Griffin Levy ’17: The Headshot Truck, California – My 2016 summer has been one of the most educational and fun summers I have ever had. As part of the small business internship fund, I was lucky enough to be chosen to work at The Headshot Truck located in the heart of the North Hollywood arts district. As part of this internship, I have learned an overwhelming amount about small businesses and start-ups. The first, and most unique thing I learned about start-ups were just how small these companies are, the office I work in has six desks, and a small meeting table, a back room for photo editing and that’s it. No fancy office space just hard working people who want to do everything to make their start-up succeed. That’s another huge part of what I’ve learned working in a start-up, the people. Although The Headshot Truck has about 20 employees total, including the photographers, editors, sales teams, and partners, only a small number of them work in the office. It’s different than a typical office because I only interact with about six of the members of the company daily.

Levy ’17 Giving the Headshot Truck Attention

Besides just the basic differences between a large company and a start-up, what I have been doing for the past six weeks is helping with sales for the company. Most of the days I am on the phone calling potential clients, either leads that have been given to me through previous connections or cold-calls to acting studios or companies that might be interested in our product. Another huge part of the sales I have been doing is promoting our Indiegogo campaign as part of The Headshot Truck’s second truck being launched in New York in the middle of July.  An Indiegogo campaign is a kickoff campaign to help raise money and awareness for the second truck.  As part of this campaign we are doing discounted headshots and other packages people can purchase. The hardest part is that the campaign is only  30 days long, and we have a goal to raise a certain amount of money within those 30 days, so sales are immensely important to this process.  This is where I have learned the most, I’ve learned about in-person sales, and sales through the phone, and yes there is a huge difference between talking on the phone to someone and in-person sales.  Learning about how to talk to someone on the phone, learning about assuming the sale, and just all around etiquette on how to talk to someone on the phone. This has helped me tremendously; a skill that can help with phone interviews or simply talking to anyone on the phone; this skill will definitely help me.

I have also learned sales are about adapting to a situation. Sometimes I’ll be on the phone with acting studios; sometimes I’ll be talking to real estate agents — each one requires a different approach to pitch our product and specifics to highlight in the pitch. I also have learned that it’s also not all about sales pitches, it’s more about building relationships with who you are talking to. I was told that it takes at least six points of contact before a sale is made, so if I’m calling just to make a sale, my success rate is a lot lower instead of trying to build a relationship with the person or company.

Since the Indiegogo campaign is a massive project, I have devoted a majority of my time helping with that, but I have a couple of other side projects I’ve been working on as well. The biggest ones are working on The Headshot Truck’s LinkedIn page and developing a lead page for the company. The LinkedIn
page hasn’t been updated in a while, and since I knew a decent amount about LinkedIn I took responsibility to learn more about the website and how companies use them. Along with learning about websites and creating content, we will be experimenting with using a lead page for The Headshot Truck.

Working at a start-up has significantly changed my outlook on the workforce as well. One benefit of a small start-up is the flexibility that you have. I can go from sales to marketing in a matter of seconds and get experience with those categories. This is great because I have the opportunity to try out different departments and see which ones I like the most and what I’m good at. It certainly keeps things fresh day-to-day and allows me to try out different roles.

I have always been interested in the idea of sales as a career, and this experience has given me a more in-depth view of what it would be like to develop a career in sales. It has shown me the exciting side of making a sale and always talking to people, but has opened my eyes to the downfalls of a career in sales as well. Sometimes cold calling is difficult. Although you meet and talk with lots of very pleasant helpful people, you also talk with those whose one job is to make your life more challenging.

Without the help of the Small Business Internship Fund and Career Services at Wabash I would never have had the opportunity to go to a new city and learn as much as I have learned. I am truly one of the luckiest college students to have such great experiences all thanks to our alumni network and the opportunities Wabash has given me.

Wesley Brown ’17: CTS Logistics – My internship this summer with Commodity Transportation Services in Nashville, Tennessee has been unique in a variety of ways.  In short, CTS is a freight brokerage that mainly deals in the logistics side of transporting produce throughout the country.  This particular internship is rather unique because I am working with one CTS logistics manager, Mike Hrgota, out of a condominium because we are working toward gaining loyal customers on this half of the country in order to start and expand into a branch office in the Nashville area.  All from the condo, Mike and I are responsible for coordinating the transportation of produce from the Southeast to the Mid-South, Midwest, and Northeast regions of the United States.  This internship has been especially challenging, but Mike has took me under his wing by teaching me a vast amount about the business as well as helping me gain irreplaceable professional experience by giving me a sizeable amount of responsibility in company matters.  Mike has also taught me some valuable life lessons, including a healthier diet and how to cook a delicious Cajun baked chicken breast.

In the first six weeks of my internship with CTS, I have aided in many cases and also been solely responsible for obtaining a trucking company for a partnership, as well as tracking over 50 loads.  These loads have almost all been transported in refrigerated tractor-trailers; almost all the loads have been of some variety of produce, and on average each load brings in about $250 profit for CTS.  In total, the

Brown ’17

loads I have been heavily involved in have created a total profit of about $11,000 for the company and helped build a strong base of produce shipping customers.  A freight broker’s job may sound easy on paper; however, almost nothing is simple in trucking when dealing with produce.  Timing is probably the most crucial element in the freight brokerage practice: the truck must be at the shipping location waiting and ready when the product is picked at a farm, many times truck drivers are late for a load appointment or cannot find the shipper or consignee location, some loads require the refrigerated trailer to be at 40 degrees for the first 6 hours of a run and then 34 degrees for the remainder of the trip, there are often insurance claims on loads of produce that are over/under ripened or damaged during the run, and many other problems that occur on a daily basis in the produce shipping business.

In order to at the very least have a handle on these challenging situations, the most important skill I have developed during this internship has been problem-solving.  These problems that occur are very real and it is the freight broker’s sole responsibility to do their best to fix things that go wrong with loads.  At times we are not able to fix the problem, but even then we must work to keep the customer happy and transport their product where it needs to be in a different manner by making adjustments.  Last week, a load of watermelons that I was tracking was rejected at a US Foods Distribution center in Hatfield, Pennsylvania for being “too cold.”  However, my coworker and I communicated and worked together to sell the load to a smaller food company nearby in order to keep our shipper and loyal trucking company happy.

This Small Business Internship Fund program has been a complete immersion into the life of a freight broker and logistics manager.  The position is demanding and nonstop, as I have often times had to step away from the dinner table, fishing hole, or local music venue on weekends in order to take calls and work from my phone in order to solve developing problems.  My favorite part of the internship has been a feeling of accomplishment after a driver calls to update me that he has successfully delivered a load of produce all the way from Florida to Michigan, about a 1,300 mile run.  This being my first internship in the business world, I have learned a great deal about how a business is run, and have learned that I might like to work in sales one day.  I have also fallen in love with Nashville and now strongly want to live and work in this area in the future.  I have experienced culture such as music, history, and nature that would not be possible anywhere else.  Another great part of my SBIF experience here has been networking with Wabash alumni in the area.  Just last night I went on a five mile walk with Tim Morrison ‘83, and talked with him about everything from the business world, baseball, and our strong Christian faith.  In conclusion, I would like to thank the Small Business Internship Fund program and all people involved in this process for allowing me this wonderful opportunity to gain unique professional and life experience through this amazing program.

Schuler ’17 hard at work

Aaron Schuler ’19: Handshake – Thanks to the Small Business Internship Fund (SBIF) managed by Wabash College Career Services I’ve been able to learn a lot this summer. The company that I am working for is Handshake. They are a career services platform aimed at connecting students with employers by providing information on internships and employment opportunities. Through this internship, I’ve done many things for the company in many different fields.

My primary function is playing a support role to the account managers here. This role includes a lot of customer interaction. I answer questions as schools go through the implementation phase and are still learning the product. During the implementation step, I am also in charge of creating user accounts for the main career services staff of each school within our training, uploading, and handshake system. I also create reports on data within the system so that the schools have data to understand how the system has improved each school’s services. For example, I can determine the student involvement within the system over a period of time and send the results to the career services staff. Unlike many internships who focus mainly on teaching an intern one position, I also help with the sales and management teams at Handshake. I’ve worked on SDR projects for the marketing and sales team and I have looked at invoice reporting and office management to help management.

Coming into this summer, my career path was focused mainly on sales and marketing and from the experiences that I have had, I think sales, marketing, and account/project management would all be occupations that I would enjoy having post graduation. Mainly I want to be in a position where I have customer interaction. Handshake knows how to talk to and take care of their customers. I’ve learned a lot about the career service industry and made many connections with some of the best directors in the nation, further developing my good and helpful attitude in working with customers. I’ve been able to learn many things in the first four weeks I’ve had with Handshake. Thanks to the SBIF program I have the opportunity to learn many different parts of how a small business operates and what they value compared to larger corporations over the course of this summer.

Scott Bye ’19 closing a deal.

Scott Bye ’19, CTS Logistics – Starting off from day one, our boss and Wabash alumnus Erik Ness told us that this internship wouldn’t be like the others. From day one, I was given responsibilities that most others receive training before actually doing for the business because all it takes is one screw up to lose $50,000 in this industry. I am interning for Commodity Transportation Services, CTS, doing logistics and freight brokerage work. To not bore anyone, we make sure produce goods (watermelons, onions, cantaloupes, etc.) get from shipping warehouses to Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and a multitude of other distribution centers so their inventory can be restocked and sent to the very stores that we all shop in.

The job is challenging since we are the middle-men—between our customer and the truck that we hire to deliver the goods—and try to make our profit while keeping both sides happy. Being submerged into the business so quickly, there really wasn’t any room to learn slowly or get behind as the work can be very, very challenging. In just 4 weeks, I have learned more about this industry and the negotiating side of business than what I knew coming in.

In my short time working here, my interest in a career in the business field has only increased. Seeing how this company operates, communicates, and succeeds is all something that I can keep with me for the rest of my life and use to my own advantage and reference in the future. I would like to thank the Small Business Internship Fund for making this opportunity possible. On top of the incredible business experience that I have/will gain because of this, I will also bring back countless memories and 8 new friendships that will continue past my stay here in Phoenix. With work 6 days a week, we take advantage of our Sunday off-day and do something different every week—from hiking and tubing to indoor soccer and going to the Grand Canyon. All-in-all, I can truly say that this has been the best and most enjoyable summer of my life so far and none of it would be possible without Wabash and the SBIF.