Lightning like Steve McQueen?
I'm in a fast lane when the.
Light turns green And I built tough.
Find 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 Because I'm building stronger.
What is up, ladies and gentlemen, we are back. We are live. It is the Freight Coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am Pacific, 10:30 Central to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys 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 SATA 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, you guys, 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. Happy Monday, everybody. Most importantly though, Happy Veterans Day to everybody out there who has served, is serving all of that. You guys, none of this is possible, this show, none of this is possible without each and every one of you who make all of that happen and make the ultimate sacrifice to protect us as a country.
But you know, as we're talking today and we're getting into this, you guys, I'm talking about a topic that I am like, literally this is a sneak peek inside of where I'm at as a business owner, as a owner of a brokerage and it's workflow optimization. How do I do more with less? And that is one of those things. If you're out there and you're bootstrapping your business or if you are building it up, maybe you have some investors but you're trying to run lean. I'm always looking at how do I get in there, how do I continue to optimize my day.
And there is nobody else out there that I would want to talk to about this than my good friend Mitch here with Ty to talk about this because this is something that you guys are really spearheading out there with your guys product. But you know, you guys are talking to people every single day about this. So. Mitch, thank you so much for joining me.
Hey, thanks for having me. I really appreciate being on the show and especially on Veterans Day, and I appreciated the shout out and wanted to add a little bit to it. But I really definitely appreciate all the. All the guys who serve and who have served in armed forces through the years because they're the ones that make it happen. And you know, I got my American flag right over here on my side, so you can't see it here, but definitely appreciate that. And it's good that we get a time to honor them as well, a little bit.
No, absolutely. And that's the truth too, right? Like, ultimately nothing of what, at least from my perspective, there's nothing that I do throughout the day that isn't by what they have ultimately sacrificed for us to protect all of this, to build up this great nation and protect us for sure. So I want to, you know, this, I'm sure this is something that, you know as. Because, you know, like the thing that I Like were talking for, you know, 15 minutes before we started recording about both of our. I know, our journeys through all of this. And I'm sure that this is something that, you know, as the f.
As a founder, you've probably thought about as well as, like, how do I optimize my workflow to really, you know, for me, it's like I need to be focusing on revenue producing activities pretty much all day long when I'm working. Right. It's. I got to keep that out there. I got to. I don't ever want to make any tasks seem not as important, but there are things that get pushed to the side when you're in there and doing it. Right. Like this morning, for example, because, know, I actually move freight and that's why people listen to the show like they do. We had a bunch of stuff go on this morning that prohibited me from doing my sales calls. Right. But it was like I needed to get that done because it was the most important thing out there.
And you know what have you kind of learned throughout your career, man, about like, prioritization of your workflow, but mainly like, how do we make sure that we're like, staying on task?
Yeah. You know, I think it's a real big challenge for business owners, especially when they're business owners like you and I, who are still like in the weeds every day. Like, were talking about the. I mean, if something doesn't go wrong with your freight, then you're not really moving freight. I mean, things are going wrong, but that's what the value of the freight broker is, to help keep those things that go wrong on track. The challenge with that, though, is those are things that are like, we have the chart, those are urgent and important, but you got to make the time for the urgent, not important things, the things that help make your business better. And finding the time for that is super hard for all of us, I think, probably no matter what position we're in.
But one of the things that I recommend doing and one of my mentors told me a while ago and continues to remind me, because it's so hard to stay on track, is that, you know, put some stuff on calendar in, like, maybe the times that are the least busy with freight. So maybe like 3 to 5pm you know, which isn't probably your most optimal time of day because you're probably a little worn out and you're probably done, but at least freight's slowing down a little bit. And depending on what you move, right? Yeah, most. But for the most part, in the afternoon, we tend to be a little bit lighter and blocking out that time on your calendar to just spend time and think about, what are my processes?
Or go sit down with somebody on your team and ask them, like, where are we spending the most part of our day? What are we doing? And review and think about the processes. Because I think what happens is the processes just kind of deteriorate over time.
Yeah.
And right now, even here at TY we're doing what we're calling a spring cleaning. You know, we're. We're going through and reviewing things that we know worked, but how can we tighten them up? How can we improve them? And being proactive about spending that time, I think, is really the one of the key elements of it.
How important is it for people? You know, you brought up the spring cleaning, and this is something that I do, I want to say on a quarterly basis, but more in, like, in my P and L. Right. Like, what am I spending my money on? Do we actually need this every single month? When's the last time we used it? And I think the same thing can be said internally inside of your workflow. Right? Like, hey, are we actually documenting all of this? Because the reality is, for most people, you go from no revenue, no revenue, to, oh, we have freight moving. And then you're so bogged down with making sure that's going right, that you stop doing everything else. You stop making cold calls, you stop paying attention, because you just want to baby that freight.
And then you start realizing, as you get more and more efficient with your time, hey, I have a lot more open than I thought. Right. So when that newness goes down, how important is it to try and document as much of that as possible, and then take that approach that you brought up there about that spring cleaning. Like, hey, are we actually being as efficient as we possibly can?
It's critical to document it. If you don't document a process, you don't have a process. Yeah, right. At that point, it's just a path that you've convinced people to do, but until you document it, you don't really have it. And then that's the beauty of it, right? Is that you get to take that documentation then and look at it with your team and say, like, are you following this process? How are you following this process? Does this process even work? And one of the challenges that I think comes with the documentation of process is the thought that when you write it down, like, that's it, like, this is the end. But it's not. It's. You got to think of these documents and these processes as evergreen, evolving, living things, right?
And there's a bunch of different terms we use about how we decide that these things have to change over time. And, and it doesn't matter what terminology use, but to remember, like, you're writing it down so that you have it memorialized and you can hope, hold your team accountable to it, but then you're also writing it down so that as time goes by, you can look back and be like, you know what? This kind of sucked. I'm going to go ahead and change this or I'm going to tweak this part of it. And it doesn't mean you need more documentation. It means that you should use it as a guideline to help you move forward and to help you evolve as a business. Help you become more efficient.
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. Right? And that, like, you need to set the benchmark, the base level. And that's one of the, you know, again, back to the whole. If you've never started a business before, like, there are no processes, you guys, there are no procedures. Like, you have to create them, you have to go about them. And. But then, most importantly, though, you got to cut the cord on, like, when it's not working, right? Like, I think that there's a lot of delusion that can kind of filter in. Like, you know, you look at where we're kind of at in the freight market right now, and this is something, you know, again, you guys, I said this is a live look inside of where I'm at in my business, and this is very much it, right? Like, we're still in a.
You know, it doesn't matter what you label it inside of my business. It doesn't matter if it's an up market or a down market. I have to generate revenue and I have to hold myself to those standards. Right. Like, I have accepted the fact, as I'm sure you have, Mitch. Like, nobody's coming to save me. Nobody's coming to do this. I have to figure this out on my own. And I'm at a point now where it's like I try and not pay attention to a lot of stuff that's out there in the media or social media about where the market is, because there's that false sense of hope that can start creeping in. And I need to be like, how do I do more with less?
You know, like, and when I say do more with less, that's not me and my business partner saying we don't want to hire people. Like, we, on the contrary, we do want to hire, but we also know that we have to figure out the most optimal way to work inside of our company. So then when we bring somebody on and we give them our processes and our procedures, that they're set up for success and they're not like, you're just another janky startup who doesn't know what the hell that they're doing. And then they look and you know, and then they walk away from us at that time.
Yeah, man, that's so well said in that. You're exactly right. Like the. That's why we want to write these things down. And, and regardless of where the market is, if we build good processes and we do more with less with our team, that helps us in a growing freight market and in a contracting freight market, it helps us in all those times. And it's not about necessarily the staff. It's about what is your staff doing. And we mentioned earlier on like in the pre show a little bit about pod recovery. Right? This is a great example of a time saver if your team is spending a bunch of time collecting pods. Because, yeah, collecting pods sucks. It's a challenge. You know, it's. It doesn't have to be, but it is. Right? And even with all the best tools in place, it's still tough.
But what if I can make that pod recovery process half as much work or 75% less work? And now I can let my team spend time following up with drivers directly a little more often, or I can let my team spend time dealing with like, oh, this carrier is supposed to pick up today, but they don't have the right hazmat. Certificate. Right. Or you know, those things that require your team to be on point.
Yeah.
Because that's what we need staff members for, is to handle the things that are more challenging and let's focus on getting them out of the time of spending all this time collecting pods. Let's, let's shut that down a little bit and teach them how to go and validate that our pods are right. Or maybe call cares preempting the pods so that we can eliminate some of that extra work. Right. And redistribute the effort into things that make brokers valuable rather than the things that make brokers data processors.
Yeah, no, I mean that's very much it. And that's a lot because like, it'd be a lot different if every shipper or every customer was the exact same. But, but they're not. Like literally every single one of them has their own processes and procedures that you need to follow and adhere to. Just like every shipper and receiver has a different way of setting appointments with them and everything else. So it's like you go through this more times than not, you know, and then like there is no one size fits all to this. But like, for me it's like, how do I make sure we are at like we're not bogged down to take advantage of opportunities as they come up.
Because you know, some people might be like, oh well that's only 30 seconds or a minute that, you know, it takes you to go and request that or do that. But I'm like, you add that up over time and from my position today, how many less sales calls are we making because we have to do this, you know, 30 seconds, that might be the difference between you onboarding the best customer of your life or not. Because that was the one small window that you had to call them and that was the right time to talk. Right. And, and, and again, somebody might, you know, you could easily say, oh, you're over exaggerating.
But like when you have no revenue, you guys, there is nothing in is of an over exaggeration to keep yourself free to take, you know, to pounce on some of these opportunities. Just like a customer, you know, a prospect replies to you for the first time and if you're not able to reply within a timely manner, maybe they send you over your first quote, you're an afterthought to them.
Yeah, that's exactly right. And it does matter. And like, even if, like, just do the math on it, which I think is worthwhile as well, is if you have a hundred shipments and you have to follow up three times on a pod. Call it one minute each. Yeah, right. Three times, 100 shipments. That's 300 minutes, right? Yeah. That's a lot of time. 300 minutes is five hours.
Yeah.
That's almost a half. That's more than a half a day of work.
Right?
I was going to say almost a half a day of work, but you know, I forgot we're only supposed to work eight hours. A different subject, but the. But, you know, let's call it five. Five hours of time. If you tell me you don't want five hours of time back, then I just can't, you know, I can't relate to you. I'm sorry. Well, I would love five hours of time back. And at one minute per each one of these, that. That adds up. Right, because like you're saying one phone call, I can make an extra phone call. I could call the shipper. And I'd rather see somebody spend that three minutes calling a shipper and telling them like, hey, man, just wanted to give you an update on this shipment. This is where it's at. Even though.
Yeah, that's probably not super important in the process because they probably have that information. But I'd rather them talking to the customer than asking a carrier for a pod.
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. Right. And I think that's where. That's where I love where the industry is trending right now, even from like a freight tech standpoint is, you know, you're able to now do with one person what might have taken three people just a couple of short years ago, ultimately. And, you know, and to me, though, it's how am I delivering the best product to my customers and my carriers? Right. Like ultimate. As a business owner, that is my utmost concern. How do I make it so easy for my customers and my carriers to work with me that I'm a broker of choice out there. And that's where it's like, that's. That's always going to be at the top of my mind, Mitch, for.
I mean, probably until the day I don't wake up one morning because I'm never going to retire ultimately. And it's like, how do I create that experience that's out there to where, you know, because again, like, we're, you know, we do a lot of drayage. For example, there's a lot of moving parts just for one container, and there's a lot of different slips sometimes that can be requested. And that takes A little bit of time. But how do I make sure anytime my customer reaches out, we're able to provide that information to them almost seamlessly?
Yeah, exactly. And, and that's a great place to use technology to do this. Right. And you said something else. It was really resonates with me is that every shipper is a little bit different, so spending our time and understanding our shippers is worthwhile. And, and that resonates with me because we see the same thing on the brokers. Right. Every broker is also different. And, you know, I always laugh inside when we're onboarding a new customer and they're like, well, you know, this is just standard brokerage work. And I'm like, yeah, that's. There's no such thing. There's no one way to be a broker. And, you know, at this point in my career, I've had to have worked with at least a thousand different freight brokers. And yeah, there's some trends that we all run in parallel, but my goodness, they're different. Yeah.
And I bring that up just to say, like, that's where that review comes in of, like, am I doing this the best way that I can be doing it? You know, am I finding the most optimal ways to run freight and to manage my specific customers the way I want to be managing them? And, and that's where you should do that spring cleaning, even if it's in the fall, you know, do the spring cleaning and work on. On how do I improve my processes and lean on your technology partners as well, because the technology is changing all the time.
Yeah.
You know, and we're seeing this always, but right now, especially with the generative AI right over the last few years, two years ago, what we could do with that and what we can do with it today are completely different. So take a beat and ask your technology providers, like, what are you doing and how are you doing it? And can I be doing this better? And I'll tell you, as a technology provider, my team would love to hear from you asking those questions. Yeah, we love it. In fact, we have a whole group of people that all they do is reach out to customers and ask them, like, what are you doing today? How can we help you better?
Because what we need from a techno as a technology provider is we build all this cool stuff and we love to see brokers adopt it, but sometimes it's hard because you're built into your ways. And so, you know, like that mutual relationship. Like, as a technology provider, we are open to it. We want to be helping our brokers better use the technology. Because if you're more successful, so are we.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think like, you know, you brought up a good point there about, you know, helping your customers out. And, you know, it's like, you know, then back to your processes. How many people are out there creating customer profiles inside of their tms? That shows, you know, because like, we have, here's one specific customer of ours, they have like 14 different facilities, for example. Not all of them operate the exact same. Right. Some require a point. Summer first come, first serve. Summer selective, first come, first serve, depending on how hot the product is. Right. But then ultimately, who do you reach out to in the event that you need to reach out? And there's a bunch of different things.
So it's like, how are you using your TMS to create customer profiles and then breaking it down a granular level of if they have multiple facilities, a shipper profile or receiver profile and everything else. And then again, having those processes documented because especially when you're. You're in an organization of any size, but especially when you're in the 95% that is small business that makes up trucking. Right. Brokers and carriers alike. Workflow again, down to that. When, you know, I get what I'm about to say, everybody who listens to this is going to be like, yeah, I've been there before. You're on a sales call or you're at lunch, and then somebody from your team reaches out, hey, this is going on. How does that happen? Well, you can use your TMS to create all of these.
And then on top of it, you guys, this is where AI can come in and really help amplify your business. I use AI inside of my organization because we record all of a lot of our stuff and then we drop it in to our. And then our AI spits out a transcript, right? So it's like, boom. It's just like that. And it takes minutes.
Exactly. And then taking that information, using it somewhere after the fact is even better. Right. So those are great examples of ways to really optimize and workflow automation is critical to the process. And using things to help remind, set up those reminders when you build that profile. Some of the things you can do with technology. Now, I'll try not to be a shameless TIE promoter here, but I'm a little biased.
But some of the things you can do, for example, when a shipment comes in that's going to one of those destinations is you can set it up so that anytime a shipment's falling into, like, that Texas distribution center, I want to make an alert that says not only do I need an appointment, but maybe I want to call Jesse over at the terminal every time I have one of these shipments, because I know Jesse likes that phone call. You know, I can trigger the TMS to set up that reminder for me so that I don't have to remember it every time. And maybe I'm at lunch and somebody else on my team will get that reminder, pops up, and they're like, boom, call Jesse.
And then they can call Jesse and be like, hey, Jesse, just wanted to let you know the spray, it's on its way in this afternoon. We're working on the appointment. Whatever, Right? But using the TMS and technology to help you remind you of those things just takes away some of that friction, makes it easier for you to work through your day and focus on the ability to work with your customers and be the best you can for your customers.
So when you bring up notifications, is there a way inside a tie where you can set it up to where it's like, you know, this facility has a noon pickup appointment, and it's, you know, 1150 or, you know, it's noon. Is there a way to, like, set something up to where it reminds the broker, like, hey, check on this driver, make sure that they're checked in, stuff like that?
Absolutely. Yeah. We have. We have a couple things called workflow automation. We have assignments, and then we have alerts. We have carrier labels. So all these different tools allow for flexibility in the workflow. And so what you can do is you can say, 30 minutes before an assignment, I want to trigger or 30 minutes before an appointment, I want to trigger an assignment so that I get a message pops up in my tms. It says, bink, call Jesse. And so I can do things like that automatically. And then even so, I can assign it to a team of people rather than an individual. So then the first person in that group that does it can go ahead and take that.
So that way, when I am at lunch, somebody else on my team can be like, all right, I got this, and they can grab it. And then I can see like, oh, that popped up. I can see that maybe Scott took that, and then it moved it forward. So really just giving you flexibility to use your TMS in creative ways to solve your specific problems at your brokerage. It's about flexibility and workflow. Right? It's about flexibility and building your specific needs into the TMS No.
And I think that's crucial, right, because, you know, ultimately, you know, again, you guys, we. I operate in reality, and it there. There are very few discernible differences between brokers when they're dealing with shippers. Right? Like, let's call it what it is. We all have the same rate data. We all have access to the same trucks, really, when it boils down to it. But why does somebody work with you over somebody else? One of my biggest things is obviously, it's communication. A customer should never have to reach out to me for an update on a shipment throughout transit unless there was a random phone call that is unexpected. Right? It is my job to make sure that they are aware of everything that's going on. And, you know, again, back to what I went through this morning, right? We had some stuff happen.
Some drivers weren't going to make it in. Some things didn't go the way that we had planned. But guess what? My customer didn't have to reach out to me for it because I have that internal process where it's like I just keep them posted. No matter what, good, bad or indifferent, I'm going to let them know what's going on. But this is a perfect world scenario here, you guys. What if I wasn't there, right? Like, what if I'm gone, I'm flying somewhere, I'm doing something and this all happens. Does your team actually know what to do in those instances? And this is where it's like, you need to leverage technology for that workflow optimization, you guys, because there should never. Nobody inside of your organization should ever say, what do we do here? They should instinctively know, Boom. Pull up the shipper profile.
Who do I email? Who do I reach out to? If you're really effective, your team's already included in on the email, so they've experienced that. But again, back to reality. This might not have happened before. This is why it's like, you need to lean into this stuff, you guys, and have this. So it's like your customer should never have an off moment with your people. Whether you're in the office or not. Business should go no matter what.
Yeah, that's so well said. I think it's like we kind of get superhero syndrome sometimes. And I mean, I'm as guilty of this as anyone else is, where we feel like we have to swoop in and do it because nobody can do it the way we would do it. And sometimes that's valid. Like, maybe nobody can do things the same way I do, but maybe they Can. Right. But either way, I think all of us, regardless whether we own the business or somewhere else, we get this idea that we have to be involved. And if we're not involved, then what's the value of us being there? I would argue that it's the opposite. Like, we have to get step away from that and make sure that things run really well without us.
Because if things run really well without you, that adds more to your value. It doesn't detract from your value in any way. It's quite the opposite. If you're in charge of a specific set of customers and everything runs really smoothly for them, or when bad things happen, those bad things have nice pathways and they operate nicely. When you're not there, that means you've been successful. That means you've done your job at the highest level.
Yeah. Because really, when it boils down to it, bad things are really what separates people. Like, I think if you deduce everything down to your service offering, whether it's a TMS or being a broker, when things fall apart, that's when people really judge you. Right. Like, very rarely are you judged when things are going right because, like, that's kind of you doing your job in those moments. But it's when there's a delay, when there's an issue, when there's anything that goes on that is not picking up on time and delivering on time, that is the true separator that's out there. It really is.
I would argue that. Right. With you on that, like the time that you're going to make a customer for life is probably on the shipments that go the worst.
Yeah.
And when they do go the worst. You've said it already before in that it's about being good in the communication, but demonstrating that you care about what's going on with that freight and demonstrating like I'm on top of this. I understand this is an absolute cluster and everything's going terribly wrong. And I hear you about the repercussions that are coming with this. I'm going to do my best to get in there and help. And I may not be successful, but I'm going to do my best. And I'll be honest with you about my best. I'll be honest with you about where my best didn't cut it. If you do that, I think you build a customer for life.
No, I. I agree. It is literally how you are handling those situations when they come up. I don't like them. I'm sure, Mitch, you don't look forward to it when a dump fire happens. But ultimately, we both understand the value of, like, that's when you can really show your worth. Because, you know, for me, it. That's where it's like, I. I truly know at this point in my career that is the real separator it. Yes, money matters and yes, price matters to a point, though, because you will break past that point where they're like, if you're 200 more than everybody else, they know the value because they've had enough experience with you to where they're like, I can justify that. Because anytime that something happens, Chris and his team let us know what's going on immediately. There's no guesswork that comes along with that.
Yeah, it's in those losses is where your true character really shines through. Right. And in the challenging times is where you really get to see what the culture of your company is about or what the. What your team really stands for. Because winning is a lot easier.
Yeah. No, I agree. And Mitch, as always, man, I love having you on. It was. It's always a great conversation. Like, what we talked about today, for me, like, this is. This is like, what, you know, were talking before we got on the call. It's about the journey. Right. It's about looking back over and being like, damn, I actually have improvement here. It used to take me X amount of time to do this. Now it takes me y. And, man, I just. I really appreciate talking about, like, that, the actual side of building a business and a company. Up with you.
Yeah, this is always a good time. I really appreciate you having me. And happy Veterans Day to all those who serve, too.
Amen to that. And that's going to be it for today, you guys. You know what to do. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys and we'll be talking to you soon.
There we.