Full Court Freight: Sales vs. College Hoops featuring Isaac Hernandez

What does basketball have to do with a freight brokerage? More than you'd think.

In this episode, we sit down with Isaac, a nine-year veteran Sales Rep at Fifth Wheel Freight, who went from walking on at Grand Valley State University's basketball program to becoming a top freight broker...without ever planning to work in logistics. Isaac breaks down how the lessons he learned on the court like handling rejection, staying adaptable, and competing in a crowded field directly translate to success in one of the most competitive industries out there.

We dig into what separates the brokers who thrive from the ones who wash out, why over-communication is his secret weapon, and why he'd rather have a customer yell at him than ghost him any day.

Whether you're an athlete exploring a career in sales, a logistics pro looking for some fresh perspective, or just curious what the freight world actually looks like from the inside, this one's for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Took it and ran with it. But then I realized, I think I re started to realize then after talking to a few people, I was like, okay, this is a very competitive industry and it's a competitive market. Yeah. And I came into, so it's you gotta figure out a way to separate yourself from the others.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

All right. Well, Isaac, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here today. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yeah, of course. Um, if you don't mind uh just starting a little bit, um, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, um, kind of what brought you to Fifth Wheel, what, seven, eight years ago? You tell me.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I yeah, going on nine now. So okay, yes. Yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Yeah, give me give me a little bit of background on how you got to where you are today.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Yeah, honestly, I didn't really have any background in logistics or supply chain. Yeah. Uh didn't really go to school for it at all.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

I my background or my major actually is in sociology with a market criminal justice.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Are you planning on going into law?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah, actually, uh law enforcement was planning on that. Yeah. Uh, but life life happened. Yeah, exactly. Took it took a couple different turns and had to get a job right out of college, got because I got married too, and my wife wasn't able to work first couple years. She's had long story short, nine knee surgeries on one knee. So crazy. Yeah. So yeah, that happened. And then yeah, so I ended up just finding uh the soonest full-time job I could find. But yeah, not a lot of were offering that in the in the field I wanted to go into, unfortunately. Started working at a at a junkyard before I came here.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

I was just kind of pulling parts off cards and working in a yard and chipping and receiving there, just general labor stuff around.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Okay. So you were like slightly adjacent to the logistics industry there.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Slightly, yeah, but didn't realize what I was getting into when I came here, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

I don't know if anybody realized what they were getting into when they started in logistics.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

You've been at fifth wheel for nine years now. You also played sports your whole life growing up. Can you tell me about that? What sports you played, what sports you played in college, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

I basically just played basketball my entire life. Yeah. That was the only sport really played. I did a little, you know, your typical T-ball growing up and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Keep we soccer. Yeah.

unknown 1:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

But um, no, I gravitated towards basketball definitely more so. Did all that through middle school, high school, and then I did one year in college actually, and actually walked on at Grand Valley and played there one year. It's uh it's a great experience, though. I think it's learned taught a lot of different life lessons, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

If you think back, like if you take yourself back to the GVSU locker room or high school locker room before a basketball game, which do you think is more competitive as of today? The freight industry or let's say college sports?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

That's a great question. To be honest, I'd say it probably would be the freight industry, but just because of how saturated the market is with how many people there are. Yeah. I mean, granted, like in the locker room and in college, especially, like you, I mean, you're all teammates.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

But if everyone's honest, everyone's competing for a spot.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah, you're competing for a spot in college, you're competing for a spot maybe in the pros, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Exactly. But it's it's a little more confined there because it's only like uh you're limited to 12 to 15 people, where this is I'm just taking a stab at it, probably thousands if I had to guess. Yeah. So I would definitely say the freight industry is probably more competitive, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Fair enough. Yeah. When you first started in freight, like you know, after your first couple of weeks here, were you like, oh, there's an obvious competitive aspect to this, I can take sort of my competitive side and apply it. Or did it take you a while to sort of connect those dots?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

That took me a while.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Only because I didn't know anything about the industry at all, what it all pertained to. I didn't know a lot of aspects about what I was getting into. So the competitive part of me didn't even think to come out. Especially I thought when I first came here, it was a very corporate world type structure, and I was like, Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Compared to working in a junkyard. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Exactly. So I was like, okay, this is a lot different than what I'm used to. So I maybe I I don't, I'm never gonna show that side of me again.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

But I was dead wrong.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah. So when do you feel like it clicked that you were like, oh, I can comp apply my competitive nature here?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Getting like the first couple customers and a couple calls that I was on, like talking to actual customers, like with them telling, like, oh hey, I I get tons of calls like this every day.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah, and you're like, Oh, why'd you answer mine? Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

So, and then they're like, they never really flat out asked the question to me. I don't think like they never said, like, why should I work with you? But yeah, I could tell that's what they were getting at. It's like I'm getting all these calls per day, so I mean, what's different about this? Right, all that.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Why are you so special kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah, never really had an answer for that either, but I just kind of was a persistent and a nuisance, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

A respectful nuisance, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Until they gave me a shot and just kind of took it and ran with it. But then I realized, I think I really started realizing then after talking to a few people, I was like, okay, this is a very competitive industry and it's a very competitive market. Yeah. When I came into, so it's you gotta figure out a way to separate yourself from the others.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Absolutely. What about playing sports growing up do you think prepared you best for this role? Like what things do you feel like were ingrained in you as like a natural athlete that make you so good at sales in general?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

I would definitely say probably learning to handle rejection and failure. Because anyone that plays sports, I mean, it nothing ever goes your way. Yeah, you don't have to do that. 100% of the time, exactly. You don't always win. Injuries set you back or certain obstacles come your way, you know. But how do you handle those situations? It sounds cliche, but it's it's it's very true because I I feel like then life in general it's like that. So I feel like that that definitely translated from sports to this industry or just learning how to handle setbacks.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah, because I mean if you run away from rejection, you're not gonna do well in sports or in sales. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah, yeah. You can't be afraid to fail or fall on your face a few times.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah, exactly. Sales is very competitive, and that obviously relates to athletes who grow up playing sports, but obviously there's still athletes who who struggle in the industry and and don't do well. Not everybody makes it in this industry. It's very, you know, very competitive. Why do you think certain athletes still struggle in this industry? Like, why doesn't every athlete feel it in sales?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I think for me, that what I've noticed is like if you can't think on your feet, be able to adapt quickly and maneuver, like this one strategy or course of action doesn't work, you're being able to figure out okay, maybe I gotta try something else or one size fits all um for every customer. So I feel like it's a lot of adaptability and learning how to navigate, you know, learning that all right, well, this worked for this customer, now it's not working for this other customer. So how do I change this response or how do I change approach? Yeah, how to find an approach to fit their need, is essentially trying to figure that out.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

No, that makes sense. Similar to like changing your approach depending on like who you're playing in sports, like if you kind of know how a team operates or whatever. What position did you play in basketball? Uh, I was a guard. Okay. Do you just sort of a fun question? Do you think there's particular positions in basketball that would do better in sales based on the skill sets that they have to have in the game?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

That's a fun question. Maybe I don't know. I just get in my head just because I I was a lot smaller growing up compared to everyone in college.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

So like I mean, you're very tall compared to me, but I guess you're not like seven foot five.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

But in my own biased opinion, like guards, probably, because it's like you always have that chip on your shoulder that you're smaller compared to everyone else. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

You have a little bit of something to prove.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Exactly. You like I always carried that growing up because I was not really the biggest person ever. My own biased opinion, I would say guards just because that you carry that little extra chip, maybe, but yeah, who knows? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah. Not to say that all the other positions wouldn't also do well in sales. Exactly. We won't we won't have any uh biases here. Yeah. Do you think there's things that you do or that other successful sales reps do that differentiate you because you sort of practice them regularly?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Nowadays, like everyone wants to know where their stuff is at all at all times. You know, you order a package off Amazon, you literally can track that thing like from when it's packaged in the box to when it gets on the channel.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

I literally see it in my neighborhood driving to my house.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

I think I took that approach into okay, how can I take that approach into my job? Yeah, what I do now. And so I think like being responsive and being over-communicative, yeah, learning how to do those skills, they've done a lot for me essentially, because it's definitely separated me from other people. Customers have said sometimes. But now I'm not always perfect and I can't do everything at all times, like be available 24-7.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

I mean, sometimes some customers do expect that, but that's why you have a team. Exactly. But you know, just being adaptable too, I feel like just not having a closed mind, being open-minded to new ideas, yeah, new approaches, as you said earlier. Yeah, because I feel like the minute I got a handle on a situation one day or a certain or a certain approach, like next thing it changes overnight. And so I gotta, you know, learn something new every day, basically. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

If you were in front of a bunch of athletes right now and they were asking you about sales as a career path, just generally speaking. Freight sales, sure, but like sales generally speaking, what would you say to them as in terms of like advice or if you think that is a good career path for them?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Definitely to take a look at yourself in the mirror and understand, like, hey, like, can I handle being rejected 95 to 99% of the time?

unknown 8:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Am I gonna be able to handle that? Yep. Because in all reality, sometimes, you know, you like those days are terrible. Like coming.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

We just get no wins. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, no wins for the day, or week by week, you're just not hearing, getting any traction. You're getting no constantly. Just be able to look at look at yourself in the mirror, just say, hey, can I actually accept that? And I can, I move forward and you know, have the fortitude to keep going. But the other thing I'd say is just just be a sponge as well. Soak up as much information as possible, ask questions, be curious. Don't think you know it all.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

That applies to almost any job, I would say. Yeah. I mean, I think that's just great advice for new grads generally speaking.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah, yeah, those are the main things I'd say because those have helped me a long way. And they still do to this day.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah. All right, we're gonna end the podcast with some rapid fire this or that questions. Okay. A uh basketball scenario or a freight scenario. You have to tell me which one you'd rather deal with for forever.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

All right.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

So would you rather deal with the pregame jitters or the first cold call of the day?

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Pre-game jitters.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

All right.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

100%.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Uh would you rather deal with an overtime game or an end-of-year push to try to get your volume up?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

End of year push. That's fun. Okay. I like that challenge.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Coach yelling at you or customer ghosting you?

SPEAKER_00 10:04

I'd rather deal with being yelled at than being ghosted. That's fair. Yeah, because the ghosting is like you're on you're on your ancient. You have no choice. Yeah. You're just like wondering, okay, what are they thinking? Where what's going on? Yeah. Like, why are they answering?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

I'd much rather be yelled at.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah, that's in in some ways constructive criticism. You can work with that. Home court advantage or lane details from a prospect?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Uh lane details. Yeah. Details matter for sure in this industry.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Airball or a customer hanging up on you?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Uh customer hanging up. Airball's way too embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Team captain or top commission earner.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Top commissioner.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Okay, I guess that one was a little too easy.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Yeah. Makes it easier in life.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Well, thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Um go get back to moving some freight.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Thanks for listening to Inside Freight by Fifth Wheel Freight, where we break down the logistics topics that matter to brokers, shippers, and carriers. FWF is a third party logistics provider headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, specializing in truckload, LTL, drainage, rail, over dimensional, and expedited freight across the US and Canada. To learn more, visit FWF.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.