The global logistics market, in 2020, was pegged at almost 8.6 trillion US dollars. The Asia Pacific region accounted for the largest market and North America, the second largest. The upsurge of e-commerce and a digital marketplace has changed the consumer’s buying pattern. Consumers now expect fast, free and timely shipping. This challenging delivery schedule tests the traditional logistics and supply chain models. The industry has come into the limelight for the first time. Consumer spending is up, orders are backed up and EVERYTHING comes on a truck.
Now a ship alone doesn’t deliver your package. Does it? It needs people right from the time a product onboards to making it across the state, country or even continent and finally being delivered to the consumer. The growing pace of industry indicates the requirement of people or logisticians who would be required to excel in this fast-paced and competitive environment. So an industry that is blowing up along with a 52-year record for unemployment is keeping talent advisors like Brent Orsuga quite busy.
Brent, a branding powerhouse and the Founder of Pinnacle Growth Advisors, has established himself as the top recruiter in the logistics space. He started Pinnacle out of a bedroom in 2014 from nothing. No clients, no dollars, no website, nothing! But he knew the niche he was focused on and took massive action to scale the company. The focus was to “win the day” and build momentum.
I see our company continuing to scale and grow (we doubled in 2021) and continuing to become the top firm in our niche. Supply Chain cannot go away and neither will we.
Brent did recruitment from 2003 to 2008 within the construction industry. In 2009 he got an opportunity to partner with someone in freight, and he took to it as a fish does to water. “Once I got into it, I was like, This is it. This is an industry that literally cannot go away, I’m going to go all-in, learn everything I can”, recalls Brent. In 2014 he finally took that leap, bet on himself, and started the company. Brent has 20 years of recruiting, and since founding Pinnacle the company has almost doubled and scaled every single year since its inception. The current phase, he says, however, is the busiest one.
The Biggest Differentiator
Unlike regular recruiting companies who just get a job for people who contact them, Pinnacle looks for premium talent for its client companies. Brent looks at his team as Talent Advisors, not just Recruiters. They work very closely with the companies they partner with. They visit client offices to get to know them. They even meet the leadership team to know about the company’s aspirations from its people. This allows them to truly play matchmaker and not just toss resumes out there. Going into an office allows you to see and sense the culture firsthand. Culture is very easy to say, but very hard to define. So being in the environment directly allows Brent to clearly convey this to candidates.
Being so niche the main thing Pinnacle focuses on is becoming subject matter experts in its industry, making it very serious and absorbing as much knowledge as possible to speak to the market in an educated manner. This allows Pinnacle to place the top talent at the top companies. He runs his company on a vision inspired by the famous Zig Ziglar quote “If you help enough people get what they want, you will always get what you want in return”. Stop selling and start helping. Pinnacle’s main role is to be so well versed within the everchanging dynamics of the industry, that people rely on them for intel and industry trends that can help guide their careers.
You will never outperform your own self-image, if you take this leap you cannot give yourself an out or a plan B. Your identity will be forged and the company will grow as you grow personally.
Today, Pinnacle Growth Advisors is the top Talent Advisory Firm for the fastest-growing logistics companies in the US and Canada. The company is focused on helping client companies drive their profits through their primary competitive advantage- their people. Pinnacle has been instrumental in the success of freight and logistics companies through its philosophy of healthy growth through excellent hiring.
At Pinnacle Brent and his team coaches companies and candidates through the challenging waters of recruitment. They work in most of the major markets, including Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Charlotte, Seattle, Minnesota, New Jersey as well as Canada. They work with multiple $25 Million to 1 Billion dollar companies, proactively helping them find and place new employees, from sales reps to CEOs. Pinnacle has won numerous awards for growth including back-to-back winners of the Arizona State Sun Devil 100, which is for the fastest growing companies led by Alumni. They were also recently ranked as a top 10 Executive Search firm in the Phoenix market, an award solely based on the number of placements over 100k.
Leading the Entrepreneur Life
When Brent started his venture, he introduced himself as “The top recruiter in freight and logistics” at a leading social media platform. This was when he had just started his venture in a very niche industry, with no client and his limited resources. What was unlimited though, was self-belief. He knew that he was so invested by this point, that he was going to outwork anybody to dominate that space. Self-belief, mastering the art of self-talk, ability to not get emotional with decision making, ability to make quick decisions, perseverance and grit are some key qualities that Brent suggests an entrepreneur must possess.
He advises the budding entrepreneurs saying, “You will never outperform your own self-image, if you take this leap you cannot give yourself an out or a plan B. Your identity will be forged and the company will grow as you grow personally.” Brent invests so much into himself each year between business coaching, entrepreneur groups like EO as well as many seminars and personal development programs he can align with.
The initial years as an entrepreneur can be tasking. “Early on you are your biggest cheerleader, not every day is going to be a good one but have to stay focused on the big picture and “control what you can control” which are only two things- activity and attitude,” says Brent. This is also why he believes that having mentors and people you can rely on around you is crucial. If you go about building a business alone, it’s really hard. When you build a circle around yourself of people that not only support you but have had experiences that they can share with you, it just makes this journey so much easier.
What the Future Holds
Brent has a 98% success rate securing interviews for candidates. Moreover, his skill at matching high performers with the right organizations has led him to place thousands of hires successfully and efficiently, generating over $1 Billion in bottom-line growth.
Sought-after for his ability to drive high-performing matches quickly, Brent quickly cemented Pinnacle Growth Advisors’ position as the number-one talent acquisition firm in its space. Looking forward to the year ahead, Brent says, “I see our company continuing to scale and grow (we doubled in 2021) and continuing to become the top firm in our niche. Supply Chain cannot go away and neither will we.”