Podcast appearances and mentions of John Deere

Sorry this ep is a little late, important life stuff got in the way. John, Todd, and Chris talk about moneymaking schemes, like farming shrimp in your backyard, ways to scam your employer, and John Deere tractors with a built-in remote killswitch   //  outro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQrtGhC2oVo   //  thanks so much for listening! pls rate and review us on apple podcasts, it really helps ppl find the show. hang out with us in midsposting on facebook www.facebook.com/groups/2185905738310960/ follow us on twitter @weedpod and instagram @beepbeepleaf love u, beep on

Want to know how you can deploy a smart warehouse for your business? Today's guest is Dan Gilmore of Softeon, a company that provides a full suite of flexible and robust end-to-end supply chain software solutions to deliver success. He joins Joe Lynch to talk about the idea and technology behind their system. They discuss some of the big trends impacting warehouses, e-commerce, and retail. From labor shortages to automation, Dan enlightens on the benefits of WMS and WES for any business. Tune in to better understand the perks of this new smart technology for optimizing your business! The Smart Warehouse With Dan Gilmore Our topic is the smart warehouse with my friend Dan Gilmore. How's it going, Dan? It's great. I'm happy to be here. I'm glad I'm finally getting to interview you. Please introduce yourself, your company, and where you are calling from. I'm a Chief Marketing Officer of a supply chain software company called Softeon. Our company is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, outside of Dallas Airport. I happen to be in the Dayton/Cincinnati, Ohio area. What does Softeon do? It's a supply chain software company, primarily a supply chain execution. The company was founded in 1999. Our first customer all the way back then was the L'Oreal, and we proceeded to build out a suite of solutions that were brought in deep capability. That includes warehouse management systems, and all the stuff that goes around warehouse management systems including labor and resource management, slotting optimization, and yard management. A newer thing which we will get into because it's critical to what's happening in terms of the smart warehouse is something called warehouse execution systems, which have been around for a while but gained prominence in the last couple of years as a way to optimize and orchestrate order fulfillment level at a capability that's beyond even very good tier ones. This category of stuff is called distributed order management, which has to do with the optimal sourcing of products based on customer commitments as well as network capacities constraints in how do I get the lowest cost alternative that meets the customer needs? It's a very prominent in omnichannel commerce. It is almost essential in retail but we are having a lot of B2B type of successes in distributed order management as well. There are some other things that could give a flavor to what we do. You started well before eCommerce was a thing. Do you still support stores and that kind of warehousing? Traditional WMS type of capabilities for retailers, would largely be store replenishment. Now, we are moving into eCommerce fulfillment. Many retailers are also looking to have a lot of activity at the store level, whether that's buying online, pick up in-store, curbside pickup or store fulfillment. We've got some solutions there, both in terms of the distributed order management that I referenced. It is the tool going that says, “The best place to fulfill this order from based on the time commitments as well as inventory availability, labor availability, etc. is store 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,” and then have the ability to first identify where it's the right location. That could be obviously a DC, a third-party facility or something like that. The first word is the best place to source it from, and if it's a store, we have a store module that facilitates the inventory transactions, picking transactions, and shipping at a store level. That became a thing. Target is one of those companies that if you buy something online from them, they are more likely to ship from their stores these days. I have seen and the figure keeps rising. The whole market has changed. The more high-tech feel and touch, the less back-breaking work and less bending over and lifting heavy cases. It's like 80% or 90%. Let's say 90%. That's the number I had in my mind too. They are doing them from the store, which is incredible. Before we get into all that, tell us a little bit about you. Where did you grow up and go to school? Give us some career highlights and bullet points before you join Softeon. I'm an Ohio guy. My whole life, I grew up in Akron, Cleveland area, and then got a job with NCR after grad school. I got an MBA from the University of Akron. I got a job at NCR that was here in Dayton. I was a Product Manager in charge of barcode and data collection. The way serendipity works, I moved from barcode data collection systems to wireless systems and then got into WMS. I was into consulting for a while. I have done a lot of marketing in the space. I was also Chief Marketing Officer at the Red Prairie before it got acquired by JDA and became ultimately Blue Yonder. Earlier in my life, I spent a couple of years implementing WMS, a couple of major projects down here in the Cincinnati area that helped me learn a lot about how the technology works and what's good and less good. Notably, in 2003, I started a publication called Supply Chain Digest, which changed the face of online supply chain and logistics, news, and coverage. I still keep a light hand on it. I still write a column once a week still for Supply Chain Digest. I have read that. I wrote a lot of blog posts in the past. When you are a writer, I have joked that “My research is a little different than a professor's research, I Google.” You start to realize which publications have good content when you are a blogger. The bar is a little lower for a blogger than it is for somebody who is writing in a publication. I would say, “Supply Chain Digest always had good stuff.” When and why did you join Softeon? It has been a few years now. I had done a little bit of side consulting with Softeon before joining, and I was impressed with the breadth and depth of the software and the number of innovative capabilities, but as important as that is, lots of companies have good software. We think we've got leading-edge software but the approach to customers and success - I have never seen a company that consistently puts its own interests behind its customers on a regular basis. We are not going to let anything get in the way of a successful implementation. That's a direct record that's unequal in the marketplace. It's the care and concern for success at the customer level and not looking at everything through a lens of only professional services hours if I can sell or something like that. It was a different attitude. It intrigued me, and plus, the company needed some help in the marketing area to get that message out. The combination of those factors led me to join Softeon. Our topic is the smart warehouse. Obviously, things have changed quite a bit in this business. Talk about some of the big trends that are out there that are impacting warehousing, eCommerce, and retail. It impacts everybody. Most of the audience is going to say they are living this or these are big surprises but it's nice to still put it all in context, the growing distribution labor shortage and there's a shortage of manufacturing. It's very acute. Everywhere you go, that's what you hear about the turnover levels, retention, and even with the greatest rising substantially. That's everyone's concern. After about a decade of very flat wage growth in warehousing and distribution until a few years ago, now, all of a sudden, the costs are taken off. Amazon has over $20 an hour with attractive signing bonuses in many parts of the country. They now offer parental leave for twenty weeks. I saw it on TV. That would be a very attractive benefit. That's the advantage. Target announced that they were raising their wage in both stores and distribution centers, not all markets but in some markets, by $24 an hour. That's $48,000 a year, and assume there's probably some overtime in there, whatever husband and wife are making up, for example. They are working at a Target DC in those markets, you could be pulling in $100,000 a year for a family, which is not bad money. [caption id="attachment_7940" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Smart Warehouse: With the e-commerce-driven cycle time pressure, it's unbelievable how fast you can get products these days.[/caption]   This has come up on my show a few times. I'm getting too old for that kind of work, and I can't walk 10 miles a day but if I had a choice, we need to make that job easier. We are going to get to that because this is what technology does. It also makes the job more attractive when they can say, “I go to that job, and I'm learning all this cool technology.” If you can bring somebody in, there's a different feeling when I get to wear all that high-tech gear and use high-tech systems and say, “I'm part of the supply chain,” as opposed to, “I'm a strong back, walk 5 miles a day and nobody gives a crap about me.” There are no questions about that. It's going to be both in terms of the shortage of labor and, second, building to attract people into this career. Now the whole market has changed, that more high-tech feel and touch, less back-breaking work, less bending over and lifting heavy cases, and all the kinds of things to go on and work for a long time. You are spot-on on that dynamic. If we have a shortage, that means the people we do have to be more efficient. The way they can be more efficient is with tech. That's one big trend going on. What's another big trend? There's a bunch in there that interrelated as well. Obviously, the eCommerce-driven cycle time pressure. If you look ay Amazon over your tablet, it's unbelievable how fast you can get products these days, even somewhat obscure products not that long ago, I need a new power cord for my HP computer. Somehow Amazon was able to deliver that the next day. I'm like, “Probably, they have this cable in someplace that they can get it to me one day.” Think of all the thousands of cables that are out there, and they've got mine. The cycle time pressure in that both are in terms of getting the order process from when it drops into the DC and out the door. Obviously, companies are also moving distribution facilities closer to the customer, so the transportation part of the journey is cut down as well. They will remember the specific numbers. It's Home Depot that is building 170 or 180 different local fulfillment centers that are being the largely cross-dock type of facilities that bring bulky items in and get them right to the customer in addition to the big giant warehouses that they already have. It's a fact of life. Eventually, we will teleport or whatever the product from the warehouse because it seems like we are reaching the Laws of Physics there that it can't be here any faster but maybe we will find a way. I remember, many years ago, I was working on a digital marketing project. I was helping this distribution center, nice, concise in Chicago land Peoria. They said we are one-day shipping to 65% of the population of the US. That was always what Indiana, Illinois, and there are so many DCs down in Ohio can always make that claim, and that was good enough. If you said, “I have a DC in the Midwest that can get me to the Eastern Coast, and I have one out West, that was good enough.” We are not seeing that anymore. We are going to get increasingly where same-day delivery becomes a fact of life rather incredible. Amazon and others talk about getting it down to 2 hours or 30 minutes. That's what Target is doing, not with those DCs. We think we will get to Walmart doing some of the same. What's another trend? Obviously, because we are calling the session, we are going to talk about the smart and also the future but it's largely here nowadays. We've got smart everything. We've got smart houses, cars, refrigerators, and toothbrushes even. I saw that a couple of years ago. I'm not sure if it's exactly taken off the map but to monitor how often you brush your teeth. What does it mean? Primarily, it's talked about internet connectivity and some analytics around that. The least examples are John Deere, Caterpillar or companies of that kind, putting sensors and other IoT types of devices on their equipment out in the field so they can get a sense of how people are actually using it. They can do predictive maintenance on it. They could say, “Your guys aren't using the equipment as effectively as they could if they changed their techniques.” It's certainly timely. If we are going to almost start things where it's time for the smart warehouse too but we will get into for the rest of the broadcast era left different than more internet connectivity, sensors, and things like that. That can be part of it but it is a small part of it. The bottom line of it is we are entering a new era of where all soccer technologies that are, in fact, much smarter than we have ever had before. I have argued publicly for a couple of years now that we had about twenty years of relatively incremental progress in WMS technology. I used this in speeches before but a few years ago, I was cleaning up my office and running the holidays as I often do when I found an RFP from a major food company for a WMS circuit in 2003. I looked through that and I thought, “This doesn't look all that different than the RFPs we are seeing in 2019, 2020 or whatever year we are looking at that.” I looked at it and said, “The big difference is not in the functionality being asked for. It's that now, a lot of that functionality is, in fact, core product, configurable product than maybe a lot of it had to be achieved through customizations.” That's probably true. Same-day delivery has just become a fact of life. The fundamental way of where WMS operates didn't change all that much give or take from 2000 to 2020 or somewhere in that range. Now, with the smart technologies that we are talking about, they are brought by the world's execution systems in working with WMS, I talked about before. This is a new ball game, and it was going to be fun for the rest of the people here to talk about this. You throw in a new term there. You said warehouse execution system. Those have been around for a while but they are now becoming the norm. It's becoming very prominent, and then the value is starting to be recognized. What is it? A couple of three companies had the belief and correctly, for most of the WMS systems did not care enough about equipment throughput and utilization. We wound up with big peaks and valleys, and anybody have been in a district distribution center, even a busy one. You have seen it where there are all kinds of activity at the beginning and the middle of the wave, then as the wave starts to dissipate even on a big, expensive, huge sortation system, you've got a relatively small number of boxes moving around, waiting for that wave and everything to close out. You said wave. Does that mean the orders come in waves? Yeah. The work is released in what is called pick waves. That's based on any number of different attributes. It could be the carrier schedule, value-added processing that needs to be done or workload balancing across the different pick areas of the company. You organize the work against various attributes that constitute a block of work that's typically referred to as a wave. I know I've got all these trucks that are going to show up and they are taking different orders, so maybe I'm working to that order that's going to fill up that truck. The problem, to your point, is we've got already may be a shortage of headcount in there. Now when we have waves, I'm not being efficient because I've got too much work at one moment and then not enough at another. The whole goal of WMS of what we're talking about with the smart warehouse is overcoming, I mean, obviously, you've got to plan and execute based on the workforce that you have here, and we will talk about that. Having a warehouse management system that gives me stuff was great in the past but you are saying, “I will help you with a WES or Warehouse Execution System. I'm going to help you manage the flow.” Manage the flow work and the resource utilization, and then new ways. Part of that still ties into that interest in level loading or making the flow of goods across an automation system more smooth and consistent because if you can do that, there are a couple of things. First off, the total throughput of the system is likely to be better. Second, if it's a new facility, you could probably get by with a smaller sorter because you are going to be able to utilize it more consistently over a block of time, a shift or over what you want to look at it there. The other breakthrough that Softeon said is that the WES tends its roots and level loading of the automation and better utilization there. The WES works extremely well, even in non-automated facilities or lightly automated facilities. [caption id="attachment_7941" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Smart Warehouse: The fundamental way a warehouse operates didn't change all that much from 2000 to 2020. But now, with smart technologies, this is a new ball game.[/caption]   As a matter of fact, one of our leading customers did a press release a couple of years back that talked about 50% productivity gain from implementing WES or Warehouse Execution Systems on top of existing Softeon WMS, and doing that in a totally manual environment. Everything is part of a system. You can have a sortation system, goods to person system or put wall system or whatever. It's got a certain capacity, throughputs, inputs, and outputs. Twenty workers walked around on a three-level case pick module. There are systems too. They have inputs, outputs, throughput, and expectations. The one big difference is that with a more manual system, you can throw more bodies at it up to the point of diminishing returns and gain through the port from that area, whereas a heavily automated system is rate as its rating. You are not going to do a whole lot to affect that. Throughput is everything, whether you are a plant, a freight broker or a warehouse. The stuff that goes out the door and that we can charge for is what we want to do. Having a warehouse management system is great. I know there are certain warehouses. Probably the old ones still don't even have that. You are saying to be as efficient and effective as you need to be in the market, you need a warehouse execution system that gets me the flow and that throughput. It may not be for everybody, and there are certain things you can do. We could take your core WMS and add some select capabilities from a full-blown WES if a modest level of that kind of automation is necessary. It's not necessarily for one, and I don't want to position it that way but it's certainly something that you want to take a look at as you get to where you've got a significant number of workers. Even smaller operations, things like the automated release of work to the floor without the human being need needing to be involved, that's going to be attractive even for a mid-size operation. The first thing we need is we need to get into this. WMS is given. You said that there was an incremental improvement for many years. Now, you are starting to see big improvements that may be driven by the market that needed big improvements in recent years. Part of that is this WES. What else is there that's part of that smart warehouse? There's a whole bunch of stuff. First, as a reminder, the automation because automation is tied to the labor shortage. Even a couple of years ago, it was very common to talk to DC managers or logistics executives, and automation wasn't necessarily very high on the radar. Nowadays, almost close to 100% of the companies we talked to, even smaller companies, are looking at automation of some kind. That could be big automation where you've got traditional sortation systems but can be very large, goods to person systems, those kinds of things. There's also a lot of interest in lighter, more flexible, and less expensive technology things like what are called put walls. What's a put wall? In great simplicity, it is a technique or a structure, which is a module with a series of cubby holes or slots. In one of these modules, we have 1 customer that has 80 of these modules. What you do is you pick the orders, then when you come to the put wall, you distribute the order to the different orders that need that product. I batch pick the product. I bring it either mechanically or manually to the put wall. Typically, a series of lights says, “This company wall number 3 here and needs 1 of the skews. Put wall in. This one needs 2 that skew you put two in. This one needs 1 put 1 in.” That process repeats itself until all of the items for a given order are complete within that cubbyhole. That's called putting. That's why it's called a put wall because you are taking the order in back, and then you are putting it into the put wall. Around the backside, lights will turn on that indicate, “This cubbyhole is now complete.” The operator comes up and touches a button typically. That starts the printing of the label in any shipping documentation that's required in the orders packed, shipped, and off you go. It provides a tremendous amount of productivity. It's very flexible. You can start small. We had one customer that started with a 1-foot wall module, then added 8 or 9 more because they liked it, then they added 20 more because they really liked it, and did this all over a couple of three-year types of the period there. For any kind of piece picking, especially of soft goods but other types of products as well but often driven not only by eCommerce with any kind of heavy piece picking operation can be a great solution but you've got to have the right software to do it. You've got that big like almost a shelf you said like cubbies on that I'm putting a product through it. Maybe I walked over, and I got 10 different sweaters, 10 sweaters that are all the same, and this cubby gets one. As I do that, I'm scanning it or it recognizes that it's in there. It's informing the other side of the cubby when the order is complete. It needs two sweaters and a pair of shoes. That's just one more way. What do you call this? Technology is only part of it. The other piece of the cubby that walking up to that, I could be putting those in bins in the old days but this is putting that on steroids. The bottom line is we are entering a new era where all technologies are, in fact, much smarter than we've ever had before. It was just a new way of doing it. There are a lot of people who talk about this in terms of optimizing materials and handling systems because getting this right is not a trivial task. I don't want to steal all my thunder from later on but the ability to rapidly turn these put walls and cubbyholes are the whole key to the success. If it's taking you a long time to do that, you are not getting the throughput that you required and probably wasting your time and money but if you can rapidly turn those by making sure the inventory gets there on time and efficient execution on both sides of the wall, then you've got something that can drive a lot of productivity. I don't know what the number is. There are quite a few customers now that are using put walls. When we would go out to some new customers, we've got some videos to show them an operation, and they are interested in seeing how this works. It's the technology along with mobile robots that you are going to see, any eCommerce but any kind of piece picking as well, you are going to see a lot of adoption. I'm an automotive guy originally. When you used to go through a plant, you would see people doing lifting heavy things when I first started, crouching down and doing functions that were hard on the body. Maybe it's not hard on 1 day, 1 week or 1 month but over 1 year, you are going to have a bad back, shoulders or knees. The same thing happens in these DCS or the warehousing. This automation you are talking about is making it easier on the workers, which means, “Hopefully, I will be able to keep my workers healthy and make that job again more attractive.” One time, I talked to a VP of logistics at Sherwin-Williams, the paint company. He noted that on the manufacturing side of the operation, they were always having people retire, and during retirement, little parties were almost taken. He said, “There was no one that ever retired from the distribution side.” That's because the heavy worker is picking cases of paint as a young man's job. As people got older, they couldn't do that work anymore. People are obviously rethinking that for the aging factor, and then there's another factor, “How do I make the work easier so I can have somebody in their 50s and 60s continuing to do this at distribution center job?” If you gave me a choice to go work in an old school warehouse, go deliver food or deliver groceries, I'm going to do the grocery delivery. I can make decent money, sit in my car, and I don't have to hurt my back, or knees or walk 5 miles a day. We have to make these jobs more attractive or we are not going to be able to keep and get good people. This automation is of such interest to the jobs now that we become more technicians and less of an order pickers. Besides a put wall, what's some other automation you are seeing out there? The automated mobile robots, economists mobile robots or AMRs. There's a huge interest in that. One of the interesting things is that in both put walls and mobile robots, you are seeing a lot of adoption and interest by a third-party logistics companies. This makes the point. In the past, 3PLs were very reluctant to do any kind of heavy automation because they couldn't sync the return on investment with the contracts that they had from the shipper. If the shipper can pay off that equipment, it's going to take 5, 7 or whatever years, and the shippers only keep you where 2 or 3-year contract, the risk of automation is too great in these other kinds of systems. It includes things like voice, picks the lights, and smart cards. They are all connected in some ways. Those kinds of systems can be put in for much less expense, much lower risk, and be incrementally adapted. You can start with three mobile robots and see how you like it, then we have seven more later on or whatever until you get to the optimal point for your operation. The fact that 3PLs are making this kind of investment as a whole new phenomenon and it speaks to the way you can incrementally get into the technology and the high level of payback that they are seeing because we were very strong in the third-party logistics arena, as an aside, so we are seeing it very closely. The number of 3PLs that are interested in this mid-range of lighter picking systems, not heavy automation but it's often somewhat newer technologies. It speaks to the changes we are seeing out there in the marketplace. Those are robots. Depending on the facility, they are not necessarily always replacing people. I talked to the CEO or president of DHL. He says, “We thought we would be replacing people with robots. The more robots we add to a facility, the more work we end up getting for that facility. We ended up hiring more people.” Everyone has a shortage. Job is going unfilled. If the robots are taking some of that slack but very few case studies of people that are adopting these technologies, they are still looking for people who have been able to be on. [caption id="attachment_7942" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Smart Warehouse: WES (Warehouse Execution System) will help manage the flow of work and resource utilization.[/caption]   What's another thing we need for that smart warehouse? Let's get into it in some more detail. We talked about some of the core software components, things like warehouse management systems and warehouse execution systems. A platform for integrating this automation with both heavy and/or traditional and newer age capabilities. There are some enabling technologies, things like rules engines, simulation and some other things. The core world's operations excellence is still the foundation. How do I get that right? That typically involves traditional WMS-type capabilities. What does that mean? What defines a warehouse management system versus an inventory system is the pervasive use of mobile terminals, barcode scanning, wireless RF devices or whatever term you want to use there, and then a lot of system directed activity, this whole notion of task management and task monitoring, where the system is orchestrating the different traditional paths of put away, receiving put away, picking replenishment, etc., and support for multiple strategies around that. We have lots of different picking method options, different replenishment strategies that I can use, and things that have been around for a while like slotting optimization, detailed labor management, labor reporting, and things like that. The foundation is core operations excellence. That's what everyone should strive to get to but nowadays, there's no ability to take that even further in terms of different types of capabilities that we think are defining what we are calling the smart warehouse. You used a term there that was an integration platform. What am I integrating? You were integrating primarily different materials handling technologies. That can be things we have had for a wall that conveyor transport and sortation. It can be some of these newer technologies like robots and put walls. The key is, “How do I optimize the flow so I don't have these islands of automation that are all doing their own thing.” I talked to somebody in the apparel industry. They have a very large and highly automated facility somewhere down in the Atlanta area. It's 1 million or 2 million square feet. They are seeing their throughput from that building after huge investments over the years and over time. They are seeing the throughput decline. What's happening, he believed, is that the business keeps changing. They keep having all these new requirements in terms of how an order needs to be processed. What they do is they keep building new wave types. We talked about wave planning before. Now they are up to like 70 or 80 different wave types. Every time there's another problem, wave fight number 82 if that solves our problem, it's not solving the problem. Part of the reason is that the system is not looking holistically across the facility and seeing how I can optimize the flow of work as a whole, not as an individual subsystem. That's part of what we are talking about here with the smart warehouse. That's the thing that traditional WMS has not done. That integration platform means I can connect all the tools and all the different systems I'm using all connect easily through that integration as opposed to the old way, which is a standalone $100,000 integration with expensive people who have to code. That's certainly part of it. It's managing the flow of work across that. I'm getting hit myself again but for example, you can have some scenarios where I have different paths for an order to be fulfilled. One of the paths and the most efficient for certain orders is maybe a group of put wall models. Let's say put wall area, for whatever reason, starts to be congested. All of a sudden, there's a big backup on the conveyor feeding into the put wall area. The system is going to automatically recognize that. For some time, route orders away from the put wall into manual cart picking, which takes them to the packing station, the same packing area where the put wall automotive leads. When the congestion is clear, then the system automatically reroutes that work back to the put walls again. Now you are looking at only the plain integration but in monitoring the flow of work that's happening and making real-time decisions accordingly. I'm an automotive guy, and we had all of those years. We used the term smart factories, and it was the same thing. How do we increase throughput? What can happen is you can end up with a local optimum where some guys are building a big stack of inventory and does nobody any good? What does all that excess inventory doing for me? What makes more sense is to say, “We are going to get this, so there's a flow to it. We are not building up too much inventory. There are no bottlenecks.” This is the same thing. What you are talking about here is, “How do I arrange my people so I don't have these guys sitting around because they already finished while these guys are in a congested area?” The core world's operations excellence is still the foundation. The term flow manufacturing came out of exactly what you are talking about there and was largely developed initially in the automotive industry. We are talking about the same thing. Now we are talking about flow distribution instead of flow manufacturing but the fundamental concepts, more of a pull-based system were being worked on capacities and constraints, more concerned with the total flow of goods and not what's happening in one individual area. All those are very consistent, whether you're looking at the principles that were established earlier in manufacturing or what's being applied here in distribution. I'm going to assume that at one time, the WMS, a big selling point would be, “We will tell you where your inventory is at,” That was probably a big step up. You go, “It does that. Now I'm going to tell you how that inventory moves off of your shelves and out the door and how you bring new inventory.” It's amazing. We still see quite a few every week, we see somebody that's a calling or emailing in, and then we talked to him. It turns out they don't have that real-time visibility of the inventory because they are using some kind of paper-based system or something, and sometimes these are even good size companies. In general, anybody that's implemented a tier-1 or tier-2 level, even WMS shouldn't have that real-time inventory visibility in doing that. It gets into that operations excellence and problem but that's the foundation, “I got to know what I got and where it is by lot, batch, serial number or whatever attribute is important for your operation or combination of attributes.” That's the foundation, but now, we are saying, “How do we optimize on top of that and get more product out the door and lower cost?” It requires investment. Having a WMS tell me, “Here is the information but it's not enough anymore.” To your point, we need all of this to get there. You asked me about some of the components of the smart warehouse, and I talked about it from a product category perspective, but now, I'm talking about it more from a philosophical or a functional view. One of the key foundations is constraining condition awareness, “What's happening in my building? What's happening with the flow of goods?” One of the things that first got me to understand WES in a deeper way is this notion that it's always-on listening and monitoring the environment. If you think about a traditional WMS, it's more sequential-oriented, “I receive the product. I put it away. I replenished pick sites. I do the picking. I take it to pack or evaluated services. I put it in this receiving staging. I get it shipping staging. I get it out the door all very good then the delivered.” A lot of companies don't have that. Organizing and automating all of that are big steps forward but we need to take it to the next level. If you think about this notion, the system is always on monitoring throughput and flow. There are certain rates and throughput that I'm expecting. I need to be able to have a flexible set of dashboards supported by event alerts and notifications. If there's a problem that says, “Here's what's happening across.” However, I wanted to find it in the area, I can define an area as a case picking module or as a whole three-level case pick module. I see that as one unit, and I want to know what the throughput is there. Maybe I want to see it at each level of that pick module. I can see it more gradually. What's nifty about this is that new level of visibility, the activity, throughput, bottlenecks, alerts, and corrective action automated, increasingly automated, if there are bottlenecks. That provides a nice set of real-time dashboards of looking stuff where people can see what's happening, “I have these many orders pending here that's already been completed. Here's how many are in picking,” or all of that level of detail. To understand what's going on here with the smart warehouse is, the system is using that same data that's being exposed to managers and supervisors that's what it's using to make decisions as well. I decided that example of being aware of the backup that's happening in the put wall and automatically, for some time, routing work around that until the congestion is cleared. That's what's different now about this visibility and activity monitoring. Being able to flexibly do that however you want to define a processing area could be evaluated services. It could be peace picking and all these things. Obviously, now the design is at these different flows throughout the facility are in sync. I'm not getting old backed up and packing, which is causing problems way back, picking and replenishment because I haven't automated the visibility and the flow, release in a way that's going to be cognizant and aware that I've got a problem here and, “Here's what I need to do about it for some time until we are adjusting. We are just taking action to solve the problem.” You sent me a PowerPoint and I have this here. It's got that real-time configurable dashboard. It's been a while since I have seen somebody had me a piece of paper but somebody handed me a piece of paper that had 40 columns. It was like an Excel spreadsheet or something, maybe a spin out of a system. It had so much, I looked at it and I was like, “What am I supposed to do with this?” I liked the idea of being able to configure it for those KPIs that I care about. [caption id="attachment_7943" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Smart Warehouse: One of the things that got me to understand WES in a deeper way is this notion that it's always on, listening and monitoring the environment.[/caption]   I don't want to measure everything. That's just me. Tell me the 4, 5 or 7 things that matter that tells me my warehouse is moving in the right direction, and that things are working well. It says, “Orders with issues.” I also love the idea that I don't find out about the issues in next week's report. I find out about them in real-time. The point that you made is a nice transition to this notion of another component. We talked about the real-time visibility of capacities, constraints, the conditions up there, and the always-on nature of the WES. Now, we have talked about looking at a table of 40 rows of information or whatever. It's all in the past. It brings up a point there, which is even with higher-end WMS, this is one of the learnings and insights that we have. There's still a tremendous amount of decision-making that is being done by human beings. As the manager, whoever you were talking about there in your example, staring at a 40-row spreadsheet or whatever, you see the same thing nowadays of managers and supervisors staring at computer screens, trying to figure out what the right thing to do next. Here's the reality. Every time you do that, first off, you introduce some latency into the system because it takes time to look at those different screens, think about it, make decisions, and scribble some things down on a piece of paper to remind you this needs to be taken care of or whatever. In most cases, there's no way a human being can make the optimal decision in the same way that a computer can. Even if you are a smart guy or girl, there's just too much data and too much to try to process at one time. Part of the capabilities of the smart WMS is the much more advanced software-based decision-making. Things like order batch optimization, given block of orders, “What's the best way to most effectively execute that on the software floor?” What we think is absolutely huge is this notion of the autonomous warehouse, as a term of Gartner is used, and others have used it as well but it talks about being able to automatically release work without the need for a wave planner, inventory expediters or all the kind of people that you see often involved in these decisions about what work to do when. Work relation on a variety of attributes, things like the order of priority, the inventory and resource availability, what kind of optimization opportunities are there? The bigger the order pool and more optimization opportunities you have because they are more data or conditions to be optimized but you can't hold on so long. You are not getting the throughput out through your cutoff time. This is a huge one. It's sophisticated. Whereas now, at 4:00 or 5:00, when the UPS, FedEx or whatever truck is leaving, you often see, and we have made commitments to the eCommerce is going to ship, you see a certain amount of chaos going around, trying to figure out all the orders that need to go on that truck, have been on the trucking and what to do about it. What we are talking about here is we are saying, “This is the work. We know how long it's going to take to pick and transport those orders to the shipping dock.” The work is going to automatically release itself. At the beginning of the day, we are more concerned about optimization. We still got a lot of decent amount of time, so we can focus on doing it the most efficient we can but as you go throughout the day, that needle starts to change from the focus on efficiency and cost to efficiency on customer service and making sure that those items are on there. The system does that automatically. It's configured to take those into consideration. Now those orders are getting on the trucks automatically without the chaos and the difficulty that's going on out there. This is a step-change capability here. We are talking about a system that is self-learning and in optimal how releases work. This is another concept we have had in distribution software before, and this is what defines what works on the smart warehouse. I had a boss in the past when I was young, I remember I sent an Excel spreadsheet to him, and it told a story. He's pulled me into his office and said, “This is a great Excel spreadsheet. I have to go through here and come to the same conclusion you did.” I go, “It's easy.” He goes, “No. When you send me this Excel spreadsheet, send me a recommendation. I don't want to have to come to a conclusion. That's your job. Show me that you attach the data back up but give me a recommendation.” I feel the same take way about running a warehouse, “Don't make me figure it out myself. Give me an alert that says, ‘This is a problem. This is how many orders are at risk. This is how many orders need to get on that truck that isn't done yet.'” To show you a simple example. Still, a lot of people, especially for eCommerce, are doing manual cart picking. I may have a cart that's got a certain configuration 3x3 or 4x4. What I mean by a 3x3 would be 3 shelves that each have room for 3 cartons each. I have nine total orders that I'm working on there. Most companies that we see do that are doing it with paper picking or pick by label or something. There's some attempt to do that more efficiently but something as simple as cart picking. The smart warehouse can take it to a whole new level. First off, you've got to get this order pool that's out there and at any one period. I'm probably going to have done some cartonization logic there to determine what should go in what box, especially with a multi carton order. In most cases, there's no way a human being can make the optimal decision in the same way that a computer can. Even if you're really smart, there's just too much data to process at one time. If you are shipping, for example, you don't want to put perfume in the same carton as payroll because of the obvious contamination that can happen there. When a picker comes up and scans a barcode on that cart, the system is going to automatically know it's this configuration, 3x3, 4x4 or whatever. It will have done some optimization typically in terms of what's called cluster picking were, “I'm going to take that cart to one location. I will put as many orders as I can on the cart that is signed to that cart that has the same set of skews so I can minimize my travel distance. Hopefully, I'm being clear on what that means.” Now I get to that location that can be done with lights or it can be done with barcode scanning. It says, “Take one of these from this location, put it in the carton slot 3'1, which is the 3rd shelf and the first location. The next one is 3'2. 2'3, 2'1 or whatever that sequence. I'm doing that in a way that makes it very efficient but we can take it even still beyond that. What if a high-priority order comes on? The pickers walk along as long as there's a location on that cart, whether it's a carton or a tote they are picking into. If it hasn't been started, we can remove automatically a lower priority order and insert a higher priority order that has come down onto that card as long as we would typically do it. The picker doesn't have to turn around and go backward as long as it picks for the new order or ahead of that picker. We do that without the picker, even being aware that it happened. You can expedite automatically like, “I got a truck that's going to be here one hour. We haven't even started yet. Let's get this going.” We say, “If you get an order in by 2:00, we will ship it that day. If it's 1: 58, all of a sudden, an order drops. I got two minutes.” This isn't going to automatically insert a higher priority order possible. I like something you said in there that we talked about the labor problem with these guys walking around maybe 5 or 10 miles in a day. One of the reasons we are going to quit, especially if you are me, is I don't want that many steps. When I walk over there, all my orders are in the same area, then I walk over here, and all my orders are there, as opposed to one side of the warehouse, and another order on the other side or I'm walking and go, “What has my life become where I walk back and like this?” Order pool optimization as well because the bigger the batch that I'm working with, the more opportunities I have to gain those picks together. On a given card, I'm maybe walking a very few feet. To your point, and this is where you get into the whole notion of mobile robots because now, perhaps that, “I go to the pick location, I pick the order but I'm putting it on a pick card. I'm putting it on a mobile robot, and the mobile robots can move on to the next location or on the packing of the orders completed. I'm walking very little at that point or comparatively little, which is one of the attractiveness of mobile robot technology.” Hopefully, it's becoming clearer. The nature of the warehouse is changing, and a part of that's going to have to be to not only be more cost-efficient and get more out the door with the staff that I've got but it's making sure that people have a less miserable work experience and hence hopefully going to stay with this a lot longer. This is not your grandpa's warehouse anymore. To be competitive, it used to be like, “These guys are high tech because they have a WMS.” Now we are starting to spin out the automation, the warehouse execution, and the integration platform. This is all getting really high-tech. Do you think this is probably the lowest-tech business there was many years ago? House is all going to play out. It's going to be interesting to see but the lighter automation techniques, including the robots and the put walls, are so attractive in terms of their flexibility and expandability. There are machine learning, artificial intelligence, and all kinds of things going to be involved here. The warehouses are becoming technology centers. If you see the private equity money that's flowing into robotics firms, AI firms, and others, in a lot of the smart money, it's the work that they do. Companies, retailers, and other eCommerce companies are starting to realize the importance of a well-run warehouse. Was this guy's quiet logistics? They've got bought by American Eagle. That was American Eagle recognizing the traditional retailer, the same thing we're going to buy ourselves a warehousing company because that's how important this business is. The force behind what has become locus robots. We will move our vendors that happened because Amazon had bought key assist systems right before that and left a quiet without a partner for automation they were building the business on. They invented their own robot. [caption id="attachment_7944" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Smart Warehouse: What's really different now about this kind of visibility and activity monitoring is being able to flexibly do that however you want to define a processing area.[/caption]   Bruce Welty was at my show. He's the Founder of Quiet. He said he got a phone call saying, “Are you guys using those Locus robots?” He says, “Yeah, how do you like them?” “We like them a lot. Can we come to visit?” “Sure.” It was Amazon. Amazon looked around and said, “We love this.” They bought Locus. A couple of other things I would like to bring up. First, broader use of some automation ideas or IoT type devices. RFID is starting to make something of a comeback years after Walmart tried back in 2003 or 2004. Generally, you are going to see many manual scanning activities that are going to disappear or if I need to move this way back now from being implemented at the store level by customers concerned with the eCommerce fulfillment for inventory equity purposes, you are going to see a move back up into the distribution operations. That will certainly be a big part of it. We were already doing things like, for example, we are a broker with a pick cart. Picker with a pick cart can walk up to a fixed zone. The IoT automatically recognizes that this person is on. It automatically turns on the pick lights that are on those four pick locations. It's a minor thing there but that's an advancement we are going to see. We have even done some stuff with congestion management and COVID, where we can tell exactly where somebody is in the I or using IoT and being able to assign work based on real-time visibility to who's closest to that work, but also when the COVID area being able to space people apart so that they don't get to say within 8 feet of each other, whatever that happens to be, whatever your metric you want to use, therefore that group constraint. There are some various things that can happen there. This is still slow going. It hasn't taken off as fast as many people think but you are going to see RFID and IoT start to make some mural inroads over the next years. We have this follow the notion of Gartner and what's considered to be called a conversational voice. The transactional voice is doing the picking, pallet build or something using voice technologies. Typically, reading in a location check digit and doing a hands-free pick, replenishment or whatever the task might be but we're starting to get now into more of a dialogue. We are all ready to the point now where we can have a supervisor take a smartphone and say, “Show me how I'm doing on wave number 235,” over a smartphone. That's going to bring back exactly what's happening now or, “Where's the replenishment for location on 3652?” We are still early in this game here but certainly, we will move to more of a dialogue going on with the WMS and WES than just playing transactional voice-type of technology. We ended with a very exciting where the future interface of the software is going to had. This is where that integration platform you talked about comes in handy. I can connect to all this stuff. The new killer app that comes out, I can get it. We have been left there. Automation and optimization of materials handling systems is certainly a key part of this. We refer to it, not just as a smart warehouse's the future but as the smart automated across to the future due to the interest in the technologies we have talked about several times already. We can directly connect with these picking assistance, like walls, pick the light or voice without the need for third-party software. Everyone else uses some kind of software from the put wall vendor, pixelate vendor or voice vendor, which adds another layer of integration and costs. It often results in people operating silos. We can directly control a lot of these materials handling technologies. It allows you to operate and optimize those in the context of everything that's happening in the world and all the information that's available, which provides you a lot of benefits over time because you are not just trying to operate in silos. I talked to somebody that was using a pick-to-light system. They talked about how at the end of every week, they've got to go in and clean up all these pics that some of them never were executed in the pick-to-light system. I'm not quite sure why that is but it wouldn't happen with the way we are approaching things because we would be aware of that. It probably has to wait on a real punishment. The problem is the pixelate vendor doesn't do replenishment the documents. You've got these silos going on here and there are a lot of opportunities. In terms of that integration platform, we think this is especially true for mobile robots, people are using the mobile software of the mobile robots. What that does is it limits the total optimization that can be achieved but more importantly, you are now totally dependent on that robot software. What if you want to add different robots or change horses three years from now? There's a better mousetrap that works faster or whatever that happens to be. Now you have become locked in. We refer to it not just as smart but the smart automated across to the future. We think the market needs a mobile robot and a broader automation integration platform. It's almost like an operating system for automation in the warehouse that's going to allow you to have visibility to optimization of robots of different kinds from the same manufacturer of different types for different manufacturers. You are not locked in. It's like a plug-and-play type of environment here three years from now. You can keep the robots or keep dependent you bought, but now, you want to add five more from a different vendor, plug them into this operating system, and have instant connectivity and the ability to optimize the performance. We think that's a much more low-risk approach going forward than locking yourself into a vendor that's coming to the software that's coming from the robot vendor. Get back to the idea of a smart warehouse. It's all about throughput. If I have different systems that are connecting, that are doing local optimums, that's a problem because it's not supporting throughput. I always need that one source of truth. That's the main system that says, “This is all about getting stuff out the door here.” I wanted to bring up one. Earlier, I talked about wanting to give an example of what the put wall. I referenced that as the cubbyholes in put walls. Here's the scenario we are seeing. Let's say there are three line items eCommerce order. Two of those line items in the order come from a carton flow rec area, that's very close to packing. I mean those orders are efficient to pick, in short distance to transport. The third line item is actually coming from a slow-moving mezzanine pick area that's farther away and is less efficient to pick. If you don't do anything, otherwise what's going to happen in those first two items from that order are going to show up rather quickly, then they are going to sit and wait for 10, 15, 20, 45 minutes or whatever it happens to be for that third item on the pick, the order to finally show up. The cubbyhole has been tied up that entire time. What's the smarter warehouse way of doing it? What's the WES way of doing it? Let's say it's 25% slower to go through the mezzanine or whatever the number you want to use it. We would release that third line item in effect 25% or 30% earlier. After the time it takes to pick and transport that as it's on its way to the pack station, now we release the other two orders line items in the carton flow rack. They show up at the put wall for processing at relatively the same time, and now I'm able to turn that wall without the latency that would occur if you didn't have smart software to do that. Hopefully, that's an example that makes it somewhat clearer as to how the optimization can affect operational performance. You would never be able to get that done manually. It doesn't happen. This is like drinking from a fire hose. There is so much going on in this. Put a bow on this. Give us your final thoughts on this. What do I need to get to have that smart warehouse? First of all, the benefit is it is going to reduce labor costs, have higher and more consistent DC throughput, you are going to reduce your need for automation in terms of things like the number of diverse or get more throughput out of the automation you have there. We didn't talk much about labor planning but that's a big part of it. We can dynamically assign workers throughout the course of a shift from 1 to 8 to 9, 9 to 10, or 10 to 11 hours where are they needed motion and in what quantities, improved automated decision-making. It's an assessment. Certainly, if you are heavily automated, there are a lot of opportunities for you. As I tried to make the point earlier, even if you're only modestly automated or not automated at all, these capabilities can have some real benefit for your operations there. The important thing to note with Softeon is these can be implemented very incrementally. I could implement a traditional WMS. Let's say I want the labor planning and allocation part of it. We can take that capability from WES and attach it to the WMS. To give you a solution, conversely, if you want to implement WES and leave your existing WMS in place, we didn't talk too much about that but that's a key dynamic. You need cartonization, which is a warehouse management function and even attach cartonization to that WES implementation. Flexibility is key. That's what we try to design. We call it a shirt component library, where the applications can borrow components, functionality, and services from each other. We are pretty confident that it gives us a chance to understand what you are trying to accomplish, what your operations are like or whatever that some combination of these technologies is going to have a pretty good fit and take your world to a whole new level than we have seen over the last many years. What's new over at Softeon?. What conferences do you go into? We have done with the motor show, and it was a big success for us. We not only showed the smart warehouse, we presented the smart warehouse capabilities. We had a lot of equipment pick the light, other packing stations, etc., right on our routes. At the bottom of every hour, we did a presentation. We had consistently good traffic the whole time. We did a bit of an educational track and a session on the smart warehouse of the future available on Softeon. It was very well attended. That was good. We will be at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium down in Orlando and then break after that. [caption id="attachment_7945" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Smart Warehouse: Even if you're just modestly automated, these capabilities can have some real benefits on your operations. These can be implemented very incrementally.[/caption]   We finished up a series of educational broadcasts called the WMS Bootcamp, six different sessions on everything from building the business case to how to implement it successfully. It was a huge success, but all of that's now available on-demand. If they go up to Softeon.com. You will be able to find some links to that. If you have any interest in WMS, they're not commercial, educational sessions. You will find they have a lot of value. The feedback we got on it was outstanding. I would like to watch myself because we went over this and it is gone from simple to more complex over time. I know you are simplifying it but to understand what's required requires a Bootcamp. We learned a lot of lessons. I brought in some consultants and people that I knew and knew what they were talking about in terms of building the business case. We had some folks from Invista that came on and did that. I had some experience or exposure. I knew they knew what they were talking about. Some of that applies to some other consultants as well. It's a real nice series. It's non-commercial. If you want to learn some tips about how to get WMS selection and implementation, you'll find the Bootcamp serves you well. How do we reach out and talk to you over at Softeon? The way to get me is via email. My email address is DGilmore@TheSofteon.com. You can also use Contact@Softeon.com for the general inquiry box. I love to hear from you. Hopefully, we came across, so at least you know a little bit about what I'm talking about and discuss your problems as well. Anyone who wants to reach out can reach out and talk to you about the smart warehouse. Thanks, Joe. I enjoyed it. It was a great conversation. Thank you so much, Dan. Thank all of you for reading. Your supports are very much appreciated, until next time and more network.   Important Links Softeon Supply Chain Digest WMS Bootcamp DGilmore@TheSofteon.com Contact@Softeon.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/softeon The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

Steve and Adam audition beers to be their summer drinking beer of 2022. They talk about Oklahoma testing new ways to sell beer, Goose Island NFTs and the tanking crypto market, and John Deere partnering with Busch to make it seem like they don't suck. Then it's a Pittsburgh Summer Travel guide. New brewery spaces, new activities near breweries, outdoor breweries, and Anthrocon. Finally, the third segment was going to be a Beerify It for NFTs, but the accidentally come up with possibly the greatest idea for a brewery to steal.  BEERS: Dewey Beer Hot Sauce Sandwiches IPA Abjuration Brewing Honey Kolsch Spring House Brewing Rabbit Habit Pina Colada Sour

We realize that laughter is some of the best medicine.  But laughing in your divorce recovery? - yes!  After a few divorce jokes, we talk about the way laughter can help in your divorce recovery.  Some of the jokes are dry as hell but pretty funny.  We think that finding yourself, being selfish, and laughing at others and yourself is a key part of moving on with your life.  Inappropriate laughter, feeling guilty for being happy, smoking the remote, iTunes gift cards, laughter replaced my anger, a John Deere letter, Karma Sutra/Control, OG Jersey, and the real tea topics of this podcast.  With a little or a lot of our craziness, we think we provide a softer side of divorce recovery.  Enjoy!

Nathan Wright, RDO product expert, sits down with host Tony Kramer to discuss See & Spray Ultimate, John Deere's newest solution for targeted, in-crop spraying. Catch all podcast episodes here: https://www.rdoequipment.com/resources/podcasts

The Hoosier Ag Today Podcast for May 12, 2022: 1.) Farm Bureau says they are hoping for improvements when the next clean water panel meets.  Andy Eubank has a report. 2.) John Deere and Busch Light are teaming up for a beer can fundraiser to help farmers in need.  Eric Pfeiffer has that story.   3.) Sunny, hot, dry and humid best describe Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin's forecast.  4.) AND a second straight day of gains Wednesday in the grain markets – Tom Fritz with the EFG Group reviews Wednesday's markets looks ahead to the impact the USDA's WASDE report may have on Thursday's markets. That's all part of the Thursday HAT Podcast!

This episode covers the latest in entertainment, tech, and space news.  Topics include the Dr Strange movie review, crypto and space news.   We ask that you support the show in any way possible.  You can like, share, rate or comment on any of the various social media and podcast players.  Join the conversation in our closed Facebook group at https://www.thenerdcantina.com/community, or become a patron on our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thenerdcantina) where a pledge of as little as $1 will get you a free sticker.   SF Gate: HBO Max just greenlit a 'Dune' prequel series.https://www.sfgate.com/shopping/article/Dune-Sisterhood-prequel-HBO-Max-17141952.php  The Block Crypto: Instagram to support NFTs from Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Flow: report.https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/145689/instagram-to-support-nfts-from-ethereum-polygon-solana-flow-report  CoinDesk: UST Resumes Spiral After Quiet Day Orbiting 90 Cents.https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/05/10/ust-resumes-spiral-after-quiet-day-orbiting-90-cents/  Ars Technica: How Apple, Google, and Microsoft will kill passwords and phishing in one stroke.https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/05/how-apple-google-and-microsoft-will-kill-passwords-and-phishing-in-1-stroke/ Russian troops stole $5M worth of farm vehicles from a John Deere dealership, which remotely locked the thieves out of the equipmenthttps://www.businessinsider.com/russian-troops-locked-out-of-stolen-john-deere-farm-equipment-2022-5?amp&fbclid=IwAR30g0hxprXAGuSwhlqxv_FEfUA4YlFnoskl8HC9yNzj7AL_-QEL-bW071A  Japanese railway company to use a giant humanoid robot for fixing power lineshttps://interestingengineering.com/japanese-railway-company-giant-robot?fbclid=IwAR3JSZrXG1h1Qj2KVfCLjGx1GeJeR5O_28wJZpUUzV4J-X4G0n3TMoM7N2w  Starlink's new Portability feature brings internet to vanlifershttps://www.theverge.com/2022/5/5/23058181/starlink-portability-internet-price-locations?fbclid=IwAR1Kzq478cdp_lM7oeMHWgxyLMwErvVwEF7z2TC2uVaQ05_rFcFHvLOljhs  Elon Musk Fears for His Life After Russian Threatshttps://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-fears-for-his-life-after-russian-threats?fbclid=IwAR1zj7ZZVTFjzqKFrm35YvguWOWl1jp-B9u-AWltPHlAQykJxORHRcUPBKU  Camera Films Itself Getting Launched Out of a Centrifuge at 1,000mphhttps://petapixel.com/2022/05/07/camera-films-itself-getting-launched-out-of-a-centrifuge-at-1000mph/?fbclid=IwAR1NkoKmUinPd6nYRUa6XNxCMNS2LfgY2kRnb6LCRIWrwhsqLOd5A67ontI  NASA to launch naked pictures of humans to space in hope of ‘attracting aliens'https://nypost.com/2022/05/03/nasa-to-send-naked-pictures-of-humans-in-hope-of-attracting-aliens/amp/?fbclid=IwAR1Kzq478cdp_lM7oeMHWgxyLMwErvVwEF7z2TC2uVaQ05_rFcFHvLOljhs  Ars Technica: After losing contact with its helicopter, NASA put the entire Mars mission on hold.https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/05/after-an-amazing-run-on-mars-nasas-helicopter-faces-a-long-dark-winter/

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This Episode: Chicagwa - 100 yo record holder - Meat vs plant eaters - Buying scratch off tickets - John Deere don't - Google travel - Lake Mead Bodies - Beer Recall - Nashville Experiment - Bug Assa-salt - Plantation homes - Cowtown Texas Dog

This week's show kicks off with research suggesting Amazon uses data from Alexa devices to advertise its own products, and that Amazon is selling some of the insights derived from Alexa requests to third parties. This is disturbing, but so is John Deere's ability to decommission tractors stolen by Russians from a Ukraine dealership. We … Continue reading Episode 370: How to build the infrastructure for public tech The post Episode 370: How to build the infrastructure for public tech appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

SUZUKI AND STELLANTIS DIESELS INVESTIGATEDProsecutors in Germany, Italy and Hungary are investigating Suzuki, Stellantis and supplier Marelli, over use of defeat devices in Suzuki vehicles. Stellantis are engine suppliers for Suzuki and Marelli are a supplier of engine parts. For more, click the Nikkei Asia article link here. FEAR OF FINES FOR BOX JUNCTION MISTAKESWith local authorities outside of London, allowed to prosecute those who misuse yellow box junctions from June 2022, the fear that drivers could be mistakenly fined was announced. The RAC said that many are incorrectly painted, laid out, located and even hidden from clear view for those approaching. They have called on the Government to clarify the guidance on yellow box junctions, clarifying their use, design and maintenance once in place. To find out more, click the link here for the Motoring Research article. MOT TEST COULD BE EVERY TWO YEARSWith a suggestion that has been roundly condemned by nearly everyone who has heard it, the idea to move MOT tests to every other year has not gone down well. To be clear, this is only a suggestion, apparently it will help with the cost of living crisis the UK is currently suffering. For more information, click the Autocar link here. BMW AND AUDI STOP FREIGHT TRAIN TO CHINABMW and Audi have ceased sending cars to China via the rail link from Europe, due to the war in Ukraine. To learn more about that story, click the link to the Reuters article here.To learn more about the rail link to China, click the link here to Rail Magazine's article. VOLTA TRUCKS REVELAS SMALLER LORRIESNew 7.5 tonne and 12 tonne lorries have been unveiled but the electric truck company Votla Trucks. They will follow the 16 tonne lorry, being added to the line up in 2025.The previously announced model is undergoing final preparations before they start customer testing and production later in the year. More on this story can be found by clicking this Move Electric link. VW AND BP ROLL OUT NEW CHARGING INFRASTRUCTUREBP will be partnering with Volkswagen to install their new rapid chargers that have integrated batteries that mean they can be deployed at low voltage sites, avoiding the need for extra infrastructure to ensure a suitable electrical supply is maintained. They will be starting in Germany and moving across Europe. Click here for the Business Motoring article, to learn more. GOVERNMENT TO LEGALISE PRIVATE E-SCOOTER USEGrant Shaps, the Transport Minister, has stated the Government plans to legalise the use of private scooters on public roads. Exactly how they will mandate for their safe use is yet to be established. To learn more, click the Move Electric article link here. PARIS'S ELECTRIC BUSES TAKEN OFF THE ROADFollowing two incidents where Bolloré electric buses caught fire, all have been removed from the roads as a precaution whilst investigations into the causes are run. No one was hurt in either incident. To learn more, click this France24 link here. MCLAREN NAME NEW BOSSEx-Ferrari technology chief, Michael Leiters, has been announced as the new CEO of McLaren. Leiters has worked at Porsche and recently Ferrari. His resume includes developing the Cayenne, prancing horse mid-engined V8s and their first ever hybrid super cars. To learn more, click the EVO article link here. MORGAN NAME NEW BOSSEx-Lamborghini Chief Project Management Officer, Massimo Fumarola, has been named as Morgan's new CEO. He will lead the company during their most innovative and progressive period since inception. For more on who Massimo is and the challenges he faces, click the PistonHeads article here. ——————————————————————————-If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST——————————————————————————-SMMT DRIVE DAY 2022 ROUND UP:Below is a list of the cars Alan managed to find time to drive, whilst at the annual SMMT Drive Day, held at Milbrook. Thank you to SMMT, the manufacturers and other motoring journalists for organising, being there and actually talking to Alan so he didn't feel lonely. Hyundai Kona NMustang Mach-E (Extended Range)BMW 220i Luxury Active TourerPeugeot 508 SW PSESsangYong Musso RhinoPorsche Macan SToyota RAV-4 AdventureToyota Supra 3.0 Jeramy Racetrack EditionA look at the Genesis GV60Skoda Enyaq iV 80 SportlineAlpine A110 GTVolvo C40 Dual MotorAND FINALLY: WHAT IS RUSSIAN FOR “OH DEERE”Following the invasion of the Ukraine, Russian forces have stolen John Deere manufactured farming equipment and taken it back to their country. However, John Deere has spotted this and ‘bricked' the tractors and harvesters, rendering them inoperable. Whilst this is a good thing, that John Deere has done, it raises once again the awful concept of remote deactivation capability. Always relieves on you meeting arbitrary standards someone else has decided on, which you have no ability to appeal against. For more, click here to read The Register's article.

“My dad had the mindset that this isn't just a profession, this is my identity. If I'm not a farmer, what else am I going to do?”    Marshal Sewell (15:19-15:28)   For the month of May, we're doing a special series called “Mind Your Melon” and focusing on mental health awareness for the agriculture industry. Marshal Sewell, Strategic Account Manager and Mental Health “AG-vocate” for Bayer Crop Science, and fifth generation farmer, knows first hand the compounding stressors that deplete a healthy mindset while working on a farm.   Fall of Marshal's senior year of high school was one of high stress. Like most seniors, he was trying to enjoy his last year of school, but also figure out what to do with his life. At the same time, his family and other local farmers were seeing issues with the plant quality of their winter strawberries. Local college researchers identified that there might have been diseases in the fields from the nursery the plants originated from. Marshal's family tried to stay positive, but hardly got any strawberries out of that winter's harvest.    “With no clue what to do and faced with this nursery borne disease, my dad didn't see a way out and chose to take his own life. That was my indoctrination into mental health,” Marshal says.   After going through this tragedy and seeing his family struggle to overcome, plus knowing the regular farm-related stressors they had to deal with, Marshal was set on trying to identify ways to overcome this and help farmers manage their stress before it's too late. After Hurricane Georgia hit, the Georgia Farm Bureau reached out to Marshal and asked him to share his story, hoping it will help raise awareness and show there's hope after difficult times and tragedy. This turned into a catalyst for him to do more advocacy work and of course, after COVID-19 hit and things became even more stressful, Marshal's been on a mission to get farmers talking honestly and openly about their mental and emotional state.   “How do we, on a farm level, manage risk and mitigate stress and difficult times, and what can we be doing more proactively even outside of the farming community to prepare ourselves for challenging times?” Marshal Sewell (10:17-10:35)   People who aren't in the agricultural industry don't understand the insurmountable amounts of stress on farms. There's disease, weather changes, regularly occurring contagion, financial issues and so much more that can happen when running a farm, and there's never an end in sight. Farmers don't have the opportunity to pause, take a break to recharge or go on a “vacation” from these stressors. It's compounding and only comparable to what someone in law enforcement or a Navy SEAL might go through.   Not only is there the issue of trying to be proactive in handling these issues, but getting farmers to talk about their mental health stressors openly and freely. Marshal was recently speaking to a potato farmer who deals with stress all day and doesn't want to unload it on his family when he comes home – he wants to spend time with them. He goes to the farm the next day and deals with a brand new set of stressors, compounding on the day before. But eventually, he needs to open up to someone, whether it be his family or an outside resource.   Marshal likes to relate this to farm equipment. You wouldn't go spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a brand new John Deere tractor just because your current one needs some TLC. Instead, you'd do routine maintenance on it, and the same thing goes for our minds and bodies which are the only things capable of operating the tractor in the first place. If we take care of ourselves actively and regularly with simple habits like getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, eating plenty of healthy, fruits and vegetables, and getting in daily, active movement, we can stay health physically, mentally and emotionally which helps us better handle stress when it happens.   “What's the difference between a piece of equipment and our bodies and our minds, which are arguably the most valuable resource and piece of equipment at that operation, whether you're a farmer or not. We've got to do routine maintenance.” Marshal Sewell (21:32-21:46)   Another important key to our mental health is some form of “mindfulness”, a taboo word in the agricultural industry. Journaling, meditating, prayer… all of these are ways to give yourself the silent reflection needed to bring peace to your mind and come back to the present moment, rather than letting stress ruin your mental health. Lori recommends the book Miracle Morning and former Produce Mom's guest Sarah Frey's book The Growing Season – both which we'll be giving away on our Instagram! Do what you can each day to create these healthy habits and, if you know someone in the agriculture industry, pass along this episode so they can feel encouraged to take care of their mental health.    How to get involved Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!  Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.    If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!  

With the return of LAMMA, the UK's leading agricultural machinery, equipment and technology show, on the 4th and 5th May, we thought we would focus this month's episode of the Agronomy Matters podcast on cultivations. Net zero is a current hot topic and there is no doubt that reducing cultivations can be a factor in cutting carbon dioxide emissions and increasing sequestration in the soil but what are the benefits of cultivations, and when and why should cultivations be used. Well on this episode of agronomy matters we have three experts to shed some more light on the importance of cultivations. - David Purdy, a territory business manager for John Deere. David has over 35 years' experience in the agricultural machinery industry and tells us about the role cultivations still have in agriculture. - Philip Wright, an independent soil consultant with a wealth of experience in soil structure and the impact of cultivation methods. - Glenn Bootman, joins us from HE-VA where he is both Territory Manager for South Central England and Product Manager. Having been involved with the farm machinery sector for almost 30 years Glenn focusses on how we can choose and optimise machinery use. Make sure you listen to the end of the episode to find out how to claim one BASIS CPD point via the members area on the BASIS website.

Russische soldaten hebben voor meer dan 5 miljoen dollar aan onder andere trekkers en combines gestolen van een John Deere-dealer in de bezette stad Melitopol. Maar John Deere slaat terug: de apparaten zijn met GPS gevolgd tot in Grozny, en op afstand op slot gezet.  Ook in de Tech Update:  Twitter rekent op exodus personeel bij overname Elon Musk Wikimedia staat geen donaties in crypto meer toe  Streamer bouwt Fisher Price game pad om tot Xbox-controller   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the latest installment of “History Factory Plugged In,” host Jason Dressel reminisces about his childhood growing up on a farm in North Carolina. We welcome Neil Dahlstrom, author and Branded Properties and Heritage Manager at John Deere, to discuss his latest book, Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture. The two talk about the development of the tractor industry in America and muse on what a day in the life of a corporate archivist entails. Company history comes alive with “History Factory Plugged In.” We explore the rich heritage of major organizations in this thought-provoking podcast. If you have questions, comments or ideas to share, please email us at pluggedin@historyfactory.com.

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 237, an episode with workplace loneliness experts and thought leaders, Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen. In this episode, Ryan and Steven discuss a vital, sensitive, and very interesting topic: loneliness. Oftentimes, loneliness and emotional pain is taken lightly compared to physical pain. But physiologically, the effect is nearly the same. The conversation revolved around answering why do we feel lonely and how we can battle and address this issue. Ryan and Steven talked about the significance of awareness, connection, a sense of safety and belonging, and mental health, which largely contributes to resolving loneliness and is the key to developing a healthy personal and professional environment. Ryan Jenkins CSP® (Certified Speaking Professional™) is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and three-time published author. He speaks all over the world to companies such as State Farm, Salesforce, Wells Fargo, FedEx, Liberty Mutual, and John Deere. For a decade, he has been helping organizations create engaged, inclusive, and high-performing teams by lessening worker loneliness and closing generational gaps. Ryan's top-ranked insights have been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and The Wall Street Journal. He is also co-founder of LessLonely.com, the world's first resource fully dedicated to reducing worker isolation and strengthening team connections. Ryan lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife, three children, and yellow Labrador. Steven Van Cohen is a global leadership consultant, author, and executive coach. Steven has spent 12 years working with hundreds of leaders from organizations like Salesforce, The Home Depot, Komatsu, and Bridgestone, helping them improve worker well-being, reduce employee isolation, and boost team belonging. Dubbed "The Leadership Whisperer," Steven has inspired thousands through his workshops, keynotes, and virtual events. He is co-founder of LessLonely.com (the world's first resource for addressing loneliness at work) and CEO of SyncLX (a consultancy that works with many Fortune 500 companies.) Steven holds a Master of Science in Organizational Development from Pepperdine University and a BA from The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Steven lives in San Juan Capistrano, CA with his wife and two daughters. Get Ryan & Steven's book here: Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In. Ryan Jenkins & Steven Van Cohen Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

This week Randall Jacobs sits down with Fort Bragg, CA Sculptor and trail builder Nick Taylor to discuss the intersection of cycling and art.  Episode Sponsor: The Feed Support the Podcast Join The Ridership  Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: Nick Taylor [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week, I'm going to kick it back over to my co-host Randall Jacobs for a little something different for ya. Randall's interviewing sculptor trail builder and Mendocino cycling stalwart, Nick Taylor in an exploration on how the bike became interwoven in one artist's life Before I pass the mic over to Randall. I need to thank this. Week's sponsor the feed. The feed is the largest online marketplace for sports nutrition. They've got all your favorite sports, nutrition brands in one place. If you've developed an affinity like I have for certain brands. You can hop on over to the feed and mix and match. So you get everything you need in one delivery. I was just visiting the feed.com before recording this intro and I remembered in addition to all the nutritional brands that they carry, they also carry a wide variety of training gear. You might remember a couple episodes back when we were focusing on recovery. We talked about foam rollers. We talked about Sarah guns. We talked about pneumatic leg compression tools. I think we talked about the power dot, actually all these things are available@thefeed.com. So in addition to getting your nutrition handled, You can work on your recovery. Like I've been doing. And finally I wanted to mention again, the feed formulas. The feed formulas are the world's first daily supplement pouch for athletes created in conjunction with Dr. Kevin Sprouse from the ETF pro cycling team. They feature best in class, branded supplements, never generics. You get personalized recommendation based on your needs as an athlete, and they're all delivered in a convenient daily pouch. We've got a limited time special offer of 50% off on your first order of the feed formula by simply going to the feed.com/the gravel ride. Remember that's the feed.com/the gravel ride With that said, I'm going to hand it over to my co-host Randall Jacobs and his interview with Nick Taylor. [00:02:26] Randall: Nick, I've been looking forward to this conversation for some time welcome to the podcast. [00:02:31] Nick: Well, thank you. Thanks for having me on Randall. [00:02:34] Randall: So before we dive in, let's give listeners a bit of background. Who are you, where are you from? What matters to you? [00:02:40] Nick: My name's Nick Taylor. I'm up here in Fort Bragg, California. That's about 180 miles north of San Francisco along the coast, fairly remote area. I'm a sculptor and a big bike bicycle advocate, as well as running a trail crew building trails out here in the Mendocino coast. [00:03:00] Randall: Yeah. And as somebody who has been to your workshop, I can say well, one, the area is quite beautiful and to the space in which you create some of the things that we'll be talking about and linking to in the notes. So it's a pretty special place. So tell us a bit about your, relationship to the bicycle. How did it get started? How has it evolved over time? [00:03:20] Nick: Well, you know, I think we all probably started riding Pikes when we were kids. And I certainly did that on a gravel road and in rural Ohio. So I had some experience as a kid and there was a big lapse and it wasn't until I was in my early twenties that I picked the bicycle back up and started to use it again. And that was a. I had, I don't know what really, what the impetus was for getting back on a bike, but I wanted to do some exploring and I guess that just seemed like a good way to go about it. And I bought myself a an old Schwinn Latour for 80 bucks and a. I was staying with my grandmother at that point up in Ohio. And I started doing some riding in the rides, you know, slowly became longer and longer. And I, I decided, well, you know what, I want to go do some tour. And so that led to a bit, a little, a little bit of touring on that the tour prior to graduate school, back in the early eighties. [00:04:15] Randall: So tell us about some of the early tours. What was that like? [00:04:18] Nick: Well, it was prepping to go to graduate school and really wanted to get out in between visiting one school and another, and I bought a gray ham pass. It was good for 30 days and pulled the map of the U S out and closed my eyes. And. Put my finger down on wherever it game. And, and the first place was I got out in south Kadoka, South Dakota at a midnight at a gas station and you know, road the next day through, you know, from Kadoka through the Badlands and into a rapid city. And I didn't have a particularly good experience in rapid city. So I pulled the map out again, close my eyes and finger another place on the map. Got out and Shelby Montana and had a great time from there. So, you know, a ride from Shelby across the Rocky mountains and through glacier national park, which was just extraordinary. And then down to Spokane Washington, at which point I had to create my bike up and had had to Davis, California to go look at the school there. [00:05:23] Randall: Oh, wow. So that was essentially coming off after a month of kind of dirt bagging camping out, or what were your, what were your accommodations along the route? [00:05:33] Nick: I mean, everything. Everything I needed was on the bike, [00:05:37] Randall: so, you found a shower before you had your interview. [00:05:40] Nick: Yup. Knock some of the stink off. [00:05:43] Randall: So now you're in Davis and this is a program in what area? [00:05:48] Nick: So it was a MFA program, for a master of fine arts graduate school. It was back in the early eighties and I don't know where it is now, but, it was a leading school for the arts. It rivaled Dal our graduate department. And so it was, I got there and they had a very open format, which I much enjoyed everything I was looking at on the east coast was a very structured format. And I was done with that. I'd had five years of that at the university of Tennessee. And I was mostly just looking for studio. And that's what I got in Davis. And I also got to be around people that were pretty well renowned, you know, which was a new experience for me. I mean, I had people like manual Neary and Robert artisan and Wayne Tebow and Roy deforest were all teaching there. So I got exposure to all these professional artists that I had experienced before. [00:06:43] Randall: And was the writing community as developed then as it is now, right now, Davis is very much known as having great bike infrastructure. And UC Davis has a top cycling team and so on. [00:06:54] Nick: It was definitely a big thing there. Vibe culture was big and Davis and. And that was a new thing too. I mean, most people, certainly all the students. And I think back then there were 16,000 students, they were getting around and bikes. And that was very cool. And there was a lot of road biking going on out there too, which I participated in, you know, I got myself a Miata. I forget what model it was. It was there a touring bike, which is a pretty nice bike though. When I was buying it, it was the first new bike I'd ever had. And the guys kept telling me it was too big. A frame is too big, a frame it's like, I, I didn't listen to them. Should have, but you know, I wrote it for a number, number of years Anthony. Okay. But I realized in hindsight it was, it was too big. From there. I moved to the east bay and lived in Oakland and point Richmond primarily. I mean, there were the little stints in San Francisco and Berkeley, but primary residents were in point Richmond and Oakland. [00:07:52] Randall: what was it like back then versus what it's like at this time, [00:07:56] Nick: Well, there weren't as many people and it was a little cheaper to live, you know, and as an artist, you're always trying to live on the cheap, right. So, I mean, your goal is to, to be in your studio as much as you can and work as you have to, to cover your bills. So it was cheaper, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't as a fluid as it is now. You know, riding, riding, you know, it was entirely different than it was. And in Davis, everything out in Davis is flat land. The only thing you really had to contend with there was the wind which could be quite daunting at times though. Anytime you had the wind at your back If the conditions were just right, you'd be in this little envelope, this little bubble with the windier bath, where there was absolutely no resistance. And it was a remarkable thing to experience because the only thing you would hear is the pedaling, the chain moving through the cracks and across the cassette. And, and other than that, and there was no, no resistance. It just like you just flew across the landscape. And that was pretty extreme. didn't get to experience that when you were in Oakland, I mean, you had the Hills contend with and climbing up to, to a skyline drive and running her, riding the Ridge along through there, and certainly more traffic. [00:09:05] Randall: So, I recall you mentioning like over a decade in the bay area, [00:09:10] Nick: 20 years. Yeah. Was in the, in the, in the bay area for 20 years, it was a good experience. We had, when I was in point Richmond, we had a wonderful studio out there that was a live works situation. It was a, it was an illegal live in, you know, it. We're it was, it was such a stunning location. I mean, you were a seven acre parcel, surrounded by park on the San Francisco bay. That it was pretty extraordinary. It's just the kind of place you don't typically see in this day and age, you know, everything's been developed now, [00:09:44] Randall: Yeah. Hi, high end condos and lofts, [00:09:47] Nick: Yup. And so, you know, we, we lived there. It was one of my last places to stay. And the property was sold. The park system bought the property that we were living in and they wanted to incorporate it to the rest of the park. So we all got the boot and I didn't want it to be a renter anymore. I wanted to buy something. So threw a bit of searching. We found this place up here in Fort Bragg and made the move, even though we didn't know anybody. Yeah. [00:10:12] Randall: And that was just a parcel of land at the time, right? [00:10:15] Nick: That's true. It's it was small parcel, just over two and a half acres, fully wooded, which is what I really wanted to avoid. I really wanted to buy something I could remodel and at least have utilities in, you know, water and power, but we had nothing. It was a fully wooded property lot. And so amy, my wife and I, we spent a year of weekends coming up to the property from the bay area and logging the property ourself cleared about 200 trees. And some of these are pretty good sized trees. And we did that with an old forklift that I bought in an old international harvester that I had with a big PTO winch on the front. So we spent a year clearing clearing the land Then it's then it went idle for a little bit of the work. What idle for a little bit, as I was involved in a project down in the bay area that kept me, kept me tied up for a number of years. [00:11:05] Randall: Well, and that that's not just any project. So maybe give listeners a little bit of a background on that, on what that project was and your involvement with it. [00:11:13] Nick: This was this was a cloud gate. It's more commonly known as the bean. It's a big piece of sculpture in the city of Chicago. Which is now part of, part of their landscape icon to the city. It's a, it's a 60 foot long, roughly 35 foot high, 45 foot wide, perfectly smooth mirror finish sculpture that's in the shape of a bean or something like a beam. And that's, it's a pretty remarkable thing. So. I was involved with that for four and a half years first working on that on equipment we had to build for fabricating it and then doing some of the prototyping and then a lot of the fabrication of it. And then eventually back in Chicago for almost a year to see its installation and finish. [00:11:59] Randall: And for anyone who hasn't seen it, I strongly recommend that you use. Look it up. For me, it's just this really surreal thing, just plopped in this park in Chicago, reflecting the skyline. It almost looks like CGI because it's too perfect. Given the scale of the thing. And you and I have talked about the tolerances involved and so on and like, think about just the weight of it and how that dis wants to distort the structure and the material. What was your role specifically? You were the crew lead or the project lead? [00:12:27] Nick: Onsite, I would have been the supervisor overseeing all of its installation and it was working in Chicago with the local iron workers ironworker 63, local 63, which is great group of fellows. I very much enjoyed working with them. And you know, this, the bean was, was a prototype. It was like nobody had ever had ever built anything like that. And it was a combination of old world in hands-on kind of technology and computer generated. Imagery, you know, it's just like, you couldn't do it without being able to work with the hands, but you couldn't have done it without a computer because of all the tolerances that were involved. I mean, we had to have a computer set up a piece of equipment that would scan each piece and make sure it was. tolerance of what the computer model was and the tolerance for each piece is like a 32nd vintage. So, you know, and then you have 168 of those to put together and, the tolerances are, are no less stringent. [00:13:24] Randall: Well, and you have this thing that's mirror polished. So It doesn't just have to look good on its own. This mirror Polish is going to reveal any sort of imperfection in the surface whatsoever and distort the image. [00:13:35] Nick: It absolutely does, and reflecting the skyline the city scape, you know, with all the structures that are running plumbing, horizontal that grid work shows up shows any sort of mistake in the reflection on the piece. [00:13:50] Randall: I hope to make it out there in person at some point before, too long to, to check it out, but just seeing the imagery in some videos of it, it's it's quite an achievement, I mean, it's one thing to design such a thing and imagine such a thing, but, this So. much about the execution of that, that is really a wonder, so well done there. And that's not the only large scale sculpture you've been involved with. That is a, probably a pretty well-known there's, there's another one that was outside the mountain bike hall of fame for some time. You know, I talk about that and how that came about. [00:14:20] Nick: Sure. So that's still there and that's, that's something that's sort of. You know, back in 2011, up here on the coast, we were trying to have a little put together a little fat tire festival to sort of open up the area to people from surrounding areas. Let them know that we have some trail riding up here. There was some stuff happening in the way of mountain biking and. Someone asked me to build some signage for this, for, you know, to put out there to advertise this. And you know, I'm a sculptor, right. I don't do flat stuff. So I've sort of scratched my head for a few days and wandered around the property. And, you know, I realized I had these two big tractor tires sitting here off of a John Deere tractor. And I thought, you know what? I'll just make a big bike. I mean, that, that works is advertising as well as anything. And at that point, I was riding, riding, riding Ibis mojo when their carbon full suspension bikes. And I thought I just modeled well model the big one after that. So, you know, I, I I took a photo of the bike and put it on an opaque projector. Proper scale on the walls here and to lay out of the frame and transferred that to a piece of plywood and cut that out and started building to that frame. And slowly went at it. So, and it was through working on this thing, you know, and I got to know many of the people over at Ibis and my wife, again, Amy, my wife, she contacted Scott nickel. And send him some photos, which I knew he was like, great. I got some bone heads out here in the woods that think they're making sort of an Ibis bike. Right. And because a photo shows two big tractor tires will apply with cutout out the frame and it's like, okay, what are these knuckle heads up to? And but she continued to communicate with them and, you know, send them photos as updates and, and you know, as I. Nearing completion in this thing, he thought, okay, maybe this is actually going to turn out to be something kind of cool and tail end of me working on. And it's called Ibis Maximus tail end of working on IVIS Maximus. Scott asked me one day, it's like, so Nick, what's your day job that, you know, you're able to do this. And at that point I just sent him a photo of the bean and he's like, oh, Okay, carry on. So anyhow, it was through making this big bike that I got to know Scott, and then then many of the other partners down there in Ibis, in Santa Cruz. So all of which are a great bunch of people. So I've been very fortunate to get to know them. [00:17:03] Randall: And how did it end up at the mountain bike hall of fame in fairfax, California. [00:17:07] Nick: were trying to figure out where to put it. It must've been Scott cause IVIS eventually bought it, cause it was sitting up here, not really doing anything. It was sort of lawn art and I believe it was probably Scott that was looking to place it. And, of course he knows all the old guard down there and, and Fairfax and. Joe breeze who runs the place is, you know, he, I believe he mentored Scott for a little while, early on, so they, they know one another. And so I think Scott set this up and, then segwayed over to Joe breeze. [00:17:41] Randall: So, as somebody who runs a small bicycle brand, I can just say like what a cool, that must be to actually have one of your bikes, especially something very iconic. Like that's a very distinctive looking frame. If some bozo in the woods, up in Mendocino county ever wants to make a, make a giant version of one of our bikes. I'd be happy to oblige, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, [00:18:04] Nick: Okay. I'll keep that mind. [00:18:06] Randall: So, all right, so now you're, you're in Mendocino. You've come back from doing the bean. You've cleared your lands. What'd you end up doing from there? [00:18:14] Nick: So back from Chicago foundations in, from the house by then, I mean, it'd been in maybe a couple of years by that point, came back and, and started building our house and studio and earnest. And our house and studio are actually two old temper frame barns that we dismantled back in Ohio. There were a hundred plus years old. They're all Morrison, tenon, wooden pegs, holding them together. Something we had. Going back in 2000 and dismantled in Ohio. [00:18:43] Randall: And when you say we, you mean like you and your family? Yeah. [00:18:46] Nick: yeah, Amy and my kids who were 12 and 14 at that point. And, and then Amy's parents and her brother came out for a week and I had a good friend of mine. That came out with his new girlfriend from Manhattan to kind a hand for a week. And then I had a buddy that, that we paid to come out there for the three weeks that it actually took us to dismantle this. So that was a great project. I had a lot of fun and for my kids, it was the first time for them being back in the Midwest and it's sort of familiar stomping grounds to me, you know, I'm not from that particular. We, where we dismantled the Barnes, but I am from Northeast Ohio and the lightening bugs were all off familiar. My kids got to see that sort of stuff and they got to play with fireworks for the first time. [00:19:29] Randall: And again you know, the space up there is one of the more special spaces I've ever visited. You have me up there, I think three, four years ago. And. The home is beautiful and that's one of the bonds. Right. And then the back section of the workshop it makes me think of Craig Cathy's. South of Santa Cruz or in the Santa Cruz area it's another one of these places where you just have tools and projects everywhere and it has a certain degree of organization, but a sufficient amount of, of, of chaos. And you can tell it's, it's like a place where a lot of experimentation happens. A lot of creativity happens. And just the number of specialized tools that you have many of which you've made, it's really, really cool to see. And you occasionally hold exhibits up there too, right? [00:20:10] Nick: Open studio from time to time. And I'm hoping to do that again this year. If COVID actually is settling down, you're going to open the place back up again. So got lots of new work going on and it's good to invite people in, let them see the work that I'm working on, but also let them see the space that it's actually created in too, because I think that that puts a different spin on things and it gives people a little more insight to what's going on. [00:20:34] Randall: Yeah. And in fact, there's a, you have a video on. your website now, remind me the URL for your. [00:20:40] Nick: So website is jnicktaylor.com. Instagram is a good place to see what's what's current and it's the same, same J Nick Taylor. [00:20:49] Randall: Well, the website does have this really nice video that shows you and your studio working on some of your pieces. And then there's a number of your pieces. Put on a. Pan so that you can get a 3d view of it and you work in different various materials, metal, and wood. You work on things that can fit. What are your smaller pieces and what are your bigger pieces and talk actually, lets you do that. Talk a bit about like the type of work that you do and the inspiration for it. [00:21:17] Nick: So I'm working in metal or wood. I rarely combined the two materials. So my studio is kind of divided up in half. One, ended up doing metalwork on the other end. I'm doing woodwork in all the pieces. These days are pretty much inspired by nature. You know, my act or environment, they don't necessarily make reference to any one, given any one given thing. But probably a lot of different elements of what one might experience if they were out in nature. So the work is pretty organic. The metal work I'm, I'm doing a lot of welding forging grinding to get the shapes. Their scale can range anywhere from about two feet in height to I'm working on something right now it's about seven feet. So some, you know, some stuff's tabletop and size. So other pieces are certainly floor standing pieces. Larger, you know, largest wood pieces. I mean, what pieces. I'll tend to be a little larger. You know, they stand for, you know, maybe four feet up to about nine feet. They also are very organic, but some of them are carved from single pieces of wood. And other pieces are a composite of pieces that are glued up and then carved back into. So all of them are very in a hands-on very labor intensive. I'm getting three to four pieces done a year, a larger piece, whether it be metal or wood can take me 10 months to a year alone to work on so that a lot of hand work. And I've just, haven't figured out a way to expedite that. You know, I keep looking, keep trying to figure out ways to move faster, but it always seems to come back to hand work. [00:22:56] Randall: Well, And just looking on some of the imagery, I've seen a few of these pieces in person, and there are pieces that are very clearly flowing with the contours of the wood that you're working with, but then there's also some vision that's imposed on it to some degree as well. Some of your metalwork, there's pieces that for me, looked like, contorted musical instruments and every angle tells a different story and evokes a different set of feelings and images . It's very abstract. And very interesting. Looking at your work, it really draws one in to explore it from different angles. [00:23:30] Nick: And that's really important. You know, when I was a kid and in school art school, one of the things that was hammered into me was, any given piece of sculpture should invite you to walk all the way around it and explore it. You shouldn't be able to stand on one side of it and know what's happening on the other side. So it should shift and change and draw you in and draw you around the given piece. [00:23:53] Randall: So let's bring the bike back into the conversation. How does the bike fit into your process or your day to day or week to week routine? [00:24:04] Nick: So, these days unfortunate enough to be in the studio four days a week, full time on interrupted. But I can only be in the studio for those four days. And then I'm like maxed out, I can't put any more time in, I've got to put my head in a different space. And so I spent two days on the bike, out in the woods. So here in Fort Bragg Mendocino area, we've got, we've got really nice trail system. And then we also have unlimited number of gravel roads. I mean, much of our mountain biking is in Jackson demonstration, state forest. If I'm not mistaken, they have a minimum of 300 miles of gravel road in there. Right. And then there are all these entities that bought up against Jackson's demonstration state forest. You have big river state park, you've got conservation fund. And then north of Jackson, you have lime timber now, lime timber and conservation fund land. You have to have permission to be on their property. But I think, conservation fund certainly gives that pretty readily and I've never heard of anybody having an issue on online timber and lime timber is 150,000 acres. Right? Jackson demonstrations state forest is, is just under 50,000 acres, big river state park is like 7,500 acres and conservation fund. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I think there are 30 to 40,000 acres. In all of these places have gravel roads running around on them. Right. I'm sure you could chain this stuff all together and, and get up into use hall, which is about an hour north of here. And, and, you've got unlimited resource up there for variety and gravel roads as well. [00:25:43] Randall: And you're involved in a lot of the trail building up there as well. [00:25:46] Nick: That's my, the form of sculpting. Sculpting the landscape since I've been a little kid was a little kid and working out doors it's part of my core as part of what I really love doing. So I it's like I run a trail crew up here work in, and we're building, maintaining and building trails and Jackson demonstration, state forest. And we're doing that in conjunction with Cal fire and Cal fire are the Stewart's the managers of the forest. So we've got a 10 year relationship that we've developed with them and And it's going strong. You know, we've currently got some projects going. Everything these days is being hand dug though. Two years ago we had had a new experience with getting some trails machine belt and we got to two and a quarter mile trail machine built that we were able to lay out and, and. Through a sponsor, a one track mind, better known as OTM who funded it. We were able to build this new trail that connected a bunch of other stuff together and made for a better trail system. [00:26:46] Randall: So, for listeners, you want to explore this area, want to learn more about it and get a toe in the water, what resources are available, what clubs are available to get a handle on what you're describing, which is this massive amount of space that you could very easily get lost in and not necessarily find the best trails [00:27:05] Nick: So the trail work that I'm doing is, is under or with Mendocino coast, cyclists, where the local cycle group. I could be contacted through them or the club president, Dan sweet could be contacted and we can set you up, we can be found on Facebook under Mendocino coast, cyclists. That's probably the easiest way. I'm sort of thinking this through. I'm thinking out loud. And we have group rides, so that have been closed during COVID, but I think they're beginning to open those back up and people can join these group rides and they typically are happening three times a week, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. But we also, there's a list serve if you're a club member, this is probably the best way to get any sort of information is if you join the club you can get on a listserv and you can get all the chatter that's going on and you get notifications of rides. You can ask questions if you're trying to find, find your way around for the first time. [00:27:58] Randall: Very cool. so before we finish up, you've mentioned your wife, Amy and, you know, sounds like a pretty extraordinary woman to have supported, everything from buying a plot of land in the middle of nowhere, well, not the middle of nowhere in a very beautiful area, but, a good distance from the city to going out with you and the kids and, tearing down some barns and so on. Tell us about that dynamic. [00:28:21] Nick: Well, Amy's a pretty extraordinary person and she's been game to go on a lot of adventures, and are adventures that we've developed together. She's a brilliant person. She's very capable. She tolerates me. She has her own business, a land use permit agent up here on the coast. She's the go-to person. If you wanted to develop anything in the coastal zone [00:28:43] Randall: Clearly cares about the work that you do in doing things like, reaching out to people like Scott Nichols over at IBUs to get attention on your projects and so on. [00:28:51] Nick: Yep. [00:28:52] Randall: Well, is there anything else that you'd like to discuss while we're on the pod today? [00:28:55] Nick: I think that pretty well, does it, I mean, please, please visit the website and Instagram and let me know what you think. And if you happen to be up this way and Mendocino Fort Bragg area, give a shout out. So we love showing people around and the riding up here is pretty extraordinary. And if you want to, you know, if you like being out in the woods, doing mountain biking, you can, you can go for all day rides and not see anybody up here at all. You know, if you're riding during the week, which is pretty extraordinary to have the woods to yourself. [00:29:25] Randall: Yeah, I can definitely relate to that. Well, we will be sure to get some links in the show notes for this episode, for anyone looking to connect with you or to learn more about the Mendocino trail network. Nick, it's been great catching up with you. It's been some time and as I mentioned, I had been looking forward to it for quite a while and really appreciate you joining us. [00:29:45] Nick: Well, thank you very much for having me on Randall. And it says really nice and it's good to spend a little time with you as well. Don't see you often enough these days. [00:29:54] Randall: we'll try to rectify that later on this year, make a trip up the coast. [00:29:58] Nick: Alrighty you take care of man. [00:30:00] Randall: Be well be well [00:30:01] Craig Dalton: That's going to do it for this week's edition of the gravel ride podcast. Thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoyed that interview. Between Randall and Nick Taylor. Be sure to check out Nick's extraordinary work@jnicktaylor.com. Or on Instagram at Jane, Nick Taylor. We'll have links for these as well as the IVIS Maximus and cloud gate in the show notes. If you're interested in connecting with myself or Randall, please visit us@theridership.com. That's www.theridership.com. Join our global cycling community. Everything's free. And I'm sure you'll get a lot out of the interactions with your fellow gravel athletes and also your hosts here at the gravel ride podcast. If you're interested in supporting the podcast, you can visit us@buymeacoffee.com slash the gravel ride. Additionally ratings and reviews are hugely helpful. And with that until next time here's to finding some dirt onto your wheels

Eric Vermillion is the CEO of Helpshift, a San Francisco based company that develops mobile customer support software that helps companies provide better customer support in mobile apps. Before Helpshift, Eric was instrumental in advancing BlueCat to one of Canada's most notable software exits, and also helped grow revenue at NICE Systems to over $1 Billion. He has also held sales and leadership roles at PTC, Tecnomatix and Triad Systems Corporation. Eric holds a Bachelor's degree in management from Purdue University.   Questions   We like to give our guest an opportunity to do their own introduction in their own words, can you just tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are today? Can you tell us a little bit about what Helpshift does? Do you see mobile applications advancing even more in the whole development of customer experience on a global level? Or do you find people are looking for more opportunities where they can have more face-to-face interactions and less interaction with the digital or the technological side of things? Metaverse, there are a lot of people who still have a little bit of apprehension in relation to that whole emergence of that, what it represents, how to interface with it. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think it's something that will become the norm? How do you think people can adjust to it feeling more comfortable because it's so different and generally speaking, human beings just don't adjust to change very readily. Could you share with us what's the one online resource, tool, website, or app that you absolutely can't live without in your business? Could you also share with our audience, maybe one or two books that have had the biggest impact on you? It could be a book that you read recently, or even one that you read a long time ago, but it still has impacted you in a very great way. We have a lot of listeners who are business owners and managers, who feel they have great products and services, but they lack the constantly motivated human capital. If you were sitting across the table from that person, what's the one piece of advice that you would give them to have a successful business? What's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about - either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. Where can listeners find you online? Do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you will tend to revert to this quote, it kind of helps to get you back on track if for any reason you got derailed or just kind of helps to get you back refocused.   Highlights   Eric's Journey   Eric shared that he spent his entire career in the world of software, pretty good chunk of it on the sales end of things. He kind of got lucky coming out of Purdue University, when all his friends were taking jobs at places like John Deere and Caterpillar and Anderson Consulting, I found the Bay area software company to join and kind of fell in love with technology and software. So, he's spent his career helping people use technology to create value. And he's spent a big chunk of it in the world of customer service, he was at NICE for 8 years and got to be a part of things when kind of this whole omni channel trend happened. After he left NICE, he did a couple of other software plays in the world of identity management and IT security with blue cat, he found his way back and spent the last 3 years in Helpshift trying to really redefine what good customer service looks like for mobile apps and using more mobile devices more effectively.   What Does Helpshift do?   When asked about what Helpshift does, Eric shared that if you think of the your mobile phone, you probably engage with a lot of mobile apps on a day to day basis. Most people do and that's a trend that is rapidly increasing. They help brands use that mobile app to create essentially an orchestration tool for consumers to drive a very elegant customer experience. So, when you're in the mobile app you got typically it's the mobile app knows who you are, there's some context to the situation. And so, their customers are able to really provide their consumers with a much more elegant logical flow within the mobile app, allowing them to really self-serve much more effectively and by the time they actually get to an agent or human if they need to, because it's a more complex problem, or they're a blue-chip customer. A lot of the problems already been solved, the context is there for the agents, so they can become a bit more like a concierge or a personal assistant than then the traditional view of what we would think of as a customer service agent.   Mobile Applications Advancing to Develop Customer Experience   Me: Do you see mobile applications advancing even more in the whole development of customer experience on a global level? Or do you find people are looking for more opportunities where they can have more face-to-face interactions and less interaction with the digital or the technological side of things?   Eric stated that those are two separate interesting questions. He thinks after what we've all been through in the last couple of years with COVID, he'd be surprised if there's anyone in the world that isn't craving a little bit more face-to-face interaction. So, he does think people want that, but he's not sure that customer service is the place where they're striving for more kind of face to face, human to human interaction.   People are busy, people's schedules have changed and evolved a lot over the last couple of years, people tend to do a lot more working remotely, they tend to have schedules that are not very standard and typical, so they want to be able to find resolution to their problems whenever they want, wherever they want, at whatever time of day they want and that's something that he thinks companies are going to have to continue to adapt to.   And one thing that we know is true is that there were 2 million mobile apps that were created last year and there'll be more than that that are created this year. People tend to carry their mobile device with them, all the time 24/7, for most of us it's sitting next to our bed even at night. And so, it is this tool that's on our person 24 hours a day and when used properly, it can be an incredibly powerful tool for accessing support and creating a support engagement that really fits your needs and your schedule as a consumer, whenever and wherever you want.   He also thinks that when you think about some of the other trends that are going on in the world, like the emergence of this thing, everyone's calling the metaverse, other kind of distributed commerce technologies, like blockchain and web3, and other digital commerce trends that are happening in the world, most of those actually are accessed through mobile devices and through mobile apps as well. So, it's a trend that he thinks would be hard to find any reason that it's not going to continue to grow and kind of grow exponentially.   Metaverse, How Can People Adjust to it Feeling More Comfortable Because It's So Different   Me: I'm glad you mentioned the metaverse, because there are a lot of people who still have a little bit of apprehension in relation to that whole emergence of that, what it represents, how to interface with it. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think it's something that will become the norm? How do you think people can adjust to it feeling more comfortable because it's so different and generally speaking, human beings just don't adjust to change very readily.   Eric stated that all very good and fair points. He thinks that a lot of people's view of the metaverse is driven by the images, or the headlines that they see about broken virtual reality experiences, they think the metaverse as kind of a 3D VR kind of gaming environment and to a certain extent, it largely is in 2022, but the evolution of it is happening very, very fast.   And for him, he envision this world, not so many years from now, the technology is there to make this happen right now, where maybe he has a meeting with someone who is sitting in Japan, speaks only Japanese, someone who's in Brazil that speaks only Portuguese, someone in France who speaks only French, and himself in a room having a meeting, in a virtual environment in real time collaborating on some project where they all understand each other, and they can effectively communicate and collaborate in a way, that's just not possible today, and kind of a purely physical world.   And so, he thinks there's just so many applications for it like that really impacted us in a positive way, in a professional environment, in an educational environment, from a healthcare perspective that gets taken granted a lot today when people just think of the metaverse is kind of this scary 3D video game. And all of those things that he just described, of course, are also going to have commerce that comes alongside of them and ownership and digital rights that around and a lot of that is being handled today or will likely be handled through blockchain technology.   And so, you have this kind of parallel digital existence that happens with all of this commerce, would be naive to think that that's not going to create a lot of support issues and a lot of support challenges. And jumping from that world, out into the more physical world to pick up the phone and make a phone call or send someone an email is highly impractical when you think about it. So, he thinks support tools are going to have to evolve as well to be able to handle some of those changes.   App, Website or Tool that Eric Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business   When asked about an online resource that he cannot live without in his business, Eric stated that it's probably pretty boring, but he spent a big chunk of his day in G Suite, from kind of managing the calendar to all the collaboration that happens over the tools. So that's a pretty boring one because they spend a lot of time talking about mobile apps, he would maybe add a bonus that he travels a lot and he'd really struggle if he didn't have his American Airlines app, that's kind of how he gets from place to place anymore. So that's one that he tends to use a great deal as well.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Eric   When asked about books that have had the biggest impact, Eric stated that he's a big fan of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins, that's just that's one of those timeless books, the concept of the whole hedgehog principle and really having that one thing that you're laser focused on, and the whole organization is laser focused on, that you want to be known for. As well as the concept of having the right people on the bus, even if you don't know where they will sit. Those are just concepts that resonates with him very well with him, and philosophies that he tends to use and in his own management style.   On a more kind of non-business level, he's a big fan of Bob Goff as well. He's got a very fascinating story. His first book, which is called Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World, is still his favourite of the ones that he's written. He's written a few since that he thinks that was probably 10 years old at this point. But he tends to really love experiences, he thinks Bob does a great job sharing interesting experiences and the lessons you can take from each one in an extremely interesting way.   Advice for Business Owners and Managers to Have a Successful Business   Me: We have a lot of listeners who are business owners and managers, who feel they have great products and services, but they lack the constantly motivated human capital. If you were sitting across the table from that person, what's the one piece of advice that you would give them to have a successful business?   Eric stated that you know that you're a coach, you're not just a manager. He saw this clip in the last few days of Nick Saban, the Alabama football coach that's highly regarded and very well known. He stepped in and prevented a player from sharing a piece of cake with another player. So, they have this spring game every year, where they play against their own teammates, and the losing team gets beans and franks and the winning team gets a steak dinner with chocolate cake. And the winning teammate wanted to share a piece of cake with his really good friend that was on the losing team and Saban saw it and shut it down.   And he just loves that because losing hurts, and it should hurt and that's how you know you don't want to do it anymore. And he thinks people sometimes need to realize that they have an obligation as a leader, as a manager, to also be a coach and not just a manager. His job is really to help everyone who works for him to perform at a high level, and to help prepare them for their next job or even help them get their next job. And he thinks too many managers forget that often. And you can't buy your way out of that responsibility no matter how much you're paying for someone.   And then in this world where human capital and good human capital is very hard to come by, and often very expensive, losing sight of that responsibility to really coach and help a person be prepared for whatever's next, it's one of those things you take for granted if you're just trying to sometimes pay top dollar for people because you think that'll automatically make them the best at things, which is not the case.   Me: I totally agree. One of the things that we talk about a lot as well as a customer service trainer is that the most important role of the leader is to grow and develop people because as you mentioned before, you want to have people around you who are robust, who are efficient, who are intrinsically motivated to do what they're employed to do, but at the same time, they feel like they have some purpose and for them to feel like they have some purpose, they have to feel like they're a part of a bigger goal other than collecting a salary. So, I do quite agree with you that leaders are coaches even though a lot of them may not look at themselves as a coach, I like that phrase that you put it as.   What Eric is Really Excited About Now!   Eric shared that from a people perspective, the pandemic has created a lot of confusion around what work looks like and you hear a lot of companies talking about they're going to be remote only or they're going to be office only or they're going to be hybrid or like lots of different things that people are calling this thing. He spent most of his career as a remote employee and it's hard, it is not something that there's a kind of a playbook or a handbook out there to do. And it was harder before Zoom and messaging and always available internet, but it's still hard.   And he believes very strongly that companies need to have a framework for expectations and that's something that they've been continuing to work on a lot as a company. Expectations on what's expected of you as an employee, and that is independent of physical location, that is just what's expected of you as an employee, he doesn't really care where you sit, if you're doing those things, he doesn't care where you sit. He doesn't care if you're physically in an office or remote. If you're following those guidelines and principles of what they stand for as an organization and using the technology to do that, if you're doing it like that, he doesn't really care where you work from. He thinks a lot of companies think that they can kind of hand you a bag of cool technology and software, and it will make you a great remote worker but it just unfortunately doesn't always work that way, you have to teach people what's expected, inspect it regularly and then drag them back into the office when it's too hard or people are just not able to kind of cope with that very unstructured environment that you have at home, not everyone can do it. And frankly, not everyone wants to and so that's professionally.   On a personal level, he did get a Peloton a few months ago so he's been loving that and trying to take off his own COVID-19.   Where Can We Find Eric Online   Website - www.helpshift.com/ LinkedIn – Helpshift LinkedIn – Eric Vermillion   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Eric Uses   When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Eric shared that his favourite quote is the Wayne Gretzky quote, or at least he thinks it's widely attributed to Wayne Gretzky, which is “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.”   Me: All right. And that's a good one. How do you think people can apply that in this whole environment that we're operating in? As you mentioned, we're emerging out of this global pandemic, even though we're not fully emerged out of it, people are trying to just kind of get their life back into some form of semblance. So, with all of that in play and there's also I think a lot of people are still experiencing a lot of fear and anxiety because they don't know what to expect. How do you think that quote can help people to really raise the bar?   Eric stated that he thinks it can be a motivating factor for you. He's definitely a person that's fairly easily amused and he's very much an experience person, he doesn't particularly care about stuff and things, and he thinks for a lot of people over the last couple of years, they've had to figure out more interesting ways to entertain themselves versus going out and kind of buying stuff and looking more for satisfaction through material things. Every day is really a new opportunity to learn something, pain tends to create intelligence, practice creates perfection and that kind of galvanizes you.   He thinks that every person that he meets is a new lesson, every person that he has had an opportunity to help in some way is literally currency for him, it makes him feel wealthy, even if it doesn't add a penny to his own bank account. And every time he gets a chance to experience a new city or a new restaurant, or make a new friend, it makes him feel wealthier than the day before. And he think that's one of those things that every one of us can remember, every one of us that's above ground and breathing has all those opportunities every single day to like add those experiences, add those things that do make you wealthier in a non-monetary way, and never miss a chance to take one of those shots and being aware of that he thinks is an incredibly motivating thing.   Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners   Links Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience   Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.”   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

Get the latest agriculture news in today's AgNet News Hour, hosted by Danielle Leal. Today's show covers farm groups opposing NEPA changes,  John Deere partnering with GUSS, learning the basics of IPMs and the stats on the record breaking highs for avocado sales in 2021 fall and winter. Tune in to the show for these news stories, interviews, features and more.

Dru Montana, Na'im Ali and Rob Crews are joined by Tim Butterly from Dad Meat Podcast to discuss why everything is fake, drill rap, John Deere lawn mowers, the gay off finals and much more. Live every Monday, 8 PM @ Raven Lounge. @duragandthedeertag @timbutterly @dru_montana @naim__ali @theattentionhorse @durrdeedeedz @samanthaiamantha @mike_choch

Today's guest is Neil Dahlstrom, the archivist and historian for John Deere and author of Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture. In today's episode, business wars hits the farm! Neil's book is a case study on the evolution of the tractor industry and it's importance during a time the world was experiencing a global plague, World War & food shortages.  We touch on all the major players, including a young Henry Ford. We even walk through he different strategies each company took around pricing and distribution.    As we wind down, we touch on the future of the industry with things like autonomous tractors and drone technology. ----- Follow Meb on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube For detailed show notes, click here To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com ----- This episode is sponsored by AcreTrader. AcreTrader is an investment platform that makes it simple to own shares of farmland and earn passive income, and you can start investing in just minutes online. For more information on how to become a farmland investor through their platform, please visit acretrader.com/meb.

"Before John Deere, Ford, and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. From 1908 to 1928, against the backdrop of a world war and economic depression, these brands were engaged in a race to introduce the tractor and revolutionize farming." Neil Dahlstrom is the author of The John Deere Story: A Biography of Plowmakers John and Charles Deere, and Lincoln's Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels, and a President's Mission to Destroy the Press. Since the release of these two books he's built a career in corporate archives, agricultural and brand history. Today, Neil is the Manager of Archives and History at John Deere. Neil has appeared on The History Channel, NatGEO, PBS, and Book TV. He's a member of the Kitchen Cabinet, the Food and Agriculture Advisory Board of The Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and was recently chair of the Society of American Archivists Business Archives Section and the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Listen to this episode in which he discusses the little-remembered story described in his latest book, Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of American Agriculture. You can learn more about this book, as well as Neil's other works at his website, www.neildahlstrom.com. Follow him on Twitter @neil_dahlstrom or connect on Facebook @authorneildahlstrom. His books are available through Amazon or other booksellers.

Rapha Avellar, CEO e fundador da Adventures, revela os segredos das campanhas de marketing mais bem sucedidas da atualidade e explica como os empreendedores podem realizar ações que gerem resultados extraordinários. > Ouça no Spotify. > A Nuvemshop oferece o primeiro mês grátis e mais 90 dias de isenção completa de tarifas. Cadastre-se agora na Nuvemshop. Mostre ao mundo do que você é capaz e crie sua loja online na Nuvemshop. > Da automação inteligente ao gerenciamento de nuvem mais simples. vamos criar algo que mude tudo. IBM. Vamos criar. Saiba mais em ibm.com/br/lets-create/ > Conheça o iFood Benefícios e saiba como melhorar a oferta de benefícios na sua empresa. Acesse e saiba mais. > Você é vende pela internet? Conheça a Koin e veja como oferecer boleto parcelado para os seus clientes. > Betterfly é a plataforma que une vida saudável, seguro de vida dinâmico e bem-estar para toda a sua organização. Conheça e saiba mais. Sobre o entrevistado Rapha Avellar é CEO e fundador da Adventures, maior ecossistema de marcas nativas digitais da América Latina. Ele já dirigiu ações de amplo alcance, como a live de Marília Mendonça, que bateu o recorde mundial de audiência no YouTube, com mais de 3 milhões de espectadores simultâneos, e lidera estratégias para marcas como Stone, TikTok, Resso, Tinder, Disney, John Deere, Sabin, RiHappy, Zap, TradeMap e muitas outras líderes globais. Ele também é fascinado por esportes: já completou dois desafios Ironman, escalou duas das sete montanhas mais altas do mundo e está se preparando para escalar o Everest em 2025 — tudo com muito estudo e treinamento.

In this episode, we interview Willy Pell, VP of Autonomy, from Blue River technology. Willy goes deep on how AI and machine learning are core to the automation of John Deere tractors and discusses how important this is to the future of agriculture. Blue River Technology was acquired by John Deere in 2017 and is now a core part of the next generation of John Deere tractors, implements and making farming easier. Willy talks about the parallels between autonomous driving the autonomous control of farming equipment.

De autonome trekker van Krone en Lemken, Trelleborg verkoopt bandendivisie en John Deere bouwt elektrische robottrekker. Dit en meer in het Mechaman Maandoverzicht van maart 2022.

Russell Hildebrand --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beer-money-pulling-team/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/beer-money-pulling-team/support

Free Farm Friday- Why John Deere Is Becoming Big Ag's Skynet And What To Do About It Free Farm Friday- Why John Deere Is Becoming Big Ag's Skynet And What To Do About It On The Mike Church Show Our Readers And Listeners Keep Us In Print & On The Air! Click here to subscribe to The CRUSADE Channel's Founders Pass Member Service & Gain 24/7 Access to Our Premium, New Talk Radio Service. www.crusadechannel.com/go What Is The Crusade Channel? The CRUSADE Channel, The Last LIVE! Radio Station Standing begins our LIVE programming day with our all original CRUSADE Channel News hosted by award winning,  25 year news veteran Janet Huxley. Followed by LIVE! From London, “The Early Show with Fiorella Nash & Friends. With the morning drive time beginning we bring out the heavy artillery The Mike Church Show! The longest running, continual, long form radio talk show in the world at the tender age of 30 years young! Our broadcast day progresses into lunch, hang out with The Barrett Brief Show hosted by Rick Barrett “giving you the news of the day and the narrative that will follow”. Then Kennedy Hall and The Kennedy Profession drives your afternoon by “applying Natural Law to an unnatural world”!    The CRUSADE Channel also features Reconquest with Brother André Marie, The Fiorella Files Book Review Show, The Frontlines With Joe & Joe and your favorite radio classics like Suspense! and CBS Radio Mystery Theater. We've interviewed hundreds of guests, seen Brother Andre Marie notch his 200th broadcast of Reconquest; The Mike Church Show over 1500 episodes; launched an original LIVE! News Service; written and produced 4 Feature Length original dramas including The Last Confession of Sherlock Holmes and set sail on the coolest radio product ever, the 5 Minute Mysteries series! Combined with our best in the business LIVE! Coverage of every major political/cultural event of the last 6 years including Brexit, Trump's Election, Administration events, shampeachment, the CoronaDoom™, the 2020 Election and resulting Biden Regime's Coup d;'tat, January 6th Psy-op and now the attempt to make Russia and Vladimir Putin out as the new Hitler and his Germany. "When News Breaks Out, We Break In!" because we truly are:   The Last, Live, Radio Station, Standing.

A Kamala Harris update on the price of oil. A great tutorial from Peter Temple on the nature of climate change. Great audio of a John Deere 1936 model B tractor. How to push back against your local DNR.

We share with you three of the interviews we had while in Louisville. First we catch up with a good friend Andy Pasztor and check in on his new soap1. David had our second conversation with Quint Pottinger who had the privilege of having his farmstead in the film SILO about grain bin safety. Lastly, we hear a heroic story from Dayne Jessup about how he went on the hunt for his grandpa's John Deere 4020.

Spring is just around the corner. It's so close I can feel it. The John Deere is back in the garage, and I'm getting a jump start on the putting green. Utah is starting to roll out water conservation strategies, and we may no longer need to worry about adjusting our clocks for daylight savings. It's another full episode of The Cherish Each Mowment podcast. https://jimmylewismows.com Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/jimmylewismows Join my email list: https://mailchi.mp/c1adc041e23e/email-list Keep up with me on social media: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jimmylewis_1/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/jimmylewis_1 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pg/jimmylewismows/ Email - jimmy@jimmylewismows.com My favorite lawn care products: https://jimmylewismows.com/favorites --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cherish-each-mowment/support

On this episode, we travel to Washington D.C. to highlight A Celebration of Modern Agriculture on the National Mall. We speak with John Deere's Chad Passman and Kubota's Todd Stucke about their companies' involvement in the event. We also hear about the state of the U.S. rice industry from USA Rice's Cameron Jacobs and learn about the work of the National Council of Farm Cooperatives from CEO Chuck Conner. Jesse Allen talks about trends in the corn market on this week's Market Talk report and Ray Bohacz is talking electrical wiring corrosion in this week's installment of “Bushels and Cents.” The episode also features the music of Will Banister.  Timestamps Intro/news: 0:00 Goatlifeclothing.com advertisement: 6:33 Chad Passman, John Deere: 6:53 Todd Stucke, Kubota: 11:40 Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice: 17:05 Chuck Conner, National Council of Farm Cooperatives: 22:03 Concept AgriTek advertisement: 29:25 Jesse Allen, Market Talk: 29:59 Ray Bohacz, “Bushels and Cents”: 36:45 Gateway Seed Co. advertisement: 38:15 Will Banister: 38:46

- U.S. New Car Sales Plummeting- Nikola Finally Starts Making Trucks- BYD and Shell Team Up for EV Charging- Ford Lightning Shows Off Towing Capability- Honda e:Ny1 is a New Electric SUV- Ferrari Sneak Peek of Purosangue SUV- Polestar 2 Single Motor is $4K Cheaper- John Deere's Massive 1,000 kWh EV Tractor- Ranking OEMs by Capex.

- U.S. New Car Sales Plummeting - Nikola Finally Starts Making Trucks - BYD and Shell Team Up for EV Charging - Ford Lightning Shows Off Towing Capability - Honda e:Ny1 is a New Electric SUV - Ferrari Sneak Peek of Purosangue SUV - Polestar 2 Single Motor is $4K Cheaper - John Deere's Massive 1,000 kWh EV Tractor - Ranking OEMs by Capex.

Move over ‘spic and span’ and ‘squeaky clean’, there’s a new measure of clean in town thanks to one southern Ontario man who’s hashtag #AndyClean, has taken over Twitter, gaining him the attention, and backing, of John Deere. Andy Pasztor is the man behind the brand #AndyClean and interestingly enough, although he was the muse... Read More

Food prices are escalating for the U.S. and around the world, Canadian Pacific Railroad engineers and conductors on strike are halting operations, President Biden is headed to Poland, John Deere relaxing restrictions for farmers to service their equipment, and Pro Farmer enters its 50th year of service. All this and a lot more in this week's D.C. Signal to Noise. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"On a medium-term basis, it is time to back up the John Deere excavator and scoop up as much gold and Bitcoin as you can afford. This is it, the start of a monetary regime change. Nothing lasts forever, and the days of Petro / Eurodollar supremacy are over. The phase shift will be chaotic, it will be volatile, it will morph, but it will 100% be MASSIVELY inflationary in fiat currency terms. There is no government, ever, that resisted the temptation to print money in order to pay its bills and placate its citizens. The government will never voluntarily go bankrupt. This is axiomatic. I challenge you to contradict me with evidence." - Arthur Hayes You are simply going to want to hear Hayes justification for this stance. We may very well be in the middle of one of the largest shifts in the global monetary structure in history. And remaining ignorant will no longer be a viable option. The US just cancelled the world's largest energy producer from the global financial network. What does that mean? Check out the original article and drop some applause at the link below. Plus, tons of other great linked content within the article and writing by Hayes that is always incredibly valuable on top of entertaining: https://cryptohayes.medium.com/energy-cancelled-e9f9e53a50cd Check out the Fountain app to test out the value-for-value system and listen to Bitcoin Audible for 1,000 free sats! Fountain.fm For the best products and services to get you started in Bitcoin, our sponsors are literally a handful of those that I use most in this space: • Get Bitcoin rewards on literally everything you buy with the Fold Card (guyswann.com/fold). Get 20% off with discount code BITCOINAUDIBLE. • Buy Bitcoin automatically and painlessly with SwanBitcoin (swanbitcoin.com/guy) • Keep your Bitcoin keys safe on the secure, open source BitBox02 (guyswann.com/bitbox). Discount code GUY gets you 5% off. • Get tickets to the biggest & most exciting Bitcoin conference in the universe! Bitcoin 2022 (guyswann.com/2022). 10% discount if you use code GUYSWANN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A long awaited tractor has just rolled off the John Deere assembly line for the first time ever. They call it a headless tractor. While we still wait for truly autonomous self-driving cars, John Deere has developed a $500,000 tractor with no seat, no steering wheel, no pedals and no farmer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we're going to talk about the value of storytelling for brands that continue to evolve as the role of technology continues to grow within even the most established of industries. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Jon Ebert, Manager, North American Public & Industry Relations at John Deere, a company that was founded in 1837, and continues to evolve and innovate, as its image continues to shift from being an equipment company to the tech company it truly is at heart.

Ag tech is poised to disrupt life on the farm. John Deere's new autonomous tractor uses stereo cameras, GPS guidance, and advanced AI to detect obstacles and navigate in the field. Farmers monitor and control it from a smartphone app. And it can free them from long days in the tractor seat, help ease labor shortages, and improve productivity and sustainability. . Deere also recently opened a tech center in Texas and acquired Silicon Valley startup Bear Flag Robotics and Austrian battery maker Kreisel Electric. . We spoke with Joseph Liefer, Senior Product Manager for Autonomy in the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group (and a farmer himself), about cutting-edge innovation and the farm of the future. .  ICYMI, here's our podcast with Bear Flag Robotics. . We'd love to hear from you. Share your comments, questions and ideas for future topics and guests to podcast@sae.org. Don't forget to take a moment to follow SAE Tomorrow Today (and give us a review) on your preferred podcasting platform. . Follow SAE on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Follow host Grayson Brulte on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

In this episode we discover how a John Deere employee swept Nick right off his feet!!

Today’s guests, Shannon and Judd Allen, are first-generation farmers who grow specialty cut flowers in Uniontown, Ohio, serving the Canton-Akron communities. A few weeks ago, Shannon reached out via email to let us know that John Deere, the tractor company based in Moline, Illinois, filmed and produced several videos about their small farm and their […] The post Episode 549: Local Flowers on the National Stage, Starring in a John Deere Commercial with Judd and Shannon Allen of Ohio’s Bloom Hill Farm appeared first on Slow Flowers Podcast with Debra Prinzing.

Move over, green-on-ground spray technology: green-on-green is here. And not just any green, John Deere green. Kaylene Ballesteros, product manager with John Deere, took RealAgriculture’s Kara Oosterhuis for a tour of the tech at Commodity Classic at New Orleans, Louisiana, last week. “This here is our See & Spray Ultimate. That is our in-season solution... Read More

Most farm equipment is manufactured by a very few industry giants like John Deere. Shutting farmers out of the ability to fix their equipment themselves or locally costs millions of dollars in lost opportunity, not to mention heightened costs for farmers. Right to repair has an impact on all of us, not just farmers. Learn more with Kevin O'Reilly, Director of the Right to Repair Campaign at US PIRG.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member!What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Most farm equipment is manufactured by a very few industry giants like John Deere. Shutting farmers out of the ability to fix their equipment themselves or locally costs millions of dollars in lost opportunity, not to mention heightened costs for farmers. Right to repair has an impact on all of us, not just farmers. Learn more with Kevin O'Reilly, Director of the Right to Repair Campaign at US PIRG.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support What Doesn't Kill You by becoming a member!What Doesn't Kill You is Powered by Simplecast.

Jeff Shudak, President of Western Iowa AFL-CIO, appeared on the America's Work Force Union Podcast to speak about the effects of anti-labor legislation in Iowa. He also explained how the AFL-CIO and Western Iowa Labor Federation have helped the striking workers at Kellogg's and John Deere.        United Auto Workers Legislative Coordinator Desiree Hoffman joined the podcast to discuss the future of the electric vehicle tax credits, the Striking Workers Healthcare Protection Act and how parts of the Build Back Better Bill may still become law one day.

Tuesday, on AOA, EPA released final Greenhouse Gas Emissions rules for cars and light trucks in December, and commodity groups argue they are favoring electric vehicles over liquid fueled options. One of those groups is the Iowa Soybean Associaiton, and their CEO Kirk Leeds talked about this issue. Then, Mike Stranz, VP of Advocacy for National Farmers Union, joined the show to discuss their recent complaint to the FTC about John Deere's repair policies. Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodities Economist with StoneX shared his expectations on tomorrow's USDA WASDE report. Mike ended the show by talking with Willie Vogt, of Farm Progress, about their recent special report on the Russia/Ukraine situation.

Welcome back to Mad Men & Tonic! Special episodes call for special guests, and in S3E6, “Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency,” Kristina and Elias' good friend Brit drops by to watch them drink Tom & Jerrys, give Guy McKendrick a proper send off, and illuminate her and Kristina's childhood adventures. No limbs were lost in the recording of this podcast, but we certainly had to lop off a number of specific references to people Brit and Kristina went to high school with. (A correction about 2 hours in - K says "Betty" when referring to something said by Peggy) https://www.instagram.com/madmenandtonic/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1484435/ https://www.liquor.com/recipes/tom-jerry/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h6k6eg_RmM The Office (post-it) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/01/dining/la-grenouille-nyc.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEgUFcxIR4o 30 Rock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmJudQW0GwM The Office (Jim looking into camera) https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/magazine/06wwln_safire.html Mumbai/Bombay https://blog.feedspot.com/indian_history_podcasts/ https://shop.mattel.com/pages/barbie (the page with the doll we mentioned was no longer up!) https://www.fashion-doll-guide.com/Vintage-Barbie-Bubblecut-Dolls.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qae25976UgA Werewolves of London https://twitter.com/skullmandible/status/411281851131523072?lang=en https://www.foodandwine.com/news/dairy-queen-upside-down-blizzard DQ blizzard test https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/profumo-resigns-in-sex-scandal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlu7S8dUUBY Home Alone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGAyQAkXajg Seinfeld https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTWG9iwQdlg 10 Things I Hate About You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugwj8452Ucs The Office (Stanley: that girl is a child) http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19630719,00.html Wikipedia: Pan Am; American Dreams; Magic City; Jeffrey Dean Morgan; Javier Bardem; Flotsam and Jetsam (Little Mermaid); Elf on a Shelf; John Deere; 2021 John Deere Strike; Conrad Hilton; Martin & Lewis; Cheers; The Beverly Hillbillies; Impeachment: American Crime Story; Oliver!; The Sound of Music; West Side Story; Chicago; Orientalism; Agatha Christie; Waldorf Astoria New York; Chateau Marmont; Quentin Tarantino; The 30% Iron Chef (Futurama S3E22), Conrad Hilton, The Simple Life, The Pickup Artist, Sliding Doors Moment, Woody Guthrie, Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mad-men-tonic/message

Earlier this year, John Deere unveiled revealed a fully autonomous tractor, available for large-scale production. The machine combines Deere's 8R tractor, TruSet-enabled chisel plow, GPS guidance system, and new advanced technologies. Tony dives into this release from John Deere and answers the questions growers have. Visit www.rdoequipment.com/more/resources/podcasts to find all episodes and view this episode's transcript.

John Deere is making moves in the battery space, and speaking of batteries, I've got some thoughts on how companies are comparing battery and gas equipment. Nascar built a temporary racetrack on top of a football field, and I want people to understand my hobby better. It's another full episode of the Cherish Each Mowment podcast. https://jimmylewismows.com Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/jimmylewismows Join my email list: https://mailchi.mp/c1adc041e23e/email-list Keep up with me on social media: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jimmylewis_1/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/jimmylewis_1 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pg/jimmylewismows/ Email - jimmy@jimmylewismows.com My favorite lawn care products: https://jimmylewismows.com/favorites --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cherish-each-mowment/support

Happy Valentine's Day! Is your preferred shade of green "John Deere?" Would you prefer a neon sign instead of a traditional headstone? Do you personally feel that a cargo light gives off a romantic glow? If you answered "YES" to all of these questions, we have the perfect episode for you! Join us as we discuss one of our personal favorites, the Pickup Man, Joe Diffie. We chat about all the hits, music videos, and even a secret Diffie family recipe...We also have a fresh installment of "This Day in Country Music History" as well as a Valentine's segment "Chatahoochee River of Love." Go follow/subscribe, rate (5 stars!) and share with your favorite folks. Chas with us on IG about your favorite Joe Diffie tracks over at @chatahoocheepodcast Search our Top Tracks and Newer than 90's playlists on Spotify! #BigDiffEnergy --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/chatahoocheepodcast/support