Join us in this special episode highlighting one of the many successful SPI Agency Owners, Chris Shomaker. Learn about the decisions Chris and his team had to make and all that they had to consider when deciding to trust that SPI Logistics was right for their business. Get insights about how SPI has provided the best of both worlds for their agents, all here on Standing Out!
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
Join us in this special episode highlighting one of the many successful SPI Agency Owners, Chris Shomaker. Learn about the decisions Chris and his team had to make and all that they had to consider when deciding to trust that SPI Logistics was right for their business. Get insights about how SPI has provided the best of both worlds for their agents, all here on Standing Out!
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
oh, welcome everybody to Standing Out. I am Trey Griggs, your host, also the founder and CEO of Beta Consulting Group, so excited that you're here with us for another episode of Standing Out, a show about sales, marketing and leadership. The holidays are upon us. We got Christmas coming up right around the corner. We also have a couple of other events before that time. So this Saturday we got Reads Across America. It's not too late to still participate. There could be a cemetery close to you where you could go. You could help lay Reads on the headstones of military veterans. It's an incredible opportunity to do something with your family or with your team at work, or maybe a small group of church, whoever it might be. Make sure you check it out. At Readsacrossamericaorg Such a great organization they're going to do multiple millions of Reads at over 4,000 different locations this year. So make sure you check them out, make sure you have partners with them and to be having our show standing out on Reads Across America radio.
Speaker 1:We also have a couple of other events that are going to be taking place in the new year. We got the Broker Carrier Summit in April, the 22nd through the 24th in Kansas City. If you are in transportation, if you're a freight broker, if you are a trucking company or if you're somebody who serves freight brokers and truckers like a tech company or a staffing company or something like that, you got to make sure you attend this in Kansas City. It's one of the best events that you're going to be at this year, in 2024. Next year, I should say in 2024. It's an awesome event. Make sure you go to brokercarriersummitcom to learn more and to register today. I'm going to have over a thousand people in Kansas City in April. It's going to be a tremendous time.
Speaker 1:And while you're out there surfing the internet, make sure you check us out at betaconsultinggroupcom. See how we are helping companies with their messaging and with testimonials, creating that social proof. Click on that button there to schedule a call with yours truly. Tell us your story and we will help you to write yours. And before we jump in today, we got to give a special thanks to our sponsor, spi Logistics, for making this possible.
Speaker 1:Listen, if you're a freight broker and you're tired of the back office dealing with all of that and you just want to focus on customers and covering freight, make sure you check them out at successspi3plcom. They've got the technology, the systems, the back office to help you stay in your sweet spot, and they're just great people up there in Vancouver, british Columbia, a lot of good people up there. Make sure you check them out again, successspi3plcom and let them know that you heard about it right here on standing out. Speaking of SPI, this is a special show today because we have one of their agents on the show today to talk about their experience, and so I'm just delighted to welcome to the show today one of their agents based out of Vale, colorado, chris Shoemaker, logistics. Owner at SPI Logistics. Welcome to the show, chris. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:Thanks guys, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Good to have you on the show. I love the walk up song too. I hadn't heard this song much before, so I always love seeing what the walk up song is going to be and what new tunes I need to check out next year. He's pretty great. He's one of the legends, for sure. That's awesome. So you're in Vale Colorado and I got to tell you your backdrop kind of looks Vale-ish, if you will, almost like cottage somewhere. You got the open cabinets up there and the sweatshirt on Looked like you're about ready to go skiing this afternoon. How is everything in Vale Colorado?
Speaker 2:We're good now. It was we got about, I would say, 15 to 20 inches of snow yesterday and this weekend. So it is clear now, but we are getting hammered.
Speaker 1:That is incredible. You know, I live in St Louis and we just like we hope for one good snow year. That's what we we were out here begging my kids are like please, one good snow year, and you guys just got 15 to 20 inches. So apparently I either need to move or I need to travel more often. One of the two, I'm not sure. Not sure which, but it sounds like a paradise up there, especially if you're into skiing and snowboarding. Are you a skier or a snowboarder? I am a skier. Are you into skiing or snowboard? Been skiing since I was a kid. Okay, all right, good, I'm a skier as well. I tried snowboarding once and I about cracked my ribs. Have you ever tried snowboarding?
Speaker 2:I did. It was a miserable time and I quit after about two hours.
Speaker 1:I'm with you. I'm with you. Oh yeah, I've got a friend who swears he's gonna teach me how to snowboard. I don't know if it's possible or not. We're gonna have to wait and find out, so we'll see what happens with that. Well, before we go any further, chris works super excited to have you on the show. Thank you for taking the time today. Are you a coffee drinker or a water drinker? Do you want a water bottle or a coffee mug?
Speaker 2:We're gonna send you on to be a water bottle, and I'm water bottle.
Speaker 1:You and man, we're cuffed in the same club. I've never had a cup of coffee either. My wife loves it. I love the smell of it. I'm not drinking it, not a chance. Do you want it in black or in white? We have it in black or in white. The water bottle what do you think we're gonna see the black when? Yes, my favorites to. That's the one that I like, so we'll get that black water bottle out to you here in Just a little bit, all right. So fun fact about you, and I'm gonna jump into your time with SPI You're a big fisherman. How long have you been catching fish and what's your favorite fish to try to catch?
Speaker 2:Well, it's been forever, since I was probably, you know, seven or eight, and Out here We've got a lot of trout fishing. So it's, it's, that's we go after. There's a lot of trout.
Speaker 1:Very good. So I was a Boy Scout and so we did fishing as well. I was not good at it. In fact, the one time I caught a fish I didn't want to touch it. I'm just a slimy, I don't know. I'm just not a big fan of touching fish. It did not go well. I'm pretty sure that I cut the line and just threw it back in. That was not good. I'm embarrassed to say that I feel bad for the fish, but that's the. That's what happened with that, so I'm not good. So tell us a little about your story, about getting into SPI Started as a marketing assistant, I believe, and now an agency owner. That that's an interesting transition. How did that come to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, actually it wasn't really Marketing assistant at all, it was actually I don't. We got into it because we were with another agency and I won't say the name because I don't want to throw stones, but we sort of made the switch when we Were having some troubles with some back office accounting, you know you sort of name it.
Speaker 2:We were having trouble getting communication, a lot of things done and so we were on the on the market and we interviewed with a lot of different agencies that we came across and I and SPI just sort of seemed to be First of all, is the best option for us. They sort of get the best in both worlds for their agencies. I think that they do a really great job With technology and percentages and all that good stuff, and so that was sort of an easy Fix for us. And now what's interesting about SPI too, is we do a lot of LTO's.
Speaker 2:We are heavily in the keg business, so we ship kegs all over the country we, whether they're full or empty, or cleaning them or whatever we do. And so we did a lot of LTO and Honestly, they sat down with us and said we don't know much about it, but we'll build you whatever we want. And so what they did was they built us sort of a program that Literally, our customers just go on their engines, build loads, book freight, it sends it to the carrier and we don't even see it sometimes. It's great I say that in with. That's how we ended up with them was they were just very open to helping. That was being a main thing for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. It's not surprising to me that they made it a very personal situation for you. What do you need exactly and how can we build that out? I think it speaks volumes to how they take care of their agents. I love hearing that story of how that happened and how that worked out. You're moving kegs. I have to say I think people like the full kegs better than they like the empty kegs. I'm not sure, but I think that they prefer them full than empty kegs.
Speaker 2:We get a lot of the empty ones that go back to cleaning. We're shipping kegs all over the country, that's for sure. People are not stopping drinking, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:They never do that. When the economy is good, they celebrate and drink. When the economy is bad, they drink their miseries away. It's not an industry that's going anywhere anytime soon, which is awesome. Have you had the chance to go up to Vancouver, British Columbia? Have you been up there yet?
Speaker 2:I have. I've been a couple of times. I was actually there, let's see, maybe a month ago, maybe six weeks ago, If you haven't been there. That is an amazing, amazing city.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful part of the continent. I'll say I wouldn't say the country, because obviously they're not in the United States, but part of the continent. My wife and I honeymooned up there. I actually went up there this summer to spend time with them and it rained both days. I was there in the summer. Of all times, it never rains in the summer. It didn't rain all the two days that I was there. That was unfortunate in that regard, but it's a beautiful city up there. Do you like to go hiking as well? Being a mountain guide, do you like to do some hiking?
Speaker 2:I do. I just love being outdoors and that is just a place to just be outdoors. Their office, too, is just amazing. It's funny. I called, I said hey, I'm thinking about coming up there because we're going to do some different things. I needed to be in front of somebody for IT stuff and they just pretty much rolled out the red carpet for us. It was just awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just love hearing that story and I'm not surprised about that. It's just incredible the links that they go to help out their agents, which is awesome. I want to shift gears for just a second. You are in Colorado, but you're originally from Tennessee, is that correct?
Speaker 2:I am yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, Now I'm a Kansas City guy. Josh Dobbs went to Tennessee. Are you a Viking fan? Are you a Bronco fan? Are you a Titans fan? Do you not care about NFL at all?
Speaker 2:I do care about NFL a lot, and what's funny is, growing up in Tennessee, the Titans didn't exist, so I'm a Falcons fan.
Speaker 1:Oh you are. Yeah, because that makes sense. It was closer to Atlanta, so okay, so we're a Falcons fan, Because I wasn't sure about that, with Josh Dobbs going to Tennessee and now Minnesota, and it's not far from Colorado. I don't know if you followed that.
Speaker 2:I'm a.
Speaker 1:Missouri guy. We played Tennessee this year. You guys killed us last year. We got a little revenge this year, so a lot of good football played here in the Midwest, which is good, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you stopped Josh Dobbs fans, but Falcons all the way, even though they're not that great.
Speaker 1:Not this year. You never know. You never know they might have a turn around. It doesn't take much for a friend of Phil to do that. So tell me a little bit about your experience in France. So you're moving the kegs right now. How did you get into that business?
Speaker 2:So the guy who started our agency originally was a guy who started a couple keg companies and there's really only two in the country that do this that they lease kegs or sell kegs to breweries, and so he wanted to be able to control.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so he wanted to be able to control the freight cost of all of his kegs, and so that's how we started and then we sort of ran out from there. So what, the easy transition and what we do mostly, if not all, is now we have breweries and beer. Budweiser is one of my huge customers, so we are sort of niche in that alcohol world and that's sort of, you know, it's been great because we've got the name, because we do ship all of the kegs to all these places, so they already know who we are. So that's really great. So that's sort of how I became. I'd call it the keg guy.
Speaker 1:You're the keg man. That's right. That's the nickname. Yeah, I love that. That's great. What's you know? Going back to SPI a little bit, what's probably the biggest value add in being an agent and being specifically with SPI? Like, what do they do exceptionally well, because you've been at other agencies before. Where do they really stand apart?
Speaker 2:I'll say I mean, the list goes on, but the number one thing that I've had that's been so great with them has been the communication and the helpfulness, whether it's you know, letting us know. So when we book LTO loads not to get too deep into the weeds here it gets them an email, whether it picked up or not. Well, we never had that at other agencies, so now they're letting us know what picked up and what didn't. Billing has become so much easier and, again, like I said, they built us a program and they're willing to build us whatever we want for us to have success.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love hearing that because I was up there this summer. I got to meet a lot of people on their team that really enjoy working with the agents. A lot of times you would think that people in the back office it's just kind of a job, they're just kind of doing these things. But I was talking to Shiv and I was up there, obviously, with Anita. They were talking about how she helps with the agents and all that and you just sense that they actually really enjoy getting on the phone and talking and helping out and being available and doing those types of things, which I just found to be kind of unique. You know, not a lot of agencies have people with that kind of passion for making sure that agents are happy, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and another thing too is like we've had several you know over. We've gone to Vancouver, they've come down to Colorado to see us. They just really enjoy spending time with us and we just love spending time with them. And for them to put that sort of effort into an agency I assume they do it for every agency, so it's just. It's just that real personal. It's just been a really great transition to SVI for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Have you had the guys down to play golf yet, James and Mike and down to play around the golf there in Vale?
Speaker 2:No we haven't played any golf yet. Mike is coming out here in January. I'm hoping to get him on skis in January, so we'll see.
Speaker 1:That's awesome because I'm just going to say that's three people, and if you need a fourth, I mean I, you know, I kind of like golf, so you know Matt, to sneak out there and hit the links with you, that would be. That'd be a lot of fun, although I would like to see Mike on skis. Is he a skier? I bet he is. He's been in Vancouver. I bet he is a skier. It's probably good.
Speaker 2:You know, I think he actually told me he was his network. Oh, wow even better, even better.
Speaker 1:He's a, he's a hip skier is what we'll call that. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:We'll be guys, have fun with that.
Speaker 1:That'll be a good time. That'll be really good. All right, we got a pause for a minute because we always like to have a little bit of fun on the show. So we're going to play a little game today. It's kind of a new game, we're going to see how it goes and it's called Do you know your city? All right, so here's how the game is going to be played. We you're in Vale, but you were in Denver for a while. We've got a group of questions about Denver and we're going to see just how much you know about the city of Denver. So we'll we'll see what these are. These are based on facts we got from some websites, so hopefully they're correct. We'll have somebody fact check to check this. If they're not, all right, here we go. You ready, right? Number one Denver has how many professional sports teams like major professional sports teams?
Speaker 2:I would say four, if you're including soccer.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the answer that we have is six. I don't know what they are. We'll have to name those. So we're gonna have to have our producer list the names of them so we know what they are, because I'm not sure exactly what they are. I don't know, we'll see. That was a practice. We'll call that a practice run. But you're right, there's four there. There We'll see if this game could be a disaster. Here we go, all right. Question number two this is a tough one. Denver was founded in what year, cool man?
Speaker 2:Man 1862.
Speaker 1:Dude, you know what you are within four years I'm giving that to you 1850, that's impressive, I think that's pretty good, that's impressive. That's impressive. I mean, that's really close, man. That's awesome. Was that a total guess or did you kind of have an idea?
Speaker 2:I got a little bit of an idea, but that was I mean. It was more of a guess than not.
Speaker 1:All right, that was a good guess, that was a really good guess. We're giving it to you, all right, so that one counts. All right, so this one's interesting. So Denver is not the first capital of Colorado. There were other capitals before Denver. Which capital was it? Was it the second, third or fourth capital of Colorado?
Speaker 2:I think it's probably the second.
Speaker 1:Close. It's the third. It's the third capital of Colorado. We're learning something today. I didn't know that Learn something. I wonder what the first two were we don't know that. We need some more details around these. We didn't know what the answers were for some of those. All right, okay, All right. Question number four the first permanent building in Denver, the first permanent like business building in Denver, was what type of business? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:I'm guessing this one. This one's right up your alley. This is right up your alley. I'm just gonna give you that clue. It's right up your alley.
Speaker 2:Well, I would have guessed the hotel the Brown Palace.
Speaker 1:Oh, close, close, it's actually a saloon, a saloon was the first building. I know they probably went there a few gigs, that's for sure. Okay, all right, we got just a couple more questions here, All right, so Denver metropolitan area collects more money for this than any other city Collects more money for this. The metropolitan area man.
Speaker 2:I would say we may have to do multiple choice.
Speaker 1:Next time we may have to give you some answers. We're gonna have to do multiple choice, all right, what do you think? What do you think? That's a tough one.
Speaker 2:I would think it's, I would say actually it might be marijuana.
Speaker 1:Well, that would be maybe today, I don't know, it's actually the arts. I guess that could maybe go along with it. That could be marijuana, maybe our stuff could be a combined thing, cause I think some artists may enjoy marijuana from time to time.
Speaker 2:So there's a connection there, I'm gonna give it to you.
Speaker 1:Give it to you. All right, okay, Next one. You'll find this massive cobalt creature peeking in the window of the Colorado Convention Center. A massive cobalt creature. Yeah, it's got a name.
Speaker 2:Cobalt is, but I it's a huge. It's a huge where the things are. I don't know what those things are called, just a huge like monster type thing.
Speaker 1:That's close enough. It's a big black or a big blue bear, it's a big blue bear. So there you go, I'm gonna give you that one. That's close enough. Okay, two more, and then we're calling it quits.
Speaker 2:Here we go?
Speaker 1:What food item was invented in Colorado? A common American food item was invented in Colorado, or at least it's given credit for being invented in Colorado according to our facts Rocky man Monster. Ooh, that's probably true, but the answer we're gonna go with is cheeseburger. I didn't know this. Did you know that cheeseburger was made in Colorado? I don't think that's true, but we're gonna find out. That's interesting. I mean, I would have never heard that before. All right, okay, Last one, last one on this game here. What flies further in Denver than at sea level? What's what think about sports? What flies further in Denver than at sea level?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to guess they're going to talk about the Rocky, so I'm going to assume that's a baseball.
Speaker 1:That is true. That is a true statement. The other one we could have gone for is also golf ball, baseball or golf ball. Both of those go farther. So hey, we got a couple. We got you know half. We'll go half on that. That's pretty good. Some fun facts about Colorado. We'll see if some of us are expecting that We'll have to check. All right, random question for you, and then we're going to shut this baby down. What is your favorite holiday movie? Christmas is coming up. We got kids get school soon. We got break time coming up. A lot of Christmas movies going to be. What's your favorite holiday?
Speaker 2:movie. That is an absolute no brainer. Christmas vacation, national Amphibians it's.
Speaker 1:I want to continue. Yes, that is such a great movie and it's a class. You know that movie's like over, like what is it 30 years old now? It's crazy. It came out like 84, 85. I mean that's right.
Speaker 1:Might be almost 40 years old man. That's a long time. We're getting old. Oh, that's so good. I remember my dad took me to the theater to see that movie. I remember that back in the day I was way too young to be in a theater watching that movie, but I but I was there. He took me there. So that's, that's one of ours as well. Okay, so, so mine. So that's a good one. Our family one is elf.
Speaker 1:We love will, will Farrell and so that's another good one that we have, that's for sure, so it's awesome. Okay, let me ask this question. We're going to end up with this, chris. So somebody out there band there's a Freybroker out there, maybe agent and not happy what's the what's the biggest selling point for them to give SPI? Look.
Speaker 2:Personal, I mean I can't say enough about how much the personal experience I've had with them and they will do anything to make it work for you, man.
Speaker 1:I love that. I feel the same way, man, and so having them as a sponsor for the show, they make me feel like I'm the only show that they care about and they're sponsoring other shows, and it's like they've given me the personal touch as well Always answering my texts and phone calls and their communication has been really great. So I'm so delighted to hear that you've had that same experience. And do you get any empty kegs that you use at home? Do you do any special projects with the empty kegs? Do you do anything? You got anything outside, any sculptures or anything with them?
Speaker 2:Anything you've done, Subscribe. I just send him back out to get filled back up. That's it. They'll send me some full ones. That'd be fine.
Speaker 1:That's it. To get the full ones and then send them back. Just get them on rotation. That would be good, that's all right.
Speaker 1:Well, chris, it's been great having you on the show. Thanks for joining, standing out and for telling us your experience as an agent with SPI. We appreciate that. Enjoy the skiing. Make sure you take some pictures or video of Mike snowboarding. I gotta see this. We gotta see if he's legit or not, you guys? All right, we'll talk to you later, chris. Thanks so much. Hey, everybody, make sure you come back every Tuesday for another episode of standing out right here on LinkedIn, live, youtube and Facebook. And again, thank you so much to our sponsor, spi Logistics, for making it possible. Check him out at successspi3plcom. We'll see you. {\an2. Thanks for watching, guys.