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
Revolutionizing Logistics: Jin Stedge on Innovation, Sales, and Growth
How does a Neuro Mathematics student Co-Found a leading Trucking Relationships Managements platform?
Find out in this episode of Standing Out with Jin Stedge as we learn about her experience as Co-Founder and CEO of TrueNorth. Discover how her journey from neuroscience to the freight world has been fueled by problem-solving prowess and a desire to empower small carriers. We dive insights on adapting to change, leading with flexibility, and the emotional rollercoaster of major business pivots.
Thank you to our sponsor, Salesdash CRM – A CRM for Freight Logistics. Salesdash CRM is built for freight broker & agent sales teams. Manage your shipper prospecting and follow-ups. Organize your carriers and the lanes they run. Learn more at www.betaconsultinggroup.com/standing-out
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. Welcome back to another episode of Standing Out, a podcast about sales, marketing and leadership. I'm Trey Griggs, your host, so happy that you are with us today. I'm the founder and chief encouragement officer at Beta Consulting Group. When you get a little time after the show, check us out at betaconsultinggroupcom. See how we're helping companies with their sales and marketing strategies. There's a little button halfway down that says schedule a call. That's with me. Push that button, schedule a call with me. Tell us your story and we'll help you write yours and really build your brand in the marketplace.
Speaker 1:Before we get started today, we've got a couple of announcements. Things are coming up. I can't believe it's mid-October and Halloween's close by, but before that we have a massive event down in Fort Worth, texas, october 23 through 25, the Broker Carrier Summit. This is the place where deals get done. It's not too late to sign up. Go visit at brokercarriersummitcom, check it out, click on the button to register. Get signed up for this event. Don't forget about the Post and Pray Classic presented by True North, so excited for that event as well. I can't wait to see you guys down in Fort Worth. That's going to be an amazing event. Listen, if you are a freight broker or a truckload carrier looking for partners that are like you that got good values. They want to do the right thing. This is the event of the year, so make sure that you make it down there to Fort Worth Again. October 23 through 25,. Brokercarriersummitcom Use the coupon code BETA B-E-T-A to get 10% off and make sure you come up and say hi at the event. Introduce yourself. Can't wait to meet you when we get there.
Speaker 1:To our friends over at Wreaths Across America Radio, if you're listening on the radio, thank you for tuning in. We're so excited to be a part of their Trucking Tuesday lineup Every week. Wreaths Across America does some phenomenal work and we'd love for you to partner with us in what they do. So please go to wreathsacrossamericaorg. Forward, slash standing out and right there you can sponsor a wreath. They lay over uh four million wreaths on the tombstones of former fallen soldiers. It's just amazing experience. Every december, 4 000 different cemeteries across the country. You can sign up to volunteer. If you have a truck, you could volunteer your truck to deliver wreaths to one of the uh cemeteries across the country. So thank you to our friends over reads across america for the great work that they and we just love being a part of their network.
Speaker 1:And finally give a shout out to our sponsor, sales-crm a good friend, josh Liles over there. Listen. Freight brokers, not every CRM is created equal, especially when most CRMs are not built with your freight brokerage in mind. Sales-crm is built by freight brokers, exclusively for freight brokers, so be sure to visit sales-crmcom or you can visit us at betaconsultinggroupcom. Forward slash standing, dash out and you can request a demo right there on our website. Make sure you let them know that you heard about it right here on Standing Out. All right, today's guest. I'm so excited to have her on the show. I got to meet her about gosh six to eight months ago I can't remember exactly when it was, but it's been a little while and I was so inspired by her journey, by her story and what she is building in the industry, and I'm so excited to bring her onto the show today. So please welcome the CEO and co-founder of True North, my good friend Jen Stedge. I like the vibe. You're still woozy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I just picked a song I liked at the time.
Speaker 1:This is your jam. I this. This sounds like this would be on a uh on a playlist, and I always love it because I never know what walk-up songs are going to get. I always tend to learn about some new artists. Right now there's so many new artists out there, just kind of independent artists, because it's so easy to produce music now. It's crazy, you know. So it's hard to hard to find something.
Speaker 2:It was how you doing, my friend, good to see you, I'm good, I'm great. This is the one nice week a year we have in San Francisco, so it's nice and warm.
Speaker 1:So what is it normally? Is it too hot, because I'm not from California? Is it usually too hot? Or is it usually too cold in the Bay Area?
Speaker 2:I like it. It's always like 68 degrees, so like no one needs AC or heat. Really it's perfect. I like it, but this week it's been like 80s, 90s, so everyone's dying. There's no air conditioning in my house.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. I used to live in Portland, oregon. Similar thoughts to that. A lot of people don't have air conditioning up there. When it does get into the 90s, it starts to feel pretty warm. That's pretty hot when you don't have AC. That's, that's for sure. Listen, it's so great to have you on the show today. I'm glad that you're here and before we go any further, first of all let me just say thank you for sponsoring being the title sponsor of the post and pray classic. This is my favorite event to put on the two-person golf event and I just love your support for the event and what you're doing. Things coming up. So thank you for that Sweet.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was so impressed with the conference last was it September when I went and so we're stoked to sponsor it this year. A lot of brokers and carriers who really want to build relationships, which is what we're all about. So, yeah, excited to go.
Speaker 1:Which we're going to talk about more of that here in just a little bit. But before we get to that, there's a little fun fact about you that I learned that we have to talk about, and that is I had no idea You're a fantasy football freak Addict. You're a big addict. Well, are you an addict because you have a lot of like? How many teams do you have?
Speaker 2:Or is it just something that they have, like a lot of individual defensive players, 20 players on your roster like really appreciate the tiny things of football. As someone who's never played football, I you can really appreciate the like. You know the wide receivers who make really good cuts and you find the fun people and you pick them and yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which player on your team right now is absolutely killing it? Who's destroying it for you?
Speaker 2:It was Rashi rice, but he just tore his AC.
Speaker 1:I know I know it's our guy. We're so devastated by that.
Speaker 2:Such a bummer, both leagues. He was a steal in the draft, so I gotta find someone new.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, hopefully he's back in five to six weeks. He's not out for the season, it looks like, so we'll see what happens with that, but that's a big one. Ours is Malik Neighbors we got Neighbors on the Giants. That dude is averaging like 23-24 points a game and he's got 91 on the year already. That was a big pickup for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's so fun to watch.
Speaker 1:He's a stud. That's cool. So how'd you get into it? Was it your dad? Or, like it sounds, like your dad got you into it, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was my dad. And then my husband also loves football. I'm a Seahawks fan.
Speaker 1:He's unfortunately a Pats fan he's still a Pats fan.
Speaker 2:He's still a Pats fan. He's a real Pats fan, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's legit because they stink. They have been stored the last couple of seasons. Yeah, I can understand if you're a Pats fan with Brady, but now that's loyalty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly, but yeah, it's a fun way to hang out with people on a Sunday. There's a lot of math in Fancy Football also, and so it's a way to combine all the things that I like.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's cool. Let's talk about your dad for a little bit and about you, because that's how you got into this industry and what you're building. So first of all, start off by telling us a little bit more about True North and what you guys are doing.
Speaker 2:And then I want you to tell and how that got you into it. Okay, so True North started as a carrier. Actually, we started as an owner-operator carrier. We grew it to almost 300 trucks we launched in 2019.
Speaker 2:So this was like right before COVID hit and we started with the thinking that there was so much waste in the industry. A lot of it happens at the carrier level, and so we'll just build the best carrier. Our drivers will all make a fuck ton of money and we'll make money because we'll, you know, cut down our costs and be able to find the customer and stuff like that. And it's evolved since then, but the mission is the same, which is we think if drivers specifically make good money and run good businesses, it's better for everyone. It's not like brokers versus carriers. It shouldn't be a zero-sum game which in some cases, it literally is a zero-sum game when you think about margin but it's the carriers who don't know how to run good businesses who exit the industry, that really hurt the industry and cause these fluctuations. And so everything we're about is giving the little guy the resources of the big guy. So, whatever big carriers do, we want to give small carriers those resources.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and your dad being a part of it and helping you get into it, and it's really interesting because, you're absolutely right, there tends to be some animosity, especially at the broker carrier level, which is why we have the summit, why you're a part of it and doing that. Talk about what your company and your product does to help with those relationships Because, as you said earlier, you're all about relationships.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay. So on the carrier side, we have all the basics for running a business. We have a load board invoicing financial insights. We tell you how much you make and how much more you can make if each load is profitable. Blah, blah, blah. That's basic. But the next layer that we've built on top of it is a way for carriers specifically small carriers, mostly owner ops, like one truck carriers to five, 10 truck carriers to broadcast to brokers their preferences, not just where they live. That's the basic information that everybody has. But what are their favorite lanes? What are they searching for on our load board, where do they want to go and what is their rough price? And that way brokers can quickly filter through to find the right carriers to work with. And we're thinking that the job this fulfills is it's what a dispatcher does at a big carrier, is it builds relationships with brokers, tells the broker where the carrier is, and that's something an owner op just can't do, because it's hard to drive and run a business at the same time.
Speaker 1:It is very hard to drive and run a business. It's hard to do anything by yourself in business, that is for sure, and giving them the help with that is a huge part of that. And if we back up just a little bit, we did a little bit of digging into your background and learn a few things about you. I didn't know this, but you got your start in neuroscience and then eventually moved to software development and consulting strategy operations and then you know you landed True North. So talk a little bit about that experience and how that's helped you along the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you really went deep on my LinkedIn A little stalking, you know it's all right. No, I love it, I love it. So I actually graduated high school, going into college thinking I would be a neuro math major, and, like you know, I have a very diverse experience, which means I had no idea what I wanted and I tried a bunch of stuff. But the very first lab I ever worked in I remember it so clearly they took a chance on me. I was literally I was 17 years old, didn't know anything Emailed this woman named Dr Kristen Swanson at UW because I live near Seattle who ran a lab that took scans of patients with glioblastomas.
Speaker 2:So these are the most aggressive type of brain cancer. It's not a solid tumor. Instead it flows along the glia and is really hard to surgically cut out. And so she would take hundreds of inputs from the patient, build a mathematical model that predicted where the tumors would grow, and then she would pair with radiology to target those specific places, because MRIs don't actually show you the full picture. She would predict and get ahead of it and like the life expectancy is, it's like I think 25 or 30% of people make it to one year after diagnosis. Like that's how 30% of people make it to one year after diagnosis. That's how insane it is. And it drops to under 10% after five years. So it's a death sentence, and so she's extending people's lives.
Speaker 2:And I researched her a little bit a year or two ago. She now runs a place at the Mayo Clinic and is pioneering this new field of neuro-oncology what is it? Mathematical neuro-oncology? And she was willing to take a chance on me as an intern. All I did, by the way, was I took she would take scans and scans and scans of MRIs, and then I would highlight where the tumor was. So I was like Mechanical Turk feeding the AI in the early days, and so that was my first real in-office job.
Speaker 1:Wow. That's incredible, so we're just going to have to coin the phrase that you are the smartest person in logistics. You just used about four or five words.
Speaker 2:I'm maybe the nerdiest.
Speaker 1:The nerdiest person in logistics. We'll take that whatever you want.
Speaker 2:I've been so impressed with how sharp people are in this industry. People think, oh, trucking it's old school. And yes, a lot of the systems are old school, but it's super complicated and the people in the industry are problem solvers, which is the same thing. That's what I learned in college, is? It's just basically problem solving. So, yeah, it's a super fun industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, like your background being diverse, that's incredible. I appreciate that because I was the same way. I tried a lot of different things and I didn't know what I wanted to do. But that experience actually creates quite a lot of diverse perspectives and things that help you along the way, and I'm sure that you've seen that to be true, especially as you turn from those types of positions to now leading a tech company. You know how has that experience helped you as a business leader now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man. Well, I've done a lot of things where I kind of like don't deserve to be there. So you know, like that, that neuroscience lab, like I did not deserve to be there. My first job was managing who's to say?
Speaker 1:who's to say Jen, you did it, you did deserve it.
Speaker 2:My first job in consulting, they put a 21-year-old in the same room as CEOs of major companies and I got to be in boardrooms and I got to hear Looking back was super, super valuable, just by just slowly absorbing what it is to run a business, how little anyone knows and how we're all kind of figuring it out also is a lesson I got to learn really early on, and that I started to learn like what is it that makes me unique? When I have no objective special skills, like what is it like the wedge? I can get in there to be different, to stand out, to have that conversation, things like that.
Speaker 1:Do you consider yourself a little bit of a generalist?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and especially in the sense that like sometimes I can be paralyzed by wanting to go in every direction. Like I love there's just like so many interesting things. Like how can I possibly think about them all? And sometimes you like you spin and you don't think about anything and you just have to pick one. But yeah, yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm so guilty of that. I love doing a lot of different things. It's exciting and the idea of having to pick one actually gives me a little anxiety, where sometimes people think having too many things is anxiety for them. For me, if somebody made me focus on just one thing all the time, that's just. It's hard to do, but focus is so important and it's interesting to think about that as a generalist. When you're starting a company, it can be very beneficial and, like we said, a little detrimental, because you can do a lot of things.
Speaker 2:You can do them well but it's the idea of staying focused. How do you kind of regulate yourself in that regard? Yeah, so there's this concept called the talent stack. I think the author of Dilbert wrote about it a long, long time ago. It's a book that really influenced me when I was early in my career and it's the idea that you take your, let's say, you have like five things you're pretty good at, but you're not the best at. The thing is what other person in the world can stack those five things on top of each other, like find find. The place where that stack really benefits you and I think that has really worked for me is yeah, I'm not, you know, I'm not the best aerospace engineer. I'm not the best, definitely not the best founder or CEO or whatever. I'm not the best tech company, but you can. You can stack all of your life experiences to find something good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great perspective and it's valuing all those experiences that you have, and I love that. You say I'm not the best aerospace engineer. Most people can't even say that they're an aerospace engineer. You've got that going for you. Not too many people, especially in transportation, can make that claim, so that's awesome. Let's transition just for a minute and talk about sales as a small company, as a startup company, as a small tech startup. It's often founder-led sales. Did you have a background in sales? Is this new to you? Is this something that's difficult? Talk about your experience with sales.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am the classical sucks at sales stereotype. Studied engineering, not a ton of social skills. You have to really pick those up. But I think I've definitely sold in terms of raising money for True North. It's really difficult to ask all your friends and coworkers to give you money and that's the first thing I had to do for True North.
Speaker 1:Listen, that's the hardest sell there is because you're just asking for money without a promise of anything in return. I mean, when we ask money for charities like well, hope you feel good about this because you're not getting anything back, but that's the hardest sale there is, my friend.
Speaker 2:I think, selling a dream though there's something easier about selling a dream, because everyone can dream with you, and I think I took that into trying to sell to freight brokers. So you know, you and I were talking a little bit about this, about how, like, how do I sell? And I see myself as an outsider when it comes to freight brokerage, like every person I've sold to is a shark. These are the best salespeople, like any you know manager, executive, owner of a freight brokerage.
Speaker 2:They got there by being one of the best sales people and so that's right, yeah, and so like I'm not going to out sales a great salesperson and so what I do is I solve the problem with them. And so if I could give like if I were starting out as a salesperson, even at a tech company, selling to a freight brokerage, for example, I would find ways to solve that customer's problem and get really excited about their problem. You know it could be. You know they have to sell their ship aluminum cans, which are like the hardest thing to ship right, because they, you know they cube out before they weigh out.
Speaker 1:Classic crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah and like, think about how difficult that problem is and how what they're thinking about. And I think when you enter a room and you're you're taking notes, you're jamming on ways to solve the problem together. It turns from a classic sales pitch which frankly I'm no good at to just a conversation about like what could the future be? So it's a very like foundry type of sales motion, I think.
Speaker 1:I think you said something that was really critical there for sales, and that is the greatest. Salespeople are the greatest problem solvers, and that's what sales should be. It should be solving a problem. I always hated the phrase when people said, oh, you're so good at sales, you could sell ice to an Eskimo. Eskimos don't need ice. That's not their problem. They need a coat, they need a house, they need whatever it might be. They don't need ice. That's the last thing that they need. So I think that sales at its foundational level for me is education and problem solving. You find a problem, you see if you can solve it and you educate your customer on how to solve it as a result of that, and to me, that's the best sales that there's out there. So I think you're on the right track. I mean, I think you can give yourself a little bit more credit, my friend, but it is hard when you go from being neuroscience and being tech minded and math minded to how do I sell this thing? How do I do that?
Speaker 2:But it sounds like you're doing just fine, thanks, well, and before selling to brokers, I was talking to carriers. I've spent the last five years talking to carriers all day, every day, and they're so different from freight brokers that I really had to up my game. In terms of just classic sales, I updated my LinkedIn profile. Things like that that I never thought I'd have to do.
Speaker 1:It's like two different languages carriers and freight brokers. I mean, I remember when I started my career at DAT, at a load board, and that's how I got to know carriers and freight brokers. And I remember seeing carriers who would try to start a freight brokerage but they couldn't. They didn't understand the business. It was like a foreign language. And then we're meeting freight brokers who were trying to get into the carrier game because they're like well, we'll just make some money, we'll add some trucks and make some more money. And they often failed because they don't, they didn't understand. It's like two different languages, you know. So your approaches have to be different when you go to sell those different, different entities as well, because they have different needs, different challenges and they think differently in many cases. So that's an interesting observation that you make there in that regard. So, in terms of some of the biggest challenges that you've had at TrueNorth, what are some of those challenges and how do you navigate those? How do you overcome those so far?
Speaker 2:Yeah, our biggest challenge so far is we had started out as a carrier thinking we can scale this carrier and help every leased on owner op out there, um, and we just realized it's really hard to build a really big carrier. It's just so hard, um, and even like factoring. I I really respect these industries and how difficult they are because it's so easy to lose all your money so fast. And we decided to go back to our core and what we're really good at, which is software, and I think our team is particularly good at operations. Like, we understand ops. I'm an ops person, it's just how I think, but that doesn't mean we have to do all the ops.
Speaker 2:We could partner with other people and so that was definitely a challenge for us. We had to find all of our leased on owner ops a new home with other carriers. We had to wind down the business. We had to think how do we like retake every, everything we built for ourselves to run our carrier? How do we adapt that for other carriers? So it was difficult, but, you know, in the end we can help a lot more drivers and carriers in this way, um, and build a better business overall, and so at the end of the day, it was really listening to our customers and we were having a lot of small carriers say hey, I want to use what you have, um.
Speaker 1:And so just listening to our customers and making that change made it a little bit easier yeah, and when you're making those pivots, because pivoting can be a huge benefit and blessing to a company but emotionally and sometimes mentally, it can be defeating a little bit, exhausting a little bit. How did you get through some of those pivots that you guys have made, both emotionally and mentally and from a leadership and excitement, enthusiasm perspective, with your team?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's like a couple of different levels of this. There's the big pivot um, uh, overwhelmingness, but there's also in uh, you know growing a new product, um, the small rejections you get day after day. And I imagine, as a sales person, you know making a bunch of calls and getting rejections day after day. I actually think those are all quite similar motions. Now that I've done them all, and I see my teammates sometimes take it really hard when someone says no, and what I have come to learn is every no is actually still a signal.
Speaker 2:Every user who used you yesterday and then stopped today is doing it for a reason, and so you go back and look at what is the last thing that they did. Was it a bad experience? Did we change something? Do we? Recently we changed the location of a button and usage on something went way down, and it was like, oh, what was happening? We panicked and then we looked at the numbers and they're like, oh, that's it, it's the easy change. And so every rejection carries a signal, and to me, like signals are good. You want more data to make better decisions, and so I I don't get quite, as you know, dejected as easily when I think about it that way.
Speaker 1:You know, being data focused, that's got to help you with that, because if you're not data focused and maybe you're a little more emotional focused like me, I tend to be a little more feeling and that kind of thing it can be dejecting and it can be hard. But I remember I learned this when I started in sales and that was every no is just an objection or a question waiting to be asked. So you have to dig a little deeper. You got to try to find out, like why did you stop using this or why did you make that decision? And ask that question. It's usually an objection that you have to get through and when you think of it like that, it doesn't feel as emotionally bad. It's just hey, the process needs to go a little further. We need to ask the question, we need to dig a little bit more, we need to find out a little bit more. So I think that's great.
Speaker 2:All. So being a CEO, what's your favorite thing about it? What's your least favorite thing about it? Okay, my favorite thing is that my job changes all the time. So, going back to being a generalist, I've never done anything for longer than like two years before True North and now we've been at this five years, but it doesn't feel like I've had the same job. My job changes a lot. Just about every six months it completely changes and that's super fun and you get to learn from like. We get to hire these executives who know way more than I'll ever know about a field and they're teaching me every day. So that's super, super fun. What is the hardest?
Speaker 1:The thing you like the least, like what's your least favorite thing yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like such a stereotypical answer, but you know like HR is really difficult and legal, Like that, that part of running a business is there is super complicated, like filing taxes and like that's mine yeah, and like being incorporated in every state that you have an employee and like filing taxes with each of them, like there's just so complicated. Why does it have to be so complicated? Especially as a remote team? We have people everywhere, so that's. That's probably my least favorite part.
Speaker 1:I think that's a question, or probably a feeling, that everybody has, not just CEOs. Taxes for individuals is not easy. Sometimes it's just so complex. That's my least favorite part is the bookkeeping and the taxes and all that. I couldn't hate that more. So we're cut from the same cloth. My friend and you talk about your job changing and those types of things. Man, I feel the exact same way. That's. The exciting part is that it does change, and when the business needs something different, you need to be the first one to address it. Either you handle it or you get somebody to handle it, but you have to change what you're focused on and what you're thinking about.
Speaker 1:That does make it exciting. I'm not the person that would ever thrive in a situation where I just do the same thing every day. It wouldn't work for me. It sounds like it wouldn't work for you either. So we'll just uh, we'll agree on that and let's have a little bit of fun. So every uh, every show, we like to have a random question of the day. Now, listen, jen, I haven't seen this question yet. Our producer gets to make this. It could be funny, it could be serious, it could be a great question, it could be a dud, I have no idea. Let's see what the random question of the day is today. It is what helps you breathe easy? Maybe what helps you relax, I guess. What helps what else? Interesting question what helps you breathe a little bit easier, my friend?
Speaker 2:yeah, okay, can I answer it from a like biohacking, nerdy way, and then also a the actual you can answer it any way you want.
Speaker 1:My friend, this is your show today. Let's go okay, um.
Speaker 2:So there's this book called breath. Um, apparently, there are some things wrong with it, but generally it's good and talks about how important it is to breathe through your nose, and so I like, especially when you sleep, if you are a mouth breather, it's actually not good for you in many ways. One, your body absorbs a lot more, I think, nitrogen nitrates breathing through your nose. There's just something special, some filter, that's better for you. And second, it changes the shape of your jaw if you sleep with your mouth open and are always mouth breathing actually, and so I taped my mouth shut. I put a piece of tape here for a year and I stopped mouth breathing and it helped everything Like when you went to bed at night or during during the day.
Speaker 2:no, I just just ring bed and it was like one piece of but it's really good for your. Your like breathing system and my like cardio output went up. It's like it really changed things um.
Speaker 1:So that's the change your jawline did. It give you a little.
Speaker 2:I like to think I kind of a brown face, and so I don't think anything will really change my jawline.
Speaker 1:I like to think it did.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious, that's a good point, and I know that when I so. I think I'm a nose breather when I sleep, because when I do breathe through my mouth, it's not a night of sleep and my mouth feels different when I wake up. I tend to sleep on my side, and I think I'm a nose breather, so I'm excited to hear that that makes me feel better. I don't want to put a piece of tape Plus with this. I'd have to shave every night too, because it probably wouldn't stick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beard makes it hard in the mustache Might not work.
Speaker 1:A big piece of tape, like a big piece of tape across the mouth, might work. Okay, so that's the nerdy way. How about the other way? What helps you just relax and breathe easier in life? What do you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually have a whole routine. I'm generally a pretty non-anxious person, but since starting True North there's a lot more to be anxious about and stressed out about, and so I have a whole routine. I'm stressed out, I write down especially at night if I can't sleep I write down what is the worst thing that could happen and I kind of keep going down the tree like what's the worst thing that could happen? You know, nobody likes our product and we don't sell anything. And then what happens? All of our investors hate us and want to take back the money. You have to fire everyone and I'm starting over. And then what happens? Oh, I'm still like young and employable and I know lots of smart people like I can find a job and in fact people might even appreciate the fact that I tried something, and so like the worst that could happen is that I do something new and then it's fine and like things like that, and that really helps calm my system because the worst thing is not that bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. That is so good. That is so good. And I'll tell you this I think that what you just said is powerful for people who are thinking about entrepreneurship but have some fears, have some very realistic fears Like, well, what if it doesn't work? I'll fail, you could lose everything.
Speaker 1:The truth is, there's always going to be a job there, and I think that if you do try to be an entrepreneur and you learn things, even if it doesn't work out, let's not call it failure. Even if it doesn't work out. You've learned more now than you knew before then about how to run a business. You have a different perspective of leadership and ownership and what it takes to do that. I think you're more employable, I think you're more valuable as an asset, even if your business doesn't succeed, and so I encourage people to think about that Like what's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 1:Well, like you said, you're smart, you've learned a lot of things, you're very employable. The job, an opportunity will be there, and I think there's a lot of wisdom in that, my friend. So kudos to you for that. That's a good exercise to do. I tend to not do that. I tend to just go hit golf balls. I'm a simpleton. I just go smack some golf balls for a while, breathe in the fresh air, see the birds and the trees and the green grass and life is okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my version of that is I steep into sci-fi books and just like dive into a completely new world and am a vegetable. It's great.
Speaker 1:Do you also watch sci-fi movies, or you just like the books?
Speaker 2:I really it's more the books for me. I mean books are always better.
Speaker 1:Let's be honest.
Speaker 2:The Harry Potter books were better than the movies in my opinion, yeah, and I loved your intro.
Speaker 1:By the way, I grew up with Harry Potter because it was like my age, as I was growing. You don't have to say that. You don't have to show off Come on.
Speaker 2:No, you think the thing is now that makes me old. I graduated college before they came out. Let's just throw that out there.
Speaker 1:All right, let's put that on the table. So I don't want to hear it growing up with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard to replicate sci-fi in movies and shows. It's just harder. You can be much more imaginative with words.
Speaker 1:It is. It is All right. So let's finish the show with this. You are launching a brand new broker product this month. We're going to talk about the Broker Carrier Summit coming up in a couple of weeks, which is great. Tell us a little bit about what it does and what you guys are working on, and what led to this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Broker Carrier Summit is our coming out party. By the way, it's the first time we're really exposing ourselves to a lot of brokers and carriers.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:So the thinking here is we know all this information about carriers, we know their history, where they are, where they want to go, we have documents and actually brokers want access to that information and carriers want access to loads, and so what we built is basically a way for brokers to see all the information about carriers.
Speaker 2:That True North that we have, that we built for ourselves as we manage a larger carrier population, and so it's as simple as you know.
Speaker 2:You search point A to point B you know dry van or reefer or whatever and you get a bunch of carriers and then you can repeatedly slice and dice by the filters you want, and then you can essentially market to them if you like and source new carriers, send emails to a thousand carriers if that's what you want, and then you can essentially market to them if you like and source new carriers, send emails to a thousand carriers if that's what you want, or you can choose to build repeated relationships with the same carriers.
Speaker 2:You can keep updates on them, like log in to TrueNorth and see exactly where they are, where they're headed, what their next load is, where they want to go, and that way you can be the first to offer them a load and not, you know, get away from the load boards. And you know, carriers a lot of small carriers think that load boards are all there are, but actually those are the worst loads. Brokers keep the best loads for their preferred carriers, and so what carriers get is they get to, you know. They get the opportunity to become one of those preferred carriers.
Speaker 1:Well, I know from my experience in the industry that brokers and carriers have been trying to get off their dependency of load boards for years and years, and this goes right in line with the Broker Carrier Summit, with what you're building at True North, which is exciting. So we get to launch that at the Broker Carrier Summit, which is really cool, and I'm just excited for where this is going to go and what you're building. And again, thanks so much for being on the show today. It's always good to talk to you, my friend. I appreciate you being here. You're going to have to come back and see us again soon, maybe in the spring. Tell us how things are going with the product and all that, but again, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, trey, as always love love and thanks again for sponsoring the golf tournament. Man, it's going to be such a great time. I cannot wait to be. I know you're red eyeing in, but Shane will be there and you know we'll get you some nice swags and good giveaways from the event. But thanks again for being a part of that and we'll see you in a couple of weeks down in Fort Worth.
Speaker 2:Sweet Thanks. See you soon, bye.
Speaker 1:Everybody. Make sure you come back every Tuesday for another episode of standing out with great guests like Jen every Tuesday on Reads Across America, a part of their Trucking Tuesday Hour, and, of course, right here on LinkedIn at 2 pm Central every Tuesday. And I want to give a big thanks as well to our sponsor, sales-crm. Make sure you check them out. And before we go, today we've got our tip of the week, and that is a sales tip Listen when you're in sales.
Speaker 1:It's so important to learn to ask great questions of your customers and listen to them when it comes to developing your product. Not every change request is best for your product, but the best ideas will almost always come from your customers. That's true whether you're building a technology product or if you have a service. Always, always, always, listen to your customers, ask them questions, get a feedback loop going. That is incredibly valuable. It also helps in your sales process because now you know what customers want and what they don't, what objections they have and what's really going to meet their needs. So, again, get really good at asking great questions. All right, until next time. We'll see you real soon. And don't forget people. Stop standing. Still. Start standing out. We'll see you soon.
