Salesman to Manager to Entrepreneur - Josh Utke of Sun Key Equipment Finance

I welcome in another seasoned sales professional turned entrepreneur in this fun conversation with Josh Utke, founder of Sun Key Equipment Finance based in Phoenix, AZ.  Josh and I briefly worked together and in this conversation he gives insight on sales in the transportation industry and why he made the jump to becoming an entrepreneur.

Check out Josh's other business as well, EvolvePro, which helps transportation professionals with online industry specific education tools.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

I started kind of making lists. I made a lot of lists. And I made a list of you know what I would want in a career. What would be the things that would make me happy? Uh high earning potential, you know, high ceiling, freedom, uh autonomy, you know, things like that. And then I made a list of all of my skills, and actually all the things that I wasn't good at either.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Hello and welcome to the Career Yak Podcast, a show where we seek to learn what jobs, industries, and career paths are out there today and learn valuable lessons along the way. I'm your host, Christopher Goodwilly, and I've been in B2B sales since college. And before we get started, our verse of the day is Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through Christ without strengtheneth me. So on today's episode, we have Josh Ugkey. He actually was a former coworker of mine. My first job out of college, I was a manager trainee at a heavy-duty truck dealership network. And Josh was in the sales department uh at the Phoenix location where I first started. And so Josh has since uh gotten promoted, grown into other aspects of sales, and actually gotten into entrepreneurship within the trucking and transportation world. So he sheds light on that journey and the transitions throughout. Really excited to have Josh on the show today. So without further ado, here is my conversation with Josh Utke. Well on today's podcast interview, I have Josh Utke, and Josh and I kind of sort of worked together uh years back. And uh I was it was actually my very first role out of college. I was a manager trainee. Josh was in the sales department, and so um we crossed paths and uh a Peterbilt truck dealership in Phoenix. And so uh happy to have Josh on, and his career has uh uh progressed and changed, and so I thought it'd be good to have him on and tell us a little bit more about what he's doing, you know, more about the transportation world, and uh kind of get your insights, Josh, on um just careers in general. So yeah, welcome on the show. And uh if you want to just start off do a quick intro and and then just tell us what are you doing today.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Absolutely. Uh Chris, yeah, thanks for thanks for having me. Again, I I think it's a great opportunity to kind of share my story. Uh hopefully I can uh inspire or educate some people out there that may have been in some similar situations that I have, and and maybe, like I said, kind of inspire them to make a change themselves. Uh but I am the the owner and founder of a company called Sun Key Equipment Finance, uh, a finance brokerage offering solutions to startups, uh owner operators, and small fleet owners uh that are looking to purchase uh commercial trucks or trailers in the transportation or equipment or uh construction industry. I'll kind of start off at the beginning, kind of what you mentioned, uh, you know, working with Rush Truck Center uh in Phoenix, the Peterbolt dealership. So I started my career there, and that's how I kind of landed in transportation. And I uh sold trucks for eight years and then was promoted to a sales manager role. And uh I did that for three years. So I mean, I was with Rush for 11 years, and at that time, you know, I was always wanting more. And and Rush actually gave me the opportunity to interview and you know, likely be the GM, uh, take a GM role for one of the dealerships in Arizona. So I was I was, you know, kind of geared up for that. I was uh you know, ready to start, and uh out of nowhere, I got a phone call from a lender that we had done business with on the truck sales side uh many times called Crossroads Equipment Finance and Lease. And they reached out to me and it was just kind of shot in the dark, and they and they said, you know, hey, we were wondering if you'd ever be interested in looking at a change. And it was just like really serendipitous, kind of perfect timing, because I said, you know, as a matter of fact, I am looking for a change. You know, here's what I got going on. Um, but uh I was always interested in the finance side and had kind of looked at going down that path before, but there's a fairly high barrier to entry. I don't have finance experience. So I have a degree in business uh management, um, but never was involved in finance. And so I kind of realized that you know that might not be a pathway for me to go to uh early on in my career. Yeah. So when I got that call, I mean I was really flattered and I was excited to take a look at it. They were they moved very quickly. I met with uh a team, uh, their executive team, uh, you know, within a week or so, and was very impressed with everything that I saw. And as a as a vendor at that point who did business with them, I loved doing business with them. I was like, man, this is gonna be this actually, you know, I wasn't expecting it to go this far. Man, I might I might leave Rush here. It was kind of a weird experience. And then uh ultimately to my surprise as everything progressed with the GM role and and with Crossroads as well. Uh, probably to my surprise, my wife's surprise, Rush's surprise, and Crossroads as well, I decided to make the change and I joined the team at Crossroads, and I started uh that in August uh 2021. So after uh you know close to 11 years working for Rush.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

My my time at Crossroads was short. I had a short tenure there, but it was highly impactful. I earned my uh certified uh lease in finance uh professional designation, the CFLP. And uh I after studying for about six months, uh I passed uh what is a grueling eight-hour exam. Um, and I passed it the first time. So I mean I was very thankful. And through that process, I just learned a ton, a ton about finance that you know I had no clue before of. And and I was probably a little naive with my finance background, uh, just you know, from my experience of working uh with Rush and selling trucks and working with lenders. And so I gained a lot of knowledge and I was doing pretty well with Crossroads, uh, both financially. I was busy, I liked my coworkers. We had a lot of uh things that we had in common. And uh, but there's something there. I just wasn't, for some reason, I just wasn't happy. And Crossroads, uh, they they did a good job of trying to, you know, they moved me to a different position and tried some new things. Uh, but ultimately there was just something missing. Uh so again, to probably everyone's surprise, uh, I I resigned. And a I didn't have a really clear path forward. And so I don't encourage people to you know just quit their jobs and and resign without, you know, without any kind of game plan. I knew that I wasn't happy and I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to figure out what I wanted to do without a clear mind.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

And so I made the decision to resign and I immediately hired a business coach and got to work full time basically on on figuring out what was my next step. And uh I didn't want to rush anything because the last thing I wanted to do was hop into another job and and become a job hopper. You know, I wanted to really, you know, hey, you're I was uh 35 years old, and you know, there were some things that I had accomplished that I was very proud about, but there were also some things that I, you know, I hadn't done yet. And yeah, and you know, for some reason I just thought, you know, this is a this is a good time. So I started kind of making lists. I made a lot of lists, and I made a list of you know what I would want in a career, what would be the things that would make me happy, uh, high earning potential, you know, high ceiling, uh freedom, uh autonomy, you know, things like that. And then I made a list of of all of my skills and actually all the things that I wasn't good at either. Yeah. And things that I could improve on, or things that I would just look at and say, hey, I'm not interested in that. I'll never be good at that. And so it's important, I think, to be aware of yourself too, sure, of what your own potential is and uh and what you're willing to do. After I kind of, you know, uh made those lists and you know brainstormed a little bit. I I I knew I was gonna start my own company. And I just didn't know which way I was gonna go with it yet. So based off of you know what I previously came up with, I thought, okay, you know, I could do uh a sales training slash consulting company, or I could do uh, you know, I could put my CFLP to work that I just earned, you know, and studied for for a long time. And uh, you know, kind of combine with my transportation industry experience and uh and start an equipment finance brokerage. And so uh that's what I decided to do. And then uh so Sun Key Equipment Finance was born.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Wow. And when was that?

SPEAKER_02 10:03

So that was uh I we I actually formed the company in May of 2022, did a lot of infrastructure stuff, and actually opened and started doing business uh in July of 2022, so just two months after.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Wow, so July, so you're under a year still.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Yep, yep, under a year, yeah. Uh and it's uh and we'll we'll kind of you know as uh as as we talk about you know some more of the challenges and stuff, we'll uh we'll we'll I'll get into how impactful it is to uh to maintain confidence with with being a in in a business as a startup.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So what you said I knew I wanted to start my own business, you could have gone a couple ways. What what led you to that conclusion, even if you weren't 100% sold on what exactly that was going to look like? Why did you decide no I'm going to into business for myself?

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Yeah, it's a great question. Um it's something that, you know, I I've always wanted to do, uh, but I just never really had the confidence, or you know, we talked before the podcast started about imposter syndrome a little bit. And I just never thought I was, you know, had the skill or had a talent to start my own business. I was like, you know, what am I good at here? Never thought I had something that people would want to buy. And then I realized you don't have to have something that people want to buy, they will buy you. So you just need to be a trustworthy person who is consistent and uh delivers value consistently over time, and people will buy whatever you're selling. Uh so they're they're buying you more than what your product is. And so at that kind of time, I you know, I got that kind of switch turned on and said, Yeah, I can do this.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's that's exciting. Scary, but exciting. You're I'm sure I'm sure you had to get your wife on board and everything.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah, my my wife is uh is very conservative, um, and she's kind of the you know, we're we're a good yin and yang, um, because I'm a little more of a you know, a little more risk taker. Yeah and so my my sister-in-law is a kind of a serial entrepreneur. She owns uh several businesses uh involved in finance. And uh she actually about six months before I decided to do this, we were having dinner, and she goes, Josh, you're an entrepreneur, like that's why you're not happy because you need to go in a business for yourself. And um, and so she she gave me a ton of confidence, and and actually we had sat down several times and talked on the phone several times about getting into that. And um, and so she was a big driving factor. And then obviously, uh, you know, was able to get my wife on board, and the support for my wife is incredible. There's there's just no way I'd be able to do this with without that support from her to get things going and like I said, maintain confidence on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Oh, yeah, that's key. And any whether you change jobs or start a new company, yeah, it's essential for sure. So tell us more about SunKey. Like, so dig into that. Who is your customer and how do they utilize your services? What do you guys offer?

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah, so so we're a multi-lender platform. Uh uh, so what that means is is we have uh basically, you know, about 10 or so lenders uh that we have that cover anyone from an A credit to uh what we call it like an E credit or a subprime a subprime credit. Our our customer, we focus on uh consumers that are in the trucking business, whether they're in over-the-road trucking or they're in construction, you know, hauling dirt or sand and gravel. Right. Uh that's our customer that we focus on. So we're we're really good at getting the startups done. And what I see happen often with startups trying to go the traditional route, or even owner operators, some of these smaller guys, is they get looked over a lot of the time by by you know traditional lending options by dealerships too. Uh and I know because I I worked at a dealership. And um I I see a lot of these customers that come in and they're either you know not treated you know very nicely because oh, they're just a one truck guy and no one cares about them.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

And uh, and so a finance manager may submit these customers to uh you know a few banks just to appease everybody and get declines. But that doesn't mean that that customer isn't lendable, it just means that they didn't go to the right lender. So that's where we come in. And we have a lot of those uh types of lenders that will work with these startups, will work with these owner operators, will work with these smaller fleets, and and we get deals done that way. So I think through that we've created a little niche, but there's also a lot of companies like myself out there doing similar stuff. So you have to take it a step further. When you're selling a product, you're you're not selling your product, you're selling yourself. People buy from people, they don't necessarily all the time buy because the product is good. Sometimes it is. Sometimes you can have a terrible sales experience, but Map Products is worth it, so you you just continue doing it. Uh, but we are really positioned to educate the consumer about leases, about loan structures. Um, we are full disclosure, we don't hide anything. Unfortunately, in equipment lending, uh, there are a lot of lenders that you know will have hidden fees. They they just try to give a customer a payment and say, do you want this or not? And and I we see it all the time, and it it's it actually irritates me. It makes me sad for everybody that that's the state of the industry and that people are you know are gritty like that. But you have these lenders that will just quote a payment, and you'll have a customer on the other end of that not realize that you know there's a maybe it's a different structure that they weren't, that they didn't want, that is not good for their business for tax reasons, or because there's a big balloon payment at the end that they weren't aware of. And so we do a really good job of educating customers on all the different types of products that are available to them and and making sure that they fully understand everything before signing on the dotted line. Right. Um, the last thing that we want is for a customer to get into a contract uh that they're not happy with or that they don't understand. Yeah. And then we combine that with our knowledge of transportation and and trucks. So we offer uh all the time, I offer customers, you know, not not every dealership is built the same. Some some customers maybe feel uncomfortable with the sales, and maybe they're being pushed to buy a truck that might not fit their needs. So we offer free spec reviews, we offer uh, you know, free pricing checks. So if a customer feels like, man, this truck is really expensive, I wonder what else is out there. Um, we we'll go we'll go do the research. We'll call the dealers and say, hey, you know, is this a fair price for this guy? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

And so we'll kind of do a little bit of the background and help these guys out to ensure that they're comfortable with the entire process.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Sure, sure. Oh, that's interesting. So you so that's kind of a free kind of resource as a kind of cost of doing business to kind of offer a full, I don't know, one-stop shop solution to your customers.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, and and I tell customers this all the time, you know, we we obviously would love your finance business. Um, but if you just want to give us a call to say, hey, you know, I know you know trucks, I'm thinking about buying this thing. Here's what I do. Do you think it's spec'd right for you know for my application? Um, I'm more than happy to take the time to do that. So uh because I I believe that that will you know keep paying it forward and it'll ultimately come back to us and you know helps us build our brand and helps us build our brand as a trustworthy company.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yeah, yeah. Obviously your revenue is from the finance side, but uh you're kind of building the whole the whole reputation. Exactly, exactly. That's cool. I I do think just feedback from me too. I was on your website briefly, but uh yeah, I think the fact that you've you've spec trucks. Um I'm not not near as learned as you are. I have spec'd a few trucks in my day, but it's not an easy process. And um also you know kind of uh at least a framework of cost or pricing. I think I think that can be a huge differentiator because you know, someone might be uh an expert in finance, but they've never spec'd a truck, you know what I mean? So things like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

It it's it's important to know your customer. So, and and I feel like you know, I if I don't know what you do, I know what questions to ask, and I know enough about the industry to figure out exactly what it is that you do.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Um, that way we can make sure that we're tailoring the the lease or loan structure that matches your business best.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah, absolutely. So, what's been kind of throughout this process? I mean, whether it's you know, kind of when you're in the sales role or or now or whatever it may be, what's been one of the biggest challenges you've had to overcome?

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Also a great question because it it's a challenge that I face every day, and it is maintaining confidence. So uh you have to maintain confidence in yourself, uh, regardless if you're a business owner, um, you know, you have 10 years in business or you're a startup, uh, or if if you're a salesperson working for a company or whatever role that you're in, you have to be confident in yourself. Another thing is to learn how to attach success to different things other than money. Uh so very often, you know, you attach success to how much money you're making. And well, when you're a startup, you might be losing money for a couple years.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Um, so you have to figure out, uh, but it doesn't mean your company is not successful. Yeah. You have to figure out ways to attach success. So one of the things that uh that we do that is useful or that I do that's useful is I reflect on a lot of small wins. So um, you know, did I move the ball forward today? Did I move the ball forward this week, this month, this quarter? And then kind of like really actually look back and write it down, whether it's on a whiteboard or your journal, uh, just to kind of you know list everything that you've done right that you've done up to this far that has been successful. And so I'll give you an example of that. Uh for us, uh, you know, at the beginning of the year, you know, I looked at this and said, hey, we've been in business for about six months now. And there are many days, you know, I'm not, you know, I'm gonna, it's hard. I'm not gonna say I don't, you know, look at the money side of it because I do. And there are many days where I'm like, oh my gosh, man, we we need to be making more money. But then I take a step back and say, hey, you've only been in business for six months.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Uh look at everything that you've done. You've hired a salesperson, you've built a website, you have uh created a really good lender base uh that you know a lot of these uh brokerages have. To be in business for a couple of years to have the lenders that we've gotten within six months. So that's a huge win for us. And we've we've created training materials, so onboarding materials. So I've built this thing to grow. Um, I have a vendor packet. Um you know, we're very organized and we have systems in place. So we have actual systems in place to where it's easy for us to plug and play. And uh, and so those are all big wins, you know, they're they're small wins, but you know, for for me, they're big wins right now. Right. And uh, and so I I reflect on that often, and and then I say, okay, you know, let's create some more that aren't attached to money. Is there another lender out there that I can get? Is there another product that we can start offering? Right. Um, and so it it's important to, like I said, to look back and figure out different means of success.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

No, absolutely. That's awesome. No, that's that's good to value the process, you know, especially in sales and prospecting or whatever, making calls. It's uh you're not always gonna close a deal every day. So that's good.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

No, and you know, I I I meet uh what's important too is to surround yourself with like-minded people. Um so because it will it will wear on you and you'll start to feel very lonely if you're not you know talking to other entrepreneurs and other startups or other guys that are have been in business for a while and kind of you know, hey, is this normal? And a lot of them will look at you and say, dude, you've been in business for six months, like you've got a lot going on for you. Um so it's important to do that as well, yeah, because it that helps maintain that confidence that I talked about at the beginning, is uh is that you know, that's the biggest challenge that we have.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

So yeah, no, that's good. What uh so what parting piece of career advice would you give to someone today that's either you know starting out maybe the early in in their career like I was when I first met you, or you know, mid-career kind of like you were looking for a change, getting into a different world within either a different industry or even the same industry?

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Absolutely. So there's um I'll I'll kind of break that up into a couple of segments because I think, and and this is a big passion of mine is helping young professionals out, guys that just graduated college and are trying to make that transition, or or you know, didn't graduate college, but trying to make that transition uh into the professional world. And it can be overwhelming. And as a young guy or gal, there's very few people, unfortunately, that are willing to give you help. So especially, especially if you're good. Um because there's a lot of people out there that you know they're they're think that you know they're in a little bit of a danger of losing their job or their position. You see this young buck coming up.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

And and so when you're when you're first starting your career, um, you might not appear to be the most educated or knowledgeable or tenured with your products. So it's important to be the sharpest guy in the room. And and then you will start to get people to start to believe in you. So it's it's unfortunate, but I saw this all the time, especially in truck sales, where we had a lot of young, young talent, young guys in their mid-20s come in. Um, and then we also had a lot of veterans that you know were had various degrees of success. And I could put two, a young salesman and a veteran salesman in the same room and have a customer pick which one they want to work with, and they're gonna go veteran all day long without maybe realizing the potential of working with you know a younger guy. Energy or gal, energy, the amount of you know, follow-up that they're willing to give back, uh, their willingness to work with you because maybe they don't have as big of a book, so they're very excited to work with that customer, giving positive feedback, they're always going to answer that phone. And you have to be willing as a kind of younger person in your career to go that extra and beyond to earn it. And then once you start doing that and you're accustomed to start operating at that level of intensity, Grant Cardone will call that the 10x factor, right? That's how your entire career will will be shaped. You're you'll always have that sense of urgency if you start out, if you start out that way at the very beginning. And so then you'll combine that with tenure and knowledge, and you'll be a pretty unstoppable force. So that's what I would give, the advice I give to young professionals. The the people that are like myself, that are kind of midway in their career, or um, you know, I guess maybe still kind of the beginning of the career, but looking for a change. And I think this was uh, I think like Confucius said this quote, right? And and that's your everyone has two lives, and your second one begins once you realize you only have one. And so, yeah. I've never heard that. Yeah, it it's I I you know I picked that up somewhere, and and that has probably helped shape you know some of my decisions. The advice that I'd give is that you need to take a bet on yourself. You can't don't bet on anyone else but yourself. Bet on yourself. You're the only one that can control things. Uh, don't let comfort and stability uh imprison you. And for me, it was actually more scary when I took a step back and I looked at my life with Rush or with Crossroads, and I said, Is this what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life? Is this it? Because I'm not gonna learn much more, I'm not gonna grow much more after a certain amount of time. The challenge of a new job wears off, and you just kind of get into the same routine, and uh, you know, and and you might be very successful, sure uh money-wise. Right. But again, you that's a to me, that's a terrifying thought to know that I'm not I'm done growing, I'm done educating, I'm done growing. That's much scarier than than taking a leap and going out on your own uh any day of the week.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

So failure uh to me is not real, it doesn't exist. Failure to to us and to to what I you know preach with my company, failure is just another level of success. It's another version of success. Um, it teaches you a lot of things. So failure in the traditional concept is not a real thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

No, that's super interesting. You can be imprisoned by your success. That's that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Yeah, yeah, go figure that, right? So hard concept to realize.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

I think it's yeah, it gets down to complacency and kind of like you're crow you're coasting, you're not bad at what you do, you make good money, whatever, whatever it may be, you know, you're comfortable, you live in a place you like, whatever. But uh no, that's interesting, which are all important things, obviously, but it's uh a matter of is it kind of limiting you and your potential? So no, good stuff. Good stuff. Well, cool. Well, where can uh people find out more about you and uh SunKey?

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Yeah, absolutely. Uh so they can visit us on the website at SunKeyf as an equipmentfinance.com, uh, or they can follow us on LinkedIn. So we're we're very active. Um I'm always trying to uh you know put a lot of uh information out there, blog posts or articles that I've read uh that are you know either sales driven or motivational or transport specific or finance specific. Uh trying to do some education uh out there. And then uh then also uh anyone can email us at any time at info at sunkeyef.com.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Sweet. Awesome. Well, Josh, this has been fantastic. And uh and like I said, before we recorded, uh if anything, selfishly I've learned something, so I appreciate it. Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

No, no, absolutely, Chris. Like I said, I I I appreciate you inviting me on, and I thought it was a like I said, kind of a it was a good practice for me too to kind of sit back and you know look at everything that we've done over the last six months and being able to kind of talk about it. So we we we appreciate it as well.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation just as much as I did. And I want to have Josh back on the show to talk about business growth and entrepreneurial journey and changes, things like that. So I'll have to have him back on here in the near future. I know he's always thinking of new ideas and things like that. Um so don't forget to check out his company link in the show notes as well and uh take a look at what he has going on. And then we have a premium episode where part of a conversation we put uh kind of on the next shorter episode. If you're a premium subscriber, you'll have access to that. If you're not, you can check out the link in the show notes to become one and support the show. Without further ado, thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.