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
Tristan Bordallo's Path to Logistics
Buckle up for a fascinating journey with Tristan Bordallo, the charismatic owner and CEO of Iamfr8 and Fr8topia. From finding stress relief on two wheels to forging connections with fellow business leaders, Tristan's stories will inspire and entertain. His transition from a brokerage to an asset-based trucking business showcases the grit and strategic acumen required to thrive in the ever-evolving logistics industry.
As we navigate through the complexities of his career pivot, Tristan opens up about the hurdles and triumphs of entering the full truckload market amidst the rise of technological disruptors. Discover how he tackled financial challenges, driver management, and the intricacies of asset ownership while pivoting to alcohol transportation to overcome non-compete restrictions. With laughter and wisdom intertwined, this episode promises a refreshing blend of adventure, business insights, and camaraderie that's too good to miss.
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.
that doesn't. That doesn't help at all. What's up everybody. Hey, everybody. What's up everybody, and welcome to another episode of standing out. Hello everyone, good to see you again.
Speaker 1:Trey Griggs here, your host of Standing Out, a podcast about sales, marketing and leadership. Yes, the mustache is still here, I'm not sure how much longer, so enjoy it while it lasts, everybody, but glad to have you with us today for another great episode. We've got a great guest on today, somebody I met recently who really stood out, and so we had them on the show to talk about that. So it's really important to get those kind of guests on here. You're going to love it.
Speaker 1:Before we do that, though, I got to say thank you to our sponsor, sales-crm, my buddy Josh Lyles. The dude is on fire, building a brokerage for, or building a, not a brokerage. What am I talking about? He's building a CRM for freight brokerages because he's a former freight broker. That's the difference. Not all CRMs are created equal, especially when they're not built with your business in mind, and Sales-CRM is built exclusively for brokers, by freight brokers. So make sure you check out sales-crmcom, or you can learn more about it on our website, betaconsultinggroupcom. Forward slash standing dash out. You can request a demo right there. Make sure you check it out. Listen, nothing against HubSpot and Salesforce, but they were not built with freight brokers in mind, and you know as well as I do, if you're in sales, that freight brokerage sales have unique qualities and workflows that are not found in many other industries, so make sure you check that out. Sales-crmcom.
Speaker 1:All right, it's time to bring our guest on the show today. I met this guy online initially and then at the Broker Carrier Summit this past fall in Fort Worth. We had a chance to connect. This guy's just a bundle of life and energy and joy and also an entrepreneur doing some really cool things in the trucking industry. I just want to make sure we brought him on. By the way, it's not too early to sign up for the Broker Care Summit. Just go to BrokerCareSummitcom. Let's please welcome to the program my friend, the owner and CEO of Ion Freight Utopia, tristan Bordalo.
Speaker 2:What a great song dude.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. What's up, my friend, how you doing.
Speaker 2:Good. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:Man, look at that sun shining out there in California. Man, this isn't fair, that's awesome man, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's a pretty cool state to live in.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know if it's a cool state to live in. I'll take your word on that. It is definitely a cool state to visit. I have been there many times and the views are great. Driving up Highway 1, seeing those massive I don't even know what they're called. They're like walruses of some sort. They're huge. You know what I'm talking about the mammoth walruses that are up there. Have you ever seen those?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You mean mammoth, like going up towards Well, I don't know exactly what. No, they're on the coast. There's these walruses, but they're like elephant walruses maybe I don't know what their names are, but they're huge and they come up on shore and they've They've got a little lookout area. I don't know. Somebody who's watching this has been there before. I'm sure I got pictures. I know it's a real thing. But California in general, man, it's in northern California, it's towards northern California. So we drove Highway 1 from LA up to Monterey, san Francisco area and it was up that direction and, man, it was crazy. It was cool to see We've been to, uh, sequoia national forest um, we've been to shasta man.
Speaker 1:California is just like a wonderland you've been more places than I have. That's usually the case, you know. Usually people don't go to places in their own hometown or their own states as well as you know. Tourists do you almost have to be.
Speaker 1:You almost have to leave home to become adventurous, you know right yeah, for sure happens often taking notes right now, so well, there's a lot of good stuff in your state, man, so you should have even more reasons why it's a great state to live there. It's incredible, all right. So, speaking of adventurous man, you're one of those guys. You're an entrepreneur. You're doing some cool stuff. Before we get to that though I didn't know this about you you are, or at least have been in your life, like a prodigious bike rider. Your longest ride you've been on is 138 miles, and used to ride 250 to 300 miles a week. Dude, what's that all about? That's pretty intense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's kind of built. You know, I got into cycling, I got really addicted to it in 2012 and I just, you know, and running a brokerage, you know, trying to grow the covenant agency. It's a lot of stress and so when I finally figured it out, I had some some time and I just just rode my bike until you know the next mountain. So it really built that toughness and I just got to hang out with a bunch of believe it or not, it's like golf, but it's it's. You get to ride with CEOs and owners of companies in front of the Peloton and you just hammer away and they're very competitive. So I really liked that. And then there was a lot of camaraderie, so it was a community of guys just going deep and in a pain cave. And yeah, it's. You know, we used to make fun of all the golfers, because golfers go drink Meanwhile. We're all sleeping by eight o'clock so we could ride at six in the morning and hammer out 60 to 80 miles. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:So that's what a typical ride would be like 50, 60, 70, 80 miles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a typical ride, a Monday through Friday ride, would be 30 to 40 miles, but on the weekends it'd be 60 to 80, sometimes 100.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just for perspective, that's like five hours, six hours. How long does it take to go that far?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think my fastest 100-mile ride was around five and a half hours. It's a pretty fast pace.
Speaker 1:Moving. Yeah, about 18 miles an hour, that's moving. It's pretty fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's not Peloton fast. The pros do it in 27 miles per hour. That's insane.
Speaker 1:Wow. So it's not much different than being a golfer and spending five hours on a golf course. You're just in a lot better shape. That's kind of the best way to look at it. Now, being a cyclist, what is your thought about Peloton? Do you like Peloton or is that like? Is that cheap Cause? To me that'd be like, uh, playing golf or going to a simulator, like. It's just not the same.
Speaker 1:Like going to a simulator, even like there's, there's places where you can go in and you hit into a screen and it kind of looks like the ball goes somewhere, but you're not actually playing golf, At least at Topgolf. The ball goes out there and these simulators just hit into a screen.
Speaker 2:It's you know. Yeah, well, I changed a little bit of the. I do. I have a Peloton now. It's a lot safer. That's the number one thing. You can get it done. You could hammer away about an hour, an hour and a half worth of, uh, you know, cycling, without having to do the whole talking and going to a coffee shop and doing all that. But, yeah, it's, it is a lot different. You got to push, uh, you know you're. It helps you because there's like a flywheel, so you're not really um, pushing. That's why when everyone goes man, I rode 20 miles it's a lot different when you're actually pushing 20 miles versus there's a flywheel that's keeping you. So it's like a simulator. It's not the same. But hey, man, the point of the game is to just get moving.
Speaker 1:So, whatever that may be, Do you ride Peloton with a community? Are you engaged or are you just riding it on your own, watching a TV show or whatever Like today.
Speaker 2:I just came out from a 13-mile ride really quick. It took me 45 minutes to just hammer away and I was doing emails while I'm doing it. I was doing it on LinkedIn. But the point is just get moving, man.
Speaker 1:I'm 46 years old, so I just you were the same age, class of 96.
Speaker 2:Let's go, I was actually class of 97, because I get. I got held back because I came here from okay okay, so my english not good 90s close enough.
Speaker 1:So we're. We're in the same same ballpark. I hadn't thought about the safety aspect of the peloton, because if you're falling off a peloton, you're not doing it right.
Speaker 2:That's there's you gotta yeah, I know that would know that the safety is not getting hit by a car, right like I feel now more than ever. I never realized my kids are 10 and 12, but my kids were a lot younger when I was riding and I didn't realize lot of close calls. But you know, when you're, when you're on a mission, none of that bothers you. But as as my kids started getting older, I started to be in the back of my mind. So now I just do things safer and I am going to.
Speaker 1:I plan to go back, but I plan to go not towards mountain biking but what they call it cross or gravel, so I'm away from the cars and yeah, yeah, cause you're sharing the roads, man, like if you hit a, if you hit a rock for some reason and you lose control or they're not paying attention, like you said. I mean, that's you don't get a lot of chances to come back from those types of accidents, not at all.
Speaker 2:I mean I broke my. I broke my collarbone, my scapula. Yeah, it's, it's and it's a, it's a. It's a tough sport, but you learn from that. You'll never find out if you don't try.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's for sure. I'm interested in doing sprint triathlons, just because I like the variety and it's something to work towards. I haven't done one yet. I've done Tough Mudders before I need to get in and do like a sprint triathlon, just to say I did. That's something I want to put on my resume. But I like cycling. Never got addicted to it, never at the place where I would wake up or go to bed early so I could get up. I have done that for golf. I have not done that for cycling yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my wife still brings it up. We were never allowed to do anything on a Saturday or Sunday until Tristan got home at 12. I had a hard stop at 12. I tell the guys at the coffee shop guys, I got to go, save my marriage, I got to go. Some of these guys just want to hang out all day and they're retired. It's on LinkedIn. But they want to hang out and just say let's just hang out for as long as we can, so we don't have to go home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every little activity has got its community. There's I mean there's golfers, though. They'll play, you know, 18 holes of golf and then sit in the pro shop for hours having meals, drinking beers, watching tv. I'm like man you want to go home, and I guess some of them don't.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's the membership for what you guys are. You know golf membership. I'm like what I, when I started hearing about you, know that you're that gets pretty insane.
Speaker 1:I I've I've only joined one golf course in my life and it was in Oregon and it was not that expensive. I think it was a thousand dollars to join and like 300 a month. It was very reasonable compared to what some of these are, some of them 25, 30, 40,000 bucks just to get in that. I can't justify that I. That doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather just go play a couple of rounds here and there, you know so yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was at, you know, having friends in la. I was at hillcrest country club and I was like what, how is this? Three hundred thousand dollars for just to get in? Yeah, three thousand a month or four thousand a month to just keep.
Speaker 1:I'm like, dude, it's status, it's network, it's status and network. That's what it is. You know, and for some people it might be worth, and if you've got money you don't care about, that could be the way to do it, all right, well, let's talk about this. We're all startup kind of guys, so talking about money that you don't care about, that doesn't really fit for guys like us in terms of making it work. Now I want to talk about your career a little bit. So you were an agent owner for Covenant Transport. That's on the brokerage side, not the trucking side, correct, yep? And then something changed for you. So talk a little about your journey of getting into transport, or coming to transport as an agent and then getting into a place where you founded. You know I Am Freight and what that is and why you did that.
Speaker 2:Well, I was. You know, I first I started in 2004 doing LTL, reselling those rates, and then I got, you know, I was going to customers and they kept telling me, hey, I want to do full truckloads and I'm like I'm only doing LTL. And so it took five years about 2009 to get with Covenant and figure that out and also get your revenue at the time, because you had revenue requirements back then to be an agent. You couldn't just call up anyone and say, hey, I want to be your agent. So if you had, you know, covenant was very there's requirements that we we had to, you know hit to become an agent. So that was my first business I launched. I was able to launch that with a partner. So we did that for 10 years.
Speaker 2:But you know, about 2016, 2017, there was convoy and there was cargo Matic. I thought they were going to change the world. I thought they were going to kick me out of being a broker. So I just set it out. I said you know what? I want to start my Before I get my job taken over. I'm going to save money and start an asset-based business and I'm going to buy trucks, because that's the only thing I know how to do, and so in 2018, I just kept thinking about it and my business partner at the time didn't want to do it, so I just did all on my own and boy was it hard, and it was also to learn that side of the business on. How hard could it be? That was one of my thesis and also, if they could do it, I can do it. That was one of my thesis and also, if they could do it, I can do it.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, it's, it opened up my eyes to a new way of the business that I never saw before, and I think it's and I use the word born again because it made me realize how horrible I was at business and brokerage in general, how not understanding all of the ins and outs and and and being very you know it, it I was cocky, right. As a broker, you buy low, sell high, so and and when people are feeding off of that, you start to feel, wow, I'm, I get the customers and I get the carriers to do it from whatever I want them to do, do it for, yeah, that's, I didn't know any better, but, having my own carrier side, I was now, you know, and I also started a brokerage. I had a one year non-compete, by the way, so I started brokerage at the same time.
Speaker 2:And what a lot of people don't know is Covenant can't haul alcohol. It's a Christian company and the flow of life my first customer. I was like you know what? I'm just going to go after alcohol. Then and I got these wine companies. I was like heck, yeah, you know. So.
Speaker 2:I was still able to get away from the non-compete by not getting back at my old customers. But I just started, so I'm like, well, they're not going to care if I go after alcohol, that's not something that they're going to get mad at. That was where I said, wow, I really think this is a good way to, you know, start learning a new part of the business and grow. And so, yeah, trucking is very hard, man, like crazy hard. So I'm here to tell a story now, Six years I went to school of owning trucks. I'm a doctor now when it comes to owning trucks.
Speaker 1:You've put in your time and that's not a very common transition, I think.
Speaker 1:A lot of times asset-based companies look at brokerage and go man, I don't have the capital expenditures that I have to have and the loans and the tight operating margins and finding drivers and maintenance costs. And they look at brokerage and they say this looks easier and they want to go that direction. I haven't heard too many people that went the other direction, that were in brokerage and made the shift over to assets. But it sounds like for you it was more of a concern of automation because, you're right, convoy at the time, especially Uber Freight, came in at that point. Some of those companies it looked like they were going to come in and really disrupt brokerage and probably did a little bit, but maybe not to the extent that you anticipated. But in your mind it sounds like you were like, hey, they're going to be able to automate brokerage faster than they'll be able to automate trucks and so this is maybe a safer play. Is that part of what went into your mind when you made that decision?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, of course I was. I you know, but you don't know much, right? You're not learning. And once you start to realize that, okay, owning these trucks it's, it's very hard, so they don't have that understanding, they think everything could be a vending machine and then just put a platform and then you meet I mean you and I can back up any. You know we could drive for Uber, for example, so we can create capacity. Uber and Convoy is not creating capacity, so they're not. You still have the same guys starting, you know, trucking businesses, the same amount of pool of carriers and some of them Right.
Speaker 1:Just where are they getting their loads from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're all fighting for the same carriers and that was my choke point at Covenant was finding great carriers. The choke point of every brokerage is finding a great carrier. I mean, I hear it all the time on LinkedIn God, I got this carrier that did this, and everyone complains about all this and I'm like, yeah, but you guys actually have to think about what it costs. Like you really think that price is going to get you the quality of carriers that you're going to Like that doesn't buy quality. So, and that's why I I'm out to tell this story where I've learned so much in the first year of running a trucking company that I cannot turn my back on it now.
Speaker 2:It was actually, you know, it was a mistake to run a trucking company because that was the only way out of doing what I was doing out of the brokerage. Like I wasn't happy, like that's why I was riding 200 miles a week, 300 miles a week for about four years. I mean what? I wasn't helping anyone by buying low, selling high and I just, you know, I was making money and and sometimes, once you hit some of those, you know, as a human being, you're like're like, well, how much more money can I make. It's like you want to make an impact, so that's what I would. I wanted to do it. You know, my partner and I talked a lot about legacy when we'd be sitting there booking all those loads and we're like, dude, we want legacy, and so it just. It just hit me. In 2018, I turned 40 and as you get older you know this trey we start to think about impact, and that's why why I did that, and boy did I learn a lot.
Speaker 1:I can imagine. I want to dig into that here in a little bit, but I think you're right. For me, I was 43 when I started Beta Consulting Group and it was less about legacy for me and it was more about freedom and time. Even though starting a company takes a lot of time, I at least had a little bit more control and I had the opportunity to make money if I worked a little bit harder and tried to figure out how to make this thing work. And what it gave me was a little more freedom. And once you have that taste of freedom, sometimes that's a nice thing too, where it's like I don't want to give that back. I want to be able to do what I want to do when I want to do it, while servicing my customers well, while kind of running this business and that's a lot harder when you're a W-2 for somebody. That's what I found and a little bit easier as an entrepreneur. Now that I got the taste, I'm kind of the same way, like I can't turn my back on this now. This has been too good, it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about this, because, you know, I started my career at DAT and I didn't know anything about brokerages or really anything about trucking. My dad was actually a local truck driver, so I knew a little bit. He drove a box truck but nothing over the road kind of thing. I didn't know much about it. And what I realized working at DAT is I would work with some freight brokerages. I'd work with some asset-based carriers. I'd work with some companies that had both sides of the business. It's like learning a whole new language, and so you go from brokerage where you knew that game, and then you jumped over into the carrier side not knowing anything. Man, what was that like? How hard was that to learn? What mistakes did you make and what kind of kept you going? Because it's just not easy. I mean, that could be an easy one to roll up pretty quickly and sell your assets, go bankrupt and get out of it. What was that like for you?
Speaker 2:I won't lie you, I won't lie. There's so many times that I could just say, let me just tuck this away and then go into my brokerage and keep doing that. But there is so many lessons in running a fully operational business and that's what I wanted. I wanted to learn regardless. If, like I, didn't make any money for a year and three months launching this thing, I was four hundred eighty thousand dollars in equipment loans. I had sixty thousand dollars in credit card debt um, 125,000 of my own money tied in, but I had two great drivers and then one that, and the truck burnt down seven months in. I could have quit then. I could have quit July 4th it was July 3rd actually of 2019 and, by the way, 2019.
Speaker 2:We both know that that was one of the hardest years before 2022 recession, so I didn't know any different man. It was just like stupidity. And just trying to learn everything and not knowing is probably the best way to approach any business not thinking about all the things that could go wrong and just look at the bigger vision of okay, I'm learning, you know, and that freedom of trying to figure something out and not giving up. I mean, I've I've been a 1099 since 2004,. Three months into the brokerage I landed a big account and I was like, dude, I've I've been on my own this whole time, so building it for myself, I always knew I could just go back and get a job anywhere, like that's easy, I mean with you know you could always do that, but I'll never have this chance again. I'm so glad I did it and I always, I always tell you know, the friends that have seen me through my rise, it's a lot of a lot of. It is the mental toughness that we built through cycling. Like I have a couple of friends now that I I rode with I still am good friends with them and we talk about it like that built our character, being able to take that pain and not complaining and just moving along.
Speaker 2:We'll get to the mountain, we'll get on top of that mountain and we're gonna cruise but we're gonna finally cruise down it. But as soon as you cruise down one, there's another mountain to climb. So it's it's just that process and and just trying to learn it all. And now you know this has given me the opportunity to you know, having that noble path has given me the opportunity to talk about it on your show and everyone else's show. I mean, I'm really surprised that I thought I didn't have a story to tell until now, where I've been asked to be on a lot of shows, and it makes it all worth it because I could complain about all the things that can happen day to day. But I want a better tomorrow and I think that's a better chance. I mean, I have a better chance now at fixing it because I have really deep understanding of running a trucking company. So, yeah, I'm coming back to my brokerage at the end of this year and I have a lot of ideas.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's awesome, and everybody's got a story, man. That's the thing about it is that I really believe everybody's living these stories and they're not meant just for you. They're meant to be shared and to inspire other people and encourage them. And one thing I love about you in particular is your energy, like from the very beginning. It's like it's, it's infectious, it's nonstop.
Speaker 1:And you also just in talking, you know, on this uh show today, I can see that you also have a vision and a purpose and a passion and a mission that you're on um particularly and correct me if I'm wrong but to make trucking better, to make it better in the industry in terms of relationships with brokers. You were at the broker carry summit, got to meet some brokers there and be a part of that, which is a big part of our mission to do that. But it also sounds like you want to take care of your drivers as well and make sure that they're happy and that they're making money and that everybody's doing well. Talk a little bit about your mission in this. Correct me if I'm wrong in any of these areas, and what is it that you're really striving to accomplish?
Speaker 2:Well, so six years ago. So was is something that we all need. And you know, obviously that was the original mission was to try to keep going with the money until I found out what, what really needs to happen. So it used. My vision used to be profit driven transportation solutions today for better capacity tomorrow. And then I said, no, that sounds cheesy, Let me just change it to community driven transportation, so and so. And now I just said you know what, no one's going to remember that and I changed it to care for all recently.
Speaker 2:So I've been a big, you know, I've been working on myself for the last two years and that's where the energy comes from and the confidence, because I wasn't always like this. You know things would get me down, but when you do have a vision, because it's so hard to do it hey, imagine a money-driven. If you're money-driven, vision like that's gonna like run out of fuel. But if you have a mission and a vision driven like that's like you have something to keep you interested. It's gotta be it's care for all. So that's where I came up with vibes y'all. It's gotta be it's care for all. So that's where I came up with vibes y'all, and just positive energy and not talking about all the how I got stuck for five hours or how my truck broke down or how my driver ran into a yellow pole or someone you know.
Speaker 2:I just want to be so positive about it so that I could build a community of not us against them but because that's tribalism but a community that has deep understanding and understands that we're here for a better freight world tomorrow. Because, as far as what I'm seeing, we are headed the wrong direction. When you see all this fraud, when you see 10 different or 50 different vetting tools, we didn't need that back in the days. Like I'm looking from the past to build the future, I mean we had carrier 411, not to like plug them in, but that's all we had and DAT and truck stop and that was it. And we, we didn't, we weren't really scared, we were only scared about, you know, the fuel advances. But you can stop that, you know. But now it's crazy, the way I see it, I don't know how it's going to be.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know all the answers, but there has to be a better way. It's interesting and not to plug this, but that's part of the mission behind the Brokerage Summit. It seems like things are almost coming full circle again, where you need to be face-to-face with somebody to know that they're real, they're legit, that they're going to treat you well from the brokerage side and the carrier side as they, as they interact. Because you meet somebody on a load board, you have no idea. You have no idea. You're just hoping that they're one of the good guys. You're hoping they're not going to steal your load. You're hoping that your vetting tools are working. You're hoping that you know that, that that they're going to answer the call whenever you're trying to find out where they're at or whatever.
Speaker 1:It is like that, like it's. It's almost come full circle, almost like music. You used to have to go to a concert to actually listen to music and then we started recording it and now, because of ai, you almost have to go back to the concert to know it's real, yeah, to know that it's an actual person. You know so, really sing, but yeah, it's so funny.
Speaker 2:Let me. Let me go back to what you're saying because it's so interesting. Before I knew what carrier sales was, because I didn't. I was in my bubble at Covenant as an agency. I didn't know how all the big brokerages operated until I had my own trucks because I was dealing with them. But one of the things that we did at Covenant I did carrier sales. Before carrier sales was even in my mind. I didn't know what that was. But at Covenant, covenant asked us to help them with UPS and FedEx and they had these runs and they needed teams. Like we were big on teams. We were like let's get to 800 teams. So we would.
Speaker 2:I would go around LA and go around, you know, northern Cal, shake hands with real carriers, because we needed real teams, right, not those fake teams or strong solos, but we'd go out there and we'd talk to these guys, hang out with the carriers. That's what I thought it was. But then when I started to realize that I was just a piece of meat, I was like god, I treated like. This is crazy. I saw the competition, that. But you know, that's also an opportunity, right, like if that's how they're going to run their, their, their brokerages. That's great, because now I have a. You know, I just got to go, I just got to do it backwards, when everyone's going that way.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go the other way you know, success often comes from that way of thinking, of just being the contrarian, you know be having a contrarian mindset of whatever they're doing. And again, I'm going to keep plugging this, but we'll move on in a second. The Broker Curious Summit is essentially years and years of events that I went to and saying what do I not like about it? And doing the opposite? Don't do it, we do the opposite. And it it seems to be working right now, which is really powerful.
Speaker 2:Now, enough about that. I have a question for you. Did you go get your CDL and have you driven a truck? Nope, never got a CDL or drove a truck. That's why it's so much harder. So so I had. So I had Glenn and James. You know, employee number one, employee number two, james you know, employee number one, employee number two. They have been such like they've been my lens to what it really is like and I didn't think that was a good use of my time. You know is to build a company, is to build a platform so that they could continue having a place for them that they like working at, and I'm very proud of that. You know we're going on year seven this coming. You, you know december and they're still here and before that they were going from.
Speaker 1:You know drivers go from one one year, every year they're going to a different place, different place, that's right. Yeah, it happens all the time.
Speaker 2:We have another guy for four years, five years, like it's just amazing to build something. That's what keeps me going and I don't. I don't think I need to get one. That would be a waste of my time. It would be like, you know, if you know I have to stay in front of the customers for them to keep this thing going. I mean, with so many people going out of business, like it's, I can't, I'm not, I'm not, I'm useless if I'm going to drive a truck, you know. So I didn't think it was necessary, yeah necessary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think it's great that you had the self-awareness to understand that and to figure that out, and the fact that you have drivers that are there in year six, seven, that's incredible, because you're absolutely right, drivers jump around all the time. They get the recruiting bonuses or whatever it is, and I think it speaks volumes to the company that you're building. And this is, to me, this is the foundation of where marketing begins is actually having a good product, is actually having a good service to provide, and it sounds like you're providing that to your drivers. They clearly are happy. I mean, nobody stays in a situation that they're not happy with unless there's a gun put their head. It sounds like. It sounds like they're. They're really happy with what, what, what you've provided, what you've built, and so that's committal man. That's really cool. How many trucks and drivers are you up to now? What are you guys running?
Speaker 2:we have eight trucks, eight trailers, um, and then we, we are just I'm trying to grow, but I'm really really, uh, hesitant to do that with the laws in california. Um, that's one of the things that have held me back. I mean, I had 18 guys at our peak um and had to, um, rethink that because of there's a lot of laws and there's just responsibilities that I don't think a lot of carriers understand. It's not just about you have to be safe. I mean our brother, our sister, our mothers and kids are driving next to these trucks. Like you can't just hire people just to hire and move these trucks.
Speaker 2:You got to be really intentional about it and have the right drivers in place, cause I'm not, and if I could help someone that's willing to do that, that's more of my goal now is because the whole goal was like, let me try to get to a hundred trucks. Then you realize like whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Like if, if you really think about this Trey, if Wabash can get sued by not owning the trucking company and just being parked on the side, like imagine what the guy is it's actually running a trucking company. Like I'm going to go out of business, right, like if that happens, I'm one accident from going out of business or being sued. So do I really need to have more chances of doing that by adding more drivers on there? That's just just for the sake of money, versus figuring out a way to OK, how can I help others to to to be more responsible, and we'll be in our own little community. You know, this is where the best guys are. That's what I really want to build.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love the way you're thinking about that, because you're not just thinking about the drivers and the brokers and the shippers. You're thinking about that mom and their kids driving down the road right next to that truck. And you know, I have a. I have a 16 year old daughter who just started driving and it terrifies her to go next to a semi, you know cause. It just looks overwhelming, it looks like man, if anything happens, I'm done. That's the feeling you get until you've driven next to a bunch of them and you get your confidence up a little bit.
Speaker 1:She feels that, and so I love the fact, as a dad, that you're thinking not only just about your company and your trucks and your drivers and the brokers you work with and the shippers that you work with, but also the people that are out there sharing the road, because you're absolutely right. I mean, it's so critical and the responsible growth that I'm seeing you talk about. I wish more companies had that in mind instead of just getting to a certain number. It's like how do we build a company that's strong, that's safe, that's that's, you know, doing the right things, and that just matters, man. I just wish more companies would think like that, especially when it comes to 80,000 pounds going down the road.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I've been. I've been called out by my lawyer. Tristan, you can't refer to these things as 80,000 pound killing machines, right, and I had to take one of the postings down, but that's that's what they are. Right, like I'm not, I'm not going to sugarcoat that. That's the responsibility to have. I mean, knowing that the steer tires and these guys lose control, that 80,000 pounds, imagine the steer tires. Like you don't take care of your equipment and some of these guys don't have enough money to take care of it. Right, we're getting new tires. I mean that's something that we really and plus all my trucks are, by the way, leased, so I don't have to care, I don't have to do the maintenance anymore, so it's maintained by tech equipment.
Speaker 2:So blame them guys If something goes wrong. I'm just kidding, it's, it's the. The reality is they. They have, um, you know you have a responsibility to put safe safety first as a, as a company, especially with knowing that you could get sued at any time. You got to take that seriously and there's a lot of guys that are just running. They're going to run away from that responsibility and just it's sad, they'll just shut down the company. That's so easy. But I mean, I'm here for the long run. I mean, reputation means everything. When you're talking about marketing, it's all about reputation. It's all about churn. It's all about reputation. It's all about churn. It's all about the trust. Forget the numbers, man. Like I, I don't care about my revenue. Like we're not gonna talk. How about? Let's talk about churn. No one talks about churn. Let's talk about that. How long have you had your longest customer? Because customers are not your customers, it's just your turn. How long was it your turn? It was your turn for two months. You're doing something wrong. Yeah, dude, I love your perspective.
Speaker 1:Man, I just I'm excited that you're putting yourself out there. You're doing something wrong. Yeah, dude, I love your perspective. Man, I'm excited that you're putting yourself out there and you're going on shows like this and just getting the message out, because that's going to attract the right people and that's so important. That's a big part of brand and your personal brand right now, and people getting to know you. That's a huge part of it. Let's turn the corner for just a second and have a little bit of fun, all right? So we'd like to have a little bit of fun on this, this show, and so today we're playing a game called would you rather? All right, tristan, this is easy. We're going to put up two options on the board, and you got to tell us which one you would rather do and maybe a short explanation as to why you're ready to play it. Better not be broker carrier, because we've been plugging that in. Our producer comes up with it. I don't know, man, I take no responsibility for this.
Speaker 1:All right, here we go. The first one from would you rather is would you rather have two long front teeth like a beaver, or have no teeth at all? Interesting how long are we talking? Are we talking twice the length of our current teeth? Four times the length? I don't know how much bigger the two front teeth of a beaver are.
Speaker 2:I'd rather have no teeth at all, so I could just drink smoothies all day. It's going to take a lot of work.
Speaker 1:That's the best excuse for just like having healthy food, because you can blend up anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and everything that's right.
Speaker 1:Just be juicing for life. Man, just be juicing. So you're going, no teeth at all and smiling. You'd have to probably change. Would you still smile as big as you smile now, or would you go with the lips closed, smile yeah let's try it.
Speaker 1:That doesn't look right. I don't know, man, maybe the two front teeth being bigger would be a good thing. I don't know, we'll have to see. All right, that's the first one. Okay, so now you know how the game is played. Here we go the next one visit the past or travel into the future.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I think there's like an Elon Musk question. That's a good one. Yeah, which way would you go? I would rather travel into the future Really.
Speaker 1:Okay, why Now?
Speaker 2:why is that? Because because you know, that's how I live my life. I don't look at it at the rear view mirror.
Speaker 1:I mean more forward thinking look at it at the rear view mirror. I mean that more forward thinking, just thinking that's depressing, right? So I just go. No, no, that's not, that's not depressing at all.
Speaker 2:You're visionary future. Yeah, I'd rather see the future you're wanting to know what, if, what can be, and yeah, that's interesting things right, like there's so many things to want to change, versus like let's just keep going and figure it out along the way. Um yeah, going through the past was probably that would be depressing to go through the past.
Speaker 1:Now, if you went into the future and then you had to come back to the present, that might be depressing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right, but then you could do the change that. Then you can make the changes that need to. That are necessary.
Speaker 1:You could accelerate the changes. Maybe you can learn something.
Speaker 1:Come back and accelerate it oh there you go, okay, so that's that's progress, that's accelerated progress. I like where your head's at with that. See, I was thinking that I would prefer to go into the past, just because I actually like watching documentaries. I like watching, especially behind the scenes stuff of how things happened or or things that we didn't get to see in the moment. I like seeing that kind of stuff and so I'm a big fan of, like the movies that give you a feeling of what that was like like. For example, I was a big fan of titanic now the love story, whatever cheesy, but getting a sense of what it was like to be on that ship when it went down in the north atlantic, I mean that that brought it to life in a way that reading about it just never would. So I tend to like seeing things that happen in the past. So that's where my mind was headed, but you may have convinced me with your forward thinking and coming back, and you know, accelerating progress perspective.
Speaker 2:No, trey, but if you go to the past. So from what I know about you is you'd want to go and do some space travel. You could have been the first guy on the moon because you would have been the smartest guy if you went back.
Speaker 1:That's genius. I totally would have done that. Yeah, I totally would have done that. Yeah, oh man, you wouldn't have had to think the billions of dollars to get there. It's like you know me, tristan, because space exploration is definitely my thing Like if I could sign up to go to Mars, I would do it Like I would totally do it to be a part of that expedition. To go and do that, that would be incredible.
Speaker 2:I would never do that, Trey.
Speaker 1:Like I, just that's just an early way to die. Well, it could be. It could be, or it could be the best story you know for a long time. Think about this Neil Armstrong could have died going to the moon, but instead he was able to come back, and at every party that he went to he could always say well, I walked on the moon.
Speaker 2:If you like the Titanic, you could actually still go see it, but don't do it in the submersible. Is that joke too early?
Speaker 1:no, yeah, we're not doing that, all right. Okay, we're getting sidetracked here. This game's taking way too long. Here we go. Next one would you rather be reincarnated as a sea creature or an airborne creature? Would you rather be in the ocean or would you be flying around?
Speaker 2:I think um I think I'd be a sea creature.
Speaker 1:Really Okay. Anyone in particular? Do you have one in mind Like a whale, dolphin, crab, octopus, what do you think? A mermaid, a lobster, a man-made? That's a new one. Learning something new by you, tristan, that's good. On the other way, I would want to fly, because, to me, flying, space adventure, flying. I love being in an airplane, I love flying. I want to get my private license at some point.
Speaker 2:All I did was surf the first half of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so see, you're an ocean guy. I'm in St Louis, yeah.
Speaker 2:I like to fly places, so that makes sense.
Speaker 1:All right, we're, we're, we're learning. We're opposites in many ways. Okay, keep going. Next one Would you rather never age or never need to sleep in order to function?
Speaker 2:Ooh, I think I would rather never age, I think, because I'm I'm just afraid to to to age. I think we all are, yeah, 46, man, and everyone goes young and so, and it even feeds more of that fear, right, like God, I got to stay this young to you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you've done a good job of escaping the gray hair. I don't know how you've done that, I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm growing my beard back a little bit. It's limited. It's hard to see it for you. Would you stay at 46? Would you go back to a younger age, like what would be like the, the prime age you'd want to stay?
Speaker 1:oh, that's a hard one 16 so I could just surf every day and do nothing, not have any responsibility, but you can still drive. Yeah, your parents can pay for stuff, you'll do it.
Speaker 1:mcdonald's was uh 99 cents for a cheeseburger Dude that was the day that was yeah, that's, that's a good point. 16 is a G 16 or 17. Cause you're still a minor. But you get the driving, you get the parents are paying for stuff. School is easy. I would say that I've told people this before. If there was ever a period of life I could go back to and do it again, it'd be high school. I loved it. It was my favorite time in life Doing all these activities. Nothing cost any money. School was easy.
Speaker 2:Sleep was great. Weekends nothing to do.
Speaker 1:I like the idea of not having to sleep to function. To me, sleep is always a weird thing because, no matter what you do, how much energy you put in your body, how much water you drink, how much coffee you do, no matter what, how much energy you put in your body, how much, how much water you drink, how much coffee you drink, it doesn't matter. You have to sleep. It's a requirement and I just I hate the fact that it's a requirement.
Speaker 2:You know, like Do you feel it now at 46? Cause I do.
Speaker 1:Well, I I'm an eight hour sleeper. Like I've always prioritized sleep. So, and I don't drink any coffee Like what you see. For me is all natural, my friend, because I think I've prioritized sleep in my life, but I'm an eight hour sleeper. So, um, you know, I've, I've valued it, but at the same time, if I didn't have to have it, that would be nice, because I like doing so many things.
Speaker 2:I'd love to have eight more hours a day. I would love to have for someone who doesn't do coffee, or yeah that's yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no coffee, a little soda, occasionally, like I may have a diet coke, you know, every once in a while, but that's about it. So on that trail, sleep is a good thing, okay, last one. This has been the longest version of would you rather that we've ever had on the show, but I love it, I'm with it, I'm down with it all. Right, here we go. Last one, last one, would you rather? Oh, hopefully we get to it. Oh, I'm gonna have to do it. Let me see if I can do it here. Let's see Where's it at. Hang on, oh, would you rather where'd it go.
Speaker 1:Here we go, got it. Would you rather buy 10 things you don't need every time you go shopping or always forget the one thing that you need when you go to the store?
Speaker 2:That sounds awful, this one's terrible, and then I can't. I got to answer this. Would you rather buy 10 things you don't need? No, you know, I'd rather forget the one thing that you need to go. You need to go to the store because I'm not I mean, I am such a neat freak dude I don't need 10, 10 things Like I don't need to have You'd rather just miss it and have to go back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just miss it, have to go back, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, it's, and and we're going on an adventure to go back, maybe take a detour, go eat somewhere, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that. I like that. I mean, it's just that's. That's a pretty wild one, all right, well, that was, would you rather? And the last thing we're going to ask? You always like to ask a random question of the day. So the random question today and again this is something the producer makes up. I don't know what it is. It could be good, it could be bad, it could be funny, could be serious, I don't know. The random question of the day is what is your go-to board game? Oh, are you a board game player? Do you like games?
Speaker 2:oh no, but my kids love monopoly um, and I'm really, yeah, good for you, kudos, as a dad.
Speaker 1:That's a, that's a, yeah, that's a good game. Yeah, yeah because they're, they're, they're little entrepreneurs yes, they don't even want to go to school they already told me.
Speaker 2:They said it's a good game. Yeah, because they're Little entrepreneurs. Yes, they don't even want to go to school. They already told me. They said they want to run their own businesses and since I'm part of an entrepreneur's organization, they're like dad, let's run a business, let's do an Amazon store, whatever. So they're all about money and very competitive. Both of my kids are very, very competitive Nice, nice, okay. Yeah, are very, very competitive, nice, nice, okay, yeah. Real estate, like they fight about, like, well, I'm gonna get that house, I'm gonna get dad's.
Speaker 1:You know, it's so funny, it's crazy how many versions of monopoly do you guys have? Because there's a lot of them out there, there's, there's a lot like I hate seeing those little dollar things at the house.
Speaker 2:Like put that away, because I have a little board one for to travel with and they have that yeah yeah, they're going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there's National Parks Monopoly.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of different yeah, but my wife has a. We do have a lot of board games, a couple of nice kids, yeah very cool.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's cool, man. Well, my, uh, my go-to board game I don't know that I have one, but I do like uh games like Settlers of Catan and some of those like more like like economic building type of board games. But Monopoly is on our list. We've got three versions of Monopoly here. We like to play Monopoly as well, but not entrepreneurs like your kids. Man, that's impressive. Yeah, we'll fight for Boardwalk. Yeah, park Place. Yeah, my daughters hate it whenever I buy that because they know it's over, they know.
Speaker 2:You got to charge rent man.
Speaker 1:Every time you come you got to charge a rent. They know it's going down every time. It's all good, Tristan. Listen, man. What's on the horizon for IAM Freight? Let's bring this thing in for a landing.
Speaker 2:Well, I am going to use all this experiential knowledge and help others. I am on my second act, where I am going to be building tools, data, education and profitable loads for all.
Speaker 1:Nice, I love it, man.
Speaker 2:I love you got a vision, you got an idea around it, and I still love sales man, that's the jam Going out and talking to people and saying, hey, look, what can we build for you.
Speaker 1:You're always going to do sales, though. I mean, even if you're just a visionary, you got to sell the vision you know you got to. You got to get people to buy into what you're doing. So, yeah, that that part will never end. So that's awesome and well, I'm excited that you're part of the broker care summit and being a part of what we're doing there. I'm excited to get to know you personally and that you're on the show today. Man, thank you so much for coming by. It was good to hang out, good to talk and Ballast.
Speaker 2:That's a great. That's a great.
Speaker 1:Yes, dude, hey let's just throw that in there. If anybody out there watching this as a founder in transportation and is not a part of ballast, what are you doing? We need you to need you to change the way that you're showing up in life Like. It's an amazing organization. Reach out to Nate shoots, reach out to Tristan or myself. We'll get you guys connected. It's an incredible organization where founders can help each other. I In my journey. There's ups and downs. Obviously, the ups are easy and they're fun, but, man, those down times are lonely and difficult and that group has helped me get through more times than I can count when times have been tough and I don't know if I'd still have a company without Ballast.
Speaker 2:I don't know It'd be tough, and that's one of the things I love about hanging out with guys like us is that we have board of directors around us basically that help us navigate our life, our family, our personal of our business. It's everything, man. It's your board of directors and you can hit them up anytime that you want some support.
Speaker 1:That is a lot like that. It's kind of an outsourced board of directors. I never thought of it like that, but that's actually a good way to think about that. So kudos to Nate Schuetz and what he's built, man. That guy's passionate about founders. I love that guy. He's become a dear friend of mine. He's awesome, incredible, all right. Well, hey, listen, tristan. Again good to talk to you, man, looking forward to seeing chance to continue out with you soon. But again, thanks for coming on. We got to get you back on here soon and, uh, talk more about your vision where you're headed. We'll do that in the spring, all right?
Speaker 2:thank you so much, trey. Thank you, thank you sounds good.
Speaker 1:Man, we'll get you out of here on a little bit of your uh, your music. All right, everybody. Hey, listen. If you enjoyed that, make sure you come back every Tuesday with great guests like Chris right here on Standing Out. We love having these conversations. We appreciate you being a part of what we're doing here. I just banter back and forth. What a great conversation. Almost an hour. That might be the longest show in Standing Out history. I'm not sure. We'll have to check on that Before we go again. We've got to until next time. My friend remember, stop standing still, start standing out. We'll see you real soon. Oh, I think going to have to play the video today.
Speaker 1:Thanks for watching, guys.
