When life presents a fork in the road, sometimes the path back to our roots reveals the most fulfilling journey. Tony Altman, president and CFO of Motivational Fulfillment and Logistics Services, shares just such a tale, recounting his leap from the legal world to anchoring his family's 3PL legacy.
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
When life presents a fork in the road, sometimes the path back to our roots reveals the most fulfilling journey. Tony Altman, president and CFO of Motivational Fulfillment and Logistics Services, shares just such a tale, recounting his leap from the legal world to anchoring his family's 3PL legacy.
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Standing Out, a show about sales, marketing and leadership. I'm your host, trey Griggs, founder and chief encouragement officer at Beta Consulting Group. When you get a chance, check us out at betaconsultinggroupcom. We're all about transforming brands and customers into fans, so check out what we're doing there. We'd love to talk to you about what you're doing on your marketing. Also. I want to give a shout out to our friends over at Reads Across America Radio. If you're listening on Reads Across America, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Every Tuesday night we're on the trucking lineup, so come back and hear a new episode of Standing Out every Tuesday on Reads Across America Radio.
Speaker 1:Also want to give a shout out to our sponsor, spi Logistics, for making this possible. Listen, if you're a freight broker and just tired of having your MC in the back office and all that, those headaches that you have. You just want to stay in your sweet spot of working with customers and booking freight, make sure you check them out at successspi3plcom. Again, that's successspi3plcom. They've got the technology, the systems, the back office support, everything that you need to succeed and make sure you let them know that you heard about it right here on standing out. Also, don't forget the broker carrier summits coming up this fall. We just had the last one. We're going to have the next one in the Dallas Fort Worth area I believe it might be in Fort Worth down there in Texas, and so it's going to be in October, looking at the 28th through the 30th.
Speaker 1:It's not too early to sign up for that. So go to brokercarriersummitcom and register for the event. If you know an influencer, you can get a coupon code. I'm sure they'll give you one. Make sure you register for that. The coupon code for Beta is 10% off. Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, beta underscore podcast underscore network Beta Podcast Network, for all of our content, including every episode of Standing Out, word on the Street, the Edge and all the fun stuff that our team likes to put out there. Again, just go ahead and click on that subscribe button so you never miss out. All right, got a great guest today. Can't wait to bring him on the show and talk about his career. He's down in Southern California. Please welcome to the show the president and CFO of Motivational Fulfillment and Logistics Services, tony Altman. This is a good song, my friend. Nice walk-ups, kong. I feel like we need to let this play out just a little bit. This is like total Southern California vibes right here.
Speaker 2:You have a little Philly pepper I know how are you doing, Tony? Good thanks, how are you?
Speaker 1:doing, doing well. I just want to listen to that Red Hot Chili Pepper song that brings me back to my childhood like no other. Are you a child of the 90s, like I am? Did you grow up in the 90s?
Speaker 2:I'm shamefully an 80s hair band guy and rocked out to that every day. Did you have 80s hair? I did, I did, you did. Yeah, were you in an 80s rock band? I was not, but I had a little you know business on the side, party in the back probably going on.
Speaker 1:That's awesome? Yeah, there's not. You know the 80s rock bands, the ballads, you know, uh, some, some incredible bands. But the 90s to me is childhood. I just remember the alternative rock, the hip-hop the country like couldn't go wrong with 90s music. In my opinion, isn't it amazing how we get connected to the genre that we listened to growing up? It's amazing. And now our, our genres are the oldies on the old stations, which is pretty crazy. Hard to believe. I didn't think that we'd get there that fast. But yeah, here we are. All right, tony, give a little introduction to yourself. Who the heck are you?
Speaker 2:So my name is Tony Altman. I'm the president and CEO of Motivational Fulfillment and Logistics Services. I've been with Motivational for about 15 years now and it's a family business, 46 year old 3PL based in Southern California, but we've got locations about two point six million square feet in SoCal and 350,000 square feet in the Memphis area.
Speaker 1:Man. So you got a couple locations and been going for a long time. Family business Were there any trepidations of getting into family business? We talked a little bit about this before. Was that good, Was it crazy? Was it wild? Good stories to tell. Thanksgiving still goes well.
Speaker 2:It goes great. You know, I was very proud of what my sister also worked in the family business. My dad started the company. I was very proud of what they had built. But I wanted to do something on my own.
Speaker 2:So when I graduated college, went to law school, started my own civil litigation firm. Did that for about 15 years. Was doing that plus, you know, business work for the for motivational burning the candle of both ends super stressful. At 36 years old I had a pulmonary embolism, decided it was time to change my lifestyle a little bit, and so I had to cut one of the two things out of my life. It was either end my law career or end my work with motivational. And I decided that you know what I want to go work with my family and see my dad and my sister every day and spend more time with them. And so, yeah, it was a little bit nerve wracking when I went. When I started it was either going to be the best decision I made or the worst, but it turned out to be the best and it's amazing how an event like that can kind of put things in perspective a little bit differently.
Speaker 1:And that's pretty young to have an event like that happen. I'm sure that was kind of stood you up straight and said wait, what are we doing here? What's happening here? So that's, that's pretty wild. Well, before we get into any more about that, we're so happy to have you on the show today. I want to give you a little piece of swag to say thank you. Are you a coffee drinker or A water bottle please?
Speaker 2:I've never had a cup of coffee in my life.
Speaker 1:What, you know what? I have never had a cup of coffee in my life either, and I never run into anybody else that has the same story. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:I always say I don't want it to stunt my growth, and I did turn out to be six foot seven, so it seems to have worked.
Speaker 1:You're six, seven, okay. Well then we need. I guess I need to put myself lower on that, because I'm only 5'8". I am a Diet Coke addict, so I call it the liquid crack. I like Diet Coke with grenadine and a few cherries, a little Roy Rogers. That's my drink.
Speaker 2:I drink so much that.
Speaker 1:I put a soda fountain in my home. That's awesome to hear. Well, I don't run into too many people who have never had a cup of coffee like myself. My dad used to make me make his coffee in the mornings and he had the Folgers Instant, whatever. Stir it up, put it in the microwave and it just never seemed appealing to me. I never really got into it. I don't like bitter tasting things and I'm kind of a sweet tooth kind of a guy, and so never did it, and by the time I could have it or could afford it, I was like 25. It's like who cares at this point, like I've made it this long and clearly I have enough energy. I don't think anybody wants to see me on coffee, so it's it's probably a good thing that we don't have that. So water bottle coming your way, we'll send that over. It's a great water bottle and have some athletic veins in the family. You played ice hockey. You've played since you were six and you still play two to three times a week Is that right, I do so.
Speaker 2:We're a hockey family. I play three times a week. My son played at Arizona State and my younger son was a goalie, kind of growing up and kind of on and off. He didn't play as seriously as my older son, but we're a hockey family for sure.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's cool. I'm just now getting into the St Louis Blues. I grew up in Kansas City no hockey team, but I've been in St Louis for long enough now that I should be a fan. It's such a fun sport. So fast, it's so fast. A lot of people complain about baseball kind of a slow sport. Sometimes people feel a bit about football, a little bit man you. It is a really fast sport.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Once you've been in person and you've watched a game, it's tough to watch other sports. My son used to play both baseball and hockey and we'd be at hockey in the morning and then we'd go watch baseball right after that, and it was a tough transition.
Speaker 1:I'm sure I'm sure it was so you played. You're 6'7". It's amazing to me how big some of the hockey players are that just float around the ice Like they're so skilled, so coordinated. You don't see that in a lot of other sports, where guys that with that kind of height have that kind of skill and finesse and agility, it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2:You know, it's just a great way for me to kind of relieve stress and have a good time and stay in. You know, stay in shape a little bit? Certainly not a little bit.
Speaker 1:I like to stay in shape.
Speaker 2:The shape that I'm in is round, but you know, at least it gives me a little bit of exercise and and and keeps my cardio up a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and skating is not easy. I mean, you know it's, it's, it's. It's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. It's very athletic. I do have a question to ask, and I've noticed in hockey that when two guys really want to go at it, they really just let them go for a little bit. You know the referees will come by. Are they referees, officials? What are they called in hockey?
Speaker 2:Well, there's linesmen and referees. The referees call them, the linesmen call offsides and I see zebra guys.
Speaker 1:The zebra guys they kind of you know, come around them but they don't really get in the way until the fight's kind of over. Maybe somebody goes to the ground or they just they've had enough. Whatever it is, I always appreciated that. Here's what I wish that people would do Like I'm a baseball guy, you know how somebody charges the mound. Both teams come out Right. I wish just once they just let them go for a while, see what happens.
Speaker 2:Just, you really want this. The reason that I go for a while is, you know, like you said, they got big guys in hockey these days and you know the linesmen don't want to step in in the middle of a fight between two six foot two 250 pound guys. So they let them go until they get to the point where they tire out a little bit and then they can step in between and kind of safely separate them. But you don't want to step in while those guys are throwing haymakers and catch a wild punch, so they let them go. At the end of the day it's probably not so bad for the game either for the fans to see a little bit of a scuffle. So I don't think the NFL hates it here.
Speaker 1:It's very exciting. I'm always hoping at least one good fight will break out during a game. It's just for fun. But here's my thought If you're a hitter in baseball, it would either make you think twice about charging the mound if you get the snot beat out of you, or you think twice about hitting a player if you got snot beat out of you as a pitcher. So I feel like it would kind of level things out and I think I just think it'd be fun to watch him go, just just let him go for a while and then separate them with this whole team coming out. Try to right. That's just my little, that's my little pet peeve. I wish baseball fights were more like hockey. That's my thing. So all right.
Speaker 1:Anyways, let's talk about your career. Let's talk about kind of what's going on your journey from law into logistics. Was it, as I don't want to say simple, but was it that moment where you had the health condition that just made it clear? Had you been thinking about it for a while? I mean, burning the candle at both ends is hard. Yeah, I had been thinking about it. I mean I've been thinking about it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been around the business my whole life. You know, motivational was founded in 1977. I was born in 1971. So at the age of six or seven I was running around the warehouse with my hockey stick and a tennis ball, shooting my tennis ball. Yeah, you were Probably when the days of OSHA were a little bit looser and you could, you know, let kids run around the warehouse. But I've been around the business my whole life. So I kind of grew up in it. I knew I, some of the people that were there when I was six or seven still work here today. So you know, I, I've been around it. I've worked the same thing that that I do with my kids. Now, my sister did with her kids, my dad did with us, which is during summers. We worked in the warehouse, we worked in. You know we learned the business we. We worked in the warehouse, we worked in the office. You know we learned the business. We worked in every different position. So we've all unloaded containers and labeled cartons and, you know, processed orders. We've all done pretty much every position in the company. So you know, I knew the business throughout, even though I wasn't working in it.
Speaker 2:And then, as a lawyer, I was reviewing all the contracts, I was helping with vendor agreements. I was, you know, working the trade shows to help out. I was I was still doing a lot within the business and, like I said, it was just a lot. My practice was growing. It was just time to make a decision and there were external factors too, like my kids and the school district they were in and wanting to get them to a better school district and other things. It just it just made sense and, like I said, the overriding factor is, you know, I could stay in the law and continue, you know, being in a super high stressful situation, or I could go to work every day and see my dad and my sister and a lot of the people that I grew up with and you know help customers to develop their businesses, and that just seemed like a much better path for me.
Speaker 1:What kind of law were you practicing before that? Were you litigating? Were you?
Speaker 2:Civil litigation yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you were in court, you were researching, you were like what I call the real law. I've got, I've got a friend who's a patent lawyer and it sounds like it's pretty easy.
Speaker 2:There were certain aspects of the law I loved. I loved being in court. I love the research and writing, but you know there were parts of it that were rough. You know I was dealing with people that were willing to do things that weren't super ethical and I was the one acting ethically. But I couldn't sleep at night. You know having to deal with these people on a daily basis, so it was just causing me a ton of stress.
Speaker 1:An interesting thought I never thought about that, about how it kindugned their lack of ethical values to you.
Speaker 2:Really, because you're having to be a part of this whole thing, yeah, I just, it was just stressing me out and it got to the point where, again, I I was running a successful practice. I was, you know. We were living comfortably and happily, but I had the fork in the road and decided to go go the way of the business instead of the law.
Speaker 1:Sounds like you made a good choice because you probably got a little time back and, uh, maybe a little more sanity and sleep better tonight. It sounds like a little bit of good.
Speaker 2:Like I said, the time that I get spent with my dad, my sister I can never, you know that's just invaluable. Um, I got my kids out to a better area in a better, better school district. I've enjoyed helping to build motivational the business. It's grown tremendously, you know, in the 14, 15 years since I've been here. It's been a lot of fun. I really enjoy it. I enjoy our customers, so it really was a great choice.
Speaker 1:You might be one of the few people that came into transportation logistics full time and your life was less stressful. Most people exist the other way, because it's a pretty stressful industry, but compared to what you were doing with law, it's probably a walk in the park at this point for you, which is exciting Talk about. You know you did every job in the business. You saw your dad do the job. What are some lessons you learned about leadership that have really helped you as you took over the company and are now leading it in a successful venture now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean a couple of things, you know. First of all, my dad told us to you know, lead by example. You know, get out there and do it. Show everybody that you're willing to do it. Never ask anybody to do anything that you're not willing to do. You know yourself, and that's part of it I've. You know, I've run the warehouse for months at a time, on an overnight shift from 5 pm to 5 am. I'm a certified forklift driver. I really worked in every area of the warehouse and I think that you know my coworkers appreciate the fact that I'm out there with them, and so, you know, leading by example is important, you know. Second, I've heard a lot of leaders talk about the people that work for them, which kind of makes me cringe.
Speaker 2:I don't have people that work for me I have people that I work with, I have co-workers, um, you know, and I value those relationships and I appreciate working with them to help, you know, build a business and service our customers. And so, um, you know, treating everybody with respect and treating everybody, you know, on equal footing is really important. And then, third, he taught us to just be a yes company is, you know, service your customer. If your customer needs something, figure out how to deliver for them, say yes, and then figure out how to deliver. But if you say yes, you better deliver.
Speaker 2:You know, for the first 45 years of our business, we never had a commercial division or a salesperson. It was just my dad, my sister and myself and we were getting our sales organically, through referral, through current and former customers, through executives that you know left one of our companies that were with us and went to a new company and then brought that company to us. We were getting referrals directly from the retailers. And so we got that because of our service level. And so his, he always taught us that, look, if you're going to offer a service level, you better know that you can provide it and do a good job at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your first point, to go back to, that of of, you know, leading by example and not asking anyone to do something that you wouldn't do yourself. It sounds like something straight out of the you know Michael Jordan last dance documentary, where he talked about that that he was. He was never going to ask his teammates to do something that he wasn't willing to do himself. And I think people really do respect that when they don't. You know, you're not just commanding them to do stuff, but you're doing it.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was a basketball coach and I was young at this time, so I don't know if I could do this now, but I probably should try it. But when I was a young basketball coach, like 23, anytime our guys had to run, I ran with them, yeah, and one it was kept me in shape. But the side benefit that I didn't even realize at the time, because my motive was just to stay in shape. But the side benefit was that I gained their respect because I wasn't just, you know, yelling at them to run. It's like if, if they made a mistake or if we did something that caused us to run, I had to do it as well and um, one of those examples was we made them run if ever they, if they cussed and this is high school basketball.
Speaker 1:One of those examples was we made them run if ever they, if they, if they cussed and this was high school basketball if they, if they, said a cuss word, we, we all got on the line and ran, myself included, and so they started to feel bad about making me run, which which kind of worked in our favor. But you, the idea is the same, that man, if you're willing to get out there and drive a forklift, you know work the overnight shift, do whatever needs to be done, and they know that you're not just you know pointing fingers and telling people what to do. All the time you get a different level of respect from, from the team that you work with and not for, and I think that's a really great point.
Speaker 2:And then, when it comes to delivering for the customer and that requires some extra hours or some weekends or some nights, and you know, they know that you're willing to get out there and do it with them then they that instead of saying you know, gee, sorry, I can't make it. Or it just it motivates the team to work together to deliver, you know, the best product possible for the customer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's huge, it's huge. And now Forklift you're a certified Forklift operator. Do you guys have any Forklift competitions? Is there like some, like you know, like like Hunger Games of Forklift or something, where you go out there and you see who can stack things the fastest, or do?
Speaker 2:I stack things the fastest or do I don't know? Is there anything like that? No, we're not. We're not. We're not racing through the warehouse with forklifts or doing any kind of competition like that. You know we are. We do have incentives for working safely, for, you know, lack of injuries, for performance, things like that. But competition, you know, the faster you do things, the more injuries you have, the more damages you have, things like that. So we want everybody to work.
Speaker 1:This is why I'm not in your position because I think about stuff like this. Like this could be really fun the motivational games. We're doing it this saturday bring a helmet, maybe do it off-site at someone else's warehouse yeah, there you go. Not at your own warehouse.
Speaker 1:Don't destroy anything. Oh, it's so funny. I love to hear that, but what are some of the you know, when you think about having a successful business, what are some of the challenges that you've had to face that maybe you weren't ready for? What are some things that come to mind and how did you overcome some of those?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, obviously, covid was something that nobody ever anticipated and the impact of everything that went along with that, I mean there was, that was like the perfect storm. I mean there were, there were pallet shortages, there were space shortages, there were, you know, disruptions in supply chain.
Speaker 2:There were, I mean, everything you can imagine just hit all at once and trying to to right size that and keep your business running. You know, as the governor of California was on TV announcing that he was, you know, doing a mandatory shutdown and, you know, stay at home order, my phone was ringing three or four customers saying what are you going to do? Are you staying open? How are you going to service our business? And I'm like, right, I haven't even heard what he said yet, he hasn't finished speaking yet, I don't know. So, being able to kind of pivot and figure that out and work through that situation, and you know, because we we um service some customers that ship essential products, we were able to stay open throughout covid and, and you know, implement some safety protocols and, and you know, knock on wood, we're able to stay open throughout covid without shutting down at all, and service our customers.
Speaker 1:So, definitely a challenge that was hard to lose four years ago. It feels like an eternity ago and yet at the same time it feels very fresh still in terms of what had to happen there. You know a lot of people think that leaders aren't afraid of things or things don't scare them. I'm sure that moment had to scare you a little bit with your business, like not knowing how do you handle those moments of maybe a little fear, a little doubt, a little uncertainty as a leader, especially when people are looking to you.
Speaker 2:You know you have to communicate clearly with the team, let them know what the path forward is, let them know what the plan is. But you know, I think internally there's always a little bit fear. As a leader, you know you always lose sleep. Think that internally, there's always a little bit fear. As a leader, you know you, you always lose sleep. Um, you know my father always, always used this adage that you know, running a company is there's 27 hours in every day, but no one can fire you. You know it's you. You just you never stop worrying. You go to sleep worrying, you wake up worrying. You know you never stop thinking about the business. It's while you eat dinner. It's why you spend time with your family.
Speaker 2:It's very hard to shut it off, yeah and especially because, like I said, a lot of the people here I've known, you know we have a lot of highly tenured people that have been here since I was a little boy and their you know grandmother, mother, daughter, granddaughter work here and husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and so we have a lot of familial relationships that work here and their entire families are counting on our company to support their families, and so it's just, I feel, a huge amount of responsibility to make sure that we are, you know, maintaining the company and moving forward and providing a vehicle for them to support their families.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel that same burden. Whenever I was an employee, I felt like I was working really hard to feed four mouths and now as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:I feel like I work really hard to feed 15, 20 mouths. You know like that's. The burden just goes up just a little bit more. It's one that we gladly bear because it's an opportunity to provide great work, great service opportunities for people. One of my greatest joys is providing an opportunity for our team members to excel and to learn new things and to grow and to dream a little bit, to imagine and be creative and all those types of things, because I'm trying to provide what I always wish that somebody had done for me early on in my career, instead of having to spend 10, 10 years figuring out on my own and not really having any direction. So it is fun to be able to provide that, but it comes a little extra. A little extra. You know stress and challenges, that's for sure, and you guys have something special going on. I learned this, I didn't know this, but you have, like, each of your major department heads and your warehouse supervisors have all been with the company for more than 20 years. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we, I mean we believe exactly what you said is providing people with opportunities to to advance and to move on to better things, and so you know it was.
Speaker 1:How do you get people to stick around for 20 plus years? I mean, that's a, that's a career. I mean that's a long time.
Speaker 2:Again to go back to my father who likes to tell corny jokes, you know. He always said that either people like working here or we've ruined them so badly they can't go anyplace else.
Speaker 2:No, but he always promoted that was you know, let's, let's teach people, you know new things and new skills and give them an opportunity to advance, and let's promote wherever we can from within. And so all of our major you know DC managers all worked here and worked at various stages, whether that was shipping or receiving or inventory, or some of them started just on a labeling line and now they've worked their way up through the company um, and now they're managing a dc and um.
Speaker 1:you know, most of the people here in the company uh have been here for for a long time yeah, I feel like that speaks volumes to a company is the longevity of their employees, their team and also longevity of their customers. You look at those two and I think that's the telltale sign of if a company is doing the right things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know we also try to keep a good balance of work and family and home. So what we say is look, get your work done, but if your kid has a you know recital or a show at school, don't miss that. That's important, that only happens. That only happens once. Don't miss it because you're here working. So try to do what you can. Get some coverage, get your work done, but by all means go to that show and do what you can. I mean it's important that you make it to those family events.
Speaker 1:Those things matter more down the road than they do in the moment. I've learned as a dad like even though it's important in the moment and you don't want to miss it when you look back and go, I'm glad I didn't miss that. That feels so good. I'm sure that they're benefiting from that. I think it was Bruce Arians, the coach of the Buccaneers, that told his staff if they miss one of their kids' games, he's firing them.
Speaker 2:That's a whole other level, but the idea is sound. That's what what we want to. We want everybody to get out of here and coach their kids little league and see their games and do all that kind of stuff. You don't want them to go home at the end of the night and ask them how the game went and how they did.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly. I mean, I've had to travel a few times and my kids ride horses and making a phone call and asking how was horseback riding tonight is one of the worst feelings, as opposed to getting to be there, seeing things progress and talking about on the ride home. It's a different feel, for sure. So, um, I can definitely appreciate that. All right, tony, we have to have a little fun on the show. We always like to do that, so we're gonna play a little game here. Uh, it's a. It's a trivia game. I think it's just called trivia.
Speaker 2:All right, so here's what we got.
Speaker 1:Our producer has put together some Gen Z slang. Which Gen Z? Those dates? I'm not even sure the dates of those, but it's definitely after us. I'm just saying we're in this together. Here we go. All right, let's see what we got. First one is snatched, I'm thinking like taken, stolen, that's what I would have said.
Speaker 2:That seems way too obvious.
Speaker 1:That seems way too obvious.
Speaker 2:I thought, okay, there's got to be deeper meaning.
Speaker 1:Oh, it means fierce or on point, particularly when it comes to someone's hair and makeup or physical appearance. Oh so, tony, your, uh, your goatee is snatched. Dog, wow, thank you. Use it. Use that at the dinner table tonight or when you're with your kids next and just see how that goes. All right. So we didn't get that one right. Snatch, that was bad. Okay, understood the assignment. I mean I know what these means mean to us. What else I take them literally.
Speaker 2:I mean I know what these mean to us. What else? Yeah, I take them literally. I understood the assignment, I got it, that's right. I know what's going on.
Speaker 1:I'm focused, I'm hip, I'm up with it. Okay, I don't know. What does this mean? This means someone was successful at, or totally nailed. Okay, then we got that. We got that one. We're taking credit for that one, tony. All right, we're one for two. All right, here we go. Next one Glizzy Glizzy. Okay, I know what glizzy is that you're.
Speaker 2:you know you're like dressed to the nines, like you're looking good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're looking good, you're glizzy. I like that. I like that. I mean I to the nines Looking sharp. Let's go with that. Let's see what it is. It's a hot dog or sausage. I'm never calling a hot dog a glizzy, I don't know where that comes from. That doesn't even sound right. Give me a glizzy no, okay, all right, slaps. I think I know this one because my daughter uses this one. Do you know this one Slaps? No, I think that means it's really good like that thing slaps, okay all right, that's what I think this next word really slaps.
Speaker 1:That essentially means to be out to be excellent or amazing. Let's go, that's right. Nice, all right. So we're two for four. Uh, we're failing, but that's okay, let him cook who I know. I think I know what this one is let him cook.
Speaker 2:It's like, let him go, let him, let him go, let him be good, don't put any limits on him.
Speaker 1:Don't get in his way, that's right. Don't stop him. Let him keep doing the great work he's doing. Let him do his thing. Got it All right. We're three for five. We're passing my friend here we go Three for five.
Speaker 2:Let Riz is like when you, you know to Riz somebody is to kind of like flirt with them or hit them up.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, all right. Well, maybe I don't want to know that if my daughter used that. Okay, riz, let's hear what it is. Riz is another word for spitting game. How good you are with pulling and flirting. Hey, we get it. That counts Four for six. We get credit for that one, all right. Okay, let's see. Here we go, mother I have not heard this one.
Speaker 2:Mother, okay, like Mother Earth. Mother Nature, like in charge.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's like something that like Mother is like no, I, I, that's literal. Uh, yeah, okay, oh, a woman who's iconic. Okay, hey, listen, I said mother nature, I in charge. I said in charge, all right, I'll give it to you, thank you. I appreciate that. All right, I appreciate that we're five for seven. Okay, last one, and we're passing already five for seven, here we go, let's see if we can get a c out of this deal. It's giving, it's giving, it's giving.
Speaker 2:It's giving, it's giving. Giving Like all right, I'm into that. I can like something that's passable or excitable, or you know, it's giving it's giving it feels good, it's got a good vibe to it.
Speaker 1:Maybe Things are good it's a slang phrase, you to it. Maybe Things are good. It's a slang phrase you should describe when someone or something is embodying a particular oh vibe. I said vibe, let's go Six for eight. Tony, we're counting it, that's 75%, my friend.
Speaker 2:We are Gen Z pass certified In sports or in any sport. You're in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1:That's right, absolutely 75%. That's amazing. We'll take that. And also we'd like to have a little fun with a random question of the day. We're going to end our fun with this. This could be a serious question, it could be a silly question, it could be a good question. This one could be a dud, tony, I have no idea. So the random question today is would you rather be chased through a forest by a zombie or by a lion? This is kind of realistic. You could be chased by a lion and zombies Zombie for sure. You'd rather be chased by a zombie, yeah no doubt.
Speaker 2:Why is that? Well, I'm a Walking Dead fan and those things are sometimes kind of slow, the lion.
Speaker 1:I have no chance at. That's true, that's true. So you know the speed of zombies and you think that you could outrun the zombie? Chance, I have a possibility. The lion, yeah line. You have no chance. That's a good point. That's a good point. Now, the zombie might have other skills that we don't know about, but if they're slow, I agree with you. I'd rather take my chances getting away from the zombie than getting away from a lion, because even if you find a tree, you're still dead. Have you seen a lion climb a tree?
Speaker 2:yes, those things are unreal, yeah there's no chance lines up, that was easy one.
Speaker 1:That's. I'm going zombie all day long. That's an easy one. We're definitely doing zombie. Yeah, I don't know that I could survive a zombie apocalypse. I haven't looked into that, but I think I could maybe get away from one. So I'm with you on that. We're going to go with that. All right, Tony, that is what. Are you excited about? Anything new coming out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're just like I said. We're opening our Memphis facility. Currently it will go live actually May 1st, so just in a couple of weeks. We'll be opening in Indianapolis by the end of this year. So just continued growth, you know. Continue to bring on new business and service our customers and grow, grow, grow.
Speaker 1:So it's expansion time right now, which is exciting. So how can the people out there customers, maybe people that want to hear about your leadership, how do people get connected with you?
Speaker 2:uh, you can go to our website, wwwmfalscom. You can find us on linkedin. Uh, you can reach me at my email, taltman at mfcom.
Speaker 1:You're making it easy for people on the website. See, on my website, it's all the words. We need to change that Maybe we can use an acronym like that wwwmotivationalfulfillmentandlogisticservicescom would be a little rough. If you try to shorten all the words mock, full, log serve it's not going to work, it just doesn't work the initials.
Speaker 2:The initials is M-Tiles. Everyone gets M-Tiles pretty easily.
Speaker 1:Well, tony, listen, we're going to get you out of here today with a little more Red Hot Chili Peppers. We appreciate you being on the show today. Thank you so much. We'll have to have you back on the show and until the next time, enjoy the hockey and don't get in too many fights every Tuesday for another episode of Standing Out with great guests like Tony on the show. Also, if you get a chance to listen to us on the radio, reads Across America Radio, every Tuesday night we're on their trucking platform there, their trucking, whatever it's called.
Speaker 1:Their list, I don't know, gosh, I can't think of words today, but make sure you check them out at ReadsAcrossAmericaorg and donate to their cause, because it's coming up here in December to lay the wreaths on headstones of fallen veterans, and so it's a great organization. We love partnering with them. I love what they're doing. Also, shout out to our friends over at SPI Logistics for sponsoring the show and making it possible. Check them out at successspi3plcom. And until next time, don't forget. Stop standing, still. Start standing out. We'll see you guys soon.