How to Build a New Media Empire in an Old Industry

Adam Vazquez 0:06
On this episode, we’re joined by Scott Luton, the Founder, CEO, and Host of Supply Chain Now. Scott has obviously been very successful as he’s built Supply Chain Now, which is an award-winning global digital content platform and robust community. But as Carlton notes in our intro, he is also in the running for the kindest guest we’ve had on this show. Just a remarkably nice person.

During our conversation, Scott goes into detail on how he and the team have build Supply Chain now as a niche media platform, how that has evolved over the years, and what diversification into new areas looks like for a mature media company.

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and I think you will too. Without further ado, let’s get into it with Scott Luton from supply chain now.

Intro 0:50
Put that content down. Content. The close is over. What’s your name? Content. That’s my name. You know why, mister? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight. I drove an $80,000 BMW. That’s my name. Content Is for Closers.

Adam Vazquez 1:12
Alright, welcome back into another special Friday edition of Content Is for Closers. This is back-to-back weeks with Friday episodes.

Carlton Riffel 1:19
We’re just kicking it up a notch.

Adam Vazquez 1:20
We have really great content, we have so many exciting stories to tell, and so we thought mine as well.

Carlton Riffel 1:25
We’ve got me and Adam in person.

Adam Vazquez 1:27
That’s the biggest thing. We’ve got each other in person. So this episode was a Scott Lewton of Supply Chain Now. The story of Supply Chain Now, if you don’t know, it is really incredible. Scott shared bits and pieces of it throughout our conversation. But what did you think, Carlton, about the whole conversation?

Scott Luton 1:43
Yeah, good conversation. He’s just a humble guy, especially for the following that they have. Very, very kind. Very humble. Really, what they’ve done is they’ve taken this idea of going into a specific industry a specific niche. And they’ve gone down super deep, and found ways to make it more applicable. So now they’re doing that with other industries as well. And I think they’ve got an incredible business model for finding things that may not be the most appealing businesses to be covering, but they’re doing it in such a quality way that people are attracted to it.

Adam Vazquez 2:14
Yeah, this is a classic example of an overnight success. If you missed the last whatever decade of work that has led to this point, you could look at what Scott is doing, what his team is doing, the variety of shows that they have and be like, man, it’s just so easy. You could just jump in and start a media company, but you’d be missing they’ve been through iterations of just going deep into one area being supply chain developing an entire brand around that and then now taking the byproducts of both the content that they produced all over all those years as well as the lessons learned and applying it to other areas as well. So they are now diversifying when it comes to content but I think the build up the foundation that they are diversifying from is really really important to when you’re telling that story.

Yeah, that’s super well said. With that, let’s jump in.

Alright, we’re back another episode of Content Is for Closers. We’ve got Scott Luton— Actually, I probably should have asked you that in the pre-show. Is it Luton? How do you say it?

Scott Luton 3:25
You nailed it, man. Luton. Adam, you’re Johnny on the spot.

Adam Vazquez 3:29
Scott, I always have some fun question or icebreaker to get into things. With you, though, I have a selfish question: You’re in the supply chain space. What’s happening? Is diesel going to be $10 by the end of the summer? Am I gonna have to sell my truck? What are we looking at here from your perspective?

Scott Luton 3:50
Change, change, and more change. These last few years, unfortunately, have really shown. We hear the word “resilient” thrown around all the time. Really, we’ve uncovered just how fragile global supply chains can be and how difficult it is to digest change while taking care of the customer at the price they want it, at that service levels, where they want it, and how quickly they want it. This is really a fascinating time. You look at some of the historic things that the global supply chain is digesting. Start with a pandemic. The pandemic alone has been a seismic shift, and then you coupled that with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Did you ever stop and think— I’ve got three kids. How about yourself, Adam? Any kids?

Adam Vazquez 4:37
Two little boys.

Scott Luton 4:38
Yeah, okay. I’m not sure how long ago your infant formula usage was. It’s been a while for us. But when I were going through that left and right, I never stopped to think about what went into it like many consumers, so I never, of course, connect the dots and to what we’re seeing now, where Ukraine is the top sunflower oil producer right in the world if I’m not mistaken. And of course, unfortunately, they that has been the wonderful people of Ukraine, and their way of life, including their business has been disrupted, perhaps like they haven’t seen in modern times. And of course, that comes to an end. But do you know who the number two producer of sunflower oil is?

Adam Vazquez 5:15
I don’t.

Scott Luton 5:16
Russia. And of course, right now Russia is using as many countered leverage points as they can as the world, thankfully, has come to condemn what they’re doing there in Ukraine. So still, you’re kind of setting aside the human component, which is next to impossible if you look at things surely through supply chain optics, we’re seeing more change and more compounding difficulty, old, old fashioned change old fashioned challenges. And a lot of things we’ve never seen before all making it very tough to it to serve your customer from a supply chain standpoint. One last thing, Adam, because in terms of what’s going on where we’re headed, there was a report by a variety of different folks, and we’ve seen global supply chain has seen more turnover, at least since 2016. And according to some of the root causes here burnout, in the that sounds very intuitive burnout. And while you can make a great living and supply chain, other industries are noticing the GSD type of folks that make up the global supply chain, getting stuff done, problem-solving innovation, the strong leadership skills, project management skills, change management skills, and they’re of course recruiting from the global supply chain. So we’re gonna have to get that put our hands around that get in a headlock to make sure that we have the talent we need in the global industry.

Adam Vazquez 6:43
Yeah, 100%. I appreciate you kind of addressing that. We have felt the sunflower thing specifically. We’re past formula, but one of our sons has a bunch of allergies and so weirdly, we use sunflower butter at our house. And I didn’t even know that. You learn something new every day. The reason I even asked you about that is because you are super informed about supply chain, leading Supply Chain Now radio, the whole entire company, and I’d love to hear what— You just demonstrated so much about the supply chain. The supply chain is extremely lucrative, it has been for a long time, so what was the impetus for you to say, “Yeah, I know a lot about supply chain, let me go try and do something very, very difficult in starting a media company,” which is its own challenge in and of itself?

Scott Luton 7:28
You’re right, absolutely right. And by the way, we killed off radio a couple of years back. You know how it goes. You put your blood sweat and tears into building a brand, and then airbags a lot of folks get to know your brand and then you’re like, you know what? We kind of change it and then and then you got to start killing off and everywhere. So can we tee up your question again and just drop that radio part?

Adam Vazquez 7:56
Yeah, no problem. Scott, I appreciate you answering that and the reason I even asked is because you’re very well versed in supply chain, you lead a company called Supply Chain Now, you’ve been in the industry for a long time, but you left the industry itself of supply chain to go and build a media company, which is very difficult in and of itself. What was the motivation? What was the impetus behind that?

Scott Luton 8:21
So Adam, you and I are gonna have to grab a beer and maybe share it kind of compare notes on building a media company because as you point out, it is not easy even in the perhaps a golden age of social media and digital media right now right? But kidding aside, I’ve been a big supply chain nerd since my very first manufacturing plant tour some 20 years ago prior to that, being in the Air Force and the military in general, your logistics which is the backbone of the global supply chain, that’s what the military does day in and day out. So really come to appreciate operations coming to appreciate global supply chain coming to really love manufacturing spinning several years working in supporting manufacturing industry, some of the best people I’ve ever met and the best folks in the world that would have rub elbows with and collaborate with and solve problems with and loosen Vernon loves with and these folks I come to find out they deserve to have their story told right? So for me for my why starting a digital media company was about helping these folks get their stories out helping consumers become more aware of what goes on and global supply chain, helping the share, of course, powerful stories market entail those problems and solutions. I think that is, I love when folks and you can probably relate here, Adam, when folks hear one of our interviewees talk about common challenges and how they addressed it. And then we get feedback after the show that different folks are trying to same things. That is like, man, that’s exactly why we started doing these innovative ideas, leaders, but along those same lines on about you, Adam, we met, I believe on Twitter or one of the social platforms. And I’ve come to appreciate, much like our relationship, these digital relationships—and some of them become in-person, other stay right there on those digital channels—some of those relationships are amongst my most valuable ones that I really relish. So the way I look at our digital media platform is we also want to help folks connect and find and build and invest in similar digital relationships. That’s a unique aspect, perhaps, of modern digital media versus some of the traditional approaches of media in the past.

Adam Vazquez 10:48
Yeah, so take us back to that because you’ve been doing this for a while. Now there are lots of voices who are doing this in the industry (in the supply chain space, specifically), but I think you are sort of a pioneer doing it independently. So what did that look like? How did that start? And how has that evolved over the years?

Scott Luton 11:06
Yeah, great question. And I appreciate your kind words. Thankfully, there are lots of folks, not just in digital media creation because it is truly there’s such a low bar for doing it, which is one of the beautiful things about it, I think 2.8 million podcasts. Yeah. And as we all know, podcast is just part of the whole digital media equation. And there’s, and by extension, there are a lot more folks covering the wide world of Indian supply chain. And we love that too. But where I got my start, in the good old webinars, I was volunteering with a supply chain organization that had a broad footprint, and its members had a really hard time planning and executing on those monthly rubber chicken and 1,000 Slide dinner meetings, right, that made up the association landscape. So I raised my hand and said, Hey, let’s just do a, let’s do a monthly webinar. And I loved doing live webinars. Some are better than others. You’re right, depending on if the presenter allowed it to be conversational sometimes, but that’s okay. Most importantly, it was allowing folks to learn and connect and gain ideas and connect with their fellow practitioners. remotely. Right. So that was some 1012 years ago. And so webinars, that monthly webinar kind of led me to experimenting with a podcast, what is this podcast thing? I think we did eight podcasts our first year. And I think we’ve published an episode 900. Last week at Wow. So grats, you don’t? Well, I really appreciate that we stand on the shoulders of giants, both in our industry and here at the supply chain, our team, but that’s where we got our start. And it has been an incredible journey ever since.

Adam Vazquez 12:53
Yeah, you said that—I can’t remember the exact number—but there are over two million podcasts that exist now. When we first got into this industry about five years ago, it was under a million (it was in the 700,000 range), so it’s been a huge season of acceleration for the whole industry. But with that being the case, the stakes, the points of entry are lowered. And so you see a lot of folks start and a lot of folks get some momentum and excitement. And that’s great. But to make it to even I think it’s like episode seven, the percentage falls off a cliff. So to make it 900 episodes is definitely something worth commending in the endurance that you’ve had to have to do that. And I’m sure it’s one of the things that has helped you is the ability to scale past yourself. When you’re building a media company, I gotta can’t just be Scott out there talking and developing different shows. So just be curious, from a creator perspective, what have you found that has helped you scale the company and your shows past just you yourself?

Scott Luton 13:56
Again, appreciate your kind words. Love this question. And clearly, you’ve been there and done it. Such a great question and so accurate. It is easy to jump in and start a podcast and really be a team of one to do it. That’s the beautiful thing of it. But what you’re pointing to is that attrition. I think a lot of folks will jump into a podcast, want to build the next big podcast, which we love. And then assume, assume that the monetization aspect of it is pretty easy. I’ll get some sponsors, knock it out a weekly podcast, it’s tough to make money, it’s tough to build that model. And then number two, it’s also tough, especially if it’s not your main gig and you’re not making money yet to get really consistent, right? Even if you’ve got the best expertise, the best voice and most passion, you gotta carve time out to do it. So recognizing those early challenges. I think for me, it starts with the why and that’s it never wanted to be about me. It was always I want to build a big old tent with a big old digital family. And that’s at the heart of who I am. am a variety of viewpoints you remember Baskin Robbins, right of the Baskin Robbins approach to creating different types of content. It’s about thinking a bit far beyond yourself, you’ve got to create that vehicle that works for the others involved, right? So all of that, and then some so for me, it was like, Okay, how do we figure it out? This has to be about an industry this has to be about a global ecosystem, it has to be about other many other voices. So recognizing that why then, we had to make sure that at the core supply chain now it was working and, and hey, the boss be in the market liked it. So that took a lot of trial and error we mentioned on there plus episodes, experimentation, there was a lot of experimentation, some of the work, thankfully, a lot of it didn’t. So, but when you publish a podcast every day, Monday through Friday, in those early days, sometimes Saturday, sometimes Sunday, we had allowed lots of experimentation, a ton of experimentation that was critical. So once we got the formula right on the supply chain, now, the mothership, which, by the way, and I’m very humble about this, this is our team and the hosts and the guests. But supply chain now is ranked in the top 1.5% of all podcasts, regardless of genre. And that’s something we celebrate regularly right regularly. So once we had the formula right, then it was about finding— What I did everyday kind of shifted right because it no longer was about finding the best guests, as much as I love to interview and love to share and amplify their stories and whatnot. For me it let’s share that burden. Let’s also spend some time every day looking for compelling widely respected expert host he but also really understand how to create digital content that resonates right so let me get a name drop a little bit, Adam?

Adam Vazquez 13:59
Absolutely. Yeah, I’d love that.

Scott Luton 15:17
All right, because we wouldn’t be here without Greg White who’s my main partner in crime in Supply Chain Now. He built Tequila Sunrise, a different niche entrepreneur, M&A Activity startup. I call him a startup whisperer using, a different voice. Kelly Barner on toppy for procurement. And this week in business history. Kevin O’Jackson, digital transformer is all about digital transformation, which is a much broader topic. We’re in Bursa, on Tech Talk digital supply chain podcast. And Mary Kate Saliba here recently, as she’s joined us elite veteran voices, right, which is, which is really our pro bono pro bono programming. We had to find and build relationships, all those brilliant folks that understand what it’s like and how much work it takes to build a separate brand, right and put in the work to do that, as considering if it’s once every week or once every two weeks. It’s a lot to ask. So you have to have the right folks in leading those separate properties. And then I think once we find them, and once we build those relationships, and we will make sure that they’re built the right way where there’s an incentive for them. There’s an incentive for us there’s a content creation opportunity, then it’s applying the mothership a formula to those properties, we’re going to create that digital content version or extension really, of their respective brands. And then I don’t know if that is I’ll talk about it out loud. So I’m thinking out loud here, Adam, it might sound easier said than done. But man, helping bring those new shows to life. It is incredibly rewarding. And then all of that has been how we’ve made sure that this journey we’re on is not about my viewpoint and only my viewpoint, but it’s about a global ecosystem of very talented folks that have strong voices that the rest of the world should hear.

Adam Vazquez 18:52
Yeah, I love that so much. If you’ve tried to create even one show that’s a success, you know how difficult that is. And so I see someone who is an organization is building multiple shows. And these aren’t, I mean, I don’t think you your shows are not news or Entertainment Weekly, or talking about the latest Hollywood (maybe that’s the next show you’re building up), but these are difficult subjects where you have to have a lot of information, a lot of expertise, and then share that in a compelling and entertaining way.

Scott Luton 19:22
You nailed it on the head, and it’s changing by the minute. It’s changing by the minute and even the old norms and a good way they’re changing and also in a bad way. They’re changing. I’m sure you can appreciate this because you are a pro and once you do, Adam, really you do it right. You’ve got a variety of shows. And I’ve admired you all’s approach as well. We both know that beyond the hosts and beyond the business model, beyond even the vision, you got to have that top-notch production and marketing team full of experts because they help make it consistent and professional. They help us meet that listener expectation or demand really because if we’re not meeting that, they’re not gonna be listeners for long.

Adam Vazquez 20:10
That’s a great point. And you obviously have a great team behind you. You did touch briefly there on the fact that you give back one of your shows sort of dedicated to that. If you go to the supply chain now website, it’s clearly a point of emphasis. And I just wanted to ask you, it’s not something that you see a lot in media companies, I think it’s something that we’re learning as a new industry, somebody that we need to emphasize more with the platforms that we have, and all these sorts of things, but just talk about how you use the business in order to give back to these things that are so important to you and your communities.

Scott Luton 20:38
Adam, I love this question because giving forward, as we call it here, which was coined by Greg Wagner— giving forward meaning, hey, I don’t have Jeff Bezos money or resources. We’re still startup. We’re still startup. But I’ve always thought it’s really important to give from what you have. When we say “give forward,” that’s what we’re talking about. Don’t wait to give until you’ve made it big. That’s good, too. That’s very important, but give all along the way. I hate lip service leadership. You probably do, too. Most folks do. For me, it’s like, don’t just talk about it. You do it. Deeds, not words. So it is important, it’s core to who we are as a business as a culture as a team, as an individual a couple of our recent ways. We don’t do it to brag, for sure, I think it is important to do it, to challenge others to do it. Yeah, I think it’s so important. For us, as a veteran that spent time United States Air Force, we’ve invested in a number of veterans-related initiatives, the veteran voices series I mentioned earlier that crosses over 50 episodes not too long ago. And that’s, as you point out the world stops at seven, if it’s a lot of doors and get the there are so the investment that goes into 50 episodes, and we use those brilliantly led by Mary Kate Saliba to lift up veteran issues, veteran stories, especially from a transition standpoint, which we’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a long way to go, and to hopefully, help inform, things like hiring managers, so they can kind of connect with veteran speak and kind of the veteran point of view. On that show, Adam, last summer, I think it was, I interviewed a husband-wife team, a family of five, they had a family of five, and they this marine veteran was he and his family of five was living in his car, during the pandemic, you’re not you’re homeless. As we both know, it should never happen. But man, if we don’t, if we don’t get the word out on those things, and they were bold, and how they shared more transparent how they shared their story, they’ll stay in the blind spot of so many, right all of us. So veteran voices has been important for us from a gift Ford standpoint, we supported a great nonprofit called vets to industry that helps remedy situations like that great work, Brian, Eric is doing over there. And then one last thing, because we’re a humble group, I’m very proud of these initiatives. I’m proud of our team that all grew up, you know, rolled up their sleeves and jumped in with an owl focus on action and outcomes. But here in 2022, major investment we made was our global supply chain procurement awards. Do you see any hopefully, Adam you saw a few things related to that this year, just it just wrapped a couple weeks ago, we had the revealing of all the winners, but you know, is really represents our approach here, Adam, you know, we didn’t want just another run of the mill awards, you’re so many out there and not taking anything away from all these awards. But man, we wanted to bake our gift-forward look and view on the world into that vehicle. So you know, for us again, you give them what you have, I think part of it was wanting to raise awareness on these challenging issues of modern slavery which Adam it’s on the Grow slavery in 2022 is increasing that should blow everyone’s mind and folks should look to do something bad whether it’s voting with your wallet or taking action supply chain leader or what have you and in conjunction is this human trafficking for a variety different reasons so so we wanted to use about six months in the kind of lead up to the awards to really give these issues more visibility. So supply chain now buyers meeting point and order procurement who all got together and teamed up on the wards. We partnered with a great nonprofit called hope for justice who is on a mission. It’s very simple. I love it the singular mission of eradicating slavery and human trafficking from face a world its power and look, you know, Adam, we hear a lot of countries looped in and pointed at We hear these things like monitor slavery, human trafficking, but the sadly, is everywhere, here in the states here in North America as it touches every country of the world. So beyond raising awareness and raising and lifting up the mission to hope for justice doing, you know, we’re very proud of a check, we’re gonna be writing to them. That’s a culmination of the entire works. So thanks all the nomination fees in our over-the-top sponsor. And then of course, the work we did as a team. When I think of Deeds, not words, and when I think of real non-lip service leadership, you know, I think of things where you’re really move the needle. And that’s, that is our aim, whether it’s on campaigns we do. So our campaign partners, or some of our do good gift for programming.

Adam Vazquez 25:47
Yeah, I particularly love that campaign around the awards. At HEARD, we’ve been doing once a month, just sort of talking to folks who are part of our communities that we give towards and we’ve been trying to figure out what you get more creative about it because, as you said, when you’re not Bezos, there’s a cap to what you can always just give right out of the account. But what you all did was so creative, because one, it invented a new device that people could attach to and give through through the fees, as you mentioned. And second, it really gave actionable ideas to those of us who are not maybe Marines or we’re not, it’s sometimes can be easy to think, Oh, I can’t go do anything. But to your point, we need supply chain professionals who can speak into these things we need media professionals we need. So I thought that was super creative and appreciate what you all did there.

Scott Luton 26:38
You bet. Adam, thank you for that. Incredible partnership with those organizations I mentioned. And then a variety of team members that plug in different ways, including that was a tricky production on our part. But you know what? You got to get out of your comfort zone if you’re gonna do some big things and try to move mountains. And that was a very, very rewarding initial project on our end, and we look forward to going bigger in 2023 with the next one.

Adam Vazquez 27:04
Okay, so speaking of the next one, speaking of the next year, you mentioned you actually have some big plans in the works in terms of new content, new trends, that you’re following, new things, new plans you’re excited about. Tell us a little bit about those as we wrap up here.

Scott Luton 27:17
I appreciate that, Adam. Again, I love the work you and the HEARD team are doing because y’all get it and, before talking about what’s next, let’s just say that even though digital content and social media content, and storytelling is more prevalent now because it’s easier as a great thing. You’re still so many folks that don’t do it well. I love Ron Popeil, may he rest in peace. I love that guy, but folks aren’t buying a sales infomercial these days, right? And no one listens to that show. Said it and forget it. I love Ron Popeil.

Anyway, for Supply Chain Now and our family, we’re very excited about where we’re headed. New host, new shows, new formats, new topics. For us, Adam will always have the global supply chain at the heart of what we do, because it’s who we are, is it’s where it all started. I’m a very self-labeled supply chain nerd. But we want to broaden our content and explore new global business topics, right, I think it’s important as we’re talking about on the front end, it’s not just about storytelling, it’s about interacting with the folks that are listening. So I think finding new ways to engage with our growing digital family and ecosystem is really important will be a big part of the months ahead are third generation studios can be built out and King plow in West Atlanta I’m stoked about that Adam, I’m about to man but I love remote consecration. We’ve been doing it since March 2020. But when our business kind of forum like many right but man to be back in person rubbing elbows breaking bread, getting those conversations in Port person is tough to replace and looking forward to that. But through all of that out let’s say we had the most boring few months coming up few years coming up right you never know we wish we should be grateful for being here in many ways I have to last few years. But I think what I’m most excited about and what I am, I think is my number one priority for it very frankly, is building and growing organization that our team members are proud of and love to work at and building a company that truly does good and not says it not talks about it but and how they act and what they do in the in and ultimately how they move the needle. That’s what I’m talking about. I jump out of bed every day addressing all of that but certainly working to serve those last two points because that’s at the heart of who I am and that’s a big part of our path.

Adam Vazquez 29:41
That’s awesome, Scott. From my seat over here on the outside, I have been watching you all for years, and over the years as you’ve evolved, and I’ve really appreciated the example you’ve set the way that you go about building and I certainly am excited to see what comes next with all the new things that you have in the works if other folks want to keep tabs on what you’re doing both just personally and through the company. What are the best ways for them to follow along with you?

Scott Luton 30:21
I appreciate that, Adam. Thank you so much a SupplyChainNow.com is easiest. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. A lot of folks beat up on Twitter a little bit on some my favorite digital relationships and in person. Yeah, friendships have come from Jamie, I think you can find brilliant people much like her on Twitter. And of course, you can find Supply Chain Now wherever you get your podcast from. And we’d love to get your feedback on that. But Adam, amen. I feel a lot of kindred spirits here. And who knows maybe as we’re talking about coming attractions, there are some ways we can work together and collaborate.

Adam Vazquez 30:56
Maybe we’ll have to catch Clemson, South Carolina game one of these times. Maybe that’ll be on there.

Scott Luton 31:02
All right. Or, we didn’t talk about the NBA.

Adam Vazquez 31:03
Oh, man.

Scott Luton 31:04
I’m a bandwagon hawks faded. I love what Trey Young is doing. And hey, the southern Sixers have got quite a team. Maybe we can next season. We can get get in the game.

Adam Vazquez 31:21
Maybe I think the Hawks maybe have broken the Sixers for eternity last year. But maybe they’ll still have a team. We’ll see. We’ll see. Appreciate you, Scott.

Scott Luton 31:30
Thank you, man.

Carlton Riffel 31:32
And that’s a wrap. Thank you for listening to this episode of Content Is for Closers. We hope you find this show really helpful as you grow your business with content. Maybe you know of other people who would find this show helpful as well. How about you send them our way? If you didn’t like this show and you want to tell us that, then you can head over to contentisforclosers.com where you can send us a message, give us some feedback, ask questions, or find detailed notes for every episode. Until next time, keep creating and keep closing.