,it's just interesting to me that flip of like if if especially if you're really passionate and want to put in the work like you could be able to to negotiate and see some of these deals that these these big influencers have and it reminds me of like you and me like it's it's weird to call yourself an influencer but like, that's what you're doing.You know, at the end of the day,it's we met the supply chain leadership from skims and like that you were trying to explain to her what we do and it was like, the simplest way to just say we're an influencer and like, she understood it immediately and the weird credit it gave her in her eyes right like one one she didn't realize that there could be right influences our space, but you know, people take what I write maybe more seriously because of that audience I've been able to grow so it's kind of interesting that that dynamic

Blythe Brumleve: 14:18

This episode is brought to you by SPI logistics the premier freight agent and logistics network in North America. Are you currently building your freight brokerages book a business and feel that your capabilities are being limited due to lack of support and access to adequate technology? At SPI logistics, we have the technology, the systems and the back office support to help you succeed. If you're looking to take control of your financial future and build your own business with the backing of one of the most successful logistics firms in North America, visit SPI three pl.com to learn more. It's definitely the perception which influencer feels like a dirty word but it's always been around You know,we've had, we were live in the United States where, you know,we follow like, it was celebrity culture for a while, and then it was influenced our culture. And now it's, you know, whatever you want to frame it as its people who have influence over your life and your purchasing decisions. And if you are you going to control your audience?And where are you going to distribute to that audience,because if you own the distribution, then you have a lot of power, you don't have to do what a lot of other companies do, that don't have a media arm because they create the product or the service first, and then think about marketing and distribution. Second, whereas in our case, we already have the distribution. So now it's, you can kind of sit back and say,Well, where do I What does my audience care about? And what products can I build that I own100% of or, you know, a good majority of that company? And then how can I use my distribution to create more awareness around it? So there's,there's that aspect, but one thing that you brought up to that I think is, is really interesting, and I did not expect this is that, you know,since you know that the the Tucker news came out, he I thought for sure that he would start his own thing, self funded, so he could be free of you know, you know, potential getting canceled or anything like that, which Patreon has done to other especially, you know, right wing creators, they have banned them from their platform, but he went straight to Twitter. And I thought that that was really fascinating that he's gonna go direct to Twitter,instead of building his own platform. But in a way, it makes a lot of sense for his audience to take that to Twitter, because of the new features. I mean,obviously, you think what you want about Elon Musk, I happen to think he's kind of the perfect person to own Twitter,because he knows the platform.So Well, and, you know, tweets.Very much like the majority of Twitter tweets or Yeah, so I think, yeah, and to have him now, you know, make these changes where, you know, I think they just announced that there's going to be a creator fund for people that create directly on Twitter, obviously, Twitter,blue, allows you to have longer tweets and upload longer videos,and then they have the, what I think is probably the best thing, and all of social media is that community Notes feature where, you know, no longer can politicians just blankly you know, just throw out a generalized phrase, you're going to be fact check to and you're not just, you know, everybody is subject to these rules. In theory, you know, it's still,you know, obviously, a billionaire still owns the platform, so he can make the changes to, you know, as he sees fit, including boosting his own tweets, and maybe getting rid or downplaying, you know, folks that he disagrees with, which is kind of funny to watch. Like, I know, that hypocrisy of everything I'm saying right here, but All right, there is definitely a shift. I just find it very entertaining to watch as a Twitter user, but also, at times very exhausting. So I'm curious why Tucker decided to choose Twitter and not his own thing?

Grace Sharkey: 18:02

Oh, my I assume that he I'm sure he'll have a pretty like simple eyes setup,right? Like to think about if you're going on your own, like,what does that mean production,Team wise space, like, going to have to actually find people to do the production side of things is probably a little bit more than one would expect. So I'm thinking maybe it's the simplest, it's easiest way for me. Because here's the thing right about influencing is you can't just disappear, right? You have to keep on posting and doing so how can I as Tucker get back in front of all of my fans as fast as possible? Without Louise losing an influencer?Also on a platform that's not going to silence my views? Maybe as as bad as I'd hoped? Well,Twitter's probably the smartest way to go. Right. So I think that's a little bit of a TOS like you can't, you can't spend this time figuring out what production company you're going to work with. It's like no, you need to get back out there.Because if you go six months without anyone hearing from you,then there's gonna be another Tucker that's replacing you at the end of the day as well.

Blythe Brumleve: 19:16

Do you do you listen to podcasts on Spotify?Is that your podcast app of choice that

Grace Sharkey: 19:21

or? And and unison with Patreon Yeah.

Blythe Brumleve: 19:26

Okay, because I don't use I've always thought it was really I love Spotify, like music and algorithms and how I can discover new music but I have found the podcast experience just dreadful. I did misses out on you know moments when I press pause on a podcast and come back to it later. I can't really you know, look at shows that I'm I can see shows that I'm listening to, but it doesn't mark it as played if there's like 10 seconds left and the little nuances that other apps do really easily. It bugs me that Spotify doesn't do those things. And so when I see all of the money that they've been spending on these creators to come to their platform, like a Joe Rogan, which I didn't know until hearing that clip, Eric has clip that Spotify is not renewing Joe Rogan. Because that that is shocking to me. Because I before the CEO had said, you know, the Joe Rogan show every single day is the equivalent of a new Taylor Swift album. Yeah.And you think about losing all of that audience like I follow it, even though I gripe about the Spotify ecosystem when it comes to podcasting. Like there's still, you know,podcasts that I've subscribed to there, that I don't have on any other platform, but I am less likely to listen to them because the user interface is so challenging. And so you mentioned Alex Cooper earlier, I have not listened to a single show of hers since she moved from barstool to Spotify. It's just, it's not an instant,there's no incentive for me to do so I used to listen to it all the time when it was, you know,YouTube, especially YouTube clips. So with that said, and you know, Joe Rogan, possibly probably moving back to just his own independent platform,keeping, you know, a lot of the clips and the shows on YouTube,YouTube is just such a far superior way to interact with content, I use YouTube so much more. And if a podcast has a video component, or if they're already on YouTube, I'm going to listen there first before I even play the podcast feed. So it's interesting to see how these user habits are all evolving.Because I would imagine Spotify not renewing Joe Rogan is a big part of that is money reasons in a Do you have another 100million to throw to creators?And I think that time has gone for these exclusive partnerships.

Grace Sharkey: 21:45

I will say I wouldn't I usually listen on Spotify. It's usually because I'm driving. So that's part of it, too. But you're 1,000%Right. I, if I really think about it, because I usually I mean, what you call the Yeah,for me, the Yak isn't really a podcast, but I guess, like that I watch on YouTube every day. i If I, you know, I think Joe Rogan, part of his stuff, too,is he likes to pull up clips. It does, it does depend on how you interact with your audience,right? Like, it's funny, because even doing freightwaves shows like we have our visual, a podcast component, and it's like, my episode this week,which we might touch on later to how to probably four or five videos in it. And I finished it,I go, Oh my god, Spotify,listen, you're gonna hate this one, you know? Like, it gives us very visual, like, I brought up the videos to show them like,look how easy this application works, right. And so I think that's part of it, too. Like,Tim Dylan rarely is pulling up clips. If anything, maybe he'll pull up an article, but he reads it. So for me, I usually listen to that when I'm driving around.But like, a lot of the other ones, I mean, even and I'd say we both are a fan of what's his name's Andrew. Oh, what's that at play? Gregory? Lever two.That's one two, that you really don't need to visually see anything. But I agree. It's a there's a couple of podcasts I listened to where I almost have to watch it. Because it's very,it's a different visual component. I think. I think that's important. I think that podcasts should consider I mean,that's a big reason why, for a while on Freightways. We weren't pushing YouTube as much as we are now because there is so many visual components about the work that we do. And we do have Freightways TV, which helps with that, too. So I agree. I think that I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Joe Yeah, judges could go back on YouTube, and fight the good fight every once in a while when he wants to make one of his outstanding crazy arguments, right. But he could live off Joe Rogan could live off YouTube and be fine for the rest of his life. And I think, I think that's the influencer aspect. That's really interesting to me. I mean, even there's an interview with like,Adele, I think on this, it's like, I've gotten to this point in my life where if I want to do it, I'll do it. If I don't, I don't. And when you build that influencer lifestyle that I mean, really write that agent or contract employee at the end of the day lifestyle. I think our generation wants that more than ever. And I think you're gonna see more people saying that where it's like, I don't the deals great, but I don't want to do that. I could be Joe Rogan.And I could be lazily to downsize and, and just shit on YouTube and be fine the rest of my life or not to deal with Spotify hitting me up with HR emails and all day long. Like,it's just not worth it when there's platforms that will let me come on.

Blythe Brumleve: 24:51

And it makes so much sense because Spotify like I remember when Rogan first moved over to Spotify, you couldn't Chromecast or say In that video and just what like, I listened a lot, you know, to the long he has such a long podcast.So I don't know if there's a guest on that I love I, I, I liked him to an extent it depends on the the guest is first and foremost because majority of the time with with Rogan, I love the platform that he gives to specific Yes, so like scientists and researchers and authors and things like that, that I will listen to for a long period of time. And you cannot still to this day, send that video, like I would be doing laundry, and I'm gonna have to watch it on my little phone. When before I could watch it on YouTube, I could see the comments, I could see the you know, the community. And you know that that is a really core part of something that I didn't know I needed until he moved to Spotify. And also, the clips were kind of a hot mess in Spotify, where, for example,it's very challenging for me to decide to watch a three hour podcast, but if there's a clip,especially if somebody I don't know, but if there's a clip with a title, that's interesting,I'll watch that clip. And then the YouTube algorithm will recommend the next clip from that same guest that same show.And before you know it, you know, I've engaged with somebody that I probably wouldn't have ever listened to on Spotify,I've engaged with that platform and connected with, you know,whatever guests they were talking about, because of YouTube's algorithm. And I think that that it's just unmatched with with YouTube. And I think more podcasters should absolutely be incorporating, you know, the video component. I don't think it should I mean, if you're a podcast First, there's definitely a lot of decisions to make, you know, how are you going to entertain your audience? If something is very visual, or you know how to what are those queues and the episodes, there's a lot of nuances to your to your earlier point of what does that production team look like? And are we going to be able to have the talent to do it ourselves?Or do we have to hire other people, you know, working at freightwaves That's, you know,one key moment is that it's not just the On Air talent that you see it's an entire team production studio producers and editors and videographers and creative folks that are helping you make that show a success. So for like you, it's you, it's so cool to be able to show up and just talk yeah, whereas you know, if you go like a Tucker are like myself, you have to figure out who's going to do the recording who's going to be doing the editing, who's going to post to social media. What do these clips look like? I mean, I struggle personally with even just letting my guests know that hey, the episode is live. So that is these are all challenges that you don't even really think about but when you hear podcasting Yeah, I heard a number the other day that the Daily Caller is that the is the number one news PA or the Daily Mail their sub there's a number one news podcast is the daily something and maybe may just be called the daily. They have 50people helping with that podcast. 50 Can you imagine 50people helping you with your show, and how much better you could make it and streamlined or maybe more complicated? I'm not exactly sure. I remember hearing like Meghan Markel for her questionable podcast right,another Spotify exclusive that won't be renewed. She has 20 She had a Spotify had to help her build a studio in her own home.And she still had 26 People helping her with the podcast. So let's little you know running on slim margin slim people

Grace Sharkey: 28:38

you went on some crazy guess that's like I can't even imagine what 50 People would do.

Blythe Brumleve: 28:47

Yeah, I yeah, I have no idea what all of those roles

Grace Sharkey: 28:51

that big though you think there's you probably have a media sales team behind it right for sponsor. You probably have a couple of editors I mean, but still, that seems insane.

Blythe Brumleve: 29:04

I think the like even to just to put it all in perspective because it's kind of ties into the next part of this discussion is that the Washington Post also has six people that only work on Instagram only work on their Instagram account, which is nuts if you think so if you only have six people working on the Instagram account for a major news organization, how many people do you have for tick tock for Facebook for your ads for your marketing for you know everything else that goes on when you produce a show? And a lot of it feels very overwhelming and speaking of overwhelming AI is poised to help with a lot of these problems that you know the smaller teams are dealing with but there's also a growing concern around are creators going to be replaced by different API's you know faceless YouTube videos that just go after you know sort of SEO focus keywords it there are,I guess, levels of concerns when it comes to AI? And I'm curious if you're worried about it taking the role of someone like you appearing on camera and things like that and creating a podcast? Are you worried about AI taking your job?

Grace Sharkey: 30:13

No, I think if anything I would be. I actually feel way more solid in my role,because people, it's the authentic, authentic authenticity. There we go. It's the Friday yet authenticity that we that we project that actually brings in people, right. And how many times do people I mean,even with AI stuff that comes out people say, is that an aim?You know, I mean, like, there's hints of it. So it's like, I can't imagine having a personality, where when I say not, like, pure personality, but a personality figure, that's AI that people are just like dying over. I mean, there's a couple of like, who, What's the girl's name? There's like, there's a girl AI Instagram account. It's been around Oh, I know. He's,yeah, she's been around for a while. And I mean, even that,like when it came out was kind of cool. Like to like, see what she's been doing in life and stuff. And then she like,recently took like, a weird turn where she's like, she realized that she's AI and like, I don't want to even talk about this,because it's so silly. I gotta like, find her account. But she like, she, like realized she was AI. So she's on this like journey to find out who her like real parents are, even though it's like her real only sounds like a marketing real. It's a person that's writing their script. That's a real parent,you know, it's like, so how long can that grasp an audience?Yeah, I like I'm over it, you know, so like, you can't like can't go past the fourth wall.Like, now we're into a situation. So no, I think, if anything, AI would help eliminate what sounds like 40jobs from the daily. At some point, I think I could see it really helping, if anything,people like Tucker, being able to go out on their own right,and finding these little tools that especially like you use right to break down your episodes and come up with descriptions and stuff like that, that's really time consuming. If anything, I hold my content up to a higher standard, knowing that, hey, if I'm going to be using these AI tools, that's more time in my day to really ask good questions, do good research on whoever I'm talking to. And make sure this isn't really some really quality content. So that's what I would just hope for is that, you know, we're gonna see maybe a gap of who's really putting in the work and who's really authentic and who just got a possible deal from Spotify because they gave the middle finger to the Queen of England. So this podcast number two, where we just destroy Megan Markel. So sad.

Blythe Brumleve: 33:09

Oh, speaking of speaking of which, I assume you watched, you know, maybe some of the coordination and some of the coverage. Yeah,

Grace Sharkey: 33:15

I told my dad I have to go to church today because that the Eucharist, you know, it's You said that's not the same I go, I felt the same.

Blythe Brumleve: 33:25

My favorite moment is everybody's sitting in Westminster Abbey, and and is placed so there was a lot of fuss made because Harry has been moved from the front row at the Jubilee who was moved to the second row. Now he's sitting in the third row, and they placed an who is the former Queen Elizabeth, her daughter, they placed an right in front of them and she's wearing like a hat with a feather on it so it flopped.

Grace Sharkey: 33:52

Hold your face.It's funny because I watched what she wants to buy myself and I rewatched it with my mom and she didn't even realize it and I was like look see it's just like you're right. You can't see oh,

Blythe Brumleve: 34:03

so during the funeral it was the candle blocking Megan Markel space and now it's the feather blocking Harry space at another big event which is just so entertaining to watch right

Grace Sharkey: 34:17

into gross imagine flying to London just fly back immediately. Commercial that's the best

Blythe Brumleve: 34:25

no he flew probably did go private that the Eco warrior Harry himself flies private as much as he can

Grace Sharkey: 34:31

go that's even worse. Papa.

Blythe Brumleve: 34:40

Okay, well, I think we bury, I guess Harry and Megan a break. It's been a rough week for them, you know, not being a part of history and all I will

Grace Sharkey: 34:49

say though, how awesome was it to see Camilla finally get that crowd man. She really put it on her head. I think she like put in the work.And she's like it's happening.Okay my mom and I were talking about like how different would have been if Princess Diana was like alive like I feel like somebody Saudi oil figures would be showing how

Blythe Brumleve: 35:15

did you What was the other gosh, I was gonna blank on the moment. But yeah,Queen Camilla kind of having that come up but if you go to like any of the any of her photos like official Queen photos and you check the comments like underneath there's so many people that are still like should have been dying Yeah, like just a level of fandom that I love to watch from like a popcorn standpoint yeah that I and I say all this as we're sitting here, you know,just kind of lambasting Harry and Megan and talking, I guess.Is it fondly about Queen King?No, I do. She has. I was a Princess Diana superfan and I thought that Charles was the bad guy you know, all throughout these years but the more and more you learn the more and more you hear about you know some of these different like the infamous interview that Diana gave to was the BBC where she's openly talking about you know,her three people being in a marriage and things like that you know at the time she also admitted to relying on her son William to confide in have these deep personal matters of their marriage and I thought God the effect that that probably had on William cannot be understated and then to see you know, kind of you know, she wasn't she definitely was not a saint during their marriage either.She cheated on Charles a lot you can make the argument that she you know, he cheated first but if you back it up where he wanted to be with Camilla and he wanted to marry her and his family sent him off into different schooling and military in order to avoid staying with her and so when he leaves you know for a while she marries somebody else and you know he comes back and has to marry a virgin and you know, Diana is you know right there right for the picking I guess is right.Race to us maybe

Grace Sharkey: 37:09

no, it's actually interesting if you think about it watching it there's no one and none of the Queens family like direct like right here has it they pass like it was it almost felt like a new fresh kind of family in there and I mean you could tell good marketing right because it's like they had all the like the concert and like watch this old man dance around like but you know it's just interesting because I wonder you know if this will will William you know become King well it all get dismantled before then how does that all so well we'll see how it works from there but ya know the British are interesting to me like they find they find it so hard but yet you all are out there on a rainy Saturday just enjoying yourself like pick us

Blythe Brumleve: 37:56

we're waking up early in the morning to watch

Grace Sharkey: 38:00

Do we not like these people are doing because like a whole nation they'll come out like the whole it's it's crazy to me so

Blythe Brumleve: 38:09

I personally love it. I'd love to seeing all of the dignitaries the royalty from all over the world show up and all of their outfits and what they choose to wear to an event like this I personally love seeing it I don't know if I would want to be like a taxpayer like supporting that but from afar it's amazing to watch and I think that there is an important part of like a country's tradition that you know that that should be embraced that should be you know follow through with and you know continue on that tradition because it connects us with other generations so it was really cool thing to watch hopefully we'll get another one you know in our lifetime where we can watch William and Kate you know take the throne I think that will be a spectacle but until then I'm I'm satisfied with like watching like their children like the Prince Louis who is a huge character character starting to

Grace Sharkey: 39:00

get that kid in a timeout room

Blythe Brumleve: 39:04

he's so fun I think he's funny to watch and I think

Grace Sharkey: 39:07

he was even like took him out I think for like a little like break or something but you know for the first time I thought I was like wow, Kate's got wrinkles like she's getting older you know like that was the first time I'm like had these guys I think a little bit more of like me realizing maybe how old I am personally but like looking at her like God you have a crow's feet Kate like I thought we were although we're way way far away from this so no, it's it is fun. In our tell everyone go overseas because it's your right there's like this. It's crazy to be in like these spaces where buildings. I mean, for me, Westminster Abbey is like one of my favorite places on earth. Like I was like when I went there. I was 16 when I last went there and like Sir Isaac Newton's buried in there like there's like some very important people I'm at church,they had that, like, there's a side room for the Queen of Scots and I was like, big into Queen of Scots. So I like went in there by myself and like,touched it and was like thought alarm was gonna go off and I thought was so cool. Oh, what it's really cool to like be in those cities, right? Where like,there's hundreds and hundreds of years of culture in there and you can feel it in the city. You don't get that here in the US,right? No buildings at all.Yeah, so Well, a couple are but

Blythe Brumleve: 40:26

yeah, it's like New York, I think is probably New York, Boston, but even then it's, you know, it's a few 100years old, whereas, you know,over in Europe or even South America, these things are 1000s of years old. And the one that lineage, the British monarchy has been around for 1000 years,which is crazy, like, just putting in like time perspective wise, but I think we you know,we've spent plenty of time on the royal family. So hopefully,we you know, you have it turned off this podcast yet, because I promise won't, we'll get to a few logistics stories here.Let's actually start off with the the next segment of favorite logistics of stories. So for folks who may not have heard,you know, these kinds of stories before, I think it's safe to say that anybody who's working in logistics is fascinated by you know, how a product gets from,you know, the source from the port to the porch. And one of my favorite ones I'll mention here in just a second. Because it's a pretty quick one. But Grace, I'm curious, what is your favorite moment right now for logistics of story?

Grace Sharkey: 41:26

Who I mean,there's a ton of them, I think,for me, right now, and I would push everyone to go see Craig Fuller's Twitter, right is tours tours are really cool. Actually.At some point in my past brokerage experience, one of the council we had moved Taylor Swift's fences, right, like just the fences for tours to various locations. And I think some people really you don't really understand how deep these tour sets are, or how many people are involved with them, right? We just talked about 50 people for a podcast. I mean, talk about an actual tour, the roadies that you have the musicians, all of their equipment, their backup equipment, the equipment for the stage and how big this is. It's funny, we talked about how expensive tickets are getting.But then we don't say anything about how crazy the set is when we get to the concert. Right.And I think it's fascinating. I was just telling Blythe prior to the show that I was looking up one of Beyonce is past tours in her world tour for formation,which was about two tours ago17 2017 ish. They had seven Boeing's just to move everything around, including 70 trucks to get everything and we're like,first off, be honest, it's not getting moved around any of that. But she's flying personally everywhere. I'm sure Taylor Swift does the same thing. But it's, it's just really fascinating to to see the amount of work they say a lot of times to that most artist because of how expensive the logistics and the shipping and the movement of a tour where they really make their money is off of merchandise like so that's why it's like you go to these shows, make sure you actually buy something, because that's where they're gonna actually make some money off of it all. So I That for me is the biggest one is like, how do these tours move around? Even credit, if you check out Craig's tweet on it, he dives into the fact that clearly, there's more than one set, there's usually two or three and they're kind of like hopping over each other around around to different stadiums. So it just because you're seeing a show here. A year ago, I found I was trying to find it. So. So for instance,it looks like combination of just the music in let's see here is over $100 million. Yeah, I would say for sure.transportation cost logistics alone is 30,000,090. And trucks involved with it, moving it across the US and I wouldn't be surprised if this is just us costs as well. Now even flying overseas, you got to think of support roadies productions teams. They all have to be fed as well and accommodated Hotel.Yes, right. Per Diem Yeah. Per Diem. Love that. intake. Yeah,two to three weeks to just assemble, assemble her stage in I mean, got that they

Blythe Brumleve: 44:31

each city, it takes two to three

Grace Sharkey: 44:33

weeks in each city. So that's why they bounce ahead. And those double weekend shows kind of help, right. So it's yeah, it's just fascinating to me to see I mean, go to these. If you haven't been to one of these concerts, you'll sit there and you're like, I mean, add the pyro flames all that stuff like it's really insane how it all develops at the end of the day. So

Blythe Brumleve: 44:58

you know how they say you know, most merchandise, you know, 50% of that merchandise costs are directly transportation related.So I wonder if that's the case with tours to where if you're going to make 100 million on a tour, you know, like to, I guess to Craig's point that his estimate is you're probably going to spend around, you know,30 million just on transportation alone, which I mean, she's actually beating you know, a lot of products. And that is her product. And with,you know, the low margin she's making on a platform like Spotify or, you know, there's the way that musicians can make money now is completely transformed into where you almost have to tour examples have to sell merch, you almost have to have all of these different lines of revenue,because you're not going to make it from just streaming alone. I think it was at T Payne that put out, you know, a tweet about a year ago of how much he makes from each platform, and YouTube was the most but it was only like 30 cents, or something ridiculous like that. Spotify is even less like anywhere from five to 10 cents that he makes off of one stream, which is insane.

Grace Sharkey: 45:57

Well, and then on top of it, I think there's artists that have complained about this too, to even be on the billboards like you have to you have to get sells so so many items are album so what do you see now a lot of artists, they will sell the album with a piece of merch, so Oh, yeah, no, yeah,that's

Blythe Brumleve: 46:17

what Taylor sadly. So

Grace Sharkey: 46:18

even though you didn't buy, like, I didn't buy a Beyonce album listening to it on Spotify, but I bought her album.Actually, I bought four of them.When I bought all four versions of a renaissance six shirt. So yeah, if anyone needs a Beyonce CD, I've got at least three in a room somewhere. So my sister didn't realize that they came with the merch. So she not only did she buy, I think three shirts. But she also bought an album like, oh, no, you Eddie.

Blythe Brumleve: 46:55

So it's like the bundle. So they're bundling because I remember like Taylor Swift like it was almost like the I heard one analyst call it like a blueprint for future musicians. And that you should sell your our bundle your album with different vinyl releases.And then you have to be part of like the fan club in order to have access to different bundles and different editions of the vinyl. So it's like all of these different revenue streams sort of top, you know, on top of each other, which I think is super interesting. Do you know of any carriers that specifically only do concert logistics? Or are Do they just, you know, kind of contracted out?

Grace Sharkey: 47:32

I'm trying to remember because if I remember correctly, the work that we were doing was through a larger logistics company. So I can't remember exactly. I think actually, Craig mentioned one of them. And I can't remember who it was.

Blythe Brumleve: 47:46

Concert carrier. Yeah, like that in the business?

Grace Sharkey: 47:49

I think it's I wouldn't I mean, being such a large situation, I guarantee that there's some co brokering going on like, it's probably a large logistics team. And then it breaks up into multiple like a, well, for instance, like we just helped move the fences around like so imagine how many different players there would be to move her set today? So yeah,I think I wouldn't be surprised if there's people that specifically work on it. Boy,the insurance of that company will probably be in same.

Blythe Brumleve: 48:23

I mean, 30million almost feels too low for an operation like that with 70.Trucks, three different stages like that. That's

Grace Sharkey: 48:33

almost investing.It's gotta be domestic. It's definitely not going overseas,for sure. But yeah, it's, you know, it's interesting, I'm actually working on trying to talk to someone from Formula One on their logistics too. So if I can link them up, I'll link them up with you. And maybe we can have, have them come on your show and explain how it's all done. But I got to bring in an extra, there's definitely car freight. That's for sure.

Blythe Brumleve: 49:00

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We've got explainer videos right on the website and the ability to book a demo immediately. Find it all over at Digital dispatch.io. All right, well, let's move on to I guess I'll mention mine really quick. Lipstick logistics. I've actually covered this in the past. And the reason I picked this is because I was doing some last minute prep, nothing like five minutes before the show starts to do some prep. So I just found an old story that I did, I promise I will become much more prepared with new stuff next time. But I think you know, the lipstick Logistics is something that still kind of reigned supreme or not reign supreme. But it's interesting for this period of time, because there's so there's red lipstick that is made from what's called a Carmine beetle. And it's kind of like these beetles are a bright red color, and they have been crunched up and put into a lipstick type substance for1000s of years. And Cleopatra famously wore like a red lipstick and it was made from crushed Carmine beetles. So that there was a whole video that was posted on Tik Tok about you had it was one of those videos where like you see like an older like elder Asian man in a jungle, and he starts doing something new,you have no idea where the video is leading to it. That was that video because he literally took these Carmine beetles, plucked them off of cactuses, and then started crashing them up and boiling them and you have no idea where it's going until at the end, he's making lipstick tubes, which is it was really fascinating to watch, I'll drop a link in the show notes in case anybody wants to check that out.But they're outside of that there's almost not almost that ID there is what called the lipstick index. And it's a side effect of you know, back in like the lockdown days or the initial lock downs and in mask mandates,lipstick sales dipped to 15%.And prices declined by 28%. So that's I mean, to put it into perspective, the beauty industry saw 500 billion in sales in2019. So 15% dip is a lot of money. But then there's also a change to how you know stores keep makeup supplies now,because so much of the you know,like a Sephora or like Ulta there is really no back room anymore, like what you see out on the floor is what they have in stock. So there's like all of these like extra like distribution points that retailers, especially makeup retailers have to cater to. And that's one of them is that they have these small distribution centers really close by to retail stores, because hardly any of it is actually being stored in a back room. So that's another little like sort of interesting note as far as like lipstick Logistics is concerned.So it kind of changes how these stores like, you know, keep inventory. But then there's also the lipstick and index or the lipstick effect. And it's the theory that when consumers are facing an economic crisis, they are more willing to purchase less costly luxury goods. So instead of people buying fur coats, they instead buy luxury or luxury lipstick. And if you think about it from I guess the mindset of speaking of like influencer culture of what we were talking about earlier, they kind of theorized that for especially, you know, well off women, you know, when they come out of a bathroom or something,the way that they can show wealth is not necessarily a fur coat anymore, but they could pull out that luxury lipstick and apply it in front of everyone else and have that I guess superiority complex. Yeah.So it's, it's also in addition to that lipstick index so the there was this was initially on in 2020. That said new data from the global marketing track or global market tracking from NPD Group finds that the sales of lipstick and other lip makeup grew 48% In the first quarter over the previous year. So this is you we're talking about 2020here that's more than twice as fast as any other products in the beauty category. So lipstick sales surged and when that happens that tend to hence it tend to hints at you know, a future economic recession which I think we all can kind of agree that what happened later in 2020definitely impacted recession wise purchasing power and all that good stuff or not good stuff bad stuff probably. But yeah, that the lipstick index and the way that folks purchase lipstick has is essentially an economic indicator which is pretty fascinating. Yeah,

Grace Sharkey: 54:21

I actually didn't episode a point of sale on that and I touched on another one too is a more recent trend is the they watch nail polish sales right because instead of going to get your nails done every two weeks nail polish nails usually increased during recessionary periods because they say okay,well and spend instead of spending 4050 bucks and getting my nails done, I'm just gonna go grab this bottle read you my toes myself, right. So it is interesting. You know what, and let's all an emails listening let's let's recognize the female purchasing power in these kinds.Conversations right? It's it's really cool to see like some of these individual trends for for us right and what we're buying,but I definitely agree with that too. I think the lipstick one is fascinating. And definitely the nail polish one too, right because that's a big area.

Blythe Brumleve: 55:17

I wonder how that's impacted by like press on nails. Because I the rise of press on nails has been really fascinating to me because I was one of those people like early on in COVID I was like I'm not gonna get my nails done ever again. I could just do this at home and I said that to myself to justify like buying an at home like gel kit. I've used it maybe twice. I still prefer I like the act of going to a nail salon and getting my nails done but even then it's only a couple times a year now. The press on nails to me are such a game changer. I can do it in a flash I can you know have them last for as long as I need to. So say for like a conference for example, I am always slapping them puppies on right before our conference because I know the last just as long or just you know the end like the last day of the conference. They're there. They're coming off.They're popping off and you gotta have the little thing of glue on you're just to be safe.But yeah, they press on nails. I wonder what that's going to do to sort of the nail salon economy.

Grace Sharkey: 56:14

Yeah, well,especially on Instagram and stuff because you can find some really cool designers. A lot of I follow like Trixie metallic,she follows a lot of a lot of drag queens, right? Well, we'll have different nail producers or providers for them too. And so there's some really crazy sets that you can get because you know me I'm more of a long nail type of fan. And so press on certain we're always and we'll see but there's some like really cool ones now that you can I've seen and have considered buying I just get so afraid i Whenever I think of press ons, I think of like when they're about to fall off and you're like going like this in your hair and then they get stuck in between and you're like yes, that's when you know it's time and it's like the worst feeling ever. But so

Blythe Brumleve: 56:59

I put nails on right before because the for folks who may be listening to this as a couple of weeks passed or whatever, but this week when we're recording on Thursday, the previous Saturday's the Kentucky Derby and so I put on nails for the Kentucky Derby and I was like oh god I hope that they last as long because I'm talking to grace on Thursday and I gotta have good nails if I'm talking to grace, but I washed my hair bother weeks ago and it got stuck in my nails and so yeah, I ripped them all off so you don't see them now but it is so in for folks who don't have long nails you're not going to resonate with this but when you start typing after your long nails come off it is such so hard I don't know how to it's so good like it just feels so good to feel the tips of

Grace Sharkey: 57:44

your fingers my my hands turn into like idiots and they're like because they're so used to like leaving whenever if I lose my thumbs and I have to go like a day texting on my phone without my big long thumbnail. I am like feel like a total idiot the whole time because I'm it's like I've it's used to like gapping and like hitting right here so it's no no i i People ask that they're like how do you right and usually I wasn't like like and I could still go for I'm like over well over 70 words a minute so wow.Yeah, don't ask me I trust the typing skills. They're

Blythe Brumleve: 58:26

my best friend told me that that she was like I can type so because she wears the long nails too. She's like I can type so fast. It's like no you can stop lying.

Grace Sharkey: 58:33

I mean I will say it's like she wasn't really what do you call it extension comes in every once in a while and it fixes me up real quick on an error but

Blythe Brumleve: 58:45

All right, so we talked about talked about concert logistics. We talked about logistic logistics nail logistics I think it's time to move into probably it's going to be you know a favorite conversation and that is the most the most interesting conspiracy theories like not in a positive way not in a bad way but what is as we kind of you know round out the closing of the show not the closing we still got you know a few minutes that we can you know dish about because we got to get to your stories too, of what you're working on but conspiracy theories What do you got for us

Grace Sharkey: 59:16

so I'm only laughing because we she gave me a hint of hers earlier and mine isn't in her direction. So I'm like really excited to hear your response this one do you what you want me to do? Because I think it will make mine sound crazier.

Blythe Brumleve: 59:30

Okay, this is not necessarily a favorite conspiracy theory but it is one that I think is kind of plausible and that is the conspiracy around Britney Spears actually already deceased not what of this earth anymore. So there was this crate so I mean,obviously there's a long time you know, she's former child stars she a lot of child stars kind of safe to say that, you know, they don't exactly turn into the most well adjusted adults, they're you know, they have a lot of problems with, you know, drug or drug abuse. And there are rumors that Britney has kind of fallen into that as well. And maybe that's been the case for a long time for her. So there's kind of two running theories that one is, she's been, she's been deceased for a while, and that they're using AI to create these dancing videos of her and publishing them online. So one video that was published pretty recently,within the last couple of weeks,they the, I guess, the solutes that are on the internet, they caught the face filter, messing up as she goes. So she's dancing, and she brings her hands up in front of her face.And for a half a second, you can see that it's a different person. She has blurred the person in the flash because Britney has brown eyes. This person had blue eyes, and a skinnier face. So for a flash,it looked like somebody else.And you know, I was checking the comments I was looking at because it kinda gives me goosebumps, just to think about it, because this is someone who is obviously I'm a huge Britain fan. And I it's kind of weird to even talk about this from that aspect of it. But the theory is that once she got out of her conservatorship that new people just kind of took over and sort of controlling her in a lot of the same ways. her new husband,Sam, I forget his last name. But Sam is one that they kind of theorized that is kind of behind all of this kind of milking her for money. There was even another story that this actually did happen that her first husband Jason Alexander, who she did the the famous like 72 hour Vegas wedding and got, you know,divorce pretty quickly after that he broke into Brittany's house, saying, where's Brittany?I know y'all have her here. Kind of thinking that she's being held prisoner. And if you see a lot of her videos, like even if it's like the non quote unquote AI videos, like she looks not all there. Sure. And there was a story that was just released yesterday that said something to the effect of Brittany drinks so much Red Bull and coffee that she doesn't sleep for three days. And I was like, that's not coffee or Red Bull. That's something else. Coffee and Red Bull. Don't do that to a hardcore drug.

Grace Sharkey: 1:02:21

That Red Bull do that? Yeah. Wow, that's great.No, wow, that is crazy. Well,because I did I was hearing to like, that he hasn't been around that much in her videos and stuff. And I mean, if she's dead, that makes sense. Well,

Blythe Brumleve: 1:02:36

and it's like her the whole weird thing with like her sister as well. Jamie Lynn, they've had a huge falling out. Jamie Lynn, you know, kind of was, I guess promised to be like sort of the next up and coming like Disney personality.She never really was our she never really came in. You came to be that. But she did also,like release a book about a year ago kind of documenting you know, living life with with Brittany, kind of cashing in on her now that her dad can no longer cash in on them. Which is also weird that both of them are named Jamie like that. Her sister and her dad are both named Jamie, which is kind of strange. And I haven't heard a peep from her mother, which her mother was always a really key point in her life, from young to old to protecting her.Especially when she got married to Jason Alexander. She's like,What the hell are you doing? You just gave away 50% of all of your income. But now yeah,that's kind of a weird dark rumor because other folks have even like analyzed her Instagram captions are different. The type of emojis that she typically has used in the past is different.So they think it's possibly theory is that Jamie Lynn is kind of you know cosplaying as Brittany and Brittany is either incapacitated where she can't you know get on camera and do these things. So they kind of plug her sister in to kind of fill that void until you know just to keep the money machine printing well kind of kind of dark

Grace Sharkey: 1:04:03

right before Black Mirror comes back to it's a good one I didn't even hear I didn't even hear about that once now I'm not going to read everyone knows what not to do and you have

Blythe Brumleve: 1:04:13

to you have to go into the rabbit hole of it because it really is like insane like Business Insider has started covering it like that's it's starting to become a little bit more mainstream like

Grace Sharkey: 1:04:22

a very like love she definitely you can tell from her videos and stuff like she definitely has like some type of like I don't know what you call it but like where her intellect stops at like 13 years old you know I mean yeah, like there's there's definitely something like if we're not to come back to the conspiracy theory, which you should never do because they're conspiracy theories, but you know, I mean, even at some level she is live like there's definitely some where you can tell okay, this girl, I think that's honestly I think the same thing with Leonardo DiCaprio,right? Everyone makes fun of how he doesn't date women over like25 I almost wonder if his intellect doesn't go past 25

Blythe Brumleve: 1:05:03

That's a good point.

Grace Sharkey: 1:05:04

So you want me to go into mine?

Blythe Brumleve: 1:05:09

Oh, yeah, cuz I don't really know how to close that out except for we hope you know for the best for obviously for her I hope you know she has,you know good people around her I don't know that she does. I think she's kind of been taken advantage of her entire life and I kind of just worry that she has no one to trust in. You know, maybe like a Michael Jackson situation where they just you know, you have Yes,people around you and they just keep you drugged up and until unfortunately, it's too many drugs. Yeah, it's super sad. I mean, she is pop queen in my eyes. But damn, it's

Grace Sharkey: 1:05:44

mental health speaker Mental Health Awareness Month, right? Geez. Yeah.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:05:49

It gives me like goosebumps to even think about it. Because I'm like reading these articles and watching these tick tock videos and these breakdowns. And it really is.

Grace Sharkey: 1:05:57

You know,perfect. It's a perfect transition into mine. Because,like, I know you love hiking. I know you love the outdoors. I know you love visiting national parks. So the one I brought to the table today is the feral people of our national parks.Have you ever heard of this?

Blythe Brumleve: 1:06:14

No. I've heard of feral mountain jungle. Yeah.But I imagine maybe it's kind of the same. Yeah.

Grace Sharkey: 1:06:18

So they say that it kind of stems from the whole big foot. But thought process that instead, that these aren't big feet, or Big Foots, or whatever want to call them that we're seeing. But instead, what we're seeing are like the feral people that live inside our national parks. There's actually a very good American horror stories. They're like, not the big show. But the one where they do like new stories every week.on Hulu. They actually, like covered this one. And it made me even more freaked out by it. But yeah, there's a conspiracy theory that like they start our national parks, in order to like, close off these individuals or like these people into like, safe spaces and that there's, like, apparently an enormous amount of people that go missing every year, like1000s of people go missing every year in our national parks, and they never find them. And they're, they're very hard to find because there's so massive and there's so they're there. No one lives there. Right. So it's difficult to find them. But yeah, the you can Google it.There's, there's sightings that people think are Bigfoot that they think are actual, just feral people. Like there's a woman and I think out. And one of those parks out west like found like hundreds of footprints, like going up a mountain that were like really fresh and so yeah, for everyone who's sleeping in our national parks, there's possibility that there's cannibalistic feral people out there. Lying to you.Yeah, they say they're cannibals. Like, I was gonna say, wait, that was a that's a big tray. Like, yeah, they can't find food. They eat each other.It's a that's kind of like where American horror stories took it.But I mean, it's for me. It's here's the thing about conspiracy theories, like, you have to think about how plausible they could be like,That's pretty plausible. I'm trying to convince everyone I'm a conspiracy theory now. Like, I mean, you think because I think the Bigfoot thing is like, oh,there's are there like half ape men walking around? No, but there's probably disheveled people who don't wear clothes who don't speak English. Or just get have got lost like as children maybe in these woods just have like, or even like a Ranga

Blythe Brumleve: 1:08:33

Tang, or, like when they walk on two feet,instead of you know, using all four limbs like that's a huge beast. That's walking around

Grace Sharkey: 1:08:42

it's like it's it is cool conspiracies, because the thing about conspiracy theories, you can't really prove they're false. Like you'd have to put a camera there's a hint of truth. Yeah, you'd have to you'd have to put a camera in every bit of our national parks which is like impossible so yeah, for all you out there hiking into the middle of the wilderness like you hear weird sounds at night like it's it could just be those feral people coming out. But yeah, look it up Google. It's pretty interesting.There's also a documentary I can't remember what I watched it like a year or so ago, that kind of explores this aspect but more of like, the problem of missing people in parks and how how?Because of massive there are so many wild animals there's so many different reasons that you can't find them.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:09:26

Well, wasn't there that Nomad couple that the guy murdered his girlfriend they were like vloggers and she did like a vlog like right before and they were in a national park like there you had one of those Sprinter vans that was reconstructed and ended up killing her and just like driving away and it's he did at a national park and they discovered something like six bodies in the National Park looking for so people that they didn't even were looking for,and they discovered a lot of bodies which is crazy.

Grace Sharkey: 1:10:00

Exactly, yeah,that was your right, because I remember the news to be like,but it's not them. And it's like, well, can we talk about this problem? Because they see it serious? Feels like Yeah. So I think that's kind of interesting. Like, I love camping and stuff too. So it doesn't freak me out too bad.But yeah, there's a don't go missing these parks when you're sitting up living there forever.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:10:21

So this makes me so much more justified because we just went to Vancouver. We're doing a lot of hiking. But I was thinking before I'm like, do we need bear spray? Do we need some kind of like, because I'm a I'm like a prepper light I did like the show on National Geographic for years was like that doomsday prepper show, I went and like got a bug out bag. I filled it with like things that are important. Like, I still have it like under the bed to this day.And I have a note, actually have a post it note of things I need to add to it. But I took things out of my bug out bag and put it into my hiking bag. It was like a flint stick a compass, like something to start a fight. Just in case we needed to because I'm like, we're in Vancouver, like,we're gonna need heat. Like,what if we get caught like somebody breaks a leg or something? Like, we didn't have any of that stuff on us. And I remember asking my boyfriend right before I was like, Do you think we need to get bear spray?And he was like, I don't know. I don't think so. And I'm like this, we would be the ones that would get caught because we're showing up unprepared. So despite my Yeah, prepper backpack. I didn't properly prepare for this.

Grace Sharkey: 1:11:27

When I ran into a mountain climb up in here. What?Oh, yeah, no, this is i there listen, if there's people know me, you know this story. And you think I'm lying. I'm not lying.This is a real story. So she moves closer to the people just don't believe me. And I understand that not believing me. But I saw it and I it's I can still see him to this day.So I was I was middle of COVID.And I was just getting so I like to during the summertime. So I really love living in Grand Rapids. I like to go up north closer to the dunes and they've got a lot of really great hiking trails and stuff like that. So I was like bored. And we weren't technically allowed to go back on trails yet. So I there's a hill called alligator hill that you walk up and like there's the the end of the trail ends, like at the top of this mountain. And you can see both Manitou islands and like you're really high above like sila. So it's just you can see so much like Michigan, it's beautiful. So I like playing it out perfectly. I like brought a sandwich with me.I was like, I'll eat dinner there. And then I'll wrap this thing up. And it's probably about like a 10 mile hike total.So yeah, it takes like it's good day, like nice walk in the park situation. And so I want a loan.And it's like my mom's like,Stop doing that. But I want a loan and I parked. The funny thing is I parked my car like around this tree. So if a trooper was like driving by, he couldn't see me. So like, he could get mad at me for even being up there. And I get up to the top, I enjoy my sandwich.And I'm coming back and there's this part where the trail splits and I wasn't getting service.And I saw I didn't. I thought I remembered which way to go from the past time I'd walked on it.So I took the wrong turn. I basically added about another a half a mile that leads to dead and so another half mile back.And about this time, we're probably I've got a good probably hour and a half till dusk. And here's the thing even all this if you're out there hiking like you it's quiet like you hear everything right? So there's turkeys up there.There's like animals and stuff like that. But we're talking about for everyone and Michigan we're talking about like I'm up here, right? So it's pretty high up there pointing to the like,yeah, it's really will it gets very wilderness here up into the up. And so I walk in, so I start walking back, I hit the dynamic Gosh, shoot, I took the wrong turn. So start walking back. And I could sense something like I could feel I could feel some energy around me like I knew.And I'm in bear like I'm bear territory, right? But I'm also like in these parts of the woods where the tree line doesn't really start until about like six feet. So in my head I'm like, Okay, if I see a bear, I'm going to see it pretty easily and going to I you know bears you just keep quiet and get basic. Get the fuck out of there.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:14:39

What does it brown brown lay down? Yeah, and I forget the rest of it, but

Grace Sharkey: 1:14:44

like, be loud.And there's some like that.Yeah, so, but for me, I'm like,if I see a bear, I'm gonna be able to like turn and like go off trail and get back to my car and not worry about it. So I'm walking. I'm like, Man, this is like it's starting to get dusk in the That's one meal all the Nocturnals are gonna come out and I can I can at this point I can hear it's whatever's near me. I can hear it walking I hear the branches snapping but again about seeing and I'm like maybe it's those damn turkeys are just being sneaky even though I can't find them. And I have about a half a mile left in. I turn to my right, because I hear like a snap of a branch. I turned on my right and I would say wasn't a full grown Cougar. I would say it was probably like maybe a teenager like between because here's what happens during these cougars, they, they their North Dakota cougars. So the males,there's a female so the males when they're young, they get curious and they start wandering and they'll travel to the up.And then when it's snowy, they can walk across the ice into the lower peninsula. So they captured them there before the problem is if you don't get a picture DNR doesn't believe you because they don't want to take care of them at the end of the day. So what's the the basically the the woods cops like the will the woods Police Department of Natural Resources? They're they're the ones who make sure you have you have a garden permit and everything if you're hunting and all that jazz.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:16:20

But that's like I was the marsh not a Marshalls.

Grace Sharkey: 1:16:23

Oh, yeah, yeah,no, yeah, DNR is I think usually what they're called, and they're big here in Michigan because they will take you to prison.They'll take your prison fast,you know, you go against DNR.Yeah, in court, they just take you straight to jail. And so I'm wanting so I'm walking out and I see we just look straight,straight eyes at each other just me dead deadlocked with this Cougar. And its eyes gave off like curious kitten eyes. So like it was kind of falling.Like I could tell it wasn't that old. So I mean, if you say you see a cougar, you, like keep walking, but I'm stepping on.Like every branch I can find.I'm trying I'm like this, I'm trying to get like, kind of making growling noises but I'm also you can't run because it's kind of like a cat. Like, if you run from your cat, they're gonna chase after you. So I'm trying to walk as fast as I can. And I'll be honest, like, I'm not the most obviously in shape person. So like my calves just start puking on fire. And there's like a point where I'm like, I'm dead. Like, I'm like my legs. I'm like, I'm crawling to my car, like my legs are going to give out like pure adrenaline got me back to my car. I could see it. It was stalking me it was behind can see when I jumped in my car. I jumped in my car turn and I got the hell out of there. I didn't stop for about that drive back to where I live was probably about three and a half hours,four hours. I drove probably two hours straight no music, just pure like rental engine like these people know there's Cougars in their backyard. Like calling people and they're like you're a psychopath. It was probably like a meerkat or Bobcat or like it wasn't Dude,it got that smooth skin I could send you a picture of, but everyone was like she had a picture of it. And like why do people know because I called DNR and I was like, I just wanna let you know, I saw it and like, do a picture of it. And I'm like,no, they're like, well, we'll take note of it. But because again, if they get too many,then they have to put a budget aside and take care of them. But yeah, did I that was the most frightening thing that's ever happened to me in my whole life.It was like I'm going to get mauled by us

Blythe Brumleve: 1:18:32

so it's not just like the moment of because if for anybody who's ever been hiking like if you don't make it back to the car or just a safe spot, and it starts to get dark like you're kind of fast Exactly. It's your it there is nobody coming to help you nobody coming to you know help you find your car.

Grace Sharkey: 1:18:49

Oh, my car was hiding behind the tree. That's why I'm like, I'm gonna die out here alone because no one I think I told my mom I was going on this thing where like, no one knew I was even doing this. It was like alone. It COVID No one's even gonna come back to these woods for so long. So I kind of honestly I think part of the reason too is because I ate that sandwich. And I

Blythe Brumleve: 1:19:11

remember oh,maybe it smelled the food or some or the wrapper. I

Grace Sharkey: 1:19:15

think that was part of it. Like I was an idiot with the food. But

Blythe Brumleve: 1:19:20

boy, we both need to work on our prep game for these hikes. terrifying because I don't know that I could fight off a bear. I don't know that you could fight off a cougar.

Grace Sharkey: 1:19:30

I like people. I swear I've told people that we're in their territory. Like you're a lot and I'm like, No,dude, I'm telling you right now that thing was so I can see its eyes to this day just staring at me like oh my god so scary.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:19:47

Well, I mean,let that be a lesson to most folks listening that you want to be prepared possibly over prepared anytime you go out into the nature because you are in their worst

Grace Sharkey: 1:19:56

case. Worst case prepare for wild and Well, best case you run into some feral people. So will

Blythe Brumleve: 1:20:06

you really just roll your eyes just stay? Well,speaking of I guess staying inside and working on things,let's, let's talk a little bit about your stories, and anything cool that you're working on, as we kind of round up, you know,the end of this show, what do you what do you have that you're really excited that you've already published, and then maybe what's coming up that you're excited to preview.

Grace Sharkey: 1:20:27

So I would say,we talked about AI earlier, go check out my point of sale episode from this week, I dive into different ways that retailers are using AI today.And a couple of them are like,I'm not gonna say boring. But on the more boring side descriptions, right product descriptions. Some of the cooler ones are, for example, like having a 2d image of a shoe and being able to upload that into a system. And within minutes, get a 3d version that you can upload so that consumers right can like flip the clothing or item around, see how it looks on them, etc. There's also some really cool apps out there that are allowing fashion designers to kind of take images of like things that might make inspire them, right. And then they can make clothing and get that turned around, like 10 times faster. So yeah, there's a lot of like, really cool ways that retailers are using AI today that I think are a little outside of like the normal of what people are assuming they use it for. So you can go check that out. And then I also and this might end up hitting the freightwaves site at some point,but for all of our magazine,subscribers now, I just did a really fun article that will be coming out in August on the August edition of no wait, maybe it's July. Yeah, July is edition. On AI, but more importantly, like what you need to even have successful AI. So I dive into basically data governance, how to not manipulate but create proper data to upload into the system so that they work appropriately.Because I think a big part of this is like people just think that I can like throw any Excel spreadsheet and train an AI model how to do something. And that's actually where things go very biased and very wrong quite quickly. So I got to interview I basically called a number of executives I know at some logistics companies in our space, and I said, Hey, I'm doing an article on this. I don't want to talk to you. I want to talk to the the your favorite nerd at your company,basically, right? Like Don is one in particular. I said, Don,you're one of my favorite

Blythe Brumleve: 1:22:55

Donphan Fergana for folks who don't know not on on the group chat. And Don,

Grace Sharkey: 1:22:59

you're probably one of the smartest people I know in tech. But I want to know, give me someone from your team who is just like a nerd that you isn't sitting in front of investors. You know what I mean? Like, I want to talk the talk on this stuff. And in the trenches. Yeah, so I got to learn like a lot of the hiccups in their jobs that they get because of data that they're integrating into their systems or how to train models to work appropriately. Because it's a lot harder, like I said, than just saying, oh, I want to be an AI company. Oh, here's some data, automate it. That's where just things go left. And I think a lot of the times, our industry, especially our tech side sells a lot of their products, as if integration and system uptime is like this. One in particular, and I love this company. I love this. The acquisition but hub Tran and triumph, pay re good. That's something I bought in my past life. And sometimes I think executives think that, okay,well, the hub train or the train of pay audit software will work immediately. No, it wouldn't,and no one should expect it to because it needs to learn from the behaviors of the papers and the pod that it's reading. So if you are like getting with your accounting team, a week afterwards, you're like, where's the ROI? It's not there. And this is not the time for that discussion. So that's a little bit it's almost a learning of how to create the actual AI system, the systematic aspect of it, and not so much the outcome because the important thing I think that people will learn is while people are actually very important to making AI work compared to will AI take my job,

Blythe Brumleve: 1:24:53

huh? Yeah,that's all really good points.And I'm looking forward. So you said July issue. It's a

Grace Sharkey: 1:24:59

July issue.Recall what Yeah, and I really liked article, so I'm probably going to fight for it to go on to the main site too. So you'll see it. I'll update everyone when that comes out. But just in general, I think it's something that we should all think about,right? It's like, don't if you if you want to, the whole point really is like, if you want to get into AI, and which is smart,right, you want to automate some of the stuff in your office, you need to figure out who's running your, your data team, who I mean, if you don't have a director or a CIO, or a chief,or CTO Chief Technology Officer,don't even have that conversation yet, right? Like there's steps to really getting the most out of technology. And that's, I want all these people freaking out about getting more AI. It's like, well, who's your CTO? And then let's start with that. Let's have that conversation. Yeah.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:25:58

Who is your leadership? What are your processes look like? Are they actually documented? And then what realistically? Can you automate or use AI for exactly which I think people are trying to run to the finish line instead of figuring out the best way to get there? Because the finish line might be a little crowded, it might be incorrect.Probably most cases, I would think that it would be incorrect. It's kind of like what we've talked about in our previous episodes is, if your data is garbage, then you're gonna get garbage results. So what is the I guess the legitimacy of the data that you're working with? And how are you parsing that data? And who is kind of skilled enough to look at how those processes are running? Yeah? And what that all looks what implementation looks like, what the what is it that they have? Is it change change requests or change order experts? Like we're going to start seeing like those those the implementation of like aI experts or change order experts that specialize in AI, are going to become a hot commodity career wise. So I think for a lot of folks who are worried about, you know, the the technology coming into the space that you know,the advice that I hear from,like the AI pros that I know is that get your own house in order and figure out where automation and AI can fit into what you're doing right now. And then you can have a part of your job where you're looking at how you can implement it in the future.Exactly.

Grace Sharkey: 1:27:18

100%

Blythe Brumleve: 1:27:20

All right.Well, great. Well, I think we covered a lot in this episode.I'm actually 10 minutes late on a phone call I was supposed to make so it's a TIA so I feel like they'll they'll wait for me to become a new member. So sorry, I am waiting

Grace Sharkey: 1:27:34

and it's my fault tolerance, my fault.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:27:37

So I am becoming a member of Tia and I was supposed to call them about10 minutes ago, so I will call them right after this. But before I let you go, any anything else that you want to make sure that people are aware of you know, anything that's coming up work wise? Where can they check out your work? You know, all that good stuff?

Grace Sharkey: 1:27:54

Oh, yeah, I'd say check this out. Freight waves.com. You search grey shark, your search engine actually has gotten so much better over the past, something we've been working on internally. So just typing great Sharky, everything should pop up for you. Check out my LinkedIn,check out my link tree, they'll get you to everything I'm doing.And worst case goes to Sirius XM, channel 146, Monday through Friday, from five to seven. We got some fun guests and some fun ways that we're teaching our audience how to improve their businesses. So go check that out. And yeah, more to come for sure.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:28:29

Heck, yeah, her her mental models series is really fascinating. It's really good to sort of get a reminder of what these things are, and actually put a label to a lot of these things that maybe you do in your business that you're not exactly sure why you do them.But yeah, you're you're you're putting a lot of insight behind those mental models and helping other business owners too. So it's really, really, really cool to see. So Grace. Thank you.Again, we've covered a lot in the show. An hour and a half.And hopefully, you know the folks that like long podcasts like this one. Yeah, I hope so.I've covered a lot of ground.

Grace Sharkey: 1:28:58

I appreciate it and keep up the good work for sure everyone loves it. Thank you. Thank you

Blythe Brumleve: 1:29:09

I hope you enjoyed this episode of everything is logistics, a podcast for the thinkers in freight, telling the stories behind how your favorite stuff and people get from point A to B. If you liked this episode, do me a favor and sign up for our newsletter. I know what you're probably thinking, oh God,another newsletter. But it's the easiest way to stay updated when new episodes are released. Plus,we drop a lot of gems in that email to help the one person marketing team and folks like yourself who are probably wearing a lot of hats at work in order to help you navigate this digital world a little bit easier. You could find that email signup link along with our socials and past episodes. Over at everything is logistics.com And until next time, I'm Blythe and go J

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Everything is Logistics

Blythe Brumleve

Telling the stories behind how stuff (and people!) get from point A to B. Hosted by Blythe Brumleve, a digital marketer with more than a decade of experience in the freight and logistics space— helping companies save time, shorten sales cycles, and stand out from their competition with on-demand digital marketing training.

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