The Supply Chain Rockstars with Ricky Gonzalez

Episode 4 with Ricky Gonzalez of Tabi Connect where we discuss his early years with the band Estata Legal, his beginnings in logistics and how he co-founded Hubtek from Miami and later Tabi Connect. He currently resides and works in Medellin, Columbia.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Hey, hey, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Supply Chain Rock Stars. Once again, I'm Will Haraway, and this is Bart DeMonk, and we haven't caught up in a minute, me and Bart. So, hey Bart, man, you've been once again, like you always a world traveler. I think you went home to Belgium just in time for the U.S. to play Belgium, the whole bit, man. Tell everybody what you tell me what's you've been up to.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

First of all, hi to the audience. Good seeing you, Will, as always. Yeah, I just came back from Belgium. I saw a couple of the games, the Belgium games uh from Belgium, which is always cool. Although the not so cool part was one of the games was like five in the morning. Luckily with the jet lag, I was up already, but I was back in time for to see the US Belgium game here from the house in in Dallas. I got back Sunday and then the game was on Monday. Uh, we have another couple of games coming up, so I'm I'm really excited. I'm gonna have this gap that's gonna occur once the World Cup is over, because then what are we gonna do, right? I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

It's been so great, man. Uh I I know I told you like, or I told you before we took the break, is that uh so I live right by Decatur, Georgia, right? And they have this uh square, beautiful square. And just for the World Cup, they put up a new stage. Uh we'll talk to Ricky about this too, and we could when we get him on, but um they put up a stage, and every night of the World Cup, there's a uh game, and then there's been music, like every single night.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

So it's hopefully they'll do that without even a World Cup, right? And and obviously with the World Cup gone, we should do more music, right? So with that said, well, talking about music, what have you been listening to lately?

SPEAKER_04 1:47

Oh man, well, you know, I have already, it came out on Friday, but you know, you can pigeonhole me all you want as a middle-aged dude, but I grew up with these guys, and I know it sounds weird, but I did. It was some of my formative music as a kid because my parents had a great record collection. But the new Rolling Stones record, Foreign Tongues, is excellent. It's an excellent, excellent record. It's not like excellent for 80-year-old guys, it's like a good Rolling Stones record. Have you heard it yet?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

I I have. I'm right there with you. I'm gonna show my age here, but this was really the the band of my parents, right? I mean, my parents, they they were in their 20s and the 60s when the Rolling Stones were coming up. So I grew up listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and a lot of classical music at the house. And so I think the last episode we talked, I had just come back from London and I was at the Rolling Stones store, and obviously that's right, yeah, there was all the advertising for the upcoming album. So I was so excited, I was waiting for the day it came out. We had a couple of previews of some of the songs, and then now we're able to hear the the whole album. I've I've just gone through my first run-through of the entire album, but God, great, great songs. I think there was some talk about them going on a tour, but I think Keith Richards physically didn't feel up to it, which in turn turned out into a new album, which is awesome as well.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

Yeah, I think it I think you were the one that said it is that he's he's got bad arthritis, which I mean he is eight years old. I mean, I get it. And then I saw a little pre-album stuff that they did in London, and it was him and Ronnie went and did Dead Flowers and one of the new songs, the country song, can't remember the name of it, but the really cool country song on here. You know the stones are flowing when they're putting a country song on a record, and yeah, it's on there. But that's awesome. Yeah, I'm glad we've both been enjoying that. That's that's that's really cool. I mean, for all of y'all out there, don't believe there's always haters when Stones records come out. I'll admit I didn't like Hackney Diamonds. I was a couple years ago that much, except for the one they did with Gaga at the very end. I didn't love it that much. But you always got to give the Stones a chance. And this is it, this is an excellent record. Please just turn it on and you will love it if you like the Stones even just a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I fully agree. And with everything going on, how many bands are still together after 60 plus years? Now, obviously, they they did lose a couple of members over the years, right? One the bassist left, and unfortunately the drummer. Poor Charlie Wade. Who would have thought he was the first guy to pass away? But still, to keep and continuously bring out records is incredible. Now, that being said, we'll we will put a Rolling Stones song in the Spotify list for this episode. No question.

SPEAKER_04 4:18

We'll put one of those.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

But my song of the week or of this episode, Will, you're gonna be surprised, but it's not the Rolling Stones. Uh that's okay. We've talked enough about them already. It is related, as you said. I just came back from Belgium, so I'm gonna represent. So I'm gonna go with a Belgian band that probably not a lot of people know. Uh, they're not that too big outside of Europe, they're very popular outside of Belgium, which is already a very remarkable thing. It is a a band called Trigger Finger, and my song Trigger Finger. Trigger Finger, and my song for this episode is called By Absence of the Sun, and it's from an album with the same name. And before we're gonna hear some some of the the the song of today, um, I want to say a little bit about this. And and again, I love the song, but not just because I'm Belgian, because it is such a strong band, it's a rock band like the Rolling Stones. The difference is instead of five guys, there's only three of them. There's three guys doing this. Yeah, but I think I always try to think of a song, and then how does it relate to what we do to the show and to supply chain? I think the absence of the sun, it relates very much to what supply chain leaders deal with every day, right? We don't always get to operate in perfect sunlight. Um, I might get to because I live in Texas, so we have 335 days of sunlight a year. Um, but it really is to the point that you know a lot of our leaders make decisions amongst disruptions, ambiguity, there's constant change, etc. And so we're not just waiting for the for the for the clouds to clear, we navigated through it. And that's really the the the core of the song is it's a little bit dark, but it's like it isn't because there's no sun that we stop doing everything, we just plow and navigate through them. And I think also what we'll hear from Ricky, that's what today's episode is all about. It's like it's easy to do things when everything, when the conditions are perfect. It's a lot harder, but more rewarding when things are challenging. No doubt.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Well, let's give a little list into some trigger finger, my man. Let's hit it. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Okay, well, I hope you enjoyed that, Will. How about for your choice for the episode? What did you pick?

SPEAKER_04 6:55

Yep, so you know, I've been kind of ticking off on on here some of my favorite new records of the year, and uh one of my very favorites is uh I'm People is the name of the album, and it's by one of our very very favorite bands, Hiss Golden Messenger, Hiss Like the Snake, Golden Messenger. And I have been listening to these guys uh for probably 15 years, and uh I got on them, you know, and bought bought records pretty early and played them around the house when my when my children were little, and so they just fell in love with them. And uh around 2015, they came to Music Midtown uh here in Atlanta, right? They play over at Piedmont Park, and it's really cool. But for this particular year, they had changed the ticketing before you could just buy Day Pass, right? Now, for this particular one, they were trying to get you to buy the whole weekend. It's the only way you could get in. And I had these two little kids, so there's no way I was going the whole weekend. Uh, and I had these two little kids that really just wanted to see Hiskolden Messenger at age nine and six, like because we've been playing them around the house. So I sent MC Mike Taylor, Michael, Michael Crow Taylor, the the founder, the singer, an email, just an email telling him this predicament. And he was like, You're on the list. And uh so me and the fam walked in because they were playing at like noon, because this was they were not, they're still not a big band, but they definitely weren't in 2014. And so they were playing at like noon, and so me and these two toddlers and my wife show up. Well, Matt wasn't a toddler, but you get it. And uh, and I mean they played in front of a not huge crowd, but a nice crowd, and we were in the VIP section and loved it. And then afterwards, uh, we came backstage and met with them, and uh, you know, I'm still friends with them to this day with Mike. We text and I see him when he comes and plays, and I and I send him updates on McKenzie because he met McKenzie when she was nine years old. Hell, now she's going to college. So uh obviously, anybody that hears, I like to tell that story because it's such a great story and it makes you want to listen to them besides how good they are.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

But it's incredible. I can't claim that I'm familiar with them, but you know, I'm definitely gonna listen to it. And I will tell you, right? I see it with my own kids too. Those are memories they'll cherish for every year, kids. They'll be our age, and they go, hey, what do you remember? It's like I remember going with my dad to a concert, right? It'll be ingrained in their entire being as these experiences, right? And they'll they'll and it's cool, right? It's the other part of music is not just experiencing the music, but the moment you were in, the people you were with. Yeah. So let's listen to a little bit of his golden messenger.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

So I'll tell you the name of the song first. It's called uh In the Middle of It, and it's on that record. And as we like supply chain connotations, it just obviously spoke to me. We're always in the middle of something. We're always in the middle of disruption, we're always in the middle of the Strait of Hormuz together. We're always in the middle of whatever tariffs, hurricanes, whatever the thing is. And so today we're gonna try something different. I got a new audio set up, so you can hear that, right, Bart? Yeah, coming through. Okay, good. So here's a little something, a world premiere of we'll play live on the So here's just a little lesson. This is the easiest song in the world. First, it's G-tuning. I'm not gonna tell you how to do G tuning open G-tuning, but you can look it up and it's easy. And so what that means is you don't do anything to get the strings, and that's a G, right? So now we're gonna go Kot 3 right here, and it's this song Even right.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Well, that was awesome, man. Thank you for so much for sharing it. And that brings us to today's episode. Our guest. Our guest, who's who's our new guest, Will, for today?

SPEAKER_04 11:08

Our rock star is the founder and CEO of Tabby Connect, Mr. Ricky Gonzalez, who we find out is a Colombian punk rocker.

SPEAKER_05 11:19

Listen to Find Out.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Today's rock star is someone who has spent more than 20 years building the technology and talent infrastructure that modern freight brokerages now run on. Ricky Gonzalez, CEO and co-founder of HubTech and Tabby Connect. Ricky started his career in Columbia. He moved to the U.S. freight industry and went on to launch a series of businesses spanning freight brokerage, new nearshore talent, and AI-powered quoting automation. So welcome, Ricky.

SPEAKER_06 11:59

Thank you, Will. Thank you, Barb, for having me. I'm so excited to have a brief chat and have some fun with you guys today.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Awesome. And and Ricky, where are you dialing in from today?

SPEAKER_06 12:10

I'm dialing in from Medellin, actually. I I spent 22 years, 25 years in Miami, and then a couple years ago I moved back to Medellin. So I spent a lot of time here, but also you know, go go back and forth to the US and you know visit customers and trade shows and whatnot. But so right now I'm in the sunny, beautiful Medellin.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

That's awesome. It's it's a gorgeous city. I've had plans to visit, and then that got cancelled. I still haven't been there. And I think you guys have a festival coming up in August, right? Is it like the festival of the flowers, something like that?

SPEAKER_06 12:44

That's right. It it gathers a lot of people, a lot of foreigners, although the city already is an international city. Uh from the past, you know, 10-15 years, it really opened up. We had a very dark past and violent history that's really changing. And you know, I'm I love to see how the city is developing and bringing a lot of people from the outside.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Yeah, and of course, it's a city also known for music, right? We all know the boy from Medellin, Jay Belvin. So you're a guy from Medellin in logistics, right, Will? That's great. Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

Well, I love the way this worked out, Bart. I don't I don't know if we exactly planned it this way, but to have the uh Ricky and the international flavor here, as we're still right towards the end of the World Cup, you know, and uh Bart, you were just in Europe, you were at the Belgian, the the Belgium game in Dallas. Uh Ricky, just curious about I'd love to get both both of you guys' perspective as you know, two uh international guys here in U.S. Freight, but enjoying the the World Cup being here and and and getting to soak it up.

SPEAKER_06 13:53

Yeah, I didn't get a chance to go to any of the Colombian matches. Uh they had one in uh Miami and some others in Mexico, and I'm sad that we lost, but you know, we we I think we have a good team right now, but I'm uh I'm I'm probably I think Spain's gonna do something very interesting this year. And actually, I was in Spain last week and have you know sharing with some uh Spain friends, and they all say that Spain is gonna win. So and we have some heritage from Spain as well, so my heart is there as well. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Just one quick thing, Ricky. I see that glare again on your camera. Could you try and move it a little bit? Yeah, yeah, I think it's perfect. That is so much better.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

All right, how did it feel having the world against you on last Monday, or at least the US against you?

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Well, I didn't feel it that way, right? And I think you guys know I'm I'm obviously Belgian, but I'm also American. I'm Belgian American. I have two bold citizenships. Um, I've been in this country the last 23 years. I'm very close to the U.S. So I've I still feel more of a Belgian citizen being born there and having been raised there. Um, but I'm still very grateful to the U.S. So I I really couldn't see an outcome where either one, whoever would lose, I still win because both of my teams are in there. It was an exciting game. I was a little bit afraid because the U.S. up to that point had played the better games, better than Belgium. Unfortunately, Belgium really showed up. The US played, I think, their worst game at the World Cup. And so hence the result. I didn't unfortunately get to see Belgium in Dallas. They didn't play in Dallas. They would have played Dallas if they would have beaten Spain. Then it would have been uh Belgium uh on last Tuesday, uh actually here uh uh playing playing that game. Um, but unfortunately, sorry, today, not last week, today playing uh playing against France. We lost a game against Spain. I have a good friend, Maria Marti. She lives in New York, but she's from Barcelona. She was at the game here in Dallas, uh, sorry, in LA on Friday to see Spain win. And then she's gonna be here today as well to watch uh her Spanish team uh hopefully win against France. So I'm with you, Ricky. I hope Spain wins that. After Belgium lost, I was really going for the underdog, Norway, because I thought they played great games, they're so exciting to see. Man City has been one of my favorite clubs. I started following them because they had four Belgian international players playing there. Holland, of course, is incredible. But it is exciting to hear people when I go to pickleball talk about soccer, which typically does not happen. And if England does go to the final, I heard that the guys from Oasis would play live. So bringing it back to music, obviously, music is a big part of that, and I'd love Oasis to play the final. So let's see if England can make it.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

Well, well, Ricky, this is about you, uh, not just about uh international flavor and the World Cup, but I think you can kind of bring that together for all of us here. Can you share? You have a very interesting story, just exactly how you got into this uh world of supply chain logistics, and that that path led you from Colombia to founding companies here in the US, or I guess founding them everywhere, but but with the US focus.

SPEAKER_06 17:09

Yeah, and I think it goes way back, and it it it actually uh it's you know related to music and my musical career. I was a punk rocker in my you know early days and my childhood basically for I think 10 years, we had a very famous band at that point in in Medellin. We um performed concerts all across Medellin in Bogota. We almost opened up a show in Miami for Less Than Jake, which is a very known um um ska punk band uh that I think still plays. And my desire was to kind of um style my career in music and and musical engineering, sound engineering. And the only place where you know I found that um uh career was in Miami, and my dad said, Well, if you can go to Miami and and afford it yourself, you're free to go. And and you know, I I don't I can't afford you know to play uh uh um a career in in sound engineering. So I started while I was playing punk rock and and in in Medellin, I started uh starting electronic engineering in in Medellin and then I found out uh an opportunity in Miami. But then you know I was you know during my childhood partying and all that, and I kind of you know um they kicked me out of that career. I started business administration, but always had the dream of starting sound engineering in the University of Miami. And then when I was uh starting business administration, a freight forwarding company in Miami offered a job um as an internshipper. So I said, well, this is the perfect, you know, leap opportunity to go there, you know, start start kind of working in that business, and then figure out how I'm gonna pay out for my sound engineering career. That's what I did, and like many people in logistics, uh, it never let me go. So I started working for that reporting company, did a very good job as an internshipper, started training all their uh internshippers coming from different places in South America, and then came back to Colombia, finished up my career, and then they offered a full-time uh position in Miami with a work visa and all that. And so that's how I started in logistics. I started my way up from you know doing operations and you know, booking containers and booking air freight to becoming probably the the vice president of the company in less than seven years. But then I always also had the passion of you know having my own business, and so I proposed that we form a freight brokerage specializing um heavy holding and and over-dimensional freight. It didn't like stick with my old boss. So I say, well, boss, I this is what I want to do, and I really want to start my own business. And we parted ways in in very friendly ways. I still to these days talk to them and have a very good relationship with them. So I started brokering freig. Uh it was we started, I remember, with three grand, that was the starting capital. And it was painful. It was really painful. You know, how do you how to pay carriers when you have to you have no history on the MC, you were like a very young MC, the carriers didn't give you very good rates. Um the you know, the sheepers didn't pay in 30 days, they paid in 45 or even 90 days. So it was very hard to kind of self-finance that, but we did it, we made it. Um, one of the biggest success factors, and this is you know very important to who we are today, is that we learned very quickly how to quote very accurately without a truck on hand. And so the quoting process for me was like my main like like secret and my my secret sauce. And we started growing the business, starting adding employees, starting adding employees in the US didn't work very well. Then we started hiring people in Colombia, we started with an office in Bogota and then in Cali. Um, then about 10 years after um growing that business, I merged that business with a uh larger freight brokerage, and out of that merger we met uh Joel McGinley, which is my current um partner and co founder at Hoptic and Mentec Group, which is now uh Hoptik is sunset and is now the Mentec Group. And um Joel was you know in his early in his early days, he ran D AT uh as the president, truck as a consultant, and you know, he also built the Broker just sold it. So he was sort of a um a veteran that we trusted a lot. He helped us through the merger and he proposed, like, hey guys, you have a very good infrastructure in Colombia, you know, brokering freight from Colombia in the United States. Why don't we form a business to help my clients? He was back then coaching clients in a business called Trans Strategy Partners and Training Brokers. So he said, why don't we uh put you know build a business around hiring people in in Colombia? We we say, well, that's a great idea. We've done it with a couple of you know friends and family that also has um uh trade forwarding and broke freight brokerage businesses, but we were too busy um merging the business. But when we finish up the integration about a year and a half after the merger, we said, well, this is the perfect uh opportunity for expansion, and we formed a company called Hoptech between you know uh Joel and myself. Then we started growing that business, um, spun off the tech division of that business. We on the tech side, we started, you know, kind of uh delving with RPA automation for a lot of processes, but we were too broad. We were basically saying, hey, brokers, we know logistics, but and we can automate everything. That was back in 2020, 2018 when RPA was a thing, AI wasn't even here. We even created our own models to feed the RPA uh automations when actually the the foundational models ever needed even before they existed. And we started growing the tech division on the side and said, well, the perfect um uh spin-off right now is to split the two, focus on the two as their you know, as as as if it was you know their main entities and companies, and and it started like yeah, really working for us. And but we said, well, uh we want to focus on rate quoting automation from our background of myself quoting and you know, knowing a lot about you know quoting freight and all the kind of uh rules and logic that are you know related to quoting freight and Joel's background in you know building radio and rate nate, we said, well, this is the perfect opportunity to focus and bring that focus and grow and and and really focus in one um um lane, which was uh rate quoting automation. You know, long story short, we sold the staffing business uh last year to Lean Solutions, our biggest competitor. We changed the Hoptic name to Menti Group, and we stayed with um uh Tavi Connect as the main uh business for uh uh freight quoting automation, mostly on the truckload and and spot market. So it was uh you know basically an evolution of you know um starting from you know knowing all the inefficiencies in the business to working in one lane and focusing in one thing, uh a one mile deep, one inch wide uh problem and solution. And here we are.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Well, that's an awesome story, Ricky. And let me ask you before we get back to the music part, right? But you obviously you lived in Miami for a while, you know. I'm an immigrant coming from Belgium, living in Texas now for a while. What did you miss the most of living in Medellin in Colombia? What do you enjoy now living there? I think you're the first guest, by the way, that's not living in the US on our show. Uh, actually, and what's interesting, you're the second guy in a row that's now came from a punk band background, Bill Drieger, uh, on the previous episode. He was a drummer in a punk band when he was in his uh teenage years and and early on. But what is it for people that maybe aren't that familiar with Colombia, who've never maybe visited and definitely haven't lived there? What do you enjoy living there, both from a personal perspective? But I think of it as very colorful, a lot of music. Tell us a little bit about that, Ricky.

SPEAKER_06 26:14

So that's that's part of it. Another big part is you know, prices, you know, inflation got unmanageable in the US in the past you know, a few years after COVID, especially Miami, which was a hub where a lot of people uh started buying property and and and so prices went through the roof. Also, most of my family or all my family lives here. So being closer to my family and also closer to the team. I mean, most of our team, although we we have US employees, uh, most of our team lives in in Medellin, in Colombia. So being close to the family, to the team, also enjoying uh affordability of prices. Um, you know, living here is very, very affordable. Um, I mean, you can have you can enjoy luxury of having people to help you in a lot of ways. So it it's it's I wouldn't say easier, but it's it's uh it's it's a very nice culture and it's a very nice vibrant city. The food is amazing, people are lovely. But but I love the US, you know, I'm I'm a dual citizen citizen, and I still go there, you know, every month, every month and a half, stay, you know, stay there for a couple weeks. I I have part of my heart in Miami, part of my heart in the US, but also part of my heart in Medellin. So I kind of enjoy the best of both worlds by going through uh both cities in and out.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

That is awesome, and I fully understand that. I just came back with my daughter from Belgium. So I definitely understand the feeling of having your heart in two places, although you're dedicated and living in one. Now, before we're gonna get into some of your musical background and your kind of big break, Ricky, what song have you picked out for today's episode of the supply chain Rock Stars? And why did you pick that song?

SPEAKER_06 28:01

So I picked one band. Um it's uh No Use for a name. The song is Soulmate from the wrecker Lechon Carne. Um it's it's a it's a very nice song that was very popular back in the 90s in MTV, and that was during when we were like um um in our peak of fame, so to speak. We weren't that famous, but um in proportion we were. So I remember that song a lot. I still hear a lot of punk rock here and there, um, especially when I'm when I have time for my on my own. Uh, not a lot of people like punk rock. So I like the song because it's um very melodic, at the same time, very fast-paced. And I think that's a little bit of you know related to logistics is this kind of the perfect chaos, right? So punk rock is chaotic, but at the same time could be melodic, and it is also fast-paced. So, you know, for the show, I picked that song. I have many favorite uh songs and and and and bands, but I think that one is the one that I kind of recall the most from my childhood.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Awesome. Well, we're gonna play a little piece of your song of this episode.

SPEAKER_04 29:34

Ricky, that's super cool song. Fast paced reminds me of Green Day. I think every do you do you think they influenced Green Day or did Green Day influence them?

SPEAKER_06 29:42

I think, well, Green Day is it's old. It's it's early 90s. I think it's uh before Green Day was super commercial and popular, I think they were more like skate punk, pop punk kind of music, like no use for name, um uh Southern California style punk. So I I think both influence each other. And um No Use for Name was very famous. The the singer died, and it was like uh a tragedy in the industry. So he he influenced a lot of bands like you know, No FX and Pennywise and bands that I still when I have time and I catch one of those bands in the US, I try to go to a concert here and there. The latest one I went to was a Pennywise concert in Denver, Colorado, uh March this year, I think it was. So it was it was cool, you know, to go with friends and remember all those songs. And and uh typically um some bands still play covers for no use for name. So it's it was a very popular band back then in the 90s.

SPEAKER_04 30:44

Where did they play in Denver? What was the venue?

SPEAKER_06 30:47

I can't remember the name, it was on the outskirts, um a big kind of parking lot, and they put a lot of um uh it was uh Screeching Whistle, Pennywise, which is one of the best band punk bands ever, Pennywise as well, and a few others. So it was it was very fun, but I can't remember the the penny name.

SPEAKER_04 31:08

Well, you did kind of bury the lead at the beginning, Ricky. What was the name of your band and what did you play, buddy?

SPEAKER_06 31:15

I played the uh the bass, I was the bass player. I was also the co-lead uh singer, so I sung some songs myself, I did choruses for it. I was the composer of probably 60% of the songs, and and you know, I I have a very um good ear, I guess, for music. And um the the the band's name was the band's name was Estado Legal, so that means like legal state. And funny story is that the main singer and guitarist still plays, and he's kind of very famous here in the local scene, and he's remastering the old songs, so he kind of um um contacted me and contacted the drummer. We were three in the band. Actually, uh a fourth one was but he wasn't like uh fixed, and he asked for our permission and he said, Hey guys, uh, we're gonna re-record this. People still ask about you know, Stado Legal, you know, and do I have your blessing? I said, Of course, man, you know, just I mean, we don't we don't need any money from it. I mean, we just want to support whatever you need from us. I mean, we can play. I I I forgot how to play in 2020 plus years, but you know, he's it's funny though, because he's still kind of um going with it and and still sounding out there uh for people. So it's it's that's pretty cool to see.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

So what does he go? Did you guys sing in Spanish or English, Ricky?

SPEAKER_06 32:41

Uh uh Spanish and some English songs as well. Uh we have probably 80% in Spanish and 20% English.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

So what does he go by now, Ricky?

SPEAKER_06 32:51

Like does he go by his name or does he have a name? He goes by by Lelo, L-E-L O, and that's kind of um him solo. And he also had uh another more famous band after ours, which is Popcorn. So he still kind of plays in that band, but he um uh broke away and and he's soloing you know most concerts and whatnot, and he's he's pretty decently famous here in Medellin again, and more for the local scene, punk scene, but uh he that's his career, and he's that's that's what he does for a living. He also has um a little um um uh recording studio for like like emerging bands. So I haven't seen him in years, but I'm planning to see him you know and kind of visiting him studio and probably listens to old songs and kind of um remind of the old old vocal days.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

I think a reunion is well overdue, Ricky. I want to see that. And and by the way, for our audience, we do have a Spotify playlist that we have every time. So I know Will's already gonna think about it. And if we can find it, yeah, add some of the songs to it.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

Punk rock episode, second for the playlist for the second one in a row. Bart, we've got a bass player with Ricky, we've got Bill on the drum, so we just need to collect a punk rock guitarist, and we're gonna have a great well.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

You're a guitarist, I'm sure you can pull it off.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

You know, I'm more laid back than what these guys are than what these guys are putting out there.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

Uh and this is one one thing is I I in the past Revenova uh user conference event that happened like a month ago, uh it's been a while since I haven't sung. And we went to a karaoke and sung some Weezer songs and all rock and roll songs, and it he went pretty well. So I'm I'm starting to get a little bit motivated again to um go at it. Maybe you know our reunion will make sense.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yeah, so Ricky, with that said, there's a conference that you might know of CSCMP Edge, which is coming up early October in Nashville, obviously Music City here in the U.S. And I think my buddies Daniel Stanton and Nathan Cheney are trying to put together an event where they people in supply chain can play music. So I think they're still looking for for a few people to to add to the band. So that might be a great opportunity. Now, Ricky, how did you get to the to the bass? What's kind of your early memories in music? How did you get to play bass guitar?

SPEAKER_06 35:19

I think I started playing uh piano. Uh I was in piano lessons very, very uh early when I was a kid, and then I can't remember how I got into bass. I think it was like the cool instrument, like like like you know, the sound of it, you know, the it was more like uh okay, this is cool. This sounds like it's the main instrument in the band. It's kind of what uh uh puts the pace on the song. It goes with the you know um with the drum as well. And I I kind of started playing drum and I couldn't. I was a little bit like it was it was hard, so I started then playing bass and it went it went well. And I took classes with some like famous rock stars here in Medellin. That was when when I was gosh, probably 11, 12 years old, I guess. And it stuck, and that's where I I ended up playing bass.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Yeah, it's funny, Ricky. I started off playing bass myself for the exact same reasons because to be the bridge between the the the you know the melody and the and uh the and the rhythm. I mean, you're part of the rhythm section and you're part of the melody section. So you kind of get to do both things, which enables you to to sing and play bass, which is really hard to do, as you know. It's a really hard. It took me years to do that well, you know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:43

Um it is sort of a combination between the guitar and the drums, and you kind of put the pace on the song, and it's it's really hard. And people don't realize it. People think that the bass player is sort of uh an accessory, but it's it's actually the main you know, pace making uh piece on the on a song on a band.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Well, it's funny, Bart, you're talking about Nashville, right? So you'll find that when you go check out some of these Nashville bands, you know, the stars don't run the band. It's gym, they have a they have a director of music, they have a leader, right? And it's almost always the bass player. Almost always. It's crazy. Like those guys are for higher. Like, I can run a band, I'll play bass, I can change the key on the fly, all those kind of things.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

So yeah, it's not that easy, right? Like you said, to have a front man playing the bass. There's a couple examples that come to mind. Rush, they just came through Dallas. They obviously have a singer who's playing the bass. Um, another one I can think of as sting, right? Although he sometimes plays guitar, but bass player and and singer. It's a very complex instrument where you play. Do you play four-string bass, five, six-string? Four string. Yeah, traditional rock and roll.

SPEAKER_06 37:50

And it's really hard to really play bass and at the same time sing, like like sting, as you say. So it's really, really hard to um you know slap the bass once you're you're at the same time we you're singing and all that. So it's it's pretty cool. But again, it's been years since I haven't I still have my bass guitar, actually, I have it in Miami, uh, full of stickers, and I see some in the background here, some guitars there. Um, and I wanna I wanted to exhibit like in the office as well. But it's it's it's in Miami on storage, and I still keep that Yamaha BB200 bass. Yamaha.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Yeah, yeah. Another one of my favorite, I'm just gonna say, and I'll I'll tell you why. John Taylor from Duran Duran. And and just seeing Will. I think Will looks a little bit like John Taylor from Duran Duran. So I saw them in Vegas earlier this year, and the whole time I'm looking at him, I go, like, that's that's like Will. That's a compliment. He's a good looking fella, I'll take that. Yeah, he is, and he's an incredible because you'd think Duran Duran, maybe pop music, not that, but if you see him play the bass live, he goes through some really complex stuff.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

That's really funny. That's the second Duran Duran conversation I've had in like a week, which and after before that, it's probably been a year.

SPEAKER_06 39:03

So that's he'd go put on some Rio or uh I saw him live. I saw him live in Miami back in 2007, I believe, 2005. He was amazing. They combined like like rock and roll, pop, electronic music. They're they're a very good band to see.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

They got the hits.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Yeah. So just as Ricky, you were telling some of the successes you've had, right? With with your music and the band. And I guess in some way it still lives on through your old singer that's re-recording some of these songs. What was your break, your big break in supply chain, and where you say that's kind of a defining moment where you went from maybe thinking of, oh, supply chain logistics is maybe a pastime because I want to get back into music or into engineering, to it like being like, oh, this is for me. I'm gonna really make this into my career.

SPEAKER_06 39:58

Yeah, I think well, the break-in moment, uh, a lot of breaking moments, but one of the biggest ones was when we really focused in one thing. I think focus brings a lot of um a lot of success if you really go at it. And again, we were too broad offering automation for for everything. Like many, uh, it's kind of reminiscent of AI companies today offering everything for everybody and automating everything. And you know, I don't think that really works. And for me, that was the aha moment when we said, well, customers are uh this is popular amongst customers, they're asking for this, we know how to do it. Yeah, there's a lot of shiny objects, but let's focus on one thing. That was the like the uh breakthrough moment for us and building Tavi Connect when you know passing from being a uh broad RPA automation to a full uh rate automation platform for great brokerages.

SPEAKER_04 40:58

So, Ricky, bringing it to 20, like where we are in this moment, give us uh with Tavi Connect your expertise. Like, what should brokers focus on in 2026 as far as the most important automation fixes like prioritized out? What do you think?

SPEAKER_06 41:16

Well, right now, trade coding automation is becoming popular because of the market is dictating that the spot market is booming. Um we we were tracking, uh we're tracking 50% increase year over year, you know, uh compared to last year. And that's that's huge. So spot market is really booming, and brokers are starting to change the mindset of can we automate this? Should we automate this? To hey, we have to automate this because most shippers now are requesting uh quick rates and accurate rates, right? And the only way to achieve that is to automate those rates, but in a way that you have control over them, controlling the markup process of a rate, you know, controlling all the nuances that go on a shipper per shipper basis and location per location basis and timing and seasonality, uh, controlling how you quote your shippers and how you can get a rate to them in three seconds, but it's a rate that you're not gonna turn back, uh a low that you're not gonna turn back when once you get it awarded, and in a low in a rate that is gonna move a truck, actually. So that combination of speed but with human control is what brokers are really embracing. Um and you know, I think again, brokers are starting to realize that coding is no longer a secret sauce, right? We as I believe when I was building a brokerage, and it was so hard to train other brokers, you know, to code stuff. Uh yeah, you can quote a truckload that is you know Atlanta to Miami, very easy, or Miami to Atlanta, uh, especially when there's no seasonality uh around Florida, but um you know, more complex freight when you start kind of um um taking into consideration accessorials, detention, lanes, regions, and you know, seasonalities and and uh contingency events, you know, like a DOT Blitz week or whatnot. And and brokers thought, hey, this this can be automated. This is my secret sauce, this is my tribal knowledge. And you know, we've proven that to be wrong, and and we've proven that to be not the case. Again, yet you have to you have to have all the controls in place to have humans in the loop, but at the same time, you need to automate that because most shippers now are requesting um automation in their TMSs or through email or whatever the rate comes from. So it's totally doable, totally possible. And we're seeing a lot of big brokerages and basically you know, uh all size brokerages having a lot of success when they do it right. But you have to have the you know, we have to have change management in place as leaders convincing the broker. In the room to you know really embrace the automation, embrace the technology and not fear that automation is gonna quote wrong. But again, if you put the right controls in place, the automation will go exactly as well as if the human was uh quoting it.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Ricky. I think a lot of people, and not just brokers, but carriers, shippers, all of them are kind of looking at how is this new technology, all this AI and AI agents, how do we mix that with the people, right? Because the people in our organization are still so critical. What do you see in your experience and in your view that is kind of that secret sauce of how you bring together in the best way the talent that you have, the people you have, and the technology? Because it's not one versus the other, right? I always say it's not technology replacing people, it's really people being augmented by enabled by the technology.

SPEAKER_06 44:54

That's the same vision uh at Tavi. And my vision, it's have the right moments of truth of uh of humans in the loop controlling the process, whatever it is, if it's recording or track and tracing or even a back office um uh process, it's it's having the right controls, having the right reviews, um, in the case of AI, it's having having the AI being trained um and not with the right data, and data becomes cold, you know, in this um in this age, especially for AI. So again, you know, humans in the loop, uh in the right places in the right moment, approving the right things, training and prompting the AI uh the right way. It's like you know, prompting AI or training AI is the same thing as you're training a person. If you give the person vague uh instructions, the outcome won't be as accurate, right? And but if you're detailed, if you spend the time you know correcting and you know looking backwards and saying, hey, this should be this way and not that way, and and pre-trained, you know, the outputs are gonna just compound and be more accurate over time. So that's the same uh the way we apply technology um in Tavi and for customers, it's AI and and you know automation are here to augment the human and not necessarily replace the human. Now, if you don't use AI and if you don't if you think that AI is gonna replace you, it's likely gonna replace you. But if you're gonna if you start using AI, you multiply yourself, you know, 5x, 10x using AI and have AI become your superpower, that's how you win over other people and and and companies are not necessarily uh using or embracing AI. So that's kind of how we see um AI uh playing uh in in sci-fi programmers.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Now, of course, Ricky, with all that technology comes a lot of options, right? A lot of things they can do. What would you recommend to kind of brokers and logistic service providers? What's kind of the one thing they should be focused on, right? Because a lot of people they lack focus. What, in your view, is something they should focus on this year and beginning of next year, as we're already over half of 2026. To give them more of that, like you said, right? In the beginning, you guys were doing a lot of things. Focus is the most important. What should those guys focus on?

SPEAKER_06 47:26

Well, of course, I'm biased, but I think it starts with um automated freight quoting. It starts, that's where the load starts, that's the headwater of a load, and that's how the broker makes money, you know. And so if you automate that the right way, you expect you, you know, increase the top of funnel, um augment the top of funnel, you know, eliminate the bottleneck that exists at the headwater of the load, and then everything else, it's so much easier uh moving forward. Once you automate freak voting, you increase volume, and then you you have good problems to solve, which is a lot of loads. Okay, how how do I move them? And then you start putting in place automation for you know track and trace and um you know uh dispatch and booking settlements, etc. etc. But it all starts with you know the automation piece. When you are automating other things but um uh the freight quoting process, then you have a bottleneck. So humans are quoting and they just have limited time quoting. Um, you know, they spend time, they're probably not as accurate, the tribal knowledge is disperse and siloed, but then you have a lot of automation underneath and in the track and trace and AI agents calling and booking loads and negotiating loads. Well, it's it's kind of backwards. So, you know, if you start with automating um the prices to your shippers, then everything else is is going to be so much easier to solve.

SPEAKER_05 49:05

Thank you, thank you. That's that's that's terrific.

SPEAKER_04 49:07

That's uh that's the kind of advice we're looking to provide on this show. Not just not just great playlists and music, but but giving real world advice to our freight brokerage audience. Um as we start to, you know, we like to call this the encore part of the of the interview here, Ricky. So uh you've had a very interesting career, very punk rock, not just the way that you started in punk rock, but you started your business with three grand. That's super punk rock, right? So yours is not an orthodox linear timeline, but could you maybe share with some of our uh listeners that are new to their career or just starting out their career, like what are some lessons that you learned, including failures, you know, pivots, all the things that go into such an interesting career like yourself?

SPEAKER_06 49:56

Yeah, well, I'm gonna be a little bit um uh spiritual here. And I I believe a lot in spirituality. I'm I'm not a religious person, but I believe a lot in manifestation and and the power of the mind. And I believe that if you start something and you really do it with passion and you really trust the process, and trust is like uh on the religious side, it's like having faith that things are gonna just develop as they should develop and keep doing and have the consistency of doing it and and have and hold the vision very, very boldly. And yes, you can pivot, yes, you can you know change course, but if you hold the vision, it it it will happen 100% of the times it will happen. So for for you know, new entrepreneurs or people that want to be um you know starting a broker in logistics or a tracking company or whatever. I also had a tracking company that failed. Um I I take it as a lesson, not necessarily as a failure, but um, you know, if you're gonna start something, really believe that you know that will manifest and hold it in your mind. And every day you wake up, you just hold it in your mind. And there's there the only way there's no way it won't happen. It has to happen because you manifest everything that you um um envision.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

You you bring up a good point, right? Don't be afraid of failure. If you look at in time and some of the most successful people, you know, they failed at some point, right? And sometimes you learn more from failure. It's not really a failure, it's something that didn't quite work out the way you want it to, but sometimes you get more learnings from that to then put you on the right path to do things successfully. I I can name so many examples from my own home country, the US, of people that at some point failed. The difference is you don't give up, right? So, in in today's world, now the industry is starting to change a little bit last few years, really bad, right? In the logistics industry with the recession. So, as we start to see, like it seems we're starting to turn the corner, rates have gone up, capacity starting to limit, obviously here in the US with drivers going out of the industry because of regulations, uh, a lot of different things going on. What would you say looking forward, where people maybe coming new into the industry, where is like maybe a great opportunity for them to either start a business or if they're looking for their next role? I have some friends, their kids coming out of college, they're maybe they they studied supply chain. What do you see, Ricky, going forward as some really great opportunities?

SPEAKER_06 52:37

So a lot of opportunities in automation and and use of AI. Um, this is gonna be a a very compressed margin business. It's just gonna keep compressing as the nature of the beast. Um, you know, talent uh is gonna continue to be uh uh scarce. And uh as long as you're uh you pick a niche, uh again, focus is the biggest thing when you're starting something and building something, pick a niche, believe in it, be great for your customers, still show up as a human, have a lot of automation to support your process with the right uh uh human in the loops in parts of the process. And that's kind of my advice for for again people and entering the supply chain. And it's gonna be, you know, the next five, 10 years in logistics are gonna be super interesting, right? With compliance growing, uh, you know, uh pressuring uh compression in in the different players in trucking companies and volatility in geopolitics and fuel and you know, competition just increasing. I think again, pick a niche, uh, you know, bring the right automation to your business, still show up as a human to build relationships, uh bring the best service to your shippers, and that's the way you differentiate from everybody else that is doing the same, right? It's it's about still a relationship business, still a human-to-human business, but the execution of it needs to have a lot of automation to really um um have you be more efficient while delivering the the human-to-human service.

SPEAKER_00 54:19

Yeah, and I think before Will's gonna take us into the outro of this episode, one thing we always like to ask each other, all of us on the show, is what's gonna be the next concert you've got planned and where is it gonna be?

SPEAKER_06 54:34

I still don't know. Uh it's gonna be probably one in the US, um, but I still don't know. I'm still kind of planning that out. Um, yeah, I I can't answer that question right now. I I I just don't know. I don't have anything planned right now.

SPEAKER_00 54:48

Sounds like we need to get together and and find a place where we can go and see one. Will, I know for sure you got not just one, but probably a whole set of concerts planned. Tell us what you're gonna see next.

SPEAKER_04 54:59

Friday, I'm gonna go see Kurt Weil, V-I-L-E. He could be a candidate for for you know our song one of these times. He's kind of an album out. Uh he's had an album out for a couple months, and I love him. I've seen him a couple times, including one time with the previous guest, Eric Rempel, when we were at Gartner Symposium. We went into downtown Orlando and saw Kurt Weil. But he's playing here, uh, here being Atlanta on Friday at Variety Playhouse, which is a place that I love and have played myself. So I'm very much looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

And Will, I gotta ask you since the last episode, I think you played your own concert, if I correct uh correctly remember. Tell us a little bit about that experience.

SPEAKER_04 55:38

Yeah, well, it's funny because we started this talking about the World Cup. So in my uh so I live right in between Emory University and the Decatur Square, Decatur, Georgia. And so Decatur's a mile from me. And so they have sort of adopted Soccer City USA here because it's on the MARTA line. Like you can just hop on a train and be down at Mercedes-Benz, you know, in 15 minutes. So they have become like the one-stop shop ahead of that. So so they put up a brand new stage, and every day of the World Cup, they have had, they've shown every game, every single game on the on the big screen behind the stage. And then afterwards or before, depending on the time, they have a band and have music, which is just really cool. I've been up there like six or eight times. I'll be up there for the final on Sunday. But um, they let us Kristen the stage uh on of back in early June, right? The the weekend when it started. So we got to play. It was a free show for anybody that wanted to come. And and Ricky, we we we do this Tom Petty show. Um, and we had a thousand people there, man. It was it was absolutely fantastic. And it was uh all my friends and neighbors and family, and it was a beautiful moment. Beautiful moment. So thanks for asking, Bart. It was fun as well.

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Yeah, I need to go find a couple of smaller shows like that. Um, I'm I'm pretty much the guy that now says I'm I don't want to do the big, big shows, but I like the classics. So I think my next one, I think the first one's gonna be in September. We're gonna see the last show of the residency of Sammy Hagar, who's playing, he does best of both worlds, so he plays his stuff, the the Hagar stuff, the Red Rocker stuff, but he plays the Van Halen songs. He does it with one of my favorite guitar players. You see the guitar behind me, Joe Satriani on guitars, Kenny Aronoff on drums, and then Michael Anthony on bass. Uh, it's a great show, it's the last day of the residency. And then I just booked tickets uh for me and my daughter to go see. If you guys don't know him, there's this guy that sounds just like Freddie Mercury. He was actually selected by the Queen Guys to when they brought their show back to play. This was the cover band, but it was produced by Queen. The guy is a Canadian called Mark Martell. His voice is incredible, gives me chills just thinking about it. I've seen him three times already. We were flying in November to Chandler, Arizona to go see them. It is two hours of all the Queen songs. You close your eyes, you think Freddie Mercury's there.

SPEAKER_04 58:08

Yeah. Oh wow. I did not know that uh Kenny Ehrnoff was playing in this the Hagar band. Kenny Ehrnoff.

SPEAKER_00 58:16

So he he replaced Jason Bonham last year. There you go. That's right. I knew there was somebody. Yeah. So so Ricky, I gotta ask you, because being in Colombia, I know Colombia has a lot of great musicians, a lot of great artists. Uh, and we'll we'll include some of that in our Spotify playlist. Is there one specific song you're currently listening to that's by a Colombian artist that you think people in the US should know about this person or this band?

SPEAKER_06 58:46

Uh well, there's a lot of reggaeton artists. I don't I'm not too much into reggaeton, just a couple of songs here and there, uh, especially from Jay Baldwin. Uh he's uh like an icon here in Medellin. Um so I I will I will recommend any of the of the new songs. I I don't have the name right in front of me. Um but uh it's he's he's a good singer. He's a good singer, you know, in the reggaeton arena. Again, I'm not a reggaeton guy, but I think we're one of the most popular cities on earth for for reggaeton. So any any song from Dave Balvin.

SPEAKER_04 59:20

Okay, we're gonna we're gonna pick the we're gonna pick one and we're gonna use that as our as our outro music, Bart. So uh, but so you'll hear that at after we close out here. And thank you. Thank you so much, Ricky Gonzalez, for spending so much time with us today. We've really enjoyed learning about uh your career, certainly not just in supply chain, but in punk rock. And it is pretty unique, Bart, how many punk rockers there are in supply chain. I don't think I knew that coming into us doing this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 59:51

You yeah, and and so many great things. And and again, if you look, we're on here, we got Will from the US, got Ricky from Colombia, myself originally from Belgium. And that was one of the reasons why we wanted to put this show together around music, because independent of your nationality, your race, your religion, whatever it is, music binds everyone together, right? We might speak a different language, but we might all listen to the same song, get the same feeling. And that's really that connection point, which, and I think Ricky, you will confirm that as well. We I think there is something similar in logistics where if you're all in logistics, it kind of naturally binds you together as people. That's why I love it. I got into it in the 90s, it took a hold of me, and I never let it go, and I still enjoy it to this day.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:38

I agree, guys, and thank you for inviting me. Um, I think there's a lot of um uh things in common between music and supply chain, and I love to see people with with you know um musical uh you know liking music the same I do. And yeah, I enjoyed the conversation a lot. So thanks, thanks uh for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:59

And to the audience, thanks for listening to the show. Or if you're viewing it, don't forget about our Spotify playlist. Uh and we hope to see you somewhere at a concert. Reach out to us, email us, and don't forget to also listen to the next episode of the Supply Chain Rock Stars.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:18

Thank you, guys. HappyConnect.com, go check it out. Thank you, guys. See ya.