Came back with a bank window down yelling now money at a day hey oh Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm getting to the back hey Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when the lane moving fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them made them make a bigger balls hey.
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. 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 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. And my guest today literally embodies that, you guys, he has been in this industry for a long time. He's seen a lot of stuff kind of come and go, but he's developed some core principles that he likes to follow that have shown to be tried and true throughout the time. So with that being said, I got my man Greg Finnerty here with Concept Logistics. Greg, thank you so much for joining me.
Oh, thanks for having me, man. It's a pleasure. Thank you.
No, dude, I, I'm looking forward to it. You know, the first time we talked, I mean, we ended up going for like almost an hour. But it's like, you know, a, your energy is infectious and B, I, I know why you're in the position that you're in, man, because you truly care about what you do. And it's very evident and what you say and kind of act and you know, man, so do. Thanks for jumping on today to really talk about this and you know. So, dude, how'd you get your starting freight? What brought you into transportation?
I was lumber brokering for my father way back in the day. And then I used this company up here in Buffalo. I was living out of state at the time, and then when I moved back, it was a friend of the family. They contacted me, put me in a. Put me in a carrier rep chair and gave me all the inbound freight they could. They could handle. So created the position and started booking loads October 2000.
Oh, damn.
I was a little guy, Afro this big, and I didn't know what direction was up, but I was having fun, man. I mean, it's. It was fast paced. It was. It was crazy. It was fun to talk to people and, you know, something I've always carried with me, it's like, you know, I can be anybody on this phone I want to be, you know, dude, no. There's no person that knows me better than myself, and I could put my best self out, and I don't have to deal with the baggage that maybe my life had brought or whatever. So I. I carried that in and started booking freight and just had a great time doing it, man.
Dude, how did you do that? Because it's funny you bring that up, because I'm reading a book right now called the Alter Ego, and Brent or Suga put that up, you know, like a couple months back, and I. I bought it and I just started reading it. And what's crazy is it's like I. I started doing that with the freight coach, right, like, when I started my business and everything. Like, that's kind of my alter ego that I start. Because it's like, dude, I can be anything that I want when I. When I'm out here. Obviously, I try my best to be myself, but, like, all the baggage and all the other that I've gone through in my life, I can leave that at the door. Right.
So it's like kind of switching that on and turning that onto a new gear as you're going out there.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I. I think some of the. Some of the things I was able to pick up through the. Through the years and. And whatnot was just if I'm. If I'm coming into the situation, whether it be talking to a customer, talking to a truck, talking to a driver, talking to a. To one of their dispatch, and I'm in a good mood, or I'm putting them in a good mood regardless of the, you know, through the years, like my. I was a caretaker for my mother who passed. I had. I had long nights up here in Buffalo. The bars are open till 4. And I was. I was. I had a brother who was a bartender. So, you know what I mean?
Like, there was some crazy days, but at the end of the day, if I could come in the morning, reset myself, put myself in that mind frame of my drive in at work and say, okay, hey, you know, These are the loads I got to cover. These are the people I got to talk to. And I'm going to bring this energy. I'm going to bring them something that's going to make their day better. Because I need it, too, right? I need it at the end of the day, too. I need to feel good about what I'm doing. So, yeah, just, you know, and again, nobody knows you, right? So if you're. If you're quiet, if you're introverted. I am not introverted, so I might be speaking out of turn here, but. But if you are, right, then, like, nobody knows that. And so.
So put it. Put it out there and see what happens and. And create that separate alter ego that. That can push you through the day.
Dude. What's crazy is, Greg is. Is I am an introvert, right? Like, when I'm not working, when I'm not doing, like, when I'm at home, man, like, I. I don't want to talk to people. I want to. I really just want to be left alone. I want to hang out with my family, and I want to leave it at that. But, like, I have that when I'm coming into work. Like, all right, man, I got to perform, right? Like, I got to be there. I got to be me, and I got to grow and scale stuff. So it is creating that separation, right?
Because it's like, you know, I might be one of the only people who's openly admitting, like, dude, it was uncomfortable for me to talk to people early on in my career and stuff like that, because just like, with everybody, I got a past, and I didn't. I. I just. I hate asking people for stuff, right? So that was a big barrier that.
I. Yeah, everybody does. Everybody does, right? Everybody does, and you know it.
And it's like, dude, you see this all the time. All these people are like, everybody's got a opinion about how to develop business out there, right? Oh, you gotta do a relationship. You gotta do this. And it's like, okay, cool. But how do you get over that? I just want to position myself as a credible resource for somebody when they need me and not drive them away by, let me bid on your freight. Let me bend on your freight. Please just give me anything. Give me anything. Give me anything.
I think. I think you hit the nail on the head is being credible. So, like, what do you have to do? Right? Like, you've got to be a learner. You've got to continue to learn throughout the days and understand you're going to get it wrong.
Yeah.
You're gonna get it wrong, it's okay, right? But learn from that mistake. Move on, put it in place, put it in a, you know, do something outside of what you had to do that got it wrong.
Right?
Because if you keep it was. I heard a quote this morning in a book I was reading. It was, you can't think your way into acting. You can act your way into different thinking.
Right?
So putting it into practice, going outside of what you did yesterday, that the mistake happened and changing that up is what's going to get you to constantly put that through your mind. Here I gotta, I'm gonna reach here. I'm gonna reach here. And you know, I'm a big believer in. You're your own competitor, you're your biggest competitor yourself, right? So it's either can I do better than I did yesterday? I want to make 10 calls, I want to land for. I want to put my margin percent up X amount. I want to book these carriers. I want to establish this relationship. So setting these little goals or competing against yourself really puts, takes the pressure off of being in an environment where it is high pressure, man.
Like, you know, and I, like I said, I, I've been at this, and not only by booking loads since 2000. I've been at this company since 2000.
Right.
So 25 years at the same company. So it does get a little cloudy. And I understand, like there's some, there's some boiler rooms out there, right? It's competitive, man. And, but if you're competing against yourself and you're progressing, you'll see those results match what you want.
Yeah, I'm, you know, I was always, I, I worked, I don't want to say I worked in like that boiler room mentality, but like I was definitely in a. Dude, you got to hit a ton of calls in a day and saw the real value in it because like, maybe it was just the system I was in Greg bit, but I saw a lot of people calling numbers to like hit their numbers that didn't actually equate to revenue long term. And yeah, and I feel like a lot of it was, is, I'm like, man, okay, so what's that number? Right? And I'm trying to find that out right now. Like, dude, like this month I'm increasing my number by five. So I'm gonna hit 55 cold calls a day.
And I'm trying to see does this balance out where I can make 55 quality dials that if somebody answers the phone, I'M going to be able to have a real conversation with them, not a rushed one. And then active, you know, like ineffectively do my job throughout the day. So. And I look at that as like, man, I'm just trying to move that needle of productivity forward every single month where it's like, hey, how do I get a little bit more effective? What's that number? And I heard that, you know, because one of my good friends, I, you know, I don't like to name drop, but he is, his brokerage does a billion dollars a year and he's the, you know, the president of the company and that's what they do. And he's like, dud. He's like, that's the secret sauce.
That's what we found and that's where we like to keep our people at. And I'm like, that makes the most sense that I've heard out there.
Correct. And I think there is, there's a balancing act to what you just talked about too. Because some companies are built to be a billion dollar company. Right? Is Concept logistics?
No.
And I don't think that's our goal. That's not what we want.
Right.
What we want is good people doing good work and making good money.
Right?
Like let it be your life and let it be something that you can count on every day and come in and be happy at and provide service to your customer. Provide service specifically to your carriers.
Right?
Like bring them all into the conversation so that it's not just we're middlemen, we are win, win facilitators. Right? So we're trying to put everybody in a great spot and let's create the relationships that make these things easier. Let's use the technology that make these things easier. Let's put a system of values. And I think you know, you brought up values and core values before, but that's. If it's not aligned, it's not going to work. It's not going to line, it's not going to work. Right. You know, talking about a billion dollar company, they're doing a ton of that quick freight and moving it out the door and covering it cheap. And that's great and awesome and make the money at it, man. But for us, what we found here at Concept, I think it's based on the relationships. It's based on our values.
Are they going to act the same way we act even if there's a problem? Especially when there's a problem.
How did you guys come to that conclusion? Because I think that's something that I've, you know, I've kind of went back and forth on in my business, right? Like, is how big do I actually want to take this? Is there a point that I'm going to hit where I'm going to be like, hey, we're big enough. How did you guys kind of come to that? Because I feel like that's something a lot of entrepreneurs and young sales reps out there struggle with because they're like, I want to be the biggest and the best ever. But at what point did you guys sit down, you're like, hey, who we are, we know what our identity is. Let's stay here and try and be that win, win, where we're not, you know, selling ourselves out to make a buck.
I think, I think it comes from just being around this business. It's, it's, it was a family owned business and it still is. And his, you know, the owner's son has transferred it to his son Brennan. They've been tremendous allies and leaders to everybody at this company and mentors. And then when you start to enable your people to act in a way that they can feel good about it, I think you start to understand where the company's going, where they're driven, the people you've hired now, right, where they are going to be in this conversation and then enabling them to act in a way that's reflective to the values. Like, that's number one, right? Like, we brought you in because you're a hard worker, because you believe in communication, because you want to be a trust, you want to provide service.
We brought you in because of that. Let's talk about now how you accomplish that and how I can support you doing that. And I think that's where the overall arching kind of, hey, we're here to do good things for good people, right? I mean, and, you know, it's. Ever since the MVP speech for Josh Allen, it's be good, do good, go Bills, right? And, and we've adopted that. And, and you know, we've, we've, we've gone down different roads, right? Like, listen, we do drive in freight, right? Like, you know, it ain't, it ain't the sexiest thing in the world, right? But it is what we do and we're good at it, right? We added ltl at the request of a customer, right? And they've been a tremendous team. To bring on.
So again, aligning those values and putting those into place really kind of starts to identify what kind of people do we have here, what's our vision, how much stress can this organizational whole organization hold and how, what's that growth trajectory look like?
Right?
If you're going out there to grow, you know, grow 50 million in the next year, that's a much different office, that's a much different vibe than someone that's trying to do 5%, 10%, you know, 2%, whatever the case may be. So I just think that it comes down to your leadership, what your ideals are, where your values set and what kind of service you can provide. And then when your team starts to interact with those, you really start to get an idea of where this is going and how fast it's going to go there.
Yeah, it's, I think, like one thing, you know, talking about speed and growth and everything, where it's like, what's different now than when I came into this industry is like the tech that's at your disposal now. Like, you can be a literal superman, right? Because like, I remember back in the day when were, you know, covering freight like as a carrier rep, if you're doing 15 pickups in a day to 20, like, you're an all star, that everybody loves you now. I feel like with technology, man, like, you could do like 40 as a carrier rep right now with auto booking and everything else. And then from a rates perspective, like, dude, if you get green screens integrated in with your TMS, you're quoting 50 loads a second. Essentially, I'm making that number up. Don't hold it, dude. You're out there.
Your capabilities are exponentially elevated with what's at your disposal now.
I mean, the tribal knowledge, right, of you had a rep, you got an old rep. I had a guy that I sat next to. I learned a ton from Bob. Been doing it 20 years before I was. And, and he just retired last year. But, but his knowledge of how fast he could rate with something, I strive to. And then, you know, the way I look at technology now, I love technology, right? I think it's, I think it's important. I think, I think it's the tool belt that old brokers never had, you know, at their disposal where, you know, you are booking loads fast, you are quoting fast.
But I think it's the combination that really puts it into place and puts you in an upward trajectory of just like, okay, if we can create space on what we do on a day in, day out basis, right? And, and be able to have those things automated, we can now adopt new business in the time that we've created. And while those relationships are getting taken care of and instead of calling your favorite carrier 50 times a day, you know, can you do this load? Where's your guy? Where's this? What's going on? And, and those are important conversations and they're relationship building conversations, right? But now if you can take that relationship and then they're getting their loads automatically tendered to them, your tracking is up to date because they've accepted whatever tracking you're using, right?
All those things are combined and they're doing that now. You've got your free time as a rep, as a salesperson, as a leader in the company to concentrate on bringing in new business and providing that same service that you're able to provide your old standbys and the people that you count on you and you count on them.
Yeah, yeah, I, I look at it where, you know, as you're developing business, right? Because like I say this often on the show, I operate in reality. And when you're building a business up, you know, you might not have the resources to hire a team of people yet, but you have the ability to sign on with some pretty sick software where now one to two people can move a lot of volume compared to the past, right? Like you just brought up, you know, like you have like a macro point integrated in with your tms and then you have a rating system and then every load board integrations, all of that, you know, load notifications sent out to people who can go in and auto book their freight.
Like, man, like you could move so much more freight than I think most people are even aware of at this point. Because, you know, and then again, like we're bootstrapping our business up, right? So like we're trying to build a war chest of capital to actually be able to sustain up markets and down markets and everything else. And you know, we finally feel like we're at that cusp of like really breaking into some serious volume here. And like my business partner and I were discussing a lot of this stuff, we're like, hey man, how do we overly stress ourselves out to the point? But like we're where we can leverage technology, build up our war chest and then deploy it to hire people strategically as opposed to hiring a bunch of people and hoping a couple of them.
Work out no I, I, I, yeah, I mean it. And you're going to get tech wrong too, right? Like there are a ton of great tech out there and a lot of it works for a lot of people and a lot of it doesn't work for you.
Right?
Like, it's what works within your business and really paying attention. And, and again, are your tech partners aligned with what you're trying to do?
Right?
So if they're out there tendering freight, how are they tendering freight? Is it just going out and then whatever carriers coming back in, or is it going to people that, carriers that, you know and reflect your, reflect what you do and how they want to be talked to, and then it's really taking care of those situations. And I'll talk specifically about carriers because I, I, I mean the, you know, the shipper, the customer, right in my eyes and what I've always tried to live by is like I have two sets of customers. One of them are called shippers, one of them are called carriers.
Yes, right.
That's, that's where you have to start out. So how do we facilitate what a carrier is trying to do? Talk to them.
Right?
Not just about booking a load, but like, what are your commitments to them? How do we, how do we get your driver home on weekends?
Right?
I don't want, you know, let, how do we, what have you promised your carrier, where your drivers, and how do I help you facilitate that? Because then you're going to go through me because I'm trying to help you and what your commitments are to your people. Right? And I think all that combined, I think that is really where it starts to hit home and where you start to find the technology where you create a vision. And you know, like I just put out, a couple weeks ago, I put out a, an initiative, I want to do 10 carriers per lane, right?
Yeah.
Do I think we're going to get 10 carriers per every lane? No. Right. But I think we have the possibility of getting damn close to that. And I do think that when we start to dive into that, we'll start to realize, all right, well, this moves once or twice a month. Do I need 10 carriers on that or do I need four or five and two super solid?
Right?
So now you're, and then you start setting up your auto booking to those specific carriers and it's like, okay, so now you're doing this, I'm going to give you the freight, you Want, you know, we're going to agree on a price, everybody's going to be happy. Your driver's going to be able to go to the same place held by the third load, he's going to be getting coffee in the break room. You know what I mean? Like, setting people up like that is where I think it drives. And if you can use the technology to leverage those relationships, that's where you start to really see the, you know, the nuts and bolts of it to come through together.
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you, Greg. That's something that we really leverage a lot inside of our book of business. I want to use the exact same trucking companies on as many loads as I possibly can out there. We want to find out like every time we book a load, like we have an in depth conversation with them, right. Hey, what lanes do you like to run? What, what types of equipment do you have in your fleet? Like, we do open deck, right? So we got pull, flat steps, RGNs, conestogas. We want to know all of that. We want to know what lanes they like to run with that equipment. And then we go out there and try and develop business based on that.
Right?
Because it is truly the chicken and the egg mentality out there. But I feel like the more sense of ease you can bring to your carriers and your customers because I'm right there with you, man. They're 1A and 1B of importance, you know, so it's like leveraging that and balancing that out is it's crucial to be able to do and you know, and it's also a major selling point as you're going out there and developing business when you're like. And, and then especially in today's day and age, because like cold calling back in the mid-2000s, when I started 2011, 2012, vastly different than cold calling is today. It used to be, you know, you get a couple of people on the phone, they'll give you a couple of prove it shipments and then that's the way it kind of goes now, dude.
It's like, it's a lot more in depth, I have found. And again, you guys take this for what it's worth. This is just somebody who actively cold calls every single day. The more direct I am with my prospects, the greater the return that I have received. The spray and pray methodology has not worked. I've actually gotten hung up on with that as opposed to here's who we are, this is what we specialize in. This is the regions that we like to run. The more direct you can be, the better off I have been from a business development perspective.
Yeah, I 100% agree with that.
Right.
Like if you're gonna, and you know, call it what it is, but if you're going to BS your way through a conversation just to get them on the phone and then they give you the prove it and you fail like you're not there.
Right.
Like you're not. That's not what you did to begin with. You're putting yourselves in an idea, in an area that you weren't, you were setting yourself up for failure from the beginning. So let's get into a place where you're, you're bringing this out to where what you do and telling the truth from the get go.
Right.
And, and you establish like operations happen at the speed of trust. My favorite quote of all time.
Right.
And it's, and it's the truth.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's inside your office. That's to your customers, that's to, you know, to the shippers, to the carriers, that's to everyone. If you can build it on a, on a baseline of trust and reliability and substance and providing service, you're going to win.
Yeah, you're going to win.
It might not be as fast and as cool as everybody else, but it, that's not what you need. You need to win.
Yeah. You need revenue 12 months out of the year, man. It's one of those situations where it's like, if you're just looking for quick dopamine rushes, like they're out there, you guys, but like, you need to think sustainable long term. You need to think 12 months out of the year. And again, like you guys, like just remember this. It takes years to build trust and seconds to lose it. And it's a lot easier for you to go out there, you guys, and just be brutally honest with your customers. You know, be brutally honest with your carriers. Like, I just don't like sugar coating anything at this point. Maybe it's because I'm almost 40, Greg, but I just don't have time for this anymore, man. Like, if something's not gonna happen, tell me so I can come and find a solution to that. Right?
But I've also found that ironically, that's all other people want as well. They just want the truth. Right? If you can't do something, you will never lose a customer for telling them, hey, that's, I can't make that happen on this one. Thank you for the opportunity. You will never lose business from that.
And I'm all about taking risks and everything, but I guess the older I get, the more I feel like I'm taking less risk because I lean more into my strengths more than like, I've been through that phase of my life where like, hey, I know what I'm good at and I know what I'm not good at, so I'm going to lean into what I'm good at and kind of really run with that down there and that, you know, that comes into developing business and that, you know, creating content, all of that stuff. You guys, it's easy to sit here and say, oh, I'm going to do this. And it's easy to say that when it's convenient when the world isn't burning around your real character comes through when shit's going on.
And ironically, that's when you grow the most with customers, is when things are happening and how you handle those situations.
Yep. And, and I think you provide just as much service in the truth of saying, I can't do this one. I know it's important to you and I can't do it right. If you, if, if it's a situation where they're like, I don't trust anybody else, then do it right. Like then, then there's a different conversation of like, hey, I've got a load. Six other brokers are working on it, you know, but I want you to move it. Okay, but it's way out of my zone and way out of my way out of what we do. But I'll try for you as opposed to, hey, I don't trust anybody else with this. And that's the goal. Right.
Like if you can get your customer on the line and they can bring you freight that they don't trust anyone else with, there is no end to that one.
Right.
Like now you're in the spot.
Yeah. And that's exactly it. Right. Like, you know, and we've, you know, we've grown over the years because like we cold started everything essentially in January of 2023. That's when we cold started all of this. No customers. No, you know, I had people that I, you had used to work with back in the day, but like, ironically, weren't that interested in talking to somebody who they hadn't talked to in a few years. But anyways, you know, like that it took us a long time to get to that point, we actually just had a customer of ours here recently say that they're like, hey, you're the only ones we will trust with the shipment like this. It was going to a trade show and everything. And that's where I get all the warm and fuzzies, right?
Because I'm like, damn, like if you're, if we're your go to, in that, like, you know, and it took a long time to get there, you guys. And it's like, and it is that one truck at a time mentality, that's our company motto is one truck at a time. That's how we're going to build this up. You know, you can put brick by brick whatever you want in there, but that's our motto and we're going to take that and we're going to rely on that as we grow and scale this.
Yeah. And that's what's, and that's what's going to strengthen that relationship. That brick by brick, that truck by truck, that mentality right there, those are the foundations what we're talking about. Right. And bringing those all in, I mean we have, we've had a lot of success as of lately of bringing customers in that trust us and becoming their managed partner.
Right.
So now the conversation as a company comes different. Like how are we integrating with them? You know, the world's changing, right? Like, it's not just, we're not using fax machines anymore. I mean I used to print every load I booked. I used to print off four sheets, go to the fax machine. You know, it was like, it got me up a little bit more than maybe I do now. But, but this, you know, that, you know, truckload happens in speed and, and being able to facilitate it with what you're about what you're doing and all that kind of, all that puts it together in such a nice package. And those are what that trust. You know, when you've got a carrier that would take your load for, you know, hopefully not much less money, but still less money. Right.
And, and they're taking that over the quick money hit again. That's where you're winning.
Right.
And that's the relationships you're trying to build. So how do you give that back to them in a non monetary situation? How do you save them time? How do you save them effort? How do you make their day a little bit better every day when they deal with you and that has, what I found has been one of the drivers of success for concept is that, you know, everything, we take it personally.
Right.
Without taking it personally, but we take it at a personal level where we care, we give a. And, and I think that's what comes through.
How do you, how can you tell the audience who's listening to this either live here and they're recording that it's only a matter of time before the market shifts back. And you know, it's been kind of easy to cover freight these last couple of years.
Right.
Like no matter what, there's been a lot more capacity and everything else. Right. So there, you know, brokers have, you know, again, this is just what I see on social media. Brokers have kind of fallen back into what brokers are notorious for out there pushing down rates, railroading people and everything else. But it's going to come a point in time where it's not going to be that way. What advice do you have for people? Because it could be this year, it could be next year, I don't know. But it's going to tighten up, it's going to shift back and some people are going to have a very challenging time with that.
Yeah. Again, it's going to fall back on your relationships. If you're treating somebody like, or some questionable situations come up and you don't handle it correctly, you're gonna lose that guy. When, when push comes to shove. And, and that's the same with the customer.
Right.
So, yeah, I mean, sometimes do we eat a little bit more crow than we want to and, and have to take some losses where we probably could, you know, make a stand? Sure. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna do 10 more loads with that customer as opposed to, you know, losing them for that $100 hit. So, you know, you have to look at a long game perspective. You have to look at a relationship perspective. If it's just transactional, if you're just booking loads and grabbing freight, end of the day that price is going to change and you're going to lose your little system that you put together to be in that one situation.
Go to the higher, go to the larger, look at life and like it and a business and take care of the people that take care of you and be someone that they want to be with and they want to do business with and treat your people the same way. And if you've got that consistency, it's going to go a long way for you.
I Love it, Greg, this flew by as I knew it would, man. How does anybody reach out to you, man? Maybe. Maybe they got questions. Maybe you guys are hiring. Put your information out there. How does somebody get in touch with you guys?
My email is just gfinityonceptintl.com you can look me up on LinkedIn, connect with me there. Happy to chat with anybody at any time. I like I said, freight's my life, so happy to chat and, and go and go in the rabbit holes or whatever we want to go into. But yeah, just contact me if you guys want to talk.
All right. I love it. Greg, thank you so much for joining me. That's going to be it for today, you guys. We got guests coming on, like, literally every day this week as normal. So as always, you guys, if you guys got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show. If you guys are feeling really ambitious after this one, which you should be, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, you guys, because if you saw value, that's how 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, we don't have any fans.