A New Era of Trading Connections

This episode examines the evolution of bartering and its relevance in today's digital landscape. We explore how technology enhances bartering experiences, promotes community, and provides economic resilience amidst uncertainty. 

• Introduction to the revival of bartering in the digital age 
• Overview of modern digital trading platforms and apps 
• Importance of fair trades and building trust in barter systems 
• Globalization of bartering and expanding trading opportunities 
• The sustainability benefits of practicing bartering 
• Enhancing community connections through bartering 
• The role of bartering in economic uncertainty and resilience 
• Innovations expected in the future of bartering 
• Closing thoughts on the importance of bartering in modern life

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“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform, always rocking the cowboy hat. The track is protected under U.S. Copyright rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.

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The thoughts and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and do not reflect the official policy or position of Metro Trading Association. Although the host is an employee of Metro Trading, this podcast is intended to educate entrepreneurs on the benefits of professional trading, regardless of their location. Additionally, the host reviews various pieces of camping gear due to the association of trade, barter, and prepping.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post, the podcast
where we explore the fascinatingworld of professional barter.
I'm your host, trader Stu, andI'm also the sales manager for
Metro Trading Association.
Today we're diving into thefuture of bartering and how its
age-old practice evolves in ourmodern digital world.

(00:21):
It's been a while and I waslooking around in January.
Here it is end of January.
I don't think I've done asingle podcast yet.
Got some family things going onand one thing just led to the
other and time goes by way toofast.
So got to start batch recordingthese, I guess, and plan ahead,

(00:42):
because boy, a week sure doesfly by when you're trying to do
you know, a bunch of things atone time.
As you all know, time seems togo faster the older you get.
All right, let's get into it.
Actually, this episode have alittle help from the AI, because

(01:04):
I couldn't think of anythingreally to say too much because
of all the crap going on in myhead, right?
So I was like, hey, let's talkabout the future of bartering,
since we got its inaugurationday and things are hopefully
going to change and we'll gofrom there.
But let's see what AI has tosay.
Anyways, I breezed through this.
We'll go from there, but let'ssee what AI has to say.
Anyways, I breezed through this, but really I'm paraphrasing.

(01:27):
I'm not reading it verbatim.
Some of it I guess I will, butanyway, it speaks a little bit
different than what I usually do, so we'll see what happens
there.
I like it though.
This is nice.
This is a huge time saver, andif I can tweak it and it starts
to figure me out, I guess, thenhey, you know what, all the
better.
So bartering is experienced arenaissance.

(01:52):
Lately, I've noticed thisPeople are more apt to sign up
and have been asking me to signup more so than me approaching
them, I've noticed, which isfantastic.
That means that they're gettingit.
There's more forms of incomethat you can get other than just
cash.
And, hey, joining a tradingassociation around you is it's

(02:14):
depending on what you got goingit's probably a no-brainer, you
know All right.
So first up, let's talk aboutthe digital platforms.
Of course, everything's digital, right?
So the modern barter platformslike Metro Trading, as we have

(02:34):
with our app, revolutionize theway we trade our goods and
services, right so the platformsmake it easier to find matches,
ensures fair trades and itbuilds trust among users.
And what does that mean?
So easier to find, matches Ourapp.
When you key it up, when youopen it, you can find what's
near you.
So you find all the businessesthat are in the association and

(02:58):
it finds restaurants or servicesthat are within a certain mile
radius from you.
It just goes actually closestto furthest away.
And then the fair trades.
That means that when you're outand about and you're doing, say
, you're bartering, one-on-onewith somebody, you hear a lot of

(03:19):
times people get burned or theyfeel that it wasn't an even
swap.
They're like, well, that guystill owes me whatever you know,
another plumbing job forwhatever I did for him.
You know what I mean.
So a lot of times you hear alot of people get a bad taste in
their mouth with it becausethere's not, it's not fair, it's
hard to quantify it.

(03:40):
So that you know, when you'redoing a barter association,
though it puts it into a creditbasis and so that way it's all
fair.
Whatever you say, your you knowgoods or services, then hey,
that's what you charge for it,like you wouldn't a cash economy
, except for you get businessyou wouldn't have otherwise had,
through the trading association, of course, and then the trust

(04:01):
among members would be.
Well, you know we have a lot ofmembers that miss it.
It's almost like once a tradegets in your blood it's hard to
get out.
You know, once you're a memberyou're kind of always a member,
so to speak, because the way Ialways say it, you know it's
like a chamber of commerce butthere's no meetings.
Your meeting is out, you buyingsomething from somebody else
because they can see who came inand their store.

(04:23):
If they're not, they're nottheir own owner and operator and
the installer and the servicetech or whatever.
If you go to a restaurant, oddsare the owner's probably not
there or they are there in theback or in their office.
But they can see who came inand used their restaurant and
came in and ate at it and theymight be more inclined to do

(04:43):
business with you or talk aboutyou to somebody that's not in
trade friend, family, relative,whatever and then you'll get a
referral just because someoneused you and that's what it's
all about, right.
Another cool thing with thedigital services that we have
nowadays is that you can tradeyour skills or products with

(05:05):
someone that's like halfwayacross the world.
You can trade your skills orproducts with someone that's
like halfway across the world.
So we all work together, allthe trade associations, and if
there's something that's excessor that week, that's something
that can be done.
That is doesn't have to belocal, like I just brought on a
bookkeeper in Illinois orIndiana one of the two.

(05:25):
Anyway, she signed up fromAlignable and you know why?
Not?
It's all digital.
The bookkeeping is digital.
All you do is send her yourforms and then whatever, right,
so it's off to the races.
So she don't got to be in theoffice and you don't got to be
in her office.
So she can take on yourbookkeeping on trade.
So she can take on yourbookkeeping on trade.

(05:47):
Then there's, of course, thesustainability of it all.
It aligns perfectly with theglobal movement towards reducing
waste, promoting eco-friendlypractices.
By trading items instead ofbuying new ones, you can
minimize your environmentalimpact.
It's a win-win for both thewallets and the planet.
That's obvious.
Bartering also fosters thesense of community, like I also

(06:09):
mentioned with the Chamber ofCommerce.
It encourages people to connect, share resources and support
each other.
Increasingly.
In the digital age, these humanconnections are more and more
valuable than ever.
I've been saying that for awhile now.
People are going to startgetting burned out with doing
Zoom calls and not meetingface-to-face.
Heck, even meetupcom.

(06:30):
I used to be really into thatBefore COVID.
It was all about meeting upwith people that you wouldn't
have otherwise been to differentareas in town, maybe, or
different restaurants or storesor locations all because of this
app.
And then after, of course,covid, they just for some reason
still just try and do Zoom only, and it's kind of annoying.

(06:53):
I don't I haven't been onMeetup that much at all after
the pandemic because I can dothat.
I can do Zoom and things ofthat nature without having to go
to meetupcom, I guess.
So one other thing is tradinglike homegrown vegetables with
neighbors, or offering yourgraphic design skills in
exchange for web development.
Uh, it's something like that.

(07:13):
You know, bartering buildsstrong, supportive communities.
So, just like I said before, um, I think it's all gonna.
The bubble's gonna pop andpeople are gonna start coming
out of the woodwork and, uh,meeting together again.
Uh, maybe not like the old olddays where there's a community
square, but definitely I thinkthat we're heading that way,

(07:34):
which is good.
Next up is the economicuncertainty, which is right now.
We don't know if we're going todo better or worse than before.
It's hard to do worse, I guessI don't know.
Everyone seems to be suffering,it seems like, with bills and
jobs.
If I'm on the Nextdoor app andpeople are on there constantly

(07:55):
talking about how bad it is toget a job and I was in that
group too I don't mean to brag,I guess, but I got a pretty
impressive resume.
I mean top secret clearance,I've done all the military
things.
I've flown jets, I can fixpretty much anything.
I'm a mechanic, I'm ACcertified, you name it, you got
it, you know kind of a thing.

(08:16):
I'm a jack of all trades,almost master of none and, I
guess, master of some really,and I still it was tough.
It's a tough racket out there.
So I was looking to come backto Metro Trading Association and
come right back in, like I did10 years ago, and take off.
I love it here.
So it provides an alternativemeans of acquiring goods and

(08:38):
services when cash is tight orcurrencies are unstable, makes
bartering valuable tool foreconomic resilience.
So yeah, we don't know.
I guess the cash dollar, theAmerican dollar, is really
strong right now, which isawesome, or I've heard it's not
awesome, depending on how youlook at it.
I'm not really an economist,but you know I'm just on there
reading things like you do.

(08:58):
The internet has expanded thescope of bartering beyond local
communities to a global scale.
You can get travel on trade now, so this allows for a wider
variety of goods and services tobe exchanged, benefiting the
participants worldwide.
Imagine trading handmade craftswith someone in another country
or offering language lessons inexchange for cooking classes

(09:19):
from a different culture.
You know and that's the otherthing too I was just at the home
show in Novi and a lot of thesemembers are people that were
there.
You know it'd be a no brainerto join the trading association
because you're that you're theonly person in that group for
now, until you get too muchbusiness.
Where are you going to getbusiness?

(09:40):
Uh, from our members, and wekind of pitch it for them.
You know you get.
You get seven or no, you getnow 10 different ways of
marketing, of marketing when yousign up with a trading
association.
I'm sure it's just like ours,where we provide a bunch of
different ways and avenues foryou to get business.
Many operate the same, so Ican't imagine it being too much
different.
So we can expect excitinginnovations in the world of

(10:05):
bartering.
Future advancements mightinclude virtual bartering
platforms, which is kind ofalready going on, augmented
reality-based trade experiencesThat'd be cool and AI-driven
matchmakers that find theperfect barter match for users.
The possibilities are endlessand, like I said, this episode
is written by AI.
It's even got a bunch ofprompts in here.

(10:27):
It's amazing.
I put it in, was that Copilot?
And, for example, it gives yousound effects that you're
supposed to put between theseparagraphs?
I'm not doing that because Idon't think that that's very
authentic.
You know, I'll say intro, musicfades out, and then digital
chime and then there's supposedto be a cash register effect.

(10:47):
After, um, I said I talkedabout the digital platforms, the
sustainability they want, uh,it suggested doing community
chatter in the background.
And then, um, well, after Isaid bartering, build strong,
supportive communities, they'resupposed to be coins clinking.
So really cool, really cool.

(11:08):
That's it.
Hope you enjoyed exploring thefuture of bartering and if you
have any questions or storiesabout bartering, I'd like to
hear from you and don't forgetto subscribe.
Leave a review.
Until next time, happy trading.