John Monarch is the CEO and Founder of Direct Outbound Services, a logistics and fulfillment company as well as inbound customer service provider focused on e-commerce, government, medical, and more. John’s experience in Logistics has helped numerous startups and e-commerce businesses grow effectively, manage their supply chain, and cut costs. He is a serial entrepreneur with multiple previous ventures, with a background in Physics and Computer Science from Clemson University.
What do you love most about digital currency?
The combination of transaction speed and cost, when it comes to currency – not even considering how transformative blockchain itself is. Fees are nearly nonexistent, while transaction speeds are unlike anything in the traditional banking world. Traditionally to send large amounts of money internationally you need to do expensive wire transfers that can take well over a week to clear, depending on the country.
With digital currencies now I’ve seen transactions of several million dollars sent in an instant, with fees under $0.50. This is revolutionary, and allows more people who historically have been excluded from the international banking system to participate. Families with an earner working abroad no longer have to pay expensive Western Union fees, bank wires, or even worse, mail cash.
Who do you admire most in the industry and why?
I feel like this is cheating to say, but Satoshi Nakamoto. His initial paper was transformative, and perfectly timed. Coming from a heavily mathematical background myself, it first caught my attention while I was still a student in Physics and Computer Science. Some of my friends in computer science were talking about bitcoin, and after reading the paper I knew that this was something different. With the underlying blockchain and the simultaneous pushback to traditional centralized banking and currencies due to the distrust from 2008, the libertarian in me instantly loved it.
How do you see blockchain technology improving life in the future?
Every aspect of our lives will be impacted by blockchain in some way in the near future. The removal of central trust authorities gives way to greater efficiency and reliability in everything from shipping to voting. With regards to voting, imagine a day where voting machines are no longer at risk of hack, and voter ID is no longer a problem. Every voter has a unique cryptographically secure key to vote, validating their identity, preventing discrimination, ending voter fraud, and ensuring that another “hanging chad” issue never happens again.
Imagine in food logistics, knowing the source literally from farm to table right down to the exact row in the field the product was grown in. Every step tracked and identified, more granular lot tracking, more clearly identified recalls, and confirmed source ingredients that truly are what they claim to be – organic, cage free, fair trade, etc.
What’s your favorite thing about this industry?
The pace at which it is moving. Right now we are in blockchain and cryptocurrency where the internet was in the early 1990s – and we haven’t yet had our ‘Netscape’ or ‘AOL’ moment. With new technologies and new startups being created almost daily, we will see a spark in the near future that will start the snowball of mass adoption, and this train has no brakes.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Two pieces of advice that I’ve received stand out, and will always stick with me.
The first, is “Have an ocean of knowledge, an inch deep”. Nobody can be an expert at everything, it’s impossible. But knowing enough to converse about a wide array of subjects and topics will make you much more well rounded, able to speak to anyone, and you can draw on that knowledge to complement your actual expertise to develop new ideas.
The second was from my dad, “Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you have to be a horse’s ass.” A good leader doesn’t need to intimidate or be a jerk to be effective, and iron fisted leaders will often cause a mutiny. You can be effective, competent, respected, and motivational without ever abusing that trust your team puts in you, all while having high expectations.
People want to perform better for a leader they enjoy being led by. No matter the size group you lead, be it a small consulting team or President of the United States.
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