[00:00:00] Speaker A: On this episode of the Local Click, we welcome Chad Williams from Coletco in Lebanon, Tennessee. And we also speak with DTC customer Experience representative Blaine Elkins. It's going to be a fun show, so stay with us.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Learn more about fun local events and interesting people throughout the heart of Middle Tennessee. With a dash of everyday tech talk thrown in for good measure, the Local Click starts now.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And welcome one and all to the Local Clique. The Local Click is the technology based podcast brought to you by DTC Communications each and every month where we talk all things technology and local people.
And my co host for this month, as it is every month, Mr. Justin Malden. Hello, Justin. How's it going today?
[00:00:48] Speaker C: It is going wonderful. I couldn't be better. How are you?
[00:00:51] Speaker A: I like that when people say it could be better. I mean, where do you go from there? That's as good as it
[00:00:55] Speaker C: gets. I mean, they're still up, though. I mean, we can still. We can
[00:00:58] Speaker A: a little in reserve just in case.
[00:01:00] Speaker C: We can, we can still go up. You just. You gotta. You gotta choose to look at the positive side.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: I understand.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: Gotta look at the bright side.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: I like the bright side. Hey, there's enough doom and gloom. Let's look at the bright side. I like it. So are you ready for all the fun November things that come with November? And I'm. I'm thinking Thanksgiving. I don't know about you, but that's. That's what I'm thinking.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: What's that?
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Thanksgiving.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: I've never heard of it.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Listen, I, I tend to you.
I, I don't, you know, during these times of the year, I don't like to get together with family. I don't like to overindulge and eat too much.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: I don't like to sit on the couch and watch three separate football games on Thanksgiving Day. I just.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: You're a terrible liar.
[00:01:45] Speaker C: I just don't. I don't recall this, this holiday. Yeah.
I'm struggling. I'm struggling over
[00:01:50] Speaker A: here. Yeah, you look like you're struggling. Yeah. Hey, listen, I love it. Do you love it as much as I
[00:01:55] Speaker C: do? We're getting into the best time of the year. Yeah,
[00:01:58] Speaker A: I
[00:01:58] Speaker C: agree. I mean, as. As we go, as we go into the times of the year where you do get to be together with your loved ones and your friends and your family and whomever that may. May be, you know, getting to spend time with them, it's. It is. It's a time to, you would think to slow down, but you're not necessarily Slowing down.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a way of putting it. If anything, it's time to buckle up, Right.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. You're going, you're going.
Going 100 miles an hour. But it's, it's neat. Especially as I get older, you know, you think of the traditions and the do the same things that you tend to do this time of the year every single year, and you don't want to miss those things.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: You don't want to miss them. They're important.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. So it's, it's a great time. I, I, I really, really, really do enjoy it. And I hope that everyone who's listening gets to, to go through their family traditions and, and gets to, you know, maybe make some visits or see family that they don't get to see, because that's what it was for me, like, even as a kid is
[00:03:00] Speaker A: the road trips and stuff. Yes. We
[00:03:01] Speaker C: live so far from family and getting to see people that you don't get to see. Yeah. As often. And that's the time. Okay. I get to see these people. This is, this is it. You know, this is, this is a couple month period
[00:03:12] Speaker A: coming in.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Where it happens and it won't, it's not likely to happen unless something really good is happening, like a wedding or unfortunately, if something really sad is happening, a funeral, you
[00:03:23] Speaker A: know, so this is a good
[00:03:23] Speaker C: point. These are the times where. But we know this is planned. This is in our control. We get to do it this time of the year.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And you know what? I'd almost like to challenge, you know, everybody listening and watching. We always say this term so casually, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. But let's see if we can't all make this a season of truly giving thanks for all the blessings that we have. Because you know what? Life is so busy, like you were just talking about, and I think sometimes we could, we could all use, I know I could. We could all use a few moments probably to step back just for a minute, let the hustle and bustle of life pause. Just for a moment. It'll still be there when you're ready to jump back in and just give, give thanks for all the things that we've been blessed with.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, we were talking at, at church yesterday. We were planning our Thanksgiving prayer service that we do every year. So we do a different service where we throw our normal service out the window. And it is, it's a, hey, we're going to spend this time, this entire service, and it's in prayer. You know, we have different men who come up. And what they. It's, hey, I would like you to pray for this. Pray for this. That's what we spend our time doing, giving thanks. Thanks to God for that and really being mindful of what the reason is this time of year.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: I think we all would agree if we really were honest with ourselves. We got a lot more to be thankful for than we probably realize every day. So. But we hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. And by the way, if you've got people over and that football game is a real stinker, it's just not competitive. You know, just pull up the local click on YouTube on that smart TV and you can watch it on Thanksgiving Day. And we could be right there in your living room helping you eat that turkey and dressing. It's just gonna be a wonderful, fun time, right?
[00:05:07] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: And then again, you may just want a break from us, and that's understandable too. But we hope, we hope that if you get bored, you'll. You'll tune us in on that day. So. But it's gonna be a wonderful show. We've got a couple of great guest, as we always do every month here on the local Click in just a little bit, we'll be speaking with Mr. Blaine Elkins. He's a customer experience representative at DTC. He's really good at taking care of our customers. So we know you're going to enjoy that interview. But first, if you're a collector of things, especially a collector of maybe vinyl records which have made a huge comeback in the past several years, you're going to love this next interview as we speak with the Mr. Chad Williams with Coletco and for this segment of the local click. By the way, we're in a brand new podcast studio in Alexandria and our very first guest in this studio for this podcast is Mr. Chad Williams with Coletco in Lebanon. How are you doing, Chad?
[00:06:06] Speaker D: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Nick,
[00:06:08] Speaker A: it is really great to have you on the program. And believe it or not, Chad and I go way back.
Maybe in a former career, a former life. Chad may or may not have been my sideline cameraman for live high school football. Right, Chad,
[00:06:22] Speaker D: you have pretty much the honor and title of being my first and only boss, I believe.
Yeah,
[00:06:27] Speaker A: it went so well. You did want another boss.
[00:06:30] Speaker D: It was great, great experience.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: Well, you did great on camera and I know you're doing great in your business now at Click Co. We're going to get into that here in just a moment, but first, let's get to know You a little bit better. Give us a quick snapshot, if you will, about yourself and your ties to middle tenness.
[00:06:46] Speaker D: All right, well, I'm Tennessee native, so born and raised here. Lancaster.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: You said it correct?
[00:06:53] Speaker D: Yes, I was about to say Lancaster. Or for the locals, Lancaster. That's right. One syllable, you gotta get it out quick.
Gorensville High School and Tennessee Tech.
I got a degree in political science and somehow ended up selling collectibles.
That's, I guess, where we can get in the backstory of the business. But, yeah, family's all from here.
Call Tennessee home. I live in Lebanon now, so I'm a lot shorter distance to my store every day. But yeah, I call Tennessee Home.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: You deal in collectibles, right? With Collectico. Makes sense with the name. But what was that first spark that got you interested in getting into this business?
[00:07:32] Speaker D: As a kid, I was always fascinated in just business. You know, I was like, play shop at my house.
You know, I, like, had a toy cash register.
And then at some point, I got into sports cards. I think I had. My brother had moved out, and he left behind his sports cards. It was my idea to try to figure out how to sell them and make some money off of them. So it went from sports cards selling on ebay, basically. As a kid at that age, I was trying to convince my parents, like, hey, I'm gonna sell on ebay. I'm gonna need a credit card.
Can we figure out how to do this? And they trusted me enough that, you know, it gave me that initial push, you know, go to yard sales. I would try to find anything I could to make money on.
I had a cousin. I gotta give him some credit. He was into comic books.
So then we got into. I started selling comic books for him on consignment, kind of for a while. It led to music. Eventually I got introduced to some music, and then I got into buying and selling records.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Well, it's really grown by leaps and bounds because I remember when you started the business and kind of where you started from compared to where you are now is massively different. And it's just changed a lot, hasn't it?
[00:08:48] Speaker D: For sure. So, you know, I had a store in high school, and we were kind of just like, I was going there after school doing, you know, brick and mortar. Essentially. When I found time, I would list online or ebay, and then from there I would say we had an opportunity. At the. At the time it was called Lebanon Antique Mall. It's one of these places, if you've ever been to an Antique mall. It's like you rent booths.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:09:17] Speaker D: it's like a consignment deal. So someone owns the building or the business. You rent a booth, et cetera, et cetera. You put your stuff in there and you sell it. They get a commission.
And then at some point, the owner of that business and building was going to leave, and we basically took over that operation.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:35] Speaker D: That was Lebanon Antique Mall. And then I realized, okay, I need more space. I need more people. I need slowly, all these people to leave in a nice way. And as people did their life cycle of becoming a vendor, I would take their space.
A couple of years later, I had the whole building because I needed it. 80% of it's closed off for our online business, maybe 90%.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:59] Speaker D: Yeah. So it's transitioned to where it's a little bit brick and mortar, but everything is for our online business.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: That's kind of your bread and butter. Right. Talk about how you use the Internet to basically sell.
[00:10:13] Speaker D: I think 2018, I started seeing, you know, live streaming on social media. It was like Facebook, Instagram, all these different places where you can live stream YouTube.
And, you know, we kind of had the idea, all right, let's go live and see if people tune in and just buy from that. So the experiment worked. At that time, I was mostly coins and knives.
And from there I realized we put a few records in front of the screen one night during a live stream, and we realized vinyl is, at that time, was starting to trend.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:10:53] Speaker D: in the collectibles world, there's always trends. You know, what's hot right now? So around that 2018 mark, I would say vinyl. The quote vinyl comeback was starting to really heat up.
So we went from showing a couple nights of sales to where I realized, okay, this is growing. There's an audience not only here locally, because, you know, at the time, probably our local, let's say, social media following was probably mostly middle Tennessee. People had to come to the antique mall.
And so I was like, okay, I know Facebook can reach the world, so let's just keep pushing this and pushing this and, you know, through the power of sharing and people finding out about us online, next thing was doing two or three live streams a night. Up until right now, we're doing six live streams a night.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:11:45] Speaker D: Six live streams a night.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: And how long is a typical live stream, or does it change a lot?
[00:11:50] Speaker D: Eight hours.
Eight hours.
So the backbone of Coletco is vinyl.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:55] Speaker D: That. That's. That's
[00:11:57] Speaker A: your bread and butter. So
[00:11:57] Speaker D: that's our business. If I could do it as a percentage. It's you know, 90, 95. Oh
[00:12:03] Speaker A: wow.
[00:12:03] Speaker D: You know, so we're pretty much a record shop, but I say collectibles in general because, you know, we try to stay diverse.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: How would you say your typical day is at Kletco?
[00:12:14] Speaker D: I've kind of viewed myself as a surgeon. When I come in, I have a great team there that gets all this stuff ready for me. So. So personally I show up and I go live and I start selling.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: And that's your job basically.
[00:12:28] Speaker D: That's my job, yeah. As I'm the owner and seller.
What I learned in growing a business, you got to have great people and whatever job you're doing, if you could leverage it to someone else, it's gonna help you grow. From the beginning, you got to get the inventory, which is unique in our business. You got to go out and find the stuff.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:49] Speaker D: So I was traveling to go buy the records or whatever we were selling. So buying them, you got to bring them back, you got to clean them, research them, price them, and then actually do the sale, which is what I do now. And then the amount of work it takes after it. We're selling thousands of items, you know, a week.
They have to be tagged, sorted, invoiced and then packed and shipped. And then there's customer service involved.
So all of that. Luckily my great.
Everybody that works at Coleco handles all that.
And that's a mind blowing amount of work.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Oh, I can imagine
[00:13:35] Speaker D: everything that's involved in that.
So you know, I show up and sell and then I do some stuff before and after the sale. Just like prep a lot of the featured stuff. What I call the featured stuff we sell, we do buy it nows and auctions. So there's. During this live stream, there's auctions going on in Buy Nows. Well, one of the most important thing are the auctions and I kind of pick those out. I kind of give a guidance of what's going on on a day to day basis, what's going to be featured that night. I kind of have my hand involved in that.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: You really have to kind of be aware of what the industry is doing, don't you?
[00:14:13] Speaker D: Oh, sure, sure. So you know, in vinyl there's new releases every week. You have these artists now, they're remastering their catalogs. They're. I mean the Beatles are still putting out new material. They've got all this stuff in the vaults.
Unreleased tracks they're remastering, they're making limited edition pressings. And then you have all the new artists. I mean, you could have, you know, Chris Stapleton coming out with a new album or Miley Cyrus or maybe a band that's been around for 50 years putting out a new album. So we stay on top of all the new releases. We do pre orders and you know, you have to know what's going on in the music business. Right. It appears that, quote, the younger generation, younger than me, is interested in music from 50 and 60 years ago.
And it looks like it's going to be around for a while.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: You've got to have a favorite artist or two because you deal with this all the time. I don't want to get you in trouble with all the other artists, but do you have some holy Grail artists that you think of when you think of the kind of things that you like to personally get involved with?
[00:15:19] Speaker D: Oh yeah. I had a cousin give me a Beatles CD and it was Past Masters, which those Beatles songs on the Past Masters collection are the songs that the Beatles didn't put on their studio albums, but they were singles only.
It's like non album singles and B sides.
We can work it out. Don't Let Me Down Revolution that gave me the spark, you
[00:15:43] Speaker A: know, a few popular songs.
[00:15:45] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Crazy how many songs they had that didn't even own studio. That's what I was
[00:15:49] Speaker A: just thinking.
[00:15:49] Speaker D: Yeah.
Paperback Rider Rain, you know, all those amazing songs. So.
And then, you know, I have to give credit to my dad, my aunt who lived next door. They were kind of into the.
My dad one time bought a CD, The Sound of Summer of Love, 1967.
And I was into the monkeys and you know, all the quote hippie stuff.
And then I think I really got into music when I found out about Led Zeppelin.
And that was probably my biggest influence. I mean, I became a Led Zeppelin fan. You
[00:16:28] Speaker A: went down the rabbit hole.
[00:16:29] Speaker D: Yeah, right. This would have been in high school. And then from there it got more progressive. I got into yes and Rush and now, man, I've just anything
[00:16:39] Speaker A: the word collect co means there's other things that are collectible and music related as well. And we were talking off camera a little bit about autographs. So is that also something that you're interested in and you deal with?
[00:16:53] Speaker D: Yes, about two years ago. One of the really neat things about this business is going and buying these collections.
When I say collections, we go to. We may travel in this case to Pennsylvania where someone's like, we have a record collection for sale.
This guy, we call it the Dale Pittsburgh Collection. He had probably about 5,000 albums.
That's a pretty good size collection that's, you know, take up a whole wall in a living room to give you a size perspective.
He was an autograph hunter back in the day. And an autograph hunter is someone who, let's say in the 80s, he knew Bruce Springsteen was staying at a hotel.
Word would get out. This is pre Internet. You go to the hotel, you wait for that person to come out and you try to get them to sign stuff.
Well, I would say out of his 5,000 albums, 3,000 were autographed. One of the most insane collections we ever acquired. We still have some of his stuff. I kept some of it from my personal collection.
So I'd bought and sold some autographs. But that's a very tricky business. You gotta know what's real and what's fake,
[00:18:00] Speaker A: right?
[00:18:01] Speaker D: So luckily we made a great connection with one of the top authentication companies, jsa.
They came out and authenticated pretty much everything that was worth being authenticated. And from there it kind of. Because when people found out we had this stuff, it was just mind blowing for collectors that we was able to discover this collection. It's actually a pretty big boost for our company, just advertising it and letting people know, hey, you know, for example, Neil Young, he doesn't sign a lot of stuff. He's pretty private, some would almost say kind of reclusive.
You know, Dale had like, he'd met Neil Young privately twice and got him to sign 26 albums.
You know, so we. And it's hard to find in one,
[00:18:43] Speaker A: right?
[00:18:44] Speaker D: And they're not cheap either. You know, you're talking about like a thousand dollar plus item for a really nice signed Neil Young album, especially like Harvest or one of his really popular albums. So from there it kick started, kickstarted my interest because I learned a lot about authentication, real and fake.
And then from there it's like, okay, we're into autographs now. So that's where autographs came in. And you can have an album jacket signed, you know, by your favorite artist. That's probably the closest you're gonna get to them. And then probably number two to that is memorabilia, which would be, I consider that a little bit of autographs. But like concert posters, when you go to a concert, you go to the merch tent, you see those posters they're selling. That's another way. It's like, I was there, I was there at that Rush concert, I was there at that Tool concert.
So that we've, we've bought and sold thousands of concerts, posters over the years.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: So it sounds like to me, without Internet, the majority of your business would almost be impossible to reach the level of customers that you need to do that. So is. Would you say that having DTC Internet there at the shop is extremely important to what you do?
[00:19:55] Speaker D: Oh, sure, Yeah. I mean, with. With what we do on a nightly basis, live streaming, I knew we was gonna have to get fiber. Yeah. You know, and so, you know, DTC came through with that big time. And your business revolves around live streaming. You gotta have something. It's like, this is like top priority, like full red alert. We've gotta have amazing Internet every day.
It's, you know, because when we're not live streaming during those primetime hours, it's like literally setting cash on fire. You know, you're missing. You're missing out on prime time.
So, yes, it was. It was critical. And our customers, these, they're so dedicated, like I said earlier, you know, if I'm not live or something, they enter panic mode. You know, they're like, where is Chad? What is going on? Is
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Chad sick?
[00:20:44] Speaker D: Has he been abducted? Like, what's going on? Where's Chad? And how can we figure out how to get him back on here?
That's why I can never take a day off, you know. But, yeah, that's critical for us. Absolutely. It's a selling show. But it's kind of like, you know, I try to think about it. Well, there's some entertainment value here. Yeah, exactly. You can click on any website and order, you know, whatever from any company. But it's kind of like when you're watching. And I think they connect to me, and I kind of connect to them. And plus, like, I have to keep up with the trend. So they keep us updated.
What kind of pre orders do we need to be posting? What is popular right now?
You know, we dedicate a whole night just to the band Kiss. Oh, wow. You know, we have Kiss fans and they're.
That's the whole Monday night sale, that whole fan base. And they. Let me tell you something about Kiss fans, because they'll probably be watching this. They're the most dedicated. I mean, they're. I call them the Kiss fanatics or the Kiss lunatics.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: The Kiss Army.
[00:21:48] Speaker D: The Kiss army is the proper term.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:51] Speaker D: And yeah, they are. So. I mean, they get competitive with it. I mean, it's fun to watch people tune in that have no interest in buying Kiss memorabilia. They tune in just to see these people fight over this stuff or argue over it. So there's some entertainment Involved for sure.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: I'm sure we've interested a lot of people that probably didn't know maybe about your business and now they're like, I need to know more. And they may want to stop by the storefront in Lebanon or they may want to start catching some of these streams. And even if they don't buy something right away, they may just want to get the entertainment factor and then kind of ease into that. But how would you tell people the best way to find you both physically as well as your streams?
[00:22:30] Speaker D: So we're. The brick and mortar store is in Lebanon. It's in.
It's right off the square, Short Street. And we're open Wednesday through Saturday.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:40] Speaker D: Now if you want to kind of really see what we have, I consider the storefront far as our vinyl. It's almost like all the vinyl in our storefront is either the brand new stuff or it's all $2 for the vintage. It's kind of where we put the discount stuff.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:22:56] Speaker D: And then there's. There's posters in there, there's vintage toys, you know, case pocket knives. We sell a lot of case pocket knives during the holiday season
[00:23:04] Speaker A: now. Those are very popular this
[00:23:06] Speaker D: time
[00:23:06] Speaker A: of
[00:23:06] Speaker D: year. We're a case knife dealer, so we, we sell a ton of that. But if you really want to find out what we have and like the high end vinyl and the, the wow stuff like holy moly, that's on our live streams every night, which is coletco, that's Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and we're on X and all the cast, you know, go together. It's simulcast.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: Well, Chad, I'm really proud of what you've done with the business. It's amazing. And it's like you took your personal passion and love of music and you just brought it to another level. And now you get to basically work in an industry that you really kind of love anyway.
[00:23:45] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. My dad, who passed away in 2019, when that happened, it was kind of like we was just starting to kind of go to the next level. And I was like, a lot of people ask me, what's your motivation for this? And I'm like, well, if my dad could be around to see where we've become. That's why when people ask like, are you ever gonna take a day off? Are you ever gonna, you know, not. And I was like, we don't understand. I don't feel like I'm working on a daily basis. Me and him, it was like a family business. You know, me, him and my mom, we'd go to flea markets together. So it's like doing it kind of in memory of him and building this to the level it is to where now we have 15 employees.
And it used to be just us as a family shipping stuff out of our house. You know, that's kind of my motivation.
And shout out to everybody that works there for us.
I have a great team that makes it makes the journey a little bit easier too. And I will say one thing, having you as a boss when I was here with dtc, the way you were so professional.
Thanks. I appreciate it. I just wanted to give you a shout out because when I'm treating customers, I was always like, when something goes wrong, it's like, how would Nick Noakes handle it? Because he was always so great just talking to people.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: I appreciate
[00:25:00] Speaker D: that, Chad. I really do. And I was like, it was a great influence on me.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: We had a great team back then. It was a lot
[00:25:05] Speaker D: of fun. It was a great time. Yes, for sure. For sure.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Well, everybody, if you haven't experienced collect co yet, what are you waiting on? You need to do that. So make sure you go stop by and see them or definitely check out the streams. It's a great entertainment factor kind of thing, but it's also just a great place to get some gifts or get some things for yourself. And who knows, you may be part of that kiss stream for long and picking up a. Of a Double Alive album or something like that. So. But Chad, thanks so much for being here with us today. I appreciate it.
[00:25:34] Speaker D: Thank you so much. This was great.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: Everybody stay tuned. We got more of the show coming up in just a moment.
[00:25:39] Speaker E: You know that DTC provides great products and services to your home and you can get the same great value for your business with DTC Business Solutions. Whether you're making sales over the phone or online to customers around the world.
We deliver the reliable business solutions you need at a competitive price and we do it all with uncompromising service.
Let's talk about what matters to your business. Call DTC Business Solutions today.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: And welcome back, everyone. It's time to give the microphone over to Mr. Justin Malden. He's going to keep us tuned in and he's going to explain some very techy terms in a way that we can understand it in our segment called the Tech Translator.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: So we talk oftentimes about AI, and in my life I have used what I'm going to talk about via AI, but I'm not talking about AI specifically to use it because there's, there's Other things that you can use to do it. We're going to talk about automation.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Automation.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: We're going to talk about automation. So, you know, that's a term that a lot of us are familiar with, maybe not so much on the tech side. So there is built into whatever kind of software, and I'm not going to get super specific because this is going to vary greatly, but there are tools at your disposal to help you streamline things. And in automation, we used to think, oh, if I was a Microsoft Excel user, I could do macros. And macros were a form of automation that people have used for a long time, or you can program it. I'm doing a similar task every so often and I need Excel to just spit it out and generate. Here's the information
[00:27:32] Speaker A: to automatically do something for.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Yeah. So that's what macros are for. You're doing a repetitive task. It's something that you're, that you do on a regular basis and you can take inform something and it automates the process. So instead of you having to do it every single time on your own, you go in and you set an automation. And for Excel, it's a macro, it runs it for you and you get the same output, but you get it a lot easier.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: It saves a ton of time, is
[00:28:02] Speaker C: what you used to. Yes. Than you used to have to do. And with modern operating systems, both computers and mobile devices, these tools are built in to start telling you how to do things. So when I arrive at home, I actually get a prompt because I don't want it to run all the time where it says, would you like this automation ran? And what the automation does is it unlocks my doors and it turns on some of the lights in my house. Okay. And it knows through what's called geofencing, it's a home automation, a smart home automation, and it's done through Apple Home. Google has a similar feature that you can do. And again, there's so many tools out there. There's if this, then that. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. IFTTT if this then that which integrates with a lot of other things. And so those are the three most popular things for home automation specifically. And what it does is if this, then that says if this happens, then do this. If I'm leaving at a certain time of the day, not every time, because sometimes my family's at home, but generally I'm the last one to leave the house in the mornings during the weekday. So if I, when I leave my house, it does the flip side. It makes sure lights are turned off, it makes sure that my door is locked.
So if I forgot to lock it, if I forgot to turn a light out, maybe I need. It needs. It goes and it checks the thermostat to make sure the thermostat is set. Oh, I'm not home. Let's make sure we're cut off or we've set the temperature down. It sets it into what's called away mode.
So there's all kinds of things that you can do that's just smart home automation. You can do it with technology too. I've told you recently that I have automated a system at our church to automatically process our podcast that we do where we take our service and we take the lessons within our services and it will take the audio, it will find the lesson itself, it will trim it down, it will cut it and it will get it all the way to the platform that we use with a suggested title and description. It does not publish it all the way because I do want to review it, but it will get it all the way on there.
And I did.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: What kind of time is that saving you on average
[00:30:16] Speaker C: that on for Sundays? Because with their multiple services on Sundays that we were doing, it probably saves me an hour and a half to two hours on Sundays.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:30:26] Speaker C: Is what it is saving
[00:30:27] Speaker A: through. That's awesome.
[00:30:28] Speaker C: Through.
Strictly through automation. Now, the great thing with AI is I'm telling you all this and you're going, I don't know how to do it. This is why I'm going to give you a suggested use for AI.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Okay,
[00:30:39] Speaker C: whatever. Your preferred AI platform is Chat, GPT, Gemini, Claude.
Now that Apple has released Siri AI, whatever it may be, if you're thinking, how do I do these things? Because this is so broad, here's my suggestion,
[00:30:54] Speaker A: right?
[00:30:55] Speaker C: Go into your AI client of choice and say, and just try this out. I would like to try to do this. Can you help walk me through it?
[00:31:05] Speaker A: So literally ask it a question. Just like you were talking to a human, ask
[00:31:08] Speaker C: it a question. Say, I heard that I may be able to, you know, streamline or automate this. Or can you help me with this? Or can you walk me through how to, how to do this?
Hey, I know when I, you know, some automations can be simple, you know, a little bit more simpler or less time consuming. That's, hey, let me set the reminder. So I send a text message to somebody to remind them we have an appointment for this, right? Maybe that's the way that you used to do it is, oh, I need to send out this message. Well, maybe that can be done automatically for you. Maybe you can automate that process. Hey, I have a meeting on here. I need this email sent 15 minutes to them before the meeting to remind them, hey, we have it. Because it's someone who forgets oftentimes that this meeting is going to occur.
There's other simpler tasks and things, but there's so many things out there and there's so many tools. That's why I can't drill down and say this is what you need to use or this is what you need to do. Because
[00:32:05] Speaker A: it really just depends on what you want to do. And the sky's the limit in a lot of ways.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: It personally, you could use it for work. You know that the caveat, because I always offer caveats, is be careful what you give outside things access to.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: I would agree with that.
[00:32:21] Speaker C: That would be, that would be the caveat to it is you can set up automations but you may be given a lot of data and handing it off to a third party or to somebody else. So automation is the name of the game today.
I have, and the reason this is on my mind is over the past two months, there's a lot of things that I have automated in my life beyond what I had before. And a lot of it is thanks to the help of AI helping guide me through that and through that process. One thing you
[00:32:54] Speaker A: haven't automated is your appearance on this podcast. And
[00:32:56] Speaker C: I've appreciate that. Automated that, I mean. But are you sure I am not a hologram?
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Well, I'm not positive, but I feel like you're real. You may slap you or something and make sure you're real. Yeah, but. And by the way, the background is this studio is real too. We had someone mention. This
[00:33:13] Speaker C: is not green screen.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: This is not green screen.
[00:33:15] Speaker C: This is.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: This is real.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: This is not AI.
[00:33:18] Speaker C: Yes, this is. Yeah, this is all live in the background. That's right for us. But it looks good enough that I'm impressed that some people wonder if it is a live background. And it is, it is a live background.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: That's right. So. But I appreciate that. That's great. That just goes to show you there's always some way we can be a little more productive if we just know how to use the right tool to do it.
And for this segment of the local click, we're very lucky to have Mr. Blaine Elkins. He is the customer experience representative here at dtc, one of many that we have. And Blaine, thanks for being here with us today. Well, thank you for having me. It's going to be fun getting to know you a little bit better and sharing your story with all of our viewers and listeners, so. Oh, absolutely. Well, before we get started about all things dtc, let's get to know you a little bit better. Tell us about your family and your local connections to this area.
[00:34:06] Speaker F: I grew up in Warren County. I actually moved to Cannon county, went to high school here.
You know, starting my freshman year. And then now I call Smithville, Tennessee, DeKalb county, my home.
I'm married and my wife Madison is actually expecting our first child, a beautiful baby boy.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Congratulations.
[00:34:28] Speaker F: Absolutely. We're very, very excited.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Exciting times.
[00:34:31] Speaker F: Oh, absolutely.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: Now you go ahead and get as much sleep as you can right now.
[00:34:35] Speaker F: Oh, goodness.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: I don't want to scare you, but
[00:34:38] Speaker F: I've heard it's going to be minimal.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Yeah. If it's like mine, it could be.
But as far as with your work here at dtc, kind of tell us first how long you've been with DTC and kind of explain what your role as customer experience representative does on a day to day basis. Typically,
[00:34:57] Speaker F: I've been here for about a year and a half here at dtc.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:00] Speaker F: Whenever it goes to, you know, anything with customer experience, I mean, it is a large blanket. We do a lot of things, whether it be, you know, dealing with security, broadband, telephone, now even cell phones. We have Trilite Mobile now, which has been doing really well. We've been helping customers save a lot of money on Trilite.
It's really a cool scenario with how many things that we do have. And there are so many different things on a day to day basis. No day is the same.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: That's kind of what I was curious about because when I talk to a lot of DTC employees, I always ask that question because sometimes worded differently, but it's always like, what's a typical day like? And they're like, I don't know if we have a typical day. And there's some things you always do, obviously. Oh, absolutely. It's amazing really how different every day can be too, so.
[00:35:50] Speaker F: Oh, yeah. And every interaction is different too.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:54] Speaker F: It's just, you know, you never know if you're going to have somebody who's coming in. They're. They just purchased a brand new home and they're needing to get, you know, Internet service.
You don't know if somebody's coming in and, you know, they have lost a loved one. So you have to show that empathy to them and
[00:36:09] Speaker A: right.
[00:36:09] Speaker F: Really be there for them in a caring manner. It's not transactional in a lot of ways. A lot of it is emotional. You are building that emotional connection with people, and that's the part that I love,
[00:36:20] Speaker A: and that's what I was going to ask you too. Is that your favorite part about interacting with everybody is trying to build that one on one connection? It's more than just a business transaction. Right. A lot of times.
[00:36:29] Speaker F: Oh, it really is. You know, the thing that I learned from a young age is you are selling yourself before you sell a product.
And in reality, the biggest thing that I want to do more than sell anything is to get to understand the person that I'm talking to, to see what they truly need. I've always taken myself as someone who really loves to communicate just to, you know, build those relationships with everyone and be a light, even if they may not have that elsewhere. You know, that's just something that I gain great passion over.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: A lot of people like yourself that are really good in customer service, customer experience, a lot of it is, is trying to meet that customer where they are the moment they start that transaction with you. Right. Like, if they're having a great day, you're, you're, you're kind of, you're there with them in that excitement or if they're even, they're having a trouble or something, you're there to try to be sympathetic and help them and stuff. But just reading the room, if you will, I think is a big part of it. Would you say that's true?
[00:37:31] Speaker F: Oh, absolutely. There's a lot of times where if you can't read body language, then you were in trouble. Yeah. Because body language is a very important factor to have whenever it comes to talking to anyone because they may say one thing, but then their body language is completely different. That's a good
[00:37:49] Speaker A: point.
[00:37:49] Speaker F: And sometimes if you can see through that, you can better assess and better help them
[00:37:54] Speaker A: better solve that problem or whatever that need is. Yeah. The fact that DTC has been around for so many years, do you think that's really affected our ability to successfully communicate with our customers when we have to learn something out of being around and helping people for so long? Do you think that's had a big impact in the way we approach that?
[00:38:14] Speaker F: I think it has in multiple ways. I feel like the fact of, you know, DTC being here for 75 years, it's no accident. There was a great foundation that DTC was founded upon that we still Work upon each and every day.
It gives us the structure and the balance to understand that, you know, whenever it was first founded it was to bring service to those who could not get service from the bigger providers.
But now it's that we are able to provide the best service possible.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:45] Speaker F: And the fully fiber network, that's the, that's the part that it's, it's really cool, you know, getting to the 2 and 5 gig now and you know, just being able to provide the service and not only the service, but the customer service. We're local, we get to see them face to face. You don't have to go through 17 AIs to get to us. And that's the part that I love.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: It's an easy sell when you know you're selling the best technology out there. Right. When you have fiber and you have speeds like that. It's not like you're not trying to talk someone into something. I mean this is, this is really good. This is great. This is as good as it gets anywhere.
[00:39:22] Speaker F: I feel like Internet now is just as an important utility as anything. Whether it be water, electric, Internet.
Have you seen a five year old without Internet?
[00:39:34] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:39:35] Speaker F: I mean it's,
[00:39:35] Speaker A: it's a necessity really.
[00:39:36] Speaker F: It really is. Yeah. And it's something that I'm so happy that we are able to provide such a wonderful service with.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Well, I know we talked earlier about how no two days are alike, but there's probably a lot of similarities on probably how you start every single day and it not just work related. Maybe just kind of get going your routine to get started and stuff and, and get, get your workstation going on. Maybe it's that favorite cup of coffee. I don't know. Do you have a certain routine you like to start your day with?
[00:40:03] Speaker F: Oh, I mean everyone has to start their day with breakfast, right?
[00:40:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:40:06] Speaker F: I mean I know there's a lot of people who do coffee only but for me I do, I'll make breakfast every morning. I'll usually eat it as I'm getting to work.
You know, I'll come in, I'll say hi to my co worker, Ms. Dana Singleton. She's, she's wonderful. We'll of course get all of our, you know, money counted for the day.
The biggest thing for me is just opening the day on a, on a high note just so I can be the best person that I can be for anyone who may walk through those. I
[00:40:36] Speaker A: love that. I love that. Blaine, I think it's almost like you're Setting.
You're setting yourself up. You're building yourself up to be.
To be that person that can help someone with the right attitude. Right when they come in. You think that
[00:40:49] Speaker F: that's my goal.
[00:40:50] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:40:50] Speaker F: that's my goal
[00:40:51] Speaker A: as far as explaining technical items and information to people that may not be technical, like customers that come in and ask you questions. Is that a challenge sometime? Or how do you approach that when you're trying to explain things like that?
[00:41:04] Speaker F: Being able to break it down in simplistic terms.
So what I'll usually do, instead of breaking it down simplistic, I will break it down as we go. So if we're talking about one gigabit Internet speed, I can't just break it down and be like, oh, it's, you know, this. It's very simple and easy. I'll usually break it down is. So think of a speed that is so fast that you cannot fathom, and then pull that back.
Because a lot of people know what megabytes are. They understand that a little bit better. So I'm like, If you have 100 megabytes, think of this as a thousand. I can usually gather by who I'm speaking with what would work.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: And that's kind of what I was just about to say. I bet you're using those context clues when you first start those conversations, see what level they're at, maybe in their understanding of,
[00:41:57] Speaker F: oh, absolutely, what
[00:41:57] Speaker A: you're talking about. So
[00:41:58] Speaker F: it's funny how many people will surprise you as well. Like, I did have this gentleman one time. He came in. I was like, you know, maybe I will have to go a little bit more in depth.
And he came in, he's like, yeah, I've been coding for 30 years, and I've been doing all this. Just goes to show,
[00:42:13] Speaker A: you can't tell sometimes
[00:42:14] Speaker F: you know exactly what you need.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Well, can you think of a. Maybe share with us a specific story or time when you've been able to help someone out that came in with a problem?
[00:42:24] Speaker F: There was one specific that so is a wonderful woman. She unfortunately just lost her husband, and she was wanting to get security because, you know, her husband is no longer there. And, you know, I could only imagine what she was going through.
So we did. We went out, we got her a quote. And, you know, with some of the security products, they.
They're really, really nice, and they can, you know, be a little bit out of, you know, some price ranges, depending on what you're looking for. But it was for a full, like, 20 camera setup.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:43:01] Speaker F: And Ultimately she's like, I cannot afford this. So what we did is we, we reconnected. We were able to get a re. Quote. We cut the quote down by 75%. She was able to do it and now she has a great security system and she feels a lot more secure within her home.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Oh, that's great.
[00:43:19] Speaker F: And, and those are the things that I enjoy about this job.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: She lays her head down at night, she feels like she's more secure and she can and be more restful and more confident in what's going on around her home. So that's great. I like that. Blaine, would you think that most people probably have a lot more Internet connected devices in their home than they ever realize?
[00:43:42] Speaker F: Oh, yes. There are so many people whenever.
Let's just say that somebody's like, my Internet's been so slow, like what's going on with my Internet?
Then we'll look at it and they'll have a slower speed than they really need.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:59] Speaker F: And I'll tell them, I was like, we probably need to move up to this. You know, maybe we could even get it at the same cost as what you're paying right now for a set amount of time.
And then through it all they're like, well, I only use like my phone and then maybe my TV. But then in reality, they got five cameras connected. They've got four TVs, three cell phones, a vacuum cleaner.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, there's gaming devices in the home or whatever. There
[00:44:26] Speaker F: are so many things that connect now that you wouldn't even think like even a picture frame
[00:44:29] Speaker A: will
[00:44:30] Speaker F: connect to your Internet. And
[00:44:31] Speaker A: yeah, I don't think people realize almost everything that's electronic based now wants to be connected to the WI Fi or the Internet in some ways it seems like. So,
[00:44:40] Speaker F: yeah, I mean, it's just like with games, you know, online gaming is so prevalent now and for most people, they don't even realize that every game now is an online based game.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:51] Speaker F: So a lot of times they're like, well, I just play single player. It's still online based now.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: And there's always an update, right?
[00:44:58] Speaker F: There is always, it's
[00:44:59] Speaker A: always a big update and you've got to download gig after gig of those updates to make everything work. So I know you love DTC and you, you eat, breathe, sleep, DTC all the time. But there's got to be a time when you get away from work a little bit and maybe some hobbies that you enjoy or are there some things you like to do when you're away from Work
[00:45:18] Speaker F: aside from work, I do attend church. I love going to church. I'm a member at Smithville fbc.
[00:45:24] Speaker A: Great.
[00:45:26] Speaker F: I'm an avid golfer. I love going out to the golf course.
Career best 76.
Love, love those.
Play video games.
But mostly I do just enjoy spending time with my wife at home. Just being able to, you know, maybe cook a nice meal and. And being able to do all of that. Now I will say that I feel like I can never not take my work home because I'm always building connections with people regardless. So maybe it's not in the sense of for dtc, but I'm always building those connections and who knows, maybe it'll be something that would help in the future with that as well.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: You really get close to your customers when you. You see them a lot and you're helping them and stuff. And it's more than just a business interaction. A lot of times you become friends with them a lot of times too.
[00:46:10] Speaker F: Or whenever they can walk in and you can call them by their first name and they come, can call you by yours. Right. You know, you can legitimately ask how they are doing, how their family's doing if they need anything
[00:46:21] Speaker A: to wrap things up today.
If you could narrow it down to one thing, what's the most rewarding part of your job?
[00:46:29] Speaker F: The most rewarding part for me is whenever somebody comes in and they may be having a bad day and then I can see them leave with a smile or, you know, maybe something is just went awry and it was something as simple as, you know, let's call down to our wonderful tech support team and, you know, get them squared away.
There are so many things that are rewarding about this job because there are so many great people, not only within our company, but our members and our customers. It's just so rewarding seeing them each and every day.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: Yeah, you get to put smiles on people's faces a lot of times. Absolutely. Well, Blaine, thanks for all you do for DTC and our members and our customers, and I wish you nothing but the best and continued success here at dtc.
[00:47:18] Speaker F: Thank you,
[00:47:18] Speaker A: everybody. Stay tuned. We got more of the program coming up in just a moment.
[00:47:22] Speaker G: At dtc, we connect you throughout your home, powering how you live every day.
And now that connection doesn't stop at your front door. With Trilite Mobile, you stay connected. Wherever life takes you, at home or on the go, it all works together. Because today, connection isn't just something you have, it's something you rely on.
Dtc, Internet and Trilite Mobile Stay connected wherever you go.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: Take a little trip down memory lane, if you will, back to a simpler time. Back to a time I like to call for. For the WI fi.
[00:48:05] Speaker C: Do you remember what you used to have to do if you wanted to say, just book a hotel. How did you used to book a hotel?
[00:48:16] Speaker A: We use the telephone. That's what we used to do. That's
[00:48:19] Speaker C: right. You would pick that phone up and you'd call, I would like to stay on these dates. Do you have any availability?
And you would navigate that over the phone, talking to someone.
You didn't go online, type in something, see 47 pictures and 200 reviews of the hotel. Right. You know, that's how we used to do it. You'd pick up the phone or you would see a brochure or, you know what Uncle Wayne said when he went here, this is where he stayed. Word
[00:48:44] Speaker A: of
[00:48:45] Speaker C: mouth. Right. You did it based off the recommendation of somebody you actually talked to. Not. Not an Internet review. Right. But somebody you actually talk to. Not because you saw a social media post or you. Or you read a review online. Right. And that's the thing you think about it. Has the Internet made vacation planning easier or has it given us so much information that maybe it's more difficult to plan a vacation? A
[00:49:12] Speaker A: lot of options.
[00:49:13] Speaker C: I mean, that's. That's
[00:49:14] Speaker A: true.
[00:49:14] Speaker C: You know, that's the thing. There's so much to consume and to think. I mean, I mean, there's websites just dedicated to doing this. And there are still. Travel agents, Travel agents do still exist and can still help you find great deals. But I don't think that. I mean, they're not utilized as much as they used to be because we can access all that. I mean, it's a convenience and I think it's great.
I think, you know, utilize has completely changed the way that we think about things and do things. Especially, you know, you go to. You go to one website, you can see 10 hotels. You're not calling 10 hotels. You're seeing them in real time. This is what's available. This is how much they cost. This is their amenities. It's.
I mean, it. It is very, very, very convenient.
But I would caution and urge people not to make vacation planning a checklist.
You know, just be careful now. Find that happy.
That happy middle ground.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: I like that. That's true. You can have fun in vacation, too. You don't have to be too structured. So that's right. So.
Well, let's change gears a little bit, if you will, because I know there's always a lot going on in the news segment around technology because technology is always constantly moving and changing. So why don't you give us the lowdown on this month's episode of Tech News Roundup.
[00:50:36] Speaker C: Apple has finally done it. They have released a foldable phone. Now several other manufacturers will be like, oh, that's nothing new. Foldable phones are not new. It is new for Apple, it
[00:50:47] Speaker A: is new for them.
[00:50:48] Speaker C: Others have have done this for a few years but Apple has the tendency to take things slow. They want to get the technology right and make sure that whatever product they offer is a superior product. And so they have finally released the iPhone duo which has an outer screen but then you can open it up and it's got almost an iPad mini size screen that unfolds. And so they, they have released that, that is on sale as we speak. Wow. Starting low, low price of $1999.99. I
[00:51:19] Speaker A: knew that was going to hurt.
[00:51:20] Speaker C: So yeah, it is, it is a major design change for Apple but it's also the most expensive introductory price for a phone that they've ever had. Yeah. So this is well beyond what they have offered before.
I'm not so much a fan of it.
That's because I don't like huge phones. I think the screen is awesome. I think the screen would be neat. I would just be scared to death that I'd break it. I mean, I know, I know what I would be thinking. Yeah. But I think it is a cool piece of technology.
I think they're, you know that it's going to work well for certain individuals. It's not for me, not that I'm dissing it, but it is not, it is not for me.
[00:52:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:52:01] Speaker C: Next thing on the list. And a lot of people have read about this, this you are probably are aware of, but there were some major security flaws that were discovered in website software over the past couple weeks. It has been disclosed. And the first thing is you need to patch your systems for this. So you may have seen something. What is called CVE is shorthand for basically there's a critical vulnerability within software and so it's shorthanded to cve. So if you've ever seen that and you wonder what that is, that means there's a bug that can be exploited for people to do bad things. And so that's got to be fixed because at this point it's hey, it's an. And in this particular case it was like, this is so bad.
We have to go ahead and make sure that Everybody knows about it and that everybody will patch their software systems. Because you're running websites here, right. And your traffic, you, you get on the Internet, everything is done, you know, if it's done in a browser and it's done through website software. And this was major website software. PHP is what it's called, which is a backend. Okay. It's a backend system that drives the website so you don't physically see it, but it's what does everything on the backside. It was such a major issue because there are so many websites out there that run off of this. And I
[00:53:24] Speaker A: think I heard something like 70% of all the websites across the world were relying on. Yes. And so
[00:53:31] Speaker C: it was, hey, update immediately because you're, there's the potential for takeover. Yeah. And when you see something like this, you know it's bad because oftentimes these kind of things will be fixed in the background and then they will be made public. But on something of this nature, it must have been enough of an issue that they made it public immediately. Yeah, but I'm guessing there's probably been some people taking advantage of that vulnerability and so they wanted it patched as quickly as possible.
The next thing, and this is interesting as we, you know, I, I love to talk about space and I would be curious to see what people's thoughts are on, on this next one. So let me know if you think this is a good idea or a bad idea in the comments.
NASA has awarded a contract to develop WI fi for the moon.
[00:54:28] Speaker A: Moon WI fi.
[00:54:29] Speaker C: Moon WI Fi. And so. Well,
[00:54:31] Speaker A: it's about
[00:54:31] Speaker C: time.
So they have awarded a contract to develop a lunar 5G network on the moon.
And so what they are wanting to use it for, as you know, we are with the Artemis missions planning to go back to the moon. And so what they're hoping to do is to utilize this for communications on the moon, for astronauts and for different systems and for equipment and vehicles. What
[00:54:58] Speaker A: about those little green men already on the moon? Maybe they need some WI fi.
[00:55:02] Speaker C: Yeah, that could be it too. So it's, it's really wanting to be developed as a communication protocol for these future missions going to the moon. It's not, it's not so that you can access social media while you're on the moon.
So there, there is a legitimate use for, it is for, it is for communication efficiency. And so that, that, that's a very neat thing. And then the last thing that we'll hit on in Australia.
And again, I talk about Australia and then I talk about The UK because these things seem to gravitate toward North America and the United States as they start in other places. They're exploring legislation that would require on social media that would give the user more control over what they see and where. It would make a requirement from social media networks to give the user the option in their feed. Do they only want to see the things that they want to see, such as the people that they followed and those things, or can they use an algorithmic feed that most social media networks use now where you don't get to pick everything that you see? They use an algorithm because they're trying to keep you on there. They want your eyeballs. This
[00:56:11] Speaker A: is interesting. I like this.
[00:56:13] Speaker C: Yeah. They want your eyeballs on the screen. And so they use an algorithm to decide. So you're listening to this right now. You're like, yeah, I see stuff all the time and I have no idea who it is. Yeah, I've seen, you know, it suggests, and I follow this person, it's showing me a video from this person. Well, that's because that's what we call the algorithm. Right. The algorithm is, is, is showing you these things because it's hoping you will be entertained, that you will like it and it will keep you drawn to the screen. So
[00:56:40] Speaker A: there's. Government's going to be forcing that option now. Is that what you're.
[00:56:43] Speaker C: So it is a proposed rule in Australia right now. Okay, so it's proposed. It is not passed, but it is proposed to, to give the option to the user over, basically, which is your default feed, what you have followed in what you say you want to do or what it suggests for you through the algorithm.
[00:57:03] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:57:04] Speaker C: So that's. Yeah. What's
[00:57:06] Speaker A: bad about having the option? I mean, that way you can pick and choose and you can go back and forth.
[00:57:10] Speaker C: Yeah. And you know, it's interesting. You see some, like X, for instance, X, if you're on there, which I'm a heavy user of, X, you have the option of that.
You, you and it's right on the top. You can, you can swap back and forth within the app. Okay. It gives you a feed. It's called the for you feed that's using the algorithm for things. Okay. We think you'll like this. Or. No, no, no. I only want to see the stuff that I'm following. Right. That I've chosen to do. So X has already given you the choice. And what this is, is saying, hey, we're going to. In Australia, we're going to give the user the choice to pick to pitch which direction they want to go.
[00:57:50] Speaker A: I'm excited. I hope that comes here. I really do.
[00:57:52] Speaker C: Yes, that's a very, I mean, let's, let's just be very honest here. The majority of personal use of the Internet is social media. Yeah. So. So this would have wide ranging effects.
[00:58:04] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate that update, Justin. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for that. So keep my fingers crossed and maybe, maybe it'll get here. Maybe they won't be forced to do it. Maybe they'll just do it doing.
[00:58:13] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, I have my doubts that they'll do something like that.
[00:58:17] Speaker A: The glass was half full on that one. Sorry. But thanks, Justin. I appreciate all the, all the news updates. So
[00:58:22] Speaker C: always.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: And before we go, we can't leave you each month without at least giving you a quick update on all the different places that DTC will be during the month of this podcast. And for the month of November, you can find DTC on November 10th and the 11th 11th at the Wilson County Career Quest, which will be at the Expo center in Lebanon. Also, you'll find us on November 11th at the Smith County Schools Career Day and that is held at the Ag center in South Carthage. And I think that's going to do it for the month of November. Justin, thank you so much for being here each month and helping us with all the things you do on the podcast. It's always a pleasure. So
[00:59:03] Speaker C: listen, I'm glad to be here. I hope that you have a great November and have a happy Thanksgiving. And I hope all of our viewers and listeners do too.
[00:59:10] Speaker A: That's exactly right. And we'd like to thank Blaine and Chad for being on the podcast this month. And we'd like to thank you for listening and watching. And we'd also like to say that we will see you next month for the month of December.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: Learn more about the show by visiting us
[email protected]. also, be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast or video platform form so you won't miss our next episode of the Local Click. See you next month.
