Dennis, thank you for coming in today, Ryerson, well why don't you tell me what you are at Ryerson, what you do there? I am currently an operations specialist, sales operations specialist, we are a team of five people right now that handle quotes by outs. And we work with our sales team, our transactional sales team, to pretty much speed up their day -to -day process. They are looking to put in orders. They're trying to get their job to take more orders, get them out quickly, get them service to their customer as fast as possible. - So can you tell me what's transactional for anyone that transactional versus what? - Transactional would be just somebody calling from the job shop off of the side of the road that's looking to buy two pieces of angle to maybe a piece of plate. They're gonna fabricate for their You know a customer who maybe buys 5 ,000 pounds every other day of this particular tubing So they're not tied into a contract structurally with us. They're just looking for material that you know Down the road for whatever jobs they use So it could be something as simple as they're out in the shop welding. They dang it. I'm 100 feet short Yeah, they could be they need two pieces that come in will call cash sales or it could be that they send a PO and they're looking for 60 sheets of you know 304 to be looking for 60 sheets of 20 or 20 gauge galvanized 60 by 120 or they're looking for you know couple of channels couple of i -beam something like that so you told me we spoke earlier that you've you're sitting at about 28 years as part of the Ryerson family and let's wind the clock back a little bit though we talked about we all have our path and it sounds like if I understand correctly you started your journey in Greenville South Carolina yes and so how did we get from Greenville and I know we're in Atlanta There was probably some school in there, some events in there somewhere, so kind of just walk us through, how did you get to the point of being at Ryerson, what was your journey to there? Well, the journey was weird and long. And we got time, so you can unpack anything you feel like you need to unpack. So, well, my parents, we were all in Greenville, my mom and dad, my dad started trans, Well, he started a offshoot of his current business and so he was literally going to Atlanta from Tuesday to Thursday and then coming back. So he was commuting back and forth to Atlanta during my high school years. That's a drive? That's a drive. How far is it? It's from Greenville to Atlanta, it's to Atlanta it's about two hours. So he was actually there three days a week living down there coming back and so once my senior year I graduated high school and I was the last kid my dad packed up to him and my mom and me. So you're the youngest in the family. Youngest in the family and so he packed up and we moved to Atlanta so he could he could be there for five days a week you know And then by then, he was also starting his own business, so it totally, you know, snowballed and I was the youngest kid, so I was going. So fast forward to college, spent a time, didn't have a lot of responsibilities, so I wound up not doing as well as I should have. And where'd you go undergrad? I went undergrad to Clemson University for one Okay, it sounds like fun. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I spent way too much time enjoying The partying side of school versus the studying side. Well, that can be a distraction It definitely was so I wound up Academic probation my kids like like to laugh and tell me that it took me a long time to get through college I said well, you know lessons learned. You're ready when you're ready. Yeah. So from there, I know I needed to get something into the back of my head that made me want to go to college, want to get something done, and I knew I wasn't ready. So how did you know that? Like for real, like there are a lot of people that don't know that. And they just sort of like, oh, it's just on the seven -year program. And you know, - You know, interesting enough, I let my parents down. - Okay. - So I knew that. - You were feeling that. - I could see it 'cause my sister went through college four years straight, my brother went through, it was currently in college at University of South Carolina and he was doing his thing and even though he, he kept it together, he graduated in four years. But I didn't feel that I, I just knew I couldn't do it because I wasn't mature enough to handle it. Yeah. Yeah, so I needed something to kickstart me which Turned out to be I signed a contract with your aren't US Army for three years Army we have other branches. How'd you decide on that or that's just what kind of well presented itself to wait There's two things at the time the Army was the only service that was using the G .I. College bill and what year we talking 1988 or 1987 when I signed up at the time they were the only ones that were using the college fund and the G .I. College bill because that was still left over from you know Vietnam era even World War two no other part of the Army of the services That I knew we're offering that dad Also my dad's best friend was a lieutenant colonel and in the army So I had called him to say look I need some information. Give me some talk. Give me something to talk about and so I signed a three -year contract started off and You know they tell you You give us a hundred dollars a month for a year We'll take care of your college fund at the end of your term and we're good to go. - So like quick pause right here. So how surprised were your parents by this pivot and were you, once you sort of signed, you're like, well, I'm in it now. (laughing) - Well, I do remember the day when I walked home after I went down to the recruiter and talked to him, signed everything, I came home. My dad was at working, So my mom was the only one home I walked in and she looked at me. She said where you been? I said, well You really want to know I said I Needed to do something and I think I did it and she looked at me like what do you mean? I said, well, I can't get college paid for I'm not doing anything to help get college paid for So I just signed up for three years in the service She looked at me her face kind of was like blank. it was like well you shouldn't make a kind of thing yeah kind of like are you what what and i said and i told her i said i called ken mastella which was my dad's best friend yeah i said i talked to him i figured out what i needed to do and i did it and so i broke the news to her and it was uh that would have been november of 87 And I signed up to start basic training in February of 1988. So I had a three month gap. And is there-- so if you sign up and maybe two months in that three month gap, you're not really feeling that anymore. Is there an option there? Or you're locked and loaded, and you've got to go. You're pretty much locked and loaded. I know that you can get out of it, I'm sure, because you haven't taken your first Sure, okay, but you know, I don't know how to how would navigate that side, but I was did that did I even cry you're like It's not that much time. No, I didn't cross my mind. I'd already knew that I needed it and I was gonna do it. So Here we go. And now so you reached out to your dad's buddy Does that mean your dad knew what was going on here or or he did not yet? No, My dad did not know my dad didn't find out so you told mom and now you still got to tell dad Yeah, I still got to tell dad. So pretty much the same thing. He looked at me like oh Really and you know at the time everything was good. There was nothing going on. It was 88 Nobody could see that you know where the world was going. So I think they're felt okay. Yeah, like yeah We're not in the middle of nom (clears throat) - Or two. - But, you know, still, the youngest kid just signed a three -year contract and he's going into the service, okay. - Yeah, I mean, that's, you know. So they, how long did it take them to kind of process? Not that they really had a choice at this point, but like, how long did it take them to sort of be like, all right, we're behind you on that, or did that? - And I don't think there was any time to process for that. - So you gave them the news, really. - I gave them the news and I told them that's what I needed to do. I said, there's no way that I was gonna ask them to pay for my college if I-- who didn't do what you did. - Yeah. - And, you know, some of them do sort of snap out of it, either kind of their own acknowledgement or there's some sort of force outside of them that helps them get there, but there are a lot of people that don't and they sort of languish. And, you know, so that's impressive that all that transpired, you had to tell your mom, you had to Tell your dad and you got the older sibling, you know, I'm young. It's like kind of get sort of, you know bars get set and Expectations are real and so That's work. Yeah. Well, I Figured I need to do something to kick start my self into in the right direction. So and you know from there You get like a packing list of shit you got to take I remember we got a camp and you're like bring your toothbrush so you get all stuff in the mail subsequently well you got a list of okay you need a pair of running shoes you need a pair of you know jog pair of joggers you need a sweatshirt you need but then you think no formal clothing gonna be running you're like you're not taking a lot you know they don't tell you tell you you know you don't need this you don't need you know take some take a few articles of clothes that basically when you walk into basic training you need toiletries and a toothbrush pretty much and a razor and there is stop it they're gonna give you and so you just kind of show up with your little bag yeah show up you know you got running shoes great that's what you're gonna use because the tracksuit that you just bought. Did you look like you thinking you're looking good in? Yeah. You're not gonna see that. Do you remember what kind of rain shoes you took? I took some Nike's. You did? Yeah. Nike air had occurred. It had. Because I remember, you know, you had Bo Jackson air, Bo Nose, and that was all air. Jordan and stuff. I think mine were either fluorescent yellow or fluorescent orange. They were, you know, they Muted it, but it was like, you know, they just said you need some running shoes. So I was like, okay I wasn't a color restriction. It wasn't on that. No, and you figure if it's a little bit of green. Hey, we'll give me So what kind of physical shape did you roll in with had you did you like leave the bar and go to basic or what are we talking? I Probably 135 pounds. Oh, you know skinny and Had, you know, you know, maybe a step up. Yeah, it was a step up. Definitely. And do you remember? So where did you go? Like, where do you report to? I reported to Fort Knox, Kentucky. Okay. And when you got there, do you remember the feeling you had when you shut up all these guys doing stuff? You know, no one even, you know, kind of the, as you matriculate, is there a moment in those days or that day that you're like, okay, this is, I signed up for this and here I am. And well it's on now um the next morning roughly when you get there everybody everybody started trickling in it was uh February 23rd was our first first day that we were actually supposed to report and you get there and it's funny because if you've seen the movie stripes of course they're all sitting in the one room and it's got all the decorations of all the army places and all this the patches and whatnot and that room was real. I have actually sat in that room and I've seen it. Like that actual room as well. That actual room is real. It's like one of the best movies ever. And the barracks that they were showing in the background and everything those were real at the time they're not there anymore but I do remember our first night being there I was in one of the big the big barracks. Really, the bay was completely open it you know hundred and twenty of us all just stuck in this room and sure enough four o 'clock in the morning trash can city comes banging through you never heard of 55 gallon trash can come galvanized trash can come down a hole comes getting down between the beds it makes a lot of noise at four in the morning scared shit out of you - When before that had been the last time you got up at four? - Well, getting up at four, staying up till four is different, but-- - Totally different. (laughs) At four a .m. if you're staying up, where's everyone going? - Yeah, you're like, "Mines will stand the rest of the day." Probably not for a while. I had not seen the sunrise like that. I mean, I've been up at six Yeah, you know four o 'clock's a little different. Yeah when the birds aren't even chirping. No, there's nothing chirping Yeah, there's there still heads down in the nest It's so the thing comes sliding down the hallway and that's when you were probably like Yeah, it's on it's on So had full metal jacket been made already. No, it had not so you didn't get sort of that You know, I don't know depending in whom you talk to there are parts that feel accurate and some parts that are like yeah well that's kind of movie -ish but did it feel I mean having been through that and you saw full metal jacket where you're like yeah that's not that far off yeah they did a they did some pretty good representation dress you down pretty well a few times yeah thing oh yeah and the name of bringing everybody together yeah we it - It was a cohort unit, so we started off at Basie Training for the whole time. Our unit was going to deploy to Fort Hood, Texas and we were going to be together as a group for three years. So basically the core group. - So this is a program. - Yeah, it was a program at the time. The Army doesn't do it anymore, but at the time during the late 80s, they tried and you know, successfully. we think we did well because you know during any of our gunneries any of our field exercises we seem to think that our unit at Texas even first you know even in Korea we kicked ass because we you guys have got chemistry it was good I mean there was yeah we always you know we're off company these guys were Bravo these Charlie and these are Delta we you know we kind of like we're better than you but in the beginning we were all the same basic training. How big was the cohort overall? It was about 120 of us. Okay. So when we filtered in. And the companies are how big at that time? Gotta be 4, 10, 12, so 40. There's probably 50, 55 people per company once you got down to it. So they split us up between the four companies. So I mean, you know, bottom line, we were the privates, we were the, the fresh guys coming out of basic. So we were filling in as drivers, loaders, you know, so you can, you're driving a Humvee because we need somebody to do it, you're driving a tank. So I mean, they've backfilled all that unit. So we were all there. Humvee Humphies are pretty new piece of equipment at that time, isn't it? They were at the time. They were. Remember when those hit, they were like, those things were awesome, you know? They were, and I actually got to drive my battalion XO for about eight months. The battalion executive officer, that and the story itself, we'll just, we'll flash forward to being at Texas, We went to National Training Center in California, came back, my first sergeant had said that the exo, the battalion executive officer was looking for a new driver. What had happened to the old driver? He just, he'd finished his term of service and he was getting out. It's not because he... No, he didn't do anything wrong. Okay. But because his guy ended his term of service, he needed a new driver and My first sergeant was going on vacation and he told the next, the staff sergeant below him, he said, "Do not let anyone go to headquarters and apply for this job. I don't want to lose anybody from my company." Well, the two sergeant at the time that was in charge sent me because I was the odd man out of his company. I had just gotten into his platoon right before NTC I was I was actually the that got trained to be the armor of small arms all of our pistols and rifles and whatnot so I was doing that and that as in the headquarters I didn't have a tank I was had a Humvee I drove the first sergeant around and that was you know I was I took care of all the small arms. Well, you're at this small arms equipment manager Yeah, basically, I was the guy to make sure that everything was working and something broke. They came to me I had to fix it so flash forward to the you know Staff Sergeant Norris tells me to go up to headquarters and I go up and majorize. Did you know why? Yeah, he told me they - But he weren't shit in Bringsley. - No, no, it was, they were asking someone from each company had to go report and interview with the major. And it was kind of funny because the major asked me, he said, "So Private Erewood, why did you volunteer "or why did you want to be my driver?" - What kind of guys, it's like, who were you looking at? - Well, he was the second in command of the battalion. So this guy was, you know, was he kind of an imposing guy or major kind of fine major Hamilton? He was, he was a big guy. He's a little burly, you know, kind of got a little gruff. Um, you know, his next position was the battalion commander. So he was trying to make sure he did everything right so he could get promoted. He's advancing. Okay. So he could advance. And I just read the situation as though, Hmm. I have an option, I have option A or option B. I can tell him that, you know, I want to be his driver and not get the job or I can be like, might be kind of fun. So I told him, I said, well, my first sergeant basically said that no one from my company needed to come up here because he didn't want to lose anybody to you as a driver. And he said, really? I said, yes, sir. And he goes, "You go back, you tell your first sergeant that you're reporting to me on Monday at eight o 'clock." - Just like that. - Just like that. - Oh, shit. - I went back and I told Sergeant Norris, says, "Hey, Sergeant Norris, apparently Major Hamilton wants me to be his driver." Sorry about that, thanks. - That was Adios? - Kind of like, well, Sergeant Norris at the time, I knew why he sent me and I kind of threw his ass under the bus because I didn't know it was my yeah so I knew because of the driver prior I knew what he did and literally he gets up every morning and he would go down to the motor pole he would get the Humvee get back up to the same one every day same one every day major Hamilton's names on it his name was on it he would get the Humvee get back up to battalion and be on call basically for the major to do whatever major needed to do as a driver. But he also by usually one o 'clock in the afternoon, major said, I'm done. Have a nice day. So he cuts you loose for the day. Cut you loose for the day. You're done. What do you do? You just. Nothing. Do whatever you want to. So I knew that. The rest of your team's running by. The rest of my team is getting up at 6 .30 for PT and I'm over here walking to the motor pool to get the on the gas thing waving I'm like bye that's a pretty sweet deal it was um got my name on the Humvee yeah got a promotion from it got a little award after the fact for being a driver um but literally for the last seven eight months that I was at Fort Hood I was I was skating. - You were. - I was up. I would go hang out with the major. - This army thing's not so bad. - So I got my own home veta drive, got to hang out, open the battalion headquarters, got to see a lot of things. - Did you enjoy the actual job itself? Like did he get in the car, did you guys ever talk or he got in the car and said, take me here? - Both. You know, we discussed things and one of the us parts about it. We were out in the middle of Texas, nowhere, on the range, and we're driving, and he's like, "Erwin, get me over the top of that hill." How fast you want to go? It's like you're in a Humvee. It's like, "Okay, there's no road." So pull off from the middle of the Texas army base, and you're like, "Okay, - Get up and go around, get up to the top. There's a lip that's probably about three, about two to three feet tall. There's just, all of a sudden, for some reason, the way it's just that-- - It's a shelf. - It's a shelf. It's almost straight up and over. - Yeah. - And I noticed the Humvee up to the top and he looks at me and he goes, you better not get me stuck. And he's on the right side over here, I just reached down and stopped it, put it down into low, put it down into low, low. And I looked at him and kind of was like, you're talking to a 21 year old kid who's-- - I will literally for it. - Hey, you know, it's like, you double dog dared me to tell me don't get me stuck. And you're just, okay, he looked at me and I had this shit eating grin on, I know I tapped that thing and it popped up over were you looking at sky for a second? Oh, yeah, okay Yeah, but I but the way I knew that thing handled. I was like I was gonna get him up there and Literally it got him up top hit the brakes and we sat on top of this plateau and he's looking around like He looked at me like that was good And I knew he knew it. It was test. He's like I want you to get me up on top of this without killing me. But yeah. - And was he like, "Guys, narrow one." Like when you went up over it or he just sort of sat there cool as a cucumber. - Cool as a cucumber, broke a little grin and said, "Good job." All right, nice. - That's awesome. - So was it more fun going off the shelf? - Oh, it was, it was fun. It was, it was kind of one of those. - You got to be all in. - Well, - Yeah, it's kind of like, which way are we going? 'Cause they don't have a good suspension. I mean, they don't get beat up, but it's like punch it and go. But we would get out and we would leave from one area. And it's, you know, you're running down the road, you're gonna get tired, eight fall asleep. And then we get back, he looked at his watch and he's like, good time. Well, yeah, I was doing 75, 80. And you had no idea. And you're just asleep back there. And he's sleeping in the chair beside me. We pull up and he was like, all right, take off the day. That's a pretty solid assignment. It was. And so that got you all the way through that segment. And then where were you after that? We all deployed to Korea. You did. Yeah. And that was just What was the purpose of that deployment? Oh, we were just rotating into the to Alpha company at 172nd armor And we were we were actually the first company to put M1 tanks into Korea Okay, so that was our that was our apparently contract from day one We didn't really know it. They didn't really broadcast that when they first signed up So they knew that they it but you joined they didn't really tell us we kind of heard inklings of the rumor but as it got closer to the time to deploy that's when they said you guys are taking them ones we've got one one Abrams it was actually the M1 IP M1 Abrams was the tank yes sir and then were you replacing Sherman's what were you replacing um we were we're replacing m60s okay - Which was the old, I think that's a patent. I don't know, '40 it's a patent. I can't remember the designation, but the M60s were the last ones, I think M60 A3s, but. - Well, the M1 represented quite an upgrade. - Yeah. - In a tank. And so, how close to the parallel were you like? - We were about 15 miles You were okay, so you're you're pretty close and they certainly see those things rolling in. Oh, yeah And was there any word once those hit ground there from? Northside we we had a Probably three Based on the timing. We probably had three or four alerts once a month They would hit a they would hit the alarm and you would hear this air siren going off and it was Lurt City so we kind of knew ahead of time that was as possible that this weekend was going to be the alert or to Lurt was coming up in a couple days because but we as a battalion as a whole freaking division literally you would get in and you would move to a preplotted designation point somewhere North of where we're at mm -hmm, and we actually did this and in conjunction with the Republic Army Korea Moving - okay, so We kind of did join exercises, but we would have an alert once a month and at the time desert shield was going on our desert Yeah, so what are we about 90 now? We're right 90 mid -summer of 1990, so Desert Shield was going on and North Korea was not getting oil from the Middle East, so they were kind of looking at every time we moved, every time we went somewhere, they were kind of, you know, everybody keeping an eye on us. Yes. So probably about October was the time frame when it, we kind of stopped doing anything. - Okay, but you were still in Korea? - Yeah, we're still in Korea, but we were all just kind of reinforced, grouped up, just making sure nothing's going crazy on our side of the world. But in the same turn, we were all watching Desert Shield. We're like-- - QATV. - Those guys are the ones that replaced us when we left Texas. And now they're in Korea. So it's like, ah. - So when you came to realize that, hey, we, that was our train. - Yeah, we-- - You know, like, so what was your feeling? Did you feel like, oh, I wish I were there? Did you feel like, ah, it's pretty good here in Korea. - A little both. But I mean, you know, we Took it with a grain of salt, but it was also we were You know 22 year old kids pissed off because we couldn't be there. Yeah, you're trained up. Yeah, we're like come on but We wound up when the air were started they they started to deploy us to Carson because the fourth infantry division was the next Division that was supposed to be going to the Middle East and Got home watching all the news and then got to Carson. It was like hey now. What do I do? Yeah, what do I do? Well, so you were in you were in a tank though in Korea You you were trained up to be part of the team in the tank Yeah, right in the M1 and I asked you earlier How loud is it when that when you fire that thing inside of it? I assume you've never been hit by a shell which is probably really loud well if you hit my show you wouldn't be sitting here right but I'm how many decibels we talking inside that thing it's probably can't be measured it's probably 120 or higher I mean you know concerts or they say concerts are 90 95 I don't know but it's you know it's loud for that second that it's off but you have the hearing protection on Yeah, we got just kind of like these but it's a helmet, but it's you know, it's not as you're gonna hear it You're gonna hear it. You know feel it and so you tell me about this. I'd never you know I wasn't in the army. Thank you for your service by the way How big of a shell or projectile so you got the whole the whole cartridge I guess they're about Yeah, they're about arms width. Yeah, cuz carrying and loading them and putting them together. They're about like here. - Yeah, and the projectiles, you got this, your projectiles, maybe this. - It's about a third of it, for maybe a little under half. - Is this just a giant bull? Is it just a hunk of a head up there? Like what's-- - For that one, the sable was a, what is it, depleted uranium? - Mm -hmm, and that's when you're telling me about that it just melts right through. - Yeah, basically-- - More than right through yeah basically breaking through it just kind of disintegrates as it all makes a hole all the way through so you fire this thing it hits a plate steel kind of melts it keeps going yep and you think you could do in and out inside going out the other yeah there's enough force behind it is not stopping at what point you say let's just get out of this time right it's like the middle ages as soon as guns came around they're like or the fucking armor anymore. - Well, I mean, as you see now, ours were better design, so I would stay in my tank best as I could. - I remember watching that on TV. It was like a phalanx of tanks going across this huge open field. - Crushing it. - And it was like, see, see, see, see, see, going in, it was Q8, right? - Yeah. - And you could see the oil plant or whatever it was. And then all the fires are burning off. And I think they're using night vision to televise some of this stuff because I remember it's been a while since I watched, but I think everything was green tinted. And it was, it was crazy to watch just like these lines of tanks, these columns just going across like, well, there's no way this is going to last a long time. It didn't. It was less than a week, wasn't it? about three and a half, four days. Yeah. Yeah. So you're in Korea at that moment? Well, I'm in Atlanta. I'm in route from Korea to Carson. So I'm home for seven days maybe. Watching it on the news. Okay, so that wrapped up really quickly. And so are you staying in the Army for a bit or you're kind of wrapping up? No, my my enlistment was going gonna be over in June that year anyway okay so I go to Carson and once I got finished with that I was on the way home so I can go back to college okay so you're gonna so you when you so far as your plan going the way you expected you joined in 88 you went in there like okay I need to you know recalibrate yeah basically and you come out in 91 Do you feel like, okay, I'm kind of, I feel like a different person now. I've got that, whatever you're after, structure or your compass, whatever it is, do you feel like, okay, now I'm good, I'm gonna go do this? - It is, it took me, I settled in for, got a job, settled down for a couple of months, and started school again in '92, and did my four years, got it all handled, got it, It was paid for, so that was a bonus, and-- - Your parents shocked you actually, actually then went back to school, and then like, this was a big, ambitious plan, frankly. - Yeah, I mean, they could see a difference. I mean, yeah, I still went out, I still had fun, but this time I knew that the college was paid for, but I had to keep a GPA. You know, I had to keep at least a 2 .0, I think to keep my check coming every month from the service from the government and as long as I had my grade point average up, they would send me a check and I could apply it to college. And it did. I got it. I finally got finished in four years and got it done. That's impressive. It would be easy not to do that. Oh yeah. Yeah. You can just easily not do that. But I did. I got all the, I guess, the fun out of it beforehand and, you know, I grew up in those three years to where I knew that I could actually do what I put my mind to. You had confidence. Yeah. That's awesome. And you keep in touch with a good slug of those guys you were with? We do. We try to get together at least once a year and mainly A lot of us are, you know, social media, but, you know, I've got phone calls from friends that just, you know, passing through or, hey, I'm going to be here. Can we meet? And or I'm coming close and what a, what a nice byproduct. Yeah. Good friends. You know, to, to not be walking through this life kind of alone, you've got all these people. It probably scattered all over the US. Uh, So, we're probably getting close to finding Ryerson at this point. We are. So, you are honorably discharged, and then you are finishing school, you finish school, and then are you straight to Ryerson? Unfortunately, I did take, I graduated I graduated in '96, so it took me about six to seven months to find a job. I was working at night, so a lot in the problem, but at the time, you know, we didn't have LinkedIn, we didn't have social media, we didn't have all our helping tools that we could get, so I was literally cold calling just industries. I went, it's gonna out, it's gonna date me, but I went to the library and I pulled open the Dunn and Bradstreet book, yeah, of company names, went through the Georgia section and started just looking at jobs off, you know, seriously, looking at businesses locally around Atlanta. Just looking for targets, not even what's available, just like, what companies just exist? - And just looking at stuff that I thought could fit my wheelhouse, you know? You know, I was a marketing major, business management with minor in marketing. So at that point, it was like, where can I put myself and I can make the best of it? And it just so happens that back in probably January of In 1997, I got a phone call, you know, I took a stack of resumes, mailed them out to all these companies, and you know, mailing and doing all this stuff. We didn't have, it wasn't digital, it wasn't. So I got a call from Ryerson to say, "Hey, would you like to come interview?" And I actually interviewed with two people, and the person who did hire me I worked I started work for him that February at 97 and I've been there since wow so you took you about six months to get in the door somewhere anyway it was yeah it was like just just give me the chance let me get started and so you got started and where did where did you start what were you doing oh my boss it was a he was old school so he was First you're going to work in the plant and you're going to do everything in the plant for a month And then you're going to come in and we're going to find you something to do so I actually went out to the plant for Literally a month. I was a first shift working worked all the machines Learned how to drive a forklift learn how to work the train that Craig and I used to drive major pan around This is layup. I'm like, I just drive a tank. I can drive a forklift. It's not hard. Right. Um, but so I did that. And then from there, he actually handed me, um, an inventory position. So we were bringing material in from three different port, three different places in the United States and having it up there, having it cut at these processors, bringing it into Atlanta. And then that was my job was to get the material, bring it in, have it processed, get it from the processor to Atlanta, build it out, ship it, do everything. And once it got to Atlanta, it went into our stock for everybody to take to their, to their locations or sell straight from Atlanta. So I did that for a year before he even let me handle it and account. So he wanted me to know all the inside aspects from how we got our material, what we do to it, shipping it, invoicing it, and putting it all together in one neat package. And did you feel like you got your arms around all that pretty well? I did, and it did help me throughout the rest of the time because I knew our system well enough on all the aspects that I could handle, You know any problems that came up understand physical ops is a real advantage. Yeah, and we still to this day We still send our our new new employees out It's not as extensive as they go a week, but my boss was old school. He said you're out there for a month, right? And it was you know all hands on it was like You know learn how to use that banding machine because you're gonna be packing that material. Yeah. So it was like they got you up to speed quickly. Yeah. Well, that's good. I trusted you. Capable. You know, I got out there and did it. And so when you said first account, what was the next step for you? Next step they gave me two or three little small accounts that one was tubing. The other was a was snapper actually was overhead door was the tubing snapper was one lawnmowers lawnmowers. hard -ass but you got it done and I remember I'd gone I had to go once or twice down there myself because the plant had either done something wrong they'd sent something to the plant wrong they added PVC when it didn't need PVC or something and I remember going down to that plant and pulling off PVC off of like four skids - Yeah, because he demanded somebody do it. - Time to get it right. - Yeah, so, you know, and I don't know if my mistake or the plant's mistake or what not, but I tell you what. - Well, I mean, if you had to say. - If I had to say, I'd say it would be the plant. - Yeah. - 'Cause I was a sales rep, I was never gonna make a mistake. - Clearly, 'cause that would never happen. - No, I don't think-- - I don't think-- - That's happened yet. - I don't think we have ever made a mistake. - I mean, no. I I mean everyone it's so obvious it's not even worth going any further so you went down there to help ops understand and you guys got that worked out yes so good and having been there for a month previous or in ops it was probably helpful I didn't know I didn't really have to say much but I just told my lead man I'm like don't make me go back down there please So you started getting accounts. So you're on the sales side at this point. Okay. So how long were you in sales? I've been in sales since this new job. So I was in sales probably 26 years contract. Okay, so contract business. So back to the top of our conversation. These are agreements that exist between the buyer and the seller Ryerson that you guys are going to supply their manufacturing or something like that normally it's a it's a multi -year deal normally it's you know three sometimes two three five years okay just depends on what the company and the actual Buyers are looking at it's it could whatever that whatever our customers set up as a Link the contract, right? Um, but it's usually They're buying You know everything from us Mm -hmm for the particulars or they're you know, we've got half of the half the business where we can grow more or Excuse me, um So but yes, we're contract Which is you know you're learning their style some some would like to some depend on you more than others You know what I found is that you really become a member of their business I mean you're basically on on call and you're handling their production and as long as you got your side, right? It goes smooth. Yeah, your job is to make that person look really good all the the time. Yes. So how so you were doing that for 26 ish years? Yes. And were you how does that work in a general sense? Which is do you are you out finding prospecting and then getting that to occur? Or is there a larger pipeline? And then you become the operator for that contract? Our outside team is the And, you know, it can be from a national side, national director gaining this contract or it could be a potential customer that we know in the area or somewhere close that we reached out to and said, hey, we want to win your business. So after, you know, all the back and forth and what not new contracts come up, contract seasons usually start around October. We know kind of what we're getting into. But yeah, as soon as that was signed and dotted, we became-- the inside team became the contract, the best friend, the buyer, the guy that's coming to the restaurant. We used to call it, probably, many do, as promise makers and promise keepers kind of And that's that's maybe taking more credit than you know, that's what I like to say if we're operating that account basically Yeah, is it you know what we're gonna make everyone look good and it is one of the most stressful Existences possible it can be it definitely can be so um, but yeah that That was uh, that was just what I knew so Um, it led me to, you know, where I am today though. Cause once I got, I found the position downstairs to go to the transactional team and to work in the IQ department, uh, the Instacruit department, I took the chance cause you know, it was something that. So is that a move that you just sort of stuck your head up and you were like, I want to go try this over there. Well, I knew that, - Well, I knew that Rachel Flores was going to be leaving and the job posted up on our internal site. - Oh, cool, okay. - So I think I was, to the point where I was complicit maybe in my job, I needed to get-- - Shake her up a little bit. - Shake something up, do a little something different because I'd been doing it for so long And I just needed, I needed a change and I needed something else to restart my day -to -day. Right. I needed something. I needed some change. So you can make some change and I'm gonna, it's gonna change I'm gonna kind of pull our discussion more into kind of the buying world that you're in because transactional and contract can both be buying but they're totally different worlds totally different like hundred percent I'd say say like the kind of the hallmark difference is loyalty yes right I don't mean that the buyer is not a good person I just mean their job is to go out and find what they need right now and they're always making a compromise between time cost and quality yes right so do you have it? Yes, I do. How much is it? Maybe it's a little more expensive, but they're like, well, shoot, we really need this right now. So fine. So there's not going to be sort of the push on numbers or the negotiations that maybe would occur on your contract situation and the working relationship that exists. And everyone understands it. Like, you know, I don't hate me. You're just trying to get done when you need to get done. So I don't put words in your mouth. So what to you what what what is transactional buying? It's like you said, it's someone who's looking for something at this particular moment that is not That's got to have the need right now They're looking for something because they need to fill their job. They need to fill This production that's going to be going on for the next three weeks, six weeks, however, they're looking to find material to get to them as soon as possible and in good quality. And if the cost is where they need it, great. Right. But, you know, transactional is definitely different because you could have someone looking for two pieces of angle or 5 ,000 pounds of 18 gauge galvanized 60 by 120 sheets or someone looking for "I need seven channels and three I -beams for this job." So, it's kind of whatever walks through the door, that's it. Yeah, it's like whatever. It's like at the ER, it's like what's coming in next. Who's looking for what? Here's the coin. Flipping it to... So, I understand from a You know, we we made our big buy with the mill maybe and now we fall we fall in short got everything fitted up and now we're You know, however short we need to we need to buy these in the local spot market Some people call it buy out or whatever you want to call it So I got to market so in distribution was so I was a buyer in distribution The way it worked for us is that a salesperson would make a well, let me back up maybe they're just quoting still, and they had an option, option one is, I can wing my cost. I think I know what we can get this for, and I'm just gonna mark it up, because maybe it's a five line order, and lines one through three are stock, and they get the order which they wanted to get, they would wing lines four and five, and just hope they're like, I got enough money in lines one, two, three, and if I'm off a little, People tend to wing high, so this probably ends up being the lines where they make the most money is actually on the lines that they're winging, unless it's an exotic, and then they're like, this shit doesn't even exist. - It's a unicorn. - Yeah, so then you've got kind of the, so that's the first step, and the second step is I made, or the other option is, hey, I've made this sale, I did wing the number, or whatever, and I need to go buy it. - Yeah. So that was my experience. How does, what's your experience, your existence like and buy out? Well, we, uh, we had, we handle it kind of same, the same way. Um, if my sales reps are looking at me or they're coming to me and they say, Hey, I've got a purchase order and we need to find this material, but we don't stock it. I am just going to go, Okay, I know where to go. Let's type it in. Let's find it. Here's your price. Mm -hmm. Not, you know, seven out of ten times. I'm gonna say go run with this because you're gonna get it. We know you're gonna get it and it's good. Right. Um, the hard to find ones, yeah, those might kind of, we have to kind of search a little bit for. But But then quoting it, you're looking at, you know, you're in the same boat, but you're trying to win the customer's order as it is. But you're back to this, to the whole point being quality, time and price. If we can get all that wrapped up, here's your package. Here's what you you need and I get it back to him might take a couple of days for them to get back to the customer to get back to and say hey we've got this but knowing we've already priced it or quoted it I know where I can get it you know we shouldn't have any issues yeah it's so this brings in the context of brizos this is the exact operational steps that caused the founding of prizes, which is the the pricing volatility in the market and the inventory compositions are fluid, like they're changing. But I was like, I am buying the same stuff a lot. I mean, within maybe like a 50 product range, you know, I'm kind of, you could say, what do you think you'll buy next week? I could tell you at least 10 things I'm going to buy next week. You know, and I So well, there's got to be a better way in that I'm making tons of phone calls To the same people are just taking up their time back. Hey, can you shoot me a number on this and invariably? It seemed like three was the magic number if my RFQ to them was three lines There's a chance that they may have all three as soon as I got over three lines Then you're sending out to four different vendors, problems begin to occur, and you're starting to put it in a matrix and say, okay, vendor A or A, B, C, D, and here's your list of stuff. Well, they can get it to me on time, but their price is really high. They can be a day late, but their price is really low. And so you're kind of going through all, they don't have it at all. And so the thought was, perhaps this can be made easier Because we're buying the same stuff a lot. Yeah Because it was taking me whether it was I'll tell maybe not one line But I would say more than one line from the moment that entered my world that purchase Until the moment I never thought about it again That was typically 90 to 120 minutes for me. Yeah What is your experience there from a time perspective? It's pretty much roughly the same. The guys will shoot over or you know like I said I handle two sales reps at a Atlanta office and then I've got five other districts that I get quotes from or get you know emails to say hey do we have this can we find this But usually if it's one or two items We can We know where to go and we can find it if it's anything in your wheelhouse I'm already on your app, and I'm typing in I'm like Screenshotting it, and I'm sending it back to the ref and saying here's your price delivered four days get it done and I just slide that piece of paper over to the corner I'm like that's my done stack I don't have to worry about it. How long does it take you to get it and like when you're using our system how long is it taking you because I kind of want to get a sense of your like I know what my workflow was but I can't say what yours is if you were looking at it from let's I'm gonna say a pre -brize that's just in the context of this discussion how How quickly are you able to get it in your done stack? If it's two lines, one line, two lines, I'm probably taking 15 to 20 seconds to pull it in. Pretty much however fast I can look from the screen to type it on your screen, click the piece count and the weight or however I want to price it, and it's there. If it's four or five you know, a minute. - Okay, so you're sourcing five line items in a minute? - You know, depends. I mean, 'cause if I can either do it one of a week, two days, I can, I usually take your first screen and once I price it, I back it out, retype it. Because I mean, I've gone through the add another one. But what I try to do for my guys is I try to show them the price of each item itself. - Sure. - And so I just use that one, and if I, you know-- - So you'll carriage it up, screenshot. - Yeah, carriage it up, screenshot. - And if I'm, you know, go to the second line, hit it, third line, hit it. It just depends, if it's multiple, I'm going for the add a line, and then I'm just screenshotting it. So if I wasn't taking these screenshots, I could probably get it done Quicker, but I'm actually cutting it and putting it into an email. So, I mean you're you're talking still you're getting me back a price within you know 15 seconds for every time I type in something and pull it up to figure out do I want 20 24 40 or am I looking for the Beam is it 20 30 40 50 60 whatever I'm looking at, you know, whatever I've got to look for, doesn't take any time at all. - So, you're gonna love, we were talking about our next release that's coming up, which is you're gonna be able to export that. - Yeah, and I was-- - And you can send that directly to your guys and however you wanna do it. But we're trying to create options for workflows. I know that screenshotting and all that stuff, I mean, it still saves a lot of time, But it's probably not your ideal thing. So working on that, what are your thoughts on the transparency and pricing that's creating? Like, how do you, what do you do with that information? Having all of that now really available? I mean, clearly you guys have pure history and things like that. We do. Um, we roughly, it's Transactional is so different because it's more about J just in time The customers aren't looking for a lead time of three to four weeks, you know, if we have to get a mill run of something They they may plan it, but these guys are looking for something within days so With everything going on, it's refreshing to know that I can put in a quote on the system and I can see it that's gonna be two to three days and it's done. So I'm pushing that to the guys and saying-- - Like you're literally not thinking about it. - I'm not thinking about it. I'm actually, I'm like checking it off. The prices are good because they're I know it's delivered. I know it's going to get to us. And the only thing, you know, I was talking with Rachel, she said that paperwork is going to be, there's going to, I think in the second version, you guys are going to have the ability to talk back and forth to get paperwork back easier. Yes. And that's, you know, that's the only time -- Opening up a chat line between the buyer and the seller. That's the only time we've had any hiccups. I mean, I wouldn't say hiccups, I would say just once the material gets to us, if it's not on the truck. Well, if it's not, they don't have paperwork for that particular material. My guys need the MTR to receive it. Our new system dictates that they have to have paperwork and an MTR to put it in the system. The old system, we could get away, we could put an X and we'll get it later and we can update it. That's been like a flexible ERP system. Yeah. This one. No, you got to have all that. You got to have everything dotted and they they have to they have to hold on and wait. But it doesn't, you know, getting a paperwork. That's a industry wide sort of thing. Yeah. It's it's per vendor. Like one day they'll send it one day they won't It's like or a truck driver just didn't you know, what do you do with the paperwork? We don't know. We don't know Could be in a McDonald's trash cans. No idea. Yeah, so it's it's it's quick for you And when it's so there's the quoting that you're able to get and so your sales guys can then do whatever mark They went off of that and go get that deal quickly. Yes. Hopefully And then there's the, okay, they got the deal. Now you've got a buy that you have to make, and that's what you're talking about, which is you can fire off through our platform these POs and it's really off your mind. - It is, the system itself, our POs come to us after we enter them, they're actually emailed to us. So once I get it, I save it into my documents, and I put your PO number in, and when I hit enter, check everything off, you know, it says upload PO, and I go into my documents, I hit the button, and it says done, and it goes away, and I take that, I file that in the drawer, and I'm, don't look at it again. Okay, so, I'd love to know from a buyer's perspective, because we sit in this office and we make these things, and We we've we're all from the metals industry, but we've never actually used this In the way that we've never like since creating it. We're not buyers anymore. Exactly. So as a buyer Is this how is this ultimately helping you is it is a creating more like if it used to take you 90 minutes to buy If I'm hearing you correctly, you're talking like a minute it now. If I've got a PO in hand and I can the if the sales rep comes to me and says hey we have a PO in hand based on putting it in into your system and getting it into my system to create a PO it takes me probably about five minutes total from start to finish going back and forth between your app and my system but literally getting the information from your purchase, getting your information to tell me what the price is, you know, 20 to 30 seconds for how many, you know, whatever lines, and then once I get my PO, 10, 15 seconds, once I push the PO in, hit the terms of sale and hit the button, and then it comes to the next screen and then I have to upload Mm -hmm not even, you know, it's 30 seconds from start to finish on that side. Mm -hmm. So I mean it could be It could take it's taken a lot of time off of it because I am I see everything that I need and Unfortunately the hardest part of my job is to go back into SAP Add the order, add all the information in my side, hit the button, go back, get into the purchase order, create the purchase order. What do you mean by the amount of steps once you get into your world? Yeah, once I get into my world, it's, you know, I have to get into order and then when I get into my order itself, I have to go into that particular line. I have to add your vendor number, your cost, the date it's supposed to be due to the customer, how many days it's taking for your company to get it to us. Then once that's done, it populates a production, it populates a purchase release. I go to take that purchase release, I go into the PO screen, I have to pull that purchase release into the PO, type a couple of things in to match it, to make it, you know it's for the PO, hit the enter, it kicks out, and then I go back in and I can enter my 47 PO on you. is it fair to say that what could have taken 60 minutes to 90 minutes is not being done in a matter of minutes yes that's okay so I'm not no that makes me so happy I can't tell you because you guys have you created this and it's it's it is a game changer because of the items that you guys carry we know that they're out there But you've made it possible for us to take that time and Condense it down into mere seconds That makes me really happy because the amount of pain that is taken To create something that's excessively useful. Mm -hmm. I mean, this is not where we started, right? Like we say we start as a two -sided marketplace in. It was just too slow. And we realized that all other things being equal, meaning the price is still good. Yeah, the quality is still good. People want something that's really fast. And you guys have nailed it. That's awesome. That's really good news. What other so you're also, you know, you're out in the in your perspective of the market is different than ours. Like, what other digital platforms and you don't have to name names, but are there other digital platforms that you like that you're using because we are our goal has been to help buyers and sellers in the transactional world only like we don't think about contract. Yeah, at all, because that's just that's not I think people know That process is not nearly as like a hassle as Like buying from a million. It's pretty controlled. Yeah What other platforms have been using it effectively getting into the transaction? There's not Nothing that can compare to what you guys have in the contract when I was in contract sales There were a few out there that were that were available, but they dealt more within larger mouths. If you're looking for coil, you're looking for truck loads, you're looking for this, send us an RFQ and then we'll see what we can find in our system and match up with somebody. But there's nothing that we know, that I know of out there that you guys haven't. I mean, this is the first one that I've seen that has been strictly geared to where transactional point. The others have just been kind of like you said, you know, it's still a two way street. You still, you have to send it out and then they have to, they have to have their people that are looking at your order bid on it literally. And then you have to go back and forth and say, okay, do you accept this bid? You know, it's still slow and it's still, it's not. to send out all the emails and it's sort of collated everything for you nicely and it was easy to make decisions but you could just as easily as the buyer, you would have called somebody by then and gotten your number and cut your P .O. So we're like, it was sort of like this toy that it was neat to see in advancement and so forth but it wasn't, it didn't have great utility 'cause it was still, it It still wasn't the best option, you know, and we came to this point where we're like, we just, people want to do this, but we've got to come up with something that's just like, isn't like the, it's a no brainer. I should be using this. Yeah. I mean, I, I was impressed from the first time I got downstairs itself and you know, Leo was showing me, Rachel So he both showed me this and said, okay, you guys have started this, this is, you know, this is great. This is what you need to use. And you know, the one or two hiccups that I have was because my system, you know, something happens like I don't turn my computer off over the weekend, but I come in first thing Monday morning and I got a red, oh, there's no internet. I'm like, I have internet. It's just not talking to you. So you to you right so I have to start you know I have to restart and after you know Rachel gave me the you know control backspace returns yeah she'll have to teach me that sometimes that happens to me where I come in my computer go to sleep or whatever yeah and I'm like that's the only hiccup that I've that I've come into where I've had to reboot just to get mind talking again but I've used it religiously since I started back in September. That's amazing. To me I love it because if the guys come across and they say hey I'm looking for angle or I'm looking for tubing the first thing I do is I pull yours up and then type it in and I'm like damn if - I'm like, "Kah." - God, I've been so much better if they did. - No, I gotta call somebody. - No, I gotta do something. - No, I gotta email somebody. - And then I wanna talk and talk and talk. So if we're talking about, let's say, not necessarily Ryerson, but if you've got, I tend in my head from my buying experience, it always seemed to take me two hours from end to end. Like literally from end to end. This thing was in my world, so I'll use my math, but which was if I've got five buyers. Yeah. And I can help take that from two hours per, so 10 hours down to five minutes. I've really excited because now I've got a buying team that just became just like a machine and you guys can plow through so much stuff. Yeah. And the other thing I've noted on my, as I grew up in the metals industry, I haven't met a distribution company or any company really that's properly staffed. Right? It's not like you got nothing to do. I mean, yeah, we have, we have some time that there's days when we're like, all of us are busy as ever. And it's like, hey, and you know, you hand off one, can you do this one? Or can you, but then there's other times when it's kind of, you got a little time quiet, but It's Nothing nothing compares because you know, yes, if we know that we have to find Say something brass or copper I Got a couple places. I have to shoot it off too, but I Don't know exactly what third day is looking like and I don't know how much time it's gonna take for them to get back to me So I put it to my left and I just wait till they reply yeah so I mean yeah and it just and then you get the ultimately you get the hey the email did you get anything back on this have you heard back from this I'm like no I'm still waiting let me shoot him another issue and and or let me call him and it's like you know there's certain people that yes I like to talk to and then I will pick up the phone to call but do they want to hear from me I can't answer that but I can tell you that I try to be as personable and nice when I call them. So hopefully they'll get back to me in a good time. But, you know, like I said, if it if I see and it's on that sheet and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a good fit. I'm, you know, you guys are going to get something to me within seconds. And then we can get back to our customer and we can say, hey, look, this is what we have. And I know that it makes the customer feel good because the sales reps can turn around and they can get their information back to them within You know 15 20 minutes or however long it's taking them to work it up and do their side Excuse me, so I know that that is game -changing itself because it's all about time customers. Yeah, I mean if Speed is the name of the game, right? And I remember one of the most meaningful ass chewing I ever got when I was in distribution when I was selling and I'd gotten an email, it was a good inquiry and I let it, I didn't let it sit but I didn't jump on it immediately. And I heard about that in a way I'd never heard about anything else. I mean, it absolutely got Reamed that day and you know, it was something that happened, you know, I think it was pretty good frequency in room but the But I'd never it really set that concept of like get it done and get it done now. Yeah one of my One of my contract accounts I had a buyer that was She's She's amazing, she could do it all. She knew exactly what was going on, she could handle everything. My only problem that I ever had was, well, the day I did not let her know something was coming or something was gonna be late. Because I sat through a similar situation to where I was on the phone with her for at least 30 minutes and she was chewing my ass from start to finish. - So you blow out the speaker on your phone? - When I got the first phone call, when I said hello, this is Dennis, may I help you, it went south. And that was one of the most important lessons that I learned was information wise, if you, because we're not on that side of the fence, if we can tell someone something and give them the right information. They can plan on their side, what to do until we can get material to them. It's unbelievable. Cause when you first start, you're like, well, I don't want to tell him it's not going to be there. And then you're like, you better tell him it's not going to be there. Cause it's not problems. Don't kill deals. It's the fact that you're not telling people what's going on. And they're getting the welders are on the way or the cranes on the way. And you don't, I didn't realize that, but after I got that one call, I realized it straight. You know, it was like a game changer to me. It was an eye opener because I got told that we had a crew come in early. We were expecting this material. These guys could be working on something different. - Yeah, can you see like, ugh. - I mean, I'm holding the phone like this away from me and I can still hear her clearly. - So she was just absolutely letting you have it. - Dude, she got me from start to finish, but the next time I was down there, it was like nothing ever happened because from that day on, I knew that if anything needed to be told upfront, give her the information. - Yeah, you're like this person values communication. - Yeah, if I could communicate exactly what needed to be said, my life was going to be easier. - Wow, she really let India. - Dude, she killed me. - I mean, how long did, like when you got off that phone, things just smoking and-- - Oh yeah, yeah. - And it'd be like, I'll see you guys tomorrow. - Yeah. - I just need to get a reset for a minute. - Yeah, and it was, but you know, after that, I had the best relationship. And I could call her up and just say, hey, I got the order, here's everything we need, you got everything. However, this one, it's gonna be X versus Y. And she was like, thanks, it's all I needed to know. - Isn't that amazing? - And it did, I mean, it hurt for that 30 minutes, and it hurt for a good week, two weeks after, 'cause I was disappointed in myself and I every time I wanted to had to pick up the phone knowing that I had to call yeah but after that it was you know I learned I'm like information is key there's nothing like you know when you finally feel like you you know you're asked from a hole in the wall and then something like that occurs and you're just like your legs get cut out for money yeah just like I thought I was doing well yeah I thought I'd had kind of I've kind of knew what I was doing and then in that's the thing about supply chains in general is like it's you've never seen all the mess ups, you know, like they come in so many different forms, you know, and, you know, you have your kind of usual suspects, which is like read the work order, right, which is like the number one place and you need somebody Typically, in my experience, there needs to be some level of review, which a salesperson will enter in the sales order, right? Somebody's got to read that before it comes to work order, which often someone does. But you know, it's read the work order is probably the most common, you know, thing said. Yeah. And it's At the same time though, they're like, why don't we only get in this many tons out per day? And they're like, well, and then someone says something like, do you want it done? Do you want it done or you want it done right? - Yes. Do you want to do it, do you want it done right? Or do you want it done crappy and we're going to pay for it in the end? - Yeah, and typically the person in charge says both. - Oh yeah. - You know, it gives you the impossible answer of both. They give you what we want it done yesterday, but how about a character limit on notes for a work order like you know Warren peace written out between lines one and two, but you know It all works. It all works out in the end. Let me ask you this What can prizes be doing better as if we showed you the next version was to export saving bills material regional price You know this sort of stuff, but like what would be like this just went from like I love this thing to We don't handle the paperwork, but because of the plant the truck something happened. It's gone missing So now we have to track it down I think that's a great idea so to be able to go back and forth to shortcut that because I always hate having to email and say hey Rachel yeah, can I get this paper good? Can I get Lee? Can I I hate it and you know, it's Not that it's not that It's just human nature something happens, and we don't we don't have it, but you know our like I said our new system we are 100 % to where we have to have paperwork. Let me ask you this so Brice those doesn't hide Anything right like you're gonna know who a cellar. What is an buyer and tell us gonna who buyer is. - Yeah. - So what we've been banking on, right, or believing because is that if this is done correctly, the desire to go around the platform will be really low because we're so transparent about it and that it's working so fast. And so, but we don't have an expectation of this is transactional, right? We don't have an expectation of people being loyal to us because there is nothing, there is none in transactional, right? But our thesis has been that if we do this correctly, there won't be much of an incentive to go around the platform. As an honest person would say, there shouldn't be because it's the simplicity of it is basically how I look at it because I can find it on your site, I can give you a PO and I can forget about it. You know, I know it's going to be here, like I said, I've had one issue where Lee sent me an email and said, "Hey look, we can get you 20 pieces that you need now, but the last five pieces won't be for another three days. So is it okay to split the order or split the delivery? And I responded back with, yeah, no problem. We don't have any issues getting, as long as you can get us the balance next week, we're good. - That'll be to interrupt you quickly. That'll be great about the direct chat 'cause the seller's just gonna be able to pipe that right to you as well. So, I mean, taking out the shipping aspect, taking out the whole, after I get a PO, I have to send it to the vendor, and then I have to send it, send that particular information as well to the shipper to say, hey, Ryerson shipping, this needs to be picked up from here, needs to come to this plant and it needs to move you know here's all the information if honestly if I can cut that out I'm gonna just that helps you it's gonna it takes time because I mean you guys have simplified the fact that when I give you a PO it's gonna come into the building it's gonna be where it needs to be and we check it off everything else you know that I have to do to get everything done on some of the different ones. Yes, some people will deliver, but most people, it's will call. And that means that we have to take that extra step to pick up and move and get it moving. So those - Is that all needs to be orchestrated? And it all has to be done. And it's not just, you know, it's more people that I have to loop in. So - Is that a cost to your PO or is that a kind of a soft cost for the organization? Oh no, it's cost to the PO because the Ryerson, the shipping needs to know the purchase order or the production order. So that shipment gets tied in to the order itself, which is, I mean, in yours as too, but the problem being is now that I have that done if someone's calling me and asking me to check it out, I have to go to shipping, which means usually I have to go to Blue Grace, which is a LTL of ours. And then I'm going outside of that to find out, hey, where's the paperwork? It's, you know, I have to dig in a couple of layers to get there. And, but I mean, - Simplification of all that can come down to this. I'm sorry, I'm human, I'm old. - This will work. - This works just fine. - Well, we're really excited about this second version. It's taken in earnest. It's taken to release the first version in what, April of 2023, probably, knowing that it represented a really different way that things are going to be done. And we didn't load it up with bells and whistles because those would have been such guesses. Let's just understand how people like this and how they like to use it. And so we've been kind of keeping track of what are the most commonly mentioned things and studying just the platform itself because there's no roadmap here, right? I don't know any else. So he's doing it. So we think we've got it down to a scope of bells and whistles that we think, you know, maybe somebody out there will be like, Well, what about the one thing I wanted? And so what we try and, you know, you're trying to make something that's going to be serviceable to the most people as possible. But it's really exciting to hear It's it's so useful for you. I mean, honestly, it's been it has not been an easy thing to create and I'm really excited to hear That it's that it's something that is like in your workflow. Yeah, it's working, you know front and center and that's so cool Trust me. I've got you guys pinned on my computer So it's like when I get that email and if I'm seeing those I'm like, oh, yeah, click That's so cool. It really is it's fun to that. And I'm going to wrap this up by saying thank you for coming in. Well thank you. It's great to learn about your story and you know driving that car around and up to the summit. I mean what a great deal that was. Yeah well I got I did I thought I did pretty good in the time I was in. And well thank you for your service and thanks for coming today man. Thank you.