Latest / Serious Lady Business / Trash Talk: Turning Industrial Waste into Community Power

Transcript

Trash Talk: Turning Industrial Waste into Community Power · Serious Lady Business

• LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (00:03) Hey there, I'm Leslie Youngblood and this is Serious Lady Business, the podcast where we get real about what it takes to build a business as a woman today. From late night Google searches and client curveballs to the wins that make it all worth it, I'm talking about the stuff no one puts in the highlight reel. Each week, I'm bringing you honest conversations, lessons learned and stories from women who are out here doing the work. Messy, meaningful and unapologetically bold. Whether you're just dreaming about starting a business or deep in the grind, this podcast is your space to feel seen, supported, and fired up. Because let's be honest, this journey is hard, hilarious, and absolutely worth it. So let's dive in. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (00:50) Welcome back to Serious Lady Business. with us today is CJ Nord. And now CJ has over 30 years of distinguished leadership in the manufacturing sector. She's recognized for her supply chain acumen, visionary thinking, and steadfast commitment to ethical standards. Throughout her career, CJ has collaborated with government and private entities to avert major disruptions to the supply chain and to support public safety. In 2019, CJ's personal battle with cancer fueled her drive to make a broader impact, leading her to establish Supply Chains for Good, Protectors of Children and Family Prosperity. Through this innovative platform, she leverages supply chain methodologies to tackle pressing societal issues, drive legislative changes, and foster impactful initiatives. Notably, CJ is the architect behind the pioneering, there's cash in that trash, profit-driven circularity program. And something that is going to guide our chat today. And beyond her professional endeavors, she exemplifies a deep commitment to education and community empowerment. Her collaboration with V-Care Academy to make supply chain education affordable and available to all, even the hard luck kid. C.J. Nord (01:50) you LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (02:02) She was also recognized with the Bravo Award for bravery and community service as neighborhood watch captain and woman of the year honor from the Women's March Foundation for her efforts against racism. Widely acknowledged for her expertise, CJ has been featured in esteemed publications, including the Los Angeles Times business section and the Wall Street Journal. And yet her dog remains unimpressed. C.J. Nord (02:28) Couldn't care less. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (02:30) We, that dog, what does it take? You know, I mean, my goodness, CJ, I'm so excited to have you on today. You are so incredible and have done so much in so many different areas. I feel like we could take a whole day to talk about everything, all the good that you're doing. But today, we're going to be talking trash. if you will, in a good way, not the cuss words way. But we're going to talk about how you are spearheading turning industrial waste into community power. I love that women leaders like yourself are changing the way that we're thinking about business growth and resilience. So I would love for you to start sharing a little bit about yourself and this exciting initiative. C.J. Nord (02:51) Yeeeah! I like to dress up! Well, okay, let me tell you about this program that started with me having a dream. here's something that I think is very important. When you have big dreams, people will tell you, that's impossible. You know, with a degree of authority. That's impossible. They might even tell you why it's impossible. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (03:27) Mmm. Mm-hmm. Sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (03:35) You have to steer the door through people through intensive discouragement probably for a long time before you turn your big dreams into reality and the thing is is that almost everything that I do in my company is original. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (03:40) Hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (03:57) So you're also explaining original ideas to people. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (04:02) Right. C.J. Nord (04:02) And it takes some time for them to understand that. first, I'll begin with something that is really, it really sounds terribly arrogant, it explains how I came up with this idea of there's cash in that trash, how to really build the circular supply chain that quit sending every other little thing into the landfill, right? ⁓ LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (04:04) her. Yeah? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (04:24) I imagine myself as the supply chain manager for Earth. How arrogant is that, right? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (04:29) I love it. That is not arrogant at all. don't think CJ think that's amazing. I wish more people thought about being a steward for Mother Earth in the various industries and ways that they work. I think that's incredible. C.J. Nord (04:42) Well, know, it's kind of it, it gets your head in the game. Because if you you imagine yourself as I did, well, OK, I'm the supply chain manager for Earth. And I got to fix all these problems, it's all my responsibility. Now, when you tell yourself that it's my responsibility, now your head's in the game. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (04:47) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. C.J. Nord (05:02) And this is actually, you know, I joke about it a lot out of the gate, but it's actually the application of one of President Eisenhower's principles. If you can't solve a problem, you have to make it bigger. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (05:11) Mmm, mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (05:15) You have to get, if we're looking at a problem, let's say a societal problem, a big problem, and we can't see how to solve it, we need to go up on a higher level, and a higher level, and a higher level. And that's what Eisenhower said. says, when I get up high enough, I see my way to a solution. And this program, there's cash in that trash. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (05:17) love that. Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mmm. Yeah, I love that. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (05:38) ⁓ has some foundational principles. One is that circularity, which is taking materials and routing them back into the manufacturing facility to be made into something new, that's what circularity is, right? That circularity will not be accomplished one company at a time. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (05:49) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm. C.J. Nord (05:59) you have to actually shift the whole industry together. Yeah, it is right. big enough to scare yourself, right? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (06:01) Mmm. That's a big, big thing. Sounds like Eisenhower would be pleased with that one. Yes, ooh, I love it. That's a CJ Nord. That's a CJ Nord one. We'll lock that, that quote in. I love it. C.J. Nord (06:25) So how do you shift a whole industry? You can actually do that through the industry trade associations. That's what they're there for. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (06:28) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mmm. Mmm. C.J. Nord (06:37) And in the 20th century, these trade associations, which might be the textile manufacturers trade association, in my case, it's the association of woodworking and furnishing suppliers. ⁓ LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (06:50) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (06:52) In the 20th century, they served as the place where the industry got all their communication from. They did their lobbying. They certainly put on trade shows. So people gather and look at purchasing new capital equipment, things like that. What's the purpose in the 21st century? It's not so much the golf tournament anymore. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (07:02) Mm-hmm. Mmm. It's weird. C.J. Nord (07:13) Things have changed. People can gather like we're gathering right now. So the whole dynamic has changed, but the most important thing that those trade associations have to do is solve the problems that are interfering with the success of that industry. So this industry has the woodworking and furniture and manufacturing industry. Although it is still fairly large, it has shrunk in size certainly since the 1980s. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (07:28) Right. Sure. Mmm. Mmm! C.J. Nord (07:41) and manufacturers really struggle to stay profitable. The second largest manufacturing expense below labor is often electricity. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (07:46) Hmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm. Sure the machines? Yeah. C.J. Nord (07:54) And if you think about it, yes, right? You went right there. I was going to say envision the inside of a factory, but you went right there, right? Factories are full of these giant machines doing all of this cutting and everything, all automation. And so they pull a lot of power. ⁓ Nearly every manufacturer has that same problem, right? In woodworking, it's definitely a problem. ⁓ LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (08:07) You heard. Sure. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. C.J. Nord (08:20) The other problem that woodworking has experienced is the amount of wood waste that it produces. The majority of wood that is used to make cabinets, closets, furniture, it's what we call composite wood. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (08:28) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (08:37) what's behind you is composite wood. It's not cut straight from a tree, right? It's pieces of wood that are glued together and then they have a laminate surface over it. That in that it might be pure wood strip that's laminated over it or it might be some type of plastic. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (08:49) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (08:59) And that type of wood, this composite wood, is almost entirely, I mean like 99.9 % sent into the landfills. Okay, so that was the problem to solve. It wasn't pure wood, because pure wood can be used in agricultural applications. It goes into animal bedding. It has the resources for it. So. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (09:07) Hmm. Mm-hmm. Sure. Mm-hmm. Sure. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (09:23) Although in industry, woodworking and furniture manufacturing, although these manufacturers within this industry, they all might be making different things. One person's making closets, another cabinet, another furniture, another really cheap furniture. They all produce the same kind of waste. Right? know, making different products, but you're still producing the same kind of waste. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (09:33) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm, right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sure. Right, right. C.J. Nord (09:51) Over the last couple of years, the dynamic has changed so that the value of pure wood waste has dropped down. There's really too much in the system. Yeah, yeah, different things have caused that. In California, we have a new law that requires that all organics are LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (10:00) Mm-hmm. too much organic wood waste, CJ. OK. C.J. Nord (10:13) are treated properly, right? So they're not just thrown into the landfills and those organics have crowded out wood waste. We've also closed a couple of large biomass plants. Now this is important because biomass is actually my solution, right? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (10:15) Gotcha. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. C.J. Nord (10:31) But the biomass, the way that the biomass plants and also kind of just our waste disposal in general has been designed, it's been designed so that all the waste be transported to those sites. Okay, so now you're taking something that is worth nothing and you've added a cost onto it. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (10:46) Mm, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I bet those owners love that. Business owners love that. Yes, but I hope that, yes. Not at all. Do they like that? No. C.J. Nord (10:58) huh. ⁓ my God. Heavy on the sarcasm, right? Yeah, heavy sarcasm. Right, so in just backing up a little bit, I went to AWFS, the Association of Woodworking and Furnishing Suppliers, and fortunately I had relationships there. The success of this program and all of my success, I think, can be really laid to the success of networking, building relationships that last for decades. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (11:28) Mmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (11:34) always doing the right things so that you keep those relationships. So when I went to AWFS and other people in woodworking, I was no stranger to them. In some cases, they've known me for 25 years. And I said, Hey, you know, I got this idea. You want to give me a little chance on it? And the AWFS said, yeah, that's a problem. Okay, we'll give you a little, we'll give you a little money and we'll give you some support. And we set about to, LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (11:37) Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm. ⁓ amazing. C.J. Nord (12:02) find out, okay well we got all this wood waste, what can we make from it that we make a profit out of? And that's fundamental. That's the key, right? Because if you don't take that trash and turn it into cash, you have done nothing. You've not built the supply chain. It has to be money. It has to be money, right? And look, there's nothing evil about that. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (12:04) Hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. that's what people. Yeah. Yeah. Money talks, right? Money. The money. C.J. Nord (12:25) There really isn't, especially when you're talking about your small manufacturers, small and mid-sized manufacturers. The precedents of those companies are not pulling down the kind of dollars that we see. No, they are not. No, no, they are. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (12:30) Right. Right. Right. They're not billionaires. No, they're not. They're members of the community and the industry that really want to do right by the earth and its industry and its people. C.J. Nord (12:48) It is, it is. And you know, if you can bring them a solution that does both of those things, protects the health of their company and protects the environment, they're on board with both feet. That's it. You know, you so we set out to figure out what can we do with all of this composite wood waste. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (12:53) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. C.J. Nord (13:08) thought at first that we would make decking, composite engineered wood. that's a growing market. There's certainly a market for that. But it's a heavy equipment investment. It's a huge equipment investment. You're entering a market that maybe you're not in. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (13:11) Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mmm, sure. C.J. Nord (13:28) or you really want to enter a new market, right? And then you're producing a product that will compete against imported goods. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (13:31) rain. mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (13:35) Okay, so there's some disadvantages to going in that direction. But when we started out, know, that's really all I thought. That's all I thought we could do. And a couple of the woodworkers, the wood products manufacturers owners that I talked to, I love telling this story, that I talked to out of the gate, they said, well, CJ, if the state had let me burn it for power, I'd do that tomorrow, but California had never let me. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (13:39) Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (14:02) Right? And I thought myself too, yeah, the state would never let us do that. Right? Well, turns out that California has passed two laws to support the expansion of biomass, ⁓ which is actually not burning. That gets little bit too geeky scientific, but we're not. We're reducing it. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (14:02) okay. Heh. Mmm. Mmm! Okay. C.J. Nord (14:24) to a charcoal state in the absence of air. It is heated, but because it is in the absence of air, it's actually a clean air solution. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (14:26) Wow. Yeah. It's not being burned and that smoke isn't going into the air or like it's contained because you're, yeah, there's no air involved like in that process with the biomass. Yeah. C.J. Nord (14:37) No, no, no, no. Right, and there are air systems within these systems. And so this is a perfect balance between making businesses profitable and manufacturing businesses ⁓ and protecting the environment. beyond the fact that it doesn't damage the air quality, organic waste LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (14:50) Wow. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (15:07) in landfills generates CO2. It is something that heats the climate. And we can actually make a major difference in climate temperature by processing the organic waste in this way. ⁓ It's really, it, my God. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (15:13) huh. Hmm. Wow. Wow. Revolutionary. Revolutionary. C.J. Nord (15:27) I I got my back. Yeah, it really is. It is LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (15:29) Yeah. C.J. Nord (15:31) a revolutionary solution. And I think people decades ago saw that this was a revolutionary solution. What's happened over this time is that the equipment developed. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (15:33) Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mmmmm. C.J. Nord (15:44) It's the equipment development that has been as possible. The scientists and the engineers behind it that said, well, you know, if we did this different, we could make it less expensive. We can make it smaller. And so now we're at a point where we've determined that wood products manufacturers can get a four year return on investment. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (15:47) Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (16:10) for the equipment investment and that's LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (16:11) Yeah. C.J. Nord (16:12) only from eliminating the cost of their electricity and their waste disposal bill. We have factored in the sale of the valuable byproduct which is one of the main ones is called Biochar. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (16:16) Wow. Wow. Mmm, mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (16:27) ⁓ So now what we're working on is finding lower cost equipment so that the return on investment is less than four years. The gold standard is one year. I'd love to hit that gold standard. I'd love to hit that. And I think if we continue in this direction that maybe we could get it probably the next reasonable development is a two year investment. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (16:32) Mmm. Sure. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think that's so interesting what you said. Years ago, they tried it and it was too expensive or it wasn't working. I think that just also there's just so much in that right there. It's like you may have an idea for something and someone might say to you, we tried that years ago. It was way too expensive or it didn't work. But there's still that thing inside you that's like, no, no, no. I think we should try this again or if we just. did it like this, maybe it'll be better. And so to trust in that and trust in your vision and your big dream, I think that just is a perfect example of that, C.J. Nord (17:22) You've stated that so well, right? Because yeah, yeah, we were talking about people telling you it's impossible. Heck, when I first started this and started looking at the biomass equipment, the first return on investment was 18 years. Now, I mean, you know, it would be. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (17:29) Yeah. Thank Wow. Wow. C.J. Nord (17:41) Going back to my original point of this has to be done on an industry level through the association instead of one business at a time. If I was working for somebody else and I brought that figure to my manager, they'd say, give up on the project. It's not going to Go back to doing the other stuff that we need you to be doing. Right. Right. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (17:49) Sure. ⁓ 8. Sure. But you think bigger. Oh, my manager, my boss is like, no, but I'm going to go to the industry. And so I also love that. When you know you, I feel like any person that has had an idea to start a business or a product or, and I love that, people say you're crazy. It's because it's a big idea. Or people are like, that's impossible. That can't be done. That's when know you're onto something. C.J. Nord (18:23) Yeah. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (18:25) Then you find that one, keep going for that idea until you get a yes and can prove it out. Because I just think there's so much to be said for that. If you tell somebody a business idea or a product idea and they're like, yeah, sounds great. You're like, wait, they think it sounds good? I think this is pretty amazing and nobody's done this before. So when you have that idea that scares other people or people tell you, that's when you're like, okay. C.J. Nord (18:43) Okay. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (18:49) I'm onto something here. I need to keep going with this. So I think there's just, again, a valuable lesson to be set in there too with your experience and everything. And CJ, we talked upon the four-year return, but I don't even think we talked about how it doesn't just reduce emissions. It reduces over 6,500 truck trips, and it generates power for the 1,000 homes. So I would love to C.J. Nord (19:09) you A crazy, LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (19:14) for you to talk about that. C.J. Nord (19:14) a crazy man. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (19:15) Yeah, the community level, like, okay, this is good for business, right? Like, and I think that's great. Good for the environment, good for business, but good for the community. So I would love for you to talk about that. C.J. Nord (19:17) for community benefit. my god. So yes, let's talk about the community benefits because that's that is what really gets me excited. So these systems will generate electricity by processing wood waste. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (19:35) Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (19:36) If the grid goes down, the sun stops shining, the wind stops blowing, these factories are still going to be producing electricity. This is one of the most powerful solutions to community power resiliency that any community could have. Right? You know, if everything goes down, we can still make power. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (19:40) Mmm. Wow, yeah. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (19:56) We can charge LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (19:57) Amazing. C.J. Nord (19:57) emergency vehicles. We can help the community come in, charge your phone. We can be that partner that every community needs. And now, all of a sudden, everybody wants the wood products manufacturer in their community. It is definitely a job creator, 100 % job creator and a green job creator. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (19:59) Mmm. Yeah. Mmm, more jobs. Mm-hmm. Mm. Yeah. Wow. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (20:23) These are green jobs that we're creating now. ⁓ LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (20:23) Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (20:27) So wood waste is just bulky as heck. It is super bulky. So the... LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (20:30) Mmm, sure. C.J. Nord (20:36) mean, this is the thing that gets crazy. So we were talking earlier about everybody's solution to trash is to haul it somewhere else, take it somewhere else, take it somewhere else, right? the one getting one facility alone up and running, and that will happen in probably in 2026 in the city of Orange, California. Just that one facility takes 800 truck trips off the road a year. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (20:43) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Wow. C.J. Nord (21:01) Within a five mile radius, I get the surrounding four woodworkers on board, 6,500 trucks. Because you're not going in to pick up the waste and you're not hauling the waste out. And one factory, the one factory in the city of Orange, if we make them power independent and they're no longer dependent on the grid, that frees up enough for 100 homes. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (21:06) Wow. Wow. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Wow, that's amazing. C.J. Nord (21:29) in the five mile radius, that's a thousand homes. We have such a solution in our hands here. I mean, it is just such a massive solution. And the only thing in between us and implementation is honestly just the work. It's just doing the work. That's all. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (21:31) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Amazing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sure. C.J. Nord (21:52) You know, there's no, there are problems to solve, there are gaps, there are things to develop, but we can do that. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (22:01) Yeah, sure can. C.J. Nord (22:02) It's just like when I go into the classroom a lot and I meet with middle school kids and high school kids and tell them about careers and supply chain, what supply chain is, and then our role in sustainability. And when I do that, I'm sorry, this is always something that really kind of gets me. Kids don't. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (22:12) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. C.J. Nord (22:25) Kids think that the responsibility for fixing the environment is going to fall all on their little shoulders. They don't think that we, their adults, their parents, are going to fix this. And when I show them this project, the real work, and it's happening in their backyard, what I see on the face of the child is hope. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (22:32) Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Thank you. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, 100%. C.J. Nord (22:50) And I mean, I cannot say that without getting tears in my eyes. It is just so moving. And boy, that tells me that I'm doing, I'm absolutely doing the right work. what, what I, I'm sorry, took a really long way getting to this, but. ⁓ LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (22:53) Sure, yeah. Right. Right. No, I love it. It's amazing. C.J. Nord (23:06) What I explain to the students is this, you know, we built this linear supply chain that throws everything away. We call it take, make, dispose. Take from natural resources, make something from it, and then throw it away. Heck, I've been doing this for over 30 years. I built that. Right? That's, it is how I built it. It is how my peers built it. We built this. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (23:13) Mmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. C.J. Nord (23:29) The same work that worked to build that kind of supply chain is exactly the kind of work that will work to build the circular supply chain. It's only another supply chain. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (23:33) Yeah? Right? Right, you've already built this, right? Like with the linear. Now you're going to break that to make something better, which is called innovation and progress and moving things forward. C.J. Nord (23:49) Yeah. It feels like we're building the second half of the supply chain. It feels like to me that we only built half of the supply chain. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (23:55) Mmm. Wow, sure. C.J. Nord (24:01) Now we're building that second half that instead of goes to landfills does the work of getting it back into the factory. And we can all look at the marvelous example of profit driven circularity that's provided by the metals industry. Just look, you know, so I'm, I'm really not create, you know, it's new for woodworking. I'm really just following the models, the model of the metals industry. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (24:03) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mmm, mm-hmm. Sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Why hasn't, do you think that the woodworking industry hasn't caught on as quickly with that model, the metal industry's model, CJ? Is it like, is it the cost return, right? Is it the profitability and the time for return? Like what's been holding them up or what's been that roadblock all these years? C.J. Nord (24:29) ⁓ You know, I really don't mean for this to sound arrogant at all because I, it's really not, but you really have to have some little weirdo like me. You know, you have to have, the head of that association has referred to recently as a unicorn. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (24:58) Yeah. yeah C.J. Nord (25:02) And you really do have to have somebody that says, I believe in this. Take a chance on me for really a little tiny bit of money. I've relied heavily on my savings to this done. You have to have somebody that's willing to folks telling them that it's crazy. Take a financial risk, right? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (25:06) Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (25:24) to be the first one out there. So you have to have somebody that's willing to lead it. ⁓ And there have been obstacles. There will continue to be obstacles. We've informed every elected official and gotten every elected official's buy-in. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (25:31) It's true. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm. C.J. Nord (25:45) there's another advantage of the trade association because the trade association has lobbyists. Right? So, you have to have somebody that does what you said earlier, my friend, where you follow your heart. Right? Follow your heart. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (25:58) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (26:02) Simon Sinek wrote that great book about the why, purpose driven, right? You have to follow your purpose, right? My purpose is the protection of children and family prosperity. And I use the tools of supply chain to do that. Now this is, what we're building is literally a supply chain for the greater good. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (26:05) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. huh. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (26:26) And it protects children through protecting the environment. And it protects family prosperity through protecting jobs. We have those two things in balance. And a supply chain person, you know, I think that supply chain individuals have a greater role in humanity, in our role for the human family, being the keeper of balance. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (26:29) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. C.J. Nord (26:54) And we're constantly, when we do our work, we're constantly trying to balance supply and demand. We have too much wood supply. We're literally building the demand for that. So these things come into balance. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (27:01) Right. Right. Right. Yeah, sure. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (27:13) And when you have built that balance, you'll find things like we see in metals where you can put your family's grody old barbecue out on the sidewalk, right? And some enterprising, probably a parent with a couple of jobs is going to come and pick that up and take it to a scrap yard. I envision a day when your broken furniture will have the same amount of value. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (27:22) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mmm, mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (27:38) because we're building up profit-driven demand for it. So if somebody is generating biochar that they can sell for between four to eight hundred dollars a ton. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (27:49) Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (27:50) if they're paying for their own electricity and maybe they've also got a contract with somebody who has industrial EV charging stations on their site. They can sell that to those guys, Because power is worth money. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (27:59) Mm-hmm, Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sure. C.J. Nord (28:07) And it will always be worth money, where it's going to continue to actually be worth more money as the future progresses. When you've done that and you've built that structure, then the waste has a place to go. People are going to get some money for it. That's all I Everybody wins, all the way through, because we can. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (28:14) Right. Right. Yeah, everybody wins. Yeah, everybody wins. Yeah. C.J. Nord (28:30) bring this solution down to the consumer furniture level. And when we've done that, which I think will probably take the work of a decade, I think that's really not, it's really not. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (28:33) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. That's not bad, don't. C.J. Nord (28:43) I think within a decade that we can see within communities, hopefully all around the United States, that all types of wood waste have the same sort of inherent value that metal waste does. And that we have built, literally built the supply chain to get that from point A to point B. Does that make sense? Because I'm kind of, I'm supply chain nerd, so you. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (28:54) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. I love that. Oh, yeah. Oh, I know. And I love that. Well, and here's what I think is so and what I'd like to go. You are a supply chain. Your words are mine, CJ, nerd. But you are a supply chain expert, right? And you love it. You've been in it for years. And so I would love to know, as a woman founder in this heavy logistics and supply chain system space, C.J. Nord (29:15) Ha! Yeah, that is true. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (29:28) You know, we talked a little bit about when you brought the idea and you did the impression of the business owner, right? But like, I can imagine what a male-dominated space it must be. So what does it take to walk into these spaces as a woman? Have you ever had to strategize your approach in order to be taken seriously, even though you have these deep ties and relationships within the industry? C.J. Nord (29:35) So. Some of the things that I've noticed that's very important as a woman and truthfully goes against my character, so I'm controlling myself, is that you cannot be too pushy. You can't be too forceful. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (29:59) Okay. Hmm. C.J. Nord (30:06) You have to win this on logic and persuasion and being somebody that is pleasant to be around. And I have a very forceful aspect of my personality. If something... LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (30:10) Mmm. Hmm... Okay. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (30:20) really bad was going down in the factory, I could get in the middle of it and maybe even shout and stop it. And that is a part of my character. ⁓ You know, the battalion general, right? That won't work. It won't work for... It probably doesn't really, really work that well for men. But it won't work for women. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (30:25) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mmm, sure. I would have to agree. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (30:46) So you just really have to accept that. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (30:48) Yeah, I think that though that's strategic, right? It's not necessarily fighting who you are, right? Because like I want to say, you know, you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Like, yes, but I also don't want it to seem like you have to change who you are to get there or to like to try to be to appease others. But it's like you have to look at it. C.J. Nord (30:53) it is the key. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (31:09) as a collaboration in order to make big change, you have to get as many people as possible to sign on to your vision and work with you. So how do you do and execute your vision in the way that's going to make people want to come on board that? like you said, it's not about being pushy. It's about being somebody that people are excited to collaborate with and know is they've connected with before, worked with before, and you have this. C.J. Nord (31:11) Yes. ⁓ Yeah. Yes. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (31:37) networking relationship or business relationship, and it just means you get further together than you do going by yourself, right? C.J. Nord (31:44) That's the thing. You know what? I'm so glad that you said that because it is, you know, when you're winning, when people take your idea and make it theirs, when they start putting it in their own words, they add things to it that are only from them, right? Then your dream is getting power. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (31:50) huh. Mmm... Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. C.J. Nord (32:09) underneath when when people are talking about it like hey this is my idea this is what i'm doing you know then you're you know no no it's okay it's okay it is you know that's that is just fine let it be everybody's original idea because it is genuinely true that they are all adding something to it didn't come to from me LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (32:09) Right. Yeah. Yeah. You're just like, that's my idea, you can take it and run with it. We all know. Yeah. Right. Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (32:39) And that's what we want. We want LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (32:39) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. C.J. Nord (32:42) something greater than just one person, greater than ourselves, something that lasts long after we've gone away. Yeah. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (32:48) Yeah. Sure, yeah, for sure. I wonder, CJ, is that something that you had to unlearn along the way? Or is there, in your experience, procurement, sustainability, social entrepreneurship, was there a belief you had to unlearn along the way in order to lead this kind of change? Or is that sort of what you would say is kind of figuring out a way to be inclusive about it? C.J. Nord (33:12) ⁓ Certainly I've learned along the way that when people start to take what is your original idea and make it their own and talk about it, I don't mean in a way that they're stealing it. Nobody's saying that they invented that there's cash in that trash concept. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (33:29) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (33:35) but that they're talking about it as if it is their own. I think this is actually something that women can be really good at. To be almost like the parent. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (33:39) Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (33:49) right? Where you're just excited for them, you know? And instead of saying, hey, you know what, that was actually my idea? To genuinely be happy. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (33:57) Mm-hmm. Mmm. C.J. Nord (34:02) Really be happy about it and instead come back with, you know what, you phrased that perfect. I love your thinking. I'm glad you asked that question. That's a good question. Let's all challenge this, you know. That's being the bigger person. That's being the leader, right? Because leaders nurture. And in the end, everybody knows that you're the one. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (34:14) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. C.J. Nord (34:29) The real leaders are not waving their hands up and going, no, that was mine. The real leaders are not doing that. No, real leaders are going, look at the team. Don't be part of that team. ⁓ And one of it, I have to say, one of the things that has been LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (34:34) Yeah, right. Nobody likes those leaners anyway. Most of us. Yeah, right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (34:51) One of my greatest joys in this has been partnering with academia. And within the first two weeks of launching this program, which was last July, so it's all still fairly new. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (34:56) Wow. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (35:04) An article was published that made it on LinkedIn about the program, which was very fortunate. It just happened to be very good timing. ⁓ And a professor from the USC School of Engineering saw it on LinkedIn and sent me a direct message and said, this is pretty good idea. Would you like a group of students to help you with it? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (35:10) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Wow, amazing. Yeah, sure. Right, right. Can I have them now? Wow. C.J. Nord (35:28) boy, I did not say yes fast enough. you kidding me? mean, what a, and that has, USC is such a prestigious university. So well respected. It, you know, all of a sudden you go from being, that's a crazy idea, that's impossible to, you're unicorn. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (35:41) Mm-hmm. Yeah. C.J. Nord (35:51) Because if USC believes in it, then you've got something. And the group of engineering students, now my inner mama bear is really going to come out here, four engineering students, three of them are female. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (35:51) Right? Yeah. Yeah. Love that. Amazing. C.J. Nord (36:08) and they just won an award for best senior capstone project for this. And they did research, they did work, they did the layout for the factory in orange. And you know. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (36:14) Amazing! I love that. Congrats to you and them. Yeah. Wow, amazing. C.J. Nord (36:25) All we give is mentoring and guidance to the students. That's how we pay for it. And I'm glad to do that. I love to work with students and mentor students. And since then, we've also had Oregon State join the team and very close to formalizing UC Davis. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (36:35) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Wow, fantastic. Amazing. I love C.J. Nord (36:53) I really feel like, earlier we were talking about we can't do this one company at a time, but through one industry at a time, through the leadership of the trade associations, the key is to continue to look up and say, how can I reach many people? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (36:59) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (37:13) How can I reach a whole group and a whole group of the right people? And partnering with colleges and universities is really, I mean, that's really one of the reasons that we're winning. It's because we're right. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (37:15) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm. Right. And the kids coming up today are, you have the idea, but they bring so much to drive it forward that we couldn't even think of. it's, I can't even imagine how amazing it is, right? To just like have that energy and that thinking to just keep that change going, right? C.J. Nord (37:41) You know? Yes, yes and and to like I used to say to the people that work directly for me, my job is to get you what you need and get out of your way. And I feel you know when they're making it their own they're discovering things that I wouldn't have discovered, right? ⁓ These students are all in their early 20s. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (37:54) Yeah, sure, right. Yeah, right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (38:11) So they're gonna be here long after I'm gone, right? This feels like success. This feels like lasting success and something that will benefit our society for the foreseeable future, not for a decade, not for a hundred, for the foreseeable future. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (38:14) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love that. Leads me to my next question, CJ, and it's, you know, there's cash in that trash. If it becomes everything you envision, like, what does that future look like? You know, who's standing alongside you when that happens? Tell us a little bit, your thoughts on that. C.J. Nord (38:47) Yeah, you know, now we're the AWFS team and I are talking about, well, what's the next five years look like? And I'm just excited. I'm so excited that they're thinking about it like that, you know, five years of planning. I think that the, I'm borderline, I'm almost ready to say I know that. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (38:55) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, sure. C.J. Nord (39:07) The right way to proceed with this is by developing a cooperative. know, like farmers have here in the Midwest, right? know, farmers have cooperatives for their crops. And so our crop is wood waste. Now it's going to become a material, a valuable material. And we can coordinate the equipment expansion through that. We can develop a LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (39:13) Sure, yes, mm-hmm, yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (39:34) library of laboratory results. All the labs on this are very expensive. So what we can do is we, all it, the source material, although it's made into a bunch of different things, is, is identifiable and we can put together a library of the lab results and save, I mean, literally millions of dollars in industry wide. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (39:40) Hmm, mhm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. C.J. Nord (40:00) expense because we've developed this resource. We'll develop a resource of laboratory results. We'll develop a resource for here's what permitting looks like to develop the permits for this. Commits are tough. They're not... LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (40:02) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (40:14) They're not an obstacle. They're not posing the program, but it's still one of the hardest parts of the process. So ⁓ coordinating it, expanding it, we're starting in California. We started in California for a couple of reasons. One, we're here, the association is here. But the other is because we knew California would be hard. Our air quality standards are tough. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (40:15) Mm-hmm. Sure. Sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (40:36) California is not as business friendly of a state as it could be. It's often difficult to the point where you think, you guys trying to make it hard? You it's hard to succeed here. So we thought, okay, we start in California because that's going to be the tougher one. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (40:40) Hmm, mm-hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Mm, mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (40:53) And then we would really like to expand it across the United States. And it would be just really amazing for me to see an expansion of woodworking in the United States. Let's get it back to where it was in the past. ⁓ And... LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (40:57) Mm-hmm. Mmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (41:13) Every woodworking factory has the ability to become a microgrid. Their communities power and resiliency. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (41:20) Yeah, is, yeah, it's like another or a new benefit to doing that. did not exist 20 years ago, or right, to be able to have the factory and then to be able to also incorporate this aspect with it. So just a new way, you know, as industry and we move forward, that wasn't there. So hopefully there will be more just based on that alone because C.J. Nord (41:27) Yes. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (41:46) Yeah, you can do the woodworking that you love and that you're interested in. And then you can also do this really cool, important thing too, that makes everything circular and drives sustainability forward, empowers communities. Yeah. C.J. Nord (41:58) It really does. And we find that when we develop a great solution, that great solution, it actually works for other industries. I'm hopeful that I'll win this, I've entered for a grant to do this same sort of thing in California's agricultural region. So we'll see in the next month or so if I win that. this, again, LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (42:03) Mm-hmm. Right. fantastic. easy. C.J. Nord (42:25) you know, the trick was getting the equipment at the right price point ⁓ and small enough so that you could bring the equipment to the waste. Lock the waste to the equipment. Right? Right? Now you've taken trucks off the road. And when you move the waste away, you've moved the job opportunity away. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (42:30) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's key. That's key, yeah. Right, yeah. Mm-hmm, yep. C.J. Nord (42:53) too. So if you keep it local, then you can develop these microgrids and that gives communities a new source of, know, essentially when the equipment's paid off, it's free power. It's like your solar panels on your house, where some homes have become energy independent through their solar panels. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (43:05) Right, yeah. That's amazing. Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. C.J. Nord (43:15) Now we have an energy independent solution for manufacturing. Yeah, it's really neat. And this, you know, the byproduct that I'm a lot older than you. Do remember the Beverly Hillbillies? Right, right. And their intro song was Black Gold, Texas Tea, right? ⁓ LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (43:20) Yeah, that's incredible. I love that. I love that. Yeah. Of course, yes, I remember the Beverly Hills Billy. Yeah. Like yes, I mean you'd have to keep going but yes, yes I remember it had a fun intro as old shows, you know as the shows used to have I feel like we don't have good intros anymore like songs, you know C.J. Nord (43:47) So black gold in the 20th century was crude oil. Biochar has become so valuable that it's been nicknamed black gold in this century. So I've tagged on timber tea. It is amazing. Biochar LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (43:51) sure, mm-hmm. Ahhhh C.J. Nord (44:02) is I, my gosh, it is a wonder material. And it's useful in fertilization. ⁓ You can, I'm working with some of the Northern California Tribal Associations, I'm Native American, so that's a logical connection for me. ⁓ They're doing forestry cleanup. So. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (44:06) Wow Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (44:25) What we would like to partner to help them with is to find biomass equipment that they can strap on the back of truck, take it with them into the forest, process the forest floor cleanup. That's all the stuff that burns like crazy. Through the biomass system and then move the biochar right there on back onto the forest floor. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (44:33) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm. C.J. Nord (44:48) And that can reduce water need by between 40 to 70%. And this, what they're doing where they're essentially incinerating the dead wood and leaving it there, right? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (44:53) Wow. Wow. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (45:09) except for the equipment that's exactly how our ancestors did it. Exactly. Full circle. One of the high school kids when I was giving a presentation on this she said well your solution doesn't prevent more trees from being cut down. She's right. She's right. It didn't need to be. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (45:13) True, yeah, full circle. Right, right. C.J. Nord (45:33) to be whatever the highest value for that material is, but I cannot get over the fact that we're actually returning wood to its original use for humanity. Power, heat, that's what humankind first used wood for. And the formation of the best solution for circularity ends up... ⁓ LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (45:36) Mmm. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. Yeah, full circle. Yeah, that's C.J. Nord (45:58) going back LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (45:58) amazing. C.J. Nord (45:58) to its original use. Isn't that interesting? LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (46:00) Yeah, think that's like really, that's like really meta, like right? Like it's like, that's a real like a, you know, like a mind blower, like, wow, there's a plan, you know, there's a plan. C.J. Nord (46:10) I really know the right words for it, but it really, mean, in, well, in the words of my high school years, like, well, that's really trippy, man. Yeah. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (46:19) Yeah, far out. That is far out and amazing. That's really cool. CJ, okay, as we wrap up with our conversation, I can't wait to hear your answer to this question. For women listening who want to build businesses that makes purpose, grit, and system level impact, what's your advice for where they should start? C.J. Nord (46:41) Start with the problem you want to solve. What do you want to fix? This thing with wood waste, because I ran supply chains in the woodworking industry, I've been thinking about this for like 30 years. Not so impressive now that I've been thinking about it for 30 years. But all of us have something where we go, come on, we can solve that. Or just that it has to be solved. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (46:44) Hmm. Yeah. Sure, right. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. C.J. Nord (47:08) must be solved. Go after something that you're really passionate about that you are intensely interested in being part of the solution for. And I think that's how you'll find your purpose. And then like you said, you gave them the best advice. Don't put out that fire in your heart. Don't let anybody put the fire in your heart out. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (47:12) Yeah. I love that. That's a perfect answer. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. C.J. Nord (47:33) especially don't let anybody tell you that it is impossible. That means that it wasn't possible for them. Not that it is impossible for you. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (47:37) Mm-hmm. Right. Amen. Exactly. Yup. I love that. I love it. It's possible, baby. It's possible for you. I love that. Well, thank you, CJ. I feel like we could keep talking again all day about this such a fascinating, important topic for us. But as we wrap up, I would love for you to share with our listeners where they can find you and continue the conversation with you. C.J. Nord (47:46) Right, right. Yes. YouTube actually. well thank you so much. My website is supplychainsforgood.org. You can contact me through there. In late July of this year, you'll find me at the AWFS show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thank God I'm in an air conditioned building. You can certainly connect with me on LinkedIn and I would love to hear from people. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (48:19) Right? Definitely. Fantastic. And we'll put those links in the show notes as well. CJ, thank you so much for joining us today for Serious Lady Business. It was a pleasure talking with you. And I just can't wait for everybody to listen and just soak up all the fantastic insights about your journey and the power that they have within them. And everybody gets better and goes further together. C.J. Nord (48:43) I hope that's the result that they see the power in themselves because it's there. LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (48:47) Love it. Thank you, CJ. We'll see you later. Leslie Youngblood (48:54) Thanks for tuning in to Serious Lady Business. If you loved this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss a moment of the real, raw, and really wonderful sides of female entrepreneurship. And hey, please leave a review if you're feeling generous. It helps more amazing women find us and join the conversation. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at at Serious Lady Business and get all of the updates at SeriousLadyBusiness.com. Until next time, keep showing up, keep building, and keep being your seriously amazing self.