Mark Hiddleson: 19:17
Rent the runway because that’s reverse logistics. So you learn that early in your career. That’s another thing I saw on your website is you guys offer reverse logistics. And that’s a complete niche of its own. So I just. I love what you’re doing. And I was going to ask you to. You’ve created an ecosystem. You use the word ecosystem. And I’ll jump when someone says that because you create an ecosystem of resources. And I noticed you have an event that you host, it looks like twice a year. That’s a great way to. Would you mind sharing a little bit about that event, who you invite and what to expect out of that?
Matt Hertz: 19:56
Yeah, absolutely. No thanks for asking about that. We launched our first, you know, we’re calling them retreats. And it’s here in Nashville at the Soho House in Nashville. We had our first one in September. Our next one is going to be in March of 26. It’s already sold out. And then our next one after that will be also in the fall. So we’re kind of doing like a spring and a fall event and we’re limiting it. We’re limiting them to about 45 people. So we want it to be really intentional. We don’t want this to be like, you know, if listeners are familiar with, you know, some of the major events like Shoptalk or NRF or Etail West. And you know, the supply chain manifest is a big event. All really fun events. But in my opinion, they’re not intentional events.
Right? Like when there’s 45 people in a room and focusing on executives, you know, decision makers, one person per org. So, you know, a company can’t buy ten tickets and bring their entire sales team, right? It’s literally one person and it’s a curated event. So it’s sort of, you know, it’s open to the public. But, you know, we sort of gatekeep, you know, who gets accepted and you know, who can who can join just to ensure that there’s a good, a good mix of brands and peoples and logistics tech providers.
Yeah. The feedback after the first event in September was, you know, really terrific. So no, like formal sessions, learning about how to negotiate your shipping rates or learning about, you know, tariffs and the impact there. It’s really an opportunity for, you know, decision makers to get together in a room, figuratively speaking, over two days and really get to know each other and like each other.
Be candid and share what they’re working on and some of the opportunities there. So yeah, next year in March where we’re having a few sponsors, we didn’t do that in September. But now that I have a better understanding of the costs and economics of big events like this, you know, we decided to feature a few, a few, a few sponsors. So yeah, really, really excited about March’s event. And we’re already starting to build a waitlist for the fall of 26 events. So yeah, we do expect to have more events like this in the future. Some that are probably going to be on a smaller scale. You know, there might be dinners or happy hours, but I think, you know, the ability to connect the community who are really excited to meet each other, you know, there’s a lot of opportunity to do that.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 22:21
Yeah. I’m looking just for people listening. You could check out thirdperson.co/retreat for the latest and greatest info. Whenever you’re listening to this and you can see you have to apply, obviously from Matt says and to what Mark was saying and you’ve had some really cool just, you know, people who participate, right? People from Warby Parker, people from Caspian.
There’s a lot of really interesting companies here. Do you tend to get a mix of 3PLs and brands or what does that look like?
Matt Hertz: 22:53
Yeah, we do and that’s and that’s and that’s part of our sort of curation. So what we’re typically targeting is about a third, a third, a third, you know, a third brands. So a third of the roughly 45 attendees are going to be represented by brands. So you know, they work at shippers, right. You know, e-commerce companies. You know, the Warby Parker’s of the world, as you mentioned. You know, we had one 800 flowers in the fall. You know, we’ve got a number of really you know, we have Dior coming in March as well.
And, you know, Apple was there a couple months ago. So we have about a third of the representatives coming from brands, a third of them coming from three poles. And the, the, the other third is kind of this, this other bucket, which I kind of describe as like a logistics tech company. So folks like Caspian, you know, who works on duty drawbacks companies like Passport which does cross-border shipping. In the fall we had two boxes which supports three poles with returns management software. So we like to have a really nice mix of, you know, folks in the room, both buyers and sellers.
Mark Hiddleson: 24:04
Yeah. That’s nice. That’s I want to be I want to sign up. I want to be on the cancellation list for March. But then I looked in. Those don’t take a ton of effort. I’ve always wanted to do an event, and Jeremy actually helped me. We put together a one day event with a tour and a lunch and a dinner, and I’ve always wanted to do this, and I figured out why I didn’t all those years. It’s like, this is a lot of work.
Matt Hertz: 24:28
But it’s a lot of work. Yeah.
Mark Hiddleson: 24:30
The connections, because I think of all these people, I’d love to get in the same room or get them together in the same room, but Steve’s not going to drive five hours to meet Brian, but they’ll meet together in Napa for an event. So I love that. Nashville’s a great location too. And but what you the environment you created, one of the things I like to go to events to learn, stay on the cutting edge. But my best friends and I, we always joke. All the best conversations happen in the swimming pool, and we used to call it Poolside Logistics 101, because those are the candid conversations like you are talking about, that people feel comfortable going. These are the real pain points. Like, here’s what they’re talking about. Their roundtable. This is what. And so in a lot of connections are made in that environment.
Matt Hertz: 25:09
Absolutely. And just quickly on that point, Mark, you know, our sort of equivalent of like the poolside conversations is, is why we’re keeping it at only 45 people. Because here in Nashville, at the Soho House, they have, I think, 48 rooms. So we’re effectively buying out the entire hotel part of the Soho House, because we want people like when they, you know, when we all went to the gym, you know, one morning, you know, I was there, you know, whatever, you know, 7 a.m., like there were half a dozen people, like, on the on the ellipticals and pelotons next to me, like, working out. Right. And, you know, they have a sauna there. So, you know, a few of us gone to the side. So, like, you have those kind of candid conversations that are not sort of scripted sitting, you know, in a, in a stale hotel, you know, conference center with, you know, black tablecloths. Right? And we want it to be really kind of organic and natural.
Mark Hiddleson: 26:05
Nice. Nicely done.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 26:06
You know, Matt, I just want to talk about the event, but the sponsors for a second and how you choose sponsors. Right. Because obviously as a curated event and so obviously they’re paying you. so we’ll give a shout to them too. But also, what are some of the different types of sponsors I’m looking here. This is for this next one. But obviously you’ve got a lot of DiversiFi, Geodis, Red Stag Fulfillment that that kind of self-explanatory. DOSS, Rivora, what are some of these companies do?
Matt Hertz: 26:42
Yeah. So I should have mentioned that for this event, just like the platform third person, it’s a completely free event for brands to attend, right? Like zero. And the event also includes a two night stay at the Soho House. The only cost to a brand is their travel, right? Obviously if they’re local in Nashville, which we had a few last time, they’re just an Uber right away or, you know, car drive. But, you know, if they’re coming in from Chicago, where we did have a few brands, you know, they’re paying their airfare, but otherwise like all expenses paid.
So like incredible, incredible value. You know, I’ve been to different events, but usually it’s the ticket. It’s not the accommodations, but this is different. So and then three polls and logistics tech providers pay about $5,000 to attend the event. So it’s 4950. And that also includes the two night stay. So a lot of really great. And it’s a, you know, a two day event.
We have lots of activities. So tremendous value.
But you know we do charge the non brands to attend on the sponsorship side. Again this is something that we’re kind of testing so to speak. You know for March you know we we sold out of our sponsors you know within the first week. So I think that was a good initial like litmus test that there’s a lot of interest to sponsor. You know, we’ve got a few tiers of sponsors, you know, platinum, sapphire, gold, silver and bronze.
They’re all other 3PLs or logistics tech providers. And you know, as part of those different sponsors, you know, you get your name associated with different kind of breakout events. So, you know, we’re gonna have a couple dinners, we have off site activities, you know, breakfasts, lunches, you know, all the stuff that you usually expect. But we’re really trying to make this less commercial. You know, there’s no, like, booths.
You know, there’s there’s there’s no exhibit hall or exhibit booths or anything like this and really have an opportunity for these folks to be in our printed materials and in our social materials as we start really promoting it over the next couple of months. You know, obviously they live on our website now and, you know, the day of the event or the week of the event, at the event, they’ll have opportunities, I think at the at the higher two tiers, they’ll have opportunities to kind of give a a few minute pitch, you know, on who they are and you know what their what their companies do.
And you know, with those higher tiers, they also get comp tickets to the event. So you know, there’s some immediate ROI there. So yeah, just just another little opportunity to kind of showcase a few, a few, a few companies that are doing some really interesting stuff in the market and are curious to kind of take advantage of, you know, this 45%, you know, ecosystem that they’re going to be a part of.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:31
Yeah, I’m always curious about people who love different resources and software and things to explore. Can you talk a little bit about those companies, just briefly what they do. Like we’re I mean there’s probably a number of these things, but I’m looking at diversified AI, which is one of the sponsors. Just we can roll through some of those resources that are listed here. What do they do?
Matt Hertz: 29:53
Yeah, sure. Yeah. So I mean, you know, we do have a few 3PLs on this list. You know, we have you know, Geodis who’s actually based here in Nashville coincidentally, you know, Red Stag Fulfillment.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:03
Do they specialize like on the Geodis and Red Stag? I know you mentioned the niche. Do they specialize in anything specific?
Matt Hertz: 30:09
Yeah. So Geodis tends to work with, you know, enterprise brands. So brands that are doing, you know, typically in excess of 50 to $100 million in sales. So they’re really not historically focused on the SMB market, kind of like, you know, the much larger market. So, you know, Apple is their biggest customer. Is my understanding, small company. Yeah. Exactly. Right. You know, small small fortune, 3 or 2. You know, Red Stag is interesting is they’re they’re they’re also based in Tennessee but in Knoxville, Tennessee.
And they focus on big and bulky. So they do not do clothing and apparel and little things. But they were working with, you know, hexclad fulfillment, which I think are hexclad cookware, which I think you mentioned in the intro, Jeremy, a company that I’ve supported over the years. And, you know, they were a customer of Red stag, given like the big and bulk of their product.
You know, we have companies like DOSS, which is a ERP platform. We have companies like, you know, Tusk Logistics, which is an alternative carrier platform, just essentially helps connect some of these smaller regional and alternative carriers that you’re seeing more and more in the market. You know, they built some really cool software behind that. You know, we’ve mentioned Caspian, you know, the duty drawback space.
So really a nice a nice mix of, you know, partners who are participating and, you know, gives it gives a attendees an opportunity to kind of look at their, you know, especially on the brand attendees to look at their supply chain and even like their, you know, where e-commerce meets supply chain, look at their entire stack and meet some like really innovative companies like DiversiFi and DOSS and Rivora. What are those passports?
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:51
So this looks really interesting.
Matt Hertz: 31:54
Yeah. Yeah. So DiversiFi is actually using this as an opportunity. You know this event is an opportunity to. You know my understanding is that, you know they’re going to put behind a lot of marketing leading up to the event because they’re, you know, announcing some, you know, really interesting, you know, new products and sort of coming out of stealth mode. You’ve probably not heard of them because they have been sort of under the radar purposely, you know, for the first few months here. But they’re really building an AI based tool that helps shippers and 3PLs kind of optimize their transportation spend. So they’re spending a lot of time on, you know, AI diligence for, you know, billing and allowing, you know, the shipper, the user to really optimize how they ship and where they ship, you know, across all different carriers. It’s a really interesting business. The other one you mentioned was.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 32:57
You mentioned Rivora or was that.
Matt Hertz: 33:01
Yeah. Yeah. So interestingly, you know, Rivora is in a similar space as DiversiFi. They’re also, you know, very early stage, you know, the two co-founders of Rivora are very good friends of mine. I’ve known them for over a decade, and they’re also building tools and AI for three pills to really help them optimize the solutions that they provide customers. You know, the end. It’s a really interesting business. That’s also very, very early days in their journey.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 33:35
And then Passport.
Matt Hertz: 33:37
Yeah sure. So passport passport global is a as the name suggests they’re a cross-border shipping carrier. So started by Alex Sanger who’s been a friend of mine also for many years. You know full disclosure, I am a small small investor in passport. And Alex is a small, small, small investor in third person and a really interesting business, you know, asset light business, but really focused on helping shippers predominantly in the United States.
And when I say shippers, it’s largely 3PL customers that provide a cross border solution.
So if you’re a US based brand shipping out of the US into Canada or into the UK or, you know, elsewhere around the world, you can work directly with a passport to facilitate that cross-border movement. So it’s both the actual transportation piece of it as well as, you know, now with this environment, with tariffs and all the change that’s been happening, you know, they’ve become sort of like the pretty girl at the high school prom where everyone’s curious about, you know, different, different solutions to stay ahead of the market.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 34:45
Love it. Well, thanks for sharing that, Mark. I’ll let you ask the next question. Have you have any other resources to piggyback on that? Feel free to share any other companies or software or things, because I know you see a lot of stuff too.
Mark Hiddleson: 34:58
Yeah. I was curious if you do anything. I know you mentioned Milk Bar earlier. Do you do a lot in the food space or frozen in California? That’s a lot of our business is frozen. Just a lot of local foods grown here. Do you do? Do you have those niche three peoples and clients?
Matt Hertz: 35:14
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, part of my goal with third person and, you know, because it’s a marketplace, part of my goal in creating sufficient supply is, is, understanding or ensuring that we have a partner for everyone, right. You know, we want to have both providers who support enterprise shippers, small SMEs, you know, pre-launch businesses, you know, that company making, you know, protein powder that’s pre-launch. We want there to be options for them. We also want options for alcohol shippers, you know, wine shippers, you know, having your neck of the woods. So you know, wine shipping. Com is one of the largest wine shippers in the market.
They do most of the one of the month clubs, you know, in the Napa Valley. And they’re on the platform. But we also have options. So if you’re shipping fresh salmon or, you know, have a friend who runs one of the largest stone crab companies in Miami, and they ship stone crab overnight around the. Around the country. And there’s not many people who would be able to. Support that. Right. You know with their, you know, refrigeration and, you know, frozen capabilities. So, you know, you mentioned Milk Bar, right? I mean, they’re shipping ice cream and cakes and truffles and highly perishable food. You know, we’ve worked with, you know, a handful, you know, the Fulton Fish Market in New York, right.
A handful of other brands and kind of a similar space. So we need to ensure that there’s sufficient supply so that when Marx Steak Company, you know, I think you mentioned Butcherbox earlier in the call or, you know, a fresh food company, you know, was coming to us seeking fulfillment support that we have, you know, at least a couple options for them. So, yeah, these, these sort of niches, you know, cannabis CBD. Right. That’s becoming really popular too. So yeah, these niches are really important for us to be able to ensure that there’s sufficient supply or an ample number of partners who can support their specific needs.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 37:11
I have one last question, and then I’ll let Mark ask a question. But you mentioned one thing before I ask is I had Dan Sawatzky, who started Lobster Gram in 1986. And so it’s funny that interview is I said, what do lobsters, Howard Stern and Oprah have in common? It was Dan with lobster gram. I think he got his new Lexus. He went into the dealership and just offered him whatever it was, like $20,000 worth of lobster grams or something like that. And they gave him a free, a free, but they gave him a Lexus or something like that.
But it’s a fascinating interview, again, like shipping a lobster overnight. He started, I think, putting him in his trunk and like going to the I think he shipped him himself until he figured out a better way. But You know, my last question is just other you mentioned conferences and groups. I’m wondering, in the e-commerce space, whether it’s logistics or the brands you mentioned shop talk, what are some of the either groups people should check out, or other events that are are good to check out?
Matt Hertz: 38:25
There’s a lot of big events. You know, we mentioned some of them. You know, I’m certainly biased to smaller events. I was just at an event hosted by Fulfillment IQ, and there’s another sponsor of our retreat in March, and they do a lot in technical consulting for 3PLs. I went to an event in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, which was really, really rude to have a conference in Canada in the winter, but it was really terrible. Yeah, you know, I shared that feedback.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 38:54
It’s like having a conference in Chicago that, you know, in the winter.
Matt Hertz: 38:58
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know, Toronto might even be worse. But in any event, you know, it was a really fun event. It was a one day event and there couldn’t have been more than 100 people. So it was just another touch point, or I should say, validation that these kinds of smaller, more intimate events are really cool. So I’ve always loved industry specific events. So there’s a big event also in Vegas featuring I think it’s called it’s, it’s a, it’s a major pet conference event. I think it’s called Zootopia. That’s the movie.But it’s, it’s, it’s it’s some funny name like that. But you know, they, they have all these kind of vertical, specific events, you know, in beauty and fashion and, you know, the fancy food show, which is, you know, also usually in Vegas. And I tend to enjoy those shows. But, you know, I think the, the, the ROI on those big events is really difficult to validate or to prove, you know, if you’re the one spending money.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 39:58
SuperZoo, is it SuperZoo?
Matt Hertz: 39:59
Zoo? SuperZoo. That’s the one. That’s the one. Zootopia. Yeah.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 40:02
I have kids too. So Zootopia would be like, that’s what I’m thinking of. But yeah, I got you. Yeah.
Matt Hertz: 40:07
Yeah, yeah, exactly. SuperZoo. And you know, I’m a I’m a I’m a big pet guy. You know, dog, dog dad. So I, you know, I do I do enjoy that. But yeah I think there, there are certainly other, other ways to kind of market yourself and to, you know, increase your business to get leads that are, you know, whereas I think the trade show route is certainly becoming a little stale. So, you know, I love I love seeing kind of more innovation there and, you know, having more of these, you know, you know, there are a couple companies that I advise just personally on the side. And they’ve been really successful in having like small dinners. Right. There was one that had a dinner, like a private dinner in Denver last night.
And they had, I think it was 18 people at a steak house and also like, you know, very curated, you know, nice mix of people and like at a at an 18 person dinner at a nice steak house in Denver or in Chicago or here in Nashville, you can actually, like, meet people and have really, really thoughtful conversations. So I don’t want to say that I think that’s the trend going forward, because I’m still seeing a lot of the former, you know, the big 7000 person events, you know, at the Venetian or at, you know, the Bellagio in Vegas. And look, there’s a time and a place for that. You know, I go to some of those events as well and get my value. But I think the more intimate settings, you know, in person environments, you know, the happy hours, the dinners, the, the one day events, I think are a really interesting opportunity to, you know, participate.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 41:47
Love it.
Mark Hiddleson: 41:49
Yeah, I love the I love everything you said. The Warehouse Education Research Council National Conference is something that I kept on my calendar for years. Have you heard of that, Matt work.
Matt Hertz: 42:00
It doesn’t. It doesn’t ring a bell.
Mark Hiddleson: 42:02
Yeah, I want to plug them. It’s one of the bigger ones. But that’s what we. That’s where we invented Poolside Logistics 101. So I love everything about what you’re doing. And I kind of have a two part question. I don’t know if it’s even related, but would you mind sharing your favorite book? Either one you’ve read, you know, recently or all time? And what would you say? Because I have, I’m not kidding. I mean, I probably have 10 or 20 people that will say, hey, you really need to check this out. What would you say to the 3PLs who I tell to check out your website? What would be what would be your advice? So two part question, favorite book and what would you tell potential 3PLs looking at your platform?
Matt Hertz: 42:40
Yeah, sure. My favorite book. It’s probably a two way tie, but one I the first one I’ll mention I try to read every January. And I’ve been having a pretty good record over the last decade or so, but the famous book that we all probably know, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Just a, you know, kind of cliche for me to say that, but yeah, just a fantastic, fantastic book. You know, every time I read it, I just, you know, it’s sort of. Sort of recalibrates, you know, the way I kind of approach certain situations. Such a fantastic book. You know, it’s almost a hundred years old and it still lasts. The test, the test of time, one of.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:23
My favorites of all time. Love it.
Mark Hiddleson: 43:25
Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for mentioning that.
Matt Hertz: 43:27
Yeah, yeah. Great. And then, you know, the other book that I love is going back to my, you know, investment days is and I’m a huge advocate of Warren Buffett and Warren Buffett’s a huge advocate of his teacher Ben Graham. So The Intelligent Investor, that’s a difficult book to read every year. But I’ve read it a couple times. And, you know, I’m always kind of clipping up excerpts from it. So yeah, that’s a that’s also kind of a classic, book as well, you know, probably over a hundred years old now, 120 years old. So yeah, fantastic book. Your second question.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 44:06
Before you get to that question, man, I’m just going to give a shout to Mark’s book here. If you’re looking at the screen. Mark just talked briefly about this.
Mark Hiddleson: 44:17
Yeah, I worked on this book. I joked about it because I told people for two years that this project took eight years to complete. So this is kind of a blend of my, you know, my passion for personal development and, and my professional and personal story kind of merging. So something I like to share with clients, but it blends Taoist wisdom with, you know, my, my stories that I’ve come up with. So a lot of humor, simplicity, but mostly authenticity. You know, the biggest lessons I’ve learned for the biggest mistakes I’ve made and I, I don’t share them, the huge ones in there, but there’s enough to keep you entertained.
Matt Hertz: 44:54
I love that. Well, next time I’m on, I’m on the podcast. Hopefully I’ll be able to. Mention pizza. I’m going to order it now. Yeah.
Mark Hiddleson: 45:02
It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun.
Matt Hertz: 45:05
Yeah, sure. And then quickly, you know, I know, I know, I know we’re running up on time. But Mark, your second question was what to tell three people about our website. Was that right?
Mark Hiddleson: 45:15
Yes. Yes please.
Matt Hertz: 45:17
Yeah, sure. So look, I, you know, first and foremost, I’m, I’m happy to talk to any three people. You know, I spend most of my day having conversations like this, you know, meeting brands in 3PL. So I’m always happy to meet any three people that’s interested in participating. You know, as I mentioned earlier in the show, we do have a free model. You know, I know that paying a monthly fee is not for everyone. I think we’re offering tremendous value. And, you know, we’re certainly encouraging you to check it out. But if you do want to start on the free plan, we also like that we don’t lock you into contracts. You know, you can cancel any time.
Upgrade, downgrade. So we want to keep it really flexible and put the onus on third person to provide our value every single month that you’re paying us a fee. So we’d love for you to join. And if you’re a three pro looking for a new qualified lead gen source, there’s no better place than to go to thirdperson.co to check it out. So check it out there. You know my email is [email protected], so feel free to shoot me an email as well or find me on LinkedIn. And you know those other channels.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 46:15
Man, I want to be the first one to thank you. Thanks for sharing the journey. It’s been amazing. People can check out thirdperson.co to learn more. You can check out more episodes on InspiredInsider.com and also SpecialRacks.com as well. And thanks, Mark. Thanks, Matt.
Mark Hiddleson: 46:32
Yeah thank you. Awesome.
