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

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Trading Post, the podcast where we explore the fascinating world of professional barter. I'm your host, trader Stu, and I'm also the sales manager for Metro Trading Association. Today we're diving into the future of bartering and how its age-old practice evolves in our modern digital world. It's been a while and I was looking around in January. Here it is end of January. I don't think I've done a single podcast yet. Got some family things going on and one thing just led to the other and time goes by way too fast. So got to start batch recording these, I guess, and plan ahead, because boy, a week sure does fly by when you're trying to do you know, a bunch of things at one time. As you all know, time seems to go faster the older you get. All right, let's get into it. Actually, this episode have a little help from the AI, because I couldn't think of anything really to say too much because of all the crap going on in my head, right? So I was like, hey, let's talk about the future of bartering, since we got its inauguration day and things are hopefully going to change and we'll go from there. But let's see what AI has to say. Anyways, I breezed through this. We'll go from there, but let's see what AI has to say. Anyways, I breezed through this, but really I'm paraphrasing. I'm not reading it verbatim. Some of it I guess I will, but anyway, 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, and if I can tweak it and it starts to figure me out, I guess, then hey, you know what, all the better. So bartering is experienced a renaissance. Lately, I've noticed this People are more apt to sign up and have been asking me to sign up more so than me approaching them, I've noticed, which is fantastic. That means that they're getting it. There's more forms of income that you can get other than just cash. And, hey, joining a trading association around you is it's depending on what you got going it's probably a no-brainer, you know All right.

Speaker 1: 2:22

So first up, let's talk about the digital platforms. Of course, everything's digital, right? So the modern barter platforms like Metro Trading, as we have with our app, revolutionize the way we trade our goods and services, right so the platforms make it easier to find matches, ensures fair trades and it builds trust among users. And what does that mean? So easier to find, matches Our app. When you key it up, when you open it, you can find what's near you. So you find all the businesses that are in the association and it finds restaurants or services that are within a certain mile radius from you. It just goes actually closest to furthest away.

Speaker 1: 3:08

And then the fair trades. That means that when you're out and about and you're doing, say, you're bartering, one-on-one with somebody, you hear a lot of times people get burned or they feel that it wasn't an even swap. They're like, well, that guy still owes me whatever you know, another plumbing job for whatever I did for him. You know what I mean. So a lot of times you hear a lot of people get a bad taste in their mouth with it because there's not, it's not fair, it's hard to quantify it. So that you know, when you're doing a barter association, though it puts it into a credit basis and so that way it's all fair. Whatever you say, your you know goods or services, then hey, that's what you charge for it, like you wouldn't a cash economy, except for you get business you wouldn't have otherwise had, through the trading association, of course, and then the trust among members would be. Well, you know we have a lot of members that miss it. It's almost like once a trade gets in your blood it's hard to get out. You know, once you're a member you're kind of always a member, so to speak, because the way I always say it, you know it's like a chamber of commerce but there's no meetings. Your meeting is out, you buying something from somebody else because they can see who came in and their store. If they're not, they're not their own owner and operator and the installer and the service tech or whatever. If you go to a restaurant, odds are the owner's probably not there or they are there in the back or in their office. But they can see who came in and used their restaurant and came in and ate at it and they might be more inclined to do business with you or talk about you to somebody that's not in trade friend, family, relative, whatever and then you'll get a referral just because someone used you and that's what it's all about, right.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Another cool thing with the digital services that we have nowadays is that you can trade your skills or products with someone that's like halfway across the world. You can trade your skills or products with someone that's like halfway across the world. So we all work together, all the trade associations, and if there's something that's excess or that week, that's something that can be done. That is doesn't have to be local, like I just brought on a bookkeeper in Illinois or Indiana one of the two. Anyway, she signed up from Alignable and you know why? Not? It's all digital. The bookkeeping is digital. All you do is send her your forms and then whatever, right, so it's off to the races. So she don't got to be in the office and you don't got to be in her office. So she can take on your bookkeeping on trade. So she can take on your bookkeeping on trade.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Then there's, of course, the sustainability of it all. It aligns perfectly with the global movement towards reducing waste, promoting eco-friendly practices. By trading items instead of buying new ones, you can minimize your environmental impact. It's a win-win for both the wallets and the planet. That's obvious. Bartering also fosters the sense of community, like I also mentioned with the Chamber of Commerce. It encourages people to connect, share resources and support each other. Increasingly. In the digital age, these human connections are more and more valuable than ever.

Speaker 1: 6:20

I've been saying that for a while now. People are going to start getting burned out with doing Zoom calls and not meeting face-to-face. Heck, even meetupcom. I used to be really into that Before COVID. It was all about meeting up with people that you wouldn't have otherwise been to different areas in town, maybe, or different restaurants or stores or 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. I don't I haven't been on Meetup that much at all after the pandemic because I can do that. I can do Zoom and things of that nature without having to go to meetupcom, I guess. So one other thing is trading like homegrown vegetables with neighbors, or offering your graphic design skills in exchange for web development. Uh, it's something like that. You know, bartering builds strong, supportive communities. So, just like I said before, um, I think it's all gonna. The bubble's gonna pop and people are gonna start coming out of the woodwork and, uh, meeting together again. Uh, maybe not like the old old days where there's a community square, but definitely I think that we're heading that way, which is good.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Next up is the economic uncertainty, which is right now. We don't know if we're going to do better or worse than before. It's hard to do worse, I guess I don't know. Everyone seems to be suffering, it seems like, with bills and jobs. If I'm on the Nextdoor app and people are on there constantly talking about how bad it is to get 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 fix pretty much anything. I'm a mechanic, I'm AC certified, you name it, you got it, you know kind of a thing. 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 back to Metro Trading Association and come right back in, like I did 10 years ago, and take off. I love it here. So it provides an alternative means of acquiring goods and services when cash is tight or currencies are unstable, makes bartering valuable tool for economic resilience. So yeah, we don't know. I guess the cash dollar, the American dollar, is really strong right now, which is awesome, or I've heard it's not awesome, depending on how you look at it. I'm not really an economist, but you know I'm just on there reading things like you do.

Speaker 1: 8:58

The internet has expanded the scope 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 to be exchanged, benefiting the participants worldwide. Imagine trading handmade crafts with someone in another country or offering language lessons in exchange for cooking classes from a different culture. You know and that's the other thing too I was just at the home show in Novi and a lot of these members are people that were there. You know it'd be a no brainer to join the trading association because you're that you're the only person in that group for now, until you get too much business. Where are you going to get business? Uh, from our members, and we kind of pitch it for them. You know you get. You get seven or no, you get now 10 different ways of marketing, of marketing when you sign up with a trading association. I'm sure it's just like ours, where we provide a bunch of different ways and avenues for you to get business. Many operate the same, so I can't imagine it being too much different. So we can expect exciting innovations in the world of bartering.

Speaker 1: 10:06

Future advancements might include virtual bartering platforms, which is kind of already going on, augmented reality-based trade experiences That'd be cool and AI-driven matchmakers that find the perfect barter match for users. The possibilities are endless and, like I said, this episode is written by AI. It's even got a bunch of prompts in here. It's amazing. I put it in, was that Copilot? And, for example, it gives you sound effects that you're supposed to put between these paragraphs? I'm not doing that because I don't think that that's very authentic. You know, I'll say intro, music fades out, and then digital chime and then there's supposed to be a cash register effect. After, um, I said I talked about the digital platforms, the sustainability they want, uh, it suggested doing community chatter in the background. And then, um, well, after I said bartering, build strong, supportive communities, they're supposed to be coins clinking. So really cool, really cool. That's it. Hope you enjoyed exploring the future of bartering and if you have any questions or stories about bartering, I'd like to hear from you and don't forget to subscribe. Leave a review. Until next time, happy trading.