Building Connections and Community in the Supply Chain Space With Nathan Chaney
- Mar 1
- 28 min read
Nathan Chaney is the Founder of Supply Chaney, a media, marketing, and consulting firm for supply chain companies. He also leads the Supply Chain Social Club to foster collaboration and growth within the supply chain industry. Previously, Nathan held roles across 3PL operations, corporate supply chain leadership, and autonomous transportation.
Here's a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[2:35] Nathan Chaney’s East Texas upbringing and his introduction to the logistics industry
[6:37] How Nathan transitioned from operations roles to entrepreneurship
[11:08] The launch of the Supply Chain Social Club for virtual and in-person networking
[16:22] How combining virtual and in-person events in the Supply Chain Social Club democratized networking
[18:57] Ideas for hands-on logistics training for college students
[32:21] Nathan introduces a new AI project aimed at automating manual processes in his supply chain event calendar system
In this episode…
Can supply chain operations translate into effective media and networking strategies? Logistics professionals often work behind the scenes, but how can they create a platform that fosters collaboration and engagement across the industry?
According to supply chain and logistics networking professional Nathan Chaney, the answer lies in leveraging skills from across the business to create a network that connects and educates industries. He maintains that virtual networking platforms can democratize connections and provide equal access to industry events, no matter the participant’s location or budget. Supply chain professionals have unique skill sets that can be applied in unexpected areas, like media and marketing, to expand their influence.
In this episode of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, Mark Hiddleson chats with Nathan Chaney, Founder of Supply Chaney, about how professionals can create impactful networking opportunities. Nathan discusses the importance of improving operational efficiencies in media, how students can gain hands-on logistics experience, and how the Supply Chain Social Club connects professionals globally.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Specialized Storage Solutions, Inc. contact phone: 707-732-3892
Mark Hiddleson's email: markhiddleson@aol.com
Quotable Moments:
"I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, never knew what the business was going to be."
"Every business is a supply chain business and is in the business of doing logistics."
"I really want to be the place that connects people first, and then business happens organically."
"You can still make the same amount of money or maybe more working in logistics roles."
"If you're building something that's interesting, and you're having fun and making a difference, it’ll all fall into place."
Action Steps:
Embrace continuous improvement: Refining processes across your operations ensures long-term efficiency and scalability in any business. It fosters a culture of growth and allows for constant adaptation to changing demands.
Get hands-on experience early: Working in logistics roles during your studies helps apply classroom knowledge to real-world scenarios. This hands-on experience provides valuable insights and prepares you for future professional roles.
Leverage virtual networking tools: Utilizing digital platforms to connect with industry professionals broadens your reach and facilitates global collaboration. These tools make networking more accessible, especially for those unable to attend in-person events.
Create community-driven platforms: Building platforms that let professionals connect organically fosters a collaborative environment for sharing knowledge and opportunities. Such initiatives make networking more inclusive and support individuals at various career stages.
Build content quickly for industry relevance: Producing timely content after events, such as next-day highlights, maintains engagement and keeps your audience informed. This quick turnaround builds trust and positions you as a reliable voice in your industry.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions Inc.
Listen...
I have been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades. I know I don’t look that old, but it's true.
We provide industry-leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide.
So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs Rack, Shelving, Carts, Conveyors, or Mezzanines, we help with....design engineering, installations, inspections, and repairs to help clients optimize their logistics operations.
Sometimes people don’t even realize that we can actually help with permit acquisition services.
We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation.
To learn more, visit specialracks.com or give us a call at (707) 732-3892. One of the best ways to learn more about our products and services is to follow us on Instagram. And there’s a link on our website to do that.
I will even give you my personal email address for podcast listeners, so email me at markhiddleson@aol.com if you’re ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level.
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Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:00
Mark, welcome to The Tao of Pizza, where we feature top logistics leaders, entrepreneurs and supply chain innovators and share their inspiring stories with a holistic twist.
Mark Hiddleson 0:14
I'm Mark Hiddleson here, host of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, where I talk with top industry innovators in the warehousing, logistics and supply chain industry with a holistic twist. Before I introduce Nathan, this episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions. I've been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades, and what we do is provide industry leading Warehouse Solutions. So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs rack shelving, cards, conveyors or mezzanines, we help with the design, installation, inspection. You know, it's funny, Nathan, people didn't realize we also do permit processing. So we take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation. So learn more and visit our website at specialracks.com, give us a call at 707-732-3892. And I even give my personal email out to podcast listeners, which is Markhiddleson@aol.com, yes, I do have an AOL address. So today we're joined by Nathan Chaney. Nathan is the founder of Supply Chaney, a leading voice connecting people, ideas and stories across the global supply chain. A lifelong operations professional term marketer. He hosts Supply Chaney Podcast, publishes a Supply Chaney Digest, and builds community through live and virtual events that make the industry more human, accessible and fun, known for his energy, curiosity and authenticity. Nathan's mission is simply to be a creative, connected and capable resource that helps lift the entire supply chain industry. Nathan, welcome to The Tao of Pizza.
Nathan Chaney 1:56
Thanks for having Mark, I haven't eaten today, so try not to say pizza too many times. Scott launch, waiting for me,
Mark Hiddleson 2:04
that's a great one, because The Tao of Pizza, I also wrote a book, and it's more about a playful way to approach human human growth or personal professional development, and using a lot of pizza metaphors. Yeah, like tell you I just said it again.
Nathan Chaney 2:20
So, yeah, yeah, yeah, getting hungry here, yeah.
Mark Hiddleson 2:25
So, so, Nathan, tell us a little bit about your background, a little bit mainly, how did you get into the supply chain business?
Nathan Chaney 2:34
Specifically, sure, yeah. Thanks for the opportunity to come on and share a little bit of my story, and I hope it can inspire and inform somebody out there who's kind of maybe trying to follow a similar path. I grew up in the cow country, out on the farm in East Texas, and where I grew up, there was more cows than there were people, and so spent a lot of time outdoors, and just really had a very hands on, you know, duct tape and zip ties and making things work, you know, like, kind of is just traditional when you're out in the country and kind of went toward the city to go to school, was just going to study business and get an Associate's degree. And I was fortunately informed, or, you know, kind of advised by a college teacher there in my sophomore year that I should consider focusing on logistics. It was this new, up and coming sort of career path in industry, and pointed me toward, you know, the University of North Texas, and they've got this logistics program there, and I didn't really know any other way better. So I, you know, went and checked out and walked on campus one of the weekends and did the tour. Kind of tried to go on AOL comm and do some searching on what Logistics is. And it all kind of just seemed to vibe with what I thought I might want to do when I grow up. And so, you know, I just went for I didn't consider any other majors or anything else to study like no HR, no accounting, no finance, nothing. It was just logistics. Sir. Yes, sir. Let's go get a try. And when I've as I've grown up, and you've probably seen this as well, people that have gone to college studied something and spent a good amount of time and money to go study that particular thing and then just and not kind of continue on that path throughout their entire career, maybe take a hard 180 or whatnot. And so I feel really, really fortunate that that that one, you know, teacher in a 15 minute sort of conversation in the hallway pointed me in a direction I kind of just went for it because I didn't know better, and to be able to like pair that little, little bitty push and inspiration back then into a lifelong career that's been fulfilling and challenging and put a roof over, you know, my family's head and whatnot. So I'm just really fortunate that things just seem to be going in the right direction, and I'm having fun, kind of, in this next journey. You know, I've spent many, many years on the operation side, building and running three PL warehouses and running fleets of trucks and doing some stuff in manufacturing and tech startups and autonomous vehicles. I kind of put my foot into just about every corner of the supply chain industry, not intentionally. I never really had a master plan of having this great, varied sort of portfolio of experiences, but that's just how things kind of shook out. And was able to, kind of, like move that and leverage all that toward trying to be this kind of supply chain advocate and just be out and about talking about how cool supply chain is, and just being a if you want to say a megaphone for the people that are in the industry to share their stories and connect Awesome.
Mark Hiddleson 5:55
Yeah, yeah. And I think you've already just in the early conversations we had, introduced me to some people, or at least opened the door, and it's nice too. I've looked at your show, and then I've seen there's a couple people, and I'm like, Oh, the next time I have an opportunity, I'm going to ask me if he'd be willing to make an introduction. So it's a great platform. So share a little bit more about how it evolved from being in operations. That sounds like just an awesome background with all the things that you listed off, I'm gonna have to go back and look at the show notes and have a separate conversation about all those different exposures you've had. But how did it evolve from that into something that is a platform for marketing?
Nathan Chaney 6:37
Yeah, it, it's, it's a twisty, curvy road, you know, it's so when I kind of left my last day job, it was the first time I had ever kind of just jumped out without having another role or job to go do. I was at the stage in my career, in life, that I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Never knew what the business was going to be. And so when I kind of left, you know, the corporate world, I went and just did some consulting, and did that for a year or two, an opportunity to start a freight brokerage business kind of fell in my lap. And so I jumped on that for a couple of years, and so spent a decent amount of time in the freight brokerage world as well, focusing on heavy haul in like really big, oversized loads. And did that for a bit as well. And while, you know, this consulting vet and freight brokerage business was all evolving, I, as I do, just got a little bit bored. It takes a lot to keep me interested and challenged. And so I, at the time, was the president of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals here in DFW, and similar to yourself, had been serving on that board, and kind of like escalating capacities, from being the guy that checks people in at events to being the young professionals chair to being the head of all the events and tours that we do to them being the president, and my what I was sensing is that not everybody in the industry is supported by their employer to go on tours of facilities and warehouses or to pay that $2,000 conference fee, plus a flight and hotels and everything, to go and develop themselves professionally and somewhat personally. And so I thought, maybe I have an opportunity to be able to be of some help in that regard. And so I grabbed a camera and said, I'm going to go start a YouTube channel, and I'm going to go film tours of warehouses and factories and breweries and things that have operations that I can get myself into, and I'll create these, like how it's made, slash MTV, cribs style videos, and this is going to be a thing that I do. And I didn't, you know, I didn't have a big business plan or anything I was going to make of it. I just thought it would be fun, a creative outlet, aside from, you know, running trucks around and doing consulting stuff. And it was fun, but it didn't really go anywhere. I realized that B2B content, you know, on YouTube doesn't exactly get a lot of eyeballs. And so when I was looking around at who else has, you know, YouTube content, I noticed that a lot of people were putting their podcast episodes on there. And so I started kind of looking at that, and I was like, well, if everyone's doing this podcast thing in the industry, and that's a way to, like, get some traction and engagement and make a difference, I'll go, I'll go give that a try too. So I started getting myself as a guest on some podcast to kind of just see how the sausage is made, and see what it's like to be a guest, as I was trying to develop what my approach is going to be. And so launched, you know, the supply chain podcast that you know. Next thing, I started aggregating all the events that happen in the industry in one website, on my website, because I was involved in nearly every organization here in DFW that hosts events and lunch in. And tours. And it was eight different calendars and eight different associations I needed to keep up with. So again, it was like I started to form this idea that I can be this resource for everyone and everything to just help. And so I started aggregating all their calendars and putting them all into one. And then it kind of became all of Texas, then all of us, and now it's a bit global in nature, and so I just want to be that connective glue, then add it on the newsletter again, seeing kind of what other people were doing. Hey, a newsletter is another way to share stories and connect people and inform people what's going on. So let's add that on. Then I started the supply chain Social Club. Like, I really like getting people together. Why not just launch our own platform. So it's just been one thing after the other, of seeing operations, seeing opportunities, and being in a place to just kind of leverage, you know, the network that I've kind of built over the years, and my enthusiasm and passion for connecting people and just continue to build that out. And it's kind of just slowly morphing into what appears to be looking like a bit of a media company in a platform that connects people in the industry.
Mark Hiddleson 11:08
I love that story because he bolts it, builds it first, and then looks at it and goes, What do we call this? Absolutely. So one of the reasons my podcast is called the download pizza is that I've studied personal professional development, really. I mean, as far as I knew, that was a thing like, you know, early teens, and I got a master's degree in holistic health education. So I developed a lot of practices over the years, of things that I just do to get ready in the morning, you know, attitudes, beliefs, philosophies. And then I was looking at reading something, and it looks like this is all Taoist you know, a lot of the teachers I learned for martial arts, and they never called it that. They're like, look, I'm teaching you the Dallas philosophy. But then in their life, and they did, so then I looked back on it's like, Oh, that is doubt. So it's just, it's kind of a funny thing. I didn't start out to study 1000, but then just the course, the natural decisions, the way things happen. So I love your story, and you mentioned Heavy Hall. And do you know Desmond Clark? He has a heavy Hall freight brokerage. I've had him on the podcast, so we brought that to remind me, and I wonder, do you know Michelle Carroll, because she was the California CSCMP president for years. So I wanted to introduce you to Michelle for sure. But how did lessons from the operation side, like the skill set, be transferred? Because to me, it seems like totally different things, but there has
Nathan Chaney 12:39
to be some. Oh, man, so mark, I've drank the Kool Aid for um, teen years now, and, you know, got the degree and everything here. I believe that every business is a supply chain business, and is in the business of doing logistics, even in marketing and media. And so there is still, you know, procurement. You still have to go buy things and pay for vendors and have systems. You still have to have a process in, you know, project management, in a process that happens internally. And you've got outputs, you know, what people are eventually going to see in here and do at the end of that sort of supply chain. And it's interesting, because I've brought a lot of that continuous improvement, turnaround time, efficiencies, all those sort of things that you do in warehouses and that, you know, I've got to put into practice in the physical world for many years. And I see that those same lessons apply in the world of media and marketing. And it's been a really interesting ride. I think the best example of this is one of the things that I started to see, and undoubtedly you and the listeners see this as well, is that when you go to conferences and events and you do things, the official photographers and videographers from those events are there. They're getting pictures and videos, and they're like, putting all this content together and the official sort of highlight reel and package from that event comes out, like a week or two later, and I'm, you know, I'm sitting here in the back kind of as one of those participants, like, Man, I I've already attended one or two other things since then, I've like, the buzz and the high from that event is kind of passed. And so in my coverage and in my sort of content that I create at shows, I am 100 like percent dedicated to the next day. Go live on that. And again, it's a turnaround time. It's a logistics and efficiency thing. How can you create content on day one, have it edited, ready to go and post it live for everyone to see the next day, right? That is, that is like the essence of FedEx, right there,
Mark Hiddleson 14:42
Amazon, you're the Amazon, like FedEx better, but you're the Amazon of media. That's it. Yeah, and I don't Amazon. I mean, I don't share a lot of the same values that they do. They were the first of the party with, with one day shit. And free shipping, and we'll give them credit for that, that, and everybody else caught up. So that's a brilliant answer. I love that. So you're trying to create the same thing with and even have somebody else produce the podcast, but it's still, I mean, it takes a week. I usually have a few shows, so I'm like, a month or out, but it takes them a week, I think, to produce a podcast. So what you're doing, you've, obviously, you've improved your systems to be able to and I noticed when you were, you were out of the country, you were in South Africa, another country, Dubai. Was it Dubai? Dubai? Yeah, I was seeing your stuff come up on LinkedIn, and because I wanted to connect, or I think we might have even been connected, had this set up. And I love it. And one of the episodes I watched was with Katie date, and I picked the episode kind of randomly, but then I'm looking, I'm like, she's a senior vice president of she's Senior Vice President of manifest, right? And I'm like, Well, I'm going to this thing next week. So it and then I was kind of shocked, because I was thinking, wow, he got it out before. So I'm like, he must have, he must have recorded that two months ago. You know what I mean? I just, I think, in your mind, people don't realize it's possible, but then you're creating it and media. So yeah, share a little bit about the events. Are they virtual, live, or a combination of both.
Nathan Chaney 16:22
So what I found, as I've been kind of trying to build supply chain, is that people are very open to what we're doing right now, which is audio, microphones, video cameras on our laptops and connecting in this virtual, digital way, you know, and I believe that it serves about 80% of of the way of getting you a relationship formed. It's not going to be 100 you know, I don't know how tall you are, Mark in real life. I don't know if you know what your body language is like, right? But from at least the shoulders up, I've got a good sense for Mark, just from from this video and audio feed that we're able to get and so during covid time, there was a platform called Remo that a few organizations were using to host virtual networking events, and it simulated being like in a bar, and it felt like you're in a video game in a bar, and you can move from like Table to Table. And so it was like the closest thing to mimicking a real happy hour event that I could have ever thought of, and I've never been able to find any other program that does something similar. And so as I've been growing Supply Chaney inevitably, all these like LinkedIn, DMS and all that sort of stuff, turn into, hey, send me your Calendly link, and let's set up a time to have an introductory chat. And I was just like, if this just keeps happening over and over and over, how can I leverage this concept at scale as as you know, all these tech sort of companies buzz words, yes, yes. And so I was like, you know, everyone has kind of backed off of all these virtual networking tools. They're all kind of like sitting in the corner now because covid is over. Everyone's doing in-person stuff again. But I kind of just wagered that there are a healthy amount of people out there that are not close to a transportation club or a warehouse chapter in their area, or they just don't have the budget or the time to go to all these conferences. And I kind of thought like I can grab that subscription to that platform, revive it, brand it, give it a mission and a purpose. And so that's the supply chain Social Club. And so we've been running that for over a year now, monthly events, or multiple events a month, in different categories. And we've, you know, we've connected people from around the world. Again, when you take that in-person component out of play, you make it easy for everyone to access, and also it's free to attend, so therefore that whole idea of needing to pay that goes away as well. So we've got CEOs and executives and students and early career folks all in the same room, talking to each other. And so, you know, the best sort of way I've heard put by one of the attendees is that it democratizes networking. Everyone gets access to everybody else. And so organically and naturally, as things happen, I was trying to stay away from in-person events. I was like, I want to own virtual events. I want to connect with people. But, you know, you got to give the people what they want, sort of. And so over time, you know, there were just little seeds being planted. Hey, you should do this in-person. Hey, you should do this in-person. And so, so at pro Matt last year, which got close to about a year ago, we had our very first in-person event. So we grabbed some sponsors, and we rented out some space in a bar there, next to McCormick Place in Chicago, and had about 100 people show up to that then. And I was partnered with Kevin Lawton from the new warehouse podcast, who I partnered with on one of our series called warehousing after dark. And then from there, we did one in Toronto. We did one at work, at the work conference in New Orleans. We rented out the second floor. A bar on Bourbon Street had live music, again, had about 100 people there. And so, you know this, it's kind of just been evolving from a virtual to realizing, look, you got to meet people where they are a little bit and so there virtual solves a lot of problems for people in the ability for them to network and connect. But there's also a desire for in-person as well. And so it actually the in-person allows for all the people that are used to catching up and visiting with each other virtually each month, and gives them a physical contact point when we're all in the same city for a big conference. So that's really kind of how that whole event is part of the business and has started and grown. And I'm really excited. I think there's a lot of opportunity. We're really just getting started, even though we're about a year into it, of just being able to be that cool, fun, happy hour every hour kind of vibe, of just connecting people through virtual and in-person events.
Mark Hiddleson 20:56
Yeah, I have, I have my values on the wall, and our number one rule, even though it's number seven, it's a little but our number one rule is, enjoy the journey. Laugh hard. We allow ourselves to laugh often. So I love it. I kind of, I can't even pick where I want to jump in here, but yeah, the connection I was just thinking about. So you've been doing it for about a year. Some of those connections and conferences, you will see those people. So what I'm trying to do is what's the best way for people to connect to that social club? First of all, before I go any further, DM,
Nathan Chaney 21:32
yeah, yeah. There's, there's, you know, there's an active LinkedIn sort of page for it, but, but also, if you kind of just pay attention to my profile. I'm always kind of parroting out, you know, here's the upcoming events. You know, we have some sponsors that have us again, we don't want to bring out your pitch deck and have a hard sort of sell for sponsors. So what we do is we give them five-minute commercial breaks, basically throughout the entire networking time. So it's networking, networking, networking, five minute sponsor break, that sort of thing, and then networking, networking, networking, and five-minute sponsor breaks.
Mark Hiddleson 22:07
That was one of the things, is that sponsors could be jumping at that, like, I would just think that, like, sponsor, it's just a great opportunity. And you and I have talked before about not pitching. Well, it's such an important thing. And you can, I mean, you can add value without pitching. And then if people need your stuff, they're gonna ask you for it. That's kind of my philosophy, if you do your best, you know, here's what we do, here's
Nathan Chaney 22:30
Why are we here. One actually great point, one of our rules, one of our rules at the supply chain Social Club is no pitch slapping right in the welcome message and everything. It's a, it's a reminder of, hey, this is a way, an opportunity for you all to connect, like, catch up, whatever, but don't even, like, think about sharing your screen and rolling through your PDF deck and whatever. Like, set that up for tomorrow. You know, take it offline. That we really want to just be the place that connects people first, and then, you know, if business and stuff happens as a result. That's great, but we really want to be, you know, just keep the pitch slapping to a minimum or zero.
Mark Hiddleson 23:07
Yeah, well, that's kind of the Taoist thing, is to sell without selling, right? I mean, you're just, you're being present. So I love that. And you're one of the only people I've been in this business with for a long time. You're one of the only people I know who has a supply chain-specific major, and I'm fascinated by that. I'm involved in a Patterson Logistics Training Center, which is close to us, and I shared a little about that. And you have a similar idea. Do you mind sharing some of your ideas about creating something for college students to get logistics training and specific certifications, and just kind of spitball it, because I want to, I want other people here. Yes, there's, I know, I did a joint presentation with Michael Mikitka, and he is the president of work, and works for MHI, and they're actively interested in this kind of training program. Yeah.
Nathan Chaney 24:00
Yeah. You know, one of the pieces of advice I give to students that are in operations or looking to be studying logistics and supply chain is, even if you're, like, too young to really be a good candidate for an internship at, you know, in a logistics or supply chain role, quit your job as a barista at Starbucks and go work in an Amazon distribution center, or go do something. You know, again, it doesn't need to be an internship, but just work in the logistics field. You know, you can still make the same amount of money, or maybe more, and you start to already start picking up what it's like to be in the belly of the beast. So when you're sitting in school, in class, you can be applying what you're learning in class to what it is that you've been seeing and feeling, you know, 20 hours a week or whatever, on your part-time job. So it's really an extension of that piece of advice, and just knowing that, you know, there's the ability to sublease space. Space or lease warehouse space, probably easier today than it's ever been, the ability to have a WMS that's subscription-based, get some used racks from someone like yourself, put together a facility. It's probably, you know, the fulfillment operations. And three PL seem to be popping up on every corner right now. So the barrier to entry is reasonably low. Then there's the staffing and people component. And so, you know, this kind of dream or idea that I've had is to put one of these facilities together, partner with a lot of the the tech and innovators and folks in the space that are building really cool tools, and deploy them or test them, use them, use that space as a sandbox, and for the team and the people operating it, go and hire college students, some business majors and finance and HR, and let them kind of put into practice the things that they're learning in this little mini operation. And maybe we get some real business out of it, and be doing real fulfillment and three PL work for clients, but it's allowing these students to have the like hands on, while they're kind of in the thick of studying all these things, put those skills to use. And it just be, just be fun. You know, it's, it's probably idea number 10 on the on the list of ideas, there's, there's a, I've got a little bit of a cue ahead of that one, right? But it's just, you know, when you're building and you're creative and you're doing all this sort of stuff, you're just, there's, there's more ideas than there are hours in the day.
Mark Hiddleson 26:27
Unfortunately, there really are. And then I was hosted this I'm really impressed with the season you had it for ideas. So the one in Patterson is high school students. So presented, there were freshmen, sophomores, juniors. They asked great questions. Some of them were asking, What kind of job, one of job one of my first jobs in logistics, I did a Christmas season for UPS loading trailers. And like the big trailers, not the brown vans, but like the big ups trailers, you had to do 600 cases an hour, check five sides of the box, like a box has six sets. So there was a special way to check five sides and make sure it was the right zip code for the right trailer. And you had to do 600 cases an hour, and it was Christmas time, so it was just this. It was awesome. It was a good job. It was like $1 more an hour than anything else. You know, back then, it was like $9 an hour, and everything else was eight bucks. But it's the whole of the hardest jobs I've ever had, but one of the most fun, and gave me a lot of motivation to, like, I'm finishing college. Because I thought, well, I'll do this for five years. I'll become a driver. Those drivers are making 100 grand, you know, because back in Christmas time, the drivers are doing like, three routes a day and making all this money. And I was thinking, Oh, this is a career for me. Then I was like, stay in school, buddy. But it gave me that experience inside the four walls, because I had driven by that place 100 times. And then you get in there and you're actually loading the truck, and go, Wow, it's something, I mean, separating zip codes for a trip, like, I think I had five or six zip codes that went on my trailer, so you had to have those memorized be able to load it. And then it's all different size packages. But UPS wanted you to make, like a perfect brick. Things were stacked away so everything just didn't fall on the ground. So, right, great idea. Did you have a specific school of mine? Or you're saying, like, this is just number 10 on the list, and you're looking for the right partner, or somebody else to come up with a venue or,
Nathan Chaney 28:14
well, you know, the idea works anywhere. But I am a little bit partial to, you know, UNT, which is just right up the street. It's where, where I got my undergrad in logistics and supply chain. And so, you know, it's kind of the the university that I'm geographically closest to, and, you know, just in spirit, kind of close to as well. And so, you know, if I was going to do this, it would be, it'd be here in my backyard first. But again, it's, it's something that can be anywhere. And I think I've heard something about Georgia Tech, or Georgia Southern has some sort of incubator space, kind of like this. I don't know if they have real operations that they're running or whatnot, but yeah, you know, it's, it's not a completely novel idea. But yeah, you know it's fun.
Mark Hiddleson 28:57
Yeah. So UNT didn't have, they had the logistics program, but you're basically, you're basically, you're studying, you're doing research based on other operations that are outside. You're talking about bringing something in house. It's at the school. It's an actual warehouse. It has racking it has systems that's and that's this, this one in Patterson. They started out doing just the school supplies for the school, because each teacher kind of had their own pile in a back room, and they consolidated that the school district was impressed. They they got them as a client, and then now they're doing, they've got clients that are outside of the school system, and they're doing a three PL so brilliant idea. I like to ask as a last question is kind of wrapping up, is there any new tech that you're playing with? New it could be an app, you know, new tech that you're using that they'd like to share
Nathan Chaney 29:46
on the podcast, hmm, you know, I launched a little build in public project about six months ago. So when I was talking about the aggregated calendar of events that's on my website. Yeah, that was a manual process. So it was about seven minutes it would take, you know, to see work post up. Oh, we've got the conference coming up, or we've got a meet up happening in Napa Valley. And so it was about seven to 10 minutes of effort to take it from work and then manually enter it into my calendar, so everyone can see all these things in one place. And, you know, we always hear about ai, ai, and yeah, so I'm like, Okay, I think this could be an opportunity. So I posted out on LinkedIn. Hey, here's exactly what this process I have that gets repeated many times, is like, is there anyone that can help AI advocate this thing? And so some people raise their hand and said, hey, yeah, we, we've got some ideas. We'd be interested to partner with you. And so, so ultimately, selected one, and we built out, you know, an AI sort of bot to help just with this. And and there is a human in the loop component, because we didn't want for it to just go out find a bunch of random things that say logistics on it and put it on the calendar. So what will happen is it will go and look for things and say, here's these events. Here's what it will look like when we when it goes on to the calendar, check yes or no. Do you want this to be added? And then the other thing is, because it's kind of a bot, is that you can kind of chat with it, and so you can copy and paste links to events and just drop it in there. It will go to the site, take all the information, create a graphic, get all the information, and then say, hey, does this look good to add on to, you know, onto the industry events calendar, and you say again, yes or no. So it was a very small, it's a very small thing, right? But it's a, it's an example of those repetitive tasks that many companies out there do, and there's a lot of people that are building full out companies, raising millions of dollars in investment money for very similar solutions to this that take those manual process and steps and just remove them so that the humans in the world and in the company can do more strategic, more challenging, you know, more engaging work. That is not just this licking stamps, repetitive type of work. And so that's, you know, just an example of what I've seen. But like I said, I know a lot of folks that are building very similar things with specific applications, solving specific problems in a similar way.
Mark Hiddleson 32:21
I love the way you posted it on LinkedIn, right? You said, I have, I think I saw that post. You said, I have this process. Here's how I do it. This is my system. Anybody have any ideas? This is what I love, the idea. I love the solution. But the process, to me, the process is what is. That's how you could solve some really important problems. I think it's solving it in a way, it's adding value. It's, it's adding value to everybody, because they're going to find out about an event thing. And I would say events, you know, virtual. And I was, I was a late adopter on virtual, my God, virtual, this sucks. It's not going to work, just like but I've been shocked. I mean, made some great contacts, especially through the podcast, watching other people's podcasts. I've even been on some like the chat. I can't wait to be one of the social clubs events, because I know how powerful they are. And then you get that 80% and then it kind of motivates you to get the other 20. It's like, hey, next time we're dead, you know, we might be on different ends of the country, but we go to three or four of the same conferences. Let's hook up while we're there, and hook up a network. We can't use all the buzzwords, but I like the democracy, democratization and building things at scale, but I love your process and just and putting it out there in public. Yeah, it's a great way to connect, add value. So, so what's, what's the best way to connect with your media company? You know what? How can people, how do you want them to reach out? What's the best way besides LinkedIn, we'll have your LinkedIn profile in the show notes.
Nathan Chaney 33:47
But, but how else? What's the best? Yeah, LinkedIn is my TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, all blended into one. So LinkedIn is where I live, and that's the best way there. Otherwise, you know, I'm Nathan@supplychaney.com. It's not hard to remember or guess, but yeah, I'm just here for the fun, right? I'm a firm believer that if you're building something that's interesting, you're having fun and enjoying it, and you're making a bit of a difference, then all the other kinds of pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.
Mark Hiddleson 34:21
Hey, that is awesome, man. Thank you so much for joining us. There's a lot of great ideas, not just about supply chain, but about AI building something and having fun while you're doing it. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us.
Nathan Chaney 34:33
For sure. Thanks for having me on, Mark.
Outro 34:35
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