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Hey what is up ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is the Frick 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 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, you guys, I, 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 lives. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I got a very special guest for you guys here. I'm going to pull him up in a second. But here is your reminder. We drop a weekly newsletter every single Wednesday. All right? I don't auto sign anybody up for this if you want to get it. It's all industry specific. We talk rates, we talk about everything freight. Because that's really all I know. At the end of the day, if you want to get on that mailing list, you guys go to the freightcoach.com it will auto prompt you to register for it. I have listened to the audience. I will not auto register you. I will not sell your email address or anything like that.
So check that out if you guys want to get it. But with that being said, you guys, I, I, I initially connected with him back in 2020, kind of like with almost all of my guests when I started creating content. And that's when I actually started networking and getting to know people. And he's been on the forefront of the Mexico frontier in my opinion from that get go. And he's one of the OGs out there. So with that being said, I have Mr. Danny Frisco on the show today. Danny, thank you so much for joining me.
Yeah, Chris, appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.
No, man, I 100 dude. Like I remember you were like one of the first people that I had like kind of like connected with after I had started creating. Yeah, yeah. And then you were in Arizona and we couldn't link up for. For whatever reason. And then. Yeah, man. It's just like time had passed and I'd started, you know, I was like, I've seen you guys posting out there a lot, and I'm like, dude, I gotta get Danny on the show. I'm like. And then I looked through my guest list and you'd never been on the show, so I'm like, I definitely got to get him up here. So, dude, what's new, man? What's been going on in your world?
Oh, busy, Dizzy. Still. Still targeting some growth, so we're excited about that. I'm not sure if your. Your audience knows what RA does, but I'll kind of throw a quick 10,000 foot view. So we do nearshore staffing in Mexico. So we have two offices in. In Mexico, one in Guadalajara and then one in Leon, Mexico. Probably close to about 700 people at the company total. And about 650 of those individuals work for our clients. So they're doing, you know, tracking and tracing roles, customer service, sales, back office, kind of the. Running the gamut of entry level roles at logistics companies. So that's kind of where we specialize in.
So how did you get your start in all of this, Danny? Like, what. What brought you into transportation?
I. I feel like this story just gets repeated every single time, but I completely fell into it, like every single other person in the industry. I graduated college with a finance degree and kind of didn't know what I wanted to do. And the job market for finance roles wasn't the greatest. And I had a buddy working at Coyote. They did a lot of good stuff on the recruiting side, so they sent their recruiters to a job fair. I talked to him briefly, but not. I wasn't really interested at the time, to be honest. And then I had a friend who was working there, and then I knew a couple other people who I wasn't super close with, but I knew they got hired. So I was like, screw it. You know, I'll send an application in. It seems like they're hiring younger grads.
Like, I had no idea what to expect and went for the interview, you know, dressed in a suit and walked in and everyone's in hats, T shirts, and jeans. And I was like, God, I feel like a loser. And then, you know, had a. Had a good interview. And I think I realized early on I was like, gosh, there's, you know, 90% of the company are people like Me like, younger, fresh graduates. You know, a lot didn't go into supply chain wishing that they were going to get hired by a brokerage. It was almost in a way, like the same people I hung out with in college just kind of migrated to this company. And, you know, we all kind of shared similar backgrounds in that sense. And yeah, so I.
I took the job and, you know, spent about a decade in the logistics industry after that bounce around a couple companies. But that really got my start was. Was Coyote Carriers.
You got to look at it like this though. You. You did get into finance because, like, dude, we're just like redneck day traders, man. Like, that's what is. And it. But dude, like, that story, it is very, like, it's definitely not unique. That's kind of how like, a lot of people get into it. But like, when you brought in and then, you know, kind of seeing that, like, there is a certain personality type. I don't know if it's just like, sales or like the industry in general that really kind of make it in it, right? And it is like, I don't know, man. It's like that ex athlete and you know, some people want to call like the frat bro mentality or whatever it is, but dude, I think it's like, it's that young and hungry individual across the board.
Doesn't matter if you want to come in and be like, it. It sets you up for an opportunity to really make something of yourself and make really good money early on in your career. Right. Like, there's no pathway to six figures where you got to work for five years before you can even sniff it. Like, dude, in. In this industry, man, you can come in. If you're a hustler, you can start pushing that envelope right away.
Yeah, yeah. I remember distinctly being at Coyote and at the time and. And I'll go back. I think the. The kind of. The type of people you hire today is probably a little different than we saw. This was 2010, and I think back then it was at least at Coyote, it was kind of heavy, bro. Sales culture.
Yeah, that's how it was when I got started too. Yeah.
And I. I think that's probably changed a little today or a lot, depending on what company you go to. But back then it was kind of like the wild west, and you came in and you wanted to make money. And I remember distinctly, at Coyote, you can search however much money in commission that people made. So there were a hundred carrier reps, and you can go in, put their name and See how much they did for the month. And I remember being in, you know, I got out of training. Training was about a month. We go into hot pod for a couple months, which is, you know, like a junior booking rep in a way. And I started searching people because out of curiosity, you're just like, damn, that guy books a lot of freight. Like, wonder how much he's making.
And then quickly realize that there's guys and girls that have been here for a year that are making double, triple what I am. And I'm going, whoa. I didn't know I was at a company like this. And I remember from kind of that moment on, there was a key that turned in me that, like, okay, I need to be way more competitive. I need to be a little more aggressive, work a little harder in my role, because you can make the money. But it's obviously very competitive, too. Like, no one's going to hand it to you. You got to go out there and make the calls and develop their relationships.
But once I saw what was possible, I think I feel like I ran with the job much more than I would have in a different role that didn't have the ability to make that money.
Yeah, dude, I'll say this, man. It is now, you know, because I got started in the brokerage side of the industry back in 2011, and it's. I think it's way more competitive now from, like, a sales perspective than, like, I've ever seen, you know, because, like, I'm actively cold calling shippers literally every single day, right? Like, I've. I've made 30 before I even started the show today. And it's. Dude, it's a different beast out there, right?
Like, it's hard to stand out.
Yeah, it really is. Because, like, there is. People get inundated, man. And it's like, one. And I try and talk about this as much as possible on this show is. Is like, when you know your ideal customer who you want to go after, you need to have, like, a singular sales focus. And now I know there's a lot of people who want to, like, argue against that and try and do everything, but I'm just speaking from my experience of somebody who's currently selling and somebody who sold 10, 15 years ago as well. Singular sales focus now has exponentially paid off from a customer acquisition standpoint than it did back in the day. When you're like, hey, just give us some crumb ltl, whatever it is, and then we'll work our way up to truckload.
Now it's like, man, you got to find a way to stand out. Even the small to mid size market where I really like to stand is like, even them, man. Some of my customers that I've been working with for a couple of years, they're like, dude, we're getting like 20, 30 calls a day now. And then just a couple of years ago we never got any calls. We maybe got one in a week. And so, yeah, that's just kind of where we're at with it.
Yeah, yeah, that's definitely where we're at. I mean, the market has flipped a little to where shippers aren't as pressured to change providers and vendors at the time. Right now maybe that changes in the next year or a couple years, but the pendulum has swung. So it's definitely harder to stand out. It's harder to differentiate yourself in this market. And I think it'll, you know, we'll see what happens in the future. But I don't think that changes anytime soon or too soon.
No, I don't think it does at all, man. I think that, I personally think that the market is not going to do anything different in 2025 than it did in 2024, albeit some, you know, minor changes here and there. But outside of a black swan event coming in, which I pray to God doesn't happen, I think like we're kind of going to sit pretty idle here this year. But again, that's not to say that you can't grow, you can't expand, you can't find new business. I mean, we're at, you know, we're just changing things up. Right? Like we're all about that slow and steady approach, you know, like we don't have investors, we don't have VCs, you know, breathing down our neck, you know, growth at all costs.
Like we know who we are, we know what we're going after and that's really the path that we're going to stick down here. It might take us a little bit longer, but at the end of the day, man, I want loyalty from my customers. That's like really what I'm going after. I'm not going after I onboard as many customers as possible. I'm really just trying to get in with the people who are doing open deck freight, full truckload and kind of stay in that lane here.
Yeah. I was going to say one thing that I've seen from not only our clients but just from the market in general is I think, you know, as the old saying Goes like riches and niches. I think you see a lot of companies just getting much deeper with their shippers and their client base and just focusing on, you know, the flatbed side of things, or open deck or LTL or truckload, like, whatever it is, but just going super deep into that vertical and almost saying no to things that are outside of your ICP and that might not fit. And you've tried before and it didn't quite work out before. And, you know, I think if you ask brokers a couple years ago, it just take all revenue, like, and then now they're saying, well, not all revenue is good revenue.
Let's strategically bring on the type of freight that we want that fits well, that we can service well, that we can make a good margin on. Like, you have to make money at the end of the day. So I. It's good to see that change in many ways, I would argue.
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you, man. And I mean, dude, I just look at it like this. I think people over estimate how much oper or underestimate how much opportunity is out there, you know, Like, I do. I just saw something like the top 10 flatbed trucking companies in North America, for example, right? There's like eight in the top 10. They control like $8 billion of. Of revenue that comes through. And it's like you're. You're telling me you can't. Like, you need to do something else at that point. Like 5% of that. Again, I went to public school, but 5% of that is about $400 million company at that point, you know, so it's like, I just sit there and I feel like it. People get so caught up with what they don't have that they lose focus about where.
Where they should be. And that, you know, that's one thing that I'd like to see. I mean, are you seeing that on your end, man? Like, why. I guess, why Mexico? Why did you go that vertical with rapido as opposed to attacking the, you know, the global scale, where it seems like everybody are kind of like trying to pluck talent across the world. You are seemingly just inside of Mexico. What was that? Was that. That niche mentality within, in a way, so the.
The stars kind of align for us in Mexico. So Roberto, who's my business partner and our COO at the company, he was already living in Mexico. So he actually helped Coyote open their Mexico office in Guadalajara, and then before he left to join with us, helped open their Monterey, Mexico, office. So it gave us, you Know, in a way a trial period through our previous company to take a look at the talent, to assess the talent and see if we could actually build a business in Mexico. So that was kind of the first part of if we can pick any country in the world, where do we go? And you know, we had already played there a little bit. I hadn't gone there before, but again, Roberto was living down there, so just made things a little easy for us.
And then selfishly on the personal side, my wife is Mexican. Her family's from Mexico. Her grandfather and grandmother still live in Mexico today and her grandfather owned a business in Mexico for a long time. So for 40, 50 years he owned a business. And you know, luckily for me, I had good connections and he put me in touch with accountants and lawyers and kind of those types of people early on. So there was a comfortability not only with us understanding the talent there, but like having some connections and knowing the landscape in Mexico made things a little easier for us. It's the same thing we preach to our clients at the end of the day too. It's like great talent.
You have proximity to the US So it's a quick non stop flight out of most major hubs and you know, going to Asia or deep into South America, it just can be a hassle to get to. It can, you know, the time zones are kind of a mess sometimes and trying to align in that. So kind of the same things that we pitch our clients on and the value of Mexico, it's the same reason we chose it at the end of the day.
Yeah, no, I think you guys got ahead of the curb, honestly, Danny, because I, I truly feel like Mexico is the next frontier for freight. And you know, depending on how, you know, I know tariffs is like the top thing for everybody out there right now, but depending on how a lot of that falls out, Mexico has already started to see a re industrialization to Covid. Right. Like when everything shut down, a lot of people looked at Mexico of how do we shift operations down there to build that up. And you know, there's one thing, you know, I've moved my fair share of freight out of Mexico into the States via flatbed. Also says somebody who is married to somebody who is Mexican and family lives in Mexico, there's not a lot of trust out there unless you can speak the language. All right?
And that's just what I've experienced. So it's like if you're going to go down there and really try and build up that footprint of operations like And I preach this, you know, a lot too, man. Like being dual bilingual out there's that instant connection that you're going to share with somebody in that trust because like, dude, if they don't trust you, they're not going to work with you. And like, the same goes here in the United States. Trust is a very huge factor and if people don't do it. But I think you guys got way ahead of the curve on that because I. It's you. You're starting to see a lot of that footprint build up down there from an industrial standpoint. And you know, I try and pay as much attention as possible to cross border freight and everything that's going on.
And that is one area that is seemingly increasing year in and year out.
Yeah, yeah, we think it'll definitely grow and we're happy to support teams that work in the cross border. But I think you're right, Chris, like, if you are just a group of gringos in the US it is hard to penetrate the Mexican market. Now if you go into that same conversation and you say, hey, we have a Mexico office in Guadalajara, we've got boots on the ground, like this is what we do. That goes a long way, especially for clients within Mexico.
Yeah. And it is due to just like the business customs as well. Right. Because the way that we operate here in the United States is not acceptable in other countries out there.
Yes.
You know, it's at least, you know, again, I'm not speaking for anybody other than my own personal experience. It's not as in your face down there as it is up here. Right. Where it's like, hey, boom, boom. There is a definite pace in other countries that are done and there's, you know, business, international customs and stuff like that people take very seriously. And I think like there, if there's one thing I've noticed about people who are American is when you travel abroad is. Is you think it's just that way everywhere. And it's not, man.
It's a level of ignorance that we have.
A massive level of ignorance.
D. Yeah, for sure, dude.
So how are you guys working with people? Like from a talent perspective? Like, are. Do you guys have the systems in place now or is it, you know, where, hey man, I'm looking for sales ops, anything like that, and then you guys just kind of run with it. What does that experience look like if I was coming to you?
Yeah, so clients kind of use us in different ways depending on what their need is. Right. So if they're just shipping domestically and you know, want to cut cost in a way and get access to Mexican talent, that's where we can come in and help staff those employees for them, help train them up, help manage them so they're productive and hitting their KPIs. I think staying on the Mexico cross border theme a little more, some clients use us just primarily to open an office in Mexico.
Yeah.
So, you know, if you think about starting a business in Mexico, and I'm sure people have, this has crossed their minds before, but it's a lot harder than I think most people would realize. Yeah. And I tell this story a lot. When I started Rapido, you know, us, I went online, I got my llc, got my tax ID number a day later or something like that. And then I was a business owner in the us Like I could hire people. I can do what you needed to do to run a business in Mexico. That same process took us about three or four months. So there's getting lawyers involved, there is getting kind of how you set up the board structure. You have to work with accountants and like state and local government and everything's done very manual.
So it's just the process and managing that as a logistics company can be very challenging when you've never had that experience before. When you are just trying to open an office to penetrate a market, 9 times out of 10 it's probably easier to do it through a company like ours. And we can have you up and running and hiring people within about three to four weeks versus what you would have to do on your own and you know, anywhere from four to six months and then hire their own HR people, hire their own talent team, kind of expand like you would in a real office that you own. And I think it just makes it for cleaner and easier and more efficient to do something like that through us than doing it on your own, depending on how big your appetite is. Right.
So there's obviously the billion dollar brokerages out there that it might make a little bit more sense for them to go and do it on their own. But I would argue if you're about 500 and below, you should probably work with a partner if you're trying to open up international offices.
Yeah. You know, I think like that knowing that as you're going into it and looking into expansion. Right. You know, and then paying attention to the next, you know, five, probably even decade, you know, of five to 10 years inside of transportation on where Things are going to trend out there and having that international footprint, I feel like at some point you need that, right? Like you need whether it's in Canada or down in Mexico. And it's like, why wouldn't you research that and then, you know, try and find somebody who has those established relationships that are out there. Because, you know, like the reality is, and you could probably relate to this a little bit. Danny, when you're building up a business, it doesn't just happen, you know, in great due time. You have all this time to process and plan.
Yeah, shit's pretty instantaneous, right? And you know, and I look at it as, you know, a saying that I hear often is time kills all deals. And if you're not willing to go out there and start doing that and start researching that and getting that going, I mean, you got to start thinking ahead, right? I feel like a lot of people are so reactionary in their approach to business and stuff like that. But it's like if you have customers that you're onboarding right now that have opportunities down in Mexico, you should start having that conversation right now about putting people down there and having them down there. Because again, it's a different ball game. And if that is truly the next frontier, which I think it is. Right.
Like, I truly feel like there is going to be a massive influx in manufacturing in Mexico over the next decade is, you know, dude, I feel like this is like a no brainer for individuals to go out there and talk to somebody like you to really get a lay of the land, at least to get that ball rolling. Because it's only a matter of time before somebody calls your number and says, hey man, we have all this opportunity out of Mexico. What can you do for us?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Just the learning experience of how things work differently in Mexico, I think is pretty key. One thing that we always say to people too is, you know, make sure that you have the subject matter expert on staff, right? Like you need someone who's done it before that, shipped these loads before that, understand what can happen at the border and with the customs agents and so forth. And then you can slowly. Our recommendation is have that person in the US and slowly build a team around them in Mexico. So you get the expert, but you also get the support team behind the scenes that can help take care of any of that freight that comes over.
Are you seeing more people from a customer sales standpoint looking to staff that way or are they starting with operations? What does that look like?
Usually operations kind of back office type roles. We do have some sales reps at the company that work on behalf of our clients. As you probably know, with Mexico on the sales side, it is slower, especially in freight. There's more of the building rapport, getting to know you stage, even like the, hey, let's meet in person. We're not going to do business with anyone that we don't actually meet in person. So I think that's important as well when you, when companies start to think about how to structure those sales reps. And that would be important in my mind if you're looking to expand into Mexico, like, start to understand, hey, you will probably need to get in front of these individuals. You'll probably have to do a little more, you know, travel and entertainment that you might do.
And with onshore domestic freight, more often than not, you're not going to call a shipper and they're just going to say like, oh yeah, okay, random person who called me and like, I'm going to send you my freight. Right. It's a little more personal in Mexico.
Yeah. Do we even notice that, like we had a customer here in the United States that were ordering product from Mexico and they wouldn't even do it unless we flew down there? Yeah, like we had to fly down there and meet them in person just to be able to purchase said product for, you know, dude, it is, it's a whole different ball game down there. And you know that like there is. The customs are significantly different in other parts of there. And as we are more and more of a.
I mean, we've always been a global industry, but I feel like domestic US Truckload is expanding at a rapid pace and you need to really stay ahead of the curve on this and you know, and having those established businesses that are down there because again, like, I just look at it as somebody who's trying to build and working to build and scale their company. You know, opportunities are not as plentiful as some people like to post on the Internet. You guys, it is very challenging to build a business. It takes a lot of work and effort to get up to that point. And a lot of us, as you are building and scaling your business, revenue is at a shortage, right. And then that opportunity is going to inevitably come your way. And are you prepared to execute upon that?
You know, because it's like cycles now, Danny, when I'm seeing, I mean, dude, a lot of them are minimum of 12 months for a lot of them, you know, and that's. But, but that's just the way that the market's performing. I mean, I've heard as long that's.
The reality of it.
Three year sales cycles that are going on right now. So it's like, are you committed to it? And then in the event that first opportunity pops up. What, what if it is? Hey, man, we have this shipment stuck down in Mexico. What can you do for us? That might be your only opportunity in that moment. You know, it sounds far fetched, but again, coming from somebody who actually brokers freight, still, it's not as far fetched as you think in today's environment. But yeah, Danny, I totally agree, man. It's. Yeah, it flew by, dude. We, we try and keep these shows quick because it's like it's in and out and I got to get back to cold calling and everybody else got to get back to moving some freight here.
But dude, how does anybody reach out to you guys to find out more about what you got going on down at Rapido?
Yeah, so our website, if you want to check it out, is gorapido.com and then can email me directly. My email is d. Frisco@gorapeto.com. Be happy to help.
Yeah, that's awesome, Danny. Thank you so much for joining me. If you guys can't find Danny or Rapido out there, hit me up. I will gladly put you guys in direct contact with them. But that's going to be it for today, you guys. We got guests coming on tomorrow and Friday as well. And we pretty much got guests going on all the time now, you guys. But as I was value in what you heard, subscribe to the show if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, which you should be, rank the show on itunes and Spotify because that's how we really get out there, guys, is if you saw 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.
Thanks all. Thanks, Chris. Take care.