What If Your Empty Capacity Was Real Money

We talk through how small businesses can barter to grow, market, and protect cash when costs like gas rise fast. We also share a real example of trading for local TV exposure and why relationships and networking still beat fancy tactics. 
• using trade dollars to scale without spending cash 
• trading for local TV features to build brand recognition 
• why barter feels “old school” and how it is returning 
• gas price spikes and the hit to contractors and seasonal businesses 
• preserving cash flow by covering business expenses through barter 
• barter market growth and turning unused capacity into buying power 
• practical networking advice through chambers and relationship building 

get out there and network.

Transcript

Welcome And Real-Life Context

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where we unlock the secrets of business-to-business trade, dive into powerful networking strategies, and share my exciting journey of using a podcast to market my business instead of relying on SEO. I'm your host, Trader Stew. Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Trading Post Podcast. I'm your host, TraderStu. And it's been, geez, I think a week or two anyway before I uploaded, but uh essentially uh maybe not that long because I think I pre-recorded an episode. I don't even keep track anymore. You know, it's been it's been a it's been a crazy ride lately with the the kiddo and you know being a dad and all that good stuff. So that's priority of obviously. And this is my it's not even a side hustle, man. It's just I don't make any money on this. The only money I guess I made is the twin the the 20 tickets uh from the Renaissance Festival, and uh and I won't even consider that money, you know. It's just I gave those away. So but that's beside the point. And I just wanted to, I had some things in my mind I wanted to talk about and some things that happened that I think are useful to the small business owners out there, even I mean, beyond locally, this is nationally level, the national level or international level, really, because you know, everyone does the uh TV uh sponsors and ads, and so let's just get right into it.

Barter As A Growth Tool

SPEAKER_00 1:30

So today I kind of wanted to talk about uh how Detroit businesses can barter, but really anybody and trade and scale without cash, and a couple talking points about uh, you know, of course, gas prices and and an ad spot that we've done. I wouldn't say it's an ad spot. So have you ever been it's called We Love Detroit and L-U-V Detroit. And basically, Larry and Gigi are the what we call the hosts of the show, and they go around the local businesses. It's kind of like what I had an idea of doing a while back, and you know, they interview them and talk about them and kind of spotlight them, I guess you could say. And what a perfect example of using trade to generate, hopefully or potentially some cash revenue, at least some brand, more brand recognition, even though we've been on since 1978. I'm finding the only people that really know about barter or trade or even heard of it is the I say, I say the older crowd, right? It's kind of like maybe even older than me. I'm 45 and it's really kind of a good old boy program, really being in a trade association. And, you know, the whole point of me starting the the podcast was to kind of start helping to get the word out there to the, I guess, the younger crowd, you know. I guess it'd be whoever's you know, 20s, 30s, maybe 40s are listening to podcasts, I think mostly 20, 30 year olds. But, you know, just to get that out there because it's it's kind of a lost art. And I'm trying to bring it back, I guess you want to say, because all of our uh longtime members, of course, are I mean, they're retiring, they're aging out, they're dying. And so I'm re-sparking the interest, and it's working. I I get several new members per week, which is a lot of people. If you talk to any chamber of commerce or maybe like a B and I or LBN or whatever like that, that's you know, into networking, get per if you're in a per group situation, that's a lot of people, right? So I am bringing a lot of people in, but my problem is is that I like to need to get outside of the east side of Detroit, which is where I live, which is easy, you know, to bring people in because I see the businesses, I see them advertising, I get the flyers, I get the marketing things. And obviously, if they're looking for business, boom, I'm gonna give them a call and say, hey, I got business for you, dude. Or ma'am, usually dude, but anyway, this beside the point. And you know, normally they're into it, right? Why would you not? You know, I make it a no-brainer deal. I'm on very low pressure. I have a basically it's a I mean, it really is a no-risk with very high upside potential proposal to where I don't make money until they do, so and there's no contracts obligations. So I'll waive the uh application fee, you know, a year out sometimes if I have to to bring them in and just show them like, look, this works, or maybe it

Trading For Local TV Exposure

SPEAKER_00 4:30

doesn't work. Not every business is a winner, man. And sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get spun up. But what I'm getting at is that I we paid Larry in trade dollars, he's a member, of course, been a member since the 80s. I think he said 30 years, so yeah, I call it 80s anyway. And so we paid him trade for the spot, and then it's gonna air out on the TV at 10 o'clock on Sunday, and then also he generates a 30-second spot from the clip that I think is several minutes long or whatever. I think he does three or four spots per half hour, so maybe we include commercials, you know. So maybe six to eight minutes is the gonna be the total spot length. I'm not even sure yet. So I haven't seen it, obviously. It's not it's not out aired. I think it airs this fall, to be honest with you. Uh, because the only reason I say that is because I heard them talking in the other room when they were shooting the opener, and it said, Hey, did you have a good summer? So obviously it's gonna be after summer. So, you know, that's the way Hollywood works, right? But I can't wait for it. I can't wait to see it. And I'm sure it'll be great that you know, give us some brand new recognition. And I got a referral to talk to a lady, I think is at Fox 2 News to SMR local station here in Detroit, and maybe get on a spot that they do for business businesses, you know, on there and more branding recognition. So it's happening, man. We're getting her going again, re-sparking that interest since the 78. And anyway, one thing I noticed I'm gonna ride into work is the price of gas. It's something that I don't really pay attention to, I guess. And I'm not saying I'm so wealthy, as a matter of fact, that the more people I see around here and that are wealthy, the more they complain about things of that like that. If you've ever been in a truly rich area, like real money, so I've lived in Rochester Hills, and actually where our office is in Rochester Hills, and then there's Birmingham, which is down the road, and what else has Bloomfield, I think, and I don't know, there's a there's a bunch of rich areas around this area, but anyway, have you ever been around real true money, like old money? This is like people whose you know, grandparents started, you know, General Motors, you know, or the Ford family, or it used to be called the what was it, the something carriage company that turned into something else. I forgot what it was. You know, they were building carriages, and I think they turned into Ford Motor Company or something like that. No, no, no, that dotson? I can't remember, it doesn't matter, but I'm talking about like generational wealth. They don't, they're very they're usually very thrifty, I guess you could say. I mean, yeah, they'll be in a big house that sits way back off and it's you know thousands of square feet, maybe, or they might be driving the Bentleys around here, the Ferraris or the Porsches and Lambos, you know. I mean, you I you see them, obviously. They're just like, I mean, it's it's true wealth, but they're usually not the ones carrying around Louis Vuittons. That's usually the people that are making payments on those Louis Vuittons. And, you know, I don't know, I'm kind of digressing here, but if you if you think you're rich and you're you're buying name brand stuff, you're probably not really all that rich. Because the rich folks watch their their watch their money and they invest it into things that usually often create more wealth, you know. Like, I mean, I don't know how much the resale value is in a Lambo, but it probably holds their value, you know. They might lose 50 grand on it, but they paid 450 for it. It's like maybe they can sell for 400. I don't know. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not like you know, that much money to them. Anyway, gas money. It's been a while since I've talked, so I I'm going off some tangents here, but it's over 419 a gallon. I think it's 429 here today, April 8th, and it's double what it was last summer. So a lot of people were like, oh, you know, I heard it on the on the on the radio this morning, you know, it's temporary, or the markets are predicting that's temporary. And that's great if it's temporary, and it probably is. I mean, nothing lasts forever, right? But to the contractors that are, you know, landscaping. I'm looking at one right out of my window right now. They're running a leaf blower and you know, a vacuum, and they got the truck and a trailer, and you know, they got

Gas Prices And Small Business Pain

SPEAKER_00 8:55

some money cranking out there and some and fuel costs. This is the time they're using gas, not in the winter. So this is gonna be a huge hit on folks of that uh nature and business that this is permanent to them, right? I mean, permanent is an effect of like, okay, yeah, if it ends in August or September, that's basically it for their season in Michigan. They've only got three or four months to make money. They got spring cleanup, you got the lawn mowing season, which really doesn't start until May around here. That's when the grass really starts growing. And then you got June, July, August. And then even July and August, unless you got a contract where you're mowing no matter what, like once a week or once every other week, because that's the contract says, I don't mow my lawn all all summer long. Like I don't mow it in July and August a lot of times because it doesn't rain. And I sure as heck don't run spring clears to make it harder on myself because I don't care about grass. I'm not in the business of growing grass. I want to grow, you know, vegetables or corn or whatever, right? So potatoes, things of that nature. That's my idea this summer, anyways, is to take out half my backyard and try and get something going and beat the woodchucks and the birds. I have I have not been really all that successful in growing a garden. I love, I don't know how people do it. I guess I get to live outside the suburbs or put up a fence. I'm not doing that either. But for me, I basically just end up feeding the wildlife. So when I get a garden, I see a lot more wildlife in my backyard because I'm feeding these little buggers. But hopefully I can grow enough eventually to offset that. And I can't even shoot them with a pellet gun because that's not legal in my area. But anyway, I'm not trying to figure out some anti-vermin things in the garden, things that that spin, or I don't know. But anyway, back to gas. So for them it's it's permanent. So if the gas is spike overnight, is basically what it did. I paid, I think, under I paid $354 a gallon for it yesterday. Now it's $4.29. And I did get 50 cents off a gallon. So it was three, was that 89? I think. Anyway, so yeah, no, $3.99. So it went up, still went up 30 cents. So what can you you can control other things though, is what I'm getting at if the gas prices go up. And so you know, the barter industry is quietly having a comeback here now in 2026. And the economy gets bad or rough, that's when the economy comes around, you know. So, or a barter economy, I should say. So this business launched in 78, of course, 78 or 70s was the you know, the oil embargo. I was born in 81, and that's when mortgages were 19.5%, 21% interest rates, which is freaking crazy, dude. Which is crazy. I could not imagine my house payment at 20%. I don't even know what that would be. Oh my god, what would that be? I'm gonna do that right now, as a matter of fact, with you guys on the on the horn here. I'm gonna pull it up. I don't I don't even care. I'll keep talking, but you know what? I don't care. I'm gonna do this right now. Payment. You know what's rough about Copilot is that when you bring it up, it delays pretty hard, man. I miss my perplexity, but I'm just not paying for it when I get copilot for free because of, you know, Microsoft 360. And I had I had it on my own personal level, but I use the the offices now. 20%. Let's see what this is. Anyway, let's let that generate and calculate. So did you know that the bartering platform costs $600 million in 26 and it's growing annually? So we're closing out on a trillion dollar per year market that if you're not in on it, you're missing out, man. So it's not old school, you know, that's for sure. And now you got the digital. Back in the day, the boss's Lois,

Why Barter Comes Back In Downturns

SPEAKER_00 13:20

the C chief operating officer, said uh she would do everything manually by ledger, by like paper, and print out the old, one of the old black and white striped paper with the holes in the sides. That's how they would roll, man, back in the day. So Barter turns dead space into buying power, that's for sure. And let's see what I'll I'm just kind of reading here. This is basically down payment, blah, blah, thirty years. It wouldn't even give me it. Interest rate. Interest rate. Try it again. Here we go. It would be an overway pat holy cow, four grand a month. That's rough. Anyway. Yeah. That's a lot. That's actually, I thought it'd be a lot worse than that, but it's still unattainable. Oh man. So a couple things I want to talk about too with the economy around here. We run in relationships, hustle, and mutual support. So the really We Love Detroit thing is a perfect example of community first economics. And I'm trying to get into I have an idea for networking that I don't know, it might work. It might work. I'm not going to talk about it because it's an original idea. And I'm going to try it first and see what happens, but maybe. And if you guys don't aren't networking, by the way, and you're opening a business, have opened a business, or are dying for business,

Networking Advice And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_00 15:15

get out there and network. Like I we just went into the Southeast Michigan Chamber. Been members for with the Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce for a while now. They're great. They have these things and they're called PCN groups, which I was a member of for a while. But then, you know, the thing with my type of business is that once people sign up, I'm already automatically referring you business. So I don't gotta go to a meeting to do that. And that's the other benefit of joining a trade group like ours is that once you're in it, you're kind of like joining, you're doing a chamber, so to speak, without having to go to meetings. Your meetings are going out to buy things, you know. So anyway, what else I want to talk about here? Pretty much that's it. I want to just talk about that. The gas prices, how you can offset it. These guys out there the summer can get some additional business on trade and offset their costs for you know, the lawn mowing gas and things of that nature, preserving the cash, and then the G the economy in Detroit isn't unlike any other areas and you know, economies in the areas in your area, whatever. And that's it. I want to just talk about those few things and get her done. All right. All right, whatever you guys can do out there, be good or be good at it. Bye.