Lightning like Steve McQueen I'm in the fast lane when the light turns green and I built tough I ain't nothing but grit cause I made rugged blood, sweat and spit yeah, like a horse I fly for a bumpy ride I like to play hard but I work harder and I weather the storm cause I'm built stronger.
What is up, ladies and gentlemen, we are back. We are live. It is a freight coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 08:30 a.m. Pacific, 1030 Central to break down some industry headlines, but most importantly, provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve.
So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it, and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Corey Buchan. Happy Monday, Dylan turning Dylan Turner. Excuse me. Good freaking morning. Happy Monday. Time to win. Both coming in over on YouTube, you guys, because I go live on YouTube. I go live on LinkedIn and Facebook as well because I refuse to pay for Twitter. But that's a day. Rest of story for another day. I got a very special guest for you guys here today. It's nostalgia 101. He's a really good friend of mine. He was the first person who actually agreed to come on this podcast that I decided to start out in my bedroom four years ago. And I had no idea what a podcast was. And he, excitedly said, yeah, absolutely, I'll come on your podcast.
So I have my inaugural guest, mister Trey Griggs, coming back on the show. Right?
Let's go. What's up, man? It is good to be back, man. I can't believe, dude, I even forgot that you were literally in your bedroom. I remember that whole setup that you had. And that's just crazy. Four years flies by, man. It's nuts.
Hold on. And. And I still have the OG.
Yeah, you do. The OG hat, which I got it right?
Yep. I saved it. Hold on. I'm putting this back on, right?
I was gonna say I shouldn't be the only one wearing a hat. You should have a hat on right now.
I mean, it is the OG freight coach app. I back when. I mean, dude, I don't. I didn't even know what any of that. I still don't know what the hell I'm doing, Trey, to be honest with you. I just know I gotta hit record every day at the same time. But I. Yeah, man. Dude, it's so crazy what all of this kind of, like, evolved into, you know, like, I remember because I still talk about it, right? Like, I just googled and YouTube university, had a podcast. Like, I didn't know what the hell I was doing, man. I was delivering pizzas back in the day. You know, it was like, everybody, you know that, like, it was, oh, just, everybody's gonna want to come on your show once you start a podcast that couldn't have been further from the fucking truth. Nobody wanted.
Who the hell are you, man? Like, I don't even know who you are, but you, you were just like, yeah, I'll come on. And I, dude, I don't even know why you agreed to it, but it was like, dude, we just, and that was just, like, the start, though, man. And I think, like, with so much stuff out there, it is literally just starting. And, like, the only thing I'm certain about in business is you have to make two decisions. A, you just have to start it. Like, nobody knows what's going on. You just have to start. And then, bhdem, you just have to have such a, a belief in just figuring it the fuck out. Like, and you have to do that every single day, sometimes every single hour. As the day progresses, you just have to figure it out.
Yeah, well, did I remember? I mean, the reason why I'd agree to come on your show is cause I wanted to support you, man. Like, I just believed in you and what you were doing. We became really good friends, and I knew that you were hustling and you were working hard, and I was like, yeah, I mean, if you need that, if that helps you in any way, which I don't know if that helped at all, but it's fun. We had a good time. We didn't know what were doing. Who cares? I don't even know if anybody watched that show too much. But at the same time, it was the start. And that's something I've always noticed about you and have been incredibly respectful of is the fact that you're a man of action.
Like, it's not about just talking, it's about doing, and you just have to do it. And a lot of times, you figured out along the way, and, you know, as far as belief goes, dude, I bought this because I love this. I got into Ted Lasso a couple years ago, so I bought this sign and it sits on my desk every day because everything starts with belief. And I remember, used to always say, if I don't believe myself, who's gonna believe in me? I mean, yeah, I gotta believe myself first. And so I never forget that. But man, you just your man of action and I was so excited to help you out. So that's it.
Dude, you're right, man. We didn't know what the hell were doing. And I remember it, we got 115 downloads in my first month in total in the first month. And that was like four episodes released and everything. And it's like, it's crazy cuz like now I can get that in like 30 minutes and stuff like that, you know, so it is crazy with that though. And, you know, I just look at it as I just knew that I didn't want to work for anybody ever again. I knew that in that moment I would, like, that was the only thing I was certain of back in 2020 was that I wanted to do this for myself. I didn't know what this was. I just knew that I want, I just couldn't fucking work for anybody ever again.
And I told myself that day, that I will never take a paycheck from somebody else ever again as my primary source of income. And I was like, I am going to write my own path. I'm going to do that. And it's funny, I'm listening to shoe dog right now, Phil knight. Highly, highly recommend everybody read. But you know, he had said in it was in the chapter I was listening to this morning, he had said. He was just like, I didn't know what I wanted to build. I just knew I wanted to be able to point to, at something and say, I built that. And that hit like, so far, bro, that was like, that was the one line that hit me.
It was like, I didn't, I don't still to this day, like, I just know I want to be able to look at something one day and say, I fucking built that. That's like kind of my big driving force behind a lot of that. And I think that, you know, because it's like. But it's also knowing what you want too. And that takes a long time because I think, you know, in today's day and age, a lot of things is over glorified everybody. It makes it people, some people want to make it look so easy and everything else. But I think the. The sooner you can get to this is what I actually want with my life, and then you just commit to that. I think that is, like, I don't know. That's.
That's one piece of advice I feel comfortable giving out there because, like, I don't want to ever come across as, like, trying to be a guru because I'm not, like, I'm just a regular dude who's just fucking trying to figure out my life. But I know that the sooner you can find out what it is that you want, and it might be, I want to build the largest this. Or you know what, man? I just want to build, like, a little lifestyle company where I can go out and live my life and be happy. Like, the sooner you can come down to that, man, I think a lot of this just becomes a lot more easy because there is so much existential pressure that's out there in today's day and age of, oh, I have to be this. No, you don't.
You just have to be. And it was like, for me, man, it's like, I just want to be a good husband and a good father. Ultimately. I don't fucking care what anybody else thinks as long as my wife still loves me and my son still, like, respects me as his dad and doesn't think I'm just some piece of shit. Like, that's, like, my ultimate thing for me. That's, like, what I'm ultimately concerned about.
Yeah. And I. And to go back to what you said about being able to point to something and say, I built that, I think that resonates in the heart of a lot of people. And it's just hard. It's hard to get started. Some people get in their own head. They get their own way. But I think that's a part of the imago day of, like, you know, having the image of God in us is we want to create something from nothing. We want to create something that didn't exist. And we want to just, like, have the pride in saying that we did that. I think it's why we have families. I mean, a kid is somebody that was nothing and now is something. I mean, this is, like, who we are. Writing a book, writing, you know, music, creating movies, building a company.
Like, these are all things that didn't exist, and we want to create them. So I think it resonates. It certainly resonates with me. Took me a little bit longer to get there than it did you. But at the same time, once you make that leap, you find out pretty quickly if this is for you or if it's not and I'm with you, like, I. Not. I don't have a desire to go back and work for anybody else again, not say there's anything wrong with that. I just don't want to do that. I've just learned that about myself. I don't want to do that.
Jeff, I. You know, it's, like, another thing that I think has kind of cleared up a lot in my head with. With a lot of this is, I think ultimately, however big it gets, is I don't necessarily care as long as I can look back and be like, I did the best I could, you know, like, I built the best company I possibly could where, like, people are proud to work at, our customers are proud to work with us, our carriers are proud to work with us. And, like, that's ultimately what it boils down to for me is. Is, you know, if it happens just to be the number one transportation company in north american history, phenomenal. But I also ultimately just want to look back and be like, a, I built that and bdez, this is the best possible company that's out there.
And, you know, I was talking with a really good friend of mine. You know, Chris Brewer. He's the founder of River City Logistics, and he's become a really good friend of mine here.
Yeah, like, Chris, he's good, dude.
And him and I were talking about that, and he. He's phrased it in a little bit different way, but that's what kind of, like, resonated with me a little bit, is like, man, I just want to build the best thing I possibly can. So, dude, we could. We could just go on and on about this the whole time, but I know you. You got some other stuff you want. You want to kind of really cover here. And first things I want to talk about is, you know, with. With ALS foundation and what you got. So I'll stop here. You jump in, talk about what you got going on with that.
Well, I appreciate you giving me the floor to talk about this. Cause this is a really important thing for our family, something near and dear to my heart, and that is we're raising money for ALS patients. Let me give you a little background on this. For those who just don't know, most people do know about ALS, but maybe don't know some of the details and what it actually looks like when you have a family member that's diagnosed with ALS. Eleven years ago, were with an extended family member. We had a family member diagnosed with ALS. Her name was Joan Sucker, my brother in law's mother in law. So a little bit extended to me, but we're all pretty family here in St. Louis. And she was diagnosed in, I think, 2011, 2012, somewhere around there.
And then she lived five to six more years, five and a half more years, something like that, which is a really long time, actually, for an ALS patient to live. And what we realize is how expensive it is to live with ALS and to eventually die with ALS. It's incurable. There's no cure for it. And the costs are unbearable for a lot of families. And what I mean by that is when you get. When you have ALS, there's a lot of things that you need just to survive or just to continue that aren't medical accommodations to your home when you start to lose the ability to walk, accommodations to cars, communication devices, a lot of other things, a lot of other treatments just to make life comfortable.
And just the idea of taking time off to be family, take an extra vacation and go spend time together before this event that, you know, is coming, which is death. And so it's a very expensive way to die. The average family will spend over six figures just living with an ALS patient. A lot of families go bankrupt over this. And so we started a fundraiser. We started a golf tournament back in 2012 to help us with, you know, paying for some of the bills. And Joan was like, no, I don't want you to. I don't want you to do this for me. I don't want it. Like, she was just like, you know, I don't want the spotlight. I don't want help. And finally, the family convinced her, listen, this is beyond our financial capabilities. We need to do this.
And she said, okay, you can do this as long as you keep doing it once I'm gone. So she passed away, I believe in 2017, we've had a golf tournament every year. In fact, it's. This Saturday is the golf tournament, the Sioux Strong foundation golf tournament, to raise money directly for ALS patients. All the money goes to ALS patients. This is a labor of love as a family. We don't have anybody that gets paid to do this. We have a 501 c three, and we give away all the money to ALS patients right here in St. Louis. Last year, we gave away $60,000, which is incredible. We did a tough mudder in April last year. Word on the street did, because I want to. I want to be part of this and make a contribution.
We were very fortunate to be able to raise $12,000 last year to contribute to that 60,000, which was incredible. And this year we're looking to raise $10,000. If we get over that, obviously that's great, but we need everybody's help to do this. And so this is a tax deductible donation. It's a 501 c three. And if you know, we have a link for you in that regard. But if you go to GoFundme, it's the word on the street, charity challenge. You can look it up that way and see that. But there's the link. It's going to be in there. If you guys are willing to make a donation. 510, 25, $50, a thousand. If you're a company that wants to make a donation, we'd appreciate that. Anything to get us that number again.
All this money goes day less patients and their families because it's just such an expensive way to die. And we experienced it firsthand, and so this is our way to give back.
I love that. And I put that on the comments in YouTube. I'll upload it to LinkedIn after the show, because for some reason, LinkedIn doesn't allow me to post a link directly to it, but I will drop that in there. And, you know, it's situations like this, I mean, you know, my family, you know, my personal, some of my personal stuff that I don't talk about a lot on social media, you know, and, like, with a lot of this, a lot of it was, a lot of the stuff in my, like, the last year that my nephew was alive with a lot of the stuff that he had and working with the make a wish foundation to help raise money for that.
And, you know, these causes to me, or, like, ultimately, this is what I want to use this, you know, and I don't like using the term platform, but it is a platform, I like to use this platform for it. It's how do we help the collective community with all of this stuff? You know, this isn't about what can I gain or what can Trey gain. It's how do we use what we've built to help give back to others around us? You know, both of us are proud men of faith. We both, you know, like, that's initially kind of like what we connected over. And Trey has a different way of communicating than I do with a lot of stuff.
Ultimately, we both really want the same thing, and that's to give back to others and help others with all of this stuff, because otherwise it's like, what's it all for? Ultimately, you know, like, what's it all for? Because there are people out there. You're most individuals who listen to this. Your worst day doesn't even compare to what some would consider their best day out there. You know, the ability to just walk. Think about that. Like, there's individuals out there who would do anything to just walk again, you know, or even move their extremities again. And we're out here complaining about, you know, because the barista messed up my coffee order and shit like that. You know, I think, like, it's situations like this that where a lot of our perspectives do need to shift. Because it's like, how do we give back?
Who?
How do we help others? And how do we raise awareness to this? Because, you know, I had our mutual friends at bit freighter on the show earlier this year because they do a big ALS phenomenal golf tournament.
Yeah.
As well. And, you know, I'm going to be doing another thing, you know, kind of similar to this probably next month, just not with ALS, but with another organization that I hold dear to my heart, because it's like, we need to do stuff like that with it, man. So I'm glad, you know, hopefully we can hit that. What are we at right now? How do we.
We just started on Saturday. So we're 600 out of 10,000? Yeah, we just. It's a week long drive. I just want to do a focus because sometimes when you draw them out too long, they just kind of lose their meaning. So it's just this week, we want to hit that 10,000 mark on Saturday. And so, again, if you can make a contribution, share it with your network, if you could out there, if you do make a contribution, because there are other people who are impacted by this who would be willing to give. And again, man, I'll tell you, it's the hardest and most fulfilling day of the year because we invite an ALS patient that we've met in the past year to the tournament. We hand them a check.
And the hardest thing is we know that check is just like a confirmation that they're going to die soon because this is to help them with that those end of life needs. So it's an incredibly tough day, but also incredibly powerful day, seeing community come together. The tournament gets sold out in two weeks every year. So they put it out there, like, in May, the registration for the tournament, and it's sold out right away. And so we have tremendous support, a lot of people really helping out. And so anybody that knows me and is connected with me anywhere, even if you're not just want to help out. We really appreciate all the support and all the help to do that. We'd love to hit that before Saturday, but if we hit it Saturday, that's fine too.
No, and I think it's also important to know, like, you know, a dollar does go a long way, you know, and it doesn't matter what time it is out there, you know, don't like, just if whatever you can give is appreciated, you know, those things add up. It's just like with anything, right? You got to start with one and then one turns into two and so on and so forth. And that's just how everything compounds up and is built and, you know, don't I just feel like there's, you know, some people think like, oh, I could only give a dollar, but that dollar could leave matter so much more than that out there.
Yeah, just stacking up donations. That's what we're trying to do this week. And again, just to trying to help out. You're not going to get anything in return. There's no sticker coming your way, unfortunately. Don't do that. It's, everything goes to the patients. And so again, if you just have in your heart to do that, we'd love, we love your support.
Yeah, absolutely, man. So, dude, as this year has progressed for a lot of us, you know, in, you know, the industry as a whole and everything else, man, I think that, you know, because we're, what, it's conference season right now is like kind of the official kickoff about what's really going on out there. What, so what's up with beta right now, man? What are you guys really attacking right now with your, with your customers and everything else?
Yeah, I mean, it really is about driving sales and creating opportunities, getting the most eyeballs looking your way. I mean it's a component of brand building, marketing and sales. And in my opinion, from where I sit, they all work together. I've worked at a lot of startups in my time and didn't have any of these things in place, didn't have marketing in place and have the CRM set up. Didn't really have a brand built, didn't have a message, didn't really have a story to tell when you sat on a call. Everybody was kind of telling their own story, trying to figure things out, trying to make things happen and it just doesn't build momentum.
And so what we're doing is working with clients on a consulting basis, working with them on strategy, on go to market on what their brand looks like, on what their brand represents. This is something I love talking about, as you know, because, you know, like the polo that you have on right now probably costs $5 to make. I mean, it's not, it's a nice polo, but they just don't cost that much to make. And then you slap an Adidas logo on there or Travis Matthew, or whatever brand you like. I don't know what you have there, but you slap under armour. That's right. You're an under armour guy. You put under armour logo on it and now that shirt is worth 40, $50 in a store. Right.
But then if you take that exact same shirt and you put the freight coach logo on it now it's like worth a hundred. I mean, you know, and the only difference in those examples is the brand that's attached to the shirt. You know, I like to golf tournaments, like the players championship, or I go to Indianapolis 500 every year. And if I buy a shirt with their logo on it's significantly more. People will pay more. It has more value because of the brand. And I just think that companies don't realize the value of their brand. Companies that do understand it, like for Ivana, they're building a brand that's recognizable, that has a. Stands for something.
There's other brands in the industry that have negative connotations that go along with it and people don't understand the value of that brain and what it does for you, good or bad. And so we're helping companies with that. We're helping them with their creative elements of it. You know, social media is all about getting people to stop scrolling. That's all you got. You're trying to get them stop scrolling and pay attention just for a second. You're trying to get them to look this direction when they've been looking this direction. And that's what marketing is designed to do, is just to get people to look. And then when they look, what do you give them? What value do you provide for them? And so it all works together.
I hate the fact that sales and marketing is actually two words because it really is one thing working together. I often challenge people with this try to sell something without doing any marketing. Try to sell something without a website. Try to sell something without a cold call or a cold outreach. Try to sell something without going to a trade show. Try selling something without having a logo. It's incredibly difficult. It's not impossible, but nearly impossible. You'd have to literally just like, I mean, I can't even think of how you'd sell without doing some form of marketing, even going door to door. That's marketing. I remember when I got my first job door to door. The company that I worked for called themselves a sales and marketing agency. And I remember thinking to myself, this is stupid. We're just selling paper. We're a sales agency.
And they said, no, we're a sales and marketing agency. And I finally figured it out because the company that was having us go door to door was using their marketing budget on us because were now going and spreading the message about their company. And so I just like to challenge people with this all the time. You cannot sell anything without doing marketing, and your brand matters. So it's all about go to market strategy. And we're helping companies on the consulting side. We're helping them connect with the right vendors and people with areas of expertise to execute on. A lot of those things like social media managers, email marketing people, the best of the best. That's what we're doing.
I also think, though, you know, at least from my standpoint, my opinion is you can't sell anything unless you market. You can't sell anything unless you have a brand, right? And, and it was like, you know, I just go back to, you know, again, back to the first podcast that we did, right? Like how unorganized. And we didn't know what the hell were doing back on episode one. And now after four and, you know, a half or four, a little over four years later, I know a little bit more. But it's an actual business now, right? Like there's an actual system we follow. You know, like, I got my guy Christian, who I, you know, he doesn't actually, I don't think actually he edits this stuff.
He actually, you know, he does all that pretty pre episode production, post episode production, he gets all of that stuff, headshots, bios. Afterwards he sends over promotional package clips, all of that stuff that didn't happen until I sold myself by putting so many episodes out that I got my first couple advertisers. And then, you know, the camera got better, the mic got better, and all this stuff got better, and now it's an actual business, right?
And I don't remember any promotional clips from that first episode.
I know I got the audio around here somewhere. It was, it was just one of those things, man, where it's like, you gotta start with one, right? You're marketing, branding and selling from day one. And then eventually, as you know, from my perspective, you get a little bit more mature, then you get some people in the organization that kind of head that up. But I think any company out there, it's all synonymous. It's all one in the same, because, you know, like, I think that, you know, learning what it, like, what's your story? What is your brand? What are you trying to do with your business? I think it's crucial, you know, like, one of our things is, like, when we started the brokerage, we have core values, right? And, like, we market ourselves on our core values.
Our number one core value in our business is to do the right thing. Like, that's not our best interest to do the right thing, but ultimately, it is in the best interest of the brand long term, to be known as, like, hey, even when they fuck up, they do the right thing in those moments, you know, and stuff like that. And it's like, it's telling that story from day one, and then we market that out there to our target market, you know, like that. That's literally what we put out there in our promotional materials and stuff like that as we're going on and just kind of figuring it out.
Yeah. And I just need some time and consistency. Let me give you three areas where I feel like companies are missing the mark when it comes to their sales and marketing efforts. Number one, I think that most companies don't take enough time to really develop their story of who they actually are, who they're talking to, what problem are they solving, and how to position themselves as the guide. Not the hero, your customers, the hero, not you. And people oftentimes get that wrong. They like to brag too much about how good they are, and they don't speak to the problems that their customers actually have. This is the reason why cable news has such good viewership and now Twitter is because they're talking to people about their problems, and that's engaging. A lot of, a lot of companies don't do that, number one.
Number two, I think companies spend too much and waste too much on trade shows in terms of they don't have a strategy for what they're doing. They're not really thinking through, like, how they're going to stand out. If I see another person at a trade show with a black polo on or that everybody wears that, you're not going to stand out, but that's why you have the orange shirt. Everybody knows who you are at a conference. I always wear jerseys now. I don't wear any polos anymore. I'm the Jersey guy. And people see that. And so how are you going to stand out? What is that really going to look like when people come up to you and say, oh, such and such company, what do you do?
What are you going to say to them that gets them more interested in what you're doing and not just, oh, another, you know, elevator pitch? How are you tracking? How are you keeping track? How are you scheduling meetings ahead of time? Because that's where the real money is in the meetings. Prior, are you spending too much money there? Should you exhibit? Are you sponsoring what's going to give you the biggest bang for your buck? A lot of people just do it because they're supposed to or they think they're supposed to. They don't have a real strategy. So that's number two, number three, social proof. How do you get your customers to speak about you and your product or your service and build that social proof? Because I say this all the time, your customers will always sell your product or service better than you.
No offense. They will always sell it better than you because they have no agenda and they have used it. I think of it like this, Chris, if you and I were in Phoenix tonight and we decided to go to a new restaurant we'd never been to before, okay. We would never call the restaurant and say, hey, how do you cook your steaks? They pretty good? What's that? What's the salad like? Is the macaroni and cheese, you know, cheesy enough? You wouldn't do that. We'd go to reviews and we'd want to hear from people who actually ate the food. We would never call the restaurant and do that. And people don't think. Don't think about the psyche of a buyer.
And those areas where I feel like they're missing out a lot of companies and they're just not taking advantage of opportunities they have for one reason or another. That's what we're helping a lot of companies in those areas now.
I think that's very important, right? Is it? Is, because, like, the proof is, I think ultimately, whether it's in freight or tech or anything, people don't ever want to be sold, right? Like they. I think that's one of the most. Because selling is an art, right? Like, that's why sales reps are the most highest compensated people in an organization, in most organizations, right? I can't speak for everybody, but because selling is an art, because everybody knows when they're getting sold to and nobody wants to get sold to. Right? And it doesn't matter what I, they.
Want to buy, they don't want to get sold to, they want to buy.
And I also think like in today's day and age, like selling is evolving at such a more rapid pace because it's not like you have to wait for your neighbor down the street to buy a new vehicle. You can find out anything you want about anything within the snap of a finger in today's day and age. Right? So verifiable proof is out there and when you can get your customers preaching for you know, like, I mean, I always talk about green screens on the show. Yeah, green screen sponsors me, but like I actually use their product in my brokerage. I bid on freight with that and I see the ROI because, you know, ironically, yeah, that they sponsor me, but I'm their customer.
So like I have to peel off a little bit, you know, to use their stuff and, but it, but I do that because it's there. All right, it works and I win freight. I have a p and l that I can track back you guys and say, hey look, pre green screens. Post green screens. Where's my, what is my win rate and everything else out there? So from me, it's like for you to get out there and get your people talking about you, not just your staff, get the people out there who are actually using your product, your customers. That word of mouth, I still think today, right? Like, yes, I understand AI and all of this stuff is a, is here and it's changing the landscape on things.
I'm not saying that it's not, but I would also argue that if Trey comes to me as somebody who we talk, we're friends, if he says, hey Chris, go get these beats, I, you know, beats fit pro headphones because I've.
Ever heard, I've never had anything like it. It's amazing. It's such a diff, connects to my phone for like, if I did that, you'd be like, really? Oh yeah.
If I said that as opposed to. Because he's got AirPods in right now. If he told me that over and I was deciding between AirPods and those, I, dude, I'm gonna go with what my friend says that, you know, it's just like with all of these things in freight sales as well, right? You never know who you're talking to and you never know where they're going to end up one day, right. So it is about doing that right thing time and time again and then asking for those referrals on top of that, you know, like that's. Crucial. Ask for those referrals and do that and your customers will scream, if you're actually as good as you think you are, your customers will have no problem screaming your name from the mountaintop.
Yeah. And I'll say this, too, like, a lot of people are afraid to ask those referrals, which they shouldn't be, especially doing a good job, but they just forget to ask for referrals or forget to ask their customers for help in these areas. Most, most people that I talk to, because we do a lot of testimonial videos for our customers, I have yet, I've yet to have a prospect or a customer that we reach out to about doing a testimonial video say, no, I'm not going to do that. The only ones who do say no, it's because of a policy. But outside of a company policy that doesn't allow them to do it, they want to help. They actually want to help you if you're doing a good job for them. And a lot of times, people just don't ask about that.
You know, when you think about this, we did this at lean, and this works really well. And this is why I'm so high on this. When your customers get a chance to speak with your prospects, it's every bit as good as a word of mouth referral. So how do you get them in the same room? How do you do this? And this is where there's creative elements that we're helping companies think through this. Like, where can you spend your dollars better to get a better return on some of those things? And, man, like, you're absolutely right, man. If a friend tells you about something or somebody that you trust tells you about something, and you are, like, increasingly more likely to do that. Here's an interesting quote. Kevin O'Leary, Mister wonderful, everybody knows him from shark Tank. All right?
He was on a show the other day and was quoted as saying, five years ago, five to ten years ago, the most valuable person in his organizations were the engineers. And now the most valuable people in his organizations are the storytellers. Because when you think about what happens on Instagram and on TikTok, on social media, you have people telling stories to sell stuff. You have people giving their testimonial experience, you know, comments about what it was like using that product. And that's selling like crazy because that's the psyche of a buyer, and you have to tap into that.
Dude, I love it. Trey, this show was a lot more organized than it was, 1033 episodes.
Well, the set looks great, too, at the flag and the neon sign. I mean, the whole thing's come a long way, man.
Dude, it has evolved. And we keep these shows at 30 minutes because all of our viewers have day jobs. You know, they're all, I'm not just, you know, out here looking good, I look good, but, like, I also got to get back to work as well on top of that. But, man, how does anybody reach out to you to find out more about what you guys got going on?
Well, certainly, follow me on LinkedIn. Love connecting with people on LinkedIn. It's an easy way to send me a DM for sure. You can also go to our website, betaconsulting group.com, and see what we do there. But again, make sure that you connect with me on LinkedIn personally. That's the fastest way to do it. Let us know what you guys are struggling with, what your challenges are. Everybody's got challenges right now, especially with sales. And, you know, we're committed to helping you figure those things out.
Perfect. I love it. Trey, thank you so much for joining me. We got more guests coming on this week, you guys. And as always, if you guys got value in what you heard, which I know you did, but if you did, you're not subscribed. Subscribe to the show. You guys share it out there to your network, because if you see value, your network's going to see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys. And we'll be talking to you soon. Dude, how'd you do that? Like, how did you get the.