Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Innovating in a Traditional Industry: Hampton Thomas' PFP Logistics Story | Staffing Series

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Innovating in a Traditional Industry: Hampton Thomas' PFP Logistics Story | Staffing Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:18
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:26
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Hampton Thomas,
0:30
owner and President of PFP Logistics, a third party
0:34
logistics company with a focus in warehouse staffing that
0:38
specializes in services such as loading and unloading, freight
0:41
handling, and more. They offer experience in
0:44
handling a complete range of types of freight, including
0:48
temperature controlled, fragile, labor intensive and high value.
0:53
They use a pay for performance model for their customers so
0:57
that the customer is only paying for work being completed.
1:00
This approach helps customers accurately project labor costs.
1:04
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:07
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1:10
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1:13
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1:16
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1:24
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1:34
Now back to our guest today, the owner and President of PFP
1:37
Logistics Hampton. I appreciate you making the time
1:40
to Share your story today. Yeah, thanks for having me.
1:43
So Hampton, I can see looking at your LinkedIn page that before
1:46
starting PFP Logistics in 2017 that you worked for another
1:51
logistics company for several years.
1:53
Is that where the idea for PFP was hatched?
1:57
So that was actually we converted that was Port Watch
2:01
logistics into PFP logistics. It was a a family business.
2:06
My father owned a transportation, a warehouse
2:09
company and A staffing group. He needed some support managing
2:14
the staffing group when we were able to leave South Carolina.
2:17
He had sold out previously and had to non compete, keeping him
2:20
in South Carolina. And so I was working.
2:24
I don't think it's listed on there, but for a very brief time
2:26
another logistics company right after college wasn't too
2:31
thrilled there. He needed somebody to support
2:33
him and and go. So the next Monday I was on a
2:35
flight to Theodore, AL at my first start up in a cold storage
2:39
environment and after I think it was four or five years working
2:44
that I had moved and met a bunch of people, but I decided I
2:48
wanted to become an owner of the business and work to buy him
2:51
out. So we separated that labor piece
2:54
out or the staffing piece out from the other two and created
2:57
PFP Logistics. And PFP pay for performance,
3:02
this is part of the name and it's also a core part of the
3:06
business bottle. And you explain that to us.
3:08
How's how's this approach work? Sure.
3:11
So we started on the port of Charleston, SC and containers
3:15
come in on the big boats that you see that are on the the
3:19
highway. A lot of that product is
3:22
manufactured and to maximize shipping capacity, the the
3:25
product is just pushed in there on the floor, not organized,
3:29
very messy and there's no pallets or any kind of equipment
3:33
that can pull it off. So you have to use your hands
3:36
and stack it on the pallets. And then if you're moving those
3:38
pallets around the warehouse, you got to wrap it and then a
3:40
forklift will come take it away. So we took the concept of just
3:46
instead of paying us by the hour for however long and however
3:49
many people it takes, just give us pay us by the job.
3:53
And so we quoted what it should take, two hours, five hours,
3:58
whatever it is, depending on the freight, and we're just going to
4:00
charge you for that container to be unloaded.
4:03
And then we turned around and began to pay the associates a
4:06
piece of that too. So the faster or more efficient
4:09
employees could make a lot more money.
4:11
The customer was pleased because their freight was moved a lot
4:13
faster, which reduced their operating time, reduced
4:17
headcount in the facility and overall, you know, saved
4:23
everybody money and got the job done faster.
4:26
I'm going to say that the model on the surface anyway, sounds
4:29
really attractive. It it aligns everybody's goals,
4:32
right? Like the, the employees aren't
4:34
going to drag things out and, you know, slowly move things
4:37
around. No, they want to hustle.
4:38
They want to get it done. So you know they're getting paid
4:40
more and the customer then you know they know what it's going
4:44
to cost them up front, right. And so that really helps with
4:47
planning. I'm going to guess this is an
4:50
attractive model from for everybody, for you as the
4:52
company, for the contract workers, as well As for your
4:55
clients. Yeah, we believe so.
4:57
You know, once, once we get the pricing right and everybody's
5:00
aligned it, it works really well.
5:03
So you something you said there is, is key though, once we get
5:07
the pricing right. And so how do you do that?
5:09
I mean, every job is different. You know, if if you're unloading
5:13
the same size and weight widget into the same environment every
5:16
time, OK, that's great. It's you know, you did a time
5:19
study once and and now you know, but I mean every client is
5:22
different, every shipments going to be different.
5:24
How do you approach that? That's right.
5:26
So we, we start with the time study method on whatever variety
5:30
of product they we may have available after some education
5:37
through missing that or the customer not necessarily
5:41
misrepresenting themselves, but the product they described was
5:44
not what we got. You know, they might say 1000
5:47
pieces and single skew, which just means one kind of product
5:51
on that. There's no sorting or anything
5:53
involved. And then the first container we
5:55
might open could be 3005 skews and it's, it's mixed in the
6:00
whole way. So after a number of years of
6:04
learning that, we'll quote them what they described to us, but
6:07
then we'll put tears and surcharges on top of that.
6:10
And you know, we're very transparent of, you know, if we
6:13
get something different, it's the process changes.
6:16
And so the cost goes up and it would go up if you were using an
6:19
hourly associate anyways, because the time goes up.
6:21
So it's all based on time. Getting that approved and agreed
6:25
on beforehand has been really good in our ability to be
6:31
successful and and have a smooth transition into a partnership.
6:35
Going into it and accusing a client of potentially
6:39
misrepresenting themselves or the product not being what they
6:43
said is usually not helpful when you're trying to start a
6:47
relationship with somebody. And yeah, of course, if it's one
6:51
or two every once in a while, we usually just pay the associates
6:54
more and and don't go back for for more money.
6:56
But if it's a trend or consistency consistent over
7:00
time, then yeah, we we do have to.
7:01
Do you see it become? Is it a consistent issue with
7:04
some folks? No, I would say most know what
7:09
they're doing and and getting into if if they're receiving
7:13
consistent product. They're not trying to mislead
7:15
me, but I get a lot of Coastal Pro customers that are receiving
7:20
freight, they'll get a, a quote request from somebody coming
7:23
into their facility that they've not seen before.
7:26
And their customer may or may not know with accuracy what's in
7:32
that container. So they describe to the best of
7:34
their knowledge. And then when we open it up, of
7:37
course it it isn't or, or can be different and seasons change.
7:41
We do a lot of big box retailers.
7:44
So you know, your, your low cost suppliers where maybe it's
7:50
Valentine's Day and then when we're we're heading into the
7:52
fall, you might have patio furniture and then the
7:56
Valentine's Day was just chocolates or it was glasses or
7:58
it was cards or stuffed animals. And then the patio furniture is
8:02
very different. It's, it's far less freight, but
8:04
it's upwards of 100 to £200 per piece.
8:09
So it can get interesting and we have very long standing
8:14
relationships with clients. So we learn over time that this
8:17
product could be different and and we go back and forth with
8:19
them to to make sure because it is a is a partnership.
8:22
They're using us as an extension of their HR department.
8:25
We're a permanent fixture in their building or at least we
8:28
hope to be. Most of our contracts are a year
8:30
to three years with an auto renew.
8:32
And so it's in everybody's best interest that we're mutually all
8:39
successful. And so you're helping to
8:41
supplement their existing staff or are you like completely
8:45
taking over sort of the I don't know what the right term would
8:48
be that the heavy lifting the the sort of physical labor
8:51
component of it? Sure.
8:52
We're typically given the more challenging roles first in a
8:55
facility until the the proof of concept is is seen or our
9:00
conditions are right. So usually we're either taking
9:04
over what was already done by service like us or we're
9:07
displacing say a temporary service where they have what's
9:10
called permit temps. So because of turnover is high,
9:13
they just are constantly using a temp service.
9:17
And eventually though, the temps that stick around for a while
9:21
might be hired on and moved to a more more skilled position or
9:25
trained on equipment, moved into storage or, or pulling orders or
9:30
things. So yeah, we are brought in.
9:34
We're, we're not displacing permanent employees.
9:40
And so we'll, we'll take over that and then we'll partner with
9:42
their supervisors to make sure really we just, we take a lot of
9:46
the responsibility off their, their internal management needs
9:48
to worry about inventory levels, dispatch, trucking, shipment
9:52
times, quality receiving. So when they can just say, OK, I
9:58
have 10 loads today that need to be unloaded and they give that
10:01
to us, we'll come back and say, OK, here they are.
10:04
They're on the dock ready for you and they don't need to track
10:07
overtime, healthcare workers comp if there's an injury,
10:12
training, safety management, hydration.
10:15
In the summer we we have to focus on a lot because most are
10:18
not temperature controlled. So you're taking care of all of
10:21
that. You're they're your W2 employee,
10:23
you're taking care of the workers comp, the insurance, the
10:27
payroll, all aspects of it. Are you, are you also training
10:31
and managing those folks as well once they're placed?
10:35
Yeah, we have actually a lot of what I've done over the past
10:39
couple of years is focused on the the onboarding, which is,
10:44
you know, zero to up to we say 30 to 90 days.
10:47
The first seven are the most important and then up to 30
10:50
typically that that associate's going to be very successful.
10:54
But that's I think what set us apart.
10:58
I actually hired someone who was in education for the past eight
11:01
years and brought her in to be our corporate trainer.
11:04
So she comes in and analyzes the unloading process or the the
11:08
kitting packaging process, whatever that value it was add
11:12
is we're doing, and then creates almost like a syllabus that
11:16
folks are used to seeing from their schools.
11:18
A lot of our employees have recently gotten out of, you
11:22
know, high school or or thereabouts education level.
11:25
And so we put that together and put it in front of them so they
11:29
understand what they're getting into.
11:32
And that has reduced our turnover tremendously.
11:34
But yeah, we are training them and not only lifting technique,
11:38
but trying to make them feel comfortable and welcome as a
11:41
part of a team as being an outside service in it's not PFD
11:46
logistics on the name of the warehouse.
11:48
When you pull up, you can often feel less accepted or not like
11:53
you're part of the the overarching company that's
11:56
there. And our partners are very good
11:58
at including us and, and bringing us in if there's
12:00
there's social meals or things or getaways.
12:04
But we do a lot of that ourselves too.
12:06
And we try to build a a pride within the employee to be proud
12:09
of working for PFP, even if they're not.
12:12
That's not the name on the side of the building.
12:14
Yeah, I would think it's kind of hard for you to build a a
12:16
culture for PFP considering that folks are working in so many
12:20
different locations. Sure.
12:23
Yeah, we're pretty geographically spread out, you
12:25
know, being headquartered in Charleston, SC We're, we're
12:27
primarily, I would say Midwest to East Coast.
12:33
And I have a facility in Anchorage, AK, which was, you
12:36
know, geographically the furthest you could get away, but
12:39
that one works out fine. But we, another big hire that I
12:44
made 2 1/2 years ago was a, he was director of culture and
12:48
leadership. He's now vice president of the
12:50
business, but he came from his past, was working for the Naval
12:56
as a therapist. And so he we just went out
13:00
coaching our managers on how to one, do conflict resolution, but
13:04
how to motivate, how to talk to and communicate with people of
13:08
different backgrounds, education levels, different places in
13:11
their lives. And that came a long way.
13:15
And we also, we, we call it swag.
13:17
We give out a lot of hats, T-shirts, koozies.
13:23
One of the associates that she worked part time for her while
13:28
she was in college and then she came on full time.
13:30
She wanted to pursue a career in style or fashion.
13:35
And so rather than losing her to to go do something else,
13:38
actually had her manage all of our our swagger corporate
13:43
merchandise, if you will. And so we've got a corporate
13:46
store that I think is probably some of the coolest stuff in the
13:49
staffing industry. I got a one-on-one right here,
13:52
water cup that she bedazzled. For, well, look at that.
13:54
That's sparkly. So have to get me one of.
13:57
Those. That would.
13:59
Be a much better show on. Camera and.
14:02
This industrial looking thing. So it's fun.
14:06
Then we we invite the employees to come up with ideas too, for,
14:11
for what they want. So, you know, from Yeti cups to
14:14
Carharts to, you know, skater hats, we've we've done it all.
14:19
I've got some fishing shirts that just came out with our logo
14:22
on it. So that was exciting.
14:26
What's interesting that I'm hearing you talk about is what I
14:30
feel like it's a little bit more of what's the word I'm looking
14:33
for, kind of a gentle hands on approach.
14:35
You brought in somebody with a background in education to help
14:39
with training and you've seen that pay off, right?
14:42
You've seen like, like a decreased turnover and like
14:46
increased retention. You brought in someone with a
14:48
background in therapy who's going around and talking to
14:51
everybody and, you know, kind of getting them in the right place
14:56
mentally and, and, and training them.
14:58
And then you brought in somebody 'cause, you know, your, your
15:00
folks love swag. And right through the question
15:03
of how do we build this culture with, you know, some folks in
15:06
Anchorage, AK, some folks in the Midwest by some folks in the, in
15:09
the East Coast. So you brought in somebody who
15:11
can, you know, kind of get all this swag out to your different
15:14
employees. I mean, in, in this is a
15:17
question I always like to ask and you've kind of already
15:20
provided at least parts of the answer.
15:23
You know, in a, in a tight labor market, it's hard to find good
15:27
folks, it's hard to retain good folks.
15:30
And I've already heard you mentioned a few things there
15:32
that you're doing and that are working.
15:35
Anything else that we haven't already touched on that you
15:37
think is kind of a special approach PFP takes?
15:40
Yeah, I think to your point, it is right now very hard to find
15:46
good folks. The old when I I started in like
15:50
2011. So there it was a not great
15:54
economic climate and the old culture and a lot of the
15:57
competitors culture was, well, we can just replace people.
16:00
It's low skilled. We'll just bring them in, put
16:02
another job out, turn somebody else in turn and burn.
16:04
Yeah. And it was all about all the all
16:07
the funding went to recruiting and and not much in training.
16:11
And I think a lot of people don't realize the cost of
16:14
turnover even if you can get someone new in to backfill that
16:17
position the next day. So the, the biggest priority
16:21
I've put on it is, is keeping the people that we have that we
16:25
want to stay on. But I, I would say not thinking
16:31
that you have to find someone who has done exactly that
16:33
before. I don't, I don't want to put my
16:38
mouth here, but most, I don't think any of my managers came
16:42
from this industry except for the ones that started as
16:47
unloaders and then through our training have now become
16:52
supervisors, managers and directors.
16:55
And so not finding people that are good at customer service
17:00
that get along well with other folks and that are inspired by
17:04
the, the, the goals you have that line up.
17:10
We can teach them how to stack boxes, how to talk to people.
17:14
We can teach them how to keep payroll, how to run the app that
17:17
we've got developed. And so I think finding people
17:21
that are open to learning is, is the most important thing and
17:25
then investing in them and they will invest big time back into
17:29
you. And now where I can remember my
17:33
start, I was doing sales, HR, customer service, you know,
17:38
payroll. I would stop at a McDonald's and
17:41
open my laptop and I'd scan in driver's licenses and key the
17:46
E-Verify and then send payroll off and do the invoicing and
17:48
pull off and just wasn't sustainable at all.
17:52
Now I've got a bunch of people that are like, hey, we can do it
17:54
better. We can do it a different way
17:56
more efficiently so. I, I really like what you're
17:59
saying there. You, you're kind of looking more
18:00
for a personality fit, somebody who's got sort of the, the soft,
18:04
soft skills. They can get along well with
18:05
other people. They understand how to take care
18:08
of, you know, customers and especially since you guys have
18:10
invested so much in the training component, you can bring
18:15
somebody in who's never stacked boxes before, never keyed
18:17
payroll and you can teach them those things.
18:20
It's it's more about a personality fit upfront.
18:23
Right. Yeah.
18:24
So much so that we actually bought some exoskeletons about a
18:28
year and a half ago for folks that weren't even physically
18:31
able to do 100% of the job. We can strap these around there.
18:35
It's like a book bag and then straps around their thighs and
18:38
it it adds the core strength that they otherwise wouldn't be
18:41
able to lift that that weight. So.
18:43
Haven't. Stuck amazing gym yet but yeah
18:47
it is it. It really helps.
18:50
I've got 1 here in the office. Just the way around if I'm doing
18:54
chores and stuff so. And so how much of a difference
18:57
does it make if I could normally pick up a £50 box, now I can
19:01
pick up £100 box? Is it like double?
19:03
It no, it's not going to add say strength to you, it's more
19:08
longevity. So if you could pick up that 30
19:10
LB 100 times, maybe you could do it 1000 times or you don't have
19:16
to break as much. So a lot of a lot of the product
19:19
we have is anywhere from 800 to 2000 boxes or tires or pieces of
19:24
product in a container. And so you're doing that
19:26
movement over and over again. And if you're not, you're coming
19:30
from a sedentary job or you're not used to moving like this,
19:34
it'll allow you to get back and complete a full load or complete
19:37
a full day. And then over time, the goal was
19:39
to get you away from using that, and you're relying on your own
19:43
musculature. What is one of those rigs cost?
19:47
Oh I tried on probably 8 different versions and anywhere
19:52
from $800 up to like $4500 depending on the the practical
19:58
and there were some that they had batteries almost like you
20:01
see in your drill and then as you it feels you've been down
20:04
and then it is actively pulling against you.
20:07
OK, with the amount of movement we do, we went with the least
20:13
sophisticated. It's like a bungee cord system
20:16
or almost like a resistance band.
20:20
It's it works well. It was most comfortable, easiest
20:22
on, easiest off and we can use them between people.
20:25
So we were, I think they're around.
20:28
I want to give away my vendor's pricing, but you got a bulk
20:31
discount and we bought, I think enough to get, you know, 20 to
20:34
30% off and they just released a new version.
20:39
So we thought we would use more of them.
20:44
So I put 10 in three different warehouses as a trial and we
20:47
ended up thinking finding out we only needed probably 3 or 4 and
20:51
we're able to spread them out over at 10 or 15 warehouses.
20:54
So with you guys being spread out in so many different
20:57
geographies, do you have physical location or like a head
21:02
supervisor or manager in each of those locations that either
21:05
helps to recruit or manage or train the folks who are local?
21:10
How does that kind of work with you being in in so many
21:13
different spots? Yeah.
21:15
So our recruiting and corporate training is remote, that's
21:20
online and it supports at the local facility.
21:24
We're often required, but we will insist on having a point of
21:27
contact there that is conducting the in person interviews, doing
21:31
the training depending on the state of the the partnership.
21:36
So if it's a start up, I will actually move people to that
21:39
location. We'll try, we call them the
21:41
travel team. We'll either rent Airbnbs or
21:44
apartments or do some kind of short term, long term stay and
21:50
until we have that local team up and running in place.
21:55
I was living in Atlanta for a while because it was easiest to
21:59
travel from a bigger hub like that.
22:02
And then I got, I wanted to get back to the coast and closer to
22:05
family and the the easiest way to get corporate folks to those
22:09
was, was direct flight. So I actually got my pilot's
22:12
license and bought a plane. And so we'll do day trips now
22:16
where it was either six hours driving or and no way to get
22:20
flown in. It can be an hour.
22:21
We're in on site. We got three people dropped off.
22:24
I'm back home and then we're going to get them, you know, a
22:26
couple days later. Oh I love.
22:29
That it's been fun and some of the customers have enjoyed it.
22:31
We've taken them up to, you know, show them their house by
22:33
the air. That's yeah, that's a fun little
22:37
perk. Yeah.
22:39
And some of my full time management, actually all of
22:41
them, if if they have something they want to use it for
22:43
personally, we had somebody that couldn't get home for Labor Day
22:46
because the commercial flight, there was only one going out and
22:51
it was cancelled. So she took the, took the
22:54
company play. And I'm guessing you're flying
22:55
into like a a smaller airport, not like the the the major one
23:00
in in the metro area or am I wrong on that?
23:03
For most, we're we're not. Yeah, most of them are.
23:06
There are smaller ones throughout.
23:08
I had a conference in Atlanta and it was an exciting time, but
23:12
I put it down in Hartsfield. Jackson, did you really?
23:15
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
23:17
So hundreds of airports in the world.
23:19
It is, yeah. That was, that was a big moment
23:22
for me. Now coming in, it was easy going
23:25
out with traffic control because they've got your, your landing
23:29
directive pretty well set. But when you're leaving you've
23:32
got a lot more going on. So they, I mean, you really got
23:34
to pay attention. I brought another pilot with me
23:36
just to kind of have second year and work the comms while I was.
23:41
I was fine to find stuff all. Right.
23:43
Better safe though sorry on something like that.
23:45
Oh yeah, absolutely. So Hampton, I'm always curious
23:48
to hear how businesses find customers.
23:51
What are you guys doing in terms of marketing and sales?
23:55
Yep. We got one full time salesperson
24:00
and his job is to call LinkedIn, e-mail and then one day a week
24:07
he either takes a plane to a new region where we want to begin
24:10
selling and we've got these bags.
24:13
We he knocks on the door to potential clients and you know,
24:16
gives them a fire. We got golf balls and Tees and
24:20
candles and gives them that to see if there's any interest or
24:24
any need. He's essentially selling an
24:26
appointment with me. I do still most of once we get
24:31
there, the pricing and as he learns, he just graduated from
24:34
college Charleston last year. So he's, he's still earning his
24:37
stripes, although he, he worked for us for about 8 months as an
24:40
intern before that. And then we have, yeah, we've
24:45
got social media. I don't see a warehouse manager
24:47
looking on TikTok and thinking that's the staffing company I
24:50
want to go with. So we, we don't have a TikTok
24:53
thread, but we have, you know, Instagram and Facebook.
24:57
I think just having a presence out there.
24:59
And then the LinkedIn is good. And then we've recently got into
25:05
like SEO and, and some Google ads where we're starting to
25:11
target our ads in the areas that our salesperson will be
25:14
traveling the following week. And that's building some
25:18
familiarity with the brand, some rapport and to start generating
25:23
some inbound leads. But the biggest growth I've seen
25:27
are once you get in the door, it's expanding your relationship
25:30
with the current partner. So do a good job and you will
25:33
get referred out or you'll get more business from them.
25:38
Most of our clients have more than one facility with demand
25:42
for a service like ours. And so we're, even though
25:47
thirteen years old, I'd still stay very much a start up in our
25:51
thought process and there's countless customers that could
25:55
use us. So trying to demonstrate value
25:58
and and set ourselves apart from other customers.
26:01
And then there's either an RFP or they have conferences all the
26:04
time and somebody will raise your hand and say, Hey, I'm
26:07
really struggling with this kind of staffing.
26:10
And you know, typically our name gets brought up that we provided
26:13
a solution they liked, and I'll get a call to come check out
26:16
that warehouse. No, that's tremendous.
26:18
When, when most of your leads are coming from word of mouth,
26:21
that says a lot about the quality of your service and the
26:24
longevity of those relationships that you're building.
26:27
Yeah. Have you found that some of
26:29
these other things that sound like they're newer to you are
26:33
maybe starting to look like they'll bear some fruit, like
26:36
the LinkedIn outreach and the, you know, handing out the swag
26:38
bags in person? Or is it too too early to tell?
26:42
It's it's only been a few months.
26:45
I, I struggle with patients on results, but I, I have seen,
26:53
yeah, the, the calls, the outreach, just putting our name
26:56
out there because it's hard. We, we went over this SEO thing
27:01
and like, what are our keywords that we want to pop up?
27:04
And based on where we were on, we didn't know what people would
27:08
search to find us 1st. And that took a lot of time to
27:11
identify. If there's not a real, it's not
27:15
like you can type in temp service, we're not going to pop
27:17
up there because that's not what we do.
27:20
So yes, I am seeing more appointments.
27:23
We are, our growth has gone up with new vendors or new partners
27:27
in the in the past couple of months.
27:29
We've got more start-ups this year than we had probably ever,
27:35
which is exciting. But then also, hey, we got to
27:37
make sure we can continue to provide that same level of
27:40
service. So we got to grow the operation
27:41
too. So I think all of it's
27:43
important. I shut down outbound sales two
27:47
years ago, three years ago with COVID, we had such a demand
27:51
because there was such a scarcity of staff.
27:56
It was all we could do to service the clients we had.
27:59
And that became our main focus and and we were rewarded by
28:04
because we were able to to provide the staff we needed
28:08
rather than taking on new business.
28:11
But that kind of I'd say it slowed a little bit the there
28:17
are more people applying for jobs, the wages are not
28:21
skyrocketing like they used to. So we've had to get a little
28:25
more creative and finding new business to keep our our growth
28:29
trajectory going. So whereas maybe a couple years
28:32
ago the big challenge was finding the contract workers to
28:36
provide the service that has the sounds like the labor market has
28:41
softened a little bit for you guys and now the challenge is,
28:44
OK, we've got lots of folks who want to work now we need to find
28:47
clients for them to work at. Kind of shifting your focus now.
28:51
Yeah, that's. Right.
28:52
Yeah. And I'm starting to hear more of
28:54
that from a number of the businesses I'm talking to, not
28:56
everybody, but I'm hearing more and more it's the labor market's
29:00
softening a little bit like it's getting more.
29:05
Some of the consumption I think in the US has dropped off
29:08
considerably. A lot of what we do is to
29:12
service what's being bought at big box retail stores and those
29:18
stores because people are buying less.
29:20
There's not the supply chain backup that you heard about two
29:22
years ago. Now they have over inventory and
29:26
so they just they aren't buying as much to come into the US.
29:30
So even our clients that we have now, we're we're producing less
29:34
for them or the demand is less. Do you think it will be more
29:37
challenging to find new customers now that the labor
29:40
market is softening a little bit?
29:42
Like I'm guessing part of the attraction to using PFP is
29:46
they're having a hard time finding workers.
29:48
You guys have workers, you've got them well trained and you
29:51
take care of all the admin back office stuff for them.
29:54
But do you think like maybe now it's easier for them to find
29:57
their own folks? I.
30:00
Think, you know, that's one objection that we we see more
30:03
often now. I think the value of our service
30:08
is far more than just providing staff, you know, the the focus
30:12
and training and management that we do for those individuals and
30:16
taking care of that, that service where we have a full
30:19
time person focused on that. Typically that attention is
30:23
split in a middle management role in the distribution center.
30:28
And so we're able to, to do a much better job than they could
30:31
otherwise. But yeah, I think if they have
30:37
the roles filled, they don't know how much better it could
30:39
be. So the pain might not be there
30:43
to consider a switch if all the roles are filled.
30:48
Often times we're brought in because like, I just don't have
30:50
anybody to do the job. So I'll, I'll try anything to do
30:54
it. Temp services, you know, paying
30:56
more and looking at a third party like us.
31:00
Well, we're really selling the efficiency piece now and the
31:02
value add that we bring. That makes a lot of sense.
31:05
Getting away from sort of looking at a warm body is almost
31:09
like a commodity and it's, you know, they're coming with
31:13
additional training and the infrastructure that you guys
31:17
have built to set that person up for success.
31:20
So that for the client, you, you can take a lot of the, the
31:24
worries and the headaches and the management that may be split
31:27
between, you know, some roles and, and have it laser focused
31:31
on the team that you're providing.
31:33
Right. And they get the, the benefit of
31:36
having someone who a, a team of people who have experienced many
31:40
different distribution centers. You know, we, we see from cold
31:45
storage to grocery to tire to major retail chains.
31:50
And so we're able to actually sales cause on Tuesday, their
31:55
problem was hourly cost between loads.
31:59
They love the concept that we presented, but they're not
32:01
brought. It's not like they have 15 or 20
32:04
or 100 lined up for us to move one to the next.
32:07
And so they're paying a lot of just, we call it wait time or,
32:12
you know, unproductive labor time between those waiting for
32:15
the next one to come in. It's as simple as just saying,
32:19
why don't we just stagger and we'll start two hours later so
32:22
you can accumulate some work. We'll bring in a smaller staff.
32:26
And so where most people are thinking, I have to have a nine
32:29
to five, bring everybody in it. And that's just one example of,
32:33
well, this is what we've done in the past to solve that problem.
32:36
You can do it yourself or you know, you can bring us in and
32:40
and you get all the other benefit and we'll continue to to
32:42
provide this value add. I think that's a great point.
32:46
And something that I wasn't even thinking about is aside from
32:50
what we just talked about, like a body is not a body, like it's
32:53
not a commodity, but also the experience that you bring from
32:57
having worked in, I'm going to, I'm just going to throw out a
33:00
made-up number, dozens of different warehouse facilities,
33:03
probably much more than that. And so you've seen lots of
33:07
different ideas, tried different things, seen things that have
33:11
worked in certain environments. And, you know, so you've got
33:14
just fresh ideas and concepts to bring to the table.
33:17
Like, hey, we did something like this over here in Columbus, OH,
33:21
and it worked really well. It was a similar environment.
33:24
I suggest we try that here. Yeah, we had a client, this is
33:28
years ago now, but I, I saw them videotaping our employees, the
33:33
stacking methods and and everything else.
33:35
You know, I approached them and said, you know, what are you
33:37
doing? Can I help you with?
33:39
But these guys might not want to be on camera.
33:42
And they said, well, yeah, we're trying to learn the technique.
33:44
We we're considering bringing it back in houses.
33:46
Absolutely. Come over.
33:48
We'll train you on how to do this.
33:49
And then I they, this was a major coffee importer.
33:54
And so there's these hooks and the hooks are not easy to find.
33:57
There's like 1 retailer in the country that makes them.
34:00
I gave them the contact for that.
34:02
They bought their own hooks. They wanted to save the 10 to
34:06
20% what they thought we were making and didn't see the value.
34:11
A month later I got a call asking could you please come
34:13
back and manage this for us? And, and we did, we, we came
34:18
back and, and we had a, you know, I think a three-year
34:21
relationship with that, with that group.
34:23
So I, I want to dig into this a little bit because this is
34:25
interesting because a lot of people would feel threatened in
34:27
that situation. Hey, you know, we're, we're
34:29
recording this because we want to learn the technique.
34:31
And then they're straight up with you.
34:32
We're thinking about replacing you and bringing this back in
34:35
house. Not only did you not feel
34:37
threatened by it. So we're like, oh, OK, yeah, let
34:39
me teach you. And then here's the place where
34:41
you can buy the equipment that's needed.
34:44
What was the thought process there?
34:46
Is it just hey, customer always comes first whatever they need.
34:49
I'm going to be helpful here. Sure.
34:51
I think one, it's, it's a little bit of an education piece.
34:55
If they didn't see the value I was bringing then I can't tell
34:58
them that they probably have to learn it themselves.
35:03
I knew the challenge of recruiting and training and and
35:06
how much we've invested in that. And so I think, you know, we can
35:11
show you or you can try it yourself.
35:13
And so I don't want to continue to work in a place where our
35:17
value isn't seen. We'll go focus our energy on
35:21
people that do appreciate it. We get a lot of times a new
35:26
manager that's not used to the concept of production staffing
35:31
and they'll see just making up numbers here, but let's say it's
35:35
$25.00 an hour and you have four people working on that load.
35:41
MY2 associates may do it in an hour.
35:45
So two people, they do it in an hour.
35:47
I'm charging you $100 for that load.
35:50
Two people divided by two is $50.00 an hour.
35:52
So that's double what you would be paying if it was hourly for
35:56
$25.00 an hour. So we'll have a manager come in
36:00
and say that well, I'm paying double what I should be.
36:02
This is silly. You know, we can save money.
36:04
Let's call a temp service or let's hire an hourly person.
36:07
And then they, they do that and very quickly that one hour job
36:11
turns into two or even 3 hours and you're paying considerably
36:15
more. The time studies are very
36:17
different when you incentivize somebody.
36:19
And so I explained that going into it.
36:22
OK, you know, keep us around while you do your trial of
36:26
hourly. And if, if they start beating us
36:28
and you're saving money, by all means, we'll, we'll continue to
36:31
move out. We'll even let you hire these
36:33
folks on if they want to stay around for that.
36:34
But the folks that work for us typically don't want to go on
36:38
the clock. They they like it in the
36:40
production pay because they either make considerably more
36:44
more dollars in a day or they're making about the same, but
36:47
they're only working four to six hours in a day.
36:49
And they can either go spend more time with their families,
36:51
pick up a second job, you know, pursue a start up of their own,
36:56
you name it. So.
36:58
And so in this case with this, this client was moving a lot of
37:00
coffee. How how long were they gone
37:04
before? Or I guess how long were you out
37:06
of the picture before they came back?
37:08
And they were like, we're in over our heads here.
37:10
Please help. It, it was about a month they so
37:14
they were a third party that had a coffee customer and they were
37:18
ramping up production. So they brought us in for the
37:20
ramp up. And then once volume sustained
37:23
itself, they're OK. We don't need this third party
37:26
anymore. We just hire on internally and
37:30
yeah, it didn't take, it didn't take very long.
37:31
I had to say that's pretty fast. I mean a a month to realize that
37:35
this isn't working. That's.
37:38
And I think it, it probably wasn't working even sooner, a
37:41
lot sooner to make the decision to say, OK, we give up again.
37:45
You know, we got to get them back in here.
37:46
They probably missed some, some loads.
37:48
I mean, there's major charges associated with not unloading a
37:53
container. So these containers come from
37:54
the port. You have usually a two or three
37:58
day window to get it unloaded and returned to the port.
38:00
Or it's, I think it's like $150.00 a first day and then it
38:04
builds up to like 4 or $500 a day to unload it where you know,
38:10
if I'm less than $100 or $200 to unload it, you know it.
38:14
It makes a lot of sense. Have you built any of these into
38:18
case studies yet? Take out the client's name.
38:21
But I mean, what you just explained to me right there with
38:24
this one coffee related client that's like that's, that's worth
38:28
its weight in gold in terms of being able to tell that story.
38:31
No, I think that's, I like to just talk and tell stories.
38:38
So like, and if I'm still involved in the sales process, I
38:41
think as we grow and move more and, and you know, get more
38:45
established, that would be something I'd bring in somebody
38:48
and, and kind of have them write it all up and provide some
38:50
marketing materials to make it easier for my sales team.
38:54
Case studies and testimonials they they speak volumes for.
38:56
Folks, I love that. I want to shift gears actually
39:00
before I do that. There was something I wanted to
39:02
go back to that you mentioned earlier just kind of in passing.
39:04
You guys developed an app. What's the purpose of this?
39:08
What's it's function? So that is to track who's doing
39:13
what. If you can imagine, let's just
39:16
say 20 different locations, 100 different locations.
39:18
And then there's there's stickering building kits,
39:23
unloading all of its different rates, all of its different
39:27
costs to the client, and then all of its different pay to the
39:30
associates. When we were small, it was fine.
39:33
We'd write it on the back of a napkin or on a clipboard and
39:36
then fax it in. And then somebody had a rate
39:39
sheet up and they'd key it in either to Excel or whatever
39:41
document and then send the invoices and pay the people.
39:44
When you get into hundreds of associates doing probably
39:48
hundreds of different tasks that can be pretty demanding.
39:52
And so my in solution was to there wasn't anything on the
39:57
shelves that I could find. And we ended up, you know, took
40:01
about a year to build. And that may be something we
40:05
right now we've got I think a pretty good advantage,
40:08
competitive advantage using it, but I think it's marketable to
40:11
other. Industries like construction,
40:15
paying jobs, anything where you come get a quote and then you're
40:18
getting paid by the, the job and then paying associates by the
40:21
job. And it does hourly too.
40:23
We, we, we don't 100% do production.
40:25
We we also do some temp to perm and and hourly jobs that you
40:29
can't put an engineered standard on.
40:31
Is there any way to quantify the efficiencies that this is
40:34
brought to you? Yeah.
40:37
I can sleep through the night now.
40:40
It's hard to put a number on that man.
40:44
Yeah, this was one of my, the biggest challenges I would say
40:47
in my career was the the frustration of not being able
40:52
that was to manage that effectively.
40:57
Yeah, it it was my biggest pain for a lot of years.
41:01
So if nothing else, Peace of Mind.
41:03
I'm sure that it's right. Loads of efficiency, but hard to
41:06
put numbers on something like. That well yeah, so the back
41:08
office time you can you can probably eliminate 2 headcount
41:12
or we were able to to move headcount to other things that
41:15
weren't checking, rechecking the management submitting payroll is
41:21
not we're waiting on however many emails on Monday
41:24
downloading those checking it, uploading those sending emails
41:28
back out. It's all live uploaded.
41:31
We our customers can log in and see the progress throughout the
41:33
day throughout the week. Our employees can see their pay
41:36
as it builds out. We're not generating errors
41:42
anymore We used to because it was all hard keyed it was
41:45
handwritten, typed into Excel was our our latest version
41:49
before we switched to the app and then copied out pasted.
41:52
I remember I paid, I paid the entire company with the wrong
41:58
week's data one week. And so I mean hundreds of
42:01
thousands of dollars going out and finding out.
42:06
We don't know how wrong it is, but it's wrong.
42:08
And we're going to. And so, you know, people are
42:12
getting deposits. Some are really happy because
42:14
they made more than a week before, but some are really not
42:17
happy. And like these people, you know,
42:20
they're not making, they're not millionaires, They're not,
42:22
they're, they're still depending on that check.
42:24
And it comes Thursday or Friday and it's the weekend now.
42:27
And I got however many warehouses, hundreds of folks
42:30
that I got to get paid because I'm not going to let them go
42:32
into the weekend with, with, you know, a mistake that we made.
42:35
And so that that was a big one. I think clients too, they, you
42:40
know, if you copy and paste and send the wrong invoice, it's
42:43
annoying. You know, you don't go to the
42:44
grocery store and expect your eggs to ring up for, you know, a
42:48
bottle of Windex or whatever it is.
42:50
And we were we not a lot, but we'd send the wrong, you know,
42:53
send the wrong price or send the wrong thing.
42:56
We'd fat key 5 instead of 1 load and this this app has all those
43:01
checks and balances and it's I could probably do a whole
43:04
podcast on the app. I was going to say I would, I
43:06
would actually love that. Have you bring it up on screen
43:08
and kind of take us through it. That'd be really.
43:10
Cool. Yeah, I'd, I'd have to bring
43:13
Toria and she really developed, ran the offshore team and then
43:17
we brought it back domestically. It actually took me 9 months
43:21
before I, I looked at it. We're over $100,000 and then
43:25
spend. And you know, I was in her
43:27
office and kind of looked over her shoulders like what is that
43:29
you're you're playing with there?
43:31
Just like this is your app that you bought.
43:34
And I just didn't want to be a part of it because I knew I
43:36
would have my biases from early in my career that you know what
43:40
I lost sleep over. I can remember being on a phone
43:43
call with somebody in Douglas, GA and he's trying because you
43:47
didn't have screen share back then.
43:48
So he's like I'm on cell page C 59 and I'm trying to pull it up
43:54
on my end and the the equations aren't working so.
43:58
The good old days. Well, kudos to you for being
44:01
able to delegate so much of that really big project to somebody
44:07
that you trusted on your team. I know that's that's not easy.
44:10
And to to realize that you would have just gotten in the way
44:12
takes takes some awareness. Yeah, yeah.
44:17
Shifting gears on you, Hamptons. I mean, you're, you're running a
44:22
successful business. You guys are growing.
44:24
You figured a lot out. You built this app, you're a
44:26
pilot, you own a plane, you fly your employees around, you know,
44:31
a guy who's successful and, and continuing to grow.
44:35
People look at you and probably don't realize that you've gone
44:37
through some struggles to get to where you are.
44:39
I'd love to maybe hear about a particular challenge, either
44:43
personally or professionally that you've gone through and
44:45
some lessons that you've learned coming out the other side.
44:49
Sure. I was going to talk about the
44:52
software. I thought, yeah, that'd probably
44:54
be it. But since we've already touched
44:55
on that, I think the the challenge when when I started it
45:02
was everyday, 8090 hours a week, non-stop calls and figuring
45:08
solutions out like that for the app.
45:13
Something I focused on pretty heavily about four or five years
45:17
ago when when I would say the company really turned a corner
45:20
started having some considerable consistent cash flows and
45:23
profitability was what to do with my time that and finding
45:30
purpose beyond just getting this company.
45:33
I always knew I wanted sustainable income.
45:36
I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to provide efficient
45:41
staff and to be the, you know, the best in the industry at
45:44
this. And when I finally got to a
45:49
threshold or a level that I was there and I had a great team and
45:54
backing that could continue to grow this thing and and do
45:57
better than me personally. I really struggled with the free
46:01
time and the income and the, the ego a little bit because people
46:07
look from outside and say, Oh, well, if you have these things
46:10
in this car and you can fly play, you must be happy and you
46:16
must. And I, I probably, I probably
46:18
was one of the most miserable times of my life that first year
46:21
or so, learning that it's not all about just the income and
46:25
just what you're driving and, and the company that you've got
46:29
that you represent or the title that you have on your check.
46:33
So, so I started doing some real searching into like what's
46:40
important to me, what's and what my values were.
46:43
And I think that is something I continue to do daily is like,
46:48
you know what, I'm, and why am I spending my time doing this?
46:50
Is it adding value to me or helping somebody else?
46:53
And if not, I need to need to pivot.
46:55
And so I was always into sports and athletic.
47:01
So actually my health started to deteriorate a little bit, well,
47:04
a lot because of that. So like 25I, I was about to have
47:09
to get on blood pressure meds and, and cholesterol stuff.
47:12
And I wasn't, I would say super unfit, but the, the eating, the
47:17
drinking, the, the consumption lifestyle and not taking care of
47:21
myself both mentally and physically really drained on, on
47:25
that. So first thing was I got to get
47:27
back in shape. I got to, you know, try to not
47:29
just medicate. So I just read an article that
47:34
you're more likely to stick with a routine or a gym membership if
47:38
it's geographically close to your either home or office.
47:42
And at the time the office I was there happened to be a CrossFit
47:46
gym about 1/4 mile away from where I was working.
47:51
And I was pretty intimidated by that name.
47:56
I had never done it before. So I wouldn't observe the class
47:59
the next day. I was like, OK, well, there's
48:01
regular people doing this. It's not just what you see on TV
48:04
on the, you know, ESPN or whatever.
48:07
So I joined that gym and within, you know, 6 to 9 months I was in
48:12
much, all my numbers were, were back in line where they needed
48:15
to be, but still wasn't super thrilled.
48:19
I mean, there was a lot missing, I think.
48:20
So they're still consuming heavily and, and I ended up
48:25
joining a group of other business owners that met on a
48:29
pretty consistent basis. There's probably 15 of us, maybe
48:34
eight or nine could come together monthly.
48:39
There was before that I had a mentor and you know, my father
48:44
who had done it before, but I wasn't probably going to share
48:47
all the things I wanted to with them because all they, they had
48:52
done it and both were successful business owners before.
48:55
I looked at it and think, well, that was 20 years ago.
48:56
You know, you're not really seeing what today's climate's
48:58
like or, or dealing with it today.
49:00
And your memory may not be, you might not remember how you
49:04
actually dealt with it. So that was the biggest solution
49:07
was finding that peer group and then really being willing to be
49:11
vulnerable with them. When I had hit kind of a, you
49:13
know, say rock bottom moment or like really eye opening event
49:20
that I was, I got to share this with them because I am really
49:22
struggling here. And they were able to give not
49:28
just like, oh, we'll focus on spirituality or, you know, do
49:32
some meditation and all that's great and part of my routine,
49:36
but practically like here's I was there, I did it before and
49:41
here's what I I gained. I volunteered at this place and
49:44
they, they truly, because I was vulnerable with them.
49:47
They were willing to invest that time with me.
49:49
And a few of them were nonprofit leaders in a space that I go
49:53
and, and support and volunteer now.
49:56
So finding purposeful ways to spend my time is important
50:01
because either I'm going to sit here at the office and
50:03
micromanage these folks and they can do the job better than me.
50:06
So, you know, they don't want that.
50:09
And then, you know, consuming and, and just being out is is
50:13
not productive either, or sustainable.
50:16
So that's where, you know, I did the CrossFit thing.
50:18
I still do that today. I started training for Iron
50:22
Man's and I did one last year. I've got a, a smaller triathlon
50:27
coming up in a few weeks that I've been training for.
50:30
I got the pilot's license, you know, that was a couple hours a
50:33
week where I could spend my time.
50:34
And then I got in, got into giving back and volunteering.
50:38
So what is valuable to me is, is seeing folks out perform where
50:45
they should be or what they thought they could be based on
50:48
society's constraints for them. Actually took a test in that,
50:52
that group, we do a lot of personality tests and things.
50:54
And it basically said I was delusional and where I thought
50:57
my success could be based on my intelligence and, and everything
51:01
else. And I, I think you can out
51:05
hustle and you can outwork whatever.
51:09
It might be harder for you, but you'll get there eventually.
51:11
And so I've done some things that I, I thought I, I never
51:15
would if, you know, you asked 10 or 11 year old me what my life
51:19
would look like in my mid 30s. So I think I'd blow him away.
51:23
So that was important. So now that's why we spend time
51:27
with training and career progression with the employees
51:29
that we have. But then I go and I, I work with
51:31
a group. It's a non profit of recently
51:34
incarcerated individuals that average age is 42 and most of
51:42
them have never held a real job before.
51:45
They got caught up or didn't have the opportunity, but the
51:49
way to make money was not a legal one.
51:51
And then they were arrested and probably out and then usually
51:54
arrested again. So these are high risk
51:56
individuals of going back to prison that have no real job
52:01
skills. And so that group, this is a
52:06
great nonprofit where it's a T-shirt print shop where they'll
52:10
print T-shirts for community events and, and they're now
52:13
spread throughout South Carolina.
52:14
And I think planning on drawing. So they, they have to show up on
52:19
time, they learn to work, but then there's an hour and a half
52:21
education piece every morning where we're taught about the
52:24
same thing. It was, I didn't know about it
52:26
until after I had hired the therapist to come work in my
52:29
group. But very similar, just This is
52:33
why you have to, you know, keep a calm collected head while
52:36
you're talking to somebody, whether it's customer manager,
52:38
Co worker. This is why you have to be on
52:40
time, even though you don't understand why you can't have
52:42
your phone and listen to music while you're in that container.
52:45
Like these are the rules. And this is, you know, what
52:47
insurance is and this is how to de escalate situations.
52:50
And so I participated in that class sit in and then I, I
52:56
taught a few and then I took on a few of those individuals as
52:59
one-on-one mentor mentee relationship.
53:03
Some of them have graduated that program and, and in the
53:06
facilities that we're allowed to hire second chance individuals,
53:09
we had actually hired them on and seen them take full time in
53:13
leadership roles. And then on the other side, I
53:17
try to get in front of that. So like that's too late.
53:19
They've already been incarcerated.
53:20
They're back out. We're trying to, to help them
53:24
now, but I work in some youth programs where these
53:30
individuals, you know, the, the school system today, the public
53:35
school systems that I've seen do not have the budgets or support
53:39
or resources to provide for these children that kind of
53:45
education or just environment to see them be successful.
53:49
And so I go once a week and I, I'm supposed to only have one
53:53
lunch buddy where we'll sit, talk about their week, talk
53:57
about what's going on with them. And then if they behave
53:59
themselves in class that week, we'll go play basketball for,
54:03
you know, 10 or 15 minutes and they get out of class.
54:05
But last year and actually after this, I'm going to be my, my
54:11
lunch buddy for the first time this year because school was
54:13
just back in, in session. I had three or four of them that
54:16
would come consistently because there's just not enough mentors,
54:19
there's not enough teachers. And so, you know, I'd love to do
54:23
more than what I'm doing, but it's also hard to, to establish
54:26
relationships. So getting involved in the the
54:29
give back program, while it can be challenging because these
54:34
individuals still continue to to make the mistake.
54:36
They don't pick it up on the first time, which is, you know,
54:38
human has given me some focus and to get away from just
54:44
thinking like, what can I do for me?
54:46
How can I continue to impress other people or, or what have
54:49
you? So that was the most valuable
54:53
thing was finding some volunteer place that I resonated with me
55:00
that is still somewhat tied to, you know, at work and everything
55:04
else so. Wow, Hampton, I'm so glad that
55:08
we covered the app conversation before so that we could dive
55:13
into this. It says great stuff here because
55:16
it's the kind of stuff that doesn't get talked about a lot.
55:18
And I think, you know, folks who maybe haven't been through this
55:23
undervalue the importance of identity and purpose, right?
55:28
And so for so long, your identity was tied up in 80 to 90
55:32
hour weeks so that you could build this thing that you had
55:35
envisioned in your mind. And then at some point, things
55:38
really started to click and you had a great team in place.
55:41
The systems that you've been working on for years were really
55:44
starting to pay off and you weren't as needed on a
55:48
day-to-day basis. And in some cases, you're
55:50
actually getting in the way a little bit.
55:52
You got a little bit of extra pocket money.
55:54
You can do some of the things that you wanted to do, but it's
55:56
like, OK, now what? And for a lot of people who
56:00
haven't been in a similar position, they're like, yeah, I
56:02
feel really bad for you, man. That's awful.
56:04
Like, sorry for all your success, but it's really
56:10
disorienting is the word I'm looking for.
56:12
It's really disorienting to have your identity sort of tied to
56:16
something for so long. And now it's like, OK, now what?
56:19
Who am I? How do I fit in?
56:21
What's my purpose? What's my mission?
56:23
Like Where do I go from here? So I appreciate you opening up
56:26
about those struggles and then, you know, talking about some of
56:29
the things that you've tried and have worked and the peer group
56:32
that you mentioned, is it just like a sort of a local
56:36
collection or is it like a, a local chapter of a national
56:39
organization that. Both, so we I did, I was in one
56:45
where I would fly to Chicago once 1/4 and that was when I
56:50
first started my career. That was like best practices and
56:52
they were teaching you how to take out small company branded
56:55
and and making into a bigger one.
56:59
The one that first started five years ago was a local branch of
57:03
I think an international group. And there was it's personal
57:08
discussions, professional, you name it.
57:13
And then we lost our leader probably two years ago.
57:20
He was retiring or moving on to something else and rather than
57:24
US wait for another one, we, we just hired a sports psychologist
57:27
to come in and run the group that we had.
57:29
And it, so that became just a, a local group of folks from the
57:32
other, other group. I, I really enjoyed that and I
57:37
benefited tremendously from it. So I took a, we didn't have
57:40
leaders in the group, but I took a, a major responsibility in
57:43
there. I became like the recruiting
57:45
chair and then began to create the marketing materials and, and
57:50
just spend more time. And then I even go, I tried to
57:53
volunteer at at other companies that were in that group just to
57:56
get to know and, and have a broader education on it.
57:59
I feel want to sit in on on some of their meetings but I didn't
58:02
want to be a distraction either. Yeah.
58:05
So the the peer group was obviously a a big help for you
58:07
and kind of opening your eyes and giving you some ideas on
58:10
other ways to direct your energies.
58:12
And then from there, you found a couple of great nonprofit causes
58:17
to be able to get involved with and to find purpose outside of
58:21
yourself, which I think is fantastic.
58:25
Do you have kids? Are you married?
58:27
What's the the family life? No, no children, not married.
58:32
I spent early mid 20s just focused on this, travelling all
58:37
the time, weekends. Was married, I'd say wonderful
58:44
person, but not probably the right reasons in the Southeast,
58:48
we have a we're famous for like you get out of college and then
58:52
you know, next is marriage and children, then what have you.
58:55
And so we, we went to 17 weddings and everybody's
58:59
throwing the bouquet at that person and I can't imagine how
59:02
many garters I caught. And so I was like, I guess we're
59:04
next. Meanwhile, we're we're we were
59:07
far too young and, and didn't know each other well enough to
59:09
make that decision. So ended up as as peaceful as
59:13
you can. Decided that we would move on
59:15
our separate ways but have kept in contact and yeah, still lives
59:18
in town. Oh, that's terrific.
59:20
That's a bad breakup. Then got a big, if you look at
59:23
our website, Italian Mastiff. It's just he and I, yeah, a
59:27
couple of bachelors. It's on your website.
59:31
Yeah, he's our our mascot. He's about 133 lbs.
59:35
Typically I bring him into the office, but around 11:00 he can
59:39
get pretty whiny wanting to go out on his second walk for the
59:41
day and I didn't want him to interrupt the podcast.
59:45
I took him on a longer walk this morning and left him at home,
59:48
but he's on the. Team page, yeah, for folks who
59:50
are listening, pfplogistics.com, if you go to the meet, the team
59:55
page, Duke Thomas, he's the PFP mascot.
59:59
That's that's great that he gets a a shout out there.
1:00:03
Let's let's do a fun fact, Hampton, that most people
1:00:06
wouldn't know about you something interesting.
1:00:13
Well, I'll say I in college I was a attorney member but also a
1:00:18
cheerleader and so not a lot of people knew that I wanted to
1:00:22
stay close to athletics. I played football in high
1:00:24
school. After a couple knee injuries, I
1:00:27
realized that wasn't going to happen, but wanted to keep using
1:00:30
the athletic weight room and have a team environment and so I
1:00:34
ended up doing that. I actually became captain of the
1:00:36
team, I think my junior year. What school did you go to?
1:00:41
Elon University in North Carolina, it's a smaller kind of
1:00:44
liberal arts. I've heard of it.
1:00:48
Any particular mentors, books or experiences you want to give a
1:00:51
shout out to that been helpful in your trajectory?
1:00:55
Yeah. Sure, so a father first mentor,
1:00:59
watching him do the entrepreneurial thing.
1:01:02
My former business partner, he and I worked together for about
1:01:08
8 years. He helped me package this
1:01:10
business and kind of taught me to just continue to get to the
1:01:13
next hill was his thing. You know, we will continue to
1:01:16
have problems and that's part of the journey.
1:01:20
One of the favorite books I'd say of like Self Help
1:01:24
Development would be the greatest salesman in the world
1:01:29
and that that talks about and just being true to yourself and
1:01:34
and persevere being. It's a very short book, but
1:01:36
there's 7 chapters and I would read 1 chapter a morning every
1:01:42
morning for years. Just kind of start my day with
1:01:46
that thought message. There are only a couple pages
1:01:48
long and then I after basically memorizing that book, I do the
1:01:55
daily stoic now, which is kind of a page a day again, all my
1:02:00
coffee's brewing. I I read that and it's a it's a
1:02:03
good thought experiment. I really got into sci-fi and
1:02:08
there's a book series called the red rising about overcoming
1:02:11
adversity and and rising up achieving more than you
1:02:16
otherwise would. I think QBQ question behind the
1:02:20
question is what a lot of people miss in in customer service and
1:02:28
it talks about not just, you know, they told me they wanted
1:02:32
this, but kind of looking beyond, I was like, why did they
1:02:35
want that? Or they said this, but their
1:02:38
body language might have said something different and where I
1:02:42
can learn from them and and dig in.
1:02:43
And so that that was a great book.
1:02:48
Well, those are some good ones, ones I haven't heard of before
1:02:51
that put them on my list. Yeah.
1:02:54
Hampton, I just got one more question for you, but before I
1:02:56
ask it, I want to do 2 things. If you're listening today and
1:02:59
you'll love today's content, please hit the like, subscribe
1:03:01
or share button on your favorite podcast app.
1:03:04
Hampton, I also want to tell people the best way to get in
1:03:06
touch with you. For whatever reason, they love
1:03:09
what your business is doing. They want to know more about
1:03:11
that. They're like what they're
1:03:13
hearing on sort of the personal development side of things and
1:03:15
what you've been through what, what's the best way for folks to
1:03:18
connect with you? Yeah, that's probably our
1:03:20
website, pfplogistics.com or our, our Instagram or Facebook
1:03:25
pages, both are PFP logistics. And they, if you do a contact us
1:03:31
on the website, I actually get the e-mail and then I've got,
1:03:35
you know, other people that filter through and will respond
1:03:37
to them faster than I will. But if you direct it to me, it
1:03:40
will absolutely get to me. And then the the social media I
1:03:44
don't monitor, but it it would eventually get to me if you
1:03:46
wanted my attention. All right.
1:03:49
Last question for you, Hampton. I'm curious how you see your
1:03:52
industry evolving in the next 5 years.
1:03:54
What do you think the big changes are that are coming?
1:03:58
I think AI and robotics will play a big role in that.
1:04:02
I go to conferences every year to I'd say scope out my
1:04:07
competition of what robotics are coming.
1:04:10
And then I'm working to try to work with a group because the
1:04:16
robotics aren't there yet in our industry where they can handle.
1:04:21
It might be like 5% of what we're doing and it and there's
1:04:24
not a real efficiency gain and it's still really expensive, but
1:04:27
it will as we know the exponential learning rate of
1:04:30
technology, I think get there. And so partnering with a group
1:04:37
like that and then finding A use for the folks that so they can
1:04:43
get away from just the the stacking positions.
1:04:47
But I think, yeah, robots have have come a long way and they
1:04:50
will continue to unload containers.
1:04:52
You see them more and more on the floor, sorting and
1:04:56
segregating things. I walk in warehouses now where
1:04:59
there's no lights on in some of them because robots don't need
1:05:02
lights. And it's kind of eerie because
1:05:05
you hear the equipment going back and forth.
1:05:07
And then as you approach the, the motion sensors will know
1:05:10
that the humans walking through and it turns the lights on.
1:05:12
But it's it's going to shake things up for sure.
1:05:16
You see, you have developed a partnership with somebody in
1:05:18
this space. Nothing signed.
1:05:21
But yeah, there's a, there's a group that I've met over the
1:05:23
past couple of years going to these conferences and we've
1:05:26
stayed in touch there. They were in development.
1:05:29
Now they have a physical presence and are doing some
1:05:33
freight. They have capacity issues.
1:05:35
We talked about skews and case counts and weights of product
1:05:39
handled. The robot can't handle 100% of
1:05:42
it. And so we're working with them
1:05:43
to say, all right, well, and you also need some someone there if
1:05:46
the box comes in smashed or it's not how it's supposed to look
1:05:50
like, as we know happens a lot. So they can do what the robot
1:05:56
can do. And then I'll support the robot
1:05:58
when something's not right and then we'll take the other
1:06:01
business that the robot may not have the capacity to unload
1:06:03
today. So again, it's not a combative
1:06:07
thing. I look at a lot of people in the
1:06:09
industry where they're, they're threatened by the technology and
1:06:13
robots. And you know, ultimately I don't
1:06:17
want to sell something I don't believe in.
1:06:18
And so that's, I don't think that's a, a sustainable thing
1:06:24
either. Probably a pretty bad job trying
1:06:26
to sell something that that doesn't work.
1:06:27
So, so if I can help them and they can help me and we can
1:06:31
eventually just sell the provide the best solution together for
1:06:34
the end user, that's kind of my goal.
1:06:37
Well, it's a fascinating space, the AI and robotics coming
1:06:40
together, and it'd be very interesting to keep an eye on
1:06:44
Hampton, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing
1:06:47
both your time and your story with us today.
1:06:49
I really appreciate. It yeah.
1:06:51
Thank you, Anthony. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:06:53
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:06:55
Thanks for learning with us today.