Intro – 00:00:01:
Welcome to Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast where we explore the fascinating world of trucking and freight management. We dive deep into the freight industry and uncover why the trucking industry is more crucial to our country now than ever before. Stay tuned to uncover the driving forces behind successful trucking businesses and hear from the hardworking truckers and leaders who keep the world moving. Let’s hit the road.
Brent – 00:00:26:
Well, hello, Freight Nation. Man, I hope you’re doing good wherever you are out on the highways and byways of this United States and that whatever you’re doing is being a benefit to moving freight that helps all the great citizens of the United States. I appreciate you watching and listening to Freight Nation today. It’s always an honor that you would come and listen to these stories. I love these stories. As you guys, if you’ve watched any Freight Nation episode, you hear me say this over and over and over, then I love to hear the stories. So that’s why we started Freight Nation, a podcast from Truckstop. It’s really about my desire and our desire to tell a story for you as a participant in transportation, wherever you are, whether you’re driving a truck, whether you’re working at a brokerage, whether you’re on the executive side, whether you’re on the beginning side of your career, for these to be a benefit for you, for these to teach you something or motivate you to do something or to inspire you to do something with your career and your opportunity inside of this incredible endeavor that we call freight transportation in the United States. And so today’s episode is one that I’ve really been looking forward to. I mean, I’ve really, really been looking forward to, because my guest today is somebody that has done something really kind of unique inside the market. He’s started out working for one of the biggest, most well-known main brands. He went to another brand to extend where he was going. Then he started his own thing, and now he started his own thing again. And so he’s really one of these people that kind of keeps thinking about how he can continue to improve himself and his opportunity and how he can continue to improve our industry. And so joining me today is the founder of Journey, Mr. Will Jenkins. Will, thanks for joining us today, man.
Will – 00:01:57:
Man, I really appreciate the invite. It’s so fun being here. And it was great to see you at F3 in person a couple of days ago. It was awesome.
Brent – 00:02:03:
Oh, my gosh. That was super great. We kept running each other. I tell you what, Freight Nation, this is great. This is when you know you’re going to probably have a good friend is when you’re someplace and you’re like, you keep running into them. And just in full disclosure, Freight Nation, we’re like even running into each other in the bathroom. So this is how like, okay, we. We’re going to be really good friends. But the reason Freight Nation, I wanted to have Will on is because, first off, he’s a founder of Journey. And Journey is a recruiting, a consulting, and a training company for professionals in this industry and for companies in this industry. But more than that, he’s somebody that kind of continues to see opportunities and problems that need to be solved inside of transportation. He said, I think I can do that. I think I can do that. And so to me, that provides me with inspiration. And I hope it provides you, Freight Nation, with inspiration as to what you can do with your career and your opportunity in this trillion-dollar industry, where it doesn’t matter. Just you put your hard work into it. You associate yourself with the right people. And you continue to do things with great character. I promise you, you’ll find success. And today, this episode today is going to be one of those ones where you’re going to hear a great story about someone’s journey and someone’s advancement through their career. And then you’re going to hear opportunities about how you, Freight Nation, can improve your brand in the market and your opportunity to grow what you’re doing. So, Will, man, you’ve had such a fascinating, fascinating career so far. And I mean, you’re a young guy. You’re not old like me. I’m 57. So you’re a young guy. So you’ve done a lot in a short period of time. Now, let me ask you, when you were like a young man in high school, now, I know you were an athlete, but did you like dream one day you’re going to be in the middle of the freight transportation industry? Or what was your dream? Where were you thinking when you were a young guy?
Will – 00:03:36:
Yeah. So it was certainly not to be in transportation because I didn’t even know anything about the space as it is. I knew trucks moved stuff from point A to point B, and that was about it. I actually wanted to be a doctor.
Brent – 00:03:49:
Oh, wow.
Will – 00:03:50:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So-
Brent – 00:03:50:
What kind of doctor?
Will – 00:03:52:
I wasn’t really sure. I just felt like that was a good path to go. Yeah. So my dad was a paramedic. And yeah, man. And so I went to Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington. I played football there, and they have a really strong pre-med program. So I figured, go do that thing. And I had done well in school up to that point. And that’s what I wanted to do before I got into my first real job selling Cutco.
Brent – 00:04:17:
No way. Stop right there. You sold Cutco?
Will – 00:04:19:
I sold a lot of Cutco.
Brent – 00:04:21:
I sold Cutco. Is that right?
Will – 00:04:22:
Let’s go. Let’s go.
Brent – 00:04:23:
Let’s go. That’s awesome. Let me tell you something. If you can sell Cutco, you can sell anything. I got a whole bunch. I still have some here in the house. Love the brand. Great product. And the way they go to the market, boy, you cut your chops really quick on learning to sell. So tell me a little bit about that. Let’s go.
Will – 00:04:40:
Yeah, yeah. So it was summer of 2008. I just graduated high school and I get a call from the office. I’m from May, which is the west side of Chicago. And I got a call from the Oakbrook office, which was the office in my territory. A friend of mine recommended me. I didn’t know anything about Cutco at that point, but they said, hey, a friend had an interview. They got the job, thought you might be a fit. I go on for the job interview. And I’m like, I don’t know, man. Like, if you’re telling me, I read this manual and people buy the product. All I got to do is make some calls and the commission is good. Like, sure. Why not? I started. This was June of 2008. And in my first 10 days, I sold $10,000 worth of Cutco.
Brent – 00:05:25:
Oh, wow. That’s amazing.
Will – 00:05:27:
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Super hard. They taught me how to cold call and handle objections. And I learned how to just deal with like rejection, things of that nature. And that completely changed the trajectory of my career because seeing what I was able to produce, young, sales at a young age teaches you…
Brent – 00:05:47:
And you were really 18 years old.
Will – 00:05:48:
I was 18. Yeah, I was a baby. So that was really cool. I did that up until we went down for football in August. And I probably sold, I think I sold like $25,000 in like the first eight weeks. Made really good money. And that made me say I would rather be in sales or some kind of entrepreneurial field rather than medicine. So I ended up studying business administration with a focus in marketing. So that’s kind of how the whole thing got started.
Brent – 00:06:10:
That got you kicked off. So the tangible return and helping people get what they need, that sort of thing really sort of like greased the skits for you when it came to like, oh, wow, this is fun.
Will – 00:06:20:
Oh, yeah. It was a blast.
Brent – 00:06:22:
Yeah.
Will – 00:06:22:
So I had a really good time. I had a great manager. And then throughout my time in college, I would travel home. I would set appointments, keep selling. And then I moved up into management with Vector, the company that sells Cutco.
Brent – 00:06:34:
I’ve known well. I was in management there too. Yeah.
Will – 00:06:37:
Yeah. So. My summer going into sophomore year, I was an assistant manager. And then my summer into my junior year, I was a branch manager, downtown Chicago in Lincoln Park. And I had 80 sales reps, three full-time receptionists, two assistant managers, and we did about $145,000 in sales that summer. And that’s what got the entrepreneurial itch going. Like the first was sales, but that’s what got it going.
Brent – 00:07:03:
Well, that’s exciting, man. That’s super exciting. All right. So you’re an athlete. So I think it’s important to talk about that because that has a lot to do with sort of your competitiveness. And one thing I’ve always known about working and being around athletes is they love to compete and they love to win. So let’s talk a little bit about your athleticism and then what took you to your first stop along the way, which was with Coyote, right?
Will – 00:07:27:
Yes.
Brent – 00:07:27:
Yeah. So let’s talk about that. And why Coyote? How did you end up there? Talk about your athletics and ended up there.
Will – 00:07:33:
Totally. So I played football for four years at Illinois Wesleyan. I played corner.
Brent – 00:07:37:
Right. You were a defensive back. Fantastic.
Will – 00:07:39:
Yeah. Loved it. I have no problem kind of getting down there by line of scrimmage and hitting. We played a lot of cover two and a lot of man. So I had a lot of fun.
Brent – 00:07:47:
So you must be pretty fast too.
Will – 00:07:49:
I would say that I am quicker than I am fast, but a lot of film study will put you in the right position to know kind of where to be. So great program, had the opportunity to go to the playoffs twice, won a conference championship. So really appreciative of that opportunity. And as you mentioned. Athletics teaches you how to compete. And a lot of those things have translated to sales and to the entrepreneurial drive.
Brent – 00:08:14:
And working on a team.
Will – 00:08:16:
Absolutely. I think football is the ultimate team sport. You need 11 people to do the same thing. And freight is very, very team oriented.
Brent – 00:08:23:
It is.
Will – 00:08:23:
Yeah. Very much so. So, played four years at Wesleyan. It was great. My first job after college was actually with Kimberly-Clark Professional.
Brent – 00:08:30:
Oh, okay.
Will – 00:08:31:
Yeah. I did not get into freight immediately after school. I was with KC for a little bit over a year. And I was doing B2B sales for them in distribution. So they sell Kleenex. That’s like their largest brand. So I was selling to hotels.
Brent – 00:08:44:
Kleenex is a giant, giant.
Will – 00:08:45:
Oh my gosh.
Brent – 00:08:46:
Huge.
Will – 00:08:46:
Yeah. So I was selling to office buildings and hotels in Chicago. And then I left Kimberly Clark, just looking for a new opportunity. And one of my really good friends that I sold Cutco with was a really, really good business development sales rep at Coyote. And so as I was looking for a new opportunity, you know, you trust your friends. They seem to be doing well. Somebody I had a lot of respect for. And it was actually two of my buddies and both of them were like, you should interview here. So that’s how I heard about Coyote. And this was. That’s how I heard about Coyote. There the fall of 2013. And I started January of 2014 as a carrier sales rep.
Brent – 00:09:23:
Right. So you got in the door and let me ask you, did you know what you were getting into?
Will – 00:09:28:
I had no idea. No clue. Absolutely zero clue.
Brent – 00:09:33:
So we’ve gone from Madison to Cutco to Kimberly Clark to Coyote.
Will – 00:09:38:
Yes.
Brent – 00:09:39:
All right. And every time, let me ask you this. So I’m the son of a professional athlete. I think the Freight Nation watchers know that. Talk about my dad all the time. You’ll probably hear me quote him a bunch of times because his words, even though he’s passed away, he’s still in my ears. And he was always one of those guys that just would encourage you all along the way. So this is what I want to ask you. So when you were going from one to the next and one of the next, did you ever have any like super doubts or did you just go, nope, I think I can do this?
Will – 00:10:03:
Nope. I think I can do this.
Brent – 00:10:05:
That’s the same way. People ask me all the time, Will. They go, how is it you’re like pretty sure all the time? I go, well, I’m just kind of part of my dad. And my dad was always like, somebody else has done it. You can figure it out. Go do it. So that was my, that was so good to hear that we’re of like kind.
Will – 00:10:19:
Yes. I think some of the things that I learned selling Cutco and then selling at a high level at Kimberly Clark. Student high sales, multimillion dollar deals, way longer sales cycles, and then playing ball. I’m like, look, man, there’s people here making a lot of money. They’re successful. If I can sit here and learn and then go apply some of these things, I think I’ll be all right.
Brent – 00:10:39:
Yeah. Amen. So you walk in the door, Coyote, you didn’t really know what you were getting yourself into. You trusted a friend and first day on the job. What was it like when you kind of opened your eyes? You’re like, all right, what were you thinking?
Will – 00:10:50:
Yeah. So I’ll take it back a step further. The interview was really cool because I’d never been in an environment as dynamic as that, it was fun. There were music playing and people standing up. They’re collaborating. It’s not cubicles, just like very energetic. And I was like, oh, this is way more me than the standard corker world. I was like, this is awesome. So that got me excited to start in January. Then the first day you do a tour. So we’re walking around. They call it the GX here. It’s really close to where I live now. And you see everybody at their desks and they’re making calls and everybody’s slinging freight. I’m like this is just an electric environment. So I was pumped to get started in training. And I had the just absolute pleasure of being with some of the best people. They had two incredible trainers, both of which are doing really, really cool things in the industry today and have just grown. And it was so cool to learn from them and then be in a class of now. Like so many friends that I started with back in January 14, are at executive level roles across the space today.
Brent – 00:11:54:
It’s like, wait a minute, all these people. And we’re just trying to do our thing, man. And now they’re like running companies. Are you kidding me?
Will – 00:12:00:
Yeah, it’s crazy. So I was super excited to get started. My role was in carrier sales, Southeast refrigerated sales to start. And in my head, I figured, man, if I just sit and listen to some of the best sellers while I’m in training, I would come in an hour before training, sit with the best sellers, ask questions, and then really try to accelerate my learning curve and was ready to hit the floor. I was like, just get me out of training. I’m ready to make some calls. So I was really excited.
Brent – 00:12:25:
Well, that’s super cool. So what a great place to build a foundation in freight with Coyote, one of the biggest pioneers in the market, one of the successful companies in the marketplace. And not just the company was successful, but as you mentioned before, it’s kind of like C.H. Robinson. You can kind of say C.H. Robinson and Coyote in the same breath, where there’s so many people in our industry that are running other parts of them, other companies or other parts of the industry that came from Coyote and came from these other sort of foundational companies in the marketplace. So you’re at Coyote. So you start out in carrier sales. You moved over to another part of the business as well after that right? You spend the customer service, customer support on the end. So, tell me what caused that transition.
Will – 00:13:02:
Yeah. So I spent two years on the carrier side of the business, was making good money, building my book. It was a lot of fun. I had a really good friend who was a director on the customer sales side, and he came to my desk one day, someone that I really look up to still to this day and said, hey, there is an opportunity to manage a customer sales team. It’s going to be a completely new team, and they’re looking for a manager to come over there. I think you would be very good at it. You should put your name in the hat and interview. And I’m sitting there. I remember I’m like, man, I’m making really good money. I don’t know that I want to give this up to try something new. And he urged me like, no, you need to go do this. And it was one of the most influential conversations, to be honest with you. I really appreciate this person so much to this day. We’re still really, really close. But that nudge to say, maybe there’s a short term loss. You might make just a little bit less money in the beginning to start to rebuild and grow your team. But long term is going to put you ahead. I’m appreciative to have had somebody look out for me like that. So I interviewed for a customer facing sales role to manage a group of eight sellers. And I was actually the first individual contributor, non-customer facing that Coyote promoted from the carrier sales side to manage a customer sales group. I didn’t have a book of business at that point. I wasn’t selling to shippers, but I felt comfortable. Like I’ve managed sales reps and I sold at a high level at Kimberly Clark. Now I kind of understand this free thing. Like, I think I can do this. So similar to what you said earlier, I was like, I don’t know. I just think I can do this. So it worked out well.
Brent – 00:14:31:
Man. So Freight Nation, Will just said it’s so important. There’s got to be people in your life that are going to give you advice. And sometimes you’re going to go, yeah, does that? But consider it, because Will just explained was he had a friend say, no, I think you can increase your skill set, which makes you and we’re going to talk a little bit more about this when we get to where you are today with Journey. It increases your skill set. It increases your marketability. And then in the end, this is what I learned Freight Nation coming into into business. When I was a young salesperson, I had somebody, a good friend who’s still a mentor to me today. Say, he said, Brent, you’re going to do a great job here. He goes, for the first part of your career, we’re going to pay you for what you do. Then that has a certain return in it. He goes, as you get more experience and you get trusted more and you have more critical success, then we’re going to pay you for what you know. And he goes, Brent, and you’re Will, you’re saying the same thing. When you get paid for what you know, it’s in a different category of payment. Your opportunity is so much larger. So thank you for saying that because I think this is something the Freight Nation watchers and listeners will benefit from. Because think about that Freight Nation. When you get an opportunity, consider where it’s going to put you. Not right just today, but think where it’s going to put you in a couple of years. So fantastic. So you moved in that customer facing role. So you started what’s known in the brokerage world. You started buying the freight. So you get selling to the shipper, which is the ultimate customer for everybody. So you learned there. But you transitioned out of that role into another company.
Will – 00:15:59:
I did. Yes.
Brent – 00:16:00:
This was around 2017. Maybe you transitioned.
Will – 00:16:03:
Yes.
Brent – 00:16:04:
Yeah. So tell me about what made you transition to the next company and who it was.
Will – 00:16:08:
Yep. So I moved over to manage eight customer facing sales reps in January of 2016. I did that for a year. The team performed well, learned a ton. And I got recruited pretty heavily by Transport America.
Brent – 00:16:20:
Not a big company in the market. Yeah.
Will – 00:16:22:
Yeah. So they had recently purchased Optimal Freight. And Ravenswood, which was Noam Frankel’s brokerage. And they were looking for someone to be a director of business development. And it seemed really, really interesting. Transport America, strong company. I’d never been on the pure asset side. So really cool to be able to learn a little bit of what that looks like. And this is the part where I always tell people the grass is not always greener, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn. And so I went through and said, man, the money’s good. I’ll get exposure to. I’ve never seen. I’m going to be able to be closer to really high level executives that I can learn from. Like, this is really cool. And so I went and did that. But it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for long term. And incredible company. Transport America is a great business. But I like to build. I felt that there was maybe an opportunity to be able to create something that could be a really, really big organization. And so this is where the relationships start to play out. So I’ve known. Andrew Silver for a long time. We worked together at Coyote. And so we end up talking about what it could be like to build an organization like MoLo. Like before we had a name and all this stuff. This is April of 2017. And we’re sitting at dinner. And I basically said, look, man, I’ll leave Transport America tomorrow.
Brent – 00:17:43:
No way. He’s said that?
Will – 00:17:44:
A word for us. We were at Union Sushi in River North in Chicago. I said, I will leave Transport America tomorrow and we can go ahead and get busy. And so he had been talking about it with one of our other co-founders. Matt Bogart, who he went to college with. And I said, man, there’s just so much opportunity. And in my head, I’m like, look, dude, if it doesn’t work, just go get another job. Right. Like things, there’s opportunity, but you don’t always get a chance to step up and swing. You said
Brent – 00:18:11:
something that most people would be scared to death to say. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just find another job. If it fails, it’s okay to fail. We’re failing all the time. We’re just not failing at a great rate. We’re failing in a small rate instead of a big rate. So you took the risk. And this is something, Will, that I tell young professionals getting the marketplaces, take risk because you talk to people that are really old, like in their eighties. I always ask these people, what would you have done differently? Every one of them say, I would have taken a lot more risk in my life. Because guess what? It’s really not that risky. Just go do it. Just go do it. All right. So keep going. What a great example for some to learn from. So just go do it. So if you don’t want to try something else, that’s okay. It’s not going to set you back that far. So you and Andrew got together. You said you figured what? I want something. You said.
Will – 00:18:56:
Yeah, yeah. No, I was just going to say, I figured that the worst thing would be that we had a really cool story about trying to build a brokerage and that would probably be helpful in whatever we were to go do next. So I’m like, dude, like, let’s just give it a rip. Let’s see what happens.
Brent – 00:19:10:
What a great. That’s good inspiration for a nation. Listen to Will’s advice on this. This is coming from a guy who’s had some critical success and we’re about to get into that. So you and Andrew and the third gentleman’s name?
Will – 00:19:22:
Matt Bogart. Yeah.
Brent – 00:19:22:
Yeah. Matt. And so y’all spun this up and I’m sure you had all of the problems solved and everything was perfect from the beginning, right?
Will – 00:19:29:
Everything was perfect.
Brent – 00:19:30:
Talk about founding, not a brokerage, but a tech company or kind of both. So talk a little bit about what was the purpose? MoLo? Why you did it and what sort of created the success you were looking for in that?
Will – 00:19:42:
Yeah. So you think April of 17, we’re figuring out what’s going to be different. What are we going to provide in the market? One of our other co-founders named Stephan Mathis. We worked together at Coyote as well. You’re thinking to yourself, what do we know how to do? Most of us were really proficient in full truckload, refrigerated freight. We’ve got some pre-existing relationships. You have seen the Coyote model. You understand service. You understand how to treat your carriers well. And there was a lot of space still at that time to be someone as a brokerage that really draws a line in the sand and says, here’s how we’re going to treat our people. This is the type of environment we’re going to have. Here are the opportunities that will be afforded to them. They can contribute. They can feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, which is what a lot of people really do want. We were going to service customers at a higher level. It’s the only way to compete with a lot of the big shops. We need to make sure that these organizations on the other side, of these bids that we’re submitting, look at our SCAT code and go that’s the provider we want to work with. Not because it’s cheaper or not because we think that they’re going to come in and do something just some crazy innovation. They’re going to service the freight exactly the way they said they would, which you would be surprised how many people told us that one word doesn’t matter. Not important. Okay, sure. We’ll see how it plays. And then also make sure that we treat our drivers better than anyone else in this space. Those are like three pillars. People treat our shippers. Well, better than anyone in the space and our drivers. And we went to market with that at heart to say, if we stick to these, we are very confident that we’re going to be a force in the industry. Looking back at it, hindsight’s 2020, it played out that way. But ebbs and flows, right? There are times where you think, man, is this really what makes us different? Is this what matters? But the customers, they believed it. And it felt really, really cool to see the growth of the organization, but also the core values contribute to our ability to grow as we did.
Brent – 00:21:35:
Right. All right. So let me ask you two questions on that. Number one, I’m embarrassed that I don’t know this. How did you get the name MoLo? Number one. All right. Number two, you guys had a small leadership team. How did you make effective decisions as a leadership team? So how did you get the name MoLo? I’m surprised I don’t know. Maybe it was me and I forgot. But then more importantly for the Freight Nation watchers and listeners to say, how did you make decisions as an executive team?
Will – 00:21:59:
Yeah. So we came up with the named MoLo because we had a bunch of really bad names previously. And I still have a note on my phone with all of these really terrible names. We went to a marketing company end of June and we’re telling them what the name is going to be. And they’re like, that’s terrible. You cannot go with that. And we leave saying we’re about to launch in seven days. We launched July 5th of 2017. And we don’t have a name. Like, what are we going to do here? So we go to Au Cheval in Chicago. It’s a really, really famous restaurant. They’ve got like great burgers, supposed to be the best burger in Chicago. And we’re sitting down going back and forth. And Andrew’s on his phone looking at this app called Top Modern, which their abbreviation was ToMo. And we’re just throwing stuff out. And I was like, I don’t know, man. Like, what if we went by MoLo, which is an abbreviation for Modern Logistics?
Brent – 00:22:52:
Yeah, I like it. I’m a marketing guy. I love things that have meaning. That’s nice. Modern Logistics, but it’s called MoLo. I love it.
Will – 00:22:59:
Yes. So you just start thinking about ways to have a brand be a word that you can associate really, really distinctly with you. Like, that’s not a thing outside of MoLo, the brokerage.
Brent – 00:23:12:
It’s also memorable. Yeah.
Will – 00:23:13:
Correct.
Brent – 00:23:13:
Easy to say and memorable.
Will – 00:23:15:
Yeah, yeah. So that’s where it came from.
Brent – 00:23:17:
Oh, yeah. On executive decisions, like most people think, oh, well, there’s just a CEO and he makes or she makes all the decisions. But you guys were a bunch of co-founders together, growing a business and so, making decisions, he raise the boat or can lower the boat. So talk about how you guys did that. And then I want to talk about how you grew the business and then how you exit because the people want to hear a little bit about that. And then I want to start down the road to journey. All right. So let’s talk about those executive decisions.
Will – 00:23:43:
Yeah. So I think there’s a lot to be said about having capable people on your team that you trust to own particular elements of the business. And the best way to not have things be bottlenecked is to allow them to make those decisions and trust that we’re doing what’s right and in the best interest of the organization. And so I think we had a lot of really capable people that helped start the business. And then we went and got more capable people that knew things that none of us knew as founders were doing our best. We were all very sales oriented, understood how to get in front of customers, really experienced with leading teams. But there’s a lot more elements than that to building a successful freight brokerage. And so going and getting the right people with the right experience, and leadership capabilities to help weigh in, I think matters a lot. And then also creating an environment where people aren’t afraid to raise concerns or chip in because you can go and make a decision as someone that started a business, but not really know the implications of that to the people that are in the seats every day. So to me, I think it has a lot to do with going to get really, really capable people outside of just the original group that started the org, because there’s so many. Strong leaders that can help get you to where you want to be. And as a result, it helped us a ton getting to an exit and building one of the strongest brokerages in the space.
Brent – 00:25:07:
I wanted you to talk about that because I wanted the Freight Nation watchers and listeners to understand, like, learning to make decisions as a leadership team is like, you don’t wake up and you’re this leader. You have to understand the process of how you get there. And then you’ve got to develop a trusted arena. I love the book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and how you build into, that’s a great book recommendation, by the way, how you build into this learning how to trust each other’s functional decisions to be able to make an overall decision for the company. So great advice. So you guys built the business up and it was doing really, really well. Obviously, 2018, 2019 were good years in our industry. And look, that’s good. We have some really good markets and we have some really average markets. Every once in a while, we have a little bit of a down market. Some would say we’re in a down market right now. I would tell people we’re in a normal market that just went through a big correction. That’s all. So you guys were running and gunning. Was it always your goal to end up selling MoLo to somebody else? Or did this just become like a, hey, this is a good natural conclusion?
Will – 00:26:06:
So I think there was always the objective of getting to an exit of some sort. But I don’t know that any of us anticipated it would happen in the first four years.
Brent – 00:26:16:
Let say, happen really fast.
Will – 00:26:17:
Yeah, we started the company July of 2017. And the acquisition was completed November of 2021. So it’s a four-year run. I don’t think we thought it was going to happen that quickly, but there were some interesting milestones along the way and things that made a lot of sense as you consider, okay, are we going to raise more money to grow to become the organization that we want to be? There was always the desire to be a multi-billion dollar player in the space. There was no playing small. This is not the group that wanted to just be another organization and kind of putz around, not to say that there’s anything wrong with running a smaller burgers. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. But the group had no interest in that.
Brent – 00:26:58:
Very aspirational. I get it.
Will – 00:27:00:
Yeah, very much so. So that was always the desire. But I think it was an expedited timeline that nobody necessarily thought was going to happen as it did, but it worked out really well for everybody involved.
Brent – 00:27:10:
Yeah. And you guys ended up selling to one of the largest entities in the industry.
Will – 00:27:13:
Yeah.
Brent – 00:27:14:
And so you sold and you transitioned over and stayed with the team for a while, right?
Will – 00:27:19:
Yeah. So the acquisition was completed in November of 2021. I stayed on for 18 months. So I left May of 23. And through that point, just a couple of things that occurred. So when we were acquired in 2021, we did $615 million in revenue. In 2020, we did about 276. So 2021 was an incredible year for growth. And I say this because the differentiator that a lot of people poked us about, hey, that’s not important. Customers don’t care, this or that. There were a lot of things that happened during COVID that have impacted organizations positively and negatively. A lot of those were in our benefit because of the relationships we built with the really strong shippers that are long-term partners for years to come because we were there for them when no one else was.
Brent – 00:28:06:
Yeah. And that’s a truism no matter what. Long-term relationships built on trust and reliability always pay off. They don’t sometimes pay off. They always pay off. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, they always pay off. And so, yeah, what a great example. And so you stayed on with ArcBest for about two years?
Will – 00:28:24:
18 months.
Brent – 00:28:25:
18 months?
Will – 00:28:25:
Yep.
Brent – 00:28:26:
All right. So that was obviously a good exit for you guys, a wonderful conclusion, and you’re smiling, which is, I’ve been in that situation, so that’s a good thing, but that’s not what we’re here to talk. We’re here to talk about you being an innovator and continuing on your journey. So somewhere along the way, you got the itch to start something else, all right? And so you exited from the relationship with ArcBest and something drove you. So what drove you and what got you the idea of Journey? And let’s start on that process of what it became today. And then I want to talk about some of the things that are really top of mind to you when you talk about things about recruiting and someone’s personal brand and consulting, and what are some of the do’s and don’ts, and then training, how important is that process? And then we’ll save the last like 10 or 12 minutes to talk about all those things. So let’s talk about, you went from like owning a really, really successful brokerage, had a great exit. You started a recruiting company?
Will – 00:29:18:
Yeah. So-
Brent – 00:29:19:
Talk a little bit about, so why the recruiting company? Just how’d you get there?
Will – 00:29:22:
Yep, so the first thing that I think is important is the relationships. So you alluded to that and the idea should be long-term. I’ve got great relationships with the ArcBest team and the exec team.
Brent – 00:29:35:
Well, Judy McReynolds runs a great ship there. She’s a wonderful person.
Will – 00:29:38:
Yeah, totally. And so for me, I’ve always really cared about maintaining relationships, and wanting those to be ones that are available in perpetuity. I think that really, really matters. And so I had a short not compete. I was very transparent with the team on the way. I said, look, I want this to be really, really positive for both sides. And I feel good about what we’re able to accomplish. I’m gonna go build another business. That’s gonna be a recruiting company. I know that that is all well and fine because of the constraints of my not compete. And at some point I would like to do consulting, and at some point I’m going to roll out the training element of our business. And so the way our business was started was phased based on what I was available to do within the constraints of my not compete. So start with the recruiting arm. And I’m an entrepreneur. I like to build. I think there is a particular challenge involved with seeing a business at zero and seeing it now with hundreds of clients that we do business with that just didn’t exist a year ago. Our MoLos, no, sorry. Journey’s one year is the 27th of November. We’re coming up, so it’s two days from now, right? We’re coming up on that. But this time last year, we didn’t have clients, right? We were a small shop trying to do our thing. So I just, I like that competitive nature of building. I just enjoy that. I think there’s something about creating something out of nothing that I enjoy.
Brent – 00:31:03:
Well, you know what? Thank you, Will, for saying that. And Freight Nation, this is something really important. I’ll say, so Will didn’t just show up one day and start a recruiting company, a consulting company, and now a training company. He didn’t just say, well, that’s what I wanna do. I think that’s just what I wanna do. He’s coming from a point of strength, all right? He’s developed himself in all the specifics of our industry. He’s developed a company itself. So he understands it from the top to the bottom. He had an exit out of that to another company, helped worked in a uber large enterprise level player in this marketplace. And so when he talks about the recruiting part of the marketplace, he talks about consulting for other companies in the marketplace. He talks about trainees. He does this from a point of strength. And what I mean by strength is he’s been there and done that. And so that’s really important. As you develop your company or your brand, super important to talk about this. So man, thank you so much for making that point. All right, so you get two more days, you’ll be one year old, all right? So you’re out of the honeymoon phase, all right? So let’s start talking about what fundamentally the three pillars of journey. All right, so I always like to know the story, right? So why’d you name it Journey?
Will – 00:32:13:
Yes, so similarly with a note in my phone, I have a bunch of names.
Brent – 00:32:18:
Your phone must be covered up with sticky notes, man. You must be like one of those old people that like a sticky note all over.
Will – 00:32:23:
The notes app in my phone is going crazy. We got a lot of stuff going on in there. And so I actually spent the summer of 2023 traveling. I spent 90 days in Europe, just unplugged. So I was unplugged. I knew what I wanted to build on the recruiting side. I didn’t know what I wanted to call it. And so as I was kind of going back and forth about what to name it. I landed on Journey because I think that is very, very aptly named on my career arc. It’s been a journey, whether you are building a business, that process is a journey, whether you’re pursuing a new opportunity career wise, that’s a journey, the training element, where you start and where you end. So it seemed to make a lot of sense.
Brent – 00:33:03:
And it’s marketing there, Will, I’ll tell you what, this coming from somebody who’s been 30 years in marketing, you’re damn good at it.
Will – 00:33:08:
Thank you, yeah. So it’s fun, to be a little bit creative. I think that’s somewhat counterintuitive to the blocking and tackling of building a freight brokerage. Like that stuff is very fundamental. So that was fun. Our logo is an infinity loop. It’s always forever. And then I was able to secure a pretty cool domain, journeydelivers.com, which I was like, all right, I’m like, this plays in our space really well.
Brent – 00:33:32:
It’s operational. I love it. Yeah, it absolutely had an operational aspect to it. Not just the name, but actually it connected something. So you can say, oh, it does this. Oh, that’s cool. It’s fine. So let me start here. You started with recruiting. So let’s talk a little bit about recruiting. Boy, did everybody start to understand the need for a lot of different levels of people in the freight transportation industry during the pandemic. Because when our stuff doesn’t show up where we want it, we Americans tend to freak out. All right. So you started with recruiting. I’m part of it out of necessity. But you started with recruiting. And so talk a little bit about what were some of the first opportunities that are in this marketplace that you saw? And let’s talk a little bit about the freight talent gap. Which is kind of an operational phrase, but it just means we need all these different types of people. So talk about what opportunity you saw there and then how you look at the freight talent gap and where maybe some opportunities are for people.
Will – 00:34:23:
So for me, I felt like it was a natural transition based on skill set and expertise. And that to me was the opportunity. I feel like there are a lot of really, really strong recruiting organizations in the space that I’ve worked with. And I’ve got a lot of respect for them. I’ve learned a ton from those organizations. And having been on the inside. And having had the opportunity to build and scale a billion dollar player in this space. I felt that experience would lend itself to be very helpful to having conversations with owners and executives at different brokerages to say, let’s work through what you’re looking for. And based on that information, I think our team is equipped to go and find the right types of talent. So the vantage point of being in a brokerage at multiple different times and then building a brokerage, I think, was the first kind of box I checked to say, this makes sense. I feel like there’s a fit. But also having recruited thousands of people, I’ve done thousands of interviews, I’ve hired so many different people. I think it’s kind of a cheat code in brokerage to have seen that because it doesn’t matter the role. It doesn’t matter the organization, as long as we can have the right conversation during onboarding. And we can use that information to take our industry expertise. I think it paired together creates a really compelling advantage in the space.
Brent – 00:35:40:
Yeah, you know, it does as a kind of a foundational part of logistics Truckstop. I mean, our hardest thing is not finding people that will submit resumes for a position that’s open. It’s finding people that have any transportation experience and it’s just hard, I mean, there’s a lots of super talented, very intelligent people out there. It’s just, they don’t have any transportation experience, and this isn’t an easy market to get to know it takes a while. I’ve been doing it for 27 years and when I left, the media side the world, to come to the logistics side of the world, I thought, ah, this is no big deal. I’ll step right into it. And I’m not kidding, Freight Nation. I’m not kidding. And Will knows this. It took me two years to really understand fundamentally all of the ways in which freight moves, all the players in which how they move them and what’s important to them. So how it functionally operates. And this is somebody who spent 15 years in trucking before coming to Truckstop. So it takes a while. So fantastic. So recruiting, you guys jumped into that. So let’s talk about the freight talent gap. What do you see? So maybe somebody’s looking to change their career or increase their career. Where are some of the talent gaps within transportation that you see there are opportunities for people?
Will – 00:36:52:
Yeah. So with the organizations we do work with, a lot of the roles we’re filling are either executive level leadership roles or customer facing sales roles. So revenue generating opportunities. And I think one of the biggest gaps today, which is something that we’re trying to be a strong player in, is how people are trained and what they know how to do in their role specifically. So I’ll just take the sales example. Good salespeople are not out of work for very long. It doesn’t matter. The industry doesn’t matter. The space. Good salespeople on their way out are like, yeah, I’ve already got my job lined up. It’s not a concern because it’s hard to go find the top of the top. And they typically are compensated very well. And it’s just not really an issue for a good seller to go get another job. And so what I’ve seen quite a lot of is that if you want to attract, the top talent, you need to have an offering that is of value to them because you’re not their only option. And so that is where I think it gets a little dicey for organizations when they want to go get top execs or when they want to go get top high performers because that person is sitting in a role today going, okay, Brent, what do you have for me? Because I’m already doing quite well. And if I wanted to go someplace else, it really needs to be worth my time. Otherwise, I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. And so that to me is a gap that, a lot of organizations need to try to close if they want to compete. What is it about your space? What is it about your organization you’re offering you as an owner and exec? What do you bring to the table that’s going to entice top talent? And then the other part of it is when they get there, how do you equip them to go perform their role? And that to me, I don’t know if there’s a gap larger in our space than training.
Brent – 00:38:34:
It’s the biggest gap without a doubt. So talk a little bit about that. Talk a little bit about some of the fundamental things. And then I want to end on, what I call the most important thing, which is about brand. And we’re going to hit it from both sides. So let’s talk a little bit about that. When you talk about the training part of things and how like, it is like the secret sauce, but because it’s the heart. So talk about why that’s so important.
Will – 00:38:55:
So the two elements of what make businesses more effective and different in our space, the people and how good they are at their job. So you and I could start a brokerage and go get top of the top elite talent. And if they don’t know brokerage, they’re not going to perform very well in the beginning. It takes them a while, like you mentioned, to get up to speed. But if you go and get top talent and then you give them top notch training, you can bridge that gap a lot faster, right? There are organizations, a lot of the top 20 are really effective at going to go get people that have the ability to learn and want to grow and say, we’re going to give you all the right tools to do it. And now they’ve got a competitive advantage against a lot of the people they compete against. Most organizations, it’s a mixed bag of what you get, which is, really, really concerning because typically the highest expense is OPEX. And you’re thinking about what you’re spending for someone to just learn how to do the job, however long it takes them to kind of ramp. The less you prepare them, the worse they’re going to perform. And so in our consulting side, a lot of what we see as we onboard organizations is we don’t do much training. Just go get us people that know how to do it. That’s all well and good, but it’s not. And it’s also really, really challenging because if the people who are interfacing customers and carriers and internally don’t understand how to do that at the level that you’re expecting, how do you keep them above the rest of the field? And then how does your company ever have a competitive advantage against the rest of the players? Like, they just don’t. Or by the time they do, we’re really, really far behind. So that to me has been eye-opening. I thought it was the case prior to building this business, but I just had the advantage of being at a Coyote, which really invested in training people. Prior to that at Kimberly Clark, I got really good training. So I was exposed to it. And that was like a passion for me. I’m like, I love training because I’ve always had good resources. We do the same thing at MoLo. Now I get a chance to see it and the companies that we partner with, I think we’re helping them build a competitive advantage to grow more effectively.
Brent – 00:40:59:
Yeah, for sure on that. Yeah. One of the biggest things in technology is once they buy it and they’re bringing it in is training the people how to use it effectively. Most companies do not get the return of their technology because the training is never thorough enough, complete enough. All right, let’s swap the brand. Last couple of minutes here. Man, I could talk to you all day long. I love the way in which your journey has developed and your career has developed and everything. And so I want to talk about the last thing because I think this is so important to every single person and every single company in the marketplace. I’m a brand guy, Will. I’m a brand guy. What I mean by that is that when you have a brand, that’s yours to defend. And you have two different brands that are happening every single day when you show up to work. You have the brand that you work for, so the company you work for, and then let’s talk a little bit about that. And then I want you to talk about personal brand and like, what is your advice on people’s personal brands and protecting and growing them? So let’s talk about those two brands and then we’ll close it out.
Will – 00:41:49:
Yep. So when we started Journey, we spent time early on just writing down, this is myself and our head of marketing, Erin Sweeney. She’s incredible. A friend of mine I went to college with. So we wrote down, what do we want this business to be? How do we want people to feel when they interact with the brand? What is the color palette? How are we gonna interact on different places? Social media and graphics and video, like really, really detailed so that it’s consistent. And also authentic. I think that the easiest way to connect with people, both through an actual company brand and through personal brand, is to be yourself. And so I think when people look at what we’re doing here at Journey, they feel that specifically through the company brand, like it’s our people, you get to know them, you get to know our clients. We’re pretty light. It’s fun. It’s engaging. I think it’s also not salesy on purpose because at times that’s like off putting, like everybody, we’re here to make money. We wanna build this business. You wanna know what we do. You see it, we’re talking about it, but I don’t want that to ever be too in your face, where it’s off putting. And so being intentional, authentic, fun, engaging, and then iterating constantly. I think it’s helpful. Like we got a full time team here. We’re looking at stuff, engaging with our audience, seeing what they’re responding to. Well, really putting metrics to the type of stuff that we put out, but to kind of bring it back full circle, you need to be authentic. And if there’s one piece to take from it, both as a company and as an individual, be yourself because that’s what your audience wants to buy. That’s what gets them engaged. And then on my personal brand, I just love being able to tell a story. I think at times I’m talking to a younger version of myself that May not have had the confidence that I have today and not know the things that I know. And if I can make a connection with someone that’s a few years behind and they’re like, man, I needed that to feel comfortable to go do my thing. That gets me excited. So that’s part of what I enjoy about building a personal brand. And you know, being at F3 this past week, like I met so many people for the first time, but a lot of times what they say is, oh my gosh. Like I’ve seen you on LinkedIn or I’ve seen your brand and like, that’s really cool to me.
Brent – 00:44:02:
Yeah. Fantastic advice, Freight Nation. Well, you got to hear like a masterclass on building a career, building an opportunity for yourself in the marketplace, building a business. So I hope that this was such a great learning opportunity for you out there, Freight Nation. And remember the brand you have every day is your brand and always be building your brand, no matter what, build it with great trust and character. And Will, thank you so much for all the examples that you gave of your career. And what you did to get to this sort of this next chapter of your journey, which is your company journey, which helps with so many great, great important needs in our marketplace, man. Thank you so much for being on Freight Nation today.
Will – 00:44:39:
Thank you. I really appreciate you. It was great to see you and I appreciate the time.
Brent – 00:44:43:
Yeah, you know it. Well, all right, Freight Nation, you got to hear from an expert. You got to hear from a leader in the market, another leader in the market, man. And just take what Will said to heart today and figure out how it works inside of your operation, what you are doing. So that’s always our heart at Freight Nation to help you with those types of things. So that’s a wrap for this episode of Freight Nation. And like we like to say at Freight Nation, every single time when I close, don’t forget to work hard. Don’t forget to be kind and to stay humble. All right, Freight Nation, we’ll catch you the next time.
Intro/Outro – 00:45:13:
On behalf of the Truckstop team, thanks for listening to this episode of Freight Nation. To find out more about the show, head to truckstop.com/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you hit subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes. Until then, keep on trucking and exploring the open roads with Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast.
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