Mike Mikulik:
0:35
It's unfortunate this you can't rush. You can't rush the process with trying to get customers. You need to do good work. You need to take the time understand their business, ask a lot of questions, be curious about their business, and realize that not every company is going to be a fit for you, and you're not going to be a fit for them. And you know what, if you tell the customer that I'm only here trying to understand your business, I may not be the right fit for you. What do you tell a shipper that he's going to be like, really, I've never heard that before, but it's just take it slow. Do good work. Understand their business. Be curious like be curious about the business, and never expect to go in there trying to take their largest lane. Start small. You got to prove yourself. Anything, anything this business, start small. Prove yourself. And once you prove yourself, and they like you, and I've seen this with agents, where they've started with an account, and they know how big the account is, and they have, you know, this one small lane, and you know what gets them on the door, and then, you know what? Two, three late, years later, you're taking a look at that account and how much business they're actually doing with them. And it's just you look back, and it's the natural progression. The relationships are small. You prove yourself as they trust and like you. It ends up growing in to get more business. And I think sometimes we're just not patient enough. Well, there was an interesting debate on on LinkedIn by my friend Grace Sharkey and a few other folks within the industry that was talking about how your brokers should be educated on everything that's going on within global supply chain, crises and tariffs. And there was a counter argument that was made that your brokers should be focusing on covering freight. But the gray Sharkey was making the point that I I want my customers to know that I care about their freight, so I'm going to prove that I'm educated on the topic of, if I'm importing lumber from Canada, on how it's going to impact their pricing if they're moving it across the border. And her argument was, the broker should be educated on their customers freight. And there was a surprising amount of people that were saying the counter opposite to that, that, no, you should just be focused on moving, moving loads. Yeah, I think it's all about educating and looking at the whole supply chain, seeing how that's going to impact them. I mean, look what happened right now with, you know, the China us tariff crisis. And then also you have the 90 day period where, you know, you know, it was lowered. Well, guess what? Imports bookings out of China to the US went up 300%
Unknown:
2:55
Well, guess what, that's going to hit us, probably in July and August, once those containers arrive into, you know, the East and the West Coast ports, and then from there, it's going to get offloaded, then all sudden, it's going to start hitting the domestic network. Well, guess what? That's going to put an influx of product out of the market that we probably don't have enough carriers for prices are going to go up. Well, why would you share that with your customer and say, This is how the effect of this tariff pause can have an impact on your business. And he can plan accordingly for it too, exactly. And then they can go into their meetings with their, you know, colleagues, and be able to speak intelligently on it absolutely. And the shipper all of a sudden goes, Wow, I didn't, I didn't think of that. Hey, that's really important to me. And if he does go into if he does go and share it to those on his planning team or on their, you know, even to their executive team, he looks educated to them too, and they all can, everybody looks good, yeah. And I think so we're hitting on a concept of, obviously, relationships around education. But what about, you know, relationships on the tech side of things, there's so much tech that has been just injected into the industry. There's some consolidation that's being half or happening as we speak throughout the course of this year. How can you maintain a good relationship with a shipper if there's so much tech involved in that process now, and your carriers too. I mean, Tech has its purpose. I mean, there's aspects of of of redundant, redundant things where technical, technology helps out. I mean, even auto bidding or or auto posting loads like that, stuff all has a has a place. But I think anything where you have to have it, when a problem hits a customer, customer is always going to want to talk to somebody live on the phone. So you technology can do a lot, but it can't do everything. I mean, there's a there's a whole thing now too, you know, utilizing AI to even communicate with the customer.
Blythe Milligan:
4:40
I you know what, there's a place for things. There's definitely a place for things. But at the same time, too, when you're on the phone and you know what, your cell phone's not working, you try to call your cell phone provider, and you're dealing with, you know, with automated message, you just want to talk to somebody, and you're so much there psychological tests that prove that, like you're so much angrier when you are talking to a robot than when you're not. You know, it's funny, actually funny. You say that too, because I was reading a post today on LinkedIn that talked about what, you know, key things that draw people, like, how to be likable, how to be and the same thing works in business. People deal with those they like is empathy. And when you show empathy like, you know, let's say a loads gone soured, you got to call your customer. And you know what? Your customer is going to probably hear a lot about it as well too, because it's going to affect their whole supply chain. It could affect their planning for their production as well. You know what? She.
Mike Mikulik:
5:30
Showing empathy to them is a valued thing, and there's a lot of there's some things that AI just can't do, and empathy is definitely one of them. Genuineness is definitely not one of those things. Those soft skills are still important, and they still help to solve now I think I was actually talking to essay, you know, of SPI logistics, and he was saying that even with some of the AI bots out there, they will, if somebody on the call has will ask if, are you an AI agent, and the AI agent will lie to them and say they're not. And so what do you think that that does to your trust and credibility, and if they find out
Unknown:
6:06
and that, I mean, you've lost that customer forever, and think people have to be really cautious whenever they are implementing new technology, is, where is the problem that it's actually solving? Is it going to create a whack a mole where there's now all these other problems that exist because this was brought in to solve a problem, and it's not solving that problem, it's creating more. We've been experimenting with AI too, in our especially on some of our marketing and our marketing videos too. I mean, it's got its it's got its place. That's awesome. What we're trying to where have you seen success with it? I would love to hear some success stories with AI. Well, we're utilizing short videos like so we're trying to figure out, you know, what are commonly asked things for people who want to be a freight agent. So a lot of people are looking at it going, I don't know enough about what it means to become a freight agent, or how to set myself up as a freight agent. So you know, you were gathering all this data on questions people are asking, and we're basically making YouTube shorts out of that through AI to help answer and educate potential freight agents. Yeah. So I think that that has an awesome place for it. But like I said, talking one on one to people, that's still, it's still paramount, I think there's certain things that kind of, you know, let you in the door, per se, but then it's up to you to really solidify that relationship through good service and communication and service expectations, even going to see your customer too, or go on taking your customer out for lunch or dinner. You can't do that through AI. You gotta, you know what? There's still the big thing about, you know, if you can be with a customer, have lunch, break bread, golf with them. Whatever it is, get to know him here, but that's what, that's what more you know, puts more hands around the business, because now there's a relationship, and it's the one thing that so how, how is your your freight agent network, been adjusting to all the chaos that's gone on this year? Man, with all the chaos, with what fraud, with the fraud tariffs, just uncertainty. I think that, you know, for a lot of businesses, they have to rely on, you know, certain things that are going rules set in place. And whenever you have uncertainty, one thing we've always talked with our agents about is never be happy with the status quo. I mean, you know what, the customer that you have today, you could lose that customer pretty quick too. I mean, that customer who you have a good relationship could leave go somewhere else, also puts that business in jeopardy. A lot of thing is planning. You always gotta have some you always have to have something in your pipeline that you're always working on to be able to replace something in case you lose it. And the other big thing too, and I mean, we're working on this for like, seven, eight years, and that's where we've seen a lot of our growth come from is the aspect of deep selling, going back and re qualifying the business. Because the business you qualified, say, for instance, three years ago, when you got those one or two lanes, you know what? He's probably that customer is probably growing and probably doing a whole bunch of other things that they don't even know about. A lot of times it boils down to when it's like, hey, when you re qualify the business, the common thing that we actually hear from regions I didn't know you service that area, or I didn't know you did that. So I think you always got to be asking questions about and being inquisitive about your customers business and what other opportunities they have, or who know, who else makes decisions within within the company that perhaps has some link to transportation requirements that you could actually handle. So always be curious. Always be asking that question, what did I think on that Chris Jolly podcast, he said that Cara Brown of lead coverage said that your top customer is somebody else's prospect. Absolutely someone's always, yeah, that's another thing too. Actually, Michael and Bill and Mark will talk about that tomorrow at the TMSA, about how many calls they actually get in a day. So someone, and it's not just like on your on your left hand, these people are getting tons of calls every single bit, every single day, and emails trying to solicit their business and to try to get into the door. And you know what? Some of those people will eventually probably get in the door if they sell right and they and and they they do it the right way. That was one thing we're at TMSA elevate in Austin, Texas. Had to think about that for a minute because almost said New Orleans, because that was last year's conference, but the one in New Orleans, lot of fun. That's great, by the way. Mike is from Canada, so he's we don't have that humidity factor going on. My body's not meant for that. Well, you You did survive July at Disney World? Yes, I did. So I was looking at pictures of that, and I was laughing, because there was like, glistening I was wearing short glistening like sweat on my arms, as like we're taking pictures between with you.
Blythe Brumleve:
10:30
With you and batter and Maddie. I was like, oh my goodness, it was hot. It was so we did go to Orlando Disney World in July a couple of years ago. It was me and my husband and then Mike and his daughter, Maddie, who is also a freight agent for SPI and I remember at one point we, you know, we were kind of just standing around in the theme park and talking about what we were going to do next. And you and Maddie both were like, can we stand and have this conversation?
Mike Mikulik:
10:57
And shade botter and I, like, we don't really work. It's hot, of course, but like, we don't recognize it. I think, I think we're just used to the suffering. That's fun. That was great. Yeah, I look forward to the going to the end of the ride section there, where there was air conditioning.
Unknown:
11:16
But, yeah, that's speaking of TMSA. Well, there was one shipper panel, I think it was last year that did say, like, we can recognize your templated emails because it's a different font and it's a different font color, and we know that you are sending this email out to, you know, hundreds, maybe 1000s of people and so, but that's not a good way to develop that first relationship. So emails are tough to do. You mean, I mean, I get emails all the time for people trying to solicit I don't even reply half the time. You don't even read them, right? I mean, in me making phone calls, let everyone answers the phone, but if you do get on the phone with somebody, you've got like, 10 seconds to be able to make some sort of a quick impression, where they still want to be engaged in the conversation. And with SPI just having their their rendezvous conference, I'm assuming a lot of people were maybe talking about, you know, how what's working, what's not working, what, sales and marketing wise, is our home runs right now and then. What are actually big thing is referrals. For them right now, that was a big topic we talked about, was referrals, and it's interesting because we have a freight agent who, you know, works for themselves. They're the ones that are answering the phone at six o'clock at night on a Friday night or on a Saturday morning at Seven 8am or on a weekend or after hours. They're the ones that are able to do that. That's puts a huge separation between a lot of other companies. And you know what? These people, these customers, that they deal with, no other people. So referrals, and asking about referrals has been a real big hit for us right now. Oh, that's so they're asking, just like on the phone, while they're, you know, they've had a, yeah, well, you have a relationship with it was like, hey, it's like, thank you so much for helping me all the whatever it is. And it's asking the question, hey, I thank you so much. I really value working with you too. But hey, do you know anybody else that could be or value of what we what we do personally for you? Ask that question because they would probably, I would imagine, want to help you too, especially if you have that relationship. It's the same thing. When you go and you see a customer and you have lunch with them, or you golf with them, they feel so happy that you took that time to spend with them. And most times out of it, you end up getting more business out of it, naturally, because they're appreciative, because you have that relationship, they've spent time with you. You obviously made an impression that they like you too. What happens during or maybe you have some advice for folks who are dealing with, maybe with one, but one relationship within a big shipper, big customer, and what happens if that person leaves, or, you know, something happens? That's a good question. You know, the big thing, and I took the Miller Hyman training is going back, oh my gosh, this is like, a long time ago. I'm dating myself. The big one thing that came out of it, though, and obviously Miller Hyndman has a lot more components to selling, but the one big thing was knowing that you have people that are the decision makers, and you have people that are influencers, and then you have other ones, the day to day workers, but they all have some sort of an influence on things. So always looking at expanding your relationship within a customer. So if you're dealing with one decision maker right now, that's great. Have a good relationship with them. But who are the you know, who are his dispatchers at that work, on the team? You know, who's his boss? Expand that relationship, because the moment that one person leaves, guess what? Now you have relations with other people, and they can be advocates for you too, as you go and try to work around, trying to work with a new person that's coming in for that decision making position. And anybody who comes into a position, you know, a brand new position, especially who has experience in this industry, has his proven providers that he probably wants to bring in. But if the people that are surrounding him, that the workers, even his boss, go, Hey, we've been dealing with ABC company for years that, you know, the guy working there had a good relationship, but, you know, he's awesome. We want to continue to use them. That's what you want. You want people that are advocates for your business and for your service. So expand the relationship as much as you can. And I think another thing that you bring up, Jolly for the third time, I think this conversation, he's talking about site visits as well, which I think in like in my digital world, I'm like, How can I create, like, different marketing campaigns and all of these different things, but, and I think a lot of brokers are dealing with this as well, and a lot of agents is that they're trying to do all the digital things, but maybe just asking the simple questions of referrals and also site visits are the tried and true methods. Yeah, well, it's. It's a meeting face to face is gonna having a meeting face to face with somebody is probably gonna go a lot further than having, you know, 15 phone calls for that person be thinking that you know him, right, and you know knowing what he ate for dinner on Saturday night and what's football game he was watching on Sunday morning. But when you get face to face, yeah, it accelerates. It accelerates the process, accelerates the relationship. So referrals and site visits are big winners for your agents right now, and then also the other, I think, leg of that stool is the ongoing education for a lot of these agents. We send a lot of good information, like market information, weekly market information, what's going on in the market. Actually, Mark's a weekly carrier report with what's going on the market and what he sees actually going to be happening. To be happening. And it's that's really detail. It's detailed mark from about two but what Mark does is he teal. He'll top highlight a few key points like these are some key points that you want to share with your shippers. And the reason we do this, and I think this is, like, spectacular, because sometimes you're like, Well, I have nothing to call a customer about. Well, guess what? You got two points here that are gonna definitely affect your customer in the next coming weeks, that you can use that to share with them as you're open. Hey, I was thinking about this. What I just saw, I just read, and this could have an impact on your business. Hey, do you have five minutes to chat? Well, guess what? I'm sure the customers can be like, Yeah, I wanna understand what this is. So have a purpose when you call and have something that's gonna be of value to them and to their business, are you seeing folks with all the, I guess, uncertainty in the market? Are you seeing them jump more into becoming a freight agent or maybe just trying to stay in a stable spot, or what they presume is stable? Yeah, anything you see a bit of both. I mean, it's, I mean, we can have a cold conversation on this too, like, you know, what? If you come from a role where you have a salary and a commission, that's, that's, that's pretty safe, right? That's it. And, you know, you got a family, you got a mortgage, you got kids, like to pull yourself away from that some, yeah, sometimes that's, that's, that's a challenge, right? You really have to bet on yourself. You have to bet on your skill, that you know that, and your and your drive, that you're gonna be able to do it, whereas somebody, some people, come on right away, and they just know what they have, they're gonna, they're gonna, they're gonna do it, and they do it. But I'm starting to see a lot, I think a lot of a lot, what we see now is a lot of people were uneducated in the past, but what it was to be a freight agent, and I think now there's so much marketing. I mean, part of it is what we're doing with you and with Chris jolly, and even what we're doing with Trey, about educating the market on what it is to be a freight agent, and even putting our agents on the shows to for them to share their experience. I think, if anything, and that was the start of why we did it, was because if we could put a freight agent on there, and they could share their journey from, you know, the time they they decided to do it, and the end and the benefits and even some of the challenge that they faced, those things are great for the market and just help are helping them understand what it is to be a freight agent and what to be prepared for. From hearing from somebody who's actually done it, I don't think that any other agency, freight agency program is has done that. Think they're all very scared of putting their agents front and center. Yeah, you know the one thing, I mean, we scale back our bill. Yes, we're a three we don't we're a three PL, but really, we're a service to a three Po. So I have to make sure, and Joe has always said this from the beginning, he goes, What's our stickiness factor with our agents? So I have to give them everything that they possibly can to be successful so they don't want to leave. I mean, we've been doing this now. How long we do this for now? Three, four years. Three years. Yeah, almost three years. It'll be three years. We've done this for three in January for this, putting the challenge out there to anybody. But we haven't lost an agent because we put them on the show.
Blythe Milligan:
20:00
Yeah, next time banging my head on the wood. I just, but seriously, it's, you know what we're doing to educate, educate the market. That's a big thing too. And our agents want to share their story.
Unknown:
20:13
I mean, and some of them have phenomenal stories. Some of them are different stories, like, like, one of my favorite conversations ever, and he's been on the show twice, and he hires all his family members. And you cannot, you cannot say there is one mold for each freight agent there, there are, they're all different. Their circumstances are different. Their business is different. It's, it's awesome, like it really is awesome. I wish I knew about it more 15 years ago, because 15 years ago it wasn't, it wasn't widely known, it wasn't widely understood. And I think now you're starting to see that people now understand it. People still have reservations about it, and you have to do your research. It's gotta if anyone's looking to be a freight agent, I recommend take a look at a few and it's gotta be the right fit. You gotta know in your heart that that's the right company to go with. How do you know what? What are your same thing? For us, I don't bring on every single person that wants to be afraid. It's gotta be the right got to be the right fit for both and once you establish that as the right fit for both people, and it's a win win, those are the relations of that work. What does a good win look like for us? For somebody else who's getting, you know, they're they're having the good technology, they're having good back office support, they feel comfortable with the team. So.
Blythe Milligan:
21:23
One thing we do, like, when an agent comes on board or is interested in looking at SPI, you know, it's a conversation. We'll start with Bob. I'll have a conversation with him too. And then from there, what we'll do is we'll go listen. We want you to demo our TMS system. So we'll give them a demo on our TMS system. And from there, because our TMS system, who's doing the
Unknown:
21:42
demo on it is the client care team. Well, guess what? The client care team is who are back office support team is who they're dealing with on a daily basis for, you know, challenges or issues that they face. So they all started to start developing a relationship with a bunch of people within SPI, and that's where the comfort level comes in. And I'll tell you, client care is the ones that keeps the customers happy. They're the ones that keep the agents, because they're dealing with them. When there's issues, there's challenges, needed, you know, need a carrier on border quick, need credit. They all go to client care, and client care there to support them. So it's a, it's pretty amazing. It's kind of like you're all you're you're vetting each other, absolutely, both. You have to, I mean, we vet them too. And actually, it's interesting when a when an agent gets, you know, goes to the demo too, like you'll get a message from the client care team, and they'll say, Hey, did a demo on so and so, and they almost write a report on what the agents like to thinking they're gonna, you know, they'll put their comments, I think he'll be a really good fit for us. And that's great. The more people that actually meet them will know if they're gonna be a good fit for SPI. And the same time too, that agent should be interviewing us to see if it's gonna be a good fit for them. Now, I know one of the other big selling advantages of SPI is that you don't have a lot of agent saturation across the country. Now, are there certain areas of the country that you want to fill those gaps that you're comfortable talking with, or maybe globally, or that's interesting. We've, you know, we're actually been looking now even at agents globally as well too. We have some, I think it's so cool, like we have some. We have an agent actually out of Spain. We have one out of Southeast Asia, so, and they're all working in the in the US market. So the business has gone globally. But even for like, you know what? Well, 80% of our agents are actually in the US, running us to us, cargo. Our market is actually the US. Our Canadian business is a small portion. But you know what, I don't look at a certain region where I want agents. I'm looking for just the right fit of an agent, and it's got to be the right fit for them, too. And when it comes to saturation, I do believe that we have low saturation. And you know what, if they're concerned about it, we'll sign, we'll sign an NDA with that potential agent, and they'll disclose, you know, the customers that they have, and we'll let them know who's working on them, or if they're open for them. And I think that's a big thing to do is vet your customers before you go and join an agency. Because the last thing you want to do is go on to there and or join an agency and realize that, you know, a third of your customer is already being handled by another agent. That'd be a little disheartening. And if you're looking to actually grow your business, makes ask about the saturation, how many agents they actually have? Because another big thing that we hear is they're leaving certain agencies because there is too much saturation, and there's no room for them to grow, because all the accounts are actually being handled. So it's all kinds of things to look for. Look at look at that. Look at Tech. Look at the technology stack, like, demo the technology, you know, make sure that technology will work for you. Ask questions about, you know, their carrier onboarding. You know what kind of tools are using for carrier onboarding? Yeah, fraud help, claims help. That's another big one. Like, what happens when there's a claim? Who handles the claim? What happens if there's bad debt? Do I get stuck with the bad debtors, like, ask all those questions, um, ask about, you know, the relationship with carriers, and how many days you actually, on average, pay your carriers. That's huge. That's a big thing right now to be asking as well, too, because carriers are being selective, who, what brokers are actually dealing with. So a whole bunch of education happening on all sides, absolutely, like, from the brokers, the shippers, the carriers, but it also, I would imagine that on the flip side, I mean, especially online, which you're going to get, you know, a different, I guess, kind of comment online, where it feels like there's they're almost adversarial to each other, but there seems to be concerted efforts to bring more brokers and carriers together, So then that way they're solving those problems for their universe. I mean, that's one big thing that we really focusing on, is the carrier and broker relationship and finding the right care. Where do you want? Where's your key lanes that you want to run, that are good for you and work we support you on those and building a relationship with them, because a lot of these carriers, they don't have a dedicated sales team. Well, all sudden, now you got, you know, you're part of a network of 70 agents that are running cargo all over the world. They're probably have cargo that can actually fit for you, so let them be your sales team and support you. That's very true. I mean,
Blythe Brumleve:
25:58
I feel like we've, we've hit on a lot of different trends. Even
Unknown:
26:02
talked about Disney World,
Blythe Brumleve:
26:04
Disney World. Florida is very sensitive to Disney, Disney World, I guess where should so if I'm if I'm thinking about making the jump, and I know we've talked about this before, but I'm curious if that has changed for 2025 and moving forward.
Unknown:
26:23
So if I'm thinking about making the jump, I want to have conversations with my customers. How do I kind of do that on, maybe, like, the down low. So your current be careful with that, but I think you've got a good relationship with the customer, you know, we can, you can talk to them about, you know, I'd be making a move, you know, have the conversation. Are you? Would you still continue to work with me? Folks with a different company, do NDAs play or non competes. So play around on that as well, too. It's different in the US when it comes to non competes versus Canada. But I don't know, I find like there's workarounds with the non competes, but it's the aspect of the non solicited. A non solicit, you still got, you got some, you got some things you got to look out to with, with a lawyer. I want to get in Wait, yeah, which was another suggestion by by Chris jolly, is making sure that you have a lawyer as well that can read through some of these complex things and help you prepare to make that jump. And then also having, you know, a little bit of a lifeline. Six to 12 months of saving you have to, you have to give yourself a lifeline if you think that you're gonna come on board and right away in in month one, you can be making, you know what you expect to be making? It takes time. I mean, a lot of big companies that you may be dealing with, for them to onboard you as a as a new broker. That takes time. I've seen that take up to six weeks, like trying to deal with a large company, where it has to go through the hands of different people. That takes time. So you got to be prepared. Yeah, it's not just you that has to be on boarded, but it's all of your customers as well. And maybe there's some different, you know, hoops that you got to jump through on that front as well. I've seen, I've seen agents come on board in the first week. They're they're roll, that they they're rolling, but they have their they have things set up ahead of time. Then I've seen ones that's taken, you know, three months for them to get things going. I've seen ones have taken six months. But be prepared that it doesn't happen overnight and be able to be able to weather the storm, because a lot of times, some eight, some great freight agents will come on board, who I know have the potential, and they'll give up two things that didn't happen fast enough. So be prepared for it. Yeah, I mean, it's expert. You got to be able to put in the work that nothing is going to come passively. There's no such thing as passive income, and kind of get on that hamster wheel and keep rolling. You always got to be working. You always got to be working. It's gone well for you, though, too. Yeah, absolutely. The podcast is really the best thing that's ever happened to me. Thanks in part to SPI support and remember that conversation we had that where our freight ways? Yep, the day after my show, cyberly ended, what my contract ended on October 31 and freightwaves started on November 1. And so it was like their annual event, the f3 events, right? So we had that conversation all day, the very next day, and I was like, You know what? I'm on to something here. I'm, you know, I think I'll be glad that you did. I'm glad that we talked, because I can honestly say I was the first one to the first one to join. That's good. Yeah, it's been an amazing partnership. And, well, the cool thing is, you've met our agents, you've talked to our agents, you've come to rendezvous like, I think, for like, for you, and even for Chris, well, actually, even did Trey come to like for the fact that you actually got to meet our like, our agents, and see our culture is huge. Well, it's they're business owners as well. Like, I mean, you kind of hinted at it at the start of this episode that, you know, it's like 70 different entrepreneurs that each of them are all different, and being able to connect with them and learn their story, and it was a pleasure. And I think the partnership from outside has worked out really well. I think you know just as much about SPI as I know what you've talked to every single I think in some cases, you probably talked to the agents for that I have Well, I mean, it's fantastic conversations, because I learned something new, because I think that the entrepreneurial spirit behind them, that they and it's very I can identify with that, because you, you have to do it all. You have to know a little bit about everything. And I think that having that skill set will aid you in the future, as AI and technology take over more and more, you have to dabble in a little bit of everything in order to be successful totally. I think it's kind of interesting because you've interviewed so many of our agents. Like, each story is different, yeah, like each story, and I'm always surprised by the numbers of like, what resonates with the audience, of what doesn't. I think, before we started recording, I told you that Chris Angelo's story from the earlier this year has been our top episode this year in 2025 and that was the from engineer to freight agent model. He was, story is interesting, yeah. You know the story with Chris becoming afraid, agent is actually, yeah.
Blythe Milligan:
30:44
Anyways, I think this was, this was funny. We're talking about this, James and I, like, three years ago when we kind of were talking about, like, we want to start, we wanted to make our own podcast, but we don't know what the heck we were doing. And that's where, like, you know, I was like, well, sponsor. It was, it was, it was an awesome marketing decision for us, because I think it really,
Mike Mikulik:
31:04
it really, it helped get what the agent model is. But even just market ourselves, it was great. And I think it gave our agents an avenue to share their story. And some of the I tell other potential sponsors and sponsors I work with that. Yes, it's definitely important to hear from the executive leadership team, but if you can have your customers on a show, then. That customer telling that story, it hits differently. We had that happen with Thai software, where their executives, fantastic team, they had one of their customers come on and tell their story, and it was the top episode out of all of our Thai episodes. And it was the customer telling the story of everything he went through to buy a new TMS and what he vetted, and the questions he asked, and that's the same thing that freight agents are asking, or potential freight agents and changing software. That's a huge, that's hugely a TMS, exactly. Especially with an agent model, they try to change your TMS with an agent model, oh my goodness, that's, that's, that's not even not an easy feat. You get a lot of resistance. I was gonna say, like, how is that in the selling to rovanova? It was, it was, it was tough. Yeah, I mean, I mean, now, you know, it takes a bit to work on all the bugs and everything, but once that's done it, you know, people get used to it and they see the benefit of it. But any type of a new software implementation is even without the highway that was, that
Unknown:
32:22
wasn't easy either. But,
Mike Mikulik:
32:24
you know, those were all those things, in the challenge of onboarding and getting your agent or your staff to adopt to a new program, that takes time, but, but I tell you, your tech providers play an instrumental role in help selling that too. Speaking of top episodes as a Peralta, who is head of it for SPI like his episodes, also, we've had him on twice, and I think people want to hear that point of view as well before they decide if they're going to even have a phone call with SPI. That guy is an absolute genius when it comes to technology, like he talks about just like an awe,
Unknown:
32:54
wow. Like I I'm not a smart guy when it comes to technology. Well, what I love about that his approach is that he creates this central hub, and then all of the spokes on it can either be provided by SPI or they could build your current tech stack into that hub model. And it's awesome, ultimate flexibility. And he has so much passion for it, like he loves it, like he just, he's passionate what he builds. I think he's an absolute genius, man. I got a lot of respect for that guy, all right. Well, I think we've, I mean, that's, I think it's a good place to leave it, unless there's anything else that you feel is important to mention to anybody. Maybe, maybe you're a current freight agent at another company you're looking to shop. You kind of already gave that advice. I'll be honest with you when it when it comes I'm on Look, I don't do not. I'm not trying to sell anybody. I'm just trying to help educate somebody, and if they have questions, just want to chat. You know what? Just have a chat. I am not the pushy guy. In fact, it's most times it's driven by the agent. Okay, I want to join. It's like, all right, because it's a good fit for them, right? But just have the conversation. There is no pressure. Having a conversation, even if you're thinking about it, or you're with as a w2 and you're thinking about becoming a 1099, and want to know what you know, what that's gonna look like, what onboarding is gonna look like a conversation I'm happy to share. I'm happy, happy to educate and just have a real conversation. And even if you can't make the jump tomorrow, you can start preparing yourself to make the jump eventually. It'll never come with the pressure, the pressure to join or the pressure to do it. This is have a conversation at the end of the day. It's got to make sense to you. Mike working that's a perfect way to to end the discussion. Mike, where can folks follow you? Get with SPI, follow me on LinkedIn. You guys are posting more often too. A lot more. Yeah, awesome. Lot More. You know, I think reached me through my email, and are you gonna post it? Or do I have to, like, say it out loud? I'll just put it in the show, put on the show, or call myself. I mean, you put it on the show, but I'm happy to talk. I'll put it in the show notes. We'll see if you're a good fit or not. And for both sides, it's not for both sides. Got to make sense. You just got questions. Just want to talk about it. Yeah, I'm happy to have that conversation. Awesome. And there is landing page, resource materials. All on everything is logistics.com. In case you want to check out any of those past interviews that we've been talking about with the executive team or the freight agents. And if that's what they want to do is just throw it on. It on through that landing page and put your information there and go, Hey, I want to talk to Mike. Just watch the show. Just do that. No pressure, doesn't you're not going to get 1000 emails from anybody that saying you need to join, or what are you joining? Or get advertisers pop it up on your page with a one up, and we're just, let's just have an education Exactly. There's no, no cookie tracking, maybe a little bit of Google Analytics, but that's it. Mike, thank you so much.
Blythe Brumleve:
35:36
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of everything is logistics, where we talk all things supply chain, for the thinkers in freight, if you liked this episode, there's plenty more where that came from. Be sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you never miss a conversation. The show is also available in video format over on YouTube, just by searching everything is logistics, and if you're working in freight logistics or supply chain marketing, check out my company, digital dispatch, we help you build smarter websites and marketing systems that actually drive results, not just vanity metrics. Additionally, if you're trying to find the right freight tech tools or partners without getting buried in buzzwords, head on over to cargorex.io where we're building the largest database of logistics services and solutions, all the links you need are in the show notes. I'll catch you in the Next episode in go jags.
Unknown:
36:46
You
