Standing Out: A Podcast About Sales, Marketing and Leadership
Resilience and Leadership: Transforming a Family Business with Cori Eckley-Richards
Join us in this episode where we welcome Cori Eckley-Ritchards, VP and co-owner of NATCO Transport, as she shares her powerful journey of taking over the family business. Cori's experiences offer valuable lessons in leadership development and the evolving sales strategies in the transportation industry. We discuss the transformative power of mentorship, especially for women, and Cori emphasizes the importance of empowering team members to step out of their comfort zones.
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.
Join us in this episode where we welcome Cori Eckley-Ritchards, VP and co-owner of NATCO Transport, as she shares her powerful journey of taking over the family business. Cori's experiences offer valuable lessons in leadership development and the evolving sales strategies in the transportation industry. We discuss the transformative power of mentorship, especially for women, and Cori emphasizes the importance of empowering team members to step out of their comfort zones.
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's up everybody and welcome back to another episode of Standing Out, a podcast about sales, marketing and leadership. It's summertime, it's July, the second half of 2024 is already here. Hard to believe how fast this year is absolutely flying by. I hope you're having a great year so far. Do me a favor when you get a chance, go to betaconsultinggroupcom and see how we're helping companies in transportation to truly tell their story, market themselves better and create more opportunities for sales. You just need more at-bats out there. It's a numbers game. We'll help you do that. Click on that little button there on the homepage that says schedule a call with yours. Truly Tell us your story. Be glad to help you write yours Also.
Speaker 1:Before we get started today, I want to give a couple of shout outs. First of all, I can't believe this. We are four months away from the next Broker Carrier Summit Actually, three and a half. It's going so fast. October 23 through 25 down in Fort Worth, texas, yeehaw In the Lone Star State. Looking forward to that. Make sure you join us by going to BrokerCarrierSummitcom, click on register there and make sure that you get registered. Save your spot. It is the most valuable event for small and medium-sized brokers and carriers to find each other, to find true business partners, to learn a little bit, to talk about what's going on in the industry, have conversations, make things better. And don't forget the second edition of the Post and Pray Classic will happen on October 23rd. That is the greatest golf tournament in transportation. It's a two-person shambles to team event. Make sure you sign up for that at the same time. Again, brokercarriersummitcom, get registered for that. We'll see you down in Fort Worth, down in October.
Speaker 1:Also, it is never too late to check out and partner with Wreaths Across America, our good friends out of Maine who deliver wreaths to over 4,000 cemeteries across the country to lay wreaths at the Tombstone of Fallen Veterans. It's an incredible organization, wreathsacrossamericaorg. To learn more about how you can support our veterans. You can participate by laying a wreath on a tombstone. You can simply sponsor a wreath. If you have a truck or a trucking company, you can donate loads and deliver those wreaths across the country. It's a phenomenal event. It happens in December, so it's the second Saturday of December and it's an incredible event. So go to reeseacrossamericaorg see how you can participate, how you can sign up and be a part of that.
Speaker 1:And for those who are listening to us on Reeds Across America Radio right now. Thank you so much. We love being a part of their Trucking Tuesday lineup. Every Tuesday you can catch an episode of Standing Out right here on Reeds Across America Radio. So again, thank you to them for their support and their partnership.
Speaker 1:Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor, spi Logistics, for making this show possible. Spi Logistics is an agency-based freight brokerage and, listen, if you are just tired of all the back office stuff or maybe you're a freight agent and you're not really happy with where you're at make sure you check them out at successspi3plcom. They've got the technology systems, back office support to really help you stay in your lane and just enjoy your work, working with customers and booking freight, and they're just great guys. So again, check them out up there in Vancouver, british Columbia. Successspi3plcom. Again, that's successSPI3PLcom. All right, let's get this show on the road.
Speaker 1:My guest today. I'm so excited to have her on the show. I've known her for a long time. She's part of the TIA, she's a renegade, she's a maverick doing some incredible work in the industry and she is from the great state of Texas. So please, welcome to the show my good friend and the VP and co-owner of Natco Transportation, corey Eckley Richards. What's up, my friend? How are you? I'm good. How are you? It's so good to see you. Thanks for being on the show today. Thank you for having me. This is a great walk-up song. This is a classic. This one's going to be good for a long time. This one's not going away.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:It's not going away. No, it's a good one. Have you ever seen Katy Perry in concert?
Speaker 2:No, I have not, but that's one that would be good.
Speaker 1:I feel like that would be a banger of a concert, I mean. I feel like she'd have some good songs, a lot of energy, great crowd. I just think that would be a really good one. So that's a good song. How's everything in Texas? How is Houston you?
Speaker 2:doing all right. Yes, it's great, it's hot, it's summer. I'm rocking and rolling, doing what we can do.
Speaker 1:It is summer. It's hard to believe how fast this summer is flying by. I know the older I get, the faster it goes. I got a theory about that, but it's absolutely just blowing me away that we're in the second half of 2025 already. It's just absolutely wild. And you and I, my friend, we've known each other for quite a while. I can't even remember which one was the first one we met at. I know it was TIA. It was probably like 2015 or 16 or 17. I don't know. You've been going to those for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was trying to figure that out too. I think we we connected with TIA, for sure, but it's probably been that 10 year range. I've been going to TIA since 2000 and I think it's eight or nine was my first event in San Antonio for the TIA.
Speaker 1:And San Antonio, I think, is on the rotation coming up soon. I think it's going back there.
Speaker 2:Yes, in 2025, we're actually going to be there. We're going to be at the JW in the San Antonio Hill Country. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Nice. Yeah, that's a good one. I've enjoyed it. I think I've been to two of them in San Antonio. So far. It's a great place, great spot. The golf courses there are pretty good. I know you like playing the golf tournaments, which is awesome. All right, so before we start the show today, a couple of things. First of all, we're really excited to be on the show today. I want to give you a little something for participating. Are you a coffee drinker? You want a coffee mug? Going to send you one today.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do. Let's do water bottle. That's perfect, I love it.
Speaker 1:This water bottle is dope. I love the water bottle as well, so you're going to enjoy that. Make sure you take that with you all over the place this summer when you get it and show it off. I would love for you to have that. All right, so I learned something a fun fact about you.
Speaker 2:I Is that right? Yes, I'm originally from Meade, Nebraska, a town of 500 people approximately 30 minutes west of Omaha.
Speaker 1:Nice, okay, and you raced sprint cars for 10 years. I didn't know this. Is that right?
Speaker 2:I did. I raced from the age of 16 to 26.
Speaker 1:Really, what cars were they? What cars were they? What did you race?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a wing sprint car a 360, a 360 sprint car is what they call them with one of the crazy top wings, and I raced locally for 10 years and had a great time. I'm thankful for that experience. I think it kind of morphed into what I do in my day job because it's highly competitive A lot of a little bit of, I would say, push and pull. At times when you're racing against guys that are twice your age, old enough to be your dad, have more experience than you are age-wise, it can get a little challenging, but I'm thankful for that experience. My dad started me off right. Um, he made me start back for the entire first year because he said I want you to learn how to race, I want you to learn how to teach it and learn how to pass and, um, I did that, so, um, it was fun.
Speaker 2:I still have connections and friends from that arena that are in my network and I can't thank that resource enough. It's like a little. It's like a little family over there of people and I'm thankful for that experience because it did prepare me for what I do every day.
Speaker 1:So that's awesome and I gotta say I can resonate with what your dad was doing, because whenever I go to go-karts with my family, my mom loves to ride go-karts. We have so much fun. But whenever we do that I love taking the car in the back because it gives me a little more incentive to actually try to pass people and have fun with that. So I'm a huge fan of that.
Speaker 1:Were these, the cars that, like they, the rear ends go out and you turn and turn into it. That sounds like so much fun it was.
Speaker 2:It was a good time did you ever miss it?
Speaker 1:do you ever want to go back? Do you ever? Do you ever just go to track and race other cars or anything like that?
Speaker 2:no, not, not really. I still am involved from like beside the on the sidelines. I keep up with what's going on in the racing gossip and stuff with the local racing, but, um, I don't have any desire to get into it because it's like having a part-time job and it's a time commitment. You get beat up in the heat and on your body and you know I enjoyed it. I was young, but I'm a total spectator now. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does sound like a lot of fun, but you're right, it's a huge commitment Time money, all that stuff. It's a big deal. Okay, huge commitment time money, all that stuff, it's a big deal, okay.
Speaker 2:So then I have to ask are you more of a NASCAR fan now or an IndyCar fan, or are you really like just the local light sprints type stuff? I am still a dirt track fan, but my husband is a big F1 fan, so we watch a lot of F1 racing at our house, which is fine. I kind of like that and I'm learning what they do in comparison to the format of a sprint team or dirt track.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'll watch a race.
Speaker 2:If it's on, I'm cool with it, so All right Now.
Speaker 1:does he like IndyCar then because he likes Formula One, or doesn't like IndyCar because he likes Formula One?
Speaker 2:He likes Formula One.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I'm an IndyCar guy, my dad was an IndyCar guy and we go to watch them race around the oval going 240 miles an hour. It's, it's wild, it's incredible. It's really something to behold. Racing in general is just there's something in the human spirit that just wants to race. I don't know what it is. I mean, it doesn't matter who in my family goes to the go carts. We're all competitive, we want to win. There's something about it. My daughters go to 8500 with me every year and they love it I mean it's, it's, it's a ton of fun, so it's awesome.
Speaker 1:Let's let's shift gears for just a little bit no pun intended, or maybe lots of pun intended, I don't know. Let's shift gears for a moment and talk a little bit about Natco and your story about you know about taking over Natco. This is a family business that started years ago with your dad and then you took over. What's the story about that? How'd you get into it and what do you love about it so much?
Speaker 2:Okay, absolutely, I came in around 2003. My dad is the founder of Natco.
Speaker 1:That's two decades. My friend, I know, point that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I came in in 2003. My dad gave me an opportunity to go back to school. I really was kind of unsure about my career path. I had graduated with my business degree minor in finance, and he gave me an opportunity to come back to work for him. If I come back to work, go to school. And I took him up on that because I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do going forward and I was young and I did want to pursue my master's degree.
Speaker 2:So he gave me an opportunity to go back to school and to help me along those ways if I worked for him. And he said can you come help me with this company? I'm really kind of unsure, what's going on? And unfortunately he was an absent owner and that was that was part of it. And so I continue to kind of dig and see that there was some things that not not up to speed, not up to snuff, and it was a little bit of a power struggle at times of digging that out and finding and it unfortunately wasn't good. And in that process I did graduate with my master's degree and I was looking for a job outside of the family transportation world. I said I would never work in transportation and I wanted to do my that statement right there to say, oh it's bad.
Speaker 2:So I was kind of looking for a job, seeing that I needed to do something different, and unfortunately my dad passed away kind of untimely and I told my mom, who owned an asset-based truck line at the time, that I would stay and help her kind of get through that, figure out what I wanted to do and help her in that transition and fast forward 20 years. I'm still there. So, yeah, that whole never statement came back and got me. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I kind of had to start over. Unfortunately, some of the things that I did uncover were just not great and so I had to start over. And it was a point where I could start over on my terms and do what we needed to do. And so I started in sales, kind of in the hard way.
Speaker 2:During that transition somebody told one of the management teams said that I couldn't sell and I said can I have a computer and a phone? So I made my way to the sales floor and here we are. So that's how I kind of got in and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I've met some amazing people, clients, carriers, people like in the network of our TIA Association. You just think about the people that you're surrounded by in this industry and it's pretty phenomenal. So I wouldn't trade some of those experience for the world.
Speaker 2:And I feel I was at an age in my career that I learned how not to do business and I learned all the craziness that they don't teach you necessarily in college. So I was able to say this doesn't add up or this doesn't work, and move forward, and so I'm very thankful for that experience early on in my career. Granted, there was times where I was in my car crying. It wasn't pretty and of course, I was away from home because this was in Texas and so I was away from Nebraska. But it also gave me that outlet to leave Nebraska and to make my life elsewhere, and I'm very thankful for that. I'm a firm believer things happen for a reason and maybe at the time we're not meant to know, but looking back, it was all in the cards for a reason and I'm very thankful for that.
Speaker 1:If there's ever a story about getting thrown into the deep end, this is one, you know, just getting thrown in. What were some of the things that you know? When you look back, it's obviously it's a lot easier to kind of see things. Looking back, what are some things that? Looking back, that you learned about leadership, that you learned about sales from those early days where you're just getting your teeth kicked in, you're getting beat up, you're crying in your car, and I've had those moments, too, where it's like I can't do this anymore. This is miserable, so hard it's, whatever.
Speaker 2:What are some of the early things is you can't handle all the problems. You have to listen, I mean listen, be compassionate towards your staff, be their form, I mean, and I have a saying in my company that life happens. We can't control everything in our life. And we do have families, we do have outside lives and you know, being a part of a small business, that kind of all gets intertwined at times. And so I've learned to be that compassionate side of understanding, listening and taking that time out of if you have a personnel problem or somebody that there's they're struggling, whether it's work or their personal life. Take that time to give them the platform to speak with you.
Speaker 2:That's something that I've learned that you can plan it all you want but it's not going to be perfect. So kind of roll with it and engage those people and let them voice their ideas and have some buy-in. Build that team and surround you with with team members who maybe mirror your strengths or are obviously can be completely opposite, and I am very thankful the team that I have now we're we are actually a team of girls right now and I have noticed that we have very dominant personalities, but we are also very respectful to our strengths and weaknesses. We were able to recognize our own strengths and weaknesses as well as our counterparts. So I've learned to to bring that team in and, I would say, work together regardless of the situation and and be able to say, hey, I'm not sure about this, or hey, can you let me run with us? And I and I like that.
Speaker 1:So your entire team is all women. That's awesome. Speaking of kind of, put time and two things together, there was a racing team two years ago that was an all women's racing team at the 8500. I mean, all the people across the wall changing the tires all all female and the the bond that that created with that team was really special. It was really something to see because clearly they were in a, in a, in a an industry or a field of racing that not a lot of women are car drivers and mechanics and do those types of things and man, it was so cool to see my daughters were so inspired by that.
Speaker 1:It's amazing just to see all these women out there just bonding together and tackling a challenge, which is really, which is really cool to see when, when you think about you know, um, the again, those early days of leadership and kind of where that brought you along where you are right now. What, um, what's your approach now to like mentoring and developing future leaders in your organization? Like when you think back to when you were coming up, you probably wished you had somebody that could help you out. Maybe you did actually have some people that helped you out, kind of behind the scenes. How does that impact you now? As you know, I mean you and I were kind of getting to the second half of our careers, you know, and looking back, how does that impact you? Helping other women, especially in other leaders, in general?
Speaker 2:I would say encouragement. Encouragement of being that cheerleader, giving them the I'd say, the space, as well as the cheerleader to say, hey, you can do this. Maybe something that's uncharted territory for them, but letting them dig in and be ownership, take ownership of whatever task or role it is. One example in my team is you don't want me in dispatch. It's not good, it is not a good thing. I'm not a good dispatcher, never have been, not my forte. But my lead ops person is very good, very strategic, very smart, but she's shy and she's quiet and I've tried to break that shell for 10 years and I'm finally getting there to say, hey, you know how to do this, take the bull by the horns and do it. Let's roll with it, go ahead and do what you need to do. So I would say the encouragement piece is key to getting your team member to the next level and taking their strengths and saying, hey, it might be new and uncharted territory, but let's do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's powerful when you put people who are really gifted, really talented, in a position and empower them to just to take off and run with it. It usually ends up being significantly better, especially than what I could do, for sure, but overall just even a better experience for them because they start to really own the process and they love what they're doing and get to show off a little bit about what they do and get that confidence, which I think is huge. That's awesome. I love to see that that's so cool.
Speaker 2:And one thing taking them out of their element is another piece my Elf's girl, shaquana. She's great 10 years with me and I'll take her out on customer visits with me. And it's kind of funny because they've worked with both of us and most likely have met me but haven't met Shaquana. And when they meet us together they're like you guys could not get more opposite. And then it all makes sense of how we work well together and we can work with that customer so well and they see the ins and outs of how different our personalities are, but why we work well together.
Speaker 1:So I always like to see your reaction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's usually what makes relationships work anyways. You know most husbands and wives are opposites. You know our VP of operations, coleman Ruffin like we have some similar interests in golf and things like that, but he's a process guy and I'm an ideas guy. We couldn't be more opposite. But it makes it great working together. We help each other out in a lot of ways. Like those relationships are really valuable.
Speaker 1:I think it's unfortunate when people don't appreciate those differences and or you know, kind of identify their areas of deficiency and build around that and invite people in who are really good at the things that they're not. But that's usually what makes greatness is when you get people who are opposites or have different strengths and they're willing to come together and work towards a common goal. It's that's the whole equation, that's the whole, the whole, the way that it works. So, absolutely all right, let's talk about sales for a minute, because this is you know you get thrown into sales. You're a go-getter. You know you're the kind of person where somebody says you can't. You're like, really okay, let's find out, let's see, right what are. Did you have any situations when you started sales that were disastrous? Anything that really comes to mind or any moments that are embarrassing. I love talking about these stories. I've got several of my own to share. What was one for you? That man you're like this is so embarrassing. I can't tell anybody about this.
Speaker 2:You know it's kind of wild. I was reflecting the other day about how much the sales in transportation has changed. The scope and the landscape has changed a lot since 2003 when I came in I'm sure you can relate to that too. On your side of the fence it was the bullpen approach and it was hands-on. You know churn and burn.
Speaker 2:And one thing that I remember is coming into the environment that I was coming into, there was maybe some service, customer service issues or, I would say, bad experiences, and so I got a couple complete butt showings on the phone from clients who were like why are you calling me? And they would, and I just, I mean I handled it the best I could. Of why are you calling me? And? And they would, and I just I would, I mean I handled it the best I could. Of hey, I'm, I'm the newbie. If it happened prior to this date, I wasn't here, um, and tried to take that approach with it, but there was a few of them that I I was like, ooh, I regret making that phone call, but I was doing what I did, what I knew how to do at that time, um, and I would just say just the simple things of like wrong contact names and people angry because you didn't know who you were calling. I mean all the stuff.
Speaker 2:And I think about all the resources that we had. I mean we barely at that time frame had internet and an email, but now you know we have all the legion tools and all this fun stuff that we can really zero in on what we, who we need to call and why we're calling them. And it was kind of just blindly doing our jobs back then. So I think back to those days of crying in my car, you know, hitting that 200 plus phone counts and how long was I on the phone. And I think about all that stuff and I'm like I'm glad I experienced it because it was like the blood, sweat, tears type approach. So I think back to that and I'm just like I'm'm glad I was young, I was really glad I was young and just said go do this and see what, what happens.
Speaker 1:So young and dumb, don't know what we're doing. Those types of things, but really it's like, it's like a boot camp, you know, I think the first year of anybody's sales career should be like a boot camp, because it makes the rest of it a lot easier.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was doing door-to-door sales, walking into an office and this lady with I swear she didn't have any teeth, it looked like you know the gum and their teeth, their, their lips are folding over the gums. And this he was like get out, get out. She grabbed a broom. She came, you know, marching from behind her she's like seven years old marching behind. She's like sweeping me out of the door. I'm like I don't, I'm out of here, I'm not gonna win this one, it's not gonna work.
Speaker 1:I I learned to do things to try to make people laugh, but that one didn't work. In that case I didn't say it, but I wanted to say oh, that broom is so old, let's get you a new one. I'll help you out, I'll order you one right now. I did not do that. I ran out of that one. I did not participate with that, but some of those moments really do shape you from a sales perspective and makes it a lot easier. As you get older, because you know, you learn that every no is one step closer to a yes, whereas before every no is like. This person hates me, they think I'm terrible, and you know that's, that's the wrong way to look at it.
Speaker 2:So it's all I would say that's the advice that I. I was jokingly tell shaquana that I'm moving her to sales, which I would never do.
Speaker 2:That because that's not her forte, but I always jokingly say she's coming to hang out with me. You and I was telling them I'm like the worst thing I can do is say no. And one approach that I've taken in my career is I sell like I like to be sold to if that makes sense. I'm the type of person if I mesh well with the person and I have a good vibe and we're common ground and we see eye to eye and the importance and they read me well as a prospect, that makes my life a lot easier. If you try the hard sell approach with me, it's probably not going to work. So I've always adopted that value. If I was on the other side of the table, what would I want to hear? Or what is the timeliness of contact and feedback? Is that a phone? Is it email? What's the form of communication that is appropriate? So I've always used that as my roadmap and I think that's helped. Versus this is what the manual says we need to do, so I've kind of gone, my own path.
Speaker 1:That's always. The hard thing about sales is that you never know how somebody wants to be sold until you start talking to them. You know when I, when I would go on a road trip to like New York or Baltimore, they wanted you to talk super fast and to the point. They didn't want fluff, they didn't want stories. But when I sold to somebody here in Missouri, they wanted to talk and have a conversation, have a glass of tea.
Speaker 1:It was a totally different vibe, right, and you don't know that until you start talking to somebody how they want to be sold. But I think that's what makes it so difficult. There's not really one way that works. That's what makes it so difficult. There's not really one way that works. Some people really like being challenged and they like a salesperson who will challenge them and confront them and get up in their face and tell them what to do and take control and be the expert. Other people really want it to be more conversational, relational. I feel like it's a choice. It's a crazy game from a sales perspective to figure all that out, but I think that's what also makes it so fun, is it really is every, every conversation, every interaction is a little bit different, and that makes it pretty fun I guess one way you're good.
Speaker 2:No, I said by sticking with that cultural um approach of where you're, where you're working or who you're talking to. I got hit a lot with when I was in texas, moving from, from nebraska is you're not from here? They instantly picked it up on my midwest tone, um that, and so I had to explain I'm not from.
Speaker 2:Texas, and that was always fun. And then my name. My name is always a fun one because I would say one in four contacts or customers I meet with will literally stop and say we thought you were going to be a guy because of my name being quick.
Speaker 2:And I kind of roll with it now. I mean, I've never been offended by it, by no means. But it's one in four and I'm thinking okay, you've talked to me on the phone, you've clearly got an email before you met me. Okay, we're going to roll with it. But it's literally one in four.
Speaker 1:That's when you say but I hit the ball like a guy, so let's go play. You know, let's go. By the way, for those who don't know, corey's a phenomenal golfer, just in case you're wondering what we're talking about. So that's why I threw that in there, which is great. So another way that I mean sales is not only acquiring new customers, but it's also keeping customers, and you've been around a long time. I mean over two decades. You've been in leadership. The company's been around much longer than that. What would be some of your best tips on selling existing customers, keeping existing customers happy, keeping them wanting to work with you? What has been, you know, some of the secret sauce for you so far in that regard?
Speaker 2:A couple of different things comes to mind. Like you mentioned that relationship, I'm big on relationship. If you ask my top clients that we've continuously worked with for the past 15, 20 years, they're going to say the relationship approach, they know me as a person, they know me personally. I'm a human. And even one of my clients in a recent kind of customer survey that we had, they said you know, I know that I call Corey and it's going to be a personable approach. I can have my hair on fire but I'm going to get a personable approach and a calming solution and the level of comfort that I bring them. And so I would say in that regards of just keep nurturing that relationship.
Speaker 2:I have another client. We call her mama because she's like a mom to us because she's been around so long and so it's like I know her life story, she knows my life story and it's just that it's a personable aspect and I would say those relationships are hard to replace and I feel that as you start those relationships, you're going to see quickly if they're going to evolve to that. I recently got married and I had, I think, three customers at my wedding and I had even a couple of competitors as well. Like from the TIA, we were good friends.
Speaker 1:So it's like this big like from the TA we were good friends.
Speaker 2:So it's like this big happy family at times. But I would say that's the level of those clients. It's like if they need something on a weekend or after hours, they're cool texting me and saying, hey, can you have time for a call? Or hey, this is something going on that's kind of hot, can you help me? And they're respectful about it. But they also know that I'm going to be there to have their back and help them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I want to do a quick follow up on that. You know, we're in an industry where pricing just fluctuates seasonally, sometimes big swings, sometimes not quite as big, but sometimes really big swings.
Speaker 1:Twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, big swings. Twenty twenty three a big swing down 2023, a big swing down. How much does you know, do relationships impact or lessen the severity of pricing swings? Because I know sometimes for shippers, when things are when rates are really high, they just want the best price they can get. When rates are low, sometimes they just want the best price they can get. How much has building strong relationships kind of lessened the impact of having to go and you, hey, we have a massive price increase, or when prices drop and they just want to get the best deal possible. How's that work for you?
Speaker 2:I would say it's been very positive because I have that platform with the customer that I can call them and say hey, this is why we've had one swing or the other, and these are the factors that play into that. Another feedback we received from our client survey was the educational approach that I take with them too of explaining the reason why and coming to them with a solution. Not, I don't know what to do, and the price is X.
Speaker 2:I have one client who I really respect is he said just just fix, it is his thing, is just do what you need to do and I'm still very obviously very cautious and I call him and say, hey, this is what we're up against on an unload facility or whatever chaos we're managing at that time and he is like, just fix it. He's like you've never led me astray and if I ever disagree with you, we can always have that conversation and we can figure out what we could have done differently. And in 15 years we've never had that conversation. So there's just a mutual respect. And so I think those conversations have been easier, whether it's the significant increase that we saw, you know, during coming off the COVID arena to the last couple of years that we've been really managing tight prices.
Speaker 2:I would say it's been easier because sometimes I like when they call and say, hey, can you explain this to me? Or why is this? We weren't expecting this, tell us why. And I like to dig in and I love the analytical side of this business of seeing why we're dealing with what we're dealing with and just education a point versus well, that's what the pricing model said. That doesn't give them the backbone of what's affecting their business ultimately, at the end of the day, when a couple of key customers come to mind, they're small to midsize, and we know the whole team. We know the ins and outs, so that information is very valuable to them, so that they understand how to manage their business internally as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially in freight brokerage. I think account-based marketing one of the biggest things you can do is help educate your customers and let them know what's going on, why it's happening, really be the expert for them, Because they're neck deep building their products, building whatever it is that they have, and they're not maybe watching what's going on with transportation and all those types of things. I think that's a huge part of account-based marketing is to do that and really helping customers understand what's going on. So love that approach. All right, my friend, we have to have a little bit of fun on the show here. Before we close things out, we'd like to have a random question of the day Now. Listen, this is a question. I haven't seen it yet. It could be funny, it could be serious, it could be a great question, it could be a dud, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Let's see what it is Okay, the first random question of the day is what mythical creature would improve the world most if it existed? I don't know Interesting. Do you know a lot of mythical creatures? No, I don't feel like I know a lot of mythical creatures, but I guess, like like uh, the loch ness monster maybe is a mythical creature, is that? Right.
Speaker 2:A dragon is a mythical creature, a dragon yes, that would or a unicorn, right, unicorn.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, unicorn. I don't know if it would make the world a better place, but I would definitely go with unicorn because I love horses. Okay, so I'm gonna go with unicorn, would be great. It just makes, I think. I think it makes people happy when they see a unicorn. I don't think anybody sees the unicorn and gets scared, or I think it's just a joyous creature. I don't know. I think I like that, but I don't know. Do you have any other, anything other than that? Are we going to agree on that?
Speaker 2:I think we have to agree on that one, because that's way outside my wheelhouse unanimous unicorn would make the world better.
Speaker 1:Let us know what you think out there, if you're listening. If you've got a mythical creature that you think would be better, let us know, because I clearly don't know a lot of mythical creatures, and neither does Corey. Apparently Neither of us really do. All right, so what's up for NETCO Transport here in the summer? What do you got going on? What's coming up?
Speaker 2:Summer we do a lot of work in hurricane disaster recovery, so we're going into, obviously, obviously, that time, and so we'll be rolling through that season and doing what we can, and we're kind of just I mean, as most companies are right now just kind of status quo, doing what we can riding the storm and doing what we can internally to manage our business better, and so that's what's on the agenda for the summer.
Speaker 1:What advice would you have for shippers out there listening and or carriers out there listening, in regards to hurricane season and what to expect, especially if it's an area that maybe hasn't been hit by a hurricane in a while? There's obviously a lot on the horizon. We know it's bound to happen at some point. What advice do you have for shippers and carriers out there?
Speaker 2:I would say prepare, preparedness, awareness is the other thing. I mean living in the South I'm not born and raised, obviously, from Houston, as you know my story but learning the ins and outs of what it takes, and not only for your business but also just personally. How do you prepare? And just the awareness, because we've all noticed over the years they can pop up overnight and increase in strength and change course. So it's a matter of being prepared and aware. I would say, and also I mean for us is don't put yourself or your business in danger. You know, take the safe route over above anything else.
Speaker 1:Right, you can rebuild your business, you can rebuild your house. You can't really rebuild your life if you lose that. It's a scary thing, and I know for carriers too, especially like FEMA loads and helping out. They got to be ready to go into a place that has no power, no electricity, no running water. So there's a lot of things to be prepared for there in terms of just taking it in. It's almost like just pretend like you're going on a week long camping trip to, uh, you know, yosemite. There's no power there, there's nothing there. You just have to rough it and uh, I think that's that they can do. So it's a tough thing. Well, hopefully it's not too hot and not too humid down there. Quick question before we leave what's the best golf course in Houston that I got to play when I come down?
Speaker 2:You know I haven't played a lot of golf in Houston because I've lived here three years and obviously it's hot all the time. But prior to living here, Especially when you're from Nebraska.
Speaker 1:It's really hot all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say there is a. It's a Tour 18. I think it's a Tour 18 over off the inner side. I've played that, of course, a couple times, is that?
Speaker 1:legit? Does it look like the holes? I mean, is it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you recognize them.
Speaker 1:It's a replica of 18 holes on tour, right.
Speaker 2:They kind of put them together and yeah, I played it years ago I mean 15 years ago, and I think I played it during this time of year, not knowing what I got myself into. That was a fun. That was a fun golf game, but we survived. And then I also played it again with the TIA as an as an event and, yeah, I think it's worth it. It's definitely one of those things you gotta go experience.
Speaker 2:I heard the Houston Opens played at the Memorial and I've never played there, but I think I've walked it. I haven't played it, but I did walk it for the tournament and that looked like a fun course yeah, that's a fun one, and then, I think, one of the oldest golf courses public too.
Speaker 1:I think, right, yes, yeah, yeah, one of the oldest golf courses, that's public too, I think right, yes, yeah, yeah, one of the oldest golf courses in the state is on Galveston Island.
Speaker 2:I've been told that. But I'm not sure on that fact.
Speaker 1:We'd have to dig on that, but I think that we may have to get a group together and go play some of these courses. Yeah, that could be really fun. Corey, thank you so much for being on the show today. It's always good to talk to you, my friend. Congrats on all the success. Thank you, family business, two decades in the industry and just a wonderful person. But thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the opportunity. Great to talk to you both today. It's a fun time.
Speaker 1:All right, see you soon. Everybody, make sure you come back for an episode of Standing Out every Tuesday and, if you're, see you at one of those shows. Also want to give a shout out to our sponsor, spi Logistics, again for making this possible. Check them out at successspi3plcom. Again successspi3plcom. And until next time, remember, folks, stop standing still, start standing out. We'll see you soon.