Cool Times Podcast

A man steps into a cold storage facility—75 feet in the air, everything frozen solid—and something shifts in how he understands what's possible. The technology that moves pallets in deep freeze isn't just about efficiency. It's about redundancy. It's about the moment a crane fails and everything stops, versus a system that simply keeps going. Gary Chapman, automation architect from Moffett Automation, walks through what happens when a company decides to think differently about warehouse design and cold chain operations. He and an integrator have spent eighteen months building systems together—six projects running in parallel—learning that software isn't the bonus feature in warehouse automation. It's the entire game. Listeners will discover what happens when you stop asking "How do I automate what I have?" and start asking "What does my future look like if we build this together?"—a shift that changes everything about R-value, throughput, and competitive advantage in cold storage. Jenna and Vince Free hosts this conversation on Cool Times Podcast, bringing the questions a warehouse owner would actually ask—about scalability, about pallet positions, about the moment when a competitor moves faster than you. They spent time in these facilities, watching systems navigate impossibly tight spaces and learning firsthand that the real architecture lives at the intersection of human strategy and mechanical precision.

Someone sits down with a stack of samples—lighter, stronger, different. The words come careful at first: thermal bridging, composite materials, a better way. But then the story spills: a million-square-foot warehouse in Denver, seven thousand rods, half of them wrapped in insulation that no longer needs to exist. That's the moment the room shifts. Not from a pitch, but from recognition. The person across the table has heard the same thing back nine times in a row from architects and engineers: This is a winner. When is it going to be available? Joe Trujillo, president of  Xō Structure, spent nine years watching the cold storage industry solve the same problem the same way—expensive, inefficient, wasteful. Then he built something else: a modular structural system and ceiling tee that eliminates thermal bridging, cuts assembly time in half, and passes Class A fire rating validation. On Cool Times Podcast, Trujillo breaks down how engineering innovation challenges the status quo in cold chain logistics, and what it takes to get an industry to pay attention when you've actually solved something they've lived with for decades. Vince Free recognizes immediately what this means: fewer rods, less labor, lower CapEx, a shift that industry stubbornness might resist but cannot ignore. The conversation cuts through the noise to ask the question that matters—not what can we sell, but why have we been building it this way all along? About the Guest: Joe Trujillo is president of Xō Structure, an innovator in modular cold storage construction systems. His work in thermal performance, structural efficiency, and cold chain logistics is reshaping how the industry approaches warehouse design and operational costs.CONNECT WITH JOE TRUJILLOYou can find Joe Trujillo here:Website: https://www.xostructure.com/🎯 Sponsored By:RytecDoorshttps://www.rytecdoors.com/Versi-Foamhttps://www.rhhfoamsystems.com/

Someone was breaking bones, running out of talent, knowing his body couldn't sustain the pace anymore. A single question from a stranger changed everything—not because it was harsh, but because it named what he already felt: *you can't do this forever*. That moment, delivered during a motocross lesson while healing from injury, sent him toward a twenty-year career he never knew existed. Now Bryan White, the newly appointed executive director from association management firm Kellen, is stepping into controlled-environment construction at the exact moment CEBA is splitting from its parent organization to become its own entity. White's task is monumental—building the infrastructure from nothing: databases, websites, email systems, registration platforms. What makes his perspective invaluable is that he brings two decades of career reinvention to an industry where competitors genuinely love each other, where people volunteer their time and passion, and where a single conversation can shift your entire trajectory. On Cool Times Podcast, listeners will discover how to navigate organizational transitions, earn trust in close-knit industries, and lead through vulnerability. Vince Free, longtime CEBA member and host, understands the weight of what this moment means for the community. He and co-host Jenna welcome Bryan White into a conversation about transition, institutional trust, and the person chosen to guide CEBA through its most transformative season—exploring what it takes to build something meaningful from nothing. About the Guest: Bryan White is the Executive Director of CEBA, brought on by association management firm Kellen to lead the organization's independence and infrastructure development.

A stranger pulls a young man aside on a construction site and asks one question: "What do you want to do with your life?" Twenty years later, that moment still echoes—not as nostalgia, but as a blueprint. Lead by showing up. Exceed what's expected. Keep your fingerprints on everything that matters. Josh Currie has spent three decades building cold storage facilities that keep food moving through America's supply chain. From his early days in concurrent enrollment and grocery retail to launching ThermCon as a specialized construction firm, he's navigated startups, shutdowns, and scaling—all while refusing to outsource the details that separate good projects from legendary ones. On this episode of Cool Times Podcast, you'll discover how mentorship flows both directions, why the cold storage industry remains resilient despite tariffs and automation pressures, and what it means to build a business where people still want to show up. Vince Free brings his signature curiosity and high-energy questions to a conversation about scaling without losing soul—a tension he understands deeply. Josh's philosophy of relationship-first leadership and presence mirrors the ethos that keeps Vince connected to the networks and people who matter most in this industry, even as markets shift. About the Guest: Josh Currie is founder of ThermCon, a boutique cold storage construction and special projects firm. Active in GCCA and CRITA, he's a 30-year veteran of facility design, insulated metal panels, thermal performance optimization, and the networks that build resilient supply chains.

A man in his fifties sits in a New Jersey office, three decades of warehouse grit still visible in his hands, recounting a summer at sixteen when he dressed in a suit to secretly unload frozen containers before dawn. His parents had no idea. One sentence from the warehouse owner—just one—changed the trajectory of his entire life. This is the story of how two lumpers from the ground floor became architects of an industry transformation. Dan DiDonato, John Ingrassia, Gary Ortiz bring thirty-five years of cold chain mastery to Cool Times Podcast, built on concrete pours, pallet refurbishment, and eventually running hundred-million-dollar regional cold storage operations. Now they're launching Unit Cold Storage—a modular cold storage solution engineered for small and mid-size food, pharma, and e-commerce companies that need speed, flexibility, and real control over inventory. Vince Free digs into how two warehouse kids spotted the exact gap the industry overlooked and are now reshaping cold storage infrastructure for the era of thirty-minute delivery windows. For Vince, this conversation hits different. It's about the relationship-first mindset that built empires—how listening to what operators actually need, not what corporate thinks they need, creates real solutions. It's also about recognizing the people who shaped an industry from the inside, the ones whose hands-on wisdom translates into innovation that works.Check out Unit Cold Storage:https://unitcold.com/Don’t miss this architecture-meets-cold-storage deep dive with one of the most passionate leaders in the biz. Chill out with the full episode at 🌐 www.cooltimespodcast.com🎯 Sponsored By:Versi-Foam Systems https://www.rhhfoamsystems.com/