Podcast appearances and mentions of Rick West

Welcome back to another episode of the Best Kept Secret podcast show with your favorite DJ, Jon Lockley. Jon put a post up on his Facebook page recently asking what the people wanted to hear, got their suggestions, and spun the randomizer wheel. It must be fate, considering Jon resides in the "O-Town," as it landed on Florida Breaks. If you don't know what Florida Breaks are, then you might be too young or hate history. Either way, let's break it down for you.  Florida Breaks is funky but futuristic, and dirty but danceable. It was a staple in Florida club scenes, warehouse parties, and raves, especially from the late ‘90s to mid-2000s. Picture neon lights, palm trees, and sweaty dancefloors filled with breakdancing and bass-hungry ravers. The Lockstar has rummaged through his old vinyl, searched the internet far and wide, and found some of the absolute staple tracks from back in the day. Some of these tracks are 25-30 years old, but could still rock a dancefloor today. It includes tracks from some of the pioneers like Tony Faline, DJ Icey, Infiniti, Rick West, DJ Sharaz and more. Get ready for some Miami bass, some funky drummin', some scratchin', and melodic hooks that bring back that nostalgic feel. As always, if you like what you're hearing, like, comment and share. Enjoy the journey! Oh, there's one special bonus track at the end.Tracklist:1.       Jackal & Hyde-Freaks Come Out at Night(Night of the Living Bassheads Mix)2.       Infiniti-Running Away3.       Sugarwood-Break @ Dawn4.       DJ Volume & DJ Sharaz-Get Loose(DJ Sharaz Mix)5.       Tony Faline-Break Down6.       DJ Fixx-Don't Stop7.       DJ Fixx-Rock That Beat8.       The All Star Breakers-Break to the Bass9.       DJ Icey-Talk To ‘Em10.   Brad Smith-Let The Beat Hit “Em11.   Mike & Charlie-I Get Live(Dave London Mix)12.   Kosheen-Catch(Brad Smith Mix)13.   Paul Van Dyk-We Are Alive(DJ Icey's Arctic Bass Mix)14.   Electronic Love(Freestyle Project Mix)15.   West Coast Prost!-Beer Barrel Polka(Roll Out the Barrel)

Send us a textTribute to a giant in Newfoundland-Labrador music; accordionist, humourist and band leader Frank Maher, including reviews, tributes, and interviews with Frank and the members of his band “The Mahers Bars” (Jean Hewson, Christina Smith and Rick West).https://www.facebook.com/ron.moores.18

We bring Rick West back to the show to talk about what's next for him and Field Agent's recent acquisition of Shelfgram. In this episode, we explore what those early days were like for Rick before Field Agent became the titan in its industry it is today, and as his role changes... what the future might look like for this longtime entrepreneur.    Want to connect with Rick? Reach out via his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01/   This episode is sponsored by Best Option Restoration of Northwest Arkansas. Are you looking for the trusted answer when disaster strikes in your home? Whether its water damage, fire damage, or mold, Best Option Restoration are the perfect answer for when you need that immediate response, which is why they have a 24/7 call line.    Call (479) 458-8840 or visit https://borestorationofnwarkansas.com/ for more information.    If you like the episode, feel free to subscribe or follow the podcast for more content. We also have a Patreon where you can support the podcast at Patreon.com/GoodAdvice.   Interested in advertising on the show? Reach out via blake@goodadvicecoaching.com. 

Emails obtained by WHRO show Mayor Rick West asked the city's attorney to look into a personal legal matter for his stepbrother. Councilman Robert Ike says that undermines public trust.

To avoid spending thousands of dollars on private lawyers, the mayor's stepbrother wanted advice on a dispute with a Georgia city from Chesapeake's city attorneys.

Summary In this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Daniel Koonce and Jeff Amerine are joined by Rick West, chairman and co-founder of Field Agent, a company revolutionizing B2B retail solutions by offering an on-demand marketplace with efficient, cost-effective tools for retail professionals to evaluate in-store conditions, drive sales, understand shoppers, and generate ratings and reviews. The platform is designed to be user-friendly and affordable, allowing users to deploy solutions quickly. As an all-in-one retail toolkit, every solution in the Field Agent Marketplace can be launched with just a few clicks, in just a few minutes, for just a few dollars.  Furthermore, Rick explains his entrepreneurial journey, highlighting his early days growing up in Appalachia and his international stint with Procter & Gamble, which ignited his entrepreneurial spirit. He emphasizes that Field Agent operates in two economies: the traditional B2B model, where large companies like Walmart and Procter & Gamble hire them to collect data, and a B2C model, where everyday users download the Field Agent app to perform tasks and earn money. The company recently underwent significant changes, including a Series B funding round and acquiring Shelfgram, enhancing Field Agent's machine learning and AI capabilities. This acquisition enables real-time data collection and predictive analytics, providing clients with a competitive edge. Throughout the episode, Rick talks about the importance of relationships and mentorship in the business world, how he was able to develop an app that "really pays to use," and how he is adjusting to his new role within Field Agent. Tune in to learn about what the future looks like for Field Agent and to hear how you can make cold hard cash while you shop!   Show Notes (0:00) Introduction (0:42) Rick's Background and Origin Story (4:16) What's Next for Field Agent (7:15) Stepping Back from Day-to-Day Work (10:58) About Field Agents and Its Recent Acquisition, Shelfgram (16:10) Using Historical Information to Be Predictive (21:23) The Role of Social Listening (26:04) Field Agent's Process: Everyday People Reviewing Products (28:03) Rick's New Role and What's in the Future for Him (30:00) Closing Question   Links Daniel Koonce Jeff Amerine Startup Junkie Startup Junkie YouTube Rick West Field Agent

We sit and talk with Rick West in the newest episode of the Mindless Horror Podcast to talk his health issues in 2023 that stopped him from being there most of the weekend to his recovery today and how much healthier and better he feels! We talk Midsummer Scream 2024 to the panels, the vendors and of course the Hall of Shadows! We also talk our love for Las Vegas and the growing haunt scene in Las Vegas! All this and so much more on today's episode!

Rick West, Kenny Weston and Kevin Snyder of Commercial Green Solutions apparently have nothing better to do so they're foolishly joining tonight's shenanigans with Glenn, Craig and Producer Dave. That's right, we used shenanigans.

This is it, folks! The final episode of L&S gets a review! When Frank and Rhonda realize that Carmine has broken up with his girlfriend, turned off his utilities, and quit his job they fear the worst. But Carmine confesses to them that he's decided to leave California for busier pastures; the isle of Manhattan and the chance to be on Broadway. With the support of his friends and all of Laverne's waterbed money, he heads for New York. There, he auditions for a new musical called "Hair" and meets Rick West, a wise, quick-talking, but still struggling and unemployed fellow actor who becomes a fast friend. The two make it to the callbacks, but will they overcome the jitters and get a chance to join the Age of Aquarius?! On pod, we talk the strangely unLaverne & Shirley finale to Laverne & Shirley, the folks behind and in front of the camera, and reflect on the time spent over 3 and a half years reviewing all 178 episodes of the show.

On this episode, host Sima Vasa welcomes Rick West, Co-Founder and CEO of Field Agent. They delve into Rick's journey from a significant tenure at Procter & Gamble to establishing Field Agent, a company at the forefront of retail and consumer data innovation. The discussion uncovers how Rick's strategic use of corporate severance as seed money laid the foundation for Field Agent's success, the company's growth through acquisitions and the pivotal role of technology in reshaping retail analytics. Rick's insights provide a comprehensive look at the evolution of consumer data collection and its impact on retail strategies. Key Takeaways: (02:15) Rick West reflects on the leap from Procter & Gamble to entrepreneurship. (05:40) Insight into FieldAgent's innovative start and market impact. (11:20) Rick discusses using severance as seed money for business ventures. (15:30) Expansion of FieldAgent through strategic acquisitions and technology. (20:45) The crucial role of consumer engagement in data collection. (25:50) Adaptation of retail to technological advancements and consumer expectations. (30:10) The importance of mobile tech in enhancing retail experiences. (33:25) Rick emphasizes the value of real-time data in retail decision-making. (35:40) Looking ahead: The future of retail analytics and consumer data. Resources Mentioned: Field Agent Procter & Gamble Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX #restech

In episode 39 of Kantar's Retail Sound Bites, hosts Barry Thomas, senior retail thought leader, and Rachel Dalton, head of retail insights, discuss shopper marketing and Field Agent, solutions let you audit stores, drive trial, generate reviews, and connect with shoppers, with CEO and co-founder Rick West. Kantar's principal economist Doug Hermanson also joins for Commerce Compass, providing real-time macroeconomic updates in retail. Have a topic you'd like to have covered? Contact us: Kantar's Retail Sound Bites Podcast Barry's contact information: barry.thomas@kantar.com Barry's LinkedIn Rachel's contact information: rachel.dalton@kantar.com Rachel's LinkedIn Four digital strategies accelerating private label growth (kantarretailiq.com) Field Agent | Solutions for Today's Retail Challenges https://www.linkedin.com/posts/consulting-by-kantar_four-digital-strategies-accelerating-private-activity-7086710048432783361-tLil?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop https://plumshop.com/p/shop?utm_campaign=Podcasts&utm_source=Kantar%20July%2023%20Podcast    

THE THEME PARK DUO PODCAST: SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES, GOOGLE PLAY, STITCHER, iHEART RADIO AND SPOTIFY! On this weeks episode, The Duo sit down with Creative Director of Midsummer Scream, Rick West, to talk details of this years show! From The Haunted Mansion, Knott's Scary Farm, Halloween Horror Nights, The Hall of Shadows, and so much more. We give listeners and inside look at what they can expect from this years wildly popular halloween event.  DRNXMYTH:  BUY DRINKS! Follow us on Social Media: @themeparkduo Follow UUOP: www.uuopodcast.com Check out our Shirts: Teepublic.com/themeparkduo Contact us: themeparkduo@gmail.com

As we enter the road to the 200th episode of the Mindless Horror Podcast, we chat with Rick West about this weekend's 6th annual Midsummer Scream! We talked about what the event has to offer, what he thought of last year's event, and what's to come for the future!

Rick West has co-founded multiple start-ups, including the Northstar Partnering Group, CORE4 Research, JOYN, and most recently Field Agent. He is a mentor and speaker within the entrepreneurial community and an active board member. He is also a member of the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Rick is an 8 wing 7 and has a BBA in Personnel and Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from the University of Kentucky. Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with Rick West: Website: https://www.fieldagent.net/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01

Summary: Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!   On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley and Jeff Amerine sit down with Rick West and Henry Ho, co-founders of Field Agent, where Rick serves as the CEO and Henry is the Chief Strategy Officer. Field Agent is a tech company built for winning at retail by connecting brands to shoppers across the country. This enables companies to capture in-store information, gather rich consumer insights, and drive product trials completely on demand. Throughout the show, Rick and Henry discuss the solutions Field Agent provides, how to improve interactions with customers, and how to create business ventures that are scalable and repeatable.   Show Notes: (0:57) Introduction to Rick and Henry (1:41) Field Agent's Backstory (9:33) About Field Agent (14:18) Raising Outside Venture Capital (18:56) What's Next for Field Agent (26:03) Interacting with Customers (27:56) The Future Utilization of AI (35:16) Scalability and Repeatability (39:13) Northwest Arkansas's Collaborative Ecosystem (46:27) Advice to Younger Self (49:57) Closing Question   Links: Caleb Talley Jeff Amerine Rick West Henry Ho Field Agent   Quotes: “We built this platform along with a crowdsourcing engine to help our clients understand store conditions like pricing product, distribution, merchandising, etc…We also created it so we would be able to gain everyday shopper insights into their shopping experience.” - Henry Ho, (10:19)   “We've created an opportunity or a marketplace for people to be able to come in and see items and actually purchase as opposed to talking to a bunch of different sales people from different companies to try and make something work.” - Rick West, (19:24)   “We think we have the secret sauce to have a services mentality, a sales led growth mentality, and taking the best of that and then productizing it to make it scalable and repeatable.” - Rick West, (35:37)   “I think one of the joys I have as an entrepreneur is not only are we pouring into business entrepreneurs, there's a whole bunch of social entrepreneurs in Northwest Arkansas that are doing incredible things.” - Henry Ho, (44:51)

We welcome back Tom Morris and Rick West, theme park designers and researchers, to discuss Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and New Orleans Square. We have authored two books: Cleaning The Kingdom: Insider Tales of Keeping Walt's Dream Spotless and Cleaning The Kingdom: Night, Day, Past and Present.   The Sweep Spot is an unofficial Disneyland podcast, with weekly episodes: a Topical Episode every two weeks, alternating with a Current Events Episode the other weeks. Lynn Barron and Ken Pellman, former Disneyland Day Custodial Foremen, are your hosts. For more information and to order books, visit our official website:  http://www.TheSweepSpot.com  

“I think we've learned pretty quickly that we can do work remote. (But) It is difficult to lead and it is difficult to be the leader you need to be without being around the leaders you're going to replace,” Rick West says, “I think you'll have a whole wave of people upset that they're not the next partner…because they were in California on a beach doing amazing work but someone else was there around and available and they're going to get those opportunities.”Rick co-founded Field Agent, a marketplace that provides B2B retail solutions through mobile research and retail data collection. Rick dives into how his company functions and talks about their most recent creation of “Plum Marketplace” to speed up and transform the process of purchasing services. Field Agent was originally created as a tool for the larger product and eventually, they decided to focus in and scale it. You'll hear how the economy at the time inspired people to start using their product. In this episode, Carol and Rick discuss the swiftly changing technology in the industry and how Field Agent works to keep up with it. Rick discusses areas in his company's growth that he would have approached differently in hindsight.Learn more about Rick West and Field Agent. You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

New book alert! In this episode, Adam Torres interviewed Rick West, CEO & Co-Founder of Field Agent. Explore Rick's new book, Mission Matters: World's Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Tips To Success (Business Leaders Vol. 7, Edition 10).Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.Apply to be a guest on our podcast:https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/Visit our website:https://missionmatters.com/

"The smell of rotting bodies was so strong and so bad that I literally started gagging." Brandon Lea sits down with co-founder and creative director of Midsummer Scream, Rick West. Midsummer Scream is the world's largest Halloween and Horror convention, featuring over 350 vendors, panels from horror movie and haunted attraction legends, live entertainment, and a 100,000 square-foot space where multiple haunted houses and attractions are set up specifically for the attendees of Midsummer Scream. Join us as we discuss the Southern California horror and halloween culture, the scariest horror movies we've ever seen, Knott's Scary Farm, Disneyland urban legends, some of the best and scariest haunted attractions around the world, and of course, Midsummer Scream. In this episode, viewers can also learn how they can kickstart their own horror / halloween community in their city.  Be sure to subscribe to our channel on Youtube, and to check out the Talks from the Crypt website for more information on the most gruesome horror podcast in the world! Follow us: Talks From The Crypt – IG: @talksfromthecrypt / talksfromthecrypt.com Midsummer Scream – IG: @midsummerscream  / midsummerscream.org Rick West – IG: @rickwest999 Copyright Disclaimer  Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. –– CHAPTERS: 00:00:00 – Intro 00:01:27 – The Origins of the Southern California Horror / Halloween Community 00:03:55 – Fascination With Fear 00:08:17 – Knott's Scary Farm Started It All 00:12:39 – Independent Haunts in the 70's 00:14:17 – Has the Spirit of Horror / Halloween Diminished Over Time? 00:17:49 – Rick's Industry Evolution 00:18:56 – Being a Disney Cast Member / Disneyland Urban Legends 00:20:57 – Theme Park Adventures (TPA) 00:25:02 – Pandemic's Impact on Horror / Halloween 00:28:10 – Where Independent Haunts Get It Right 00:29:27 – Favorite / Scariest Haunts Around The World 00:34:00 – What Can Haunts Do To Become Less Formulaic 00:36:11 – Planning Midsummer Scream and Hall Of Shadows 00:43:55 – How Midsummer Scream Started 00:48:09 – Vendors & Attractions – Midsummer Scream 00:51:06 – Hall Of Shadows & Midsummer Estates – Midsummer Scream 00:59:08 – Planning Midsummer Scream 2023 01:00:05 – Monster Kids with Kirk Hammett, Sara Karloff, Lynne Lugosi Sparks, & Ron Chaney 01:06:06 – Becoming Friends With the Monster Kids 01:09:25 – The Community Provided in Midsummer Scream 01:10:56 – Hall Of Shadows Continues to Get Better 01:12:03 – Halloween in July – Midsummer Scream 01:13:16 – Halloween in December – Season's Screamings & Hall Of "Yuletide Spirits" 01:14:50 – Actions Listeners Can Take to Kick Start Their Own Horror / Halloween Community 01:17:02 – Outro --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/talksfromthecrypt/support

On a festive episode 366, we go back just a couple of weekends to our panel at Midsummer Screams' SEASON'S SCREAMINGS that went down at the Pasadena Convention Center... just the coolest holiday horror con out there! We were SO fortunate to host some great friends of ours and a few brand new ones for the FLANAVERSE REUNION - made up of actors Katie Siegel, Annabeth Gish, Henry Thomas, filmmaker Axelle Carolyn and writer director Mike Flanagan! If you were there, thank you SO much for having joined us and if you missed it, we are regifting you the full conversation in its entirety! Hear about how some of the Flanafam has come together over the years to become part of one of the poignant and impactful creative collectives in storytelling and projects including The Haunting Of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, The Midnight Club and more! Take a look at some of the unforgettable moments from their stunning catalogue thru perspectives you've never heard before and an exclusive look at The Fall Of The House of Usher and the absolutely THRILLING things to come! Special thanks to David Markland and Rick West for putting this entire thing together. PILLARS of the LA haunt and horror community! So…Pull up an ice block and lend an ear to episode 366 and the Flanaverse reunion panel from Midsummer Scream's SEASON'S SCREAMINGS… NOW SLAYING! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with Rick West, CEO and Co-founder of Field Agent. Rick shares his experience and expertise in the industry. He explains Field Agent's mission to help brands and retailers overcome everyday sales and marketing challenges through quick and easy collection of retail and competitive data. This can be done through their reliable and actionable business solutions that focus on in-store visibility, shopper insights, and trial campaigns. Rick also walks us through how their system works, including how their agents, who are real shoppers, contribute to the ecosystem: visiting stores, trying products, writing reviews, and more! With the data gathered, he hopes to see their customers firmly in control and winning in retail. Key Points from the Episode: Company Overview: What does Field Agent do? The services offered by Field Agent Learning the Ecosystem: In-store Visibility, Shopper Insights, Mystery Shopping and Drive Trial About Rick West Rick West is husband of one, father of 3, grandfather of two and friend to many. He is an experienced CEO and co-founder of several start-ups with a focus on technology, innovation and CPG. He is a leader in the retail industry for seventeen years in the United States, Hong Kong and Thailand. He has been an entrepreneur for over sixteen years in the United States and currently serves as a speaker and mentor within the business community and the research industry. Life quote: "Don't live in the world of maybe, let your yes be yes and your no be no". About Field Agent Since 2010, Field Agent has been on a mission to change the way the world gathers business information and ideas. They outsource smartphones worldwide to provide audits, information, product reviews, on-demand sales, and more. Field Agent solutions are designed to put brand and retail professionals in control. They've pioneered dozens of fast, simple, self-service (audit, marketing, research) products that can be bought, purchased, and launched with just a few clicks, in minutes. Their agents are real buyers, doing what real buyers do: visiting stores, trying products, writing reviews, etc., all to help our customers win at retail. To date, over 2 million agents have downloaded our app. Links Mentioned in this Episode: Want to learn more? Check out Field Agent's website at https://www.fieldagent.net/ Check out Field Agent on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/field-agent/ Check out Field Agent on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/fieldagentinc/ Check out Field Agent on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fieldagentinc Check out Field Agent on Twitter at https://twitter.com/fieldagentinc Check out Rick West on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01/ Check out Rick West on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RickWest01 Don't...

Offering productized services is a great way to make money while keeping your clients happy. In this episode, Rick West joins Matt and explains what productized services are and why you should offer them to your clients. You'll learn how productized services can help you streamline your business, provide better customer service, and make more money.ABOUT RICKRick West is the CEO and Founder of Field Agent. Field Agent connects brands, retailers, and agencies with customers across the country and around the world to help you win at retail. His platform harnesses smartphones across the country, bridging the gap between you and your customers.Here's a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:If you're a B2B provider of services, there's no way that you can put your services on Amazon or Shopify. So, Rick and his team developed Plum, the first B2B marketplace with a cart where you can click, answer a couple of questions and go to a cart and check out with a cart just like you would Amazon or any type of retail, B2B engagement and buy their services. The barriers to any B2B services provider in productizing their services are usually time and tech resources. Rick's team comes alongside and helps them by doing the tech lifting and concept lifting to create products and gives them a place to place these products, which is plum shop.A checklist is a great tool to productize something even without the technology and what marks the difference between a great and mediocre sales call.For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

On this episode of Maritime Nation, Adm. Foggo is joined by Mike Stevens, CEO of the Navy League of the United States, and Rick West, both former Master Chief Petty Officers of the Navy. They discuss the role of MCPONs and issues facing the enlisted force.

Do the principles of customer value generation that we espouse in our Economics For Business program apply equally for both B2C and B2B businesses? The answer is emphatically yes. B2B customers are seeking subjective value and a value experience just as B2C customers are. They have a clear sense of the things that matter to them, and those include emotional and personal values as well as price and functionality and performance. In fact, trends that begin in the B2C domain often quickly begin to influence the B2B domain, and the alert entrepreneur can track those trends in B2C and establish an early advantage by exploring them for their business customers. Rick West has done exactly that with his business services company, Field Agent. Key Takeaways and Actionable Insights In addition to identifying a meaningful problem, and providing an effective innovative solution, entrepreneurs in today's B2B market must offer the right service delivery platform. Rick West created a company called Field Agent to provide B2B customers with a meaningful service: monitoring their retail stores and shopper behavior and collecting in-store data about the interactions of shoppers, stores, shelves, displays and products. This kind of information is high value for both the retail operators (like Walmart) and the companies that sell products through retail stores (such as Procter and Gamble or The Coca-Cola Company). The set of services often goes by the terminology of “shopper marketing”. Typically, such business service offerings have a long and cumbersome sales cycle. The service provider and the service client get in contact, there are meetings, prices are negotiated, and contracts are prepared and signed. Then, once the service is executed, there are more steps in analytics and preparation of presentations of findings, and another big meeting to discuss the findings and recommendations. Lots of meetings, lots of travel, lots of time, lots of lawyers. Is this the right service delivery platform? It's been virtually institutionalized over time. But it's not a good fit with modern business models and the modern technology-shaped environment. The Amazon effect. Think about purchasing on a shopping platform like amazon.com. The customer first self-educates. If there's a complex product to buy – such as an expensive flat screen HDTV with internet connectivity and interaction with all the latest entertainment ecosystem devices like Roku and streaming services like Apple TV – the customer might search for information via google, might visit some ratings sites, do some comparison shopping, and generally collect information to get to the point where they are confident of making a purchase. They don't need to speak to an HDTV salesperson or a “customer success manager” or to sign a paper contract. Or think of a slightly more complex transaction such as buying a car on Vroom. There are some contracts to be signed via DocuSign, but confident shoppers are comfortable with self-educating, making their decision, committing, and experiencing the delivery of the car to their home, perhaps with the added service of taking away their old one. This is the world of services and service delivery we live in today. Your B2B customer also has a life as a consumer and an internet shopper, and is fully aware of the efficiency, convenience, and safety of these kinds of transactions. Call it the amazon effect: customers becoming comfortable with the “click-to-cart” experience, without interpersonal interaction with a salesperson or other service personnel. Why not in B2B services? Click-to-cart has arrived in B2B services. Rick West's customers for Field Agent services can purchase them on plumshop.com. A full array of shopper marketing services is offered via pull-down menus in categories such as Audits, Marketing, and Insights. Under these headings are Display Photography, Price Check, Shelf Management, Price Sensitivity Study, and dozens more, all in the language of shopper marketing that's well understood by the knowledgeable B2B service buyer. Clicking on any one of these takes the client to a price list and a detailed description of the service and its output, all in the colorful and engaging presentation style of an e-commerce site (like amazon.com!) The client can create an account online and make a transaction just as easily as buying a TV on amazon (and probably easier than buying a car on Vroom). Self-educated buyers know exactly what they want, and the description and designation of the services are crisp and clear. Clients can check out testimonials, comparison shop, and take all the steps any smart B2B service purchaser would take to get themselves to the point of confidence and trust. Some customized services will always be a client requirement, but there will be a rapid shift to more and more self-service. Some clients and some projects will always require a custom, tailored response, and Rick's company has both custom service and automated service capabilities. One point he makes is that a first project might be customized and accompanied by in-person client service, while for the second or repeat purchase, the client will be comfortable with the click-to-cart process. Rick's guessing a 70:30 split for automated versus customer services over time in his field, especially as the interface software learns and becomes better and better at responding to client needs and preferences. B2B entrepreneurs are trend-spotters in the B2C domain. People are people. Economic behaviors that we can observe in consumer shopping and buying are bound eventually to show up in business-to-business markets. They're the same people – your B2B client is a consumer when not at work. Smart B2B entrepreneurs keep an eye open for B2C trends that can be expected to transfer to B2B and jump on them early. Additional Resources Field Agent: FieldAgent.net Plum: PlumShop.com/fa/shop Rick West on LinkedIn: Mises.org/E4B_184_LinkedIn

Do the principles of customer value generation that we espouse in our Economics For Business program apply equally for both B2C and B2B businesses? The answer is emphatically yes. B2B customers are seeking subjective value and a value experience just as B2C customers are. They have a clear sense of the things that matter to them, and those include emotional and personal values as well as price and functionality and performance. In fact, trends that begin in the B2C domain often quickly begin to influence the B2B domain, and the alert entrepreneur can track those trends in B2C and establish an early advantage by exploring them for their business customers. Rick West has done exactly that with his business services company, Field Agent. Key Takeaways and Actionable Insights In addition to identifying a meaningful problem, and providing an effective innovative solution, entrepreneurs in today's B2B market must offer the right service delivery platform. Rick West created a company called Field Agent to provide B2B customers with a meaningful service: monitoring their retail stores and shopper behavior and collecting in-store data about the interactions of shoppers, stores, shelves, displays and products. This kind of information is high value for both the retail operators (like Walmart) and the companies that sell products through retail stores (such as Procter and Gamble or The Coca-Cola Company). The set of services often goes by the terminology of “shopper marketing”. Typically, such business service offerings have a long and cumbersome sales cycle. The service provider and the service client get in contact, there are meetings, prices are negotiated, and contracts are prepared and signed. Then, once the service is executed, there are more steps in analytics and preparation of presentations of findings, and another big meeting to discuss the findings and recommendations. Lots of meetings, lots of travel, lots of time, lots of lawyers. Is this the right service delivery platform? It's been virtually institutionalized over time. But it's not a good fit with modern business models and the modern technology-shaped environment. The Amazon effect. Think about purchasing on a shopping platform like amazon.com. The customer first self-educates. If there's a complex product to buy – such as an expensive flat screen HDTV with internet connectivity and interaction with all the latest entertainment ecosystem devices like Roku and streaming services like Apple TV – the customer might search for information via google, might visit some ratings sites, do some comparison shopping, and generally collect information to get to the point where they are confident of making a purchase. They don't need to speak to an HDTV salesperson or a “customer success manager” or to sign a paper contract. Or think of a slightly more complex transaction such as buying a car on Vroom. There are some contracts to be signed via DocuSign, but confident shoppers are comfortable with self-educating, making their decision, committing, and experiencing the delivery of the car to their home, perhaps with the added service of taking away their old one. This is the world of services and service delivery we live in today. Your B2B customer also has a life as a consumer and an internet shopper, and is fully aware of the efficiency, convenience, and safety of these kinds of transactions. Call it the amazon effect: customers becoming comfortable with the “click-to-cart” experience, without interpersonal interaction with a salesperson or other service personnel. Why not in B2B services? Click-to-cart has arrived in B2B services. Rick West's customers for Field Agent services can purchase them on plumshop.com. A full array of shopper marketing services is offered via pull-down menus in categories such as Audits, Marketing, and Insights. Under these headings are Display Photography, Price Check, Shelf Management, Price Sensitivity Study, and dozens more, all in the language of shopper marketing that's well understood by the knowledgeable B2B service buyer. Clicking on any one of these takes the client to a price list and a detailed description of the service and its output, all in the colorful and engaging presentation style of an e-commerce site (like amazon.com!) The client can create an account online and make a transaction just as easily as buying a TV on amazon (and probably easier than buying a car on Vroom). Self-educated buyers know exactly what they want, and the description and designation of the services are crisp and clear. Clients can check out testimonials, comparison shop, and take all the steps any smart B2B service purchaser would take to get themselves to the point of confidence and trust. Some customized services will always be a client requirement, but there will be a rapid shift to more and more self-service. Some clients and some projects will always require a custom, tailored response, and Rick's company has both custom service and automated service capabilities. One point he makes is that a first project might be customized and accompanied by in-person client service, while for the second or repeat purchase, the client will be comfortable with the click-to-cart process. Rick's guessing a 70:30 split for automated versus customer services over time in his field, especially as the interface software learns and becomes better and better at responding to client needs and preferences. B2B entrepreneurs are trend-spotters in the B2C domain. People are people. Economic behaviors that we can observe in consumer shopping and buying are bound eventually to show up in business-to-business markets. They're the same people – your B2B client is a consumer when not at work. Smart B2B entrepreneurs keep an eye open for B2C trends that can be expected to transfer to B2B and jump on them early. Additional Resources Field Agent: FieldAgent.net Plum: PlumShop.com/fa/shop Rick West on LinkedIn: Mises.org/E4B_184_LinkedIn

Do the principles of customer value generation that we espouse in our Economics For Business program apply equally for both B2C and B2B businesses? The answer is emphatically yes. B2B customers are seeking subjective value and a value experience just as B2C customers are. They have a clear sense of the things that matter to them, and those include emotional and personal values as well as price and functionality and performance. In fact, trends that begin in the B2C domain often quickly begin to influence the B2B domain, and the alert entrepreneur can track those trends in B2C and establish an early advantage by exploring them for their business customers. Rick West has done exactly that with his business services company, Field Agent. Key Takeaways and Actionable Insights In addition to identifying a meaningful problem, and providing an effective innovative solution, entrepreneurs in today's B2B market must offer the right service delivery platform. Rick West created a company called Field Agent to provide B2B customers with a meaningful service: monitoring their retail stores and shopper behavior and collecting in-store data about the interactions of shoppers, stores, shelves, displays and products. This kind of information is high value for both the retail operators (like Walmart) and the companies that sell products through retail stores (such as Procter and Gamble or The Coca-Cola Company). The set of services often goes by the terminology of “shopper marketing”. Typically, such business service offerings have a long and cumbersome sales cycle. The service provider and the service client get in contact, there are meetings, prices are negotiated, and contracts are prepared and signed. Then, once the service is executed, there are more steps in analytics and preparation of presentations of findings, and another big meeting to discuss the findings and recommendations. Lots of meetings, lots of travel, lots of time, lots of lawyers. Is this the right service delivery platform? It's been virtually institutionalized over time. But it's not a good fit with modern business models and the modern technology-shaped environment. The Amazon effect. Think about purchasing on a shopping platform like amazon.com. The customer first self-educates. If there's a complex product to buy – such as an expensive flat screen HDTV with internet connectivity and interaction with all the latest entertainment ecosystem devices like Roku and streaming services like Apple TV – the customer might search for information via google, might visit some ratings sites, do some comparison shopping, and generally collect information to get to the point where they are confident of making a purchase. They don't need to speak to an HDTV salesperson or a “customer success manager” or to sign a paper contract. Or think of a slightly more complex transaction such as buying a car on Vroom. There are some contracts to be signed via DocuSign, but confident shoppers are comfortable with self-educating, making their decision, committing, and experiencing the delivery of the car to their home, perhaps with the added service of taking away their old one. This is the world of services and service delivery we live in today. Your B2B customer also has a life as a consumer and an internet shopper, and is fully aware of the efficiency, convenience, and safety of these kinds of transactions. Call it the amazon effect: customers becoming comfortable with the “click-to-cart” experience, without interpersonal interaction with a salesperson or other service personnel. Why not in B2B services? Click-to-cart has arrived in B2B services. Rick West's customers for Field Agent services can purchase them on plumshop.com. A full array of shopper marketing services is offered via pull-down menus in categories such as Audits, Marketing, and Insights. Under these headings are Display Photography, Price Check, Shelf Management, Price Sensitivity Study, and dozens more, all in the language of shopper marketing that's well understood by the knowledgeable B2B service buyer. Clicking on any one of these takes the client to a price list and a detailed description of the service and its output, all in the colorful and engaging presentation style of an e-commerce site (like amazon.com!) The client can create an account online and make a transaction just as easily as buying a TV on amazon (and probably easier than buying a car on Vroom). Self-educated buyers know exactly what they want, and the description and designation of the services are crisp and clear. Clients can check out testimonials, comparison shop, and take all the steps any smart B2B service purchaser would take to get themselves to the point of confidence and trust. Some customized services will always be a client requirement, but there will be a rapid shift to more and more self-service. Some clients and some projects will always require a custom, tailored response, and Rick's company has both custom service and automated service capabilities. One point he makes is that a first project might be customized and accompanied by in-person client service, while for the second or repeat purchase, the client will be comfortable with the click-to-cart process. Rick's guessing a 70:30 split for automated versus customer services over time in his field, especially as the interface software learns and becomes better and better at responding to client needs and preferences. B2B entrepreneurs are trend-spotters in the B2C domain. People are people. Economic behaviors that we can observe in consumer shopping and buying are bound eventually to show up in business-to-business markets. They're the same people – your B2B client is a consumer when not at work. Smart B2B entrepreneurs keep an eye open for B2C trends that can be expected to transfer to B2B and jump on them early. Additional Resources Field Agent: FieldAgent.net Plum: PlumShop.com/fa/shop Rick West on LinkedIn: Mises.org/E4B_184_LinkedIn

In this episode you'll learn about the history, process, and musical challenges behind some of the most iconic horror film soundtracks of all time. This is the full panel presentation “COMPOSERS OF THE APOCALYPSE” from the Main Stage this past Sunday, July 31st. This was a 90-minute presentation featuring talented musicians that have created iconic horror film scores and famous themes of films and shows that have thrilled us for decades. Joining moderator Michael Kolence of Grimm Life Collective was John Massari (Killer Klowns From Outer Space, The Ray Bradbury Theater, The Wizard of Speed and Time); Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th and sequels, The Swamp Thing, House); Holly Amber Church (Open 24 Hours, Ruin Me, Dark Light); Alan Howarth (Halloween 2-6, Christine, They Live); Richard Band (Re-Animator, Troll, Ghoulies); and Christopher Young (Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities). Also featured are the Midsummer Scream producers – David Markland, Claire Dunlap Gary Baker, and Rick West. Subscribe to all our offerings: https://linktr.ee/hauntedattractionnetwork

Rick West has co-founded multiple start-ups, including the Northstar Partnering Group, CORE4 Research, JOYN, and most recently Field Agent. He is a mentor and speaker within the entrepreneurial community and an active board member. He is also a member of the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Rick is an 8 wing 7 and has a BBA in Personnel and Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from the University of Kentucky. Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with Rick West: Website: https://www.fieldagent.net/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01

Welcome to the Creepcast Podcast hosted by Rickcreeper11 . The Creepcast is sponsored by vampfangs.com Episode 28 with Rick West, Co founder and Creative Director from Midsummer Scream. Rick West returns to discuss and celebrate the 5th anniversary of Midsummer scream, the worlds largest horror and Halloween convention. Rick West can be found: https://www.instagram.com/rickwest999/ Midsummer Scream can be found: http://www.midsummerscream.org/ https://linktr.ee/midsummerscream Rickcreeper11 can be found: https://www.instagram.com/rickcreeper11/ https://www.instagram.com/darkalleyproductions/ Podcast Sponsorship: vampfangs.com Production and Voice talent: linktr.ee/Animenji --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rickcreeper11/message

Rick West is the CEO and Co-Founder of Field Agent, a global Work-On-Demand Platform. Prior to starting Field Agent, Rick worked 16 years with Procter & Gamble in various assignments in the United States, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Since leaving P&G, he has been a start-up Entrepreneur for 19 years. Rick has co-founded multiple start-ups, including the Northstar Partnering Group, CORE4 Research, JOYN, and most recently Field Agent. He is a mentor and speaker within the entrepreneurial community and an active board member. He is also a member of the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Rick is an 8 wing 7 and has a BBA in Personnel and Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from the University of Kentucky. Website: https://www.fieldagent.net --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Rick West is the CEO and Co-Founder of Field Agent, a global Work-On-Demand Platform.Before starting Field Agent, Rick worked 16 years with Procter & Gamble in various assignments in the United States, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. Since leaving P&G, he has been a start-up Entrepreneur for 19 years.Rick has co-founded multiple start-ups, including the Northstar Partnering Group, CORE4 Research, JOYN, and most recently Field Agent. He is a mentor and speaker within the entrepreneurial community and an active board member. He is also a member of the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Rick is an 8 wing 7 and has a BBA in Personnel and Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from the University of Kentucky.In this episode, Dean Newlund and Rick West discuss:Creating a solution From corporate to entrepreneurCreative people in the corporate spaceTesting your idea Key Takeaways:Explore different innovative ways in which you can provide a service that not many companies currently do. Some mindset shifts are needed when shifting from the corporate world to the entrepreneurial world. One of the most important ones is that in the entrepreneurial world, you need somebody's help in order to succeed.Someone creative will find it hard to stay in the corporate space. If you're one of those people that have an entrepreneurial spirit, you'll have to decide if you are able to pursue your idea now or after you retire. Before you launch your business idea, you need to test it against the opinion of complete strangers. If a complete stranger isn't willing to buy it, then you're selling an idea and not a solution. "Even if you find a great problem to solve, you are only as good as you invoice and collect. If you can't invoice and collect, you're just working on an expensive hobby. If you can find a problem to solve and you can get a complete stranger to pay you - oh my goodness - who cares what it looks like!" —  Rick West See Dean's TedTalk “Why Business Needs Intuition” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEq9IYvgV7IConnect with Rick West:  Website: https://www.fieldagent.net/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/field-agent/  Connect with Dean:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqRK8GC8jBIFYPmECUCMkwWebsite: https://www.mfileadership.com/The Mission Statement E-Newsletter: https://www.mfileadership.com/blog/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannewlund/Twitter: https://twitter.com/deannewlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MissionFacilitators/Email: dean.newlund@mfileadership.comPhone: 1-800-926-7370Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla  Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

In today's episode, we are joined by an Endeavor Heartland Entrepreneur, Rick West, Co-Founder, and CEO of Field Agent, as he discusses embracing the permanence of “delivery reimagined” through technology innovation in retail, and the new launch of Plum Marketplace, the world's first B2B retail-solutions marketplace. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/endeavornorthamerica/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/endeavornorthamerica/support

What is the Amazon effect and how is it impacting businesses today? In this episode,  Adam Torres and Rick West, CEO & Co-Founder of Field Agent, explore the Amazon effect and how it's helped the B2B marketplace evolve. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.Apply to be interviewed by Adam on our podcast:https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/Visit our website:https://missionmatters.com/Mortgage Connects, an MGIC PodcastInsights and tips from top mortgage industry pros!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

What is the Amazon effect and how is it impacting businesses today? In this episode,  Adam Torres and Rick West, CEO & Co-Founder of Field Agent, explore the Amazon effect and how it's helped the B2B marketplace evolve.   Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.Apply to be interviewed by Adam on our podcast:https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/Visit our website:https://missionmatters.com/

LifeBlood: We talked about customer insights, getting real time data from retail stores, connecting brands with shoppers, the future of retail, and the value of in-person work environments, with Rick West, entrepreneur, CoFounder and CEO of Field Agent.   Listen to learn why the value of setting guardrails for yourself! You can learn more about Rick at FieldAgent.net, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Thanks, as always for listening! If you got some value and enjoyed the show, please leave us a review here: ​​https://ratethispodcast.com/lifebloodpodcast You can learn more about us at LifeBlood.Live, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook or you'd like to be a guest on the show, contact us at contact@LifeBlood.Live.  Stay up to date by getting our monthly updates. Want to say “Thanks!” You can buy us a cup of coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeblood

If you wanted to know the best steps to making sure your next big business idea doesn't just survive... but thrives into a meaningful, sustainable business -- join us as Rick West, an entrepreneurial veteran of 20+ years with a multitude of successful launches, walks through the most important concepts for any business.  From getting your first customers to scaling into a multi-million dollar enterprise, Rick tells his story of launching Field Agent and how they've mastered the game of scale to turn it into one of the leading businesses in Northwest Arkansas.  Want to know more? Check out FieldAgent.net.  And be sure to connect with Rick via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01/ Enjoy this episode and want to support the podcast? Check out our Patreon at Patreon.com/GoodAdvice. 

In this episode, we speak with Rick West from Field Agent. Field Agent's on-demand, the retail-success platform lets you audit stores, drive trial, and connect with shoppers instantly. He tells us all about the app and how it helps businesses with product photography and pricing information. We also learn how the company is helping brands and consumers alike by providing a one-stop solution for businesses that need reliable data and insights. Finally, we find out how you can make a little extra cash by participating in Field Agent's retail operations. We've covered the following topics in this episode: The Future of Retail, The 12-Year Overnight Success Story, Growth and Innovation, How the Company Made a Success of Its Business Model, How the App Market Can Help You Scale Your Business, Technology and Quality Control are Key for Field Agent's Success, Field Agent's Rick West on Developing a Secure System in the Face of Cyber Threats, How the Company Runs on Two-Week Sprints, Field Agent is all about people, Field Agent encourages its employees to give back to the community through various social responsibility initiatives, Scaling A Business and Managing Data, Helping Brands and Consumers Alike, How Field Agent Is Helping Businesses Improve Their Retail Operations.

"In an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special." ~Bill Taylor Join us as we.... Hear The Journey ~ Find The Pain ~ Create Solutions ⭆ Connect With Rick West --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/loribrooks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/loribrooks/support

“Success and especially significance, follows the path of the depth and the breadth of relationships.” Rick West The ability to tap into real time data, and to collect it in an effective and efficient manner is vital in the current business environment. The need to know and understand what is happening in real time can provide useful insights that businesses and individuals can use to make meaningful and impactful decisions.  Rick West provides unique tools that make it possible for people to access real time data wherever they are, and says that part of it is in understanding the power of the voice of the crowd, and leveraging on it to solve problems.  Rick West is the CEO and Co-Founder of Field Agent, a global Work-On-Demand Platform. Prior to starting Field Agent, Rick worked 16 years with Procter & Gamble in various assignments in the United States, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Since leaving P&G, he has been a start-up Entrepreneur for 19 years. Rick has co-founded multiple start-ups, including the Northstar Partnering Group, CORE4 Research, JOYN, and most recently Field Agent. He is a mentor and speaker within the entrepreneurial community and an active board member. He is also a member of the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Rick is an 8 wing 7 and has a BBA in Personnel and Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from the University of Kentucky. Rick is the husband of one, father of 3, grandfather of two and a friend to many. Rick and his wife Kim live in Fayetteville Arkansas and they attend Harvest Fayetteville church where rick is currently serving as an elder. They both attended the University of Kentucky and are college basketball fans.  In today's episode, Rick talks about the importance of real time data and how his technology helps both users and business owners achieve their goals. Listen in! Social Media Handles https://www.fieldagent.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/field-agent/ What I realized early on in my career is that solving problems was a really good thing. In April 2010, we launched the first app in iTunes that paid cash, that used geolocation and metadata to provide real time data to masses. In an effort to solve a problem for me, I realized that everyone had the same problem and therefore saw an opportunity to scale it. Part of what we started to learn on the user side, is that we were helping people that were down on their luck, which felt good. For entrepreneurs, they were able to know within a short time and minimum cost, whether customers liked their products or not. The best advice I was ever given to me as an entrepreneur was that you are only as good as you invoice and collect, and that the Holy Grail is if the customer buys it again. If strangers are willing to pay you for your product, and they renew, go drive it by all means because it means that the market has spoken positively. Commercial Break We realized early on from a user base standpoint that we needed to have advocates that were not being paid by field agent, but were just passionate about the product. The second thing was understanding the power of the voice of our crowd and knowing how to leverage on it to solve the problem. If you've got a great product, word of mouth really is a thing and that goes back to the advocacy. You cannot keep asking friends and family if your baby is cute, you've got to go find strangers because they will tell you the truth. Even if you're not a technology person, our app is not that intimidating and is pretty basic. Relationships matter, and success and especially significance really follows the path of the depth and the breadth of relationships. ………………………………………………… Do you want to be a go to expert that news reporters, anchors and media producers turn to? Are you a media professional looking for credible, reliable and timely guests? Shock Your Media Potential is here for you. Shock Your Media Potential is a one of a kind platform that connects vetted experts with news professionals around the globe. As part of the launch of the platform, CEO Michael Sherlock, along with co-host Eddie Luisi, stage manager for Good Morning America, have interviewed 25 media personalities and professionals to ask them the questions you need to know the answers to in order to become more newsworthy, pitch your story better, and get invited back again and again, and much more. Some of their guests are household names, with exceptional on-camera careers. Others are award-winning directors, producers, camera operators, audio engineers, celebrity hair and makeup professionals, and so much more. To learn more about our platform and our conference today, go to https://www.shockyourmediapotential.com

Join us on Be Brave at Work as we speak with Rick West. Rick is the CEO and Co-Founder of Field Agent, a global Work-On-Demand Platform. Prior to starting Field Agent, Rick worked 16 years with Procter & Gamble in various assignments in the United States, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. Since leaving P&G, he has been a start-up Entrepreneur for 19 years. Rick has co-founded multiple start-ups, including the Northstar Partnering Group, CORE4 Research, JOYN, and most recently Field Agent. He is a mentor and speaker within the entrepreneurial community and an active board member. He is also a member of the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Rick is an 8 wing 7 and has a BBA in Personnel and Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from the University of Kentucky. Links of Interest LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Website A special thank you to our sponsor, Cabot Risk Strategies. For more information, please visit them at CabotRisk.com Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you! More information about Ed, visit Excellius.com © 2022 Ed Evarts

Rick West returns to chat about the changing conditions of theme park design and operation, especially at the Disneyland Resort. Rick is a Show Writer for theme parks and was a Ride Operator on the west side of Disneyland. He also created several acclaimed Theme Park Adventure publications on attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Tarzan's Treehouse. He is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Midsummer Scream.We have authored two books: Cleaning The Kingdom: Insider Tales of Keeping Walt's Dream Spotless and Cleaning The Kingdom: Night, Day, Past and Present.   The Sweep Spot is a podcast with full episodes every two weeks, focusing on the Disneyland Resort. Lynn Barron and Ken Pellman, former Disneyland Day Custodial Foremen are your hosts.For more information and to order books, visit our official website:  http://www.TheSweepSpot.com 

Rick West is the Co-founder and CEO of Field Agent, a marketplace platform connecting retail brands to shoppers and stores, allowing them to gain transparency, feedback, and other valuable data in real time. Rick is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and our conversation covers his corporate experience with P&G, how he took the leap to entrepreneurship, and his philosophies on leadership in this new post-covid world. Learn more about Field Agent at FieldAgent.net Visit us at MiddleTech.com Twitter Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Evan's Twitter Logan's Twitter Middle Tech is proud to be supported by: Our presenting sponsor, KY Innovation Bolt Marketing The Johnson Law Group Render Capital

OK, the secret is out! Glenn, Craig and Dave are joined by the renowned Dorraine Lallani of Westmont Hospitality Group and Rick West of Commercial Green Solutions.

If you like to spy on people than this episode is for you! Rick West is the founder of Field Agent, an application that pays you to "mystery shop" businesses and provide reports back to their owners and corporate headquarters. And don't worry...they actually want you spying on them and that's why you get paid to do it. This is a fun and educational episode that I believe the DVG audience will love. Enjoy. Once again thank you to our corporate sponsor https://anthemsoftware.com who makes this podcast possible! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/david-vs-goliath/message

On this episode of The Jason Cavness Experience I talk to Rick West - CEO, Co-Founder | Ask About Field Agent's NEW On-Demand Platform We talk about the following How has being a Grandaddy changed him. Joyn Living overseas How data and insights is changing eCommerce. Field Agent Rick's Bio Rick West is the CEO and Co-Founder of Field Agent, a global Work-On-Demand Platform. Prior to starting Field Agent, Rick worked 16 years with Procter & Gamble in various assignments in the United States, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Since leaving P&G, he has been a start-up Entrepreneur for 19 years. Rick has co-founded multiple start-ups, including the Northstar Partnering Group, CORE4 Research, JOYN, and most recently Field Agent. He is a mentor and speaker within the entrepreneurial community and an active board member. He is also a member of the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Rick is an 8 wing 7 and has a BBA in Personnel and Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from the University of Kentucky. Rick's Social Media Field Agent Website: https://www.fieldagent.net/ Rick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01/ Field Agent LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/field-agent/ Field Agent Twitter: https://twitter.com/fieldagentinc Field Agent FB: https://www.facebook.com/fieldagentinc Rick's Gift If you're listening today and you want to reach out and do something within the field agent app. I will come alongside you guys and give you a little bit of love. I'll give you 10 free people. You can talk to 10 people, there'll be strangers and I will help you out. All you have to do is either DM me directly on LinkedIn, or go directly to our website and go to affiliation.net and engage there and go to info and say hey, Rick told me, he will give me 10 Free concept tests to talk to 10 Strangers, so I'll help you with that. Rick's Advice Remember being successful is probably the least of your worries. You'll be successful, someone being significant is really hard. I launched this product and I was successful launching it. I'm like, ok anyone can launch a product. You want to be significant? Is it selling without you? Have you scaled it? Do you have a team that believes in what you're doing? Do you have a following me, significance is different than being successful. Because almost anyone listening to your show, can spend a little bit of money, create something and push it out there. Significance ties to relationships, because the impacts of that's my encouragement to your folks that are out there. Do something that allows you to be significant and you're not going to be significant till you push it out. When you find something that someone is willing to pay you for, look out man, because you're going to make an impact on the world.

Welcome, 7 Hatters! In this episode, we speak with Rick West and dive deep into pretty much all seven hats as we follow his triumphant journey from a holler in Eastern Kentucky to the board room as a tech titan.Rick is a serial entrepreneur whose focus on technology and innovation in the Consumer Packaged Goods space led him to birth Field Agent, an On-Demand Platform focused on Retail connecting brands with everyday shoppers to provide real-time field marketing data.Rick is a husband of one, father of 3, Grandaddy of two, mentor to many, and an overall stand-up guy I admire.If you resonate with Rick's Life Quote that goes like this: "Don't live in a world of maybe, let your yes be yes and your no be no," then let's welcome Rick to the 7 Hats... -------------------------Visit https://www.the7hats.com/ for more information and more shows.Field Agent Website: https://www.fieldagent.net/Rick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwest01/My Bio & Links: https://sleek.bio/yuvalselikSUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW...Want to be the first to know when new episodes are released? Please subscribe and leave a review!Subscribes and podcasts reviews are pretty darn important to iTunes, and the more reviews we receive, the more likely we'll be able to get The 7 Hats message in front of more people (It's all about the iTunes algorithms)I'd be extremely grateful if you left a review letting me know your favorite part of the show or episode :)

Rick is the CEO and Founder of Field Agent-You're a Click Away from Stores and Shoppers Everywhere. Field Agent connects brands, retailers, and agencies with customers across the country and around the world to help you win at retail. His platform harnesses smartphones across the country, bridging the gap between you and your customers.

Why is it that as consumers, we're able to search for a product, add to cart, and complete a purchase in a matter of seconds, but as a business, everything leads to, "Schedule a demo" or "Contact Sales". On this episode of Link Up Leaders, we're speaking with Rick West, CEO and Co-Founder of Field Agent to hear how Field Agent is revolutionizing Click-To-Cart solutions for B2B services. --

As the new year looms over the online retail landscape, brands need to identify (or maybe even need to recalibrate) what they deliver to consumers with ever-evolving shopping & usage habits. Join Scott & Ray as they chat with Rick West, CEO & Co-Founder of Field Agent, about shopper research, Field Agent's Marketplace platform, and the changing landscape of consumer insighting and research. As the first app on the Apple App Store to pay cash to its users, Field Agent has seen its fair share of changes in the eCom brand landscape so listen in as Rick shares his findings as well as the necessities brand owners will need to deliver the best shopping experience for their customers through customer research, insighting, and data gathering. This episode also delves deep into the significant importance of testing a product or brand concept before going to market as well as crafting the right questions to ask customers to fully understand their needs and desires from a product or a brand. Listen to this episode to discover the many nuances & "a-ha" moments consumer research can provide for your brand to bridge the need-gaps and to build up & maintain consumer loyalty. Trust us, this is an insightful episode you won't want to miss!For real-time updates, connect with Rick:Rick West on LinkedInField Agent LinkedInField Agent MarketplaceField Agent Buyer Meeting Success KitIf you enjoyed this episode, connect with us and share your feedback:Right Hook Digital on Facebook Right Hook Digital on InstagramRight Hook Digital on LinkedInWatch videos on our YouTube channelJoin our Growth & Greatness eCommerce group and connect with fellow business owners & digital marketers alike: Growth & Greatness eCommerce on Facebook If you want to learn more about us and what we do at Right Hook, visit our website: Right Hook DigitalFull episode transcript & chapter markers for this episode are available on the Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast Buzzsprout page!

 Welcome to this fantastic new episode of talk commerce today. I have Rick west, the CEO and co-founder of field agent. Rick, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us maybe one of your passions in life. The spirit. Thank you so much for having me. I started by telling people I am. Father of three husband of one granddaddy to two.  And so from a family perspective, I spend most of my time chasing my grandkids. Now, if you jump over to the business world and what that looks like gusta passionate for me, if you have for decades has always been that creative side of things. So there's, I've never met a. I didn't love sitting down on a whiteboard and trying to figure things out.  So whether it's a personal problem, a business problem, whatever it may be. I love lowering my head with a whiteboard, figuring things out. That's great. So I know that you're involved in marketplaces. Tell us a little bit about what you're involved in right now. Yeah. So fill an agent. I tell people we started field agent well over 10 years ago in the pre selfie days, brands.  Before you had a front facing camera. Alright. No video, iPhone 3s kinda days. And we started that work is really around data collection and capturing information. And what we've seen over the last 10 years is that we really created a marketplace, a B2B marketplace for our clients to go and find retail solutions.  And it's been pretty cool. It's it's the same B to C concept that people see every day when you shop on Amazon. You find what you want when you want it. We've created that same type of experience from a business standpoint for all of our clients that are wanting to engage at retail. So it's been pretty exciting journey.  This is so I, when I think of B2B marketplaces, I think of something like Alibaba is it something like that? Or how does that go here? Here's typically think of Alibaba and you you go down that path for many businesses. When you look for a marketplace, it is click on a link that takes me to a phone number to call a plumber, click on a link.  It takes me to a business consultant, click on the link and take me to someone that can do graphic design in our world. We've taken those services and those products and say, log in to our marketplace. And after you make two or three clicks, we take you to. We actually have you check out Brent, which is crazy, right?  Because all of the B2B marketplaces are going to take you to a connector to have two or three other phone calls, two or three other meetings. And we've done this work long enough that we know the questions to ask. We can take you right to check out. And by the time you check out two or three minutes later in near real time, you're getting data and results coming back your way.  And so that's the revolutionary change of spam we put on the marketplace. Interesting. So this is a product, more of a product led marketplace than traditionally what we've seen in the past. Maybe you could explain what that means. Product led marketplace, or if I move in going down the right street, listen, you are astute and listen.  That's why you're on this podcast brand. That's why you do what you do. But no, in all fairness is that. When you look at the concept of product led, I'm going to use the example that most people use with around COVID and zoom. If you are not a zoom user during COVID you probably became one.  So I think they went from somewhere around the numbers of 30 million users to 200 million users in six months. In order to do that kind of growth. If they were a click and get to a salesperson or click and do a demo instead of being able to knock out that growth in six months, it would have taken them 10 years and 103,000 employees working six days a week just to go from 30 million to 200 million.  So product led growth in its simplest term says, can you get someone to the point where they can buy something? Without a sales person engaged. Brent, think about our world today. I was talking to a guy the other day. He just purchased a car on broom, no sales person, three clicks. He spent $45,000 on a car.  He never touched, never seen. And I've got another friend in real estate that just sold a home last week to a person from overseas coming into the U S bought a home sight unseen. Now, if you can buy a car and a house, surely to goodness, you can buy research, marketing, sampling trial for the B2B perspective.  So we know the industry is going that way, but the concept of product led growth is just that you do not need a sales person to tell you how to buy a car. Vroom has automated it and it's truly product. Yeah, I know that a lot of our clients are, have moved to B in the commerce space. And one of the worries that sales people have is that this is going to take away from one of their key roles, which is doing the selling.  Do you see this as being a extra tool that a sales person could have at that end, whatever that end B2B merchant is, or do you see this. Something that's going to replace the sales person. And w you can imagine I'm trying to do the work that uniquely designed for, and there's a guy that has interesting leadership podcasts and Mr.  Andy Stanley, and he talks about if you are in your sweet spot, you are doing things that only you are uniquely designed to. And Amazon has figured out it's not designed to sell a $10 pack of batteries. Okay. We've also figured out it's not to sell other items, but what it is designed for, if you're a salesperson, you look at truly what that, that DNA, that the things that are driving for you is that you're still going to have custom work.  You're still going to have enterprise engaged. And you're still going to be looking at longer term, how do you scale within a company and how do you continue to grow that way? But most of the initial contact I would ask. It's going to be product led, marketplace driven because I don't think from a sales perspective, you need to continue to try to send emails, send people, text messages, and call them.  Hopefully you're gonna get someone on the phone. None of us want to shop that way. That being said. There's more than ample opportunity for that same salesperson to help someone go broader to renew, to look at subscription. How can you grow the business in that way? Yes, I think it's going to be a tool for a sales person.  It's going to be amazing lead generation aspect for people that really. More of handholding. And so I'm excited where this is going to go. Yeah. I think you hit the main thing there is that lead generation and that tool, or that an extra channel enablement for the sales person. And I think as a store owner, or as an entrepreneur or business owner, you have to be aware that you need to include.  That aspect when, I mean that you have to include the salesperson aspect in it. But then not to scare the sales person by saying, Hey, this is going to be a new channel. You don't get any credit for this because they're like the post-sale, there's always questions that are going to be the client. I think part of this is having the client.  Speak to the person and on their own terms, rather than the traditional model of a B2B sales person is calling out, making sure that they're in front of them at the time they want to purchase. This lets the client dictate some of those terms and when they would like to purchase and and lets the sales person then go back and do the best, the better part of customer relationship.  Maybe you could walk us through, what does the journey look like now on the marketplace for for the B2B? Yeah. So I think in many ways Brent, the Amazon has taught this well, okay. Now whether you like Amazon or not. You can look at all the other e-commerce worlds have followed suit.  And I think B2B is going to follow it in similar terms. So in our case we try to create a frictionless environment. So you can log into field agent.net as an example, and the basically browse for a solution. You're saying, gosh, in my case, I'm a marketing person and I'm looking for trial sampling or ratings and reviews.  And once you make a decision that says, yes, I'm looking for ratings and reviews, then you simply click on that product. To answer a few questions, review the cart, and it's going to tell you, based on the number of reviews you have, it's going to cost X per review. You submit payment, or in our case with a lot of our clients, because they're enterprise type clients, they've got a purchase order to set up and invoicing and you say click.  Yes. And then within no time, you've got an email coming back saying, check your dashboard. You've got ratings and reviews on this location. So it really is a click cart under five minutes experience. And. No, we didn't think this up, right? Again, I keep going back to Amazon as the poster child, we're simply saying we have been taught over the last 10 years to shop a certain way.  We're naive to think that the business world, the B2B world is not going to go down the same path. We're not going to try to retrain you and say, oh Amazon and Walmart and other e-commerce sites have taught you to do it this way. Let's do it in a completely different way. That's crazy. We want your fingers to feel the same.  We want your eyes to follow the same path and it is click, click cart checkout, go to a link, go to dashboard, and we've made it really that simple. And it sat well, it doesn't sound like, I think one of the interesting aspects is that you're adding services, not just a physical product and the traditional model has been selling a physical product in the B2B model and especially in the marketplace.  Tell us more about how you've integrated services and is that a larger percentage of what you're doing over the physical? Yes. So think of it in terms of the secret sauce. And so in many cases, as we expand our marketplace, obviously we have our own products, but we also have third party providers similar to an Amazon model, which means they don't produce too much.  Amazon brings a lot of different folks in. So when we talked to a third party provider and let's say that they're in the merchandising space for the sake of argument and a merchandiser would come in and say, okay, Brent what do you need? You said, okay, I need you to go to a certain retail location.  Pull a display out, build the display, put pricing on it. And it's a service. You have to explain those things. Brent if we've learned anything over the last 10 years at filled agent, it's that there's not 50 different ways to go to the back room, to pull out a display, to put it up and to put the price on it.  There's, it's a fairly rigid process. And so what we've done with third-party providers is to say, let us help you methodically work through. The most basic way to have people answer questions that you would be asking so that you can take a service. And execute that service without talking to the person.  And it's really hard. So yeah. Let's have him answer a few questions. Then I can schedule a meeting. I said, Nope, no meeting. So yeah, but I really want it. I really want to have that meeting Brent, so I can talk to them. I said why do you want to talk to them about I just want to ask them if they have any questions.  I said what questions would they ask? They might want to know this. Okay. Let's make that an optional question. They're like, oh yeah. What if they want. Let's make an optional question. Next thing you go from three questions to five or six and they're like, okay, if they answer all those questions, I can execute a service.  Exactly. Like them purchasing a product. So it does require the end user to answer some questions. You have to know what you want. And listen, bro. There'll always be a group of people that want to be spoonfed. That said, I don't want to, I don't want to do this. I want someone to schedule a meeting with my three guys and your three.  And, you know what bring it, it's always going to happen that way. But for the folks that are growing up in this B2C world, transitioning into B2B, they really want to sell. They really want to explore on their own and they want to be able to make their own decisions. So that's pretty cool part as we talked to, yeah.  You mentioned the car model of the car, the idea of buying that car online. And I think the risk there's a bigger risk in buying the used car online through room, but Tesla has it down for buying the new car online and configuring and asking all those questions upfront. And then. And then telling you, okay, your car is going to be ready in a year.  I think that this is the model where we're all going and you bring up a great aspect of this. Is there a certain kind of service that works best in this? Or is there is it open to any kind of. I think it's the old joke of outside of life sciences and medical and emergency services.  Let's not go that route because you need a trained professional to probably engage you a little bit and probe some, but even on the use car aspect of it, listen, a friend of mine when he bought his car on broom, he had a Carfax on a used car. So if he wanted to go use, he could go down that route. But to answer your question about the type of products.  Any type of service that has been an operation over a period of time that service provider knows the 80% that's required to offer a base service. I don't think we're ever going to eliminate custom services because I know you sell a blue this, and here's the size. And I want a custom size and my own special color.  Okay, then we're probably going to have some engagement there, but for the 80% of services that are relatively straightforward, if I need a plumber to come to my home, I should be able to click, and I have a clogged toilet. I have a leaky faucet, and I take a picture of the faucet, which shows the kind that it is, submit that photo hit a button.  And the next thing a plumber shows up at my house. I don't know that I need to have a phone call to make that happen. So that being said, I don't think. It's going to be a question of what services you can, it's going to be within the scale or within the framework of services. What types with eighteens vertical will you actually be able to do?  I think that's a, that's an interesting point. And if we look back when e-commerce first started, there was Yahoo stores or there was a bunch of th there's customer. Carts. Let's just put it in a frame of the, of buying a store buying a service to sell something. And then we went to is extremely customization.  So before Shopify, before big commerce, we went into this phase where you had to customize everything and everybody got in. Everybody started thinking. Yeah, I'm going to have to set up the store and I'm gonna have to get a developer involved. And now what e-commerce is evolved to is click.  And if you need some specialization, there's somebody there to help you. I think this is where it's going. Maybe you could go into a little bit, what is the, so there's been, there's another company that started at the same time called Amazon. You mentioned that a couple times. What is the effect?  What is their effect on this market and how does that play into what your. Yeah. We have to be careful. And in our case, when I use it's like everyone says, Hey, I'm the new Uber for this. I'm the new Uber for that. And I don't want people to think, oh, Rick is saying, he's the new Amazon for this.  But the Amazon effect is so true in that we never dreamed you would buy again, a car or a house or other things the way we buy those things today. And so the trust factor, just the fact that you understand five-star reviews. That's as good as a referral as anything else. When I look at the fact that Amazon gives me the volume of things and I can look at a video and I can engage.  Just all those fastest over the Amazon effect has taught us unless you use millennials and gen Z as an example. So if you're entering into the workforce 18 to 21, 22, or you're that millennial you're in that mid thirties or so. This is second nature to you. It's what you expect of an online experience.  It's what you expect from a purchasing experience. And so I think what the Amazon effect has given us validation or permission to say that we can take services and go into this space. I don't know that 20 years ago, if I'd gone down this route, Brent, I don't know that I would have had the permission. I don't know that it would have been validated the way it is today.  I can tell you that the way field agent launched is that when I first started, I would hold up a phone and say, we're going to take a photo in a store and we're going to capture data. And we're going to come back to you and tell you the price. And Brent, I literally had executives from multi-billion dollar companies say, but Rick, how are they going to upload the photo from their phone to a computer to send it to me?  And another guy said, yeah. And another thing, Rick, how are you going to train them to take a picture with their phone? Can you imagine having a conversation today? You'd be laughed at, but these were serious. And they had no clue because they all had blackberries and they were used to this digital aspect of sending out a camera, et cetera, go through.  So I think in today's world, we're a little bit in the same way. Had Amazon not been in front of us, I think they would say, but Rick, how am I going to know you're going to do what you're going to do? How am I going to know. To do these things and Amazon has already taught us. So we're on the coattails of the Amazon effect.  And if you look at the the aspects of that and where research is coming in today, I think Forrester was saying that three out of every four B2B buyers would rather self-educate than learn about a product from a sales rep. And that's a Forester research. And I saw another one that it was a big commerce study and it said that it was something like.  6% of B2B buyers do not use online marketplaces that 75 of B2B procurement spending is going to happen to get an online marketplace within the next five years. So the big industry guys are studying it because they can see where it's going. We're just pushing on the front end, especially within the category of retail.  And we want to be on the forefront of that. If I have my own product or service, what does it look like for me to start moving from that? I'm going to have a sales person call and they're going to log their entries into my ERP system to moving onto a marketplace. Like what you have. Yeah. So if you were a third party wanting to be on our marketplace today, there are some companies that are fairly astute technically and they could communicate via API enlisted, Brent.  From a technical standpoint, you've got other priorities. They may say, I'm not even interested. I know I could do that. Eventually we say, okay, don't worry about it. And so we have a very simple process to them to log in we walk them through the basic steps so they can upload things to create their first product.  And from there they can copy and paste and move things along but longer term. It will be an API integration short-term it really is more of a forums type of thing where they're engaging. We're going to send data to them. There'll be somewhat. But the moment they're ready to scale. That's when the light bulb goes off and they're like, wait a minute, I'm just going to API.  It's going to drop right into my ERP system. They'll never have to talk to anyone. It's all really clean because they've seen the data come in. They know what they're receiving. And then from our perspective, I don't want to have to talk to them to be able to get data back to the client. So their API is going to give me the data and I'm going to send it back to the client.  Technically astute folks would say yes tomorrow, but in most cases it'll probably feel a little bit manual. For the first go round. And do you think this is a new channel? Would you see this as a new channel for a merchant or? No, let's just say you're, I'm a manufacturer. I'm am a service provider and I want to provide my service.  I have my own website already that I'm providing it through. This is another channel that can use like Amazon or something like that. Or do you see this as something to replace what they're already, what they already have and what they already. So let's talk about the Amazon journey. Okay, Amazon I think it was, and again, I have no data to support this other than conceptual data.  And I could, I should do the research sprint to know this, but it was probably a decade plus before a company like Nike would sell on Amazon wouldn't do it. They had their product and specialty stores and malls. They wouldn't put their product in Walmart. They wouldn't put it at Costco and Sam's because they had all these malls and specialty places.  Today, you can't find a big name brand. That's not on Amazon. So the first piece of thing I would say is for a large brand looking at this, I don't expect them to jump on this bandwagon tomorrow. I get it. But when you look at the smaller guys are saying, listen, I'm looking for eyes on my brand and on my product.  So in our case, I've got thousands of eyeballs coming into my marketplace, shopping for retail solution. If you were a mid tier brand, let's say you're a hundred million, 200 billion, $500 million company. Why wouldn't you want to use my funnel? SEO, branding, eyeballs, coming into my marketplace to see your product every single day, because Brent, you and I both know their funnel and their sales folks are focused on the big kill.  The big thing. Okay. And if I look at the thousands of the things that we're driving today, why wouldn't you want to put that product on our marketplace? Similar to why many people throw their products on Amazon saying, how can it hurt? And then they realized, oh my goodness. It not only did it hurt. The way it's set up, I'm getting more volume than I ever would have dreamed because of the eyeballs they have coming in looking for a specific area.  So we're a little bit early in that phase, but obviously we're driving our products to the marketplace and we've got a good business over the last 10 years. So eyeballs are not going to hurt. You had mentioned earlier about the costs of how of setting up or and how. How merchants are selling online.  A lot of merchants come to us and they want to set up their own marketplace. What, is there a tipping point or do you have a secret sauce that would preclude them from trying to set up their own thing compared to going on to field agent? Yeah, let's look specifically at this services area versus product is products.  So a little bit different as we talked before, but services. The third parties that we've talked to today, so I said, listen, you need to have a brand presence. You want to continue to drive. The question you have to ask is, are you going to put in the technical resources necessary to be able to sell your art, your items or your services in a product led way?  Because you don't have a Shopify drop-in module that lets you do all this. You're a manufacturer or you're a service provider and that's what you're good at. And you want to get people to call you. So let us do the heavy lifting. Let us work to get your services into our product led approach. Let us take that and go drive it.  Why spend the technical resources on it? So that's number one. The second piece along the same lines is it gets back to focus. I get where you're focused and there's certain verticals that are really important. I'm a fairly broad aspect of things. And I tell people we've got 600 active logos of the largest companies in the world.  They're buying retail products from us. If you want those eyeballs to look at your product because Brent, think of how long it's going to take for you to get set up as a vendor. If they'll let you get become a vendor, how long is it going to take for you to develop the relationship? And will they take your phone call?  Now I'm offering an opportunity to sell direct from field agent. They're not gonna make that same effort with company a or B because they don't need another vendor. They've already got a provider. They're not going to go to that route. So we think we offer two distinct. Capabilities or opportunities to save them a ton of time and effort, which is the technical side, which is technical debt.  And then also just the opportunity side of doing that business. So if let's pretend I'm an agency what is it that an agency would want to get in? What why would an agency pick field agent to recommend one of their clients to go onto your platform? I think it goes back to impressions and eyeballs.  Again, if you're looking for a company that's, well-known in the industry one that's trusted and you've got all the major players in. Yes. I trust what they're bringing to market. That's the kind of name or brand I want to put my product or service under number one number two, because we're in the retail space and it's not just a generic marketplace, the eyeballs that are coming in and the synergies we provide.  We're not P we don't have eyeballs coming into our marketplace, looking for cars. We don't have eyeballs coming in, looking for an electrician. We have people coming in looking to solve retail. They're coming in and trying to solve a product lunch. They're trying to figure out trial. They're looking for marketing solutions, merchandising solutions.  So it's very specific eyeballs coming in. And that would be the primary driver. If I'm an agency saying, gosh, this is where I'd put the eyeballs because for where I put the services, because this is where the eyeballs are. And is there a bar, a certain type of service you're looking for to be on it?  So you've just narrowed some of the scope that you do. Is there a is there something that you shine in a service that you would shine in? That would be a no brainer? Yeah. Obviously field agent is known for data collection and trial and sampling from marketing standpoint. We've got people coming in for that.  But what we started to realize is that you have adjacencies just as you would have adjacencies in a store, Hey, as you're shopping for bread, what's next to bread. As you're shopping for milk, what's next to milk. As you look at this data collection and what's next, we see that the easy verticals for us and which is where we started is primarily in merchandising e-commerce and data.  And. Those are three big verticals that we see are natural because when you're looking for problems to solve at retail, it's normally an e-commerce problem. It's something that's happening in the physical store. It's something around marketing merchandising that I'm dealing with, or I've got all this data, what am I going to do with it?  So those were three logical pieces. Now that you get to tertiary secondary, Jason. We start getting into, Hey, I've got some stickers. Could you manufacture stickers or, Hey, I've got another specific problem. Could you connect me with someone that could do corrugate? Those will be tertiary things.  I think you're going to continue to see, fill out our. Okay. If we change gears a little bit, go into the aspect of being an entrepreneur. I know, I think you had mentioned her when in our green room that you're a very long startup. Maybe you could go into a little bit about your own journey to getting this started.  I tell people at Brent that there's not a lot of podcasts around technology e-commerce or the business world. Start out by. Thanks. So you've got a hillbilly from Appalachia on the phone with you right now. So I started out by saying I came from a very rural area hollering Kentucky from Appalachia and through relationships and getting to university, university of Kentucky had an amazing opportunity to start with this company called Procter and gamble was just an amazing path for me.  And so my. My startup or my starting into that area so that, Hey, within this corporate world, what does that look like? So as an entrepreneur P and G allowed me multiple opportunities to grow and to do things I never dreamed I'd be able to do which then took me overseas. And I spent a couple of years in Hong Kong and a year in Bangkok.  And that was really my first true entrepreneurial experience. I had countries to work with from. South Korea, Japan, all the way down to Australia and all the countries in between. So truly had a taste for that. And then left the company in 2001 to start this. Shopper marketing firm here in Northwest Arkansas.  And that was 20 years ago. So I tell people I'm a 20 year startup, right? And then as you grow and pivot, eventually it turned into filled agents. So that's kinda how I got here from this small town Appalachia guy through corporate America, one of the largest companies in the world into this entrepreneurial mechanism, micro chasm that I'm in today.  And now I'm a CEO of a tech company, which is. And you're a CEO of tech company in Arkansas, but we did talk about that. You're in the a bubble that you're in a Walmart bubble is what can I call that a Walmart bubble that you're in you're in a region that people wouldn't normally think about for being tech and entrepreneurial and.  Happened. Yeah. That there really wasn't. If you go across the United States and you look at these little buckets, if you look at you guys, 20 years ago, you would say, look at where Dale headquarters is and all the companies that had to come around Dell because of this lean manufacturing inventory scenario, and look at all the startups that happened around Dale.  You can look at gosh, Walmart and the same perspective you have Walmart and all these supplier teams that started circling around Walmart. And so when we moved to Northwest Arkansas to start this entrepreneurial journey there were probably two or 300 customer teams that were working with Walmart.  Now there's 1800 customer teams. All of their major providers have offices here. And so Brent, I can be to any major multinational company. That sells a product at retail. I can be to one of their senior executives in less than 15 minutes. You can name any major brand in the world. And I can literally drive from my home and be at their office of 15 minutes.  It's unlike anything you've ever seen. And because of that, as people come to this area and say, gosh, I liked the lifestyle. I enjoy the area and the outdoors, the cost of living. The fact that the Waltons and the Tysons and the hunts that put all this money into infrastructure here, I think I'm going to stay and they choose to stay and they start an agency.  They choose to stay and they start their own entrepreneurial journey. So retail entrepreneurism, we would argue. Within this bubble is pretty significant. It's amazing. The number of startups that are happening here because of that economic bubble that was surrounding Walmart. Yeah. It's such a interesting place.  And I think something that I'd never had realized so in the Rick west journey what is the next, what's the next step for you? What's the next step for marketplace? Yeah. Yeah. So as we also, we wish we had the answer to that, we wish knew exactly what the next step is going to be. But as I look at it for me, if I've learned anything over the last 20, 30 years of my life is that I think success, and this is whether it'd be business success or personal success it really falls the path and depth of relationships.  And so what I'm striving to do now, Brin. It's a cliche, but the whole giving back aspect of it. What does it look like to mentor other startups? What does it really look like to be a part of this ecosystem in a different way so that I can help other people be successful in what I've learned over the last 20 years as an entrepreneur?  So that's what's next for me is spending time in this ecosystem. Now I'm also changing chasing my grandkids, obviously chasing them around a little bit, but that's kind of me and this space, I think for the company and marketing. If we're talking a year or so from now, I think what you're going to find is not only have we grown in the expansion of the marketplace and what it looks like, but I think what you're going to find is it's going to be a standalone name that I think is going to be synonymous with B2B e-commerce if we do this it's not going to be people saying, so what does field agent do and how does that play out?  They're going to say, oh, if you're looking for something to solve, At retail, this is where you're going to go. So we expect to be more of a household name within the retail ecosystem. And that's what we're going to start driving. It's less about the services aspect of it. It's really helping people understand what we're doing.  So as we close out here what are you doing? How do you keep up with technology and what's happening out there and especially in retail what are you reading? What are you listening to? So it gets into that aspect of who you recommended. So my favorite podcast right now, bar none is it's called flip my funnel.  Are you familiar with flip my funnel in Sanger? Nope, go for it. You've got listen. Sanger is he does a daily podcast. Brent, think about this daily podcast. Crazy. Right now he's got a few other people that are guests that kind of help him out, but it's 30, 40 minutes every day. And it's primarily driven with account-based marketing.  So if you're familiar with the funnel concept of account-based marketing versus all these leads, throwing it very broad. And so that's a specialty set, a lot of great experience in started Terminus sold that spent some time in Salesforce, but he brings a very unique perspective to the B2B world that I'm in and this account-based marketing world.  And so fantastic podcast always has something interesting on it. So that's been really cool for me. To listen to I had just started a book. I had it right here sending me somewhere. It's called faith-driven entrepreneur. It got the name of Henry Casner went from Raleigh, North Carolina and went out west to Silicon valley.  And so he's taking his faith and he's driving that through investors and entrepreneurship. And so that's been a cool book. And then I always recommend to folks, if you're on the. My personal favorite right now, the GABA name of mark Sisson, familiar with markup. So if you read my listen, I love the concept and this is going to age me, but I love the concept of what does it take to build a routine in your life and a process in your life, such that you can live to be a healthy 100 years.  Not just to live and be in a wheelchair. What does it take to, to live that last X number of year, years to have a very healthy lifestyle? So I love that aspect of mark and where he's going. And so that's been pretty, pretty cool. He's also matched up with a guy by the name of Peter Atara that does exact same thing about living this healthy lifestyle for the next 30, 40 years.  So that ages me a little bit, but that's also been pretty cool. I know I challenged my dad. My dad was a runner and he's 83 now, but I we go back and forth and I just saw a lady that got the world record at 101. W for her age group for the a hundred meter dash. And it was I think, 37 seconds.  So my dad actually was just here. He just went back. He lives in Montana. He said, he's going to go out to the track and see what his time is for the a hundred hundred meter dash. And he was a runner for 40 or 50 years doesn't run anymore, but walks every day. So I think I think that's such an important process in aging and and as we do get older to recognize that the physical part of it plays into your mental part of it.  And part of it is if you want to go out and run for four hours on a Saturday morning you are going to think about something and you're going to have something to strive and work through. You don't have to run for four hours. I think that mental part and that physical part go together. I always say that.  And I try to say this at mile 19 of a 20 mile run running is 90% mental and the other 15% is in your head. So I see how tired people are when I say that to anyways, to do that math that's really good. Okay. I'm a cyclist guy from. I go out and for me to do a couple hour ride on road bike, there's nothing like it.  I don't put AirPods in, I don't try to listen to things. I really li I really use that time to clear my head and to think, and there's nothing like an hour or two ride just to clear your brain. So I'm a big fan. Yeah. If you get on a fat tire bike, you come to Minnesota and you can ride on the lakes. Not when it's 20 below.  It's a whole industry here anyways. So as we close out I always give people a chance to do a shameless plug. So what would you like to plug today? Listen if you're one of the listeners to this right now and you're saying, yeah, I get it, Rick, but I'm not really sure.  Listen, tricep, the shameless plug is you'd be surprised how he fits. And cost-effective, as in like how little it's going to cost you to give this a, try to see if this could be something that could really impact your business. And so I'm the easy button you can DM me on LinkedIn. You can get me a Richt out west at dot net.  I'm just no more than an email away. We'd love to have a conversation. And even if it doesn't match up in marketplace, I'd love to come alongside and help the next generation, figure it out. This B2B product led marketplace world. I'd love to be helped somebody. Great. Yeah. Thanks for mentioning those.  Contact him for we'll put all these in the show notes as well. So make sure you look that up at at talk commerce talk hyphen commerce.com and we'll have all of Rick's information there, Rick. Thank you for joining us, Rick west CEO and co-founder of field agent. It's been a pleasure talking to you.  Yeah, Brett enjoyed it. Thank you. Yep.