Mark Hiddleson is the Owner of Specialized Storage Solutions, Inc., a nationwide logistics company with industry-leading warehouse storage solutions. It provides clients with innovative products, facility layouts, and designs to optimize their logistics operations. With several decades of service experience in the warehousing and logistics industry, Mark has held leadership roles in several professional industry organizations. Using a holistic approach, he also has experience in equipment material handling, operations management, supply chain optimization, professional development, and public speaking.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[1:28] Vicki Dello Joio's techniques for transforming stage fright into a powerful presence
[3:41] How Bill Hiddleson nurtures entrepreneurial spirit and self-responsibility in at-risk youth
[5:40] Mick Mankowski shares the value of trust and relationship-building with suppliers during a crisis
[7:32] Nancy Fateen talks about meeting face-to-face with customers at industry events
[8:34] Sal Fateen provides insights on automation trends in warehouses
In this episode…
When your business is in crisis, your confidence is shaking, and the future feels precarious, how do you move forward? Learn the secret to resilience in both life and business from top industry experts.
From overcoming stage fright and cultivating self-reliance to nurturing customer relationships and navigating industry trends and inventory losses, these industry leaders have been through it all. Qigong-based coach Vicki Dello Joio maintains that the keys to overcoming anxiety during public speaking events are to focus on your breathing and maintain authenticity. Former teacher Bill Hiddleson has found success in coaching at-risk teens, teaching them that becoming an entrepreneur can lead to personal and professional independence. Mick Mankowski discovered that when you have close relationships with suppliers, they’re more likely to come to your aid during hard times. Father-daughter duo Nancy and Sal Fateen maintain that face-to-face interactions with customers and embracing new industry trends like automation are crucial in the logistics industry.
In this exclusive episode of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, Mark Hiddleson reflects on some of his most memorable episodes. Featuring guests like Qigong master Vicki Dello Joio and father-daughter logistics pair Nancy and Sal Fateen, these experts share personal anecdotes and advice that have shaped them in their journeys.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Specialized Storage Solutions, Inc. contact phone: 707-732-3892
Mark Hiddleson's email: markhiddleson@aol.com
Quotable Moments:
"Fear is excitement without breath." – Vicki Dello Joio
"Being an entrepreneur makes you responsible for yourself." – Bill Hiddleson
"The more you share with your factories and your suppliers, the more they care about your business." – Mick Mankowski
"It's nice to be able to do that face-to-face stuff." – Nancy Fateen
"You don't need as many people to run. It confuses the heck out of the guys at the building departments." – Sal Fateen
Action Steps:
Implement mindful breathing techniques to manage stage fright and enhance public speaking skills: This helps transform fear into confidence and can improve performance in high-pressure situations.
Foster self-responsibility and entrepreneurial values in potential at-risk youths: Promoting personal accountability can lead to positive life changes and reduce societal risks.
Build trusting and transparent relationships with suppliers and partners: Mick Mankowski's story exemplifies the importance of trust, which can lead to exceptional support during challenging times.
Prioritize personal interactions and networking in business environments: Face-to-face meetings can strengthen business bonds and provide new opportunities.
Stay informed and embrace automation and electronic advancements in warehousing: Adapting to technological innovations can improve operational efficiency and future-proof businesses.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions Inc.
Listen...
I have been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades. I know I don’t look that old, but it's true.
We provide industry-leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide.
So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs Rack, Shelving, Carts, Conveyors, or Mezzanines, we help with....design engineering, installations, inspections, and repairs to help clients optimize their logistics operations.
Sometimes people don’t even realize that we can actually help with permit acquisition services.
We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation.
To learn more, visit specialracks.com or give us a call at (707) 732-3892. One of the best ways to learn more about our products and services is to follow us on Instagram. And there’s a link on our website to do that.
I will even give you my personal email address for podcast listeners, so email me at markhiddleson@aol.com if you’re ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level.
Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:00
Mark, welcome to The Tao of Pizza, where we feature top logistics leaders, entrepreneurs and supply chain innovators and share their inspiring stories with a holistic twist.
Mark Hiddleson 0:14
Mark Hiddleson here, host of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, thanks for tuning in to this special best of episode. In this episode, we'll take a look back at some of our favorite moments from previous conversations. This podcast is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions. We provide industry leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide. So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs rack shelving, carts, conveyors or mezzanines, we help with design, engineering installations, inspections and repairs to help clients optimize their logistics operations. We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation. To learn more. Visit specialracks.com or give us a call at 707 730-238-9021, of the best ways to learn more about our products and services is to follow us on Instagram, and there's a link on our website to do that. I will even give you my personal email address for podcast listeners. So email me at markhiddleson@aol.com if you're ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level.
Vicki Dello Joio 1:28
There's a there's a few different things that I like to do with stage fright. I mean, stage fright is such an interesting phenomenon. You know, I always think of that Fritz Pearl's quote, fear is excitement without breath. A lot of times, I find that, particularly with clients who I'm working with, who are about to go on stage and who are nervous about it, that it's not just about taking a deep breath. It's about directing your breath in a way that you can start to transform that. Because when we go into fear, a lot of times, if you think about it. You know, you kind of hunch down and curl over. You stop your breath. It, everything compresses, um, and that, and so it's a kind of stagnation. And of course, in Qigong, the whole purpose of the practice is to get energy moving that you want to move what is stuck into flow. So, so breath is a really great first step to do that. So a lot of times I'll work with people around how how to breathe, that it's not necessarily just what people think of as belly breathing or something like that. There's all different kinds of ways to breathe where you start to expand your energy field. And once that happens, once you start to expand what's called your wei qi field. And I know you know what that is, because I've talked to you about it a lot, but once you expand that field, which has to do with your externalized energy, there's a safety in that, that you can really let yourself rest in the authenticity of who you are and then express from that makes a huge difference when you kind of touch base into that. The other thing I really like to remind people when they're going to go on a stage, or when they're going to have a maybe a high stakes conversation, something they feel nervous about is to think about, not so much about, what is that person or those people or that audience thinking about me, but how do I send love or heart energy out to them, so that when focus goes out in this way, that does Also a lot to dissipate the kind of stagnation, or deer in the headlights that people tend to have when they have stage fright. And it's not that I don't get stage fright myself. I still do.
Mark Hiddleson 3:29
Taught entrepreneurship. So you know, what were some of the things that when you started teaching entrepreneurship that you really wanted to get across, like the principles that you wanted to influence your students.
Bill Hiddleson 3:41
My first class was a group of students who were considered to be potential high school dropouts, you know, candidates for continuation school, and because they lacked motivation, you know, they just wanted to goof off and, you know, have fun and chase women. And, you know, all the things we do as teenagers and not study, you know, it's, it's, it's human nature, I think, and they also did, came from families that were broken or lacked values. You know, family values. So they were considered to be at risk of, you know, being criminals or dropouts or drug addicts or or worse. So they hired me to to find something to fulfill the that emptiness inside that they that they felt, and being an entrepreneur makes you be responsible for yourself. You know that's part of growing up. You know you grow from being dependent on others to being independent. Being interdependent, and that's the way we mature. And I think you've experienced that in your life. I know I have, but I I think there's a saying that experience is not the best teacher, it's the only teacher, and I was able to share that with my students and convince them that if they, you know, studied and worked hard and took care of their customers, they can they could be successful, and
Mick Mankowski 5:40
the more you share with your factories, your suppliers, the more they believe you, the more they care about your business, the more they trust you. And that trust really helped me in the long way, because what happened next is a great story, and I'll tell you real quickly. What it is is so I had this flood the owner, the guy that gave me unlimited credit for my materials. This is back in the day when you had to buy the hangers, the labels, the hang tags, the boxes, the material, and you'd have to manage all of that. And today, everybody gets a full package out of China, and they're like, whoa, I'm a genius. No, you're a genius now, because you know how much it cost you. Okay, before I had no idea what my shit cost, because I had money out in fabric and lay brothers and lay hang tags and boxes. And, I mean, I had a lot of inventory of shit that I really didn't need, but that goes into the cost factor. Well, this guy gave me unlimited credit for my material. Material represented 65% of whatever I produced. So it was very important to my business, and it was also very important that I made him a believer in my future and what I was doing when the flood happened. He couldn't even get to Santa Barbara to come up visit me, because it took like three days to get here. And so finally he got up, came to my warehouse, put his arms around me, says, Mick, you're out of business. And I says, I know. And I started crying. I literally started crying. I had no idea what I was going to do, because I owe millions of dollars, millions of dollars. And he said to me, he said, Mick, what are you going to do? And I thought, What am I going to do to pay him back? That was the first thought I came to my mind. I said, Robert, I don't know how I'm going to pay you back. He said, Mick, I'm not worried. I'm a very wealthy guy. I'm not worried about me. I know you and Mary Lou are hurting right now. How much money a month do you need to live? I started bawling. I'm telling you, it was the most meaningful thing anyone has ever done for me.
Nancy Fateen 7:32
When we go to those events, it's opportunity for us to see all of our customers. We can go and physically meet them, and go by all of them, shake hands with them. And a lot of times, people will request even a 15 minute a 15 minute sit down, or an hour we sit down and have lunch together and talk about doing projects, or it's just kind of it's nice to be able to do that face to face stuff, and especially now, after the last couple years of being so separated from all of that. But everybody, that's really why we go. We go for the green the meet and greet. They're never like, when somebody will email me and say, Oh, you're going to moderate. When do you have time for a sit down? And so I'm the one that's in charge of making our calendar of events in between all 5 million workshops and things that I want to go to. Sounds too old for the workshops. He's like, I don't need to hear any of that stuff, but I like to go and learn and we do people. So he wants to just go and see all of his old friends and have familiar faces, shake hands with them, meet their customers too. You know, if you're going buy a booth and you bring salads a table with you, it's impressive. You're like, this is my engineer. You know,
Sal Fateen 8:34
the key is that everything is becoming more automated, more electronic, and we in this country were on the at the lower end of the scale. Yeah, so European companies are, I mean, we're doing a lot of business with new European companies. They come in and they have whatever it could be. A started with robots, and now you have the fully automated rack supported building. You have the something like auto store, which is a storage system that's again fully automated. It handles material. And there are, like, three or four companies that have similar storage devices. They're shuttle systems that go up, put it stored away, keep it when the time comes, push a button and it brings it back down. So all of that was in this country on a smaller scale. We had carousels, okay, and carousels became automated. Carousels where you push a button and it gets you the the section to pick from. Now, robots are picking stuff, and the machine bringing the stuff to the robot. So Robert picks it up, puts it on a packet to conveyor, takes it to another location that robot unloads. So all that is very new. You don't need as many people to run. It confuses the heck out of the guys at the building departments, because they haven't seen that. And Fire Department says, what are going to do about fire? Well, there are no people there to protect from fire, so we have to do is protect the building from having the fire, but it's not protecting the people. Egress doesn't become an issue when you have a non occupied Warehouse.
Outro 10:29
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