Some people leave footprints that shape an entire community. Cameron Smith was one such individual—a visionary who transformed Northwest Arkansas's business landscape through genuine connections and a commitment to elevating others.
Our milestone 100th episode brings together Wayne Callahan (former leader at SC Johnson and Heinz) and Eric Howerton (entrepreneur and founder of Podcast Videos) to celebrate Cameron's extraordinary legacy.
Their personal stories reveal how a pharmaceutical recruiter who "knew literally nothing about retail" in 1995 became an indispensable cornerstone of the supplier community through curiosity, authenticity, and relentless relationship-building.
What made Cameron special wasn't just his business acumen but his genuine approach to people. As Wayne recalls from their early friendship, "Cameron did a nice job understanding the cultures of companies," helping build teams that won Vendor of the Year seven times for SC Johnson.
Eric shares how Cameron would call him unexpectedly just to check in: "That meant so incredibly much to me... he was attentive and legitimately did what he said he was going to do."
Beyond his professional achievements, Cameron's community impact stands as his most enduring legacy. From his significant involvement with the Cancer Challenge to his co-founding of Doing Business in Bentonville, he embodied servant leadership.
As the podcast continues his vision—now reaching audiences in over 100 countries—we remain committed to demystifying omni-channel retail through trusted, authentic content.
Whether you're part of the Northwest Arkansas business community or joining us from across the globe, this episode offers powerful insights on leadership, community-building, and creating a legacy that outlasts you.
Subscribe to Doing Business in Bentonville and join our mission to advance omni-channel retail while honoring the values Cameron Smith instilled in all of us.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Bentonville.
I'm Andy Wilson.
I'm the host today of DoingBusiness in Bentonville and
we're so excited to bring you,and I've couple of reasons.
First, we're taking thisopportunity to honor an
individual who has consistentlydemonstrated exceptional
(00:32):
qualities Cameron Smith.
We're going to honor him today.
The late Cameron Smith was notonly a successful entrepreneur,
but he was a significantinfluencer in our field of work
and I will tell you, he madesuch influence so you're going
to hear about that from ourguest today and beyond his
professional achievements, hewas just a great guy.
(00:54):
I'm telling you, he's just agreat guy and it's exciting
today that we're going to sharewhat a great guy he was.
He had a positive impact on somany people In fact, I can say
hundreds of people.
I'm one of the individuals thathe had such great impact on and
we'll talk about that today.
The second compelling reasontoday that we are going to do
(01:17):
this is that today is our 100thpodcast today.
We're so excited that DoingBusiness in Bentonville has done
this, and Cameron was one ofthe co-founders of Doing
Business in Bentonville.
The Moth Zone provides awonderful opportunity today as
(01:37):
we reflect on the contributionsof Cameron Smith and my two
guests today.
I want to introduce them today.
Wayne Callahan welcome, we'reso glad to have you here.
And Wayne's the co-founder ofDoing Business in Bentonville
and he also was a major leaderin the supplier community Two
(01:57):
great companies SC Johnson Waxand Heinz Corporation.
How many years was all that,wayne, that you worked there?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I worked at SC Johnson for 20 years.
It was such a fantastic company, a great training company.
I started there in my early 20sand later transitioned to HJ
Heinz to starta second bigcustomer-centered team and
worked 18 years with them.
Two fantastic guys,congratulations on your career.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And you're doing a lot of other things today, wayne
and I will tell you we'refriends and I appreciate the
influence you've had in my lifeand we're so glad you're here
today.
Our second guest is EricHowerton Eric, welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Thanks, andy, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
You know, I was thinking about what I'm going to
write about you.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
But no, Eric, it's not important.
You know the great things I cansay about Eric.
He was co-founder and chiefgrowth officer for White Spider,
a technology company that helater sold, and you know, Eric
is also an entrepreneur.
So it took him about fiveminutes after he sold that
company to do something else,and he is actually a founder and
(03:09):
owner of Podcast Videos.
We are in that studio today.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, we're here, right now we are.
Thanks for the ad plug, Andy.
You bet Appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Both of these individuals, though, have shaped
our industry, so so good tohave you, eric, here.
You know we've been talkingabout doing this for a while,
yeah, and now you're here.
And, Wayne, so good to have youhere Now.
What we're going to do is we'regoing to talk about our friend
Cameron Smith a bit, because hehas, as I mentioned earlier,
(03:39):
such great influence on ourlives and our community and this
field of business there whereyou're in.
And, Wayne, we're going tobegin with you.
You've known Cameron for over30 years.
Well, both of you all workedtogether.
You met very early on in yourcareer and early on in his
career.
Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Andy, first of all I'm honored to be here on the
100th podcast and also a podcast, that's you know, focused on a
dear friend and a greatcommunity minded person like
Cameron he was.
He was an amazing guy and I'msure we're going to talk a lot
about that today, guy, and I'msure we're going to talk a lot
(04:28):
about that today.
My connection with Cameron camethrough the supplier community.
But just to briefly tell you,in about 1989, I started the
business team for SC Johnson,but it was in Racine, wisconsin,
so things have come full circle.
It was a virtual team then andthen it just became apparent to
do the kind of service and stayfocused on the business the way
(04:51):
we wanted to.
I moved to Northwest Arkansasto start our on the ground
business team in 1992.
And there were a lot of otherconsumer products companies
beginning to do that at the sametime.
I say that because it's kind ofimportant as I parallel the
(05:13):
scenario with Cameron.
My team was just getting goingand a lot of teams were just
getting going and we were bothdeveloping talent from our own
companies and bringing them inand we were also looking in the
marketplace for talent.
And so you may or may not know.
(05:35):
In 1994, cameron and Monica weremarried and when they were
married they moved to Fort Smith, arkansas.
And when they were married theymoved to Fort Smith.
Monica yesterday, who I dearlylove, and she reminded me that
(06:13):
you know he was a recruiter inCalifornia but he primarily
recruited pharmaceutical andother jobs, nothing in consumer
products.
So I received a cold call fromhim in about 1995 when he first
started and I didn't know who hewas, and we struck it up, a
great, just conversation.
We decided to meet, wecontinued our dialogue and I
(06:36):
began to really rely on him forhis thought and his input on the
industry and certainly helistened to me as kind of
culture I was trying to build.
So why did that matter?
Well, it mattered because, Imean, our personal relationship
(06:57):
grew, because Cameron knewliterally nothing about retail
and consumer products and I knewnothing about the recruiting.
We learned from each other.
We had so much fun together.
So that was 95, yeah, and andthat continued and we uh,
(07:17):
honestly, we just uh.
He helped me build, uh, anamazing team.
Sc johnson won vendor of theyear seven times.
I'm not sure many companieshave done that and it was the
team, it was the resources, itwas the culture.
But each year I kept tellingCameron, you know, he needed to
focus more on consumer productsand he needed to move from Fort
(07:38):
Smith to Rogers.
And finally, in 2003, theymoved to Rogers.
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So that's, great.
Now, now eric you always socool as long as I've known you,
eric, you, you have surroundedyourself with great people.
You like look, look around.
Okay, but you, but I.
But the thing I noticed aboutyou you just run to people.
Yeah, you see someone, you hearsomeone, you read a.
The next thing I know you're,you're meeting with that person.
(08:06):
You, and that's one of thethat's a great act to be done.
Tell us about when you ran theCameron Smith, how did that
happen?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, so it's funny when you're telling that story,
because I can just pictureCameron headhunting Wayne, you
know, just insist, insisting onhaving a relationship with them.
Well, oh yeah, well, I gavecameron a piece for his own of
his own medicine back in the day.
I headhunted cameron, you know,like as we were starting white
spider up right, and uh, and aswe were getting into the
(08:36):
supplier community more, moreetc for business, uh, people
were like I mean, you knowcameron smith?
And I'm like, no, I don't knowwho he is.
And and uh, and uh, and then Istarted looking into him, like
who's this guy?
Like what's the big deal aboutCameron Smith?
He knows everything around hereand everybody.
And so I just uh, scottCrossett was working for him,
(08:57):
he's a CEO now of Cameron Smithand Associates.
And uh, I met Scott and I waslike, man, scott, I want to meet
Cameron, you know.
And uh, he's like, yeah, I'll,I'll, I'll ping him and see.
And then you know we could goby.
I'm like, hey, bro.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I haven't heard from Cameron.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
What's the deal?
And he's like, uh, yeah, youknow he's kind of busy and so I
just kept calling and I'd callthe office and eric howards and
wanted to meet with me, and he'slike, just whatever, just set
me up with this guy.
So I came in and met with himand then, you know, immediately,
you know I wouldn't let him go,you know, but he was, it was
(09:33):
immediate connection.
I mean, we really got along andhad a lot of similarities and,
you know, joked a lot and stuff.
So that that was I gave.
Gave him a piece of his ownmedicine.
I should go into recruiting.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, well, you'd be great.
Well you do.
You both are similar, but Ithink that's.
I think people that are greatleaders and entrepreneurs are
like that they run to things sothey can learn and grow and
develop and get better.
They never stand still.
You never stand still.
Wayne never stands still andthat's a sign of great
(10:04):
leadership.
And again, again, it's soawesome to be talking about him
today, as we think about Cameronand our audience, and we have
guests now in over 100 countriesthat view this.
We're over 200 a day of peopleviewing DBB.
Thank you very much to ourguests.
One of the things I think wecan share with our guests is
(10:26):
what we learn from cameron.
Yeah, the things that we learnand that.
And then then we definitelywant to talk about the impact he
had on northwest arkansas andother in many other places.
But what, what did you guyslearn from cameron when you were
with him?
What?
What was his strengths Do?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
you want to go for it .
Well, I, I, I think that he wasa really good listener and not
everybody is a good listener,especially people that have that
much energy and, you know,passion to to get things done.
But he, he was a great listenerand because of that he he would
(11:04):
get smarter every day.
You know, he would ask peoplequestions and and he would go to
he would go to Eric, he wouldgo to you, he would go to
different people and and hewould ask questions and then it
didn't take long until he waspretty much a subject matter
expert in something, subjectmatter expert in something.
(11:27):
And I always appreciated thatabout that, about him and and,
clearly, his energy and hiswillingness to be involved in
the community.
I can remember when I was inthe chamber of commerce and
working my way through I waschairman there for a while and
and Cameron saw that I wasinvolved in chamber of commerce
and he says I want to getinvolved in the chamber of
(11:47):
commerce.
So we got involved in thechamber of commerce and
different, and it was like thathe would see people involved in
things that he then he wouldunderstand the impact they were
having on the community and hewould say I want to contribute,
I want to be a part of that.
So he was such a positiveperson um looking for ways to
(12:08):
get involved and and um I'll bean advocate.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Right, yeah, you know , I mean there's.
There's so many things thatcome in my mind, I'm sure, like
for all of us, right, I mean I'mas you were talking about that.
One of the things I remember is, you know, cameron had this
status, you know, I mean he, youknow in the community, like a
lot of folks do.
And what I appreciate about himis, after I finally got him to
sit down and hang out with mefor a little bit, I immediately
(12:33):
realized how real and genuine hewas, you know, which I really
appreciated because I mean Ithink that you know, he was just
somebody that was reallywanting to do the right thing,
you know, for the right people,because that's the right thing
to do, you know, for those folks.
And I remember, like we'retalking early days of White
Spider, unknown.
(12:55):
You know the company wasunknown, I'm unknown.
I didn't work at Walmart, Ididn't work for a supplier, you
know and I'm trying to breakinto this and I didn't work for
a big agency for that stuff, andso I was definitely a, you know
, extraterrestrial in thesupplier community from that
standpoint.
Um and so there's a lot oftimes where I just hit all these
roadblocks on a regular basis.
(13:15):
But then when I started talkingwith Cameron, he immediately
like he, he cared to your point,he would listen to what I
actually had going on and thenhe would think about how that
can help the greater communityand even his clients and the
people he knew.
But I remember like he wouldcall me, you know, and I've
never had anybody do this beforethat would call me out of the
(13:39):
blue to check in with me and seehow I'm doing and how my
business is doing.
Dude, that meant so incrediblymuch to me.
So I think that he wasattentive.
Not only was he genuine, buthe's attentive and he
legitimately.
He did what he said he wasgoing to do and he cared just as
much as he expressed.
And that was from day one tothe time he passed.
(13:59):
He was always checking in and Iwould just get a call out of
the blue and I'd be sitting in ameeting.
I mean, if I was sitting, thispodcast and cameron called, you
know I would.
I would walk out and say thegodfather just is calling me, I
gotta take the I gotta take it,you know, and and he, you know,
he never understood like howmuch of a of a you know high
amount I would hold that phonecall.
(14:20):
It didn't really matter, I mean, he was just legitimately just
checking in to see how thingswere going and I thought that
that was really special, youknow, and I try to remember that
, you know I'm I'm aself-proclaimed narcissist, you
know and so, but but to to like,so that meant that he actually
in his busy day I mean, he'stalking to folks like Wayne
(14:40):
about building really incredibleteams at the world's largest
retail Like, I mean, that'sserious business he actually
took the time and he did careenough to give me a shout when
I'm a starting up entrepreneur?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, big deal.
Yeah, why?
What's your thoughts on that?
What do you?
What do you?
Where would you at?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Well, I was listening to that story and I I thought
that's great, great, and itreminded me that, right, um, I
mean, he was a show mind, makeno mistake, he was amazing and
(15:31):
he was a sportsman.
He was a lot of things but hewas also really sincere.
And if, if you were a friend ofhis, you knew you were.
Yeah, he treated you like afriend he did.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
He walked into bonefish or anywhere in the, in
the area, you know, and I meanthere'd be people coming up and
saying hi to him.
You know, I mean just like allthe time, like if I was ever
having lunch with him orwhatever.
There's like probably 10 peoplethat, hey, cameron, how you
doing?
Yeah, I remember you know quitea few times they walk off and
you know cameron saying hi and Isay like who was that?
(16:02):
He goes, I have no idea, youknow, in a few cases, but to
your point, he was.
Yeah, really his presence yeahwas really strong, but he was
extremely sincere.
That's where I think that thelike when we talk about passing
that on, that legacy in a way,like that sticks in my mind.
Like I mean to be down to earth, to to be human, to help other
(16:25):
people, yeah, I mean like he didthat.
I'm going to do that because itmeant so much to me.
I know it's going to mean a lotto somebody else, right, you?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
know, wayne, you were in the supplier community.
You were here early on, I meannot the very beginning, but
early on in supplier community,the very beginning, but early on
in supplier community.
And I think today there'sthousands of Walmart SAM
suppliers teams here.
I don't know how many now, acouple thousand, maybe 3,000.
So it's a lot.
(16:56):
It's in the thousands, right.
So Cameron was very, veryinvolved in that and he, you
know, especially with recruiting.
What do you think he did as animpact?
Northwest arkansas, how didcameron associates impact?
You know walmart sounds, thatwhole culture around supplier
(17:16):
community, because he had a lotto do with that.
What, what, what impact do youthink?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, I think that sort of the scenario that I
played out with he and I.
He played out with hundreds andhundreds of people that were
building teams.
Maybe it was one, two or threein the beginning and then it
became 50, and then it became100, and how many teams there
(17:44):
are I'm not sure.
But he was smart enough tobuild a trusted reputation with
the supplier community andpeople that were in roles that
were going to be making choiceson people that would be a part
(18:07):
of their team.
Cameron did a nice job ofUnderstanding the cultures of
companies and and was easy forhim to talk about.
This is kind of the makeup ofthis company and here's how
someone might fit for this kindof company.
I also think that he was reallysmart to stay close to people
(18:49):
that were developing these teams, because he wasn't the job
creator, make no mistake.
The customer't the job creator,Make no mistake.
The customer was the jobcreator.
What the teams were doing isdeciding and being choiceful
about how they were going to addresources, how they're going to
allocate resources.
So if I took you back to the90s, we were primarily sales
(19:16):
teams, and then sales teamsbecame sales and analytical
teams, and then sales andanalytical and customer service
and supply chain and marketing.
So each time that layer,another layer was added, cameron
participated and engaged andrealized, hey, you know, I've
(19:38):
got to look in a differenttalent pool if I'm going to help
you source those kinds ofpeople that mattered in our
community.
So our community became verywell-rounded.
Um, the, the easy part of hisjob and he would, he would call
(19:59):
it um, this is um, uh, shootingfish in a barrel was the talent
that was already in town.
You know, cause that that wasthe easy part, someone was
unhappy and they want to go toanother company.
Um, what?
What was hard was, uh, gettingtalent from St Louis or Chicago
or Dallas or Los Angeles to wantto come here.
(20:19):
And his team and he were reallyhelpful in helping paint the
picture of the opportunity thatwas had and the future that was
in front of us.
And the future that was infront of us and gave people a
reason to buy into the culture,mission opportunity with a
(20:40):
company and to relocate theirfamily.
So I think he played a key rolein helping to sell the benefits
of this great lifestyle that weall enjoy today.
Yeah, great points.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
That's awesome.
I mean that's that's reallyconclusively.
I appreciate that dialogue.
It really is, because you knowall I can think about like he
was.
Uh, you know, it was funny inthe very beginning when you
started out.
You met cameron because he gaveyou a phone call.
You know, and that's somethingthat he would teach me a lot too
is that he, he was theproactive engagement for the
(21:19):
community, right, like he wasthe one who picked up the phone
and dialed yeah, he reached outfirst, almost, you know,
especially in the beginning, butI mean even all the way through
.
But I think you know, whenyou're talking about the culture
fit, like he knew the marketneed, the client need, and he
(21:39):
stayed relentlessly focused onthat.
You know money always followsvalue.
Sure, right, I mean ineverything we do, you know and
so.
But I think that reallyhighlights kind of a deeper part
of what he was doing that maybea lot of folks just saw on the
surface level, but there wasn'tmany people that would sit there
and really think about Wayne'steam and the people on his team,
(22:02):
how this new candidate is goingto blend into that culture, to
continue to build that up,because that's what makes up a
company, like I mean, I thinkthat you know, and I remember
him discussing it like it wasalways a deeper level than
recruiting, right it was.
It was team building, it wasculture creating, you know, in
his mindset on that.
(22:22):
Thank goodness he had that,because I think we can look at
our area today and look at thesuppliers, the agencies, walmart
, I mean everybody.
There's this culture that'sgoing on Like we have this
precedence of we work together.
You know great places to workand we're all you know there's
more of a team mentality, Ithink, than I know.
I've experienced a lot of folksthat have come from outside the
(22:44):
area and they have a hard timeand I know I'm kind of getting
to a team culture that'sactually developed here.
That's taken a few decades tobuild.
Yes, absolutely, and I thinkthat to the point you're making.
(23:07):
Cameron was a significantcontributor to that.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Can I just make one point that doesn't get made a
lot and that is.
He also carried that on intohis own business.
You know we talk about CameronSmith a lot, but we you know how
, about Scott Cross and DeniseDentish, and the list goes on of
the team that he built.
He has family members there.
He has.
(23:30):
You know, it was a very, verytight team that has stood the
test of time as well, and Ithink I'd be remiss if I didn't
call out the success he hadbuilding that team 100%.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Absolutely Well.
These are such great points andyou know, not only did he get
such a great job talking abouthis business and his leadership,
and you know just a few wordsthat you all have talked about.
I just want to remind ourviewers again we talked about
that he's a learner.
(24:03):
Yeah, Always a learner.
Yeah, Always Curious.
Yeah, curious.
Exactly that's it.
I think great leaders have tobe curious.
Yeah, For Cameron Smith to landin Fort smith, arkansas he come
to northwest arkansas way backwhen it was not what it is today
and it was great then.
It's greater now yeah and uh,but for him to not know a thing
(24:27):
about the business, and I thinkthat's a great point.
I hope our viewers need tounderstand that and understand
that.
You know it's your career.
He was in a career he changedand you helped him with that,
wayne, because he was curious,he learned every day and he
(24:47):
connected with people.
You know, I love what you saidabout him checking in.
You know he checked in with alot of us.
You didn't know how many hechecked in every day.
Know he checked in with a lotof us.
You didn't know how many hechecked in every day, but he
checked in with a lot of us.
I know he checked in with mefrom time to time and you know,
and and it was so helpful to mebecause because I, you know, I
maybe I'm having a rough timeand he realized I may be having
(25:11):
a rough time he thought aboutthat's why he checked in.
Yeah, you know, and I wouldlove to see his check-in list.
I'm sure it's lying you know Imean, can you imagine?
you said you and he was a changemaker.
Yeah, you know, each of you areand, and, and and.
You know, eric, I work, get towork closely with you and I know
(25:31):
that you're a changemaker.
You see something, you changeit, you work on it, you change
it.
That's hard work.
You're pushing upstream, doingthat and doing that.
He was very involved in thecommunity.
There's things that you all,that we know, so talk about some
of the things you did in thecommunity that we know about.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Yeah, in the community that we know about.
Yeah, I mean, to me that's oneof the more impactful things
that I learned from Cameron washow significant it is to give
back.
You know, I mean I think thatwe all fundamentally are taught
or innately have that feelinglike we know to contribute and
give back to society and cultureand community and family.
(26:14):
But I didn't realize, like, howa significant it was and then
be how much actionable work thatit took to do that Right.
And so, like I remember hewould, you know, he would coach
me in, like where you know how Iwould go about it.
(26:35):
You know, I would watch and seewhat he was participating in,
which was a plethora of thingsyou know before that it's like
just do one thing, right Is what?
Maybe a lot of folks would say,just do one thing and go deep
with it.
But he had a differentmentality.
It was kind of go deep with alot of things and that was
encouraging for me because I, Imean, mean I knew that I could
(26:55):
like that someone else was doingit.
I can definitely do that.
It's what I want to do.
Right is to have a little bitof a broader, you know, a
broader impact and and andwatching him do that, and then
how he was participating in it,how much he cared, and then
literally about everyconversation that I'd ever have
with him, the topic of communityphilanthropy was always present
(27:16):
.
It was he was at every singleevent, like, and he drove the
participation in events.
He would call you and ask youknow, if he invited you to an
event, he, like you're, you'renot getting away with it.
If you said, yeah, I can bethere, like you're, you're gonna
show up because he's gonna makesure you're coming, and so like
a lot of these things, likewhen you're trying to you up
because he's going to make sureyou're coming, and so like a lot
of these things, like whenyou're trying to, you know, to
(27:37):
have an in-person event at someof these types of charitable
events.
It's really important for thecharity that a lot of people
show up.
That's so significant.
That's a way to get back.
But Cameron had a table of eight.
You can guarantee you his tablewas never sitting empty.
You know because he waschecking in.
But you can guarantee you histable was never sitting empty.
You know because he waschecking in.
(27:58):
But he knew it meant so much tothe charity.
He also knew it meant a lot tothose individuals If you can get
them there and sit down andparticipate.
I mean that was a big deal,yeah, wes.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, maybe I'll just call out one, you know, because
Eric's involved in it too.
But you know, from the verybeginning I was involved, even
before I moved here, with theCancer Challenge.
It was called the PhillipsClassic and then it became the
Cancer Challenge and I becamethe chairman of that.
You got really involved.
I was deeply involved in theorganization for years and years
(28:27):
.
And, cameron, it's one of thosethings, like you said, eric, he
said you know, I want to getinvolved in that.
And it became personal becausehe had, you know, last 10 years
he dealt with with cancer andand I guess the reason I wanted
to bring up cancer challenges hegot involved.
But he didn't just get involved, he, he got involved both
(28:49):
personally.
He shared personal things thatnot many people are willing to
share, and he gave his time andhe gave his money and he gave
his attention and support.
So cancer challenges anothersingle example of many where he
went deep for both, you know,his own contribution to the
(29:14):
community but also his personalinterest.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
All right, I appreciate it.
You know it's wonderful to talkabout Cameron and his career,
his legacy, his impact.
He has had all of us in ourcommunity.
We're better today in Memphis,arkansas and beyond because of
Cameron Smith Great questionabout it?
Yeah, and we're all threebetter and everyone has.
(29:38):
He touched their lives.
He touched are better todaybecause of that.
What a great leader.
You know.
As you were both talking, I wasthinking about the leader that
had the opportunity to work withis Sam Walton, and Sam would
many times growing.
I grew up at Walmart but youknow some of the things that Sam
taught us.
(29:58):
Cameron also taught us.
You know that's what greatleaders do.
Now Cameron is also along withCameron.
You both are founders of DoingBusiness in Bentonville.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Okay, thank you very much.
It's awesome, thank you.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Thank you very much.
Right, it's awesome we're heretoday because of your and
Cameron's vision.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
And the coffee that.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Eric and I have.
Yeah, that's right.
So let's do this.
Let's talk about doing businessin Bentonville and talk about
you know, and you have such agreat story.
And let me just say right upfront how grateful and honored I
am to be part of doing businessin Bentonville, and, wayne, you
had a lot to do with that, sothank you, you're welcome.
I'm humbled by that.
And so let's talk about theearly beginnings and why,
(30:47):
because I think it's veryimportant people understand the
history a bit of doing businessin Bentonville.
Then, eric, let's talk aboutthe future, okay, okay.
So, wayne, give us a bit aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Well, I'll bounce around just a little bit about
DBB because it's such a funtopic and hopefully I hit the
right highlights.
If you want me to dig intosomething else, let me know.
I do remember that Cameron anda gentleman named Jim Shankle
and I three totally diversebackgrounds.
(31:23):
It just had nothing in commonwhich made it so perfect.
Jim still lives in Fayetteville.
He's a good friend, and Jimcame in the background of Club
Corp, you know like organizationmembership, that sort of thing.
He had a friendship withCameron before I did.
(31:45):
Cameron actually introduced meto Jim.
You know what Cameron did, youknow what I do.
We had this idea that wascommunity-based, based like how
can we be a resource to thesupplier community?
That was foundational.
What it was about.
(32:05):
We um, actually all um.
It didn't have a major profitmotive but we hoped we didn't
lose a lot of money that was ourthat's number one.
That was our number one goal wasto not lose a lot of money.
Um, so we made uh small and wekind of started the company and
(32:28):
you know we had a premise and itwas built on a few, you know,
ideas from Jim.
My role was and I'll talk alittle more about the supplier
steering committee was morecontent, what we would talk
about.
And then Cameron, as Eric and Ihave talked, his job was his
Rolodex.
(32:49):
His was a little better thanmine.
Get people to see, get them toshow up.
It was amazing.
Yeah, how do you, how do youfill a room?
But you know we and this isCameron, this says a lot about
what you were just talking about, but it's a point that can't be
missed.
(33:11):
Cameron for years pushed that weactually make it a nonprofit
organization because we honestlydid not have a profit motive.
That wasn't our motive.
We never did it because it wasgoing to cost more to set up a
511C and manage it than it wasjust to manage the dadgum
business.
So we chose not to.
(33:33):
But every few years he wouldbring it up again.
You know, like, do you think weought to be nonprofit?
And I said we kind of are, I'mjust teasing we, we did, we did
just fine.
But the secret sauce to the tomaking the mission successful
(33:57):
and again a mission was prettystraightforward.
You know, we, we wanted to be aum, an advocate, uh.
We wanted to be, uh, a resourcefor the suppliers community.
We wanted them to.
Uh, we had three things.
So if, if, if, if someone leftthat room with new information,
a new phone number, a newcontact, something they could go
(34:19):
back to their office and be anddo something different.
That day we felt successfulbecause our whole idea was to be
different and that we were notgoing to be philosophical, we
were not going to be long termstrategic.
That wasn't our role.
There were plenty of companiesthat could do that.
What we wanted to be was actionoriented.
There are plenty of companiesthat could do that.
(34:40):
What we wanted to be was actionoriented.
And so to bring that to life, Iwant to paint a picture for a
second.
Through my friends andCameron's friends, we had key
leaders from all the businessteams, or a number of the
business teams, like 10 or 15,pretty much at all times.
So we had a steering committeeand what that steering committee
(35:02):
would do.
We met regularly and we justwhiteboarded all the topics that
were currently important.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And then what we did is really beat them up and said,
okay, yeah, that's right,they're all important, but
what's the most important?
And then we would stack rankthem and then every time we
would meet, do we need to changethe stack ranking?
What's important now?
What just happened, what's inthe news?
What's actionable?
Once we could identify what'sthe most important, relevant and
(35:35):
current, we would make that atopic or headline for our next
Doing Business.
In Bentonville meeting, whichwere all in person.
At the time, we'd have six toseven.
A few years we had more, but wehad about seven or so per year,
(35:56):
usually 100.
I mean, we've had as many as300.
But we typically had 100, 150people in the in the room.
But what made it work was onethe content.
So it was relevant, it wasimportant, it was action
oriented.
But then we, through ourcontacts, we'd go to Walmart and
(36:17):
say who, who could speak to usabout that, or Sam's Club, talk
to us like you, be the voice ofreason in the room that says
here's why this is important.
Then we would try to get asubject matter expert or a
supplier or somebody that wasactively working on that
(36:37):
initiative.
So what we would have is a realdiscussion from the customer
here's why it's important A realdiscussion from someone that's
trying to make it better to, youknow, actually do some good
work and resolving thatchallenge.
(36:58):
And the dialogue was incredible.
And then your audience, everysingle person there, was going
like, ok, I'm listening to this.
And then they're going back totheir office and saying here's
what I heard today.
We're going to do this, we'regoing to do that, we're going to
call, we're going to you know,we're going to take some action.
That's what DBB was and that'swhy for so many years it
(37:19):
continued.
It had great momentum.
For so many years it continued,it had great momentum.
People were then, as thatflywheel continued and as that
snowball rolled and got bigger,then we were getting the inbound
of I wish you guys would talkabout this, or here's a great
topic.
So we got topics and then thesupplier steering committee
would still then guide is thatwhat we're going to talk about
(37:41):
or not?
And so if you balanced, if youlooked in the early days and
maybe the first 10, 15 years ofDBB, what were the good meetings
and what were the just so-someetings?
The so-so meetings was man,that was really interesting and
that was a great presentation,but you knew at the end they
(38:05):
weren't going back back.
They didn't have a new phonenumber or contact.
They didn't go back to theirteam to say, look what, I picked
up something today.
Yeah, so what we?
what we really tried to focus onwas the difference between
great information or actionableinformation and and um, that was
, that was an amazing thing, itwas an amazing time and, uh,
(38:28):
andy, you were part of that, sothank you very much oh well,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
It was great job on that.
That's great.
Now, eric, as we think aboutthe future, yeah okay, so coven
happened it's a date after COVID.
A lot of things changed, yeah,and we, we had to stop.
Stop doing the things live.
And I remember one day Ericcalled me up and touch space and
(38:54):
he said, hey, can we havecoffee?
We did, and he said we sat at aStarbucks and Eric said the
future, andy, is a podcast.
That's what you said, yeah, andI looked at you like what?
And so your vision and you wereable to convince Wayne and
(39:19):
others for you to take doingbusiness in Bentonville and
recreate it, reimagine it.
And the point I want ourviewers to really understand
here is I looked from a far endand being involved doing
business in Bentonville and thenCOVID happened.
But what you did as anentrepreneur and as a leader,
(39:44):
you're able to take somethingand reimagine it.
Reimagine is a strong vision ofthe future and most things have
to be reimagined.
At times you did that.
Talk about why you did thatwith doing business.
What was your energy?
What was your motive?
What was your, you know, behindreimagining doing business in
(40:05):
Bentonville.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, you're going to have to watch my time because
I'll get on the soapbox and I'lllose track of reality.
But I mean in all honesty, likeI think there's a, there's a few
things the the community,starting at the root of the
community, right, the value thatyou were talking about giving
to the community so that we knowwhere we're going, what we're
(40:29):
doing, what kind of actions wecan take.
You know, that is so imperativein my perspective, right,
especially as there's a fewthings that are macro, that are
that have changed on us, right?
Number one was Walmart retail.
Let's go beyond Walmart andjust go to retail.
Retail has gone through arevolution because of digital
(40:51):
internet, omni-channel, right,and it's just a confusing ball
of wax, like I don't thinkanybody has a true answer for it
, but our mission is todemystify and advance
omni-channel retail, and so thatword omnichannel retail to me
has a significant meaning.
It's almost like when brick andmortar started having
(41:11):
self-checkout or when you havethe barcode, stuff like that
that has global impactforevermore.
The fact that a customer isgoing to buy based upon the
convenience in that measurementof time is just as valuable as
their money is significant, andI'm working in the community and
the industry and with Walmartsuppliers over the last decade.
(41:33):
You know all the conversationsa lot of folks are very.
They have to be kind ofreactive, you know, as to what's
going on, that we needsomething to be proactive, like
we need to to really startspeaking forth like these
changes, making sure thateverybody really is trying to
understand this.
Like, how do you funnel downeverything that's happening in
(41:55):
omni-channel retail and try tocrystallize that into some sort
of meaningful message?
So there's that.
And then I think that also theother great impact, the other
big pillar was, is just how weconsume content, how we get to
engage with information, hasdrastically changed.
I mean, that has many reasonswhy.
(42:15):
I mean smartphones wereprobably the biggest Genesis of
that.
You know that predates COVIDCOVID.
You know what I've witnessedand experienced was it just
really allowed people to feelvery comfortable about being
isolated and not having a desireor a reason to engage with
other human beings, which was,you know, not a really great
(42:38):
experience.
I think that anybody can reallysay that's too terribly
positive, you know, but we lostthat in a lot of ways.
It was impacted Right and Imean I think everybody, even
from nonprofit events to youknow games and everything.
It took a while to recover, butall COVID did was just kind of
further amplified the fact thatthe smartphone and the way we
(42:58):
engage with content is extremelydiversified.
The smartphone and the way weengage with content is extremely
diversified, and so we needed away to get information out and
make it just like an omnichannelretail, extremely convenient
for people to access, which isdifferent than just having a
in-person event.
It's just the consumer behaviorhas changed on on how they
(43:19):
consume that, and so you know,when we were talking I mean,
like I've just been a big fan ofvideo I think video is the
dominant asset.
Still, I think it has at leastanother 10 years, you know, of
being a dominant asset.
I don't think that it's evenhit its top point right now.
So video comes audio, you know,comes written content, comes a
(43:39):
lot of ways you can diversifyand scale that content.
And so when we you know, whenwe got DBB and we changed the
trajectory, like we reallypaused on the in-person events
so we could focus on how do webuild a foundation based upon
video-based content that canscale into written content,
(44:00):
scale down to e-newsletters,scale down to social media
snippets, and then how do weassimilate and curate all this
information that's going onabout omni-channel retail right,
which is going across the globeand be able to take that and
funnel it down to where it'sdigestible and there's a
dependable resource on a dailybasis, real-time basis, that the
(44:21):
supplier community, whetherit's here in Northwest Arkansas
which, by the way, the otherimpact is is that doing business
in Bentonville is not just forpeople that live in 30 minutes
in the Bentonville area, it'sglobal.
We're in a hundred.
You know folks are watching ourcontent or listening to it or
consuming content across ahundred countries, like you were
just talking about.
(44:42):
Folks come here Like this is theepicenter of Omni channel
retail.
That's my perspective and myopinion and I want to make sure,
I want to have a contributingpart in ensuring that we
continue to lead that charge,because it's not a, it's not a
certain scenario and there's alot of threat to it that I don't
(45:02):
think that we really gauge.
You know, too much.
I mean when we see otherretailer boxes on our doorstep
because that was more convenient.
That's a threat and I thinkthat my you know kind of going
back to Cameron, going back tofolks like Wayne and you, andy,
the contributions that you'vebuilt before, that I could step
(45:25):
on and stand on your shouldersand build a business and have a
good life.
You know, because of what y'allhave done, I want to do the
same for the future, in thesense of where you know, to
protect and to accelerate andadvance.
What this omni-channel retailmeans for us is significant, and
(45:47):
all that in that future of it.
The platform that we have nowjust allows us to have greater
tentacles, both geographicallyand timely.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
You know, that's well said.
You know one of the things that, when I listen to you, one of
the things I envision now isthat when I look at something, I
look at how to change it.
You've created that into mewhen we talk, because it is
because you know, sam Waltontaught us at Walmart change is
the most consistent thing.
(46:15):
You live that every day and youdrive to that every day, and
that's the exciting thing aboutOmnichannel it's changing every
day.
And you, you drive to thatevery day and that's the
exciting thing aboutomni-channel it's changing every
day.
And what doing business bill,as as our mission is that you
talked about, we're tode-emphasize, de-mystify, uh, on
the channel, yeah, in otherwords, let's make it clear,
(46:37):
clear for you, let's help younavigate through that, and the
thing that we do is that we'recontinually bringing subject
matter experts here in this, inthis room, and we're talking
about how to get, how is itgoing to change and what you,
how you have to change with it.
Yeah, or you get left behindquickly.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Yeah, and it's.
And I think that you know,omnichannel is so much bigger
than I think that that I canreally grasp in a way Right, and
I think that I can really graspin a way, and I think that
anybody can.
I mean a challenge to say, youknow, even the folks that are
leading Omnichannel effort, likeit is, continuous complexities
(47:15):
and even the most minute areasthat have been figured out for a
few decades are now beingimpacted and affected.
Ai just being in the lastcouple of years, right as far as
it's, I mean that is completelyimpacting all the different
pieces, and so thatdemystification is an ideal
state of where our mission isand our purpose is to do that,
(47:35):
because if we do not have thisresource, there is no resource,
there is no central place for SC.
You know SCJ's team to go readand digest this on a regular
basis just to stay ahead andpresent as to what, like things
get requested and demanded tothe supplier teams and things
(47:58):
get demanded to Walmartassociates, things get demanded
to the agencies and supportedthird parties and no one really
knows why.
But if you can see thecomplexities of Omni channel,
you'll start to understand andthat helps you to participate
and to your point, to activateand go with change.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
I think, as I think that's one last thing, I would
really say that what you I knowwhat you your mission is is too
is that we are a trusted source.
You talk about that a lot.
You talked to me about that alot, and I would tell you, to
all of our guests that arelistening, viewing today, that
you can go to our website doingbusiness in Bentonville and you
(48:37):
can look at our website.
It's full of information.
There's every video, there's100 videos almost on there now
and but there's tons of writteninformation every day, every
week.
That's current.
That the back to what waynetalked about how important it is
being current and relative andactionable.
It's there on the website.
(48:57):
But it's a trusted source.
You were were adamant to thisteam how important that was.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
You know, here's the reality.
The culture and community thatour area has has been built upon
trust and credibility andgenuine, real people.
People, you know, sam Walton,all the execs, all you know, all
the Walmart leadership, thesupplier community and, wayne,
(49:26):
like yourself, genuine, you know, a genuine effort to advance
what we're doing here.
You, andy, you know, and thenobviously, cameron Smith, you
know that in in, what I am, inmy heart, trying to accomplish
is to continue to pass thatgenuine trustworthiness, which
(49:46):
trusting starts from the genuineauthenticity of whoever is
pushing out To create a placewhere people can depend on that.
This is not really biased orslanted, and there's not another
(50:07):
motive other than to simplylet's have a centralized place
that we can all communicate andwork together at.
That's it.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
Gentlemen, what a conversation.
Wow, it's been so wonderfulsitting here remembering our
great friend and the impact he'shad on so much, and then
talking about the future.
It's been wonderful.
As we wrap it up, a finalthought from each of you about
(50:37):
today's conversation.
My thought I'll start okay, um,my thought is I, as I listen to
both of you today, um, howhumbled and grateful I am to be
able to, to to be around peoplelike you and Cameron Smith, and
(51:03):
you know, what Cameron taught usis the things that you already
shared.
You know, great leaders teachus and impact us and change us
for the better, and Cameron didthat in so many ways.
And so final thoughts, wayne,then Eric, and then we'll wrap
(51:24):
it up.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Well, sure, my final thought would be Eric, I
couldn't be happier and I knowI'm speaking for Cameron as well
to pass the DBB bidon to you.
What we were doing by thehundreds, hundreds, you're doing
by the thousands, and, uh, Ijust admire what you're doing,
(51:46):
both in the community and yourother businesses, but also the
way, uh, you've taken and um andbuilding upon what dbb can be,
and I, I just appreciate yourfriendship.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
Thank you, wayne.
That means a lot to me.
I mean, you know, when wetalked about me taking or
getting DBB for lack of betterterms it was a no-brainer, it
wasn't even really too much of acalculation.
I mean I was in because of you,because of Jim, because of
(52:23):
Cameron, because of Andy, I meanthe folks that have like it's
that it would take me decades tobuild the credibility and trust
that you guys have alreadybuilt, and so that value, like
that, it's just like having areally great brand, right, a
really great brand in the retailworld.
But I mean being able to takethat.
(52:43):
And then then, when you saythat to me, wayne, just now,
like my sense is highresponsibility.
You know, and and you know Ihope that I can, I can do my
part to continue it on andthat's yeah, thank you, thank
you.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
Andy, thanks for your leadership.
Speaker 3 (53:02):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Wayne Callahan.
Thank you, eric Howard, thankyou, and to all of our guests
and viewers, thank you very much.
Continue to share about doingbusiness in Bentonville.
We appreciate so much.
We're humble because of yourviewership.
And continue to write me onLinkedIn, andy Wilson.
Give me your comments,suggestions.
I will answer you back.
So again, gentlemen, a greattime together, thank you.
(53:26):
Thank you everyone.
Goodbye.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Bentonville.
I'm Andy Wilson.
I'm the host today of DoingBusiness in Bentonville and
we're so excited to bring you,and I've couple of reasons.
First, we're taking thisopportunity to honor an
individual who has consistentlydemonstrated exceptional
(00:32):
qualities Cameron Smith.
We're going to honor him today.
The late Cameron Smith was notonly a successful entrepreneur,
but he was a significantinfluencer in our field of work
and I will tell you, he madesuch influence so you're going
to hear about that from ourguest today and beyond his
professional achievements, hewas just a great guy.
(00:54):
I'm telling you, he's just agreat guy and it's exciting
today that we're going to sharewhat a great guy he was.
He had a positive impact on somany people In fact, I can say
hundreds of people.
I'm one of the individuals thathe had such great impact on and
we'll talk about that today.
The second compelling reasontoday that we are going to do
(01:17):
this is that today is our 100thpodcast today.
We're so excited that DoingBusiness in Bentonville has done
this, and Cameron was one ofthe co-founders of Doing
Business in Bentonville.
The Moth Zone provides awonderful opportunity today as
(01:37):
we reflect on the contributionsof Cameron Smith and my two
guests today.
I want to introduce them today.
Wayne Callahan welcome, we'reso glad to have you here.
And Wayne's the co-founder ofDoing Business in Bentonville
and he also was a major leaderin the supplier community Two
(01:57):
great companies SC Johnson Waxand Heinz Corporation.
How many years was all that,wayne, that you worked there?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I worked at SC Johnson for 20 years.
It was such a fantastic company, a great training company.
I started there in my early 20sand later transitioned to HJ
Heinz to starta second bigcustomer-centered team and
worked 18 years with them.
Two fantastic guys,congratulations on your career.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And you're doing a lot of other things today, wayne
and I will tell you we'refriends and I appreciate the
influence you've had in my lifeand we're so glad you're here
today.
Our second guest is EricHowerton Eric, welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Thanks, andy, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
You know, I was thinking about what I'm going to
write about you.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
But no, Eric, it's not important.
You know the great things I cansay about Eric.
He was co-founder and chiefgrowth officer for White Spider,
a technology company that helater sold, and you know, Eric
is also an entrepreneur.
So it took him about fiveminutes after he sold that
company to do something else,and he is actually a founder and
(03:09):
owner of Podcast Videos.
We are in that studio today.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, we're here, right now we are.
Thanks for the ad plug, Andy.
You bet Appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Both of these individuals, though, have shaped
our industry, so so good tohave you, eric, here.
You know we've been talkingabout doing this for a while,
yeah, and now you're here.
And, Wayne, so good to have youhere Now.
What we're going to do is we'regoing to talk about our friend
Cameron Smith a bit, because hehas, as I mentioned earlier,
(03:39):
such great influence on ourlives and our community and this
field of business there whereyou're in.
And, Wayne, we're going tobegin with you.
You've known Cameron for over30 years.
Well, both of you all workedtogether.
You met very early on in yourcareer and early on in his
career.
Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Andy, first of all I'm honored to be here on the
100th podcast and also a podcast, that's you know, focused on a
dear friend and a greatcommunity minded person like
Cameron he was.
He was an amazing guy and I'msure we're going to talk a lot
about that today, guy, and I'msure we're going to talk a lot
(04:28):
about that today.
My connection with Cameron camethrough the supplier community.
But just to briefly tell you,in about 1989, I started the
business team for SC Johnson,but it was in Racine, wisconsin,
so things have come full circle.
It was a virtual team then andthen it just became apparent to
do the kind of service and stayfocused on the business the way
(04:51):
we wanted to.
I moved to Northwest Arkansasto start our on the ground
business team in 1992.
And there were a lot of otherconsumer products companies
beginning to do that at the sametime.
I say that because it's kind ofimportant as I parallel the
(05:13):
scenario with Cameron.
My team was just getting goingand a lot of teams were just
getting going and we were bothdeveloping talent from our own
companies and bringing them inand we were also looking in the
marketplace for talent.
And so you may or may not know.
(05:35):
In 1994, cameron and Monica weremarried and when they were
married they moved to Fort Smith, arkansas.
And when they were married theymoved to Fort Smith.
Monica yesterday, who I dearlylove, and she reminded me that
(06:13):
you know he was a recruiter inCalifornia but he primarily
recruited pharmaceutical andother jobs, nothing in consumer
products.
So I received a cold call fromhim in about 1995 when he first
started and I didn't know who hewas, and we struck it up, a
great, just conversation.
We decided to meet, wecontinued our dialogue and I
(06:36):
began to really rely on him forhis thought and his input on the
industry and certainly helistened to me as kind of
culture I was trying to build.
So why did that matter?
Well, it mattered because, Imean, our personal relationship
(06:57):
grew, because Cameron knewliterally nothing about retail
and consumer products and I knewnothing about the recruiting.
We learned from each other.
We had so much fun together.
So that was 95, yeah, and andthat continued and we uh,
(07:17):
honestly, we just uh.
He helped me build, uh, anamazing team.
Sc johnson won vendor of theyear seven times.
I'm not sure many companieshave done that and it was the
team, it was the resources, itwas the culture.
But each year I kept tellingCameron, you know, he needed to
focus more on consumer productsand he needed to move from Fort
(07:38):
Smith to Rogers.
And finally, in 2003, theymoved to Rogers.
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So that's, great.
Now, now eric you always socool as long as I've known you,
eric, you, you have surroundedyourself with great people.
You like look, look around.
Okay, but you, but I.
But the thing I noticed aboutyou you just run to people.
Yeah, you see someone, you hearsomeone, you read a.
The next thing I know you're,you're meeting with that person.
(08:06):
You, and that's one of thethat's a great act to be done.
Tell us about when you ran theCameron Smith, how did that
happen?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, so it's funny when you're telling that story,
because I can just pictureCameron headhunting Wayne, you
know, just insist, insisting onhaving a relationship with them.
Well, oh yeah, well, I gavecameron a piece for his own of
his own medicine back in the day.
I headhunted cameron, you know,like as we were starting white
spider up right, and uh, and aswe were getting into the
(08:36):
supplier community more, moreetc for business, uh, people
were like I mean, you knowcameron smith?
And I'm like, no, I don't knowwho he is.
And and uh, and uh, and then Istarted looking into him, like
who's this guy?
Like what's the big deal aboutCameron Smith?
He knows everything around hereand everybody.
And so I just uh, scottCrossett was working for him,
(08:57):
he's a CEO now of Cameron Smithand Associates.
And uh, I met Scott and I waslike, man, scott, I want to meet
Cameron, you know.
And uh, he's like, yeah, I'll,I'll, I'll ping him and see.
And then you know we could goby.
I'm like, hey, bro.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I haven't heard from Cameron.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
What's the deal?
And he's like, uh, yeah, youknow he's kind of busy and so I
just kept calling and I'd callthe office and eric howards and
wanted to meet with me, and he'slike, just whatever, just set
me up with this guy.
So I came in and met with himand then, you know, immediately,
you know I wouldn't let him go,you know, but he was, it was
(09:33):
immediate connection.
I mean, we really got along andhad a lot of similarities and,
you know, joked a lot and stuff.
So that that was I gave.
Gave him a piece of his ownmedicine.
I should go into recruiting.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, well, you'd be great.
Well you do.
You both are similar, but Ithink that's.
I think people that are greatleaders and entrepreneurs are
like that they run to things sothey can learn and grow and
develop and get better.
They never stand still.
You never stand still.
Wayne never stands still andthat's a sign of great
(10:04):
leadership.
And again, again, it's soawesome to be talking about him
today, as we think about Cameronand our audience, and we have
guests now in over 100 countriesthat view this.
We're over 200 a day of peopleviewing DBB.
Thank you very much to ourguests.
One of the things I think wecan share with our guests is
(10:26):
what we learn from cameron.
Yeah, the things that we learnand that.
And then then we definitelywant to talk about the impact he
had on northwest arkansas andother in many other places.
But what, what did you guyslearn from cameron when you were
with him?
What?
What was his strengths Do?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
you want to go for it .
Well, I, I, I think that he wasa really good listener and not
everybody is a good listener,especially people that have that
much energy and, you know,passion to to get things done.
But he, he was a great listenerand because of that he he would
(11:04):
get smarter every day.
You know, he would ask peoplequestions and and he would go to
he would go to Eric, he wouldgo to you, he would go to
different people and and hewould ask questions and then it
didn't take long until he waspretty much a subject matter
expert in something, subjectmatter expert in something.
(11:27):
And I always appreciated thatabout that, about him and and,
clearly, his energy and hiswillingness to be involved in
the community.
I can remember when I was inthe chamber of commerce and
working my way through I waschairman there for a while and
and Cameron saw that I wasinvolved in chamber of commerce
and he says I want to getinvolved in the chamber of
(11:47):
commerce.
So we got involved in thechamber of commerce and
different, and it was like thathe would see people involved in
things that he then he wouldunderstand the impact they were
having on the community and hewould say I want to contribute,
I want to be a part of that.
So he was such a positiveperson um looking for ways to
(12:08):
get involved and and um I'll bean advocate.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Right, yeah, you know , I mean there's.
There's so many things thatcome in my mind, I'm sure, like
for all of us, right, I mean I'mas you were talking about that.
One of the things I remember is, you know, cameron had this
status, you know, I mean he, youknow in the community, like a
lot of folks do.
And what I appreciate about himis, after I finally got him to
sit down and hang out with mefor a little bit, I immediately
(12:33):
realized how real and genuine hewas, you know, which I really
appreciated because I mean Ithink that you know, he was just
somebody that was reallywanting to do the right thing,
you know, for the right people,because that's the right thing
to do, you know, for those folks.
And I remember, like we'retalking early days of White
Spider, unknown.
(12:55):
You know the company wasunknown, I'm unknown.
I didn't work at Walmart, Ididn't work for a supplier, you
know and I'm trying to breakinto this and I didn't work for
a big agency for that stuff, andso I was definitely a, you know
, extraterrestrial in thesupplier community from that
standpoint.
Um and so there's a lot oftimes where I just hit all these
roadblocks on a regular basis.
(13:15):
But then when I started talkingwith Cameron, he immediately
like he, he cared to your point,he would listen to what I
actually had going on and thenhe would think about how that
can help the greater communityand even his clients and the
people he knew.
But I remember like he wouldcall me, you know, and I've
never had anybody do this beforethat would call me out of the
(13:39):
blue to check in with me and seehow I'm doing and how my
business is doing.
Dude, that meant so incrediblymuch to me.
So I think that he wasattentive.
Not only was he genuine, buthe's attentive and he
legitimately.
He did what he said he wasgoing to do and he cared just as
much as he expressed.
And that was from day one tothe time he passed.
(13:59):
He was always checking in and Iwould just get a call out of
the blue and I'd be sitting in ameeting.
I mean, if I was sitting, thispodcast and cameron called, you
know I would.
I would walk out and say thegodfather just is calling me, I
gotta take the I gotta take it,you know, and and he, you know,
he never understood like howmuch of a of a you know high
amount I would hold that phonecall.
(14:20):
It didn't really matter, I mean, he was just legitimately just
checking in to see how thingswere going and I thought that
that was really special, youknow, and I try to remember that
, you know I'm I'm aself-proclaimed narcissist, you
know and so, but but to to like,so that meant that he actually
in his busy day I mean, he'stalking to folks like Wayne
(14:40):
about building really incredibleteams at the world's largest
retail Like, I mean, that'sserious business he actually
took the time and he did careenough to give me a shout when
I'm a starting up entrepreneur?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, big deal.
Yeah, why?
What's your thoughts on that?
What do you?
What do you?
Where would you at?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Well, I was listening to that story and I I thought
that's great, great, and itreminded me that, right, um, I
mean, he was a show mind, makeno mistake, he was amazing and
(15:31):
he was a sportsman.
He was a lot of things but hewas also really sincere.
And if, if you were a friend ofhis, you knew you were.
Yeah, he treated you like afriend he did.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
He walked into bonefish or anywhere in the, in
the area, you know, and I meanthere'd be people coming up and
saying hi to him.
You know, I mean just like allthe time, like if I was ever
having lunch with him orwhatever.
There's like probably 10 peoplethat, hey, cameron, how you
doing?
Yeah, I remember you know quitea few times they walk off and
you know cameron saying hi and Isay like who was that?
(16:02):
He goes, I have no idea, youknow, in a few cases, but to
your point, he was.
Yeah, really his presence yeahwas really strong, but he was
extremely sincere.
That's where I think that thelike when we talk about passing
that on, that legacy in a way,like that sticks in my mind.
Like I mean to be down to earth, to to be human, to help other
(16:25):
people, yeah, I mean like he didthat.
I'm going to do that because itmeant so much to me.
I know it's going to mean a lotto somebody else, right, you?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
know, wayne, you were in the supplier community.
You were here early on, I meannot the very beginning, but
early on in supplier community,the very beginning, but early on
in supplier community.
And I think today there'sthousands of Walmart SAM
suppliers teams here.
I don't know how many now, acouple thousand, maybe 3,000.
So it's a lot.
(16:56):
It's in the thousands, right.
So Cameron was very, veryinvolved in that and he, you
know, especially with recruiting.
What do you think he did as animpact?
Northwest arkansas, how didcameron associates impact?
You know walmart sounds, thatwhole culture around supplier
(17:16):
community, because he had a lotto do with that.
What, what, what impact do youthink?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, I think that sort of the scenario that I
played out with he and I.
He played out with hundreds andhundreds of people that were
building teams.
Maybe it was one, two or threein the beginning and then it
became 50, and then it became100, and how many teams there
(17:44):
are I'm not sure.
But he was smart enough tobuild a trusted reputation with
the supplier community andpeople that were in roles that
were going to be making choiceson people that would be a part
(18:07):
of their team.
Cameron did a nice job ofUnderstanding the cultures of
companies and and was easy forhim to talk about.
This is kind of the makeup ofthis company and here's how
someone might fit for this kindof company.
I also think that he was reallysmart to stay close to people
(18:49):
that were developing these teams, because he wasn't the job
creator, make no mistake.
The customer't the job creator,Make no mistake.
The customer was the jobcreator.
What the teams were doing isdeciding and being choiceful
about how they were going to addresources, how they're going to
allocate resources.
So if I took you back to the90s, we were primarily sales
(19:16):
teams, and then sales teamsbecame sales and analytical
teams, and then sales andanalytical and customer service
and supply chain and marketing.
So each time that layer,another layer was added, cameron
participated and engaged andrealized, hey, you know, I've
(19:38):
got to look in a differenttalent pool if I'm going to help
you source those kinds ofpeople that mattered in our
community.
So our community became verywell-rounded.
Um, the, the easy part of hisjob and he would, he would call
(19:59):
it um, this is um, uh, shootingfish in a barrel was the talent
that was already in town.
You know, cause that that wasthe easy part, someone was
unhappy and they want to go toanother company.
Um, what?
What was hard was, uh, gettingtalent from St Louis or Chicago
or Dallas or Los Angeles to wantto come here.
(20:19):
And his team and he were reallyhelpful in helping paint the
picture of the opportunity thatwas had and the future that was
in front of us.
And the future that was infront of us and gave people a
reason to buy into the culture,mission opportunity with a
(20:40):
company and to relocate theirfamily.
So I think he played a key rolein helping to sell the benefits
of this great lifestyle that weall enjoy today.
Yeah, great points.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
That's awesome.
I mean that's that's reallyconclusively.
I appreciate that dialogue.
It really is, because you knowall I can think about like he
was.
Uh, you know, it was funny inthe very beginning when you
started out.
You met cameron because he gaveyou a phone call.
You know, and that's somethingthat he would teach me a lot too
is that he, he was theproactive engagement for the
(21:19):
community, right, like he wasthe one who picked up the phone
and dialed yeah, he reached outfirst, almost, you know,
especially in the beginning, butI mean even all the way through
.
But I think you know, whenyou're talking about the culture
fit, like he knew the marketneed, the client need, and he
(21:39):
stayed relentlessly focused onthat.
You know money always followsvalue.
Sure, right, I mean ineverything we do, you know and
so.
But I think that reallyhighlights kind of a deeper part
of what he was doing that maybea lot of folks just saw on the
surface level, but there wasn'tmany people that would sit there
and really think about Wayne'steam and the people on his team,
(22:02):
how this new candidate is goingto blend into that culture, to
continue to build that up,because that's what makes up a
company, like I mean, I thinkthat you know, and I remember
him discussing it like it wasalways a deeper level than
recruiting, right it was.
It was team building, it wasculture creating, you know, in
his mindset on that.
(22:22):
Thank goodness he had that,because I think we can look at
our area today and look at thesuppliers, the agencies, walmart
, I mean everybody.
There's this culture that'sgoing on Like we have this
precedence of we work together.
You know great places to workand we're all you know there's
more of a team mentality, Ithink, than I know.
I've experienced a lot of folksthat have come from outside the
(22:44):
area and they have a hard timeand I know I'm kind of getting
to a team culture that'sactually developed here.
That's taken a few decades tobuild.
Yes, absolutely, and I thinkthat to the point you're making.
(23:07):
Cameron was a significantcontributor to that.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Can I just make one point that doesn't get made a
lot and that is.
He also carried that on intohis own business.
You know we talk about CameronSmith a lot, but we you know how
, about Scott Cross and DeniseDentish, and the list goes on of
the team that he built.
He has family members there.
He has.
(23:30):
You know, it was a very, verytight team that has stood the
test of time as well, and Ithink I'd be remiss if I didn't
call out the success he hadbuilding that team 100%.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Absolutely Well.
These are such great points andyou know, not only did he get
such a great job talking abouthis business and his leadership,
and you know just a few wordsthat you all have talked about.
I just want to remind ourviewers again we talked about
that he's a learner.
(24:03):
Yeah, Always a learner.
Yeah, Always Curious.
Yeah, curious.
Exactly that's it.
I think great leaders have tobe curious.
Yeah, For Cameron Smith to landin Fort smith, arkansas he come
to northwest arkansas way backwhen it was not what it is today
and it was great then.
It's greater now yeah and uh,but for him to not know a thing
(24:27):
about the business, and I thinkthat's a great point.
I hope our viewers need tounderstand that and understand
that.
You know it's your career.
He was in a career he changedand you helped him with that,
wayne, because he was curious,he learned every day and he
(24:47):
connected with people.
You know, I love what you saidabout him checking in.
You know he checked in with alot of us.
You didn't know how many hechecked in every day.
Know he checked in with a lotof us.
You didn't know how many hechecked in every day, but he
checked in with a lot of us.
I know he checked in with mefrom time to time and you know,
and and it was so helpful to mebecause because I, you know, I
maybe I'm having a rough timeand he realized I may be having
(25:11):
a rough time he thought aboutthat's why he checked in.
Yeah, you know, and I wouldlove to see his check-in list.
I'm sure it's lying you know Imean, can you imagine?
you said you and he was a changemaker.
Yeah, you know, each of you areand, and, and and.
You know, eric, I work, get towork closely with you and I know
(25:31):
that you're a changemaker.
You see something, you changeit, you work on it, you change
it.
That's hard work.
You're pushing upstream, doingthat and doing that.
He was very involved in thecommunity.
There's things that you all,that we know, so talk about some
of the things you did in thecommunity that we know about.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Yeah, in the community that we know about.
Yeah, I mean, to me that's oneof the more impactful things
that I learned from Cameron washow significant it is to give
back.
You know, I mean I think thatwe all fundamentally are taught
or innately have that feelinglike we know to contribute and
give back to society and cultureand community and family.
(26:14):
But I didn't realize, like, howa significant it was and then
be how much actionable work thatit took to do that Right.
And so, like I remember hewould, you know, he would coach
me in, like where you know how Iwould go about it.
(26:35):
You know, I would watch and seewhat he was participating in,
which was a plethora of thingsyou know before that it's like
just do one thing, right Is what?
Maybe a lot of folks would say,just do one thing and go deep
with it.
But he had a differentmentality.
It was kind of go deep with alot of things and that was
encouraging for me because I, Imean, mean I knew that I could
(26:55):
like that someone else was doingit.
I can definitely do that.
It's what I want to do.
Right is to have a little bitof a broader, you know, a
broader impact and and andwatching him do that, and then
how he was participating in it,how much he cared, and then
literally about everyconversation that I'd ever have
with him, the topic of communityphilanthropy was always present
(27:16):
.
It was he was at every singleevent, like, and he drove the
participation in events.
He would call you and ask youknow, if he invited you to an
event, he, like you're, you'renot getting away with it.
If you said, yeah, I can bethere, like you're, you're gonna
show up because he's gonna makesure you're coming, and so like
a lot of these things, likewhen you're trying to you up
because he's going to make sureyou're coming, and so like a lot
of these things, like whenyou're trying to, you know, to
(27:37):
have an in-person event at someof these types of charitable
events.
It's really important for thecharity that a lot of people
show up.
That's so significant.
That's a way to get back.
But Cameron had a table of eight.
You can guarantee you his tablewas never sitting empty.
You know because he waschecking in.
But you can guarantee you histable was never sitting empty.
You know because he waschecking in.
(27:58):
But he knew it meant so much tothe charity.
He also knew it meant a lot tothose individuals If you can get
them there and sit down andparticipate.
I mean that was a big deal,yeah, wes.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, maybe I'll just call out one, you know, because
Eric's involved in it too.
But you know, from the verybeginning I was involved, even
before I moved here, with theCancer Challenge.
It was called the PhillipsClassic and then it became the
Cancer Challenge and I becamethe chairman of that.
You got really involved.
I was deeply involved in theorganization for years and years
(28:27):
.
And, cameron, it's one of thosethings, like you said, eric, he
said you know, I want to getinvolved in that.
And it became personal becausehe had, you know, last 10 years
he dealt with with cancer andand I guess the reason I wanted
to bring up cancer challenges hegot involved.
But he didn't just get involved, he, he got involved both
(28:49):
personally.
He shared personal things thatnot many people are willing to
share, and he gave his time andhe gave his money and he gave
his attention and support.
So cancer challenges anothersingle example of many where he
went deep for both, you know,his own contribution to the
(29:14):
community but also his personalinterest.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
All right, I appreciate it.
You know it's wonderful to talkabout Cameron and his career,
his legacy, his impact.
He has had all of us in ourcommunity.
We're better today in Memphis,arkansas and beyond because of
Cameron Smith Great questionabout it?
Yeah, and we're all threebetter and everyone has.
(29:38):
He touched their lives.
He touched are better todaybecause of that.
What a great leader.
You know.
As you were both talking, I wasthinking about the leader that
had the opportunity to work withis Sam Walton, and Sam would
many times growing.
I grew up at Walmart but youknow some of the things that Sam
taught us.
(29:58):
Cameron also taught us.
You know that's what greatleaders do.
Now Cameron is also along withCameron.
You both are founders of DoingBusiness in Bentonville.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Okay, thank you very much.
It's awesome, thank you.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Thank you very much.
Right, it's awesome we're heretoday because of your and
Cameron's vision.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
And the coffee that.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Eric and I have.
Yeah, that's right.
So let's do this.
Let's talk about doing businessin Bentonville and talk about
you know, and you have such agreat story.
And let me just say right upfront how grateful and honored I
am to be part of doing businessin Bentonville, and, wayne, you
had a lot to do with that, sothank you, you're welcome.
I'm humbled by that.
And so let's talk about theearly beginnings and why,
(30:47):
because I think it's veryimportant people understand the
history a bit of doing businessin Bentonville.
Then, eric, let's talk aboutthe future, okay, okay.
So, wayne, give us a bit aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Well, I'll bounce around just a little bit about
DBB because it's such a funtopic and hopefully I hit the
right highlights.
If you want me to dig intosomething else, let me know.
I do remember that Cameron anda gentleman named Jim Shankle
and I three totally diversebackgrounds.
(31:23):
It just had nothing in commonwhich made it so perfect.
Jim still lives in Fayetteville.
He's a good friend, and Jimcame in the background of Club
Corp, you know like organizationmembership, that sort of thing.
He had a friendship withCameron before I did.
(31:45):
Cameron actually introduced meto Jim.
You know what Cameron did, youknow what I do.
We had this idea that wascommunity-based, based like how
can we be a resource to thesupplier community?
That was foundational.
What it was about.
(32:05):
We um, actually all um.
It didn't have a major profitmotive but we hoped we didn't
lose a lot of money that was ourthat's number one.
That was our number one goal wasto not lose a lot of money.
Um, so we made uh small and wekind of started the company and
(32:28):
you know we had a premise and itwas built on a few, you know,
ideas from Jim.
My role was and I'll talk alittle more about the supplier
steering committee was morecontent, what we would talk
about.
And then Cameron, as Eric and Ihave talked, his job was his
Rolodex.
(32:49):
His was a little better thanmine.
Get people to see, get them toshow up.
It was amazing.
Yeah, how do you, how do youfill a room?
But you know we and this isCameron, this says a lot about
what you were just talking about, but it's a point that can't be
missed.
(33:11):
Cameron for years pushed that weactually make it a nonprofit
organization because we honestlydid not have a profit motive.
That wasn't our motive.
We never did it because it wasgoing to cost more to set up a
511C and manage it than it wasjust to manage the dadgum
business.
So we chose not to.
(33:33):
But every few years he wouldbring it up again.
You know, like, do you think weought to be nonprofit?
And I said we kind of are, I'mjust teasing we, we did, we did
just fine.
But the secret sauce to the tomaking the mission successful
(33:57):
and again a mission was prettystraightforward.
You know, we, we wanted to be aum, an advocate, uh.
We wanted to be, uh, a resourcefor the suppliers community.
We wanted them to.
Uh, we had three things.
So if, if, if, if someone leftthat room with new information,
a new phone number, a newcontact, something they could go
(34:19):
back to their office and be anddo something different.
That day we felt successfulbecause our whole idea was to be
different and that we were notgoing to be philosophical, we
were not going to be long termstrategic.
That wasn't our role.
There were plenty of companiesthat could do that.
What we wanted to be was actionoriented.
There are plenty of companiesthat could do that.
(34:40):
What we wanted to be was actionoriented.
And so to bring that to life, Iwant to paint a picture for a
second.
Through my friends andCameron's friends, we had key
leaders from all the businessteams, or a number of the
business teams, like 10 or 15,pretty much at all times.
So we had a steering committeeand what that steering committee
(35:02):
would do.
We met regularly and we justwhiteboarded all the topics that
were currently important.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And then what we did is really beat them up and said,
okay, yeah, that's right,they're all important, but
what's the most important?
And then we would stack rankthem and then every time we
would meet, do we need to changethe stack ranking?
What's important now?
What just happened, what's inthe news?
What's actionable?
Once we could identify what'sthe most important, relevant and
(35:35):
current, we would make that atopic or headline for our next
Doing Business.
In Bentonville meeting, whichwere all in person.
At the time, we'd have six toseven.
A few years we had more, but wehad about seven or so per year,
(35:56):
usually 100.
I mean, we've had as many as300.
But we typically had 100, 150people in the in the room.
But what made it work was onethe content.
So it was relevant, it wasimportant, it was action
oriented.
But then we, through ourcontacts, we'd go to Walmart and
(36:17):
say who, who could speak to usabout that, or Sam's Club, talk
to us like you, be the voice ofreason in the room that says
here's why this is important.
Then we would try to get asubject matter expert or a
supplier or somebody that wasactively working on that
(36:37):
initiative.
So what we would have is a realdiscussion from the customer
here's why it's important A realdiscussion from someone that's
trying to make it better to, youknow, actually do some good
work and resolving thatchallenge.
(36:58):
And the dialogue was incredible.
And then your audience, everysingle person there, was going
like, ok, I'm listening to this.
And then they're going back totheir office and saying here's
what I heard today.
We're going to do this, we'regoing to do that, we're going to
call, we're going to you know,we're going to take some action.
That's what DBB was and that'swhy for so many years it
(37:19):
continued.
It had great momentum.
For so many years it continued,it had great momentum.
People were then, as thatflywheel continued and as that
snowball rolled and got bigger,then we were getting the inbound
of I wish you guys would talkabout this, or here's a great
topic.
So we got topics and then thesupplier steering committee
would still then guide is thatwhat we're going to talk about
(37:41):
or not?
And so if you balanced, if youlooked in the early days and
maybe the first 10, 15 years ofDBB, what were the good meetings
and what were the just so-someetings?
The so-so meetings was man,that was really interesting and
that was a great presentation,but you knew at the end they
(38:05):
weren't going back back.
They didn't have a new phonenumber or contact.
They didn't go back to theirteam to say, look what, I picked
up something today.
Yeah, so what we?
what we really tried to focus onwas the difference between
great information or actionableinformation and and um, that was
, that was an amazing thing, itwas an amazing time and, uh,
(38:28):
andy, you were part of that, sothank you very much oh well,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
It was great job on that.
That's great.
Now, eric, as we think aboutthe future, yeah okay, so coven
happened it's a date after COVID.
A lot of things changed, yeah,and we, we had to stop.
Stop doing the things live.
And I remember one day Ericcalled me up and touch space and
(38:54):
he said, hey, can we havecoffee?
We did, and he said we sat at aStarbucks and Eric said the
future, andy, is a podcast.
That's what you said, yeah, andI looked at you like what?
And so your vision and you wereable to convince Wayne and
(39:19):
others for you to take doingbusiness in Bentonville and
recreate it, reimagine it.
And the point I want ourviewers to really understand
here is I looked from a far endand being involved doing
business in Bentonville and thenCOVID happened.
But what you did as anentrepreneur and as a leader,
(39:44):
you're able to take somethingand reimagine it.
Reimagine is a strong vision ofthe future and most things have
to be reimagined.
At times you did that.
Talk about why you did thatwith doing business.
What was your energy?
What was your motive?
What was your, you know, behindreimagining doing business in
(40:05):
Bentonville.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, you're going to have to watch my time because
I'll get on the soapbox and I'lllose track of reality.
But I mean in all honesty, likeI think there's a, there's a few
things the the community,starting at the root of the
community, right, the value thatyou were talking about giving
to the community so that we knowwhere we're going, what we're
(40:29):
doing, what kind of actions wecan take.
You know, that is so imperativein my perspective, right,
especially as there's a fewthings that are macro, that are
that have changed on us, right?
Number one was Walmart retail.
Let's go beyond Walmart andjust go to retail.
Retail has gone through arevolution because of digital
(40:51):
internet, omni-channel, right,and it's just a confusing ball
of wax, like I don't thinkanybody has a true answer for it
, but our mission is todemystify and advance
omni-channel retail, and so thatword omnichannel retail to me
has a significant meaning.
It's almost like when brick andmortar started having
(41:11):
self-checkout or when you havethe barcode, stuff like that
that has global impactforevermore.
The fact that a customer isgoing to buy based upon the
convenience in that measurementof time is just as valuable as
their money is significant, andI'm working in the community and
the industry and with Walmartsuppliers over the last decade.
(41:33):
You know all the conversationsa lot of folks are very.
They have to be kind ofreactive, you know, as to what's
going on, that we needsomething to be proactive, like
we need to to really startspeaking forth like these
changes, making sure thateverybody really is trying to
understand this.
Like, how do you funnel downeverything that's happening in
(41:55):
omni-channel retail and try tocrystallize that into some sort
of meaningful message?
So there's that.
And then I think that also theother great impact, the other
big pillar was, is just how weconsume content, how we get to
engage with information, hasdrastically changed.
I mean, that has many reasonswhy.
(42:15):
I mean smartphones wereprobably the biggest Genesis of
that.
You know that predates COVIDCOVID.
You know what I've witnessedand experienced was it just
really allowed people to feelvery comfortable about being
isolated and not having a desireor a reason to engage with
other human beings, which was,you know, not a really great
(42:38):
experience.
I think that anybody can reallysay that's too terribly
positive, you know, but we lostthat in a lot of ways.
It was impacted Right and Imean I think everybody, even
from nonprofit events to youknow games and everything.
It took a while to recover, butall COVID did was just kind of
further amplified the fact thatthe smartphone and the way we
(42:58):
engage with content is extremelydiversified.
The smartphone and the way weengage with content is extremely
diversified, and so we needed away to get information out and
make it just like an omnichannelretail, extremely convenient
for people to access, which isdifferent than just having a
in-person event.
It's just the consumer behaviorhas changed on on how they
(43:19):
consume that, and so you know,when we were talking I mean,
like I've just been a big fan ofvideo I think video is the
dominant asset.
Still, I think it has at leastanother 10 years, you know, of
being a dominant asset.
I don't think that it's evenhit its top point right now.
So video comes audio, you know,comes written content, comes a
(43:39):
lot of ways you can diversifyand scale that content.
And so when we you know, whenwe got DBB and we changed the
trajectory, like we reallypaused on the in-person events
so we could focus on how do webuild a foundation based upon
video-based content that canscale into written content,
(44:00):
scale down to e-newsletters,scale down to social media
snippets, and then how do weassimilate and curate all this
information that's going onabout omni-channel retail right,
which is going across the globeand be able to take that and
funnel it down to where it'sdigestible and there's a
dependable resource on a dailybasis, real-time basis, that the
(44:21):
supplier community, whetherit's here in Northwest Arkansas
which, by the way, the otherimpact is is that doing business
in Bentonville is not just forpeople that live in 30 minutes
in the Bentonville area, it'sglobal.
We're in a hundred.
You know folks are watching ourcontent or listening to it or
consuming content across ahundred countries, like you were
just talking about.
(44:42):
Folks come here Like this is theepicenter of Omni channel
retail.
That's my perspective and myopinion and I want to make sure,
I want to have a contributingpart in ensuring that we
continue to lead that charge,because it's not a, it's not a
certain scenario and there's alot of threat to it that I don't
(45:02):
think that we really gauge.
You know, too much.
I mean when we see otherretailer boxes on our doorstep
because that was more convenient.
That's a threat and I thinkthat my you know kind of going
back to Cameron, going back tofolks like Wayne and you, andy,
the contributions that you'vebuilt before, that I could step
(45:25):
on and stand on your shouldersand build a business and have a
good life.
You know, because of what y'allhave done, I want to do the
same for the future, in thesense of where you know, to
protect and to accelerate andadvance.
What this omni-channel retailmeans for us is significant, and
(45:47):
all that in that future of it.
The platform that we have nowjust allows us to have greater
tentacles, both geographicallyand timely.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
You know, that's well said.
You know one of the things that, when I listen to you, one of
the things I envision now isthat when I look at something, I
look at how to change it.
You've created that into mewhen we talk, because it is
because you know, sam Waltontaught us at Walmart change is
the most consistent thing.
(46:15):
You live that every day and youdrive to that every day, and
that's the exciting thing aboutOmnichannel it's changing every
day.
And you, you drive to thatevery day and that's the
exciting thing aboutomni-channel it's changing every
day.
And what doing business bill,as as our mission is that you
talked about, we're tode-emphasize, de-mystify, uh, on
the channel, yeah, in otherwords, let's make it clear,
(46:37):
clear for you, let's help younavigate through that, and the
thing that we do is that we'recontinually bringing subject
matter experts here in this, inthis room, and we're talking
about how to get, how is itgoing to change and what you,
how you have to change with it.
Yeah, or you get left behindquickly.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Yeah, and it's.
And I think that you know,omnichannel is so much bigger
than I think that that I canreally grasp in a way Right, and
I think that I can really graspin a way, and I think that
anybody can.
I mean a challenge to say, youknow, even the folks that are
leading Omnichannel effort, likeit is, continuous complexities
(47:15):
and even the most minute areasthat have been figured out for a
few decades are now beingimpacted and affected.
Ai just being in the lastcouple of years, right as far as
it's, I mean that is completelyimpacting all the different
pieces, and so thatdemystification is an ideal
state of where our mission isand our purpose is to do that,
(47:35):
because if we do not have thisresource, there is no resource,
there is no central place for SC.
You know SCJ's team to go readand digest this on a regular
basis just to stay ahead andpresent as to what, like things
get requested and demanded tothe supplier teams and things
(47:58):
get demanded to Walmartassociates, things get demanded
to the agencies and supportedthird parties and no one really
knows why.
But if you can see thecomplexities of Omni channel,
you'll start to understand andthat helps you to participate
and to your point, to activateand go with change.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
I think, as I think that's one last thing, I would
really say that what you I knowwhat you your mission is is too
is that we are a trusted source.
You talk about that a lot.
You talked to me about that alot, and I would tell you, to
all of our guests that arelistening, viewing today, that
you can go to our website doingbusiness in Bentonville and you
(48:37):
can look at our website.
It's full of information.
There's every video, there's100 videos almost on there now
and but there's tons of writteninformation every day, every
week.
That's current.
That the back to what waynetalked about how important it is
being current and relative andactionable.
It's there on the website.
(48:57):
But it's a trusted source.
You were were adamant to thisteam how important that was.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
You know, here's the reality.
The culture and community thatour area has has been built upon
trust and credibility andgenuine, real people.
People, you know, sam Walton,all the execs, all you know, all
the Walmart leadership, thesupplier community and, wayne,
(49:26):
like yourself, genuine, you know, a genuine effort to advance
what we're doing here.
You, andy, you know, and thenobviously, cameron Smith, you
know that in in, what I am, inmy heart, trying to accomplish
is to continue to pass thatgenuine trustworthiness, which
(49:46):
trusting starts from the genuineauthenticity of whoever is
pushing out To create a placewhere people can depend on that.
This is not really biased orslanted, and there's not another
(50:07):
motive other than to simplylet's have a centralized place
that we can all communicate andwork together at.
That's it.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
Gentlemen, what a conversation.
Wow, it's been so wonderfulsitting here remembering our
great friend and the impact he'shad on so much, and then
talking about the future.
It's been wonderful.
As we wrap it up, a finalthought from each of you about
(50:37):
today's conversation.
My thought I'll start okay, um,my thought is I, as I listen to
both of you today, um, howhumbled and grateful I am to be
able to, to to be around peoplelike you and Cameron Smith, and
(51:03):
you know, what Cameron taught usis the things that you already
shared.
You know, great leaders teachus and impact us and change us
for the better, and Cameron didthat in so many ways.
And so final thoughts, wayne,then Eric, and then we'll wrap
(51:24):
it up.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Well, sure, my final thought would be Eric, I
couldn't be happier and I knowI'm speaking for Cameron as well
to pass the DBB bidon to you.
What we were doing by thehundreds, hundreds, you're doing
by the thousands, and, uh, Ijust admire what you're doing,
(51:46):
both in the community and yourother businesses, but also the
way, uh, you've taken and um andbuilding upon what dbb can be,
and I, I just appreciate yourfriendship.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
Thank you, wayne.
That means a lot to me.
I mean, you know, when wetalked about me taking or
getting DBB for lack of betterterms it was a no-brainer, it
wasn't even really too much of acalculation.
I mean I was in because of you,because of Jim, because of
(52:23):
Cameron, because of Andy, I meanthe folks that have like it's
that it would take me decades tobuild the credibility and trust
that you guys have alreadybuilt, and so that value, like
that, it's just like having areally great brand, right, a
really great brand in the retailworld.
But I mean being able to takethat.
(52:43):
And then then, when you saythat to me, wayne, just now,
like my sense is highresponsibility.
You know, and and you know Ihope that I can, I can do my
part to continue it on andthat's yeah, thank you, thank
you.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
Andy, thanks for your leadership.
Speaker 3 (53:02):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Wayne Callahan.
Thank you, eric Howard, thankyou, and to all of our guests
and viewers, thank you very much.
Continue to share about doingbusiness in Bentonville.
We appreciate so much.
We're humble because of yourviewership.
And continue to write me onLinkedIn, andy Wilson.
Give me your comments,suggestions.
I will answer you back.
So again, gentlemen, a greattime together, thank you.
(53:26):
Thank you everyone.
Goodbye.
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