Standing Out: A Podcast About Sales, Marketing and Leadership
Standing Out is a show created to help individuals and companies improve their sales & marketing outcomes, as well as their leadership development. Each episode we have an expert who has a unique perspective on sales, marketing and/or leadership providing insights from his or her experiences. And we throw in a few laughs from time to time. Be sure to hit Subscribe wherever you listen to our podcasts.
Standing Out: A Podcast About Sales, Marketing and Leadership
Lessons from History to Personal Branding: Honoring Heroes and Embracing Stoicism in Business
Join us in this incredible episode of Standing Out with special guest, Clark Wellman – National Sales Director @ AmeriPol. Tune into our disussion as we swap insights on how the 101st Airborne Division's unwavering commitment and purpose can light the way for modern endeavors, be it in business or personal growth. As well as share anecdotes from World War II that illustrate bravery and leadership—lessons that still resonate today.
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.
Hey everybody, what's going on? Welcome back to Standing Out a podcast about sales, marketing and leadership. I'm Trey Griggs, your host, and the CEO and founder of Beta Consulting Group. So glad you're with us today. Hey, take a moment when you get a chance, check us out at betaconsultinggroupcom. See how we are helping companies to tell their story. It's so important. You got a great product. You got a great service. People have to know about it. We'd love to hear from you. Click on that little button on our website to schedule a call with yours truly. Tell us about your story and we'll help you write yours Also.
Speaker 1:A couple of things to announce before we get the show started off today. First of all, we are syndicated on Wreaths Across America Radio every Tuesday night at 6 pm. So excited to be a part of that organization. If you have not checked out Wreaths Across America, make sure you do that. Make sure that you participate. You can donate a wreath. And if you're not sure exactly what they do, they place wreaths at the tombstones of fallen soldiers every middle of December every year, so that we can remember and we can teach the next generation about the sacrifice that they made. Again, phenomenal organization. So excited to be partnered with them. Make sure you make a donation. We actually have a link that you can donate to our page through Wreaths Across America and we would love for you to be a part of that.
Speaker 1:Speaking of Wreaths Across America, we're going to have Courtney George on the show real soon. She is the one that does all the transportation for this. It's amazing 4 million wreaths to over 4,000 cemeteries across the country, working with truckers who donate their trucks to get those wreaths all across the country. So really excited to have her on the program real soon. She's coming up here in a week or two, so looking forward to getting that episode out to you.
Speaker 1:Also, it's not too late to sign up for the Elevate Conference for TMSA. What is TMSA? It's the Transportation, marketing and Sales Association and it is phenomenal in our industry for sales and marketing professionals. It's an incredible event. It's in New Orleans this year and it's the 100th anniversary of TMSA, so you don't want to miss that. Again, it's not too late. That's June 9 through 11 in New Orleans. Beta's very own Coleman Ruffin is going to be emceeing that event with our good friend Jennifer Carbis Romaine. Again, make sure you go to eventstmsatodayorg to sign up for that you won't want to miss it. It's going to be phenomenal. Also, make sure you follow us on YouTube at beta underscore podcast, underscore network. Be sure to subscribe on there. Turn on the notifications, that way you don't miss any of our episodes coming up.
Speaker 1:Finally, I want to give a shout out to our sponsor, spi logistics, for making this possible. Listen, if you're a freight broker or an agent and you're just ready for something new, maybe you're a freight broker. You don't want all that back office stuff, or maybe you're an agent just not quite satisfied with the freight broker that you're working with right now. They got the technology systems and back office support to help you succeed. So make sure you check them out at successspi3plcom. Let them know. You heard about it right here from Standing Out. All right, it's time to get the show going today. I actually have a good friend of mine from the St Louis area. We could have done this show in person, but we decided to do it over the old internet. Today we got to stay away from those cicadas out there. It's crazy Huge cicada manifestation here in St Louis. So we're doing it virtually today. But please, welcome to the show my good friend and one of the new guys over at Ameriport. We're going to talk about him today. Please welcome Clark Wellman to the show.
Speaker 2:Now, this is a good song dude.
Speaker 1:This is a good song right here, man. Always good to hear some new walk-up music. How are you doing, my friend?
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 1:It is good to have you on the show. I feel like we should have been doing this over some sushi, but this is okay, we'll make this work. This will be all right.
Speaker 2:Sushis and noodles. Brother Sushis and noodles.
Speaker 1:We got our normal sushi run around here. Shout out to Wasabi here in Clayton area in St Louis. But good to have you on the show today, man. You're doing something new and I can't wait to talk to you about it. So thanks for being a part today. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2:I appreciate the offer, thank you.
Speaker 1:All right, man, we got to talk about this cicada infestation. You live in Kirkwood. I'm out in Wildwood, about 25 minutes apart. Are you guys feeling this? Are you seeing this?
Speaker 2:Yeah it's. You know it's funny. I was talking to my wife last night. We were letting the dog out. So, first and foremost, dogs likes eating cicadas, but not our little princess for some reason. Oh yeah, I see these dogs eating the cicadas all the time, but not our little princess. But we started. It was like a wave, a slow wave. We'd start hearing them out in the West, start hearing them out in the West. My wife jinxed it. She said honey, I'm not sure if they're going to come to our neighborhood. And then, literally two days after the fact, boom we got nailed.
Speaker 1:We got nailed. Yeah, my dog must be bougie, because he's not eating any of the cicadas he sniffs them and just moves on, he's not all about that, but it's pretty wild. I heard a stat about cicadas and this is crazy. We're in missouri, here in the midwest. It's a huge infestation here in illinois whatnot? I heard 1.2 million cicadas per acre acre dude how crazy is that? That's a lot of cicadas, that's nuts that's.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of cicadas and uh, a lot of crunching when you're walking or running it's wild.
Speaker 1:I heard also that they're louder than helicopters. That blows my mind. I mean, helicopters are pretty loud, but in my street, if I go with my top off of my Jeep, it's unbearable.
Speaker 2:It's so loud Well so yeah, quick side note on that. So I have a brother-in-law and I think I've mentioned this to you, my brother-in-law that lives in Nashville, tennessee. He's big into the music industry. He took his phone out, took it out on the back porch and held it up to read the decibels and then he shared it on yeah, he shared it on LinkedIn and it was like it was nuts.
Speaker 1:It was like you can't, wasn't it like 92 or 98 or something I mean it was just crazy.
Speaker 2:It was like being at a rock concert. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. To put that in perspective, like Arrowhead stadium where the chiefs play, they get up to like 120 decibels. Yes, we're at 90 decibels with cicadas. I mean that's, that's crazy, it's just nuts, it's, it's wild. Let's talk about something a little bit more enjoyable. I know that you love rucking and you've made it popular in the kirkwood area. Tell us about this something, why? I don't even know what this is. What is rucking?
Speaker 2:all right. So you you've you've experienced the rucking at queenie park, and so has Dr Mark from Offshift right. So you know I think you know this about me I was in the military a number of years ago and one of the exercises or one of the things you're quite welcome, but one of the things that we used to do was marches and you threw on a quote-unquote rucksack and that rucksack, depending on what you were doing whether or not you were out in the field on a mission or you got your stuff loaded under your rucksack ammunition, water, clothes, food, everything and, depending on how the people felt that day, we'd go six miles. Sometimes we'd go further than that. So I was in a funny you should mention this 2017, I was looking at Amazon.
Speaker 2:2017 is when I ordered my first quote unquote ruck, which is essentially a weight vest that looks like a tactical vest. Right, you've seen it. I started doing. Then COVID hits when am I going to go work out, how am I going to get my exercise in? So I threw the ruck on and I started walking the neighborhoods and then, gradually, I'd start seeing more and more people carry the little 20 pound ones, and now everybody on our neighborhood, it seems like has one, so I popularize rucking in Kirkwood Missouri.
Speaker 1:You're taking credit for that. I don't blame you. My neighbor actually mows his lawn with one of those vests on. I have not given into the rucking trend just yet, but I'm sure if I keep hanging out with you it's probably going to happen.
Speaker 1:Next time we go to Queenie you're gonna get one. Oh great, I've walked right into that one. Yeah, and you know that's a. That's a side note. You and dr mark and I get together at one of the parks here in town and walk around for like an hour. It's about a three oh yeah, and it's great.
Speaker 1:It's one of my favorite business meetings that we have talking life talking. We're all kind of entrepreneurs and a part of startups and things like that. It's phenomenal. I don't know why I haven't done this before, but it's one of the things I look forward to every month. I really enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Oh it's a blast. I have so much fun doing that. I have so much fun doing that.
Speaker 1:So it's so good, all right.
Speaker 2:So one more thing before we get into the to watch this at some point, I would like to certainly display this for you. This comes from the great state of Ohio, and then Columbus, which I consider Mecca, and then Columbus Stadium or, excuse me, ohio Stadium, which is the holy grail of all college football, and even above those people up north in that state that I shall remain nameless, excuse me.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Let's do this.
Speaker 1:Let's see if we can make this work in O-H.
Speaker 2:I-O baby.
Speaker 1:There you go, got that. So I at least know that much. I'm not a. Ohio State fan, but I know enough, I know enough to do that 'd you become? A house, ifian. Are you from that area or um?
Speaker 2:long story short. My dad, who also served in the military, um, served as uh for about four or five years, was a doctor in the military. He started off as a dentist uh, and then ohio state. The ohio state university had one of the premier and I brag about my dad all the time premier oral and maxillofacial surgeon uh programs where you essentially become an MD and fix broken faces. So he went to school there, took me, my mom, my other sister with me and if anybody that listens to me or what understands, when you grow up in Columbus Ohio, you have no choice but to be a Buckeye. So I've been a Buckeye.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if there's a state that really rallies around one university, it's Ohio, for Ohio State University. I mean we talk about anybody, any other schools that are there. There's some good schools there, but nobody talks about it. Xavier's there, miami, ohio, there's several.
Speaker 2:Oh, ohio, there's several of them. Oh yeah, the University of Cincinnati, miami of Ohio, like you said, they're all great schools, but they just don't have the Ohio State University football team.
Speaker 1:They don't have the loyalty, the cult-like following that Ohio State has.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we could be pretty obnoxious. We could be pretty obnoxious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cool, and once you're in, it's like it's hard to get out. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 1:Hey, you had a LinkedIn post recently where you said you quoted somebody that said remind yourself, 60% better to a problem is better than 0% better and that one was worth posting. Talk about that a little bit. And your thought process around progress and just improvement Talk about that.
Speaker 2:You can never stop learning, right, you can never, ever, ever stop learning. And you know, pick your poison, pick what you want to learn. I personally like reading religion, bible, those type of things, but I also like reading Stoic philosophy. I think there's a lot of good information that we can gather from the Stoics Epictetus, seneca, marcus Aurelius and some of the stuff that they say. But they're always saying focus inward, focus on yourself, focus on the things that you can control. And what can we control? We can control our thoughts, we can control how we react to things, but another thing that we can control is taking information in and learning more and more and more. So I would rather be 5% better 10 years from now than 0% better 10 years from now if that makes any sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that you know I've heard it in other ways, I've heard the same phrase in other ways I think perfection is really the enemy of good or great, but one way to think of it is and I think about this too like if you have something that's like 85% done or 90% done, but you're waiting to launch it, for example, for it to be perfect, it's never going to be perfect number one, but two, like 90% in the market is better than 100%, not in the market, and so I think there's something to be said about that.
Speaker 1:I think that's why people like the people who build in public, who show us the process this isn't perfect, we're iterating, we're making it better and better and we're going to talk about it, and I think there's something to be said about that. I was also talking to or I was, I was watching a clip on Jerry, jerry Seinfeld. So the same thing about stoicism, about everything that we're worrying about all the, all the people maybe that worried about our situations or work or whatever stressful moments, situations, financial situations. They're all going to go away. They're all eventually going to be gone, but we're letting them really impact us in this moment, and that's a big part of it is, like you said, focus inwardly, control what you can control. That's a big lesson in life. That's emotional intelligence that sometimes takes people a long time to figure out.
Speaker 2:Oh God, and it's an ongoing thing. I mean just briefly on what you were just touching on. I was listening to a podcast this morning, during one of my rucks, by the way, in Kirkwood Stoicism on Fire, which is a podcast I absolutely love but talks about becoming a sage, which is like the ultimate pen. What the ultimate in becoming a Stoic philosopher? No one will ever reach that. Epictetus Seneca, those guys never reach that status. You're never going to be, perfect, you're never going to be perfect.
Speaker 1:It's like being an expert leader doesn't exist, or an expert parent. I mean you're always learning, always figuring something out, and I think that that attitude it's in some ways it's depressing, because I think we all like finish lines, we like getting somewhere, but at the same point it's like working out You're never going to be in perfect shape that you don't have to keep working out and doing things.
Speaker 2:So a lot can be learned out of that.
Speaker 1:I know you're a history buff. You mentioned Marcus Aurelius and some of the others. Are there any historical events that particularly interest you that have?
Speaker 2:maybe key takeaways which you apply to your life, your profession, which ones really kind of grab you. I am big into World War II history. I absolutely love World War II history. I, like you, know Vietnam history, civil War history. I like a lot of history around and it's not that I'm a violent person by any stretch of the imagination, but you know why war started, how wars were won and the heroism and the courage and the leadership that was actually developed in several key battles throughout Civil War all the way through World War II, from people that, quite honestly, you wouldn't expect to have taken that leadership role. But I absolutely love history, war history I don't know what it.
Speaker 2:I had a family member and I don't want this to come across as a braggart statement because it certainly is not but I have a family member who happens to be buried here in St Louis Trey. That was a no up. Oh, there's a big cemetery off of 70 down by the river road or whatever. Anyway, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor at the Battle of Gettysburg, which I thought was just absolutely so cool and so that I think when I found that out as a younger kid, it's like that kind of stuff is really cool to me. Of course I joined the military, had family who was in the military, but I love military history.
Speaker 1:Have you been down to the Civil War Museum down near Jefferson Barracks here in St Louis?
Speaker 2:You know what I have not.
Speaker 1:You should definitely go my daughter's high school history teacher's family runs that, so we got to have a trip down there, road trip. It family runs that, so we got to get down there Road trip Phenomenal facility. It's phenomenal and it's definitely worth the trip and so I can connect you with that. I'm going to get up with that, but it's a phenomenal facility.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Would love it.
Speaker 1:What was it about World War II that was really appealing to you in the sense of learning about it? Was it the recency of it? I mean, it's really the biggest major war that is kind of connected to our generation, like my parents, you know, grew up that were born right right at the time of uh, you know, uh, of the end of that of that war. So what was it about that? That's kind of grabbed your attention.
Speaker 2:I think. I think there's. There's several things, Um, but the big thing that I'm a big fan of Stephen Ambrose. Stephen Ambrose wrote several books, one of them called D-Day uh, one of them called Common Soldier. He's written several other books, but that generation, that particular generation, was forced to go to war through a draft, right, but they went and they fought and there was a purpose behind why they were fighting, right? I think of the men of I don't know, I'm a big Band of Brothers fan. I think of the men that joined that unit and at the time you know that was considered special forces like Green Berets, navy, seals, army Rangers at the time the 101st and the Airborne was considered that. But the sacrifices that they made.
Speaker 2:There are wonderful stories about leadership that come throughout World War II that I don't think a lot of people are aware of. But when I talk about leaders, these are people that were privates, sergeants and stuff like that in the battlefield. An interesting statistic that I loved and it sticks with me. The story sticks with me all the time.
Speaker 2:When we stormed the beaches of Normandy, there were hedgerows, and the hedgerows were not these little shrubs that you and I would find in our front, in our backyard. These were 10 feet tall, thick, and on the other side of that were germans, right, and we had to get our men over to fight, but there was no way because our tanks couldn't get through there, right. So a sergeant and I can't remember his name, but a couple guys came up with the idea of taking the obstacles that we're all familiar with, that were on the beaches right, undoing them and then welding them onto the front of the tanks and then utilizing those as kind of like ways to push and and cut through the hedgerows. That came from somebody who was following a leader, but somebody who had a great idea, and then, of course, these leaders are like yeah, that's a great idea, let's try it. And it worked, it worked. So I know.
Speaker 2:And then and then I, you know, I look at, I think you know, I think you know, I was in Poland for a couple of weeks and part of me being in Poland was being able to see some sites of where World War Two really quote unquote, began with the invasion of Poland from Hitler. And just being able to see those sites and knowing what those people did, their face, it's just we all know the story, but I mean just what they had to face. And you're walking into something you may die.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know so it's different when you see on location where these events took place. We took our kid to see the American revolutionary kind of trail, Gettysburg and places it's. It's different, it hits different when you actually see those. And I think part of the reason that we're so kind of fascinated by World War II, by the American Revolutionary War it shaped the world as we see it today. Much of the world and the way that this iteration of the world is today was shaped by World War II and by the American Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1:So it's really fascinating to see those things and a lot of lessons can be learned, so I'm glad you got to visit. Poland. Speaking of Poland, we have to talk about why the heck you were there in the first place. And that is, you got a new opportunity, which I'm really excited about, with our friends over at Art Express, with their Ameripol staffing division, the company that's really helping companies with that. Talk about what you guys are doing and tell us a little bit about your trip to.
Speaker 2:Poland, because that's fascinating. Yeah, absolutely so. I guess I'll preface this by stating I'm in Anna Marie Island in Florida Not now, but I was celebrating our daughter's 16th birthday. You and I share a daughter around the same age with my wife, her best friend and myself and I get a text on a Sunday, and I was leaving on a Monday, I get this text from this guy, trey Griggs, right and saying hey, you're going to the hockey game with me on Tuesday night. I'm like, well, trey, I'm just getting back in, I may need to no, no, no. Again, I may need to no, no, no, you're going. And it was all through text. I said, okay, fine, so go to the hockey game, end up meeting the president of Ameripol there and he and I just had a wonderful conversation.
Speaker 2:Peter is his name, wasn't really expecting anything out of that. Got a message on LinkedIn from a gentleman by the name of Brian Av avashon with tab, whom you know very good company, a broker company here that we partner with and um brian's like can you come in? And I said, sure. So I came in. I sat down with the two principals, two co-ceos of the company, and just had a really open and honest discussion. I I didn't know where it was going. Then, all of a sudden, I thought you know what I could work with these guys? I could work with these guys. I could work with these guys. This is going to be fun. It's a leadership thing.
Speaker 2:So long and the short of it is I. First and foremost, thank you for presenting the opportunity to me. Now, come on, man, come on, you're welcome, you're welcome. But as part of the indoctrination, right, I get to go to Poland for two weeks because our company was founded by three gentlemen from Poland, and so they shipped me over to Poland for two weeks and I am not scarred, that's not the word. I am not scarred, that's not the word I am. So I was so impressed with, with everything that we, we had a chance to do over there. I got to meet my teammates and for you know, as you know, trey, what we do is we outsource talent to Poland for a variety of reasons, but these guys wanted me to go over to Poland and see the country, experience the culture, meet my teammates, and there's so many lessons that I've learned over there that I've brought back with me. Does that kind of answer your question?
Speaker 1:No, that's incredible, yeah, and I want to dig into that just a little bit more, because what I love- about what?
Speaker 1:Ameripol is doing is you know you guys are. There are other companies in the space that do something similar, outsourcing work in different parts of the world, but the workers in Poland and their attitude and their work ethic and their education level it's so high. And probably my favorite part of the whole model is their ability to come over the United States. There's a visa exchange where they can just come right away for six months, which allows them to come and sit next to and you know, in the offices of the companies that they're working with, and so absolutely training and the adoption, the education curve, all that uh is phenomenal with the models you guys have, and that's one of my favorite things about what you guys do at ameripool.
Speaker 1:What was it about, you know, when you started to understand what they were doing, that really attracted to you? Because I remember when they they came to me like hey, do you know anybody that is, you know, is a really good salesman. I'm like I know a guy here in town yeah, let me, let me make that happen was really well, yeah, doing a little research on poland itself.
Speaker 2:The country, um, really kind of was one of the things that kind of pushed me over the edge. You talk about the education trey. Um, I think there's a sense of pride over there too. That is palpable, right. So let me talk about the education, uh, education, piece first.
Speaker 2:Poland, like many other European countries, offer free education, higher education, right Now, it's your choice. You can either choose to go or you can choose not to go, and several of the people that we have as teammates have chosen to go to school. Okay, the other thing people say, oh, it's free, yeah, it's free, you still have to get in there. Their requirements to get into university are incredibly stringent because they're paying for it. The country is paying for you to go to school. Right, teammates, when they have gone to school, they are there because they want to learn. They want to learn. And, what is most humbling for me, having spent two weeks there, all right, as I'm sitting next to people in our offices over there that have master's degrees in economics, I was sitting next to a gentleman that does some work for one of our clients that is, uh, getting his law degree. Okay, I mean, these are smart, smart people.
Speaker 2:But another thing about Poland that really struck me is, if you think about it, trey, I mean we were younger, but Poland emerged from communism in 1989, 1990. Okay, not that long ago, exactly Exactly, okay, okay, so one generation ago these people are coming out of communism. You go over to that country now it has exploded. It has exploded. Um, the people have a sense of pride because they were taught that by their parents who were living under communist rule. The guy that I work with, p, were living under communist rule. The guy that I work with, Peter, lived under communist rule up until 1989. Got to play soccer over there, play professional soccer and everything. But when I left, when I left that office and I said, guys, one thing you guys can be proud of is where you are as a country. And then you look at things like GDP, how that country has grown. I mean the country has exploded. Gdp is probably one of the highest in all of Europe. Okay, education rates are through the roof. I mean these people are smart and they work.
Speaker 1:It's also a beautiful country too. Like our good friend Jared Zlosky, he sent us pictures from being over there. And, man, it is a beautiful country. Man, it just looks amazing. Yes.
Speaker 2:So from being over there and, man, it is a beautiful country, man, it just looks amazing. So, paul, just a sidebar. So Paul came to our offices. By the way, we have two offices one in a town called Rzeszów, which is in the southeastern region of Poland, about 35 miles away from the Ukrainian border, and then we have another office that we just recently opened up in Dansk, which is primarily for our IT and computer solutions. That we're starting that group up here real soon. But anyway, paul came over to the office in Dzerzhiv and then we drove to a town called Lublin, had lunch with him and got to know each other a little bit and just had absolutely wonderful time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean it's a beautiful country, the people are gorgeous. They're very highly educated and they they are excited about the work that they get to do with the company, but the best part is that they can come here if necessary. That travel and train program is so awesome. What'd you guys have for that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. It's fantastic. We've got a couple of folks that are here right now in the States with us doing some additional training with some of our clients, my teammates. I love those folks over there. And then, like I said, and if I may you know I talked about, we've got the two different offices. I think you know that. So we have an office in this town called Zheshov, which is primarily just our normal everyday kind of back office staffing, track and trace. We do other things aside from logistics as well, and then we opened up on this office up north, and the office up north is in this town called Dansk, and two of the more well thought of or higher ranked uh, it and computer solutions companies are based in that town. So we had a wealth of people and talent that we can just draw from.
Speaker 1:So anyway, that's cool, Okay. So one question about Poland what's the best food that you had over there that we can't get here in the States? Was there something that you had over there, maybe for the first time, or that you just we can't get here in the States? Was there something that you had over there?
Speaker 2:maybe for the first time, or that you just we can't get here in the States. What was it? Homemade pierogi, homemade pierogi, really.
Speaker 1:So you know what I don't even know what that is Okay. What is that?
Speaker 2:I'm going to buy you some and I'll bring them to you next time. Pierogi is like think about our toasted ravioli. Our pierogi is like think about our toasted ravioli, our ravioli's here, okay, okay. Pierogis are uh like a. And they boil them, they don't they. They can fry them, but they stuff them with pork. They'll stuff them with cabbage, they'll stuff them with potatoes and onions. So pierogi is kind of like our pizza. It's like the go-to food for people in poland, and especially during when they were under communist rule, cheaper food they could eat. It was cheaper to make as opposed to going out and buying meat and all that kind of stuff. So pierogi, hands down my favorite is it like a and?
Speaker 2:red the only like.
Speaker 1:Maybe like pita bread or some sort of like they're tiny, they're tiny.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing, the other, the other food that I absolutely love is, uh, they borscht, which is red beets, uh, and they spice that stuff up too.
Speaker 1:So nice, I love it. I've never had either of those things, so oh my gosh I told I told the guys I got to get over to poland and see this sometime.
Speaker 2:I want to I'll go I'll go I know you will.
Speaker 1:I know you will all right. So real quick, before we move on to our. We got a game today. We're having a little fun here in just a minute, but I want to ask one more quick question. One thing that you and I talk a lot about is the value of sales and marketing working together, about the value of brand and those types of things. What would you say is you know, how is your personal brand really kind of something that's contributed to your success? How do you think about that in the sense of, like, how you can elevate your brand and how that actually is going to elevate the Ameripole brand?
Speaker 2:Well, you know it's a good question. I tend to think of myself as an incredibly honest person. I can build relationships. Well, you know, in what we do, what Ameripole does, it's not a hard sale like selling software. This is relationship sales. So I think I hope that that's a quality of mind the honesty and the ability to build a solid relationship and then, more importantly, establish that trust right With the people that we are essentially offering our solutions and our teammates to help solve problems for them. So that's, you know. There's probably more to that, but I, I just I just believe that you know you've got to be honest and you've got to build that trust and and and, and you do that through being honest and and and being there to listen and and to help solve problems and so forth.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that answered your question or but yeah, no it speaks volumes to it, because I was having this conversation with another friend and you know I've had this conversation as well is there's a likability factor in sales that matters. When I was in door-to-door sales, for example, if I could get somebody to like me then I had a shot, but if they did like me I had zero shot. I mean they just tell me to get out if they didn't like me. So there's an element of likability. I mean rarely do people buy something from someone they don't like. They only do that when they have to buy it and they don't have any other options.
Speaker 2:Then they'll Exactly.
Speaker 1:But if they have options and they don't have to buy it. Likability is a big part of just getting your foot in the door and I think that goes to reputation. It goes to who you are building trust, having integrity, all those things built into that. Where people feel like I like this person, I'll talk to them, I'll listen, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, and I think it's interesting too, because I look at how we want to grow this company, how Ameripole wants to grow. We're not looking at it to just expand and just get huge in a short amount of time. We want to take our time, develop the relationships, build the trust with the clients, build a reputation as being a very, very, very reliable BPO, and so the leadership here has the same kind of vision, just to make this just the place to be if you need help. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And personal brand matters, like if likability gets you in the door. A great product or service often keeps you there, you know. I think that's really valuable to have both, and so personal branding is a big deal. We talk about it, you know, especially if you're in sales, like to me. If you're in sales, that's a big part of the equation now, like it used to be. You know, knocking on doors and maybe on the phone, and then now there's email and nowadays I really believe that social media and having a social presence and LinkedIn engagements and relationships and all those kind of things all of it feeds into who is Clark Wellman and do I want to talk to him? All that stuff matters. You do a great job with it, so I was excited to recommend you to the good people over at Articulate.
Speaker 2:Love it and shameless plug for you. Though, if anybody needs help with that kind of stuff, the guy sitting, in my case, to the to the left of me. I can't say enough about what you have done and how you have conducted your business. We've known each other for about four or five years. I knew you when. I knew you when.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you when. Yeah, you've seen the tiny man yeah, you're, you're a superstar, brother you're a superstar. You're very kind. Thank you for saying. I appreciate that. Let's have some fun. Man, let's play a game today we're playing a game called wavelength boy clark.
Speaker 1:Here's how this works Our producers are going to put a banner up and that banner is going to have a letter and a category, so it might say something like food H, and what we have to do is see if we can come up with the same word of food that starts with H and see if we can be on the same wavelength. All right, all right, let's go.
Speaker 1:We're friends, we're good friends, let's see All right. So All right, let's go. We're friends, we're good friends, let's see All right. So we're coming up with a TV show that starts with you.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness, it starts with you, oh man, oh, I got one, I got one, and it was a movie too. We got one, that was a movie too. Sean Connery, kevin Costner.
Speaker 1:Okay, shoot oh man Prohibition, or maybe no A7.
Speaker 2:Prohibition, Prohibition Al Capone.
Speaker 1:Prohibition Gosh. Okay, I'm going to blank on this one. Here we go, you ready. Three, two, one Undercover.
Speaker 2:Untouchables.
Speaker 1:Untouchables. Oh, that's right Gosh, I'm such an idiot I couldn't think of that. I was thinking maybe like undercover boss, but I wasn boss might have gotten it done. I knew that wasn't it all right overall for one. That was actually. That was a sample, that was just, that was a test, that didn't count.
Speaker 2:Here we go, a household item that starts with an e, a household item that starts with an e.
Speaker 1:Okay, I got one, I got one, I got one uh, I've got one.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if this is going to work, but I got it All right, here we go.
Speaker 1:Three, two, one.
Speaker 2:Electric blender. Electric anything you probably could have said electric blender.
Speaker 1:I know, Electric would have been a good choice. I should have done that. Electricity is probably the best option.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:All right, we're 0 for 1 officially0 for 2, if anybody's actually counting. All right, a catch catch phrase that starts with in, catch phrase that starts with in this is a tough one. This. That's a real broad category. All right, I got one.
Speaker 2:I got one I think I've got one too, but go we ready not in my house today okay, not we were so close, oh man. I like not in my house, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, I think those have the same sentiments. I think they have the same sentiments. I think we should get credit for that one, because that was a broad yeah, we do. We came up with, not I mean that's pretty good.
Speaker 1:So, okay, we're going to take that one. So we're one for two. All right, here we go. An animal that be an animal gosh I can only think of. Okay, I got one you ready. Three, two, one bear, let's go all right, two in a row. Two in a row here we go. All right, something you can wear that starts with an o, something you can wear that starts with an o. Oh, and I don't think we're going to use colors here it actually has to be an object. Starts with an O.
Speaker 2:I got one thing, that's.
Speaker 1:I can think of one thing, but it's not the actual way you say it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do too. I've got something.
Speaker 1:All right, here we go. Three, two, one Opticals. Opticals.
Speaker 2:I said optical, let's go All right. I said optical.
Speaker 1:That's three in a row. That's unbelievable. That's hard to believe that we got that one. Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:A food that starts with a G oh, a food that starts with a G Yep, oh man, I can think of several, but I've got one that just popped into my head.
Speaker 1:I'm blanking right now. Let's see oh geez, A food that starts with a G.
Speaker 2:Why am I stuck on this. Okay, here we go. Got it. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1:Three, two, one Granola.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, You've got to be kidding me. I had grapes as my first one and I switched it. Oh, you can't switch, man you can't do that.
Speaker 1:It's like a test score. You can't change answers, the first one's almost over.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we got a half point.
Speaker 1:All right, we're three out of five on that. We got the first three letters correct, but not correct. Okay, here we go. Last one let's see if we can pass today's Waverly A movie that starts with F. Okay, I got one.
Speaker 2:I do too All right, let's try it.
Speaker 1:Three, two, one, here we go, ferris.
Speaker 2:Bueller oh, that would have been a good one. That, ferris Bueller, that would have been good All right, my friend, we got three.
Speaker 1:That's actually pretty impressive and I'm really excited that that we got that. That is, uh, that's pretty wild, okay. Lastly, we got a random question for you. It's always like fun, just to see. I don't know if it's a good question, if it's a bad question, if it's funny, serious, I don't know. Here we go. What is? What sport would be the funniest to add a mandatory amount of alcohol to? Oh, I like this question what sport would be the funniest to add a mandatory amount of alcohol to?
Speaker 2:oh gosh, I'm sitting here thinking I got a summer.
Speaker 1:Olympics, sport, you ready? Ok, summer Olympics I'm thinking gymnastics, yeah. I was, and mine Trying to do a bounce beam with just a little bit of tequila. Oh man.
Speaker 2:Either that, or the shot put or the discus and track. Somebody can get hurt. Because you've got to spin around. You've got to spin around. You're thinking of the baseball bat.
Speaker 1:That's hard enough as it is, and then throw a little.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's pretty crazy, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Summer Olympics. Just a little shot of something before you do the bounce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Let's see what happens Some uneven bars with a little tequila thrown back.
Speaker 2:I mean what it could be bad, it could throw out as well. Yeah, all right, my friend. So what's next for Ameripol? What are you guys working on? How can people learn more about this?
Speaker 1:Well, obviously the website Ameripolstaffingcom. What do we have in the works? Well, as you know we are.
Speaker 2:Did you say tech, is that what you're opening up up? Yeah, so we, we, we started off with uh, as I mentioned before, we started off with just the basic, you know, fundamental staffing, uh, for the several different tiers, right, um. And then we said you know what it? Computer, ai, all the stuff that's coming at us from you need talent for that. So we opened up that office up in the northern part of Poland, very affordable town, but also close, very important, very close to two of the top universities in Europe for IT and computer Marketing-wise. You know, hey, you know this, we've been flying under the radar. We're going to continue to probably, you know, fly a little bit under the radar radar but we need some visibility and this is not much longer, no, not much longer.
Speaker 2:And we've got some talented people from the outside that are helping us with some some marketing and some messaging and so forth. You know, I believe I believe, as as kind of one of the leaders of this organization, we we don't know everything we've got to bring people in to kind of help us frame that for us. So there's some folks and I think you know a few that are helping us out with that, but just you know, kind of be on the lookout for us. We're, we're coming, we're coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's important to have quality partners that can help you out in ways that you know. Maybe you're not as strong. You guys are certainly doing that for your customers. It's always good to have you on the show. Thank you for visiting. I can't wait for our next sushi run or our next rucking adventure. I know it's coming. I'll do stuff. Appreciate you being on the show All right man.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody, Make sure you come back every Tuesday for an episode of Standing Out with great guests like Clark Wellman. Also thank great guests like Clark Wellman. And also thank you to our sponsor, SBI Logistics, for making this possible. Remember to visit them at successsbi3fillcom, Especially if you're a freight broker that's just tired of having the back office and all that. You want to just stay in your lane and work with customers and cover loads. You got everything you need. Check them out at successsbi3fillcom and until next time, don't forget. My friends stop.
