welcome to bets on the future where we highlight the various career paths in the electrifying Metals World from the vehicle you ride in to the bridge holding it up metals are everywhere why not in your career too I’m Jennifer Betts a medals industry veteran with almost 20 years experience here to highlight these incredible career paths As Told by the women who are living them this week on bets on the future we have a guest who took a non-traditional path to the metals industry please welcome Kelly Fairchild from Venture medals she is a seasoned Global sales leader in driving Revenue growth through strategic Partnerships and Innovative corporate strategies with over two decades of experience in building collaborative relationships across diverse Industries Kelly excels an expanding Market reach and maximizing Revenue potential through investment recovery in her current role at Venture medals International Kelly is responsible for new business acquisition growth and management of the industrial account port portfolio she plays a pivotal role in creating and building Global Partnerships between Venture medals and the industrial sector additionally Kelly leads Ventures marketing efforts leveraging her expertise to enhance brand awareness and drive business growth Kelly

is known for her Dynamic leadership style and ability to foster a culture of innovation and professional growth she combines expertise in sales strategy Business Development and Leadership with a passion for driving sustain able growth and making a positive impact within and Beyond the corporate landscape please give a huge welcome to Kelly Fairchild from Venture medals this week on best in the future we have an incredible guest we have Kelly Fairchild she is the vice president of Business Development and marketing at Venture medals based in Dallas Texas we ran into each other actually for the first time in in Las Vegas uh relatively recently and spoiler alert we’re recording this uh you know a little bit before this actually came out and uh it was the first time that we met each other in person and so it’s uh it’s pretty cool that we get to talk to each other learn little bit more about what your your background is because we met during the big big reveal in Vegas of the transition between isri and the recycled materials Association so uh Kelly we didn’t really get that much time to chat so thank you

so much for coming on to on to the podcast to to share a little bit more about your your background so I’m looking really forward to to learning more about you yeah thanks for having me uh I I do know a little a little snippet um about you because um the person that introduced us uh was was was very complimentary of you for a variety of reasons one of which they were very keen on you have to interview her because you come from a little bit of a non-traditional medals background is what I’ll I’ll call it and so I I always have to go back to the question of you know not everyone grows up thinking they want to get into the medals game so if if you don’t mind uh just do you mind sharing a little bit of like what you do currently and then we’ll go back to how you how you got there sure um So currently at Venture medals uh I’m like you said vice president business development and marketing so uh I work with our industrial accounts bringing on new customers uh and then of course spreading

the word about Venture medals and building Partnerships throughout the industry um and then so going back to where I came from um my career has largely been in tech technology sales Hardware software um I’ve sold uh different types of Technologies globally um for most of my career so um moving into Metals was not something I ever even thought about and quite honestly didn’t even really know the industry existed until I was was approached with this opportunity it uh it’s I mean I’ll be honest I didn’t I didn’t really know it existed until a career fair in college so it’s it’s not something that most people probably think about yeah at that point H I mean how did you get approached about it I mean how did that crossover that transition occur well um a friend of mine uh I had a mutual friend with one of our owners and so he kept telling me he wanted me to meet uh one of our owners and I I was working at the time wasn’t really looking and he just kept bugging me about it and I said okay and so um and then we met

and kind of discussed and I said look I have no experience in this industry but when we you know kept talking about it um he was like we can teach you we can teach you the industry and you can teach us what you’ve learned in other Industries and it can be you know a good collaboration to to do this so I said okay what the heck and then here I am and I I do love it it’s um very fast-paced environment and obviously there’s a ton of learning and but I’ve learned that even you know the people that have been in the industry forever are still learning which is very cool to me well to to your point it’s it’s always been moving it’s always been changing it hasn’t really been a stagnant industry per se um there there’s been some areas where things have more or less you know been consistent I would say um how we’ve traded Metals more or less has been I’d say consistent and how how we’ve done it are some some um I’d say some new game changers coming to the table and how how we’re adjusting

how we’re um doing some of those processes but it’s exciting to see individuals like yourself that have a tech background taking a look at our industry and saying I want to get in like this this seems interesting to me yeah it’s funny now when I explain what I do to like friends of mine or other people and I see like their same expression like inquisitive like what what do you mean like you know and then I have to explain it but now I see myself like exping it with such like enthusiasm like but you know don’t you understand there’s all this metal and material out there that needs to be recycled and and you know so having it click for other people just reminds me of like how important it is just in general for for the environment it it goes to something that I read Rec recently about AI in particular where it ties to copper and what we’ve seen with the the recent spikes or I maybe increase in the copper prices is maybe a a a better way to put it where some people are correlating AI has had an influence

in the copper prices because of the server Farms that are needed and required to run a lot of the AI power and what’s in the server Farms there’s a lot of copper and those wires and the circuit boards Etc and it’s just most people don’t put those two worlds together in that yeah yeah that’s very true uh something I again didn’t really think about um until relatively recently um I am a fan of chat GPT uh it’s it’s helped me play some uh weekly dinners when I uh don’t have the creative uh mindset to think of what to do after a long day for that yeah that’s a good idea I’ve never tried that uh it’s great a little tidbit sidebar for the metals if you have uh you know a couple ingredients you can say give me 10 ideas for a family of four for a weekly dinner and there you go nice in in your experience you’ve been in this industry how long now a little over two years okay so in those two years um well you’ve uh I mean you’ve seen some things um because there’s there’s been a a

little bit of some major players moving in out uh broadly speaking um you haven’t left so what’s probably the biggest reason why you’re staying um you know I just find the industry so interesting like I said before I mean there’s there’s so much learning I always wanted to learn the commodity markets this was obviously a a great way to do it um and I love that side of it uh I also love the manufacturing end of it like really helping my customers to uh find the best homes for their material and you know it’s a circular economy so really just helping from end to end and we’re all kind of in this together and I I just really enjoy it well you you use one of my favorite words especially in the metals industry because a lot of people don’t like to I guess associate it with us even though we’re one of the original ones of it um people may not be familiar with Venture Metals um in the world of the circular economies the sustainability can you help people identify where Venture Metals fits into that circular economy world like specifically for

you know the metals industry just so that they know like where in the supply chain y’all factor in sure so Venture Metals is a fullscale recycler so we are taking the metal from let’s say a manufacturer and we are bringing it in and we’re recycling it down to spec to sell it back to the mills in the foundaries so they can make new products so we’re the people that are actually doing their Recycling and making sure that new products can be made that’s pretty cool I mean you get to see the products being made you get to take the you know the recycled materials back process them send them back to the you know the manufacturers um I bet you see some pretty cool stuff yeah I mean it is cool because a lot of times we’re you know our customers are also are suppliers so we’re we’re buying and then we’re selling back to them you know so they can make new products so it is really cool in terms of where you’re moving the material has it surprised you how far some of the material moves yes I mean we have a

large export team and we also have um facilities in South Korea so we are moving metal very far um I I think it was close to when I first started but you know just learning about like the different Freight rates and how at you know one point it was cheaper to send things to China than it was like down the street so um you know that that to me was just mindboggling but yeah I I had no idea that that different Metals could could go so far I recently learned I think were either the second or the third largest export for the United States the Recycled um materials industry um and I think it might be specifically recycled Metals in particular in terms of the the dollar value which is kind of mind for me you know like when you think of exports from the United States you’re thinking maybe agriculture you’re thinking maybe consumer goods uh you know something along those lines but we’re second or third and and to your point you’re you’re moving some of our excess raw materials is is what I I’ll call it globally I we we we

have a lot of raw materials here that people just don’t even consider raw materials right yeah I agree it’s uh it’s part of the reason why um we’re seeing a lot of foreign investments um from other companies like metal manufacturers AR rubis um has I think it was like $700 million investment for um copper Metals Manufacturing in um Augusta Georgia recently um you’re seeing I think weand um has been doing some investment I mean it’s it’s it’s pretty incredible um the the type of foreign investment that’s coming to the United States and I think it it will probably continue just because I mean if you if you talk about Europe and their focus on sustainability it’s it’s much more prevalent there than the US and so I think that will eventually catch up where you know a lot of companies are are really looking at their sustainability and I know that just my time here you know talking to companies more and more of them are asking you know about sustainability numbers because that’s part of their initiative and so I I think that will continue that’s been a really interesting Factor on on

that front with the the metals having that link to the sustainability front that that again I don’t think most people really thought of on that front um how have your friends and family uh reacted to what you’ve been been a part of the past couple years I think that I mean they all kind of thought the same thing like wow that’s really great what you’re doing for the environment you know I think it’s uh so I grew up in Michigan and um so we grew up Recycling and I know that it’s different per state I’ve seen your things about each state the recycling per state and I was like yeah Michigan actually did a great job because uh that was I mean more or less our Beer Money growing up you know we’d be like we well we’ll recycle the cans you know like we we’ll take them in and then we got to keep the money and it was like um you know we we just grew up that way but obviously in different states you know um Texas just it depends where you live I mean where I live now we do

have recycling come pick up at our house but um I know in other areas it’s it’s not as prevalent so yeah and well and to your point for those that may not have seen uh my Tik tocks about um the recycling Race by by state um Michigan dominates the can recycling game they have been doing it since the 70s and if you’ve never been to Michigan um and never been to a grocery store there um you’re missing out because they make it so easy to return your cans it it’s pretty much wherever you buy a can it’s almost like you that’s where you can return the the deposit and then that’s probably not completely accurate but the point is that they just make it so easy for you to be able to take your cans back to the grocery stores and and and get your deposits back I mean it’s it’s just incredibly easy to the point where what’s their recycling rate I think it’s like 95% I mean it’s something just I mean it’s almost 100% I mean it’s it’s it’s ridic it’s it’s up there yeah and really I mean it it

you would see it like we would go to football games and there would be people just going around collecting cans and so it helps like you know reduce waste over all and then you have someone recycling so it really I think every state should do it 10 cents a can or bottle yes well and I I live in California now and it is one of the 10 deposit States um I have never taken a can back to get my deposit um really now I put it in my recycling bin every single week but I would have to drive 20 minutes to take my bottles back to to me yeah with the price of gas now yeah I mean uh yeah well yeah it’s it it’s I don’t know if it’s worth it and I don’t think it’s worth it for a lot of The Californians to to drive out that much out of their way and that’s probably um probably on The Closer side for a lot of Californians um because I live in the laish Metro think if you’re in more of the rural parts of California it’s just not as convenient here

yeah and it it shows in the recycling rate of their their cans I think they’re closer to like a 45% rate and we’re deposit State yeah yeah I mean you could go to any grocery store in Michigan and they had where you could return cans yeah it’s yeah it’s it’s very surprising um on that front very surprising indeed so it’s maybe there’s some technology that you could maybe bring um yeah and from maybe that’s a maybe that’s the the new Venture for Venture medals um to bring bring that to to Texas the uh the the can recycling aspect of it yeah um you you’ve been in the industry you know um I think long enough to see you know what works what doesn’t work um um you know career-wise networking wise uh do you have any advice for folks that are looking to get into a more sustainable career like this um I don’t know I’m not sure like I mean in terms of sustainability I know that a lot of the universities now are having they have sustainability um degrees I know that Venture we are um to partner with a local

um School in Dallas to uh kind of build out a recycling project with them that will go year round so really getting kids uh more in the mindset of recycling at a younger age and showing them that um you know there is opportunity for careers in the industry um I think in general though I mean I think you know just being authentic building Partnerships um being trustworthy um I think you can really go far I I fully agree with that um I appreciate that the schools are now actually showcasing that their are careers in this industry versus just you know taking it to your can recycling place there’s actually something afterwards where you can you can make a living at this yeah and you know it’s it doesn’t have to be you just if you’re an accountant and you want to be part of a recycling industry you still can do that um it’s not like every not every position’s going to be in the yard actually and in operations you know there’s there’s so many different roles that you you could take I read an interesting stat recently from deoe that did a

case study on gen Z in the workplace where a good majority of gen Z are looking to find a workplace a company culture that aligns with their personal beliefs and their values and sustainability and is is high up there on on their their wish list right to the point that if it doesn’t align with their personal beliefs they will leave the company I I thought that was a pretty major selling point to be honest for the metals industry in general um and from an advertising standpoint I think the the recycled materials side of it the raw material side you know uh I think maybe could use a little bit more advertising on that aspect I think yall are doing a great job getting into the schools early that’s probably more on the Forward Thinking front versus some other areas maybe you know could use a little bit of assistance on on that front to to reach that next Generation yeah I think I mean even having interns like as as as people are trying to figure out what they want to do you know bringing them in and having them try a couple different

roles and seeing where they really uh enjoy um to fit in and then once you know hopefully once they’re done with school they come to work for you it’s um it’s it’s definitely interesting um I suspect um you have some very cool things that come across um your your desk I should say um these days yeah yeah uh when when you’re taking a look at like the next opportunities like you know what’s kind of coming down the pipe if you will um what do you see for the metals industry is there something you know that you think is you know kind of in the in the future I mean we’ve got a lot of raw materials right we’re seeing more investment is there something you know are we G to see those continuing Trends you know particularly for the United States yeah I mean I think as far as technology goes I think that there the tech companies were I think were a little behind when it came to this industry and so I think just from what I’ve seen they’re trying to catch up to what some other software systems and things like

that that I’ve seen just in my career and they’re trying to really hurry up and put something together um which you know it’s great that they’re there now um I mean I know when started I was like wow this is there’s still a lot of things that are very manual um that could be automated uh and I I think that more and more people will you know tech companies and and different Avenues of being able to you know work within the industry will continue I think what won’t change and hopefully won’t change is that the and what I really liked is that it really is a relationship based industry and so in other Industries I’ve been in where Tech kind of overruled everything you started to lose some of that relationship part of it because of the tech and I I know that you know some of these younger generations of the scrap companies you know the the family-owned companies and now the younger generation they’re going to come in and take over I think that they will keep that Rel relationship even if they do start adding more Tech um and I

and I hopefully I’m right because I really do like that part of the industry I think you’re spoton for that um when I started off in the industry and I started going to conferences like the one that we were just at the Expo side there I mean could probably count on one hand if there I mean if there even was a software company that was exhibiting there right versus now there there’s definitely a a significant more but yeah to your point if we went to a different industry and you know outside of metals there are uh there’s just so much more technology you know there’s more sophisticated software that exists out there that does not exist um or hasn’t I should say has not been implemented yet in our world and so um there can definitely be some of that do you think some of it has been maybe people aren’t maybe the software companies aren’t aware of our industry or do you think it might be um an adaptation or like or excuse me an adoption act you know resistance like why do you think that slow process I think adoption is probably

one of them I know that we do have some um older traders that would prefer to not use use technology which is fine um but I think that you know I almost want to say it’s because the tech companies came in tried to or the ones that have tried to build something uh and they didn’t understand the industry it is a very there’s lots of moving parts right so I almost think it needs to come from someone that’s in the industry and then build the software or build the technology because if you do it the other way around where a software developer comes in and doesn’t understand the industry I think it just there’s just a disconnect um and so I think if somehow those two could merge or you know get on the same page where it works for everyone then I think that it will there will be more adoption maybe I’d agree with that statement there are some intricacies that exist in our world we also like to name things two names in this industry as well that’s true that’s true we can’t just name things one thing no there’s always

got to be like two names and a lot of a lot of names like I I just got the uh the you know the the giant Rema directory right with all the glossery of terms and it just it cracks me up every time every time it’s the and for for those that are listening Rema recycled materials Association give it a Google because um if you want to crack up with some great names um uh we have a lot of I’ll call them ingredients into the metals Manu facturing World essentially all the different grades of the the Recycled metals that exist out there and we just love I I want to know who gave them these names like what committee like set this up and was like you know what we’re running out of bws we’re running out of c-words let’s just pick a name in the dictionary and just that will work we’ll pick that name yeah and and go it so um it’s uh yeah um it’s yeah I mean I I had a meeting with a tech company it was a really big tech company and they could not they didn’t

understand the buying and the selling they’re like wait but it’s sales but you’re buying and selling and that to them was just such a they they couldn’t understand it yes so it it’s uh it’s an interesting one I was uh recently at the waste Expo um which is put on by the national waste and recycling Association i’ I’d never been to that one and so there is some overlap with the metals world because obviously there are metals that go to landfills or go through some of the recycling facilities and so I was curious to see if there’s any software companies um you know other equipment manufacturers Etc that might be of interest to um my world and um so you know I was actually pleasantly surprised Microsoft was there like from a software perspective um so I I’m cautious you know like cautiously optimistic okay like we maybe getting to that realm but you know there were other um more specific looked like from the industry so software companies as well there so I think we’re heading in the D in the right direction I think there are still more opportunities within the metals

industry to have a combination of technology and metals um AIS Tech was also recent again I’m giving away spoilers to when we’re recording this podcast um but I’ve also heard of um several Tech companies that were at that conference as well that again the founders of those companies those software companies came from the industry and so I think um you’re you’re right on the money I think um people are recognizing that you have to be from the industry to to really understand um some of those nuances yeah or at least try to understand it yes yes yeah exactly um yeah but before we go I I want to give you um the opportunity because I know we kind of went um a little all over the board on some of the topics but is there anything else that you wanted to share with the audience but before we go in case we didn’t hit um any of the items that you wanted to talk about um no I not that I can think of I think we had a lot of good good points okay um Venture medals if you haven’t heard of us

look us up um if you want to know more about us feel free to reach out to me be happy to talk and on that note the best way to get a hold of you would be LinkedIn is that fair to say sure yeah you can find me on LinkedIn okay um and Venture Metals website would be uh Venture meetme.com okay and then this is Kelly Fairchild you can find her on LinkedIn and thank you so much it’s been really wonderful um it’s very exciting to to see somebody from the technology world coming over to to our our Metals industry bringing some of the technology with you um some of the passion it’s it’s been really really exciting to see what you’ve been working on um in Dallas Texas and and also around the world honestly so uh thank you so much for for for coming on sharing your story and I really look forward to seeing uh what what you bring you know for for many years to our industry thank you Kelly thank you thanks for having me