Our episode rounds off with a heart-to-heart on the art of striking the perfect chord between education and entertainment, especially in industries that might not scream 'glamour' at first glance. It's not all business as usual; we weave personal passions into professional insights, like discussing those recent golf industry shake-ups and how they mirror our own friendly competition.
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.
Our episode rounds off with a heart-to-heart on the art of striking the perfect chord between education and entertainment, especially in industries that might not scream 'glamour' at first glance. It's not all business as usual; we weave personal passions into professional insights, like discussing those recent golf industry shake-ups and how they mirror our own friendly competition.
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.
What is up, my friend? So good to see you. You know I watched that intro video and I feel like we need to do a new one, but I just love those moments so much, especially my dad walking in on a live show. That was the best, but hopefully you enjoyed that. Welcome to Standing Out an episode, a podcast about sales, marketing and leadership.
Speaker 1:I'm Trey Griggs, your host, and the founder and CEO of Beta Consulting Group. Make sure you check us out at betaconsultinggroupcom. Got a new website out there. We got a new logo. We got a lot of new stuff out there.
Speaker 1:We would love to hear from you. Most importantly, we'd love for you to tell us your story so we can help you write yours. So important how you communicate to the marketplace. Give us your feedback on the new website if you like it. If you don't, we'd love to hear from you on that.
Speaker 1:Also, along with that, we have a new YouTube channel and everything is streaming live to YouTube. Hopefully you're watching us right here on YouTube. If you are, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you see all of our content. All of our shows are here, including episodes of World on the Street, episodes of the Edge, obviously Standing Out, as well as some fun content we're going to be putting out for Beta Consulting Group and maybe a few other surprises as well. So make sure that you subscribe to the channel and be a part of our community in that regard. All right, we got a great guest today. Cannot wait to get a good conversation with him. I got to say the walkup music is tremendous. Give it up for our good friend from Freight Vana, mr Josh Breeze, in the house. Hello, friend, it's about that time.
Speaker 2:I can feel it my windows are 75 degrees in Arizona today. Waste management is next weekend. We're just in.
Speaker 1:We're close A tradition unlike any other the Masters on CBS. Hello friend, my friend, it's going to be great. It's going to be great Coming up really soon. Good to see you, my friend. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great brother. Hey, two things Congratulations on the new logo. I think it's an awesome logo and I'm going to let you kind of go over the next couple of weeks kind of explaining exactly all the little Easter eggs in there and all that stuff. But it is a fantastic looking brand new image and I'm excited for you and the group man Congrats. And then number two, which we'll probably dig into, is you know, hey, we have a lot of a lot of talking to do based on some current events and also the match which we'll get into.
Speaker 1:That's right. We do have. We have a match coming up, that is true. That is true, it's coming up. Before we go any further, though, first of all, thank you for being back on the show. I think this is number three for you. Yeah, this is your third roundup, so the question I have for you is do you want this mug you got a beautiful mug for you or do you want this beautiful water bottle, which I normally have ready? I didn't quite have ready today? Do you want this black, beautiful water? But what do you want, man? What can we send you?
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to select the black one yeah, black service because I think that's something I can plug into my golf bag. It does.
Speaker 1:It slides. If you got a cart bag especially, it slides right into the water bottle. It's perfect size. It's aluminum, so it's long lasting. It's coming your way.
Speaker 1:My friend, we appreciate you being on the show. We're going to send you some swag, so it's going to be heading your way here shortly Custom swag, so take a picture of it when you get it, show it off. They'll have some good stuff on there for sure. So appreciate that. Yeah, man, we got a lot to talk about for sure, and we'll talk all you know. We'll have time over the next three or four weeks to talk about the Logan stuff, but I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it was a big lift, it was a lot of fun and I've got some phenomenal team members that have to get the credit. So Coleman Ruffin, morgan Bertener, natalia Navas we got a third, jennifer Carpichromé in there. She was very helpful as well Lindsay Nolan there were just some, some amazing people that helped us with all of that and it certainly is something you can't do by yourself. So very thankful for our team. Best iteration of beta consulting groups so far. So it's really fun. So I appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely All right. Fun fact about you got to start with this. How good kimchi is a kimchi, or kimchi, kimchi, kimchi? All right, I'm not familiar with this. What is kimchi?
Speaker 2:Yes, korean based dish. I was an exchange student when I was a freshman in high school in Japan.
Speaker 1:As a freshman, yeah, wow, I started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very young, we did. We did six months in Japan, but we first started in Seoul, korea. We spent a week there and that was our first exposure to the Asian cuisine for myself, especially at a young age and kimchi is one of the best treats and dishes. That is kind of distributed out all across Korea Fermented cabbage, garlic cabbage and it'll sit anywhere from three weeks to three years it depends on who's making it, where you're eating it at and it is one of the greatest delicacies behind Escargo. Really French at heart, that's my nationality and my mother but kimchi is by far one of my favorite treats of all time. Wife absolutely despises.
Speaker 2:It, can't stand it wants nothing to do with it in the house, but I'll sneak it out every once in a while.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm always up for trying new things. So maybe the next time that we're together, which is going to be soon, maybe we'll have to try a little bit, because I've never had it before. But I'm always up for trying new stuff and adding to my cuisine, so that's a good recommendation. Kimchi All right, if you're watching this in the comments, let us know if you've had kimchi in the best places to get it in your neighborhood. You never know, we might be there, all right.
Speaker 1:So, my friend, you're a big golf fan. You and I have some things to talk about here. So obviously it's golf season is starting to ramp up. We could talk about so much here. Liv has really accelerated in terms of their player acquisition. Sean Rahm's over there. The PGA Tour just got $3 billion kind of infused into it. We have a new match coming up with Roy McElroy, max Homa and a couple of ladies on the PGA Tour. I believe Is Jessica Corta in that. Is she a part of that? Yeah, she's phenomenal. Her swing is so amazing, probably the best swing of all the swings I've seen. Honestly, like it's just very simple and compact. So good. But you and I like to play a little bit of golf as well. So, first of all, how's your game?
Speaker 2:I was letting you mention the Coleman in the green room. 23 was kind of, you know, a rough year in terms of just all aspects. So the golf game kind of took a hit in terms of the amount of times I was getting out to play. But I'm still holding my own, still hovering at that 6-5 on the handy, which is solid, it's decent. But the game is going to be prepped and ready for, obviously, the match and we'll be ready to go.
Speaker 2:But you know I played with you late last year when it came on your driver looked like it was in tippy top form.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to lie, I hit a couple of good ones. I don't. Normally. That's usually my worst club in the bag. If I can hit the driver, I'm golden for the day, because irons in short game, that's what I love. Driver's always been a challenge, so people might be wondering what are we talking about with the match? We should let them know. We should let them know.
Speaker 2:We're going to do a three hole live match. Bragging rights is top golf influencer in our industry in the transportation space. We can add that on your bio into LinkedIn if you'd like to, to make it official. That's just some of the things that we're going to be kind of talking about over the next couple of months until we build up into the week of but it's going to be three holes, it's going to be live streamed More to come on exactly the platform in which it will be streaming it live too. I think it's just going to be some good old fun and, more so, just promoting the cross collaboration between brands. I think that's the most important part, especially with you. You've done a great job with building brands and collaborations across all enterprises in our space. It's just a no-brainer for me to tap on your shoulder and say, hey, let's get the dust off the sticks and see what we can stir up a little bit.
Speaker 1:What happens when you get two influencers together on a golf course. The last time we played, we were constantly like this would be good content. Let's take this video, let's have fun. It'll be not only a golf match, but I'm sure there will be some content created live on the air. We'll have some fun with that as well. This is going down April 9th in Phoenix, arizona. If you're in the Phoenix area, we could use a gallery, why not? They're bumpers.
Speaker 2:They're called basically bumpers on a bowling alley, exactly.
Speaker 1:We could use that. It's our own risk.
Speaker 2:There's no waivers that we're going to be having for your safety, you show up.
Speaker 1:You have a waiver. You signed it, that's for sure. It'll be a lot of fun. May I go extra holds if we tie, I don't know. We'll have to see what happens with that, or we just share the check.
Speaker 2:I'm not letting it get to a tie.
Speaker 1:I'm putting my foot on the neck and I'm going to get on hold too.
Speaker 1:It's going to be phenomenal.
Speaker 1:It's going to be fun. That'll be fun on April 9th down at Phoenix. We'll talk about that, Still trying to get Max home and Colin Morakawa to join us. If you guys are watching this episode, I'm sure they do watch Standing Out. We did it out. Make sure that you make it to Phoenix. On April 9th We'll do a 2 on 2, 2v2 tournament, which will be a blast. That'll be good, man, we're going to have fun with that. I also have to throw this out with golf as well. Then we'll talk a little more about marketing, which we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 1:We got the Broker Carrier Summit coming up April 22nd through 24th in Kansas City. The whole idea of the Broker Carrier Summit is two things. One, it's to get brokers and carriers in the same room to talk about the issues and problems that they're having and find legitimate partners to work with. On the lanes that. You need the type of equipment, you need all those types of things to make that happen, To actually sit across the table, look someone in the eye, shake their hand, have a meal together. It's powerful, it's so good. The other thing is we want to do what no one else is doing this event. Every time we look at something, we're like is anybody else doing this? If they are, we're usually like nope, we're going to do something else. That includes the golf tournament, Josh. You know this, my friend. Most conferences that we go to have a four-person scramble and it's terrible it's usually a drinking fest. People are cheating left and right. Nobody likes the winner because there's no accountability.
Speaker 2:There's plenty of people who are 30 under as well, and nobody shoots yeah.
Speaker 1:If anybody shoots 54 of a scramble. I mean, I know professional golfers that would struggle to shoot 54 in a scramble for a four-person scramble. It's just. Is it legit? We're going to remove all that. We're going to have a new golf tournament at the Broker Carey Summit called the Post and Prey Classic. I hope you like the name Post and Prey Classic baby. Here's how it's going to be. It's a two-person team event, not a four-person. That means you have to play with another team. There's a little accountability built in on the scoring. From a cheating perspective, it's gone. Also, our mission is to find who are the best golfers in the industry, specifically, which company Intransportation has the best golf team, because it's going to be by company. So Frank Vana is going to have a shot, I'm sure. So here's how it works Either two people from the company or one person from the company and a client, or one person from the company and a vendor partner. But it has to be at least one person from your company to represent your company. Team uniforms not required, but highly recommended.
Speaker 2:Highly recommended. You got it. Team uniforms.
Speaker 1:I mean, you got plenty of time to figure it out. That's going to happen on Monday, april 22nd, in Kansas City at Tiffany Greens Golf Club. It's going to be great. Again, new event let's find out who the best golfers are. We have a gross division for the people who don't care about handicaps and just want to really get after it, and then we have the net diversion as well, so anybody has a shot to win that division. So we'll have two champions with a traveling trophy. I'm telling you like this, saying I can't wait, my friend, I can't wait, it's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, it's just for clarification purposes. This course that has been hand selected by yourself, just throwing that out there. Is this a tree line course? Can you give some insight for the people that are going to be playing it? It has some maturity to it.
Speaker 1:It has some maturity to it. But I have to tell you that this course was built in the 90s, designed by the one and only Kansas City famous golfer, tom Watson. Wow, it's a nice and designed course, beautiful layout, it has some water on it and it has some trees. But I wouldn't call it tight. It's not old school like a 1930s golf course where it's a lot of tall trees and really tight. It has a little bit of open to it. It's kind of more classic design, more resort designed, but it's going to be fabulous.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Yeah, you know the people on the West Coast that are desert golfers. We have a very fragile mindset when it comes to golf course selection, so I'm curious to see what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:You guys don't even have trees out there, you just have like big pieces of broccoli out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's all you got.
Speaker 1:Tumbleweeds, that's it. Beautiful, that's it. And I love desert golf, don't get me wrong. I love it. But, yeah, there'll be a few trees, but it won't be. No, it's not tree line. You should be good on that. So that will be a lot of fun. So again, the easiest way to sign up sign up for the event. Brokercarrysummitcom. Sign up for the event and sign up for the golf tournament at the same time. You sign up as a team. So you sign up for golf, you're representing two people. You don't have to sign up for each person. You sign up one time represents two people. Cool stuff, man. Looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can an organization pay for two teams?
Speaker 1:Yes, you can enter as many teams as you would like, like Silo? Let me just call out Silo real quick.
Speaker 2:Do you know any shields, roy? And all that oh.
Speaker 1:Dude. Listen, roy. Roy's one of the worst golfers there. Okay, roy, they've got five D1 players in the organization.
Speaker 2:Good, bring it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. So I'm calling out Andy Shields and his entire crew right now. They need to be here at this event and you can enter two, three, four teams, but they're two person teams representing your company, so we're going to find out which company's got the best golfers in the industry. Can't wait.
Speaker 2:I can't wait. Great idea, it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:All right, let's talk marketing, my friend, because you have done a phenomenal job, you and your entire team, of building the Frey Vana brand. I mean, it's still hard to believe that two years ago you guys didn't really exist A little. Two and a half years ago, Frey Vana wasn't even a company, and here you're one of the most well-known brands in the industry and you've recruited the right people for your team without really having a recruiting budget because of the power of your brand. Talk a little bit about that and just what you've like. Looking back on it now, two years from now. Has it Worked out the way you thought it would? Is it better over the challenges? Tell us a little bit about the process in the journey, Um thank you.
Speaker 2:I appreciate those, those kind words and all the support too. No, I think for us it was like, as we mentioned over the last couple of times that I've been on, it's just trying to paint an accurate picture for what it is, right, um, corporate america is typically very sterile and very Not attractive, especially in the transportation space. So that's something that we're we're advocates for. It's just painting an accurate picture of exactly who we are and if, uh, if, you're a potential employee or a potential customer or Anybody, that's just kind of along for the ride. I think that you you find more, more appreciation in those types of brands, right, because it's it's, it's real and it's organic, and then that's just ultimately, what we're trying to do and we'll continue to do that.
Speaker 2:Now we struggle, we struggle a lot there's and, as we'll go through the, the message today is you know, we do take else, and those are the important things that we need to celebrate, more so in business lines Um, being able to to say, hey, this is the brand we want to be, this is the brand that we're currently at and this is the brand that we're going to be going towards. Um, it's important that we keep keep our finger on those those types of moments as well, um, you know, for for ourself in this space, it's very, very difficult right now, and it has been for the last, you know, year and a half to two years and and right now it's starting out the same type of pace. So, lean on each other, capture those moments of the struggles, um, and then also celebrate the wins as they come across. And then, you know, hopefully from there People will buy in on the product, and if they're not, then that's completely okay as well. We're, we're not for everybody and we understand that, and um but what we'll?
Speaker 2:you know the the. The promise that we set out for ourselves internally, first and foremost, is that we'll always depict that of exactly who we are.
Speaker 1:And I appreciate that about you and your organization is the willingness to show the, the words, a little bit, show the, the struggles and the losses. And you know one of the things you have on uh on your LinkedIn profiles you have an order to shine in front of everyone. You have to work in front of no one. And man, I know that's true because I've I've been around you at conferences, where you're, you're taking pictures of these really cool moments, like you're capturing scenes and you're tagging people in those pictures and doing a ton of editing work behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:Nobody sees that. What they see is they see the picture that's generated, the really cool graphic or image or stuff you come up with. But you know you have to. You have to. You know take, you know several of bats to hit one out of the park. You know it doesn't happen the first time and a lot of people don't see that talk about. You know your, your passion for this and the work ethic, the commitment to it and and what that, what that looks like in terms of Going in to make a brand that really uh stands out.
Speaker 2:Um, I think the work ethic just comes from either it's it's instilled in you, or you have to be around those individuals With that type of mindset for it to finally rub off and and that becomes part of your, your mindset as well. Um, for me, you know somebody that didn't. I'm not a college graduate, so it was you know. Hey, you got to grind your ass off in order to get where you need to be, and that is coming from my father and my mother, and that's something that you know, that has always been present in my life is work. And then, obviously, you know, when you enter corporate america, especially in your youth, um, depending upon when it is that you do join, I joined in my early 20s. Um, I feel like it's just. You're out there trying to understand exactly where is your, your bearings, supposed to be set towards right. So you're casting a wide net in your early 20s in corporate america and you're you're consuming as much stuff as possible, because this is the first time you're exposed to this type of lifestyle or this type of scene. Um, as you continue to grow and the more mature you get, you start to throw those things out that you've been consuming, um, and starting to identify the things that are truly important to you and your growth, whether that's personal or professional. And from there that's when you really start to understand exactly, um, that the the road that you're probably going to be going down towards right the path. That's kind of starting to shed light for you, um, from myself it was hey, I was, I was very blessed enough to be attached to shannon from day one, when we both started the same month over at night Swift, and from there I was just kind of always shoulder to shoulder with him and kind of growing through the ranks. And Um, seeing his, his work ethic firsthand is mind blowing. Like it's not. I'm not just blowing smoke because he's, you know, he is who he is to my life and in the brand.
Speaker 2:But Um and I think you understand this as well Like when he is, when he talks about people and he talks about the grind and and and the passion around this industry it is not cliche Uh, he, he lives and breathes for, for people in transportation and that. That that resonates with a lot of people, um, and that is something that is like for myself. I'm a sponge and when I'm around that type of mindset and I'm around winners that you know are willing to put the time and effort into it. Um, that that is just contagious and that's something that I've I've always never lost sight of.
Speaker 2:I want to be around that type of mindset, so that kind of breeds across the floor here, um, and you know, and that's something that is exciting and that's something that, um, I'm blessed to be part of every single day that I walk through these doors, uh, over here at frayvana, um, and even just the relationships outside of these doors as well, that we partner with individuals like yourself and a lot of our vendors. They have the same mindset. We we're very strategic on who we partner with. We're very closed door with a lot of the initiatives that we do, because we understand and we respect the mindset for others that are that are around us as well. So, um, long story short, I think it's just either it's it's down to your core and it's who you are and your dna as a brand and as an individual, and from there that'll just kind of take care of itself.
Speaker 1:I can appreciate a lot of that because I got a chance to spend time with shannon. I didn't know him actually until frayvana came on the scene, yeah. So I got to get to know shannon from that point on. But I've had a chance to sit down and have meals with them and just Talk life and whatnot. And I asked him what motivates him, like what really drives him, and he said it's. It's helping create the life that all of my people want, like my. My job is to help them have the opportunity and to build the life that they want and I get up every day and that's that's what I'm doing and to pay back Investors who obviously believe in him.
Speaker 1:You know, like the like it's all about other people. You just you clearly get that with shannon that he is working to provide whatever the people in his life are after, whether it's a return on investment, a lifestyle Opportunities for their family, for their kids, whatever, like that's. That's what he's committed to and it's clear and I love that. In fact, it's just so intoxicating so I can see how you're. Getting. To link arms with him early on was pretty attractive and it's been quite a ride. That's uh, it's just incredible being around you know guys.
Speaker 2:It's just incredible being around you know guys, I appreciate being a partner for a bonnet to spawn, not officially like business, but I consider it that way, I appreciate that way, you know, and just kind of the mindset that you have, like when you meet Individuals such as yourself, the jollies, the grams, like we feel like those are extensions of freibana because they're under the same mindset and how we operate too, so like it is a Um, it's a. It's a very cool network to be part of, to say the least 100%, 100%.
Speaker 1:I love that. Let's talk about content for a minute, and then we're going to talk about losses, and this conversation may go longer than some of the others we have, and that's okay. So let's talk about content for a minute. I love your content. I told you this, you know, in the green room beforehand. I love the way that your mind thinks, your creativity, you, you do a really good job of taking current events outside of transportation and then Customizing them, bringing them in, borrowing them and bringing them into transportation, whether it's another company, another industry or entertainment.
Speaker 1:I know that, uh, color mark harwood just put out a Uh, a photo of him with somebody who's like seven foot tall and there's no cases on it to talk about the mesh. Who was that? It was dirk new woodsky. Oh, it's dirk, okay, okay, cause I didn't see the original picture. I actually saw what you did to it. You put our faces over them and talked about the match. But you do that in a lot of ways, uh, just incredibly well, and the question I have for you in regards to that is you put out a lot of entertaining content, you put out educational content. How do you balance that out? Like, how do you think about having enough educational content about the brand, whether it be what freight wanted us for, shippers or recruiting, and then just pure entertainment, just making people laugh and have fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um so, starters, that picture was not fabricated.
Speaker 1:That is an actual picture of you and I like Hot size wise like it actually looks pretty close, it's not that far off.
Speaker 2:Now I think, uh, for myself, um, I, I've always been on the artsy side. Uh, in terms of the way that my mind just kind of operates, right, I, I view things in a different, different type of form. Um, you know, for some people that hear music, the first thing that they hear is the singer, or they're listening for certain things. Right, like you and you're in your daughter, like she has a gorgeous voice, so she's very good at what she does, and when you do your little duet videos and stuff with her, you can tell that you're captivated and you're just consumed by her voice and what's coming from that? Right, for me, I'm not on that end. I'm listening to the music, I'm listening to the things that you know are are leading into those little moments of here comes the artist now and rise into the voice. Um, the same thing applies when it comes to art and kind of memeing or content in general.
Speaker 2:My mind is operating in a different sense. Yes, I love looking outside of this industry. Our industry is very blah. It is not sexy at all, it doesn't really Provide a lot of, uh, informational content a lot of the times, and I think that's a miss on all of our part, um, especially if we're trying to truly grow this industry and find the new life blood that's going to be coming in from it, right, um, now, when you start pulling from other other organizations or other industries or, um, different lifestyles even, you have to be prepared that you're gonna ruffle some feathers as well.
Speaker 2:It's, you know, with the people that digest it and consume it. You don't control it at that point, and so, to answer your question, how do I figure out exactly what's gonna be dropped on a certain campaign or a certain month? I think it's more or less just kind of listening to what your audience is consuming as well. If you're missing on a lot of your posts and you think that it's gonna be absolute hot fire and this thing is gonna absolutely kill it, impressions are gonna come Nine times out of 10, those are the ones that tank and they crash harder than anything. Right, it's the ones that you put out there, that you really put what we feel like zero effort into that. We just saying like, hey, I got to get some content in today. I have a mental block, so I'm just gonna use this or I'm gonna recycle something. Those are the ones that typically will take off. More so because that is who you are as a content provider.
Speaker 2:You're not trying to be something other than just who you are, and that is ultimately how your audience is built based on who you are, and the more creative you are to, that is, you know, standing out bait all of that stuff. Consistency is that superpower. Because you were so consistent over the last couple of years, you have been able to identify what your audience is gonna be, who they are and what type of things and content they want to digest. Now that's your audience, that's your foundation. You shouldn't stopped trying to be creative and try new things, not saying that 1,000% that should be at the forefront. But don't lose sight of the people that have been there since the parts of the ride, since day one. They're the ones that had built that network probably more so and had impact on it. Listen to what they're doing, listen to what they're interacting with. If their engagements are spiking on certain things, follow what they're trying to tell you. That's important.
Speaker 2:Also, using stuff from outside industries, as I mentioned, has been one of the big things that I've always done. I enjoy humor. Sometimes it rubs people the wrong way and I get that but at the same time, we also are understanding of our partnerships and those investors that are out there that are along the ride. We need to be cognizant of them and that's something that we are very cautious of. We understand it, but that we're also not going to change who we are, down to our core. We are who we are. We brought people in for their personalities and that's something that we are still going to stand by A lot of the times as a brand.
Speaker 2:You'll hear some of the things out there outside in sports is horses for courses. That means it's not just a sports term. I think the same thing applies for people in corporate America. There are brands that are built for people and vice versa. There are people that are built for brands, people that you might see every three to four years on resume stuff. Don't look at them as a negative. They're just trying to find their niche. How many teams has James Harden been on so far? This is the only time I really finally feel like he's found a niche. That's like you're not the everything that you thought you were probably going to be in your role player at this time in your life. He might win a championship we don't know but it seems like he has come to an agreement internally and amongst his teammates of saying this is who I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 2:And that's okay, and I think the same thing applies in corporate America.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there's a lot of wisdom there. The two things you said that really stood out to me is consistency and authenticity. And with authenticity you just have to be yourself, and I think about this a lot with the content that we put out. Our friend, paul Bernard-Jerzlowski he's blown up with Frick Caviar and with Memes. He's been doing that for like seven years, I think six years. He's done it for quite a while, but he's blown up with that. But that's how his mind saw things and so he just created that.
Speaker 1:I'm not a meme guy, naturally, so it would be weird for me to try that, you know, because it probably wouldn't go over. Well, I've done a couple of. I like gifts a lot, I'm a big fan of gifts, I think about those a lot, but Memes I just don't. I don't have that creative mind for that right. So I think you have to know who you are and just be okay with that and be consistent about that, and the right people will come around and you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1:The post you put no thought into it seems to do so. Well, I'll take a picture of my daughter and I at date night just to encourage dads to do that. It'll blow up. I'll, you know, I'll throw something out there about you know. Just something I read that day that really hit me and I just put it out there because I'm more of a teacher, and that will blow up something that I spent a lot of time on. It gets hardly any views. I'm like, well, that's stunk, like just need to be myself a lot more often. So I think there's a lot of a lot of wisdom in that for personal brands and for corporate brands. You know.
Speaker 2:just you know. Here's the most. The beautiful thing about that is you have endless opportunity out there, as it doesn't matter what brand you're part of. You are surrounded by so many individuals that have that same type of creativity that they probably just haven't been given the opportunity to have that exposure yet, and that's that's ultimately why I think it's fun to have a brand like this.
Speaker 2:I don't like the term lifestyle brand, but we we we are actively telling individuals like hey, if you like, creating memes, because when they're out there on the floor amongst their peers and they're in the little DMs you know and internal chats and stuff like that, they're creating gifts. They're creating memes based on on little current events that are happening internally or externally, and those things, nine times out of 10, are hilarious and they're transferable into our industry. That everybody will say that hits home, that happens on my floor every single day. That is funny and that's when the engagements happen. You have to be able to promote those things internally and if you don't, then unfortunately you're probably going to be stuck with a very sterile and blah brand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and at the end of the day, I really believe this. People want to be entertained. I heard somebody say this to me one time that the best educators are the best entertainers. This is back when I was a teacher and a youth pastor. The best educators are the best entertainers because they get the audience engaged, and I had a person share this with me one time. He said if you get a crowd laughing, if you can get them laughing, then while they're laughing and their mouth is open, then you can shove the truth down their throat. And the whole idea was you've earned the right to tell them something valuable in their life because they're engaged and they're enjoying the time. And so I think that companies that don't think about entertaining content or think about a way to make people laugh not all the time you don't have to do all the time but if you think about ways to make people laugh, I think it just helps with your brand because it connects people emotionally. When you laugh, man, there's just something fun about that shared experience.
Speaker 2:It's really powerful.
Speaker 1:A great example.
Speaker 2:That's what, exactly what Reed's been doing over the course of the last year, like, hey, I'm going to make you laugh so hard and then I'm going to force feed my product down your throat and you're going to digest it, and that's something that's beautiful, I think, for people and brands that are a little bit hesitant, like there's a lot of good figures in our space that you can watch and roadmap and see, figure out exactly how things are being done, and from there you can sample out your own little things that you want to try with it.
Speaker 1:And you know what's crazy about that, and then we're going to take a quick break. What's crazy about that is that we don't get Reed L'Ostala or L'Ostalo I always get to say it wrong. We don't get Reed in his current iteration, his current form, unless something happened with his previous job and it didn't work out. And so we're going to talk about losses in a minute and how you rebound from that. We're going to take a quick break, though, so hold on for just one second, josh. We have to give a little shout out to our sponsors to pay the bills here. So first of all, thank you so much to our friends over at SPI Logistics for sponsoring the show. Listen, if you're a free broker and you're tired of the back office stuff owning your own MC sometimes it's just not for you. Or maybe you're an agent that's not happy where you're at, or you're thinking about becoming an agent and you've got to book a business and you want to do it, make sure you give these guys a call. They have the technology, the back office, the resources and they're just great people. You can check them out at successspi3plcom. Make sure you let them know that you heard about them right here on Standing Out and they will help you navigate that transition, whatever it is for you. Again, check them out at successspi3plcom. Got a reference over at SPI logistics for sponsoring the show.
Speaker 1:All right, josh, let's jump back into it. So you know, that story about Reed is kind of a good transition to that. You know, he had a situation where he was at a company that didn't work out and then he was trying to figure out what he was gonna do. He started playing around with some stuff and then now we have the freight gone. Now we have lost freight, we have the discord, we have the content that he's putting out. All that came out of a loss. You know, and I don't think that we talk about losses enough, and you said that to me and that's what really resonated is we talked about you being on this show. You said we don't talk about losses enough. Talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think brands traditionally are very taboo with the word loss, right or hey, failure. And I think that for brands moving forward and just the mindset for individuals that are kind of looking at joining certain specific brands or companies, it all resorts back to transparency and who they are, and there's no better way to do that than showing our losses that we take every single day right. You're no different than any other brand or whatever banners out front of your building that's flying, but it's just a matter of how you actually accept those things. And for us and going into we're almost three years in June there's a lot of things that you can forecast. I know it's absolutely insane. There's a lot of things you can forecast, obviously, when you're in startup mode, the basic things, but then there's also those things that you just completely overlook, that you have no idea are gonna be on your radar. Or some individuals that have gone through in the past will tell you, hey, this is what you expect, but it kind of goes in one ear and out the other because it really isn't hitting home for you yet, it's not tangible for you to understand what they're actually referencing. And so, for us, culture, right, culture is a massive buzzword for so many people, even outside of this industry, and everybody has a different definition or a different expectation of what culture should be. And that's one of the big ones that we have to understand that we took a lot of losses and a lot of hits that we took on the chin of just trying to understand exactly, hey, we thought this was gonna be the best version of ourselves here, or this was the vision that we had maybe thought that was gonna be for FV, and there's nothing wrong with that. Right, we made bets, we made gambles and ultimately you're gonna take a L on the majority of those things.
Speaker 2:It's how you regroup from those things, obviously as cliche as that is, and how you communicate those things. More importantly and I think that's you wanna get vulnerable here those are some of the things that we missed on at FV the communication factor once those Ls were occurring. Right, because we were so busy, so wrapped up in our day-to-day and our whirlwinds of trying to get everything off the ground, trying to get to a certain perspective out there in the market space, that those little itty-bitty things of what we viewed as little, those brick and mortar types of moments we overlooked. And then, obviously, as you continue to grow and things start to get larger, that brick and mortar starts to show its blemishes and those cracks start to become really, really significant. And that's exactly what you start to experience during, you know, in startup and even outside of startup mode, because you know, at our past life we had a lot of those moments that would occur, right and that's a 30-year brand.
Speaker 2:But being able to communicate those things real time with your individuals so that they understand like, hey, we are human, we're learning as we go, we enjoy feedback, right, surveys are important.
Speaker 2:A lot of the times, you know, companies will say, hey, it's anonymous, but it's not. But we truly wanna make sure that we're giving a voice to our people at all times. There's individuals that are very exuberant, that are outgoing, but there's also the individuals that are very more reclusive by nature and you need to understand that a lot of the times, those individuals that are sitting in the corner, that don't really have a voice, typically in a meeting, have some of the best views and outlooks on exactly what's happening, and that's why, you know, the non-service are important for feedback and building those cultures and understanding exactly hey, this is where we're missing and we need to hear this voice right now because it's something other than our own view. They're taking it from a different stance that we're not currently looking at it from. So, just communicating those losses and understanding like, hey, this is where we missed and we're taking full ownership of those things, right, how do we move forward? How do we identify where we're at, where we?
Speaker 2:wanna be and where we're going, and that's important for us.
Speaker 1:There's a chink in the armor at 10 million in revenue. It's a gaping hole when you get to 50 million in revenue and you might not even know it, you know. So I love the fact that you're thinking about surveys, both internally, and I think it's good to talk to your customers and find out where there's gaps in customer service or operations or whatever it is. Those things are always really good to figure out. Here's the one thing that I've gotten out of entrepreneurship, josh is. As I've met more entrepreneurs over the last two years, the one thing I've learned is that nobody really knows what they're doing, not only that in a bad way. We're all figuring. You're just figuring this thing out. You know, and I think that some people are afraid to admit that we're just figuring things out.
Speaker 1:I'm attracted to somebody who will tell me about a situation that didn't go well. I mean, I think about our own story. A year ago at this moment I pivoted because what we were doing, we were terrible at it, like we were terrible at it, and I'm like we can't keep doing this. You know, like this is not good for us. It's not energy giving, it's bad for our customers. We're gonna get a bad reputation Like we have to stop what we were doing and we pivoted completely away from that. It was very difficult, but it was like talking about it actually helped out. It actually endeared some people to us to say, man, we gotta be different.
Speaker 1:And I think there's more concern and fear in doing that than the actual result, which is people realize that you're just like them. You're figuring things out, you're learning on the fly, you're making decisions, you're trying to do what's best, see if it works, and people are emotionally kind of connected to that in a way that's unique and authentic. And I think that more people need to talk about the behind the scenes, the losses that they have. It's not all roses and butterflies. It's hard. Business is hard, life is hard. Parenting is hard. Being a child of an older parent it's like life is hard.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about it being a human is hard.
Speaker 2:And then you throw in a wrinkle of hey, you have to go to work and then you have to go there for eight to 10 hours a day, and then also you're gonna be surrounded by personalities that you just don't always see eye to eye with. And also, by the way, the mental health aspect in your industry is gonna be probably deteriorating, but you show up every day with a smile on your face, and that's real. That's hard for majority of people and you shouldn't overlook those types of moments. Right, you need to lean into those types of things, like to your point and pivot.
Speaker 2:Being able to pivot as an entrepreneur is also another superpower. It is difficult as it is to jump into that new endeavor. It's taking that leap of faith. But pivoting sometimes can almost feel like a leap of faith, because you are so rooted in what your fundamental ideas are that you see one vision going a specific way and all of a sudden, it's just now that that boat has started steering off course and, before you know it, your past is. You're like I don't even remember or see what my original vision looked like, because I've steered away so far and so distant, and that's. These are hard moments.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being able to pivot quickly and with conviction, I think it really is a superpower. And I had some good friends near and dear to me, who talked to me a year ago and said I don't believe in this version of Trey and Beta Consulting Group. And that was hard to hear. But they said I said, well, what version do you believe in? They started telling me what they saw in me. They started telling me what they believed in, where they saw my strengths, and I was like, yeah, that is who I am. It's like I had kind of lost my way a little bit, trying to chase something that I thought was best. And I came back to who I am and what matters most. And so it was good to have that.
Speaker 1:But, man, it was definitely risky. It was investment. I paid money to go get certified on something that I didn't know if it was gonna work. I mean, it was scary, but it certainly is. The ability to pivot is really critical and I've seen that in myself as well. Let's talk about the market real quick. Oh yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:That story that you just shared right there. Like I would challenge you, I think you should document those things, because there are so many individuals that are in your seat right now, or thinking about to potentially start something, that need to hear those types of moments right, and that's where we're talking about the L's. We have to be advocates of those, we have to cherish and celebrate those things, because they are ultimately, the things that open up those doors to what we see true visions of being a long term. So keep being a voice of those types of moments, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can't be afraid to talk about the L's. I mean, failure is just an opportunity to learn. That's really all it is. So I appreciate you encouraging me on that and sharing that. So we may have to do that. We have to document the L's. We'll have to come up with a series that could be something fun. Already thinking of content on that, we'll figure it out. So let's talk about the market real quick. Then we're gonna wrap this baby up. So 2023 is a tough year for a lot of people. We saw a lot of things happen in brokerage and tech. So a lot of people get laid off. We're still seeing that here. At the start of the year, we just saw Coyote and what UPS is doing with that. Ups right, yeah, ups, what they're doing with that. We saw some other L's that are happening recently. I mean, it's just hard. Where do you see the market right now? And then let's talk about recruiting a little bit. Where do you see the market right?
Speaker 2:now. Yeah, I think it's just the same as kind of what everybody's filling in, right Like the term feels versus reels. We feel Like it should be turning a corner soon, right Like we're looking at all the forecasts, we're seeing all of the data that's kind of being provided, but reality is it's just not turning right. I feel like I'm hitting. The driver should be going straight, but reality is I'm fading at 40 yards through the right Like those are the things that we're kind of experiencing. I think the market itself. We're on a very serious headwind still and those individuals that are still grinding are typically the ones that will make it pass this into the calm waters. Yeah, unfortunately, the layoffs and all of the brands that have gone under over the course of the last 18 months it's mind blowing. Obviously, we kind of forecasted that as well. Obviously, with the spike in COVID and all of the supply chain and how those things kind of saw the domino effects of that, there was a huge spike in all of those things and it has to right size itself and that's kind of where we're at right now. That's where we have.
Speaker 2:But as far as what we're doing and what we're kind of hearing with our customers and all of our transportation providers. And the carrier side is we're grinding. We're in the midst of bid season, full swing of that with all of our customers, so we're trying to understand exactly hey, where are our niches? Where can we sharpen the pencils a little bit more? Where do we need to create a different type of partnership with this approach? But everybody seems to be leaning in on each other, which is kind of unique. Typically, if it's on the broker side, the customers are kind of fighting tooth and nail to figure out what their added leverage is. And then, obviously, the flip side of that too is when the customers have the upper hand, the brokers are kind of trying to figure out where they need to find their upper hand. Right now, it just feels like everybody's kind of navigating it together, which is streamlining a lot of things, I hope. With that being said, it's hard, it's really difficult. We're on a serious climb right now and it's something that all brands are feeling. The pressure points are getting hit on all ends. But for how we handle it internally here, specifically at FV, it's lean into the things that you're really good at and make sure that we're keeping service at the forefront right, like that is always gonna be there for us. Don't change that. That's down to our core. And making sure that we're communicating all things real time, keeping it very loose for our customers so that they understand. I know that everybody's getting flooded with just opportunities and trying to figure out how do I get ahead of the next person to get those opportunities, but as long as you're constantly keeping communication with anybody as cliche as that is, typically that's kind of the recipe Be very frank with them. Hey, this is where capacity is tight. This is some of the things that we're seeing. This is what we're hearing right now. Boots on the ground If you have assets, make sure that you're putting those things at the forefront too, right, make sure you're showing the leverage that you possess with those and the service that you can provide during these down markets. So, long story short, it's hard, right, it's very hard.
Speaker 2:Goes back to what I mentioned. There's horses for courses and brands are kind of experiencing that right now as well. You're figuring out exactly. It's a makeover approach, if you will, for transportation and logistics. We're in an off season, it feels like, and there's a whole new scenery that's being painted for us what it's gonna look like for the next 10 to 15 years. Brands are reshaping themselves. Individuals are moving from brand to brand, kind of calibrating their next moves on the chess piece board, and I think that's a positive thing, because now you're gonna see, like I mentioned, over the next five to 10 years, what transportation space is probably gonna be looking like. So get comfortable with it. This is who you're gonna be seeing partying, joining teams, starting new brands, people exiting the space. It's a rebuild year for transportation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it certainly feels like that. I mean, I've climbed mountains out there in Phoenix, where you live in beautiful the valley of the sun, and sometimes you come over very many think you're at the top, especially a new mountain you haven't climbed before, and then when you get over that you realize oh no, there's more, there's more climbing to go. It's kind of how it feels Like there's some indicators that make it feel like we're moving in the right direction, but then there's others and obviously what you experience every day that says, ah, maybe not quite yet. How has that impacted recruiting? I know you guys have done a great job with recruiting and has it slowed down recruiting? Do you guys still think of recruiting all the time? Do you think of seasonal recruiting? How has that impacted what you guys do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think from obviously the market, from a recruiting standpoint, I think you're just seeing it across the board. Right, it hits us hard when there's no loads coming on the board, new and new added opportunities. Revenues are dropping. Yeah, you obviously take a hit on the marketing and then the recruiting side of it too. For us, I think that to your point, like we didn't over consume on the recruiting front, we didn't buy into a lot of products, right, everything is still organic here. I don't pay for anything online, I just post it, I get it out there, I build off of my network and introduce people outside of my network to actually consume it as well, because that's ultimately where I think the fresh set of eyes come from people outside of this industry. But, yes, it does affect a lot of things. I think for us from the recruiting side of it, it's still do not disappear and I think that's one thing that you've seen from brands A lot of dormant accounts right now over the last six months, especially to start this year.
Speaker 2:You lose that voice. You're gonna lose those people that thought they were buying in on a product of yours. If you hide from certain things, you're going to lose a lot of leadership, you're gonna lose a lot of fanship, you're gonna lose a lot of support from those outside networks. So when those difficult times come in, you need to lean into those things even more. Do not run from those things. So that long story short. To answer your question, I think yes, recruiting has been kind of paused from a perspective from FV, from an industry perspective as well, but that also means that we're also showing it, painting a picture for when we do ramp up again and we start making our hiring pushes. They still have a paper troll of over the last course of months, of exactly who we are. Yeah, we struggle. Yeah, we're going through these moments. Yes, we are all hitting it head on with this headwind, but I think that our content in itself is still gonna be there for us and it's gonna help us when it comes to the recruiting major.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I try to convince all of my clients that when times are good, you should market your company and your culture and who you are, and times are bad. You should really market your company and your culture and who you are, because you gotta find ways to stand out. It's cliche and the title of our show, but that's really what it is. It's like how do we stand out as a company, whether it's our service, how we treat customers, how we treat our team, our culture, what we do differently, like you gotta figure that out and you gotta be comfortable sharing that even in the bad times. And so I love that. Appreciate that encouragement, josh, that's awesome man. I can't believe how long this has gone. This has been one of our longer recordings and I'm happy about it. Don't apologize, man. Don't apologize at all.
Speaker 1:We do have to get you out of here with a random question today. We always like to have a little fun on the show, so we got a random question today. Let's see what it is. It is any active QB of your choosing guaranteed six starts a game. Are you getting 100 receiving yards in a full NFL season? Let's see what that is. Any active QB of your choosing, you're the wide receiver. You get at least six targets a game as a wide receiver. Okay, now I see where we're at. Okay, you get six targets a game so you could pick my home, she could pick Herbert. You could hit anybody, anybody, kyler Murray, down there. Are you gonna be able to get 100 yards in a full NFL season? That's a good question. You think you get 100 yards.
Speaker 2:As a former quarterback, I understand the complexity and the struggles wide receivers go through, especially with a lot of the top corners that are in the league. Right now I get six games I'm sorry, six targets for a regular full season.
Speaker 1:You get 100 passes essentially. Oh, hell yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going through that route tree.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you right now, I'm putting 100 yards on Easy.
Speaker 1:Yes, you have a little more size than I do. I could see you pulling that off. I don't think there's any way a guy like me gets 100 yards in a full season. I mean let's say just forget. Let's say just forget about me from time to time.
Speaker 2:I am six, three, but I'm also built like a 150 stick, so it might just take one hit and daddy's out for the season.
Speaker 1:So that's true. Well, you're going to get those out patterns just to go to the. You know you'll catch them and just drag the toes and not get hurt. So that's, I think you might be able to pull it off. That's obviously something that they will never let happen, but I'd love to see it. I'd love to see someone try.
Speaker 2:We can bring a football out on the three hole challenge and see what type of 100%.
Speaker 1:We're going to have to just have. Well, maybe we'll do. We'll do some combo sports in this activity as well. Maybe that's the other six holes that we do. Josh, listen, man, appreciate you being on the show. Always a pleasure having you on the show and sharing your experience, your expertise, your perspective. I can't wait to see you in April for a couple of golf outings. Man, it's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:Hey, once again, I'm appreciative of you having me on here this is the third time and also congrats again. Man, Standing out, beta, all of the stuff that you've accomplished over the years, the group that you've kind of accumulated, all of the good individuals that you have in your corner, Coleman, all of you guys appreciate everything that you're doing in our space. You don't get enough recognition for the collaborations that you push out for others, and so I do appreciate that. I'll be the first to admit I sent you a text. I need to do a better job of supporting you in our space. So, brother, thank you, and this is going to be a fun year for everybody, man.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate that and I'm taking your model to heart. I got to work behind the scenes if I want to shine in front of people, so got to put in the work. We got to get you out here with little masters music. So again, thanks for being on the show. Make sure you come back and see us, and I'll see you on the road real soon, my friend.
Speaker 2:Thanks bro, Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody, make sure you come back every Tuesday for a new episode of Standing Out and great guests like Josh Brees. We have a few awesome shows coming up. Also, if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel, make sure you do that now. You can find us at Beta Podcast Network on YouTube and every Friday at noon, central, make sure you join us. Live for Word on the Street with the Street Crew. We have a lot of fun over there. A lot of good times Until we see you again. Remember, stop standing still. Start standing out. We'll see you soon.