Latest / The ReForge Podcast / Trucking Companies Are Going to Disappear (with Brittain Ladd) | ReForge 021

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Trucking Companies Are Going to Disappear (with Brittain Ladd) | ReForge 021 · The ReForge Podcast

• 0:05
  Welcome to the Reforge podcast.
• 0:08
  I'm Matthew Chang, and we're here to explore all things AI, automation, and the American worker, proving that the American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
• 0:19
  Thanks for joining us today.
• 0:21
  Let's get into the episode Welcome back everyone, and welcome to episode 21 of the Reforge podcast.
• 0:30
  Today we have a very special guest, and I will hand it over to the one and only Matt Chang to give his wonderful introduction.
• 0:39
  Yeah.
• 0:39
  Thanks, Colin.
• 0:40
  So episode 21, we're over hump- over the hump now.
• 0:44
  It's all downhill from here.
• 0:45
  Uh, we are joined by the greatest predictor that I've ever met, uh, Brittain Ladd.
• 0:51
  Brittain Ladd is, uh, got a lot of expertise in foreign markets.
• 0:56
  He was in the Marine Corps.
• 0:58
  He was a traveling consultant for Deloitte and many other incredible experiences including Amazon.
• 1:05
  But w- where I knew him was we served in a C-suite together of a, uh, what became a private equity roll-up, um, of a material handling and robotics integrator.
• 1:16
  Brittain, uh, in that role was chief marketing officer, and so it was very fun for us to work together.
• 1:21
  You had kind of the, the chief engineer, so to speak, and then the chief marketing officer, and we'd have to kind of battle it out on what we could say and predict about the future.
• 1:30
  But what I've found about Brittain to be consistently true is he is anywhere from two to four years in the future, and his hit rate is incredible.
• 1:37
  So if you're not paying attention to what he says, you just don't know what's gonna happen next.
• 1:41
  Brittain, it's awesome to have you on the show.
• 1:43
  Well, I always enjoy being on the show with you, Matt.
• 1:47
  Uh, I really enjoyed the time that we had together when we worked at that company.
• 1:52
  Um, and it's just been fabulous watching what you've accomplished over the years, so it's always a pleasure to be here.
• 2:00
  Well, Brittain, we are thrilled to have you with us.
• 2:02
  Obviously, you know, with the Reforge Pod, we like to talk through kind of reindustrialization and all the moving pieces of it.
• 2:09
  That is a never-ending list and always growing.
• 2:12
  Um, but obviously you bring a tremendous amount of knowledge and obviously y- y- the, your crystal ball, if you will, on the supply chain side of it.
• 2:22
  Um, it's one of the areas that Matt and I haven't really cut into too much, uh, i- is really on supply chain.
• 2:28
  So Can you maybe give us a little bit of a rundown, um, you know, uh, help our viewers understand kind of supply chain, the, the thing not everybody thinks about as being too sexy or cool.
• 2:40
  But why is that such a critical part of successfully and effectively rebuilding America's production capacity?
• 2:47
  And, and how has that been such a strong driver to really, you know, grow the demand and interest in the reindustrialization movement?
• 2:55
  So I'll begin by using a phrase that I coined, I don't know, probably 10 years ago.
• 3:01
  And when it comes to the supply chain, what I always say to, to, to people on these podcasts or in my articles is that the purpose of a supply chain is to do one thing, and that is enable growth.
• 3:15
  And so when your supply chain is, is not capable, it's unable to basically execute the way it should, to manage your inventory the way it should, or to manage the replenishment the way it should, to basically allow a company to manufacture products and get them to the customer the way that it should, you're in a really severe situation.
• 3:40
  And so when we look at the fact that most manufacturing today takes place outside of the United States in China, India, Vietnam, all these, all these different countries, your supply chain is thousands and thousands of miles long.
• 3:55
  And so the complexity in your supply chain is incredibly significant.
• 4:00
  And then when you add on to the fact that we have tariffs that are raising the price of everything associated with building the product overseas, managing the, uh, manufacturing the product overseas, and then bringing it to the US, well, now your supply chain is really expensive.
• 4:18
  And so I've always been a fan and a supporter of reindustrialization in the United States because if you can shorten your supply chain, by its very nature, a domestic supply chain is a much greener supply chain.
• 4:36
  Because the distance traveled for your product is miles, hundreds of miles, maybe a thousand or so miles, but it's not 8,000 miles.
• 4:46
  It's not 7,000 miles.
• 4:48
  And so when it comes to the supply chain, and especially when it comes to reindustrialization, the real goal is, so how do I not just relocate my manufacturing from a country, uh, to the United States?
• 5:03
  It's how do I do this in a way- Where I'm making the right investment in my supply chain software, my n- my logistics network, uh, managing my transportation requirements.
• 5:16
  But it's also, what automation do I need?
• 5:19
  How do I make sure that every building that I build, that I have constructed, is constructed with automation in mind?
• 5:28
  Or, how do I choose facilities with automation in mind?
• 5:32
  How do I design a network that's going to allow me to reduce my supply chain and logistics cost to the absolute lowest level, while making sure I'm maximizing my ability to execute as a company?
• 5:44
  And so when you think about a supply chain, what I say to people is, remember this, a company only needs a supply chain if they want to grow.
• 5:54
  If you're satisfied with the status quo, you can keep the same supply chain you have.
• 5:59
  It doesn't matter.
• 6:00
  You're happy with the way things are.
• 6:02
  But if you're a company that says,"We want to grow, we really want to become a leader." In our industry, our categories then it all comes down to do you have a science-based supply chain?
• 6:15
  Do you have a supply chain wherever you possibly can?
• 6:17
  Are you leveraging automation?
• 6:19
  Are you leveraging software that allows you to do things better, faster, cheaper?
• 6:26
  Are you really understanding the role that artificial intelligence plays?
• 6:30
  And I'll end with the discussion on, on art- artificial intelligence by, by reminding everyone about this.
• 6:37
  Everybody wants to talk about AI.
• 6:38
  Everyone wants to talk about agentic AI.
• 6:40
  Everyone wants to talk about how fast retail can be through agentic AI.
• 6:46
  But the brutal reality, the brutal truth is trucks don't go any faster today, warehouses don't fulfill any faster, most of the robotics pick at the same speed.
• 6:56
  And so when you say how does a company honestly maximize the capabilities of AI to transform their company, what you have to say is, well, the way they do that is by creating a supply chain and logistics network designed for the era of today.
• 7:15
  And the biggest problem- I love that the biggest com- the biggest problem that companies have is that all these companies today, no matter what industry, they're leveraging supply chain and logistics models designed for another era, from the 1980s, the'90s, the early 2000s, to 2010s, to even around 2020.
• 7:37
  So we need supply chains that are designed for the era of today, the modern era, and until that happens, these companies that wanna say how they're leveraging AI, and they're so sophisticated and capable, no they're not, because the logistics that they're using is the same logistics they were using one year ago, and three years ago, and more than likely five years ago.
• 8:02
  And so to summarize, I always say to people, you know, no matter what, when you think about a company and how they grow, it's because of their supply chain.
• 8:11
  Because again, the purpose of a supply chain is to do one thing, enable growth.
• 8:16
  And unless the C-suite thinks of it that way, what I find is they invest an awful lot of time, money, and effort into a supply chain that never really does enable their growth, and instead it actually just helps them run faster in place Well- I mean, that was just a, a home run, a grand slam right off the bat.
• 8:37
  I mean, that was a walk-off homer, you know, right down the pipe, out of the park type of thing.
• 8:41
  So that was awesome first response.
• 8:44
  Oh, thank you.
• 8:44
  Um, you hit on so many things I could cover there, but, you know, I, I, I think my first question would be, well, I'm, I'm gonna start with yes, 100% agree, and then I'm gonna ask my question of, so these companies that, you know, they aren't your Fortune 500.
• 9:01
  They don't have all the money in the world to go pay consultants or bring in, you know, future seers like yourself.
• 9:09
  Um, you know, what are the some of the key things, the simple things that your smaller shop can do to really shore up that supply chain?
• 9:17
  And then I'm gonna follow that up with a second question of, so what does this future supply chain look like?
• 9:23
  So here, here's my philosophy.
• 9:26
  I, I've worked for some very large consulting firms, Capgemini, Deloitte.
• 9:30
  I've provided consulting to partners at McKinsey, and I've done work with Bain and Boston Consulting and so forth.
• 9:37
  And I've, in many, many ways I've disagreed with that model because it's so large that these projects always become, and there are so many people attached.
• 9:48
  And so the best advice that I give on these podcasts and, and a lot of the articles I write is I say,"You want," and I mean this with 100% sincerity,"you want to follow someone like Matt Chang." You want to understand what it is that Matt Chang and his company does.
• 10:06
  Because if you're a small to mid-size player, and even if you're a larger company, what you don't need are more voices and more noise of telling you what's possible You need that one expert who is able to tell you, based on what your company does, based on the industry you compete in, based on what your competitors are doing, this is the supply chain you need, and this is how you leverage that supply chain to not only enable your growth, but to create a competitive advantage.
• 10:40
  And so the last excuse I think any of these small or mid-size companies should use is that we just don't have the capital, we don't have those, the budget to bring in a really big consulting firm.
• 10:53
  I think you should be saying,"That's great," because you don't want to bring in these large consulting firms.
• 11:00
  You want that one expert, that one small boutique firm, that one company that understands, so what does it take to make a company's supply chain successful?
• 11:10
  Automation, the software, the transportation, all of that.
• 11:15
  And so that's what my advice is to these small to mid- mid-size companies, is whatever you do, don't say,"Wow, I read this really great article by Brittain Ladd, and he says this is what these companies should do." That's a generalization I write about.
• 11:32
  Um, when it comes to your specific company, reach out to Matt Chang.
• 11:37
  If you have other s- boutique con- consulting firms you, you know about or you want to, to bring in, by all means reach out to them.
• 11:45
  But you wanna bring in that trusted resource and not a massive team of consultants.
• 11:51
  That's the worst thing you can do.
• 11:53
  You want a voice of reason and not a bunch of noise, and there's a big difference between the two.
• 12:00
  Yeah.
• 12:00
  Matt and I are working- So, um- on, uh, some, some shirts for, uh, consultants.
• 12:04
  It says, you know,"I paid a real expensive consultant and all I got was some colorful lines on the floor." So I think we d- we definitely agree with the, uh, you know, tailored approach to consulting.
• 12:14
  Yeah.
• 12:14
  So let me, uh, t- tell a quick funny story.
• 12:18
  Um, so, so Brittain does make a lot of noise when he writes.
• 12:22
  He takes very controversial opinions, and that's'cause, you know, the future is controversial or even a conspiracy theory until we get there and then everyone realizes it's true.
• 12:31
  The, um, it was about two years prior to the, the bankruptcy or the closure of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company, Brittain wrote this very specific article targeted at Mary Barra, and he does, Brittain does not shy away from the tag.
• 12:48
  You know, a lot of guys on X will say names, but they won't tag them.
• 12:51
  Brittain will always tag who he's talking to.
• 12:54
  So he tagged Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, and he said the exact thing.
• 12:58
  He goes,"If you wanna turn around Cruise, you need to, to hire me," he picked me for that one,"to turn around Cruise," because he understands how to develop an autonomous vehicle system that's safe and, and has an eye to the future.
• 13:11
  Uh, he did not ask for my permission.
• 13:13
  I just noticed, I logged into LinkedIn, and then I had, like, a gazillion reactions.
• 13:17
  And, uh, and then, you know, LinkedIn gives you that intelligence on who looked at your profile.
• 13:23
  I had 100 employees from GM Nice that looked at my profile.
• 13:27
  Nice.
• 13:27
  Now, I did not get a phone call, but two years later, Cruise went out of business.
• 13:32
  So- Not, not saying I told you so, but- Well- So Colin, just so you know, you may get at tagged by Brittain in the future.
• 13:42
  You're gonna have a big day online when that happens.
• 13:44
  Duly noted.
• 13:45
  Well, but the, but the thing that's interesting about that story is, number one, I sincerely meant that.
• 13:51
  Uh, and I had executives from GM reach out to me.
• 13:55
  A- and they wouldn't comment on the post, they wouldn't like it, and they're like,"Okay, what is it that you think we're not doing right?" And I said,"Well, what you're not doing right is you don't understand even what the purpose of Cruise is.
• 14:09
  You guys are trying to brute force a solution without understanding what the problem is you want to solve." And I said,"The thing that I've noticed is that you have all these so-called experts working at Cruise, yet none of them can seem to even figure out how to get that car to be able to drive around the block without running into another car or running over someone." So I said,"You need someone who legitimately can come in and say,'Let's stop what we're doing, and let's first of all ask this question: What is it we're trying to accomplish here?
• 14:38
  What's the goal?
• 14:39
  Why do we exist?'" And I said,"Then you want that person who can look at what all of the current work streams are, all of the strategies are in place, and then go through them and say,'Nope, we don't want that, we don't want that.
• 14:50
  Let's dump that.
• 14:51
  This is what we should be doing.'" And I said,"That's what's missing at Cruise.
• 14:55
  There's no leadership." And I said,"I would put Matt in charge of any company that I can think of, because I know if he doesn't have the answer right away, he's gonna come up with the answer, and it'll be the right one." And so that's why I, I s- I recommended to Cruise, but the egos there were just massive.
• 15:15
  And- Yeah as, and as I wrote in the article, I said,"If this doesn't happen," I estimated that Cruise would go out of business in, like, two to three years.
• 15:24
  So when it happened, I wasn't surprised or shocked at all.
• 15:27
  Yep, he was just early.
• 15:29
  Uh, so Brittain, uh, what's interesting for me is you, you mention a, a supply chain strategy from a different era, then you said that could just be five years ago.
• 15:38
  Your, your average CEO that runs a large, you know, logistics or manufacturing operation is not, th- you know, supply chain is generally not top of mind until it's totally broken and they can't ship parts or produce product.
• 15:50
  Can you take us through a timeline starting 2020, which would've been the last of the status quo of everybody's career, and then it's been highly tumultuous.
• 15:58
  Can you just run a timeline on what some of the major events since 2020 were that, that call to action a new era of supply chain management?
• 16:06
  Well, I think we fir- we first of all have to take in when, when we look at what happened with COVID.
• 16:11
  And COVID shut down the economy globally And then what happened is, is when these countries around the globe and the United States said,"Okay, we're now ready to go back in business," what happened was people realized that you just can't simply flip a switch and turn your supply chain back on.
• 16:32
  And actually, what it did is that it, it put a spotlight on all of these major corporations who realized that we now have this backlog, and although we've been investing in mill- we've, we've invested millions and millions of dollars, in some companies over a billion dollars or more, in putting in network, uh, logistics network software, uh, automation, and yet their supply chains couldn't even react to the smallest disruption.
• 17:03
  And that's what COVID did.
• 17:05
  COVID showed everybody that your supply chains are designed for stability and not unpredictability.
• 17:12
  And so that's what COVID did.
• 17:15
  COVID showed people your supply chains are not designed to be able to react to instable, uh, to unstable, uh, instances, and that's really what COVID was.
• 17:25
  And then we had the longshoreman issue where- Mm the, the strike.
• 17:30
  And all of a sudden there's all of these ships parked off California, New York, and all of a sudden people are like,"Well, why can't we figure out some way to bring those containers off the ships and get them across the US faster?" Well, it's because the s- that supply chain wasn't designed for that.
• 17:49
  It was designed for another era.
• 17:51
  And then as we take a look at the fact that we had this massive, um, uh, uh, you know, peaks and valley in demand, and companies are hiring people, and then within a year people are fire, you know, companies are firing people, and the consumer was buying and then the consumer stopped buying.
• 18:08
  And then we had Temu come on.
• 18:10
  We had, we had Shein come on.
• 18:13
  And so all of a sudden we have these ca- these companies from China who can magically s- make things appear in a matter of weeks.
• 18:22
  Uh, like Shein, they can bring an entire clothing line to market in a matter of weeks.
• 18:27
  And apparel manufacturers in the US, retailers in the US were like,"Well, we need nine months.
• 18:32
  We need a year." And so then 2023 was the big one when, when Chat GTP came along and there's all of this talk about AI and everyone is saying,"Well, this is going to revolutionize our supply chains and this is gonna revolutionize retail." But what no one was able to figure out is, is wait a minute, so how do we revolutionize our logistics and our supply chain?
• 18:56
  And then the Trump election, when Trump was reelected and tariffs became the core of his foreign policy.
• 19:05
  That's also what really set a lot of companies backwards because they, they finally understood, and many CEOs understood for the first time, that simply saying to your vice president of supply chain or chief supply chain officer,"Well, why don't you just move all of our manufacturing from China to Vietnam," or,"Let's just bring it back to the United States." What they realized, what they had to learn the hard way was that that was basically an impossibility because that infrastructure no longer existed in the United States, and countries like Vietnam had already run out of capacity for manufacturing.
• 19:45
  So then when you look at India, you know, there was all this talk about,"Well, we'll just put it in India." But India doesn't have the infrastructure for it, nor do they have the talent for that.
• 19:53
  The talent that China has, has today was because of all of the decades they invested to get to that point.
• 20:01
  Mm.
• 20:01
  And so when you add up all of those things, what happened is that we, we've came to a really painful realization in, in the United States.
• 20:13
  Our manufacturing infrastructure has to be rebuilt, just as we would have to build a new factory from the ground up.
• 20:22
  We basically over the last several years have, have realized we have many things that we have to do in the US to bring, to, to bring industrialization back, to re- to, to reshore here.
• 20:35
  The good news is that we have success stories of where this has happened, and because of companies like you, like Chang Robotics, people like you, Matt, there, there are voices out there who have the capability to say to companies,"We actually can make this a reality.
• 20:50
  We can bring you back to the US, and we have this methodology, this seven-step process, and this is how we make that a reality." Incredible.
• 21:01
  Well, look, I got a final question, uh, before I turn it back to Colin.
• 21:05
  So, you know, let's, let's be a little bit forward-looking.
• 21:07
  Thanks for getting us caught up on all the, the hard lessons that, you know, CEOs have learned.
• 21:13
  You can move things by air.
• 21:16
  D- disruption still happens, right?
• 21:18
  Uh, the Strait of Hormuz and the, the price of jet fuel, the availability of jet fuel, other critical things like helium.
• 21:23
  You know, I, it seems like that's gonna be a cascading list of things we learn about that the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted.
• 21:30
  Um, you can move it by sea, provided it's not going through a critical strait that's in wartime.
• 21:37
  Uh, you can move it by rail.
• 21:39
  You can move it by truck.
• 21:41
  Uh, people keep s- telling me you can move stuff by drones.
• 21:44
  I'm still kinda waiting for that.
• 21:46
  We'll see.
• 21:46
  But what, where do you see it going in terms of what does the future look like in actually transporting things around?
• 21:52
  I, I love the idea of getting seven, six-sevenths of the mileage out of the product.
• 21:58
  That almost solves it by itself.
• 22:00
  But what, what are the modes of transportation and, and how should companies be thinking about the future?
• 22:05
  Well, so it's fascinating.
• 22:06
  Well, number one, when we talk about the future and modes of transportation, what we have to really, uh, understand and embrace is the impact that autonomous vehicles are going to have.
• 22:17
  Mm.
• 22:17
  We know for a fact that autonomous, that autonomy is the future.
• 22:23
  Um, and when I talk about autonomy, I don't just talk about the cars, I really do talk about the trucks.
• 22:29
  And the thing that people don't understand, uh, even most analysts, most bankers, most Wall Street analysts especially, they keep talking about the movement of freight on an autonomous vehicle as, hey, this is a great way to solve the driver shortage problem.
• 22:47
  But that's 100% false.
• 22:49
  That's actually the smallest impact that autonomous trucks are going to have.
• 22:54
  And when autonomous trucks came out about 10 years ago, I wrote an article and I asked this question: If you don't need the driver, why do you need the truck?
• 23:05
  And basically what my argument is is that if we no longer need a driver, I certainly don't need a$225,000 Kenworth T600 with a sleeper cab.
• 23:16
  Because I don't have a driver and I don't need to have that vehicle operate as an overnight motel several times during the week while the driver is driving it.
• 23:25
  I no longer have a driver.
• 23:27
  So what's gonna happen is you're gonna see that trucking companies, the Class 8 truck manufacturers, are all going to struggle because someone is going to come to market, maybe even a company like Kodiak that makes this really cool gigantic electric snowblower, and they come to market with a power unit that basically is so stripped down and basic that all it does, it's a workhorse.
• 23:50
  It's a work mule.
• 23:50
  And it can, it, it can basically relay trailers, 53-foot, 48-foot trailers, all across the United States.
• 23:58
  And then when that happens, that's a commodity product.
• 24:02
  But for the company that manufactured it and now has the platform to manage it, that's a very big business.
• 24:08
  But the trucking companies go away because I no longer need a trucking company to manage my trailer and my driver.
• 24:18
  And so the impact is going to be massive.
• 24:21
  Trucking is really going to change.
• 24:22
  It's gonna become a completely new industry.
• 24:24
  Brokers are going to go away because there's no one for the brokers to negotiate with.
• 24:29
  There's no more drivers.
• 24:30
  And so trucking will change completely because having the ability to operate a truck- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because I don't have drivers so I no longer have driver restrictions during the day.
• 24:45
  I now also reduce the total amount of trucks I need on the road by about 30 to 40%.
• 24:50
  I did this big study for the Department of Energy on this topic, so I'm, my math is still, still pretty relevant.
• 24:57
  And so that's going to happen.
• 24:59
  But the craziest thing that's also going to happen is that there are companies out there, Alphabet, for example.
• 25:09
  Alphabet's working on this, this program about leveraging really specialized blimps that can pick up cargo containers, uh, that can pick up 53-foot trailers, and they're looking at leveraging that as a way to do a de facto drone almost, but for really large containers and trailers.
• 25:30
  But then we have to take into account we still have artificial intelligence out there and agentic AI.
• 25:35
  And so since we aren't going to invent e- essentially an entirely new supply chain capability, we're not inventing faster jets, faster helicopters, we're not inventing ma- magic carpets.
• 25:48
  So a lot of the things that we use today for mo- for freight movement will still exist, but the way we speed up the network is by opening up micro-fulfillment centers, and we open up micro-fulfillment centers closer to the customer.
• 26:03
  So now I don't have an, I don't have a network of maybe 7 to 15 or 20 distribution centers around the United States.
• 26:12
  Maybe what I have is a network of 3,000 micro-fulfillment centers, and the most that my driver has to, or my autonomous vehicle has to travel from that micro-fulfillment center is maybe no more than a radius of 8 to 20 miles.
• 26:26
  Well, that then speeds up my entire network, but it totally changes my supply chain, and it increases the frequency of replenishment I need to my micro-fulfillment center.
• 26:36
  So now I don't really need to think about movement.
• 26:40
  The way I look at freight movement today, I need to speed it up, and that's why having a trucking company like Gatty that can do these box runs back and forth between a distribution center, feeding a micro-fulfillment center.
• 26:53
  So all of these things are going to change in the future.
• 26:57
  But should we be thinking that we're going to have drones that are going to be making multiple deliveries?
• 27:04
  Probably not.
• 27:06
  Um, I really believe even five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, the majority of products will be delivered leveraging some type of a ground vehicle I certainly believe it's going to be primarily autonomous.
• 27:22
  I certainly believe that trucking companies are just simply going to disappear if they're no longer needed.
• 27:27
  Having this big power unit that can relay trailers from a store to a, from manufacturing to a distribution center, a distribution center to a warehouse and so forth, that absolutely will happen.
• 27:39
  But the, uh, the other thing that I, I would point out is we're going to see much more collaboration take place, um, across the supply chain from any of these companies.
• 27:51
  Because as more manufacturing comes to the US and more retailers realize they have to work together, they're going to also realize it's really to our benefit to have to try and collaborate together, and that's what's going to change the 3PL industry a lot as well.
• 28:06
  Um, and to get from where we are today to there is an awful lot of work, an awful lot of transitioning and transforming.
• 28:14
  But will it happen?
• 28:15
  Oh yeah, I have no doubt that if we played this 10 years from now, 20 years from now, a lot of what I just said is going to be a reality, especially the fact that trucking companies and brokers would disappear and transportation trucking becomes an entirely new industry.
• 28:30
  It's not just an industry now that has autonomous trucks.
• 28:35
  Incredible.
• 28:35
  Okay.
• 28:35
  So, so we can take that to the bank.
• 28:38
  You've got the crystal ball, you know, the, the track record to, uh, to prove it.
• 28:42
  So, so we'll, uh, we'll have to take your word for it.
• 28:45
  Um, definitely very interesting, um, kind of outlook.
• 28:49
  I mean, it, it admittedly had not considered kind of that evolution of the trucking or, or really that core transport piece of it, but, it, it, I mean, it makes perfect sense.
• 29:00
  Um, uh, you know, while we, while we still have you, um, people who are interested in getting in touch, they wanna learn more, wanna read some of your writings, what's the best way they can, uh, they can go about finding you?
• 29:12
  Oh, the easiest way, just reach out to me on LinkedIn.
• 29:15
  Um, I'm always happy to connect with people.
• 29:17
  People reach out to me all the time, uh, literally, uh, across the globe.
• 29:21
  I always enjoy the questions I receive.
• 29:24
  So anyone who wants to, to communicate with me, you're more than welcome to reach out to me via LinkedIn with no problem.
• 29:30
  How about, how about newsletters?
• 29:33
  You got anything on the- Oh, so you...
• 29:34
  I do have a newsletter.
• 29:35
  That is correct.
• 29:36
  Um, it's called No Retreat, No Surrender.
• 29:40
  Uh, and you can sign up for that newsletter, and here's my promise.
• 29:45
  It will have no rhyme or reason to it.
• 29:48
  There are times when I send that newsletter out a couple times a week.
• 29:51
  Sometimes I send it out once a month, um, because I only write it when I find that I honestly have something interesting, I think, to say and share.
• 30:00
  But I have a pretty significant audience for that newsletter, so you can absolutely sign up for my newsletter, uh, as well.
• 30:08
  And then I have my website, Ladd Strategic Advisors, um, where you can go and learn about the methodologies I've created and things like that.
• 30:16
  Incredible.
• 30:18
  Well, fantastic.
• 30:19
  Well, Brittain, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 30:22
  This has been awesome episode.
• 30:24
  Um, uh, really just knocked it out of the park with all of your answers.
• 30:28
  So thank you for, for that.
• 30:29
  That was fantastic.
• 30:31
  Um, and to all of you listening, you know, once again, thank you for tuning into the Reforge podcast, whether we're talking robotics on the factory floor, policy that actually moves the needle, predicting the future of what trucking's gonna look like, um, or just talking about the next generation of American makers.
• 30:47
  Our goal is always the same, you know, to prove that reindustrializing America isn't just possible, it's happening right now and it's pivotal.
• 30:54
  If you enjoy this episode, make sure you subscribe to and follow@thereforgepod everywhere, and check out thereforgepodcast.com for more, including our seven steps to reindustrialization that we covered in the previous episode.
• 31:09
  Until the next episode, I'm Colin, and we've got Matt and Brittain, so thank y'all.
• 31:15
  Thank you so much.
• 31:20
  Thanks for tuning in to the Reforged podcast.
• 31:23
  Make sure to like, subscribe and follow us on all of our social media@thereforgedpod.
• 31:28
  We will see you next time