Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to Creating Next, the groundbreaking podcast by TransImpact that delves into the dynamic realms of parcel spend management and supply chain planning. Join our hosts as they navigate the cutting edge of industry innovation, sharing insights and strategies from top experts. Subscribe now for an immersive journey into the strategies and technologies shaping the future of your business.
Jey - 00:00:54:
Welcome back to Creating Next. I'm your host, Jey Yokeley, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at TransImpact. We're excited to have two key guests join our podcast today. One looked familiar, our Vice President of Channel Strategy, JJ Jeffries. And our key guest today, Gary Stephens, Co-founder and CEO of Renew Logic. Renew Logic is a leading provider of reverse supply chain solutions focused on returns management and remarketing consumer products. Today's focus is about partnerships. Specifically about Gary and his team and what they are pioneering in the supply chain space. JJ, you head up all of our partnerships here at the firm. This is your expertise. Talk to our listeners about what we've been working on with Gary and his team.
JJ - 00:01:40:
Absolutely, Jey. And thanks again for having me. You know, the last podcast I was on, we talked about the power of strategic partnerships in the market today. And just not only what your firm, but what other firms and your customers aren't getting out of being able to have an access to those ecosystem of partners. And that's exactly what we've been working on with Gary Stephens and his team at Renew Logic. To paint a little picture of context, it's funny how these partnerships work. And I've said this before, it's all about relationships. It all comes down to the relationship and the trust that you have in one another. And that's really the backbone of it. And Gary and I have known each other now for several months that we met last year at one of our big trade show conferences. And from that point on, we just we struck a great conversation with the collective teams and realized that, man, this would be this would be so powerful in the market for our teams to come together. So today we're going to go through some of that. But with that, Gary, we'd love to we'd love to introduce you a little bit further to our audience today. And have you provide a little bit of understanding of just exactly who Renew Logic is. And how did we get here today?
Gary - 00:02:38:
Well, thanks, guys. It is so exciting to be here and chatting with you guys, especially the way we met. And just sometimes things are meant to be. You just never know when you're going to come across that great next partner and when you're going to build great friendships and great partnerships. And I'm so grateful that we happenstance across each other. And now here we are. So thank you so much for having me here and just continued partnership and working together. Again, just excited. Want to thank you guys. And a little bit about Renew Logic is a traditional reverse logistics company. And a lot of people say, well, what is a reverse logistics company? But we're a traditional reverse logistics company that I will get into what reverse logistics is. But it was founded by myself and a guy named John Paul DeJoria, who's famous for being the founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems, a hair care products company back in the early 80s and Patron tequila, which he still owns John Paul Mitchell Systems, but sold off Patron tequila in January 2019 after growing it into a multibillion dollar global company. And he's most famous for starting those two companies. He's my business partner in this company and several other entities that we've started together. But this company being a quote unquote traditional reverse logistics company is a company that processes all of the consumer goods and products that come out of your traditional retail brick and mortar stores and e-commerce domestically. We focus in on the United States market and then we take that product. That's been returned by consumers or perhaps it's shelf pools, sometimes manufacturer defect products. All of those products have to go somewhere. A lot of people don't realize that when you buy something and it gets returned for whatever reason, perhaps it's buyer's remorse, perhaps you took it home and the wife or the husband, the spouse, whatever, decided that you shouldn't have spent that much money on that item. It gets returned to the store before you even open it and use it in the first 14 days, what we call buyer's remorse or it's shelf pools because the item. You didn't sell in the quantity that was stocked. Or it's some sort of a long-term return or what have you, none of those products go back on the shelf. If you buy something at a local Home Depot or Best Buy or you pick your brick-and-mortar store, it does not go directly back on the shelf. It has to go through a reverse processing company, and that's what we do. We take those products in, and some of them we bring back into the circular economy by re-commerce-ing them through... Whether it be large retail Ebay type stores or other niche retail e-commerce stores, we bring that product back through the best channel to realize the highest commerce for individual items. And in some cases, those items are liquidated in high quantity. And that's what that reverse logistics term is, is all of that economy. And just so everybody kind of can put this into context, up until about 2018, 2019, we saw about 12% returns. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $230 to $250 billion worth of items came through the reverse logistics channels domestically here in the United States. Up until that time, it was always between 9% and 12% of retail items. Then 2020 was obviously a game changer for everything, and especially for us, because we saw that climb to nearly a full third, 33% of items. We're hovering somewhere around 25% to 27% of items now, 2023 of items that are sold through either traditional brick-and-mortar stores or through e-commerce. That are getting returns. So that's how large The transportation and logistics industry is. We're talking about an industry that we expect 2023 numbers will close. Probably above a trillion dollars. A lot of money, a lot of items, a lot of moving parts. And it's an industry that's a little bit different than your traditional forward logistics industry. A lot of companies in the forward logistics space, they manufacture a product, they have to get it to a distribution center or to a distributor, and then get it into the final sales portal that goes to the consumer's hands. In the reverse logistics space, there's a lot of moving parts. From manufacturing to consumer hands in the forward logistics space, the average touch points, the number of times the items has to be touched to get to the consumer hands, the average is seven. In the reverse logistics space, all of the studies that have been done, they stop counting at 27. We don't know the actual number. We just know at 27, it was time to stop counting. So there's a lot of opportunity in the industry to bring efficiencies, a lot of opportunity to sort of clean up the industry, and a lot of opportunities for us to either make mistakes or make great decisions and make great profits. And so we're one of those companies that we decided we were really going to go after the environmental piece, protect the environment, protect brand reputation, and bring a different spin to the space that's never been here before. And that's really technology. We're a technology innovator, and that's what makes us different, along with the reputation of John Paul DeJoria, who's known as the environmentalist billionaire. So we've got a lot to offer. I know that was a long introduction, but we're excited about the industry. I'm excited about what I do every single day and even more excited for this partnership.
JJ - 00:08:12:
Gary, I think, you know, with that long intro there, there's a lot to unpack there. And I think there's some good stuff that I want to go through a little bit with our listeners today and really around some of the objectives of why we partner. I want to dig a little bit into more of the story of Renew Logic here to paint a picture of kind of where we've been and where we're going with Renew Logic and some of the things that we have upcoming. And, you know, we'll not mention some of those things because there's some big teasers coming out in the next few weeks for the market. But I really want to touch on one thing you said there specifically around technology. Right. I mean, you mentioned that there's so much back in process to the reverse logistics space. And if you think about it in the conglomerate of the world and supply chain, the end consumer typically doesn't even think about that part of the business because they think once I return it, it's out of my hands. It's someone else's problem. And they don't really understand what goes into all the nuances behind the scenes and how that really drives a company's profitability. And so I think right there that that measures a little bit into why we collectively sat down and said, man, Renew Logic and TransImpact could be a game changer in the market to some of our collective customers. One, not only to be able to help them on the front end with further optimization and visibility into their current not only spins, but forward thinking decision making. But on the back end, these customers still have to figure out a way that if I don't have my own freight and LTL means to get these products to me. Well, now I got to figure out a way to get something. And I feel like it's so many few players that know how to do it and know how to do it right. So could you elaborate a bit on there of what really kicked this off with you around Renew Logic and and some of the things forward thinking around technology that that you think where we're going in this industry without unveiling what's coming in the next few weeks?
Gary - 00:09:58:
Yeah, absolutely. Just to hint a little bit more, you know, we have a we have a software suite that's coming out that we're going to make available to the industry. And that really came from some of our competitors coming to us and having just frank conversation. Most of my competitors are friends of mine. They see what we're doing from a technology perspective. And they've asked if they could use some of our technology and some of our partnerships to make them better and to drive their margins up. Because, you know, it's not getting less expensive to do business in this world, believe it or not. Prices are going up for a reason. You know, across the board, we've seen where, you know, expense of doing business is skyrocketing. And without getting political or talking about anything that's that's that's, you know, on anywhere near that subject. It's simply the fallout of, you know, COVID. The world is changing. We're just seeing items are getting more expensive, regardless of why it is. That's just the reality. A big part of that is in moving product around. It's inefficient unless you're showing up at an event and you just happen to cross someone's path that you can do business with or you get the right introductions or you grew up in the industry. It's not an industry that someone in college or in high school or junior high goes, hey, I want to be in reverse logistics. I want to be managing what some companies look at as their salvage or their byproduct. I mean, nobody's dreaming about being in this industry. But the reality is we have the ability to affect global change. That does have a global impact on the environment, on different economies and other parts of the world, especially some of the third world countries. We have the ability to make major impact there through the right partnerships. We also have the ability to make companies that have never considered themselves environmentally friendly, environmentally friendly by simply lowering the number of touches that they have in their items that are returned. When you're talking about a third of the items that go out your front door, whether that be through an e-commerce store or an actual brick and mortar, coming back and you having to do something with it. Well, first off, let's talk about the obvious. How do we keep that stuff out of a landfill? If it's not fully functional, you can get it back into a consumer's hands. That's an important piece. And let's talk about all of the environmental damage we do in trucking that material all over the United States or other parts of the world to simply dispose of it by removing those touches, by removing those transports. And if you can't completely remove them, making them as efficient as possible and as low cost as possible, it makes you more profitable and more efficient. And so Renew Logic is always focused in on the data. What can we learn from each product that comes through our facilities? You know, there was a time we had five facilities throughout the nation. Hundreds of thousands, just shy of, you know, million square feet of processing center, just to process some of this material. And we did that. We grew, we blew up like an elephant so that we could study the product and really develop smart ways of processing that material to have the least impact on the bottom line. The least impact on the environment, and save the brand as much of their reputation as possible. You know, we've all seen where famous large computer manufacturers and cell phone manufacturers, where the mainstream media of the world will do these deep dives into what happens to the material when we're done consuming it. What happens to our cell phone devices and so forth when they're no longer current or second or third gen, when they truly become trash? What happens to that material? Well, we've studied that. We know exactly what happens to those materials. And if we're going to do that with cell phones, we at Renew Logic knew we needed to do that with everything, whether it be stuff coming out of home improvement stores, large wholesalers like, you know, the Costco's and the Sam's of the world. Big box retailers, the Walmarts, all of those companies, they don't just have electronics. They get returns of things that you just wouldn't believe. Everything's from, oh my gosh, one of the biggest headaches we ever saw was thousands of train containers full of Christmas trees. And what are we going to do with those in February? This is all stuff that we had to learn from. And we bring that knowledge to bear for every single one of our customers and clients so that they know we have a diverse background of not just processing one type of device. We process everything. We're very good at what we call the pivot. When a truck backs up to one of our facilities, regardless of what's on it, we're going to process it in the most efficient way, the fastest way to get you the maximum revenue on that item. And the way we can do that is by never saying no. We always are the solution for every one of our clients and customers. And we got smart. We developed very smart. We have smart partnerships and very smart tools that make us very efficient and effective at what we do. And as a result, we're financially successful and our partners and clients are more financially successful because of us.
JJ - 00:15:01:
Gary, I love that. I think it leads exactly to a point that you and I honed in a lot on our relationship was specifically if a partnership is one-sided, it's not a partnership. And I think that you and your team have done a tremendous job in showing that to your network of alliances and customers, etc. And I want to dig a little bit further into something that you said, because as not a legacy supply chain guy, but as a technology guy, I was not very in-depth materially with some of the reverse logistics space. And I remember one of the first times we met when you were talking about where we stopped counting at 27 touch points. And a light bulb went off in my head right there because I thought 27 touch points. When I, as a consumer, think about purchasing something, I go to Amazon or I go to wherever, you know, Next Day , Two Day Prime, free shipping, whatever the case may be. I purchase it. In most cases, it comes from a regional distribution center and it comes to my house. Maybe at a worst case scenario, it goes to a last mile or a regional carrier for final delivery. So maybe two touch points from that point in time. And the workflow is pretty consolidated. And so what really impressed me so much with your team was the ability to really shrink that step and that process and transitional-ize some of that from a sustainability standpoint. And I don't think you said something to me one time, and I'm not going to say the customer's name, but I remember you said a massive big box retailer. When you guys were doing some returns there, they had no idea their returns and claims department on the reverse existing side. They had no clue on the sales organization of how much impact that was having down on their revenue. What the actual margin was for their end product. You know, they're looking at everything front end. We've had X amount of revenue come in the door, but there was no way because they didn't even understand their own reverse logistics side of the house. Those two companies, or excuse me, two departments really operated completely independent of one another and never talked. And so, although I might make a hundred million over here, but if I'm spending $30 million in returns and inefficient reverse logistics processes, we're having a very different conversation at the board and CFO level with these customers. So can you talk about how you guys, when you're working with a customer and you see some of these inefficiencies on the front end, how you guys are really sitting down with them to look at their end to end view of how we can do this much more efficient with Renew Logic?
Gary - 00:17:19:
Yeah, so a lot of companies, to your point and what we just talked about, a lot of companies are so focused in on the forward merchandising, the forward sales channel, that they don't ever look at the returns. The returns, they have a lot of different names for it. It's The transportation and logistics industry from our perspective. But a lot of times to them, that's just a black hole of costs. They don't care.
JJ - 00:17:43:
It's an afterthought.
Gary - 00:17:44:
Literally, they don't even want to think about it. And so you're right. Those departments typically operate as if they are completely separate companies, and they operate that as a complete and utter loss center. And so a lot of times the professionals that are in that space are always in a losing proposition. They're heading up the losing department. I mean, can you imagine? Like, you know, you're head of the benchwarmer team. It's kind of a sad situation for them. And so for us, what we did was we started going in and offering it up to offering our department. And we started offering our data and our lessons to people so that they could become the hero. We wanted to enable them with our data to show the forward merchandising department better ways to do business, better ways to design, build, and bring products to market, and better ways to keep those products in the consumer's hands. Some of that is talking about, you know, repairability. Some of it is simply constantly reminding the customer of the quality of product that they've got. We've seen that across the board, whether that be some sort of electronic device like, you know, your current cell phone. Whether it's, you know, one gen old or what have you. All the way through to power tools to, you know, the items that you build your house with. Items that you might pick up at your local Walmart store and so forth. We're trying to get customers to feel better about the purchases that they make so that they are likely to hold on to those products longer. And we provide that data to our customers so they know which brands are perceived by customers to have more long-term value. Now. With that being said, we constantly work on sharpening our data and lowering the touch points. I think that's one of the reasons that this partnership means so much to us is because you provide us with more data that we can provide to our customers about how to not only do business smarter in the forward channels, but how to lower those touch points and lower the expenses of the returns. Because a lot of companies can't tolerate that. As you get closer and closer to a third of their returns. There are outbound items coming back in. The cost of that reverse logistics channel, the returns channel, whatever you want to call it, salvage, so forth, the cost of that is ballooning to the point where they cannot absorb that any longer and you see prices going up on the shelf. That's going to continue to happen no matter what. When a store sets a price on something at a certain level, they don't ever go back and go, oh, okay, inflation's down, let's lower the price. You know, milk has never gotten cheaper. It just keeps getting more expensive, right? That's true of everything else that's on the shelf. And so for us, by providing good data to them, it makes their merchandising side better and it makes their returns smarter. And one of those, several of those touch points are... You know, them actually shipping the items between facilities. We want to cut a lot of that out. And if you still need to do that, which they will need to do that, let's do it in very intelligent ways. Instead of simply shipping the problem from warehouse to warehouse, let's ship it to one facility for it to be dealt with. And let's get it back into the market or the recycler's hands where it needs to be to find its final disposition and be done with. Those are all great data points and great tools that your solutions. Wrap our solutions very well, and we can provide that to the customer and show them how they can immediately save money. And by the way, every dollar you save in the reverse logistics part of your P&L goes directly to the bottom line. So if I save you a dollar in reverse logistics, it adds a dollar to your revenue directly straight to your revenue line. And so those are important things. When we talk about our partnership and the cost savings and the solutions that you guys bring to our customers and our clients and vice versa, we're immediately adding to the revenue for every single one of our clients and customers. And so it's a great partnership because we get to make companies more successful. We get to enable smarter decisions across the board, not only in the reverse channel, but also let's get smarter in the forward merchandising, the forward logistics that most companies are really focused in on. So by bringing these tools forward and some of the technology, we'll be releasing on February 6th, it makes companies smarter. It makes them tremendously more efficient and thereby makes them more profitable and hopefully lowers some of that price hiking that we're seeing going on at the retail level.
JJ - 00:22:17:
Gary, exactly. And I want to touch on one thing you said right there around, you know, just your guys value your proposition to your customers and collectively the same thing from Jey and our teams at TransImpact. And I think it's been the mission statement and the synergy could not be more aligned. Right. And I think that's the that's the maturity and the growth right there of a perfect partnership collectively. And I want to talk to you on that because I think it's something that a lot of companies are still struggling with in today's world with. Look, there's never been a more competitive environment, right? Ever. There's never been as easy of access to information at your fingertips. I mean, if you and I want something, we go on Google right now, we go to a news article. I mean, we get something instantaneously. And I think companies are very much talking about that and aware of that, but they don't know how to do it. And I think by by realizing that, hey, we do. This really, really good over here. But how do we make ourselves an end to end solution for our customers and adding a partner in to kind of piggyback on the front end or the back end or the middle aspect of that? I think that's where business really gets interesting because. You know, I think when you try to be a jack of all trades, we've seen some companies do it well. But I think most times people want to stay in their lane. They want to have their fastball and they want to just be experts at the space. You can't do everything collectively. And so I think it's been something awesome to our partnership that we've been able to really just from day one agree on that. Like, you're good at here. You're good at here. And we can solve this end to end for our, for our customers. So, Gary, I want to transition into. Go ahead. Sorry, Gary.
Gary - 00:23:49:
I was just going to echo what you're saying. I mean, we bring a level of expertise to an area that. You know, generally was in the margin. It was stuff to be swept underneath the rug. And then COVID changed all of that. And when I say we, I mean us for New Logic. You know, we... If this was your job, Renew Logic was the expert. We were very good at it. We were important to you. Suddenly it became the spotlight for everyone because we all saw on the news how the consumption of goods changed through COVID. And that has continued. The behaviors of the consumer has continued. Some customers like to go back to the retail store. But for the most part, if they go to the retail store, they're simply looking at it, comparing their price on their device, and then having it delivered to their house later that day or the next day at a discount. Well, you know, that's great. I love the fact that that behavior has changed and that makes for a better world and so forth. But on the back end, when you get it home and put it on and realize, oh, I don't want this thing after all, and then you return it or it's not, whatever it is, you ordered the wrong thing, that's creating a spotlight on our industry. And what makes Renew Logic even better is the fact that we have partnerships like what we now have with TransImpact. So when we come to the table and talk to you, we're not just experts in reverse logistics. We're bringing a team of experts in each and every part of the reverse logistics process that's going to make it more efficient and make it better for you as our client, and thereby making you more efficient and more profitable. Through industry leading tools in each industry, whether we're talking about parcel delivery, All of that or the processing of the returns, the liquidation of excess inventory and those returns and so forth. We are bringing the absolute experts because we partnered with them. And that's part of what we're doing with TransImpact. We have partnered with the absolute best. So when Renew Logic walks in, we've got the heavy hitters on our team and we are going to affect change for positive revenue in every company that we do business with. Because of partnerships like this.
JJ - 00:25:58:
I love it. Mic drop moment. I would love to end there, but we're leaving out on a few different things. So before we go into RLA, I would be remiss to not ask this question because I think a lot of people are getting the mystique of John Paul DeJoria, right? And him being involved in the company. And I think, look, you and your team have clearly done its justice and its own do right credit, even without John Paul. But I want to touch on that because I think a lot of companies in your space and situation, they see John Paul to that. And there's an instant level of credibility that comes with that, right? When someone of his stature and success really gets involved with companies like our company and your company, and we get the opportunity to be at the table with somebody like that. That's an opportunity you don't really get a lot of times and you really want to double down on that. So as we were talking about sustainability earlier, could you just touch on really quick, you know, one, just what is John Paul really meant to Renew Logic and some of the forward thinking he brings with the success and just the exposure and expertise? But then really, how did that really dovetail into just what he's so accustomed to and what he cares about so much in regards to sustainability? Because that is something with John Paul, you always see the peace, love and happiness. That's really something that's a mantra of his makeup. And so I would just love for you to dive a little bit in further for some of our listeners today and just what he's meant to the company and how that's really helped continue to drive you guys in the market.
Gary - 00:27:22:
Gosh, that's a big question. And it's got a big answer. And I've got a big mouth. And so, you know, reel me in any time, please. But I will tell you right now, it gives me chills. I am one of the luckiest human beings in the world because I have John Paul DeJoria, my business partner, my friend, and my mentor. I mean, he is by far one of the best human beings a person could ever hope to have an interaction with. And I will tell you, he is by far the greatest human being I've ever known in my entire life and could ever hope to meet and much less be part of each other's lives. You know, John Paul is a self-made billionaire, was homeless when he started Paul Mitchell on a hope and a prayer and borrowed $700 and built that company into a multibillion dollar company and has started more than 200 companies since then. Some of them I've been a part of. I happen to be lucky that we share this passion for making business. This is more profitable and environmentally smart, efficient, and loyal to their partners, their customers, their clients. You know, we like helping organizations continue with the reputation that John Paul built from day one when he started Paul Mitchell. And, you know, the depth of John Paul's care for our environment, for our earth, and for everything in it, I can't put it into words. It all, you know, that. The documentaries that have been made about him, like Good Fortune is one that I would encourage people to watch. It's a documentary about John Paul's life. Really speaks to his environmental causes. You know, there are two active ships patrolling the oceans that have his name on it, the John Paul DeJoria and the John Paul DeGioia II, both over 250-foot ocean vessels patrolling and reporting international fishing operations that are, you know, against international treaties. He also is constantly involved in environmental causes, whether that be from helping out what we see on our street corner with homeless people and the issues that we see in our own neighborhoods, communities, cities, urban areas, and so forth, all the way to farming culture and helping farmers, ranchers in every way possible. Simply watch whenever he was a guest Shark on Shark Tank and what he did there for a farmer who came up with an invention. That has been a massive positive impact for the way that some of the non-commercial farmers are having to work in these United States, all the way down to his environmental causes, lowering emissions across the board. The man has invested. He's worked directly with some of the other famous billionaires, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, part of the The Giving Pledge, giving away more than 50% of his net worth. It's very important. It's very important to him. And the majority of that goes into the causes I've already mentioned. So being an environmentalist is a big deal to him. It is who he is. It is the thread of his being. And we're making a difference every single day. And we decided to start making that difference in reverse logistics. And there are other terms we'd use to describe that. But I'll tell you, it is not uncommon. And this happened not so long ago. JJ, I may have told you about this. Right before, you know, all of us got together. We're dinner with John Paul here in Austin, Texas. But John Paul saw a news story about the impact that fast fashion was having in Africa and how much of that product is finding its way over there. And for lack of a better term, sort of dumped on those environments, those economies and those civilizations. He saw directly, you know, some news reporting about that. And he had that link sent over to me on my phone. And he said, Gary, you've got to get up. You've got to get over there. You've got to see if you can help and make a difference. But you know what? I don't have to go there to fight through it. I can implement some smart policies, use some of the data that we've learned here, and use great partnerships like what we have to go and talk to the leaders in that industry and help them modify their behaviors in a way that makes them more profitable, makes them environmentally friendly, and makes them pop up on John Paul's radar of being an environmentally friendly company so he can get behind their brand and really help them excel. So in their goals and, and obligations to the environment, but really their financial goals to their stockholders, their owners, or what have you, while being environmentally friendly. So John Paul understands businesses need to exist to make money, and he's made a hell of a lot of it, right? He's in the Forbes list, but he knows how to do it and be environmentally conscious at the same time. And that's really what we're trying to bring to every single industry, every business owner, whether you're a Fortune 100, Fortune 10, or you're simply a small mom and pop shop on the corner, We're trying to bring those smart business practices to bear. So that you can be more competitive. More efficient and more profitable. And John Paul's It's all going to stand on the cornerstone of being an environmentalist. Anybody who doesn't know who he is, it's easy to see. He puts his money where his mouth is, and I'm a big part of that. I also... Just right along with him, we put our money where our mouth is.
JJ - 00:32:45:
So Gary, I want to double down on what you said there, because I think it's extremely important just for some of our listeners to hear from our side. Jey, I love your take on this too, but I remember when we flew out to Austin, Texas and we did our initial first kickoff and really white boarded out this whole entire partnership, what's going to be the objective, how we're going to go to market, et cetera. And when we got to meet John Paul, and one thing I'll tell you, coming from the finance space, and I'll say this being a finance guy, true and true, it's a cutthroat industry, right? And it's a capitalistic industry. You see it on the news every single day, policymakers bail it out, big banks bail it out. And there's some arrogance that comes with that industry, quite frankly, right? It's just, it is what it is. And one of the things I was just so impressed with John Paul was just how humble and how real this guy was at dinner. I mean, he did not have to come spend three hours and meet me and want to ask for my autograph, right? And I think one of the funny things was just when he was walking, he was walking up to our team and introducing himself as if we didn't know who he was, right? There's almost a, there's a funny juxtaposition there because it shows you just how humble he really is. Obviously, we all know who he is. I remember the white Paul Mitchell iconic hairspray that was in super cuts that my mom was buying for me when I was a kid or buying for herself. And so, you know, I think when we left that meeting, we just realized that Man, this wasn't just a figurehead that was part of this business. This was someone who was really ingrained in the business and day-to-day making decisions and on the forefront and really, quite frankly, putting his reputation on the line to really cut a bat for the causes that you and your team are solving at Renew Logic. So, Jey, I'd love to hear your perspective on that, too, because I know we were talking at dinner just how great of a person John Paul was. And there was just such an organic feeling there in the partnership.
Jey - 00:34:33:
Well, I think back to when we actually met you, Gary. And, you know, everything that you described about. John Paul was true and then some when we actually met him in person. I think, you know, JJ, you said it, a partnership, I mean, it's a two-way street. It's reciprocal and you have to be equally invested. And I think in anything in business and in life. You have to find a common purpose together. And there have to be some. Interconnection that you can't really put into words where You just understand that you are around like-minded individuals from a core value standpoint. And those are the people that you want to work with. And Gary... That is very obvious in the relationship that you have with John Paul DeJoria. You can see it when you're around the guy. You can hear it in your words. They come straight from your heart. And I think that's what led to us initially kind of No. Gravitating towards one another at the first meat dinner that we had. And then we came down to Austin, Texas and we got to meet him in person and we got to kind of take that next step. And like JJ said, have this whiteboarding session. And it was just very obvious that we had a lot of people in the room that were trying to achieve the same thing. And that was just simply making an impact. On people, on business. And whatever that really meant, whether that's through transportation or reverse logistics, We're just navigating our lane. Make an impact and help people be successful and doing it in a certain manner that leaves an impressionable feeling on individuals that We're trying to make positive change. And I think that's what kind of brings this partnership together here. And that's what's so exciting for us because I don't think any of us woke up one day and said, we want to do what we're doing today. But, you know, life has it. Life has a funny way of kind of navigating you down a path. And it's all centered around the people that you're doing it with. And you surround yourself with the right people, you'll go to war and do anything, whatever it is with those people, because you care. And that's the relationship that obviously Gary, you and John Paul DeJoria have. It sounds like your business is founded on those principles. Our business is founded on those principles, and that's what our partnership is founded on as well.
JJ - 00:36:38:
Yeah, Jey, look, I mean, I'm going to cut you off there because I think, speak for yourself, but I remember when Gary met me in Austin, Texas, he said, John Paul and myself have been trying to meet you all week. We've been walking around this entire facility trying to meet you. And so Gary might not say that to the public, but he was, you know, the team was following around. They wanted my autograph really bad. So apologies if you didn't get the same feeling. Well, one thing. One thing, Gary, as we close this out, I want to transition real quick to RLA. And I want to talk about, obviously, we have some very big announcements coming out to RLA. Our collective teams have been working nonstop behind the scenes, really, over the last several weeks with the PR teams, with media, with marketing, with a lot of campaigns of just some of the things that are coming. So with RLA kicking off on February 6th in Vegas, our collective teams will be there on site. We have a pre-conference kickoff that night where we're going to have some really exciting announcements and some charitable items coming as part of that. Everyone's seen it. Everyone's seen it in the market. If you're paying attention at all the reverse logistics space, you have seen it all over that John Paul DeJoria is the keynote speaker this year for the 20th anniversary of the RLA. And wanted to give you a chance right there to perhaps give a little teaser, talk about kind of what's coming. We talked about technology. We've talked about Renew Logic being an asset based company and really looking to transition into some of these more inefficient, sustainable items and really ways of doing business. So, with that, wanted to give you some opportunity right there to just really talk about some of the teaser on this big announcement that I think everybody here is gearing up to listen to.
Gary - 00:38:15:
Yeah, I appreciate it. And you're right. I'm still waiting on that autograph. But, you know, one of these days I'll earn it, I'm sure. But yeah, guys, so, you know, RLA, February 6th and 7th, those are big days for our industry with the Reverse Logistics Association conference that's going on in Vegas at the Mirage. You know, we're going to be there. Anybody can go to the RLA.org site and kind of see some of the brands that are represented there. But yeah, John Paul is the keynote speaker. I'll be doing the introduction. We'll be making an announcement about some stuff that we're bringing to The logistics industry and not just the transportation and industry, but across the board. And quite frankly, I just kind of throw a little tidbit out there. It really is about us bringing the tools we've used to make us. Effective and efficient in this industry to the market as a whole product, as a suite. So we're bringing the tools that we use on a day to day basis that make Renew out into the public where anyone can use it. And a big part of that is, you know, the partnerships that we've developed with you all and others, bringing a suite of products that enable any business to get smart on the way that they process returns, overstocks, or anything that would traditionally fall into the reverse logistics space. And so John Paul DeJoria's just going to do what John Paul does. He's much like me. You can't hand me a script and expect me to show up and read it for you. But John Paul will be telling his story of going from nothing to building super efficient businesses while being environmentally conscious and in being conscious of the people around him and the impact that he has on them and constantly making the decision to make the positive impact. You know, what we're bringing to bear is something we could have kept internally and just... Just continue to dominate and continue to take on business. But instead, we're enabling everyone to do things better because that's what's best for our country, our environment, the earth that we live on, our peers, the people around us. It is the best decision. And we will find a way to manage that and stay profitable as we always have been and continue to innovate, bring better data and change the industry in very positive, impactful ways. We are no longer going to be bound by the old mentality of reverse logistics that dominated pre-pandemic. We're bringing a cutting-edge platform, cutting-edge software and suite of partnerships to bear that will make every business better at the way they process all of the products that traditionally fall in the reverse logistics chain. And so John Paul is going to be giving his traditional business a chance to do that. And I think that's going to be a great way to do that. We're going to be demoing his traditional history and where he came from and the lessons he learned. And then we will be demoing what it is that we're bringing to market throughout the conference. And we're also set up to have one-on-one meetings. JJ, you'll be there with some of your team. You guys will be having meetings along with us. And John Paul and I will be having one-on-one meetings with anyone who wants to impact change in their own business in positive ways that we've hinted to here today in ways that are smart. And develop great partnerships with us and our partners to make themselves more profitable. So that's what you can look forward to at the RLA conference, February 6th and 7th, is a lot of change to an industry that has traditionally been ignored, but now is a trillion-dollar revenue, annual revenue. It's time for change, and we're going to be the ones bringing it.
JJ - 00:42:03:
Well, Gary, I think it's going to be an awesome event. You know, I think it goes without saying that our team at TransImpact is grateful of the opportunity to even be considered to work with you guys. And I know that we're extremely happy now to kick off this partnership. As you said earlier, we're going to be on site there at the Mirage in Vegas at that conference and making sure that we're showing some of these forward thinking technology solutions that we have coming to market here. So I know we're super excited for that. And again, we just greatly appreciate the opportunity and a lot to come next week in Vegas. So with that, Jey, I hand it over to you to wrap us up with some final words.
Jey - 00:42:35:
Yeah, Gary, first off, man, it's always a pleasure to speak with you and see you. We are honored to be a part of this partnership. We look forward to growing together. For all the listeners, You can go check out Renew Logic at renewlogic.com. Go check out LinkedIn, Gary Stephens. He's active. He's out there promoting. We're looking forward to the RLA show. Gary, thank you for having us and letting us be a key partner with your team to help. Continue to drive the change we've discussed on this episode. Everybody listening, thank you for tuning in to Creating Next by TransImpact, an industry-leading technology company. Specializing in parcel spend management and supply chain planning. Teaming up with the best in the game at Renew Logic. An industry leader in reverse logistics and supply chain solutions. Until next time. Thanks, everybody.
Gary - 00:43:28:
Thank you.