When ambition collides with opportunity, extraordinary careers are born.
Join us in this episode of Standing Out with Stephan Mathis. This is a tale of risks, betting on oneself, and the alchemy of turning entry-level roles into boardroom seats. Listen to how these lessons learned as a valet and the competitive spirit of sports laid the foundation in harnessing potential, navigating challenges, and fostering a team culture.
A word about our sponsors:
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.
When ambition collides with opportunity, extraordinary careers are born.
Join us in this episode of Standing Out with Stephan Mathis. This is a tale of risks, betting on oneself, and the alchemy of turning entry-level roles into boardroom seats. Listen to how these lessons learned as a valet and the competitive spirit of sports laid the foundation in harnessing potential, navigating challenges, and fostering a team culture.
A word about our sponsors:
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.
Look what one to that thing. Oh, highway, that is so dope. Yeah, I'm gonna wear that one too. Oh, green screens, they got a good one here. Yeah, love them. Oh man, the text look you on. That is just fire, all right, ready. Oh.
Speaker 2:What's up everybody and welcome to another episode of standing out a show about sales, marketing and leadership. I'm trig riggs, your host, so glad to have you with us today. Before we get started today, first of all, make sure you visit our new website, beta consulting group comm. We've got more services, more offerings to help you tell your story to the marketplace, and we would love to work with you. Click on that button that says to schedule a call with yours truly. Tell us your story and we will help you write yours.
Speaker 2:Also want to give a shout out to our sponsor, spi logistics. Listen, if you're a freight broker or maybe an agent and just tired of the back office, you want more support. You want a better team to work with. Make sure you check them out at success dot SPI 3plcom. They've got the technology Systems and back office support to help you succeed and they're just great people out of Vancouver, british Columbia. Again, check them out at success dot SPI 3plcom. All right, I'm very excited about our guest today. He's got a great background, a great career. You're gonna love hearing from him on the show, so let's go ahead and bring him on to the show. We got to do a voiceover for him as well. Here we go. Six, five Power forward from DeVry University, number 34 Stefan Mathis.
Speaker 3:Love that, love the intro. I.
Speaker 2:Just a little growl right, because you know the Bulls announcer had that famous growl whenever he would do that from Chicago. From Norway. Man so good, man so good. How you doing my friend good to have you on the show.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me, man. I'm feeling good. I feel the vibes already. This is gonna be a good podcast.
Speaker 2:Man you've already had like an incredible career man. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna dig in just a little bit and get to Get into that a little bit. But before we do that, a couple things. First of all, tell everybody just a little bit about yourself, and then I got a really important question for you.
Speaker 3:Great well, thanks for having me. I'm 36, have two kids, currently live in Zionsville, indiana. I'll tell you a little story how I landed here, but from Chicago, when I say that some people say Chicago land is Chicago. So I was born in the North suburbs or raised in the North suburbs of Chicago land and then moved down to the city and spent the last probably 12 years in the city, but yeah, it's been the last 13. Wow, 13 years in the logistics brokerage space. I got my start at coyote logistics Like a lot of people did, young, fresh out of college, just one that hustle culture and the vibes that they had. And Then, yes, but the last six and a half years building Molo and watching its scale from a baby company up to up to getting acquired by Ark best, and that's kind of my background.
Speaker 2:It's been quite a ride, man. We're gonna talk about that in just a little bit, but the question I have to ask you, the really important question, is are you a coffee Drinker or a water drinker? We're gonna send you one of these to be on the show today. What would you like?
Speaker 3:Man, I'm both, but I would go water cuz, like you know what, you got a drink. Well, I think we're not walking around hydrated enough in this world.
Speaker 2:I'm sending. I'm sending you both, my friend, we're gonna send you both. You want a black water bottle or a white water bottle to go with it? What do you want? We got two options here. Yeah, black one's coming. All right, we're sending both to you. My friend Appreciate you being on this show and being with us today. All right, so a little fun fact. You know you. You know your journey logistic started. You actually started as a valet at a country club in North suburbs of LA. I love those kind of jobs, man. What'd you learn from that experience?
Speaker 3:Hands down. That was probably my favorite job I've ever had. But what I learned at the country club, honestly, was to dream, to be able to see people ahead of you in life that it's capable of if you, if you put your head down and work that like you can build a better life for yourself. When I worked at the country club I was like blown away with like worlds and different perspectives and people that were like achieving success that I had never seen before came from a really humble background. No, you know, we didn't have any wealth. We, you know, parents of paycheck, paycheck.
Speaker 3:So Getting the job at one being the face of a country club, when the cars pull up, you get to meet and shake hands with successful people I like I fed off of that energy of like there's something to this. And then the other thing too is like being the being the first. You know first impression at the club was it was kind of like a little bit of a swaggy feel like the valet was the place to work at the club. So I I learned so much there Taking care of customers, customer service, having energy, being able to connect and network with people and yeah, I just took it all and that had a huge impact on kind of where I, what I saw, my vision of the world and what I saw for myself and what I was I was gonna chase after, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those kind of jobs are pivotal moments. I've got a couple of those in my life as well, and I love what you said about vision. Like they gave you a vision for what could be, you know, something to think about, something to kind of hold on to, to thank yourself to, to work really hard and be reminded that it's possible that you could, you know, have that kind of life if you wanted it some day and again. Those jobs, you know, it's like their minimum wage usually you don't make a lot of money, but it's what it does for your character and for the vision of your life that's so powerful. So, man, I love that. And you grew up playing basketball. You're an athlete, played football as well. Sports by taught you a lot as well being a part of a team. What was that experience like?
Speaker 3:Love sports big team player guy. I never was the star on the team who got all the accolades, but I was the the kind of hard hat lunch pail guy that got grimy and got aggressive and got the job done. I played football, basketball, baseball growing up, little league All the way through high school, but really my basketball I think my basketball career was. That was the one that came out of left field. I didn't, I wasn't originally very good at the game, but I just played pick a ball the time at the rec center and that there's actually a funny story about that. So I played basketball or I played football. I played baseball in high school In my senior year it was going into my senior year we're playing basketball in the gym, gym class and you know I always had this like Chip on my shoulder about like Everybody who'd already, you know, maybe been a little more successful for me already seen that success.
Speaker 3:So we're in gym class and the four, four out of the five starters on varsity are playing in gym class and it's me and my homies from the rec center playing and I took it. I was like I'm gonna, I'm gonna go at you guys very hard, like I'm coming at you. We won the game. I put up buckets I think I played to 11. I probably scored eight, eight buckets and leaving, leaving the gym and the head coach of the basketball team, dick Knarr, at Munderland back then stops me in the hallway and he's like, hey, how, how can we never come out for the team? Like who are you? And like why haven't you been through this basketball program at this school yet? And I was like yeah, I love, I love playing it, but I just never really fully committed to it. And and he was like I need you to come out on the team, like you got to play. We need another big dude who's just going to get after it and set screens and rebound and do all the dirty work.
Speaker 3:And I actually remember I was like, hey, man, like I don't have all the money to go to all these camps, like home of beginnings, like I said. And I remember he was like, don't worry about that, we need you on the team, we'll see you when you go to the camps. And so that's what kind of started my basketball. I just took a leap of faith and jumped in to the team and there was an article written about me in the Mundelein review. After I think I had like a 20 and 20 game over summer and it was called Diamond. In the Rough we found this guy who never played, who just stepped right in and was a team player and I was a sixth man of the year my senior year, came off the bench but played just as many minutes as the starters and it was just a really cool story and actually had a few offers to play D3 basketball after high school. So it was just really cool jumping in and going for it and taking the leap of faith and being good because you're committed.
Speaker 2:You're like a coach's dream man. You're sixth five, you love the game, you're willing to do the dirty work. I mean, that is what every coach wants, and so it's pretty exciting that you got that experience. I think it's hilarious the way that we're set up here on this podcast, because I'm five, eight and you're six five, but the way our cameras are set, I feel like the bigger man in this.
Speaker 3:Man, so I got to make sure to show the stature a little bit. That's right, there you go, there you go. See now exactly.
Speaker 2:Now we're back to what's actually going on, because, yeah, I'm a pretty short guy myself, but so basketball, sports, man, teach you so much and then you also man your hard work can do. You put yourself through college. You went to DeVry University. What was that experience like and what did you learn from that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, just again, going back to humble beginnings, I recognize early in high school that I didn't have as much as other people and it kind of pissed me off that we just didn't have as I didn't like not having as much as my friends or whatnot. And I say not having as much, just the resources. I always felt like maybe we just didn't have enough to get, just enough to get by, and so I realized I had to change something. So that was partially why I didn't fully play four years of sports in high school, because I started working. But what I realized quickly was man, I'm kind of good at this working thing. I can juggle a lot, I can juggle a large workload.
Speaker 3:And so throughout high school I worked, I played sports, started taking care of myself, realized that I can grow up much faster, and that was partially the valet job right, like starting to tap into other resources, of where you can get the answers that you're looking for. And so the valet job really allowed me to take care of myself and put myself through college. While all my friends were off having the four year fun, I was in the valet hut working 50 hours a week while studying at DeVry and paying my way through college and those kind of things stick with you because you keep cashing in that I can do this, I can do this. It's OK that I didn't have it, but that belief that if I commit to doing it will result in what I want, and so that's been pivotal on my journey to all the way through MOLO today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those jobs in high school and college can really be valuable and teach you how to be responsible, how to organize your time and also just to appreciate it. I mean, I remember I worked through college as well. I played sports, but I wasn't on scholarship so I had to have jobs on campus and other things that I did to help pay the bills, and you just appreciate it more. You start to realize I did this, I built this, I created this, I paid this for myself. Those things matter as you build your confidence up, as you think about moving into your career in that regard, and so as you think about what you did at MOLO we're going to talk about that in just a little minute, a little bit.
Speaker 2:But I want to transition because now I want to jump to the present day for a moment. You're making a splash on social media. You're starting to put yourself out there a little bit, thinking about starting a new venture. Talk about the power of personal branding and what you've seen already. I mean, you just got started recently doing that and you're already making a splash.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the reality of the world today is your audience, and your reach is paramount to your success. People need to know who you are, know your story, get connected with you, why they should be connected with you, what they can learn from you. And so seeing social media is nuts Like you. Look at Instagram Everybody's talking about something. Now, I'm not trying to be an Instagram guru or anything like that, but I'm just trying to tell my story in hopes to inspire other people who maybe are in the position that I was previously or hope to attain that level of success. But really just putting my story out there and wanting to connect with other people that are hustling, grinding, wanting to do something great with their life the power of who you're connected with helps you move forward in life, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and with AI really kind of infiltrating social media. I think that authentic content, like what you're doing, is a way to stand out. It's really a way to catch somebody's attention because you're telling a story about yourself. It may not be a polished story, and that's OK. Like it's your story, and it doesn't have to be perfect, and I think people really resonate with that, and so kudos to you for doing that. I think it's going to pay dividends, especially as you think through your next venture, which I know you're thinking about, but I love seeing your content out there. So keep putting it out there, man. Keep telling your story, keep connecting, because I think it's going to make a big difference for you as you move into the next phase of your career.
Speaker 3:Authenticity, I would say, and vulnerability are two attributes that are underrated in your success. I think there's a lot of fluff out there, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors, there's a lot of people copying what someone else did and you've got to be yourself. I learned that and we'll talk about it throughout Molo, but I had times where I tried mimicking others and what they did and I would botch it and just realize quickly, like just be Stefan, be Jumbo, like Jumbo's my nickname.
Speaker 2:I'll explain that later. I love it. I mean, it makes sense, you're 6'5", it makes sense, just be yourself and people like truth and honesty and real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah I think you have to just keep your mind yourself that you're running your own race. Your race is unique, it's not someone else's race, and so don't try to copy somebody else. You can learn from people, maybe some skills or some tactics, but you have to be true to yourself. So I love that. All right, we're going to take a quick break, stefan. We'll come right back. We've got to have a few announcements.
Speaker 2:It is trade show season, everybody, and so we've got a couple of events coming up that I want you to know about. We've got the Broker Carrier Summit. That's going to be coming up April 22 through 24. That's going to be in Kansas City. If you're a broker or a carrier, make sure that you join us, for that. You won't want to miss that. It's going to be a great time for conversations, finding new partners, legit partners, people who really get it. Plus, we're going to have a really fun golf tournament. So to learn more about that, go to brokercarriersummitcom. Again, brokercarriersummitcom, get registered today. Earlier bird pricing is in it, but you can still get some discounts with some of the sponsors that we have out there, and so make sure that you take advantage of that.
Speaker 2:Also, don't forget to sign up for TMSAs Elevate conference. That is one of the best conferences for sales and marketing professionals. That's going to be June 8 through 11 in New Orleans. It's going to be a great time down there Having a good time in the I believe it's in a French quarter district so it's going to be an awesome time. A good time to network with other sales and marketing professionals, talk about what's working and what's not, and, of course, the sales and marketing people are the fun people. So it's an incredible conference. You're going to have a really good time with that, so make sure you join us for that. Be sure to sign up. Go to eventstmsaorg. All right, seven Time to jump back in here real quick. So let's talk a little bit about your personal philosophy in life and how that's helped you. Through Coyote, through Molo, you often say that you're only one decision away from a totally different life. Where did that same come into your life and how does that impact what you do?
Speaker 3:I think that you know the struggle of kind of going through the fire or betting on yourself and proving to yourself that you can do anything. After a while, that kind of starts to become your mantra of like who you are. I didn't really have a backbone or anything to fall back on right. Like my parents had humble beginnings. My dad was a mailman, my mom was a homemaker, held several jobs, so like that to me, I recognize like it's me against the world and me against me every day.
Speaker 3:And like having that mentality, I always felt like if I moved this far forward, okay, I'm not going backwards, I'm only gonna go more forward. Like I'm gonna keep taking steps to move my life forward, my career forward, my thinking, whatever you know, books that I read or the rooms that I'm in, the people I surround myself with I'm always taking, you know, listening what's around me and taking note of like is this the life that I want? Are these the people that I want to be around? Is that the success that I want to have? And like that awareness level is paramount because then you can like quickly shift Like I'm going down. No, I don't want that life, I don't want to be that, whether it's that person or be that type of father or husband or whatever it is like, you can shift to like doing something different, but I think you need to have that awareness level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it often starts with just one decision. I remember thinking about that with things that I'm passionate about. I love real estate, but I didn't want to be showing houses on a Sunday afternoon. I just didn't want that life. So I had to make that decision that, even though I loved it, wasn't gonna afford me the life that I wanted.
Speaker 2:And again, those decisions, they change the course of direction of your life. I'm talking to my daughter about that right now because she's about to go to college. She's gonna probably at some point find a spouse in the next 10 years. I said these decisions are going to impact what kind of life that you have and not to put too much pressure on it, but they're important. Those decisions alter what happens with your life and what do you really want? What do you want life to look like when you're 40, 50 years old? As best as you can, try to start walking down that path. So I love that philosophy and how that's helped shape your life. You took the job at Coyote. You were there for about six years or so. You probably learned a lot in that environment. And then you guys made the decision the crazy decision that you're gonna start a company that's gonna go to a billion dollars. Talk about that experience, of what you learned at Coyote and that transition to starting Molo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so actually how I found Coyote is a funny story. I was in Wrigleyville. In Wrigleyville, around Wrigley Field, fun atmosphere. I was at a bar and I met a sales rep who was doing really well in brokerage sales and he was like hey, you seem like a person well guy, you should check this out. And I think I was in my first entry level job out of college working as a commercial recruiter. I'm making I don't know 28 grand a year and he was like I'm gonna refer you. And he did.
Speaker 3:And I took the interview. I remember going into the interview being like I called my shot. I told the recruiter it was like if you hire me, I'm going to be the hardest working employee you've ever had, and if you don't hire me, I have two other interviews, one at Echo Global and one I forget the name there was another company but and I got a job offer within two weeks and then hit the ground running. But Coyote was like back then they were the brokerage that set the pace, that really had the environment, the place to be.
Speaker 3:They were the fun atmosphere. Everybody wanted to work there, so it was really cool to be in those walls and seeing that type of energy and flow. But what I realized there quickly the valet experience transferred over into talking to drivers, being able to be personable and take care of them and earn their trust and stick your neck out for them. That skill set and being able to build relationships with drivers led me to be a top refrigerated carrier sales rep at Coyote very quickly. And yeah, I think just you learn so much about the drivers and how freight moves. Being exposed to that in early stages and I think I made a post about it the other day, about being an entry level at at a company like that it's like really about learning. You're exposing yourself to as much information as possible so you can have an encyclopedia as you go throughout your career. And so, yeah, coyote.
Speaker 3:I spent six years doing carrier sales there and then took a leap when they were about to get acquired by UPS or the acquisition had already happened For me. I saw the writing on the walls a little bit. I felt like a big company coming in might change the culture a little bit. Let me jump in bed on myself, and so I left to bed on myself.
Speaker 3:I went to a really small company that I don't even know if they're in business anymore, but jumping and taking the leap leaving Coyote was how I found Molo, and so that is a big part of my journey as well as like taking a chance and by doing that, doors open up. And so Molo was not my idea, but because I was a free agent and I was available, I became one of the people that was asked to be a part of the journey. I'll never take full credit for Molo. This is my thing. It wasn't my idea. I was someone who had put the work in at Coyote and built a reputation of being a really good worker and taking care of drivers and showing up and delivering, and by doing that I was invited on this journey to be one of Molo's co-founders and be employee number three.
Speaker 2:That's huge man. That's an incredible story, dude. I love hearing just how that works out, because I always tell people sometimes you walk the path not knowing what you're going to find on that path, and making that decision to leave Coyote puts you on a new path. That then led you to Molo, and those types of things happen and people don't think about that when they maybe are too afraid to take a risk or to make a leap. They don't know what they're actually missing. What they're missing might be something a year down the road or six months down the road that's an even better opportunity but they'll never find that because they don't make the leap. And so I love hearing that story about your willingness to bet on yourself and to take a little bit of a risk and truly have that kind of whatever it takes mentality, and I think that probably has affected your leadership style a little bit. I mean, at Molo you guys had to do pretty much whatever it took. I mean you knew a little bit about brokerage, of course, but you didn't know everything.
Speaker 3:No, we didn't know everything. Whatever it takes is a mantra that I live by too. It's like you got to put yourself in an uncomfortable position and then, by doing that like you have to show up and do it, your phrase, figure it out. If you can get that figure it out down, it becomes like a dangerous attribute for you, because in any scenario then you're like you know you're going to figure it out, it's just a matter of time. And so, yeah, jumping into Molo. Give a little background there. We started 2017 July. Andrew Silver eventually became our CEO For the first year.
Speaker 3:It was Matt Volgrich, one of his high school best friends, and myself and Will Jenkins. The three of us got it off the ground and we built a small office above a bar downtown Chicago. I'm talking like this was straight out of a movie of a startup with someone by the Wi-Fi. Someone go to Costco and get the materials, somebody order desks, somebody get the notepad and pen, like who's doing the phones. We all wore several hats. I think the first probably six, eight months of that was everybody has to show up and do everything. That's part of the deal. You've got to be going to Grind and put in the work, and so that was like the start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's really no other way to get it done. I mean, everybody just has to do whatever it takes and get off the ground. But then at some point it transitions. I mean, you guys went, you grew pretty rapidly, you eventually got a $2 billion, as you guys had envisioned to do, and at some point you had to make the transition from being a doer to being more of a leader and coach, as opposed to doing all the things. What was that transition like for you? Because I know it's a difficult one. How was that for you to step out of the doing portion and into more strategy and leadership?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so it wasn't a perfect path for me. I'll say that because I initially was brought into MoLo with my carrier sales acumen and I actually hit a fork in the road and had to pivot very early on. We didn't have anybody that was doing sales full time when we were in our first year and I had come into MoLo with, I think, one, maybe two customers that I had talked to previously but never done any sort of customer sales facing at all. Will Jenkins, one of my best friends, I'll never forget it. We were outside of his apartment, I was sitting in his car. He was like dude, you are going to be a really good salesman and you just have to believe it. I've never done it. I've never been in a meeting before, but Molo needed someone to go and do sales and so I jumped on that bandwagon early.
Speaker 3:I made a ton of mistakes but kept showing up and figuring out problems and really for me, my leadership came from an individual contributor perspective. Right Like when you're a co-founder of a company, there's higher expectations that are placed upon you. You have to lead by example. Always. Someone's always staring at you. What are you doing? How are you holding yourself? Are you upholding the company's values and ethics, and how we take care of drivers, how we speak to each other. So I had to wear that like a badge of honor. Throughout the entire time at Molo and really leading by example from a place of landing customers, taking care of them and driving profitability for us to grow. That was like a big part of what my role was throughout the entire time at Molo. I didn't know that this was gonna be bestowed upon me, right, I didn't have that experience, but my path took me down customer sales and I'm very thankful because I found my groove, I found my niche, so yeah, All right, so I've asked you about this.
Speaker 2:So you started out, you made a ton of mistakes in sales, but as you look back on your career and obviously you did very well in regards to sales at Molo what was it that you felt really helped you stand out in sales, that helped you be so successful?
Speaker 3:I think trial and error right, I talked about it before having the awareness of, like figuring out what works and doesn't work. I'm kind of cerebral in that perspective. I'm always thinking like, what is the other person thinking? What is my customer thinking? What is that? How's that email gonna hit their inbox? How's that call gonna go? How I hold myself, how I say things.
Speaker 3:And eventually I got to a point where, like I got confident that I could do it. You land your first customer. They start saying, like you guys are doing a great job. Like now I'm like, okay, well, if they like me, then this one would. So let me go after this one, let me go after this one. And, before you know it, like you start getting in this rhythm of, like I can do this, and then, once you get that like I can do this, you just all gas, no breaks, go after it. By the end, these are this is the truest statement I could tell you by the end, $152 million in revenue. 96% of that was landed by me. I think my record loads per day was 381 truck loads in a day. I think I did 57,000 truck loads one year, the help of my team.
Speaker 3:But a lot of that has to come with. Like how you treat people inside of the company matters so much to your success. I saw some sales reps like struggle and they're always wondering why, like, how come like you make it look easy, or how come you know what's your secret sauce? And I'd always just tell them, like you got to treat people the way you want to be treated. People will bend over backwards for you if you are uplifting them and making them feel good, like giving them credit for the work that they're doing, and so that was a big part of it. Like being a team player, a leader inside of Molo, and whether it was on the carrier side, talking to them, giving them mentorship, or on the customer side, talking to other sales reps, talking to my ops team, like lighting them on fire that we're going to take care of these customers better than anybody, and like believe in a mission of where we're going, you start getting everybody like on board with that.
Speaker 3:Then all it is is you win the customer, you set the vision and then you let the rest happen, because it's like rinse and repeat. It starts. It's the same process over and over, and over and over and over again, but the reality is, by the end, it's not about you. It was never about me. I mean, sales is a one-on-one job. You have to land the customer. You have to be the person that they believe in and they trust. Right? But then after that it's about motivating your team to rise up in their positions and take care of the customer.
Speaker 3:And I remember at the end I would always tell my team, my guys, like I landed it on the sales rep, but like this is your customer and they will give us as much business as we want to do with them, based on how hard you're willing to work and take care of them every day. And I'm back here, I'm getting out of the way. Call me if you need me, and I would say that to the customer too, like my team is, they are the ones that do 99% of this and I do. I'm the one you call if, like, they're not doing something right. And once I figured that out, it just changed. It's completely changed. Get out of the weeds and let your people build their careers.
Speaker 2:Man, there's so much gold and what you just said, I don't even know how to break it all down, but what I'm here that made the theme that I'm hearing is a theme of empathy and self-awareness to put yourself in the Shoes of your customer, to put yourself in the shoes of your team and we know what, what they need and how they're gonna receive it. I think a lot of times in leadership we don't think about that too much. We don't think about how important empathy is. I know Gary Vaynerchuk talks about it a lot and other people do. I hope it becomes more a part of leadership, because I think it's incredibly valuable. In order to help people out, to get the most out of them, you have to give them the most of you. I think that's a really important thing to consider. So I love that man. Just a lot of gold there from sales and leadership man.
Speaker 3:I just want to say one other thing too like, as an Individual contributor, leadership isn't bestowed upon you right? Like there isn't like a manager title that says, hey, your job is to lead these people and make them Do these metrics right. You lead from the front because, like, your job is to sell and close business. That is Leadership doing your job really well. And by doing that you fill the desks. We get to hire more people, people get to build their careers, the company grows, and so like, in theory, by you just committing to doing your job very well, you become a leader, because people want to Follow people who have success and keep putting themselves in In positions where they have to grow. And like sales was scary for me.
Speaker 3:I was fearful of it in the beginning, but by the end I was like it's not as bad as it it's like actually like I can do this thing, um, you know, and I think being employee number two or three me, and will argue about it all the time but like, I had this like Company, the respect for what we had already built in the brand that I had when I was representing myself to customers, and so I always was cognizant of, like the Molo brand.
Speaker 3:Always when I'm talking to customers, we've got to do things the right way. They're taking a perception of us I never know who this guy knows, if I rub him the wrong way or don't, or if I'm having a bad day or something, that's one call from him to another shipper that could say, man, those guys stink over there. He, he's kind of a whatever and I don't, and so you have to hold yourself to a higher standard always. But I think that you don't need to be the employee, the early stage employee or a founder to have that type of like respect for your company. If you can like Garner, that and and and where, and be prideful about doing your job. Really what people feel energy.
Speaker 2:Like they can feel that 100%. And you guys did a great job of building the Molo brand and you know another word for brand is reputation. That's what you're talking about. Every interaction that you had with a customer could potentially build your brand or tear your brand down a little bit, you know, and I think it's important to keep that top of mind and all these interactions that you're having, but I'm very excited for your success, man. It's been fun just to hear about your story.
Speaker 2:We have to pause for a minute and play a game like that a little fun on the show. Do something a little bit different around here. So, stefan, it's time for our game today. Today's game is finish the lyrics. Oh, all right, let's step in. Listen, this is gonna be launching in February and, of course, february is the love month. So we're doing the love songs edition today and we're a team. You and I are gonna be working together on this, so we're gonna be putting up Playing a song and then we have to finish the lyrics of that song whenever it stops right. So I don't know, I don't know how good you are on love songs. You know, I'm okay, we'll see how we do today. Let's have a little fun. Here we go. The first song, let's, let's hear it, here's what it is. So. But then I go and spoil it all by saying blank, blank, like blank, blank, blank, are we not? Are we not hearing the songs today? I don't think we're hearing the songs today, we just have to.
Speaker 2:Saying oh man, what song is this? Do you know what song this is?
Speaker 3:I feel like it's got to be like an alternative rock something.
Speaker 2:Love song, though, man. What kind of love song is that? Okay, this is gonna be our practice session. It's jazzy, it's like a jazz.
Speaker 1:Classic.
Speaker 2:But then I go and spoil it all by saying, okay, this green or something this is gonna be our practice round.
Speaker 2:Let's see what it is. Let's see what the answer is. This is our practice round. So, oh, by Frank Sinatra, something stupid. I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like I love you. This might be a tough. This might be a tough game man. All right, let's see how we do. Let's see. Oh, oh, okay, this is. Is this from Hamilton, where this isn't a love song, but Jefferson says I, I couldn't if I tried. And I tried like Alexander Hamilton's. His financial system is a work of genius. I couldn't undo it if I tried. And I tried. What in the world? I'm on the wrong track here. That's the wrong track, I know. Is it here? Yeah?
Speaker 2:hmm, I couldn't if I tried that fold on the apple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally baffled. Okay, we're gonna be over to you. What's the answer? Over to here we go. Don't go breaking my heart. I couldn't. Don't go break in my heart, okay, all right this is okay. We need some more popular love songs. Let's see if number three helps us out a little bit. Here we go. Number three is why is blank, blank, only blank, blank, blank, but blank, blank, blank falling? Oh, wiseman say, only fools rush in. But I can't help falling in love with you. Come on, let's go, let's go man.
Speaker 3:We're doing the vintage love songs here.
Speaker 2:All right, one for three. We got it. Okay, I'm feeling good about this. Now seven I'm feeling good. Here we go. Next one before I put on my makeup. Before I put on my makeup, I Something and wake up. I put on some coffee and wake up. I Drink some coffee and I think I know what song that the beat is yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, I do something and try to wake up. Oh Gosh, come on, we're so close, I Gosh, I can't remember the words, but wake up is the last two. I know that I don't wake up, so last, it's gotta be All right, give us partial credit. What do we got on this? What do we got here? We go, let's see, man, this is brutal. If you're in the comments watching this, let us know what you think. All right, I see.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was feeling it when you said before I put on my Makeup.
Speaker 2:Maybe the wake up is before that, in the, in the morning, when I wake up, before I put on my makeup, I say a little prayer for you. That's it. So I had a back.
Speaker 3:Okay, we were close.
Speaker 2:We had the right song. I'm gonna go half credit, we're one and a half. We're going one and a half on that. All right, partial credit. Or day when a man loves a woman, let's go. Come on, this is easy. Stop, stop, stop, easiness, you know, stop, stop. Okay, all right, next one Final round. All right, here we go. I'm around. I Could hold you for a million years. Oh, who, I Don't know what song this is. I could hold you for a million years. Oh, we're gonna get blitzed on our last one.
Speaker 3:We both have a look on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's always have felt oh, think it's. Oh, the Dellen Garth Brooks. Okay, so this has to be. Oh, I could hold you for a million years To Make you feel my love. To make you feel my love. Let's go, come on, let's go to make you feel my love. Thank you for the hint. Appreciate that? All right, stefan. So thanks for being a trooper playing along on this edition of fish. The lyrics low Function, and we should say happy Valentine's Day. Everybody's out there whenever it's coming up. All right, also, we like to do a little random question of the day. Just have fun with that. So let's do a random question of the day. What is our random question of the day? It is who would you pay the most money to see in concert? Oh, are you a concert goer? I am.
Speaker 3:I Wouldn't say I go to a lot, but I do Do that occasionally. But like I would have to go back to, you know, the 80s and 70s, and it would be Barry White. Barry White's my favorite artist. The guy is just his lyrics, his love.
Speaker 2:The voice, the sweat, the voice.
Speaker 3:He just was like all love and like put on a performance. Listen to his music, it just lights you up.
Speaker 1:It makes you feel really good.
Speaker 2:So Barry White, for sure, that's a good choice. That's a really good choice. Man, that's awesome. I don't know who I would say to this. I've got a lot. I like a lot of different genres. I mean I would definitely pay a lot of money to see like I'm a big Tim McGraw fan, I think him and concert Kenny Chesney those guys in concert they're really, really good man going back into the old day, like I would probably pay a lot of money to see, like Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers I would have loved to have seen those guys back in their heyday. That would have been pretty sick back in the day. But Barry White, I didn't know that man, so now I know a little something about you. That's good to know.
Speaker 2:That's good to know, you got a little soul, I can tell. So what? Can you tell us a little bit about your next venture, new venture? What are you thinking about doing? Are you not sure yet? Are you talking to founders? What are you doing?
Speaker 3:At the moment I'm a blank slate. I you know my mind is racing with ideas and things that I want to do, but I think building Molo from the ground up makes you realize like there are needs in the world and like the industry has a lot of holes. I think I'll stay in the space. I have some ideas and I'm connecting with people, but it definitely it probably won't be moving freight logistics-wise, but maybe something on an impact on the industry. But right now it's really just sharing my story and helping people as much as I can, helping former colleagues or people thinking about the logistics space.
Speaker 3:And when I say former, I really think about like your most qualified to help your former self is a quote that I've heard frequently said and I think about that. I'm like man. What would I tell my 22 year old self when I was starting logistics from scratch? Like I would probably, you know, lead. I could lead and help people significantly with their careers, with everything that I know. So that's where I'm at today. But, yeah, I'm really looking at where I can make an impact and bring value to the industry. That's exciting.
Speaker 2:I mean, I could definitely see you as a consulting, like coaching people, but I could also see maybe building some SaaS, and I love the fact that we're seeing a lot of operators you know, freight brokers who come out of that, who then build SaaS cause they know like they've been in those seats and they know. So, whatever you do, man, we're very excited to see what it is. Again, thanks so much for coming on the show. How can people get connected with you, especially? Maybe they have an idea I want to share with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. My website's on there sm at stuffandmathiscom. It's really just a landing page Talks a little bit about my background and what I'm inspired by, who I want to connect with. There's a Calendly link on there. Feel free to shoot me a you know invite. I'm happy to chop it up for 20 minutes. I love hearing, learning other people's stories and making an impact, so that's the best way to connect with me. And, yeah, I'm just excited to see what the future holds. I think taking the leap of faith and jumping right Like that's what I said previously, but like I jumped and now I'm like what doors will open up by being a free agent, is what I think about it.
Speaker 2:So that's right, and it's a lot easier to jump the second or third time than it is the first time, that's for sure. But excited for you, man, and what you're going to build, we're just honored to know you and get to know you, man. So thank you for being on the show, thank you for taking the time today. Really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:And again, thanks for giving us some killer, walk up, let's go back and let's figure out what you're going to do with our talk. All right, everybody, make sure you come back every Tuesday, perhaps go to standing out Excited to have more news at the next episode of the show. And don't forget to check us out. We're streaming on YouTube. Subscribe to our channel, the Vata Podcast Network. We have an all of a talk, including the Edge Showcase the latest in this technology, all the latest on this. Make sure you subscribe. Again, thanks to our sponsor, sbi, just explore, make this possible. That's not a SBI, it's 3PL. Until next time, we'll see you guys real soon. Remember, stop standing, still start. Kbl potato comet.