(upbeat music) - Welcome to A Shot of AG.

My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

I started a podcast which led into an XM radio show, which led into a national television show, which led to me being right here today.

But today, today is not about me.

Today is about Perry Johnson.

How ya doin' Perry?

- Very good, thank you.

- Good, now you are Peoria, through and through, right?

- I was born and raised here, yes.

- Which hospital?

- Methodist Hospital.

- Okay.

I should always ask that because everybody says I'm from, but that's like, it's something you all know as Peoria people is which hospital.

- Yeah, it's, course, Unity Point, now, but if you say Methodist, to a Peoria, they know what you mean.

- [Rob] Okay.

- I was OSF.

- [Rob] Okay.

Can we still talk?

- Absolutely.

(Rob laughing) - Born in Peoria, you still live here?

- I do, I live about a block away over at 401 Water.

- I don't know where that's..

I'm from Bradford.

- Yeah - Okay.

(Perry laughs) - It's, luckily Google takes me here.

(both laughing) So, have you lived here your whole life?

- I lived here my whole life, except for the four years that I lived in Minneapolis, which is in the early eighties.

- Okay.

All right, so lets go back to young Perry, right?

You grew up and your family was in the moving business?

- I started off my moving career in our family business, which was founded by my grandfather in 1946.

In 1947, he started with one truck and in a warehouse that was on the south side of Peoria, over on Warren street.

And they stayed there until 1967 and then- - Whoa, whoa, whoa.

'4..Okay, you're talking '46, '47.

What are you moving with back then?

- Well, he had a hand-built truck, which is on a Diamond Reo chassis, - [Rob] Yeah.

is probably about a 20 foot truck, 'bout the same size as what you'd find at you haul today.

- [Rob] Uh, huh.

- And he started off hauling flour, for the Butter to Bakery it's currently, it was over on Howard Street.

- Like, the Butternut?

- Yeah, which has turned into interesting brands, later on.

So, he started off with that and then got into moving people's furniture.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And it just grew into, you know, a business after that.

And we made it last for about just short of 50 years.

- So, when you were growing up, did you help move people?

- I started out, the first trip I ever took, was with my dad who was a driver in 1969.

And we went to Florida and one day we had an opportunity to have a day off.

We decided we'll go over to Cape Kennedy.

- Sure.

- So, we dropped our trailer and just took the tractor over to Cape Kennedy.

And this is right when Apollo 11 was blasting off.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So, it was a week before.

So we got, I was 12 years old and I got a tour of Cape Kennedy.

I saw Apollo 11 sitting on the launch pad and then we went back.

And sometimes we can have humorous things connected with our business as well.

- Mhm.

- We got, as all truckers know you have to stop at scales and weigh and - Ahh.

they look at your logs and all that stuff.

- [Rob] Pshh.

- All right.

- That's just a suggestion.

- Okay, well- (Rob laughing) We went to the scale and of course I was only 12 years old and the scale master, which was in Ohio said, "Do you have a permit for that boy?"

And my dad said, (Rob laughs) "No, but I'll call the Safety Director, at our company and they can give you verbal permission" So he calls my grandma, (Rob laughing) in Peoria.

- This was before the cell phones too, so this was a process.

- This is on a landline.

(Rob laughs) So, he calls my grandma and he says, here's the safety director of United Van Lines and she'll give you verbal permission for that boy to be on the truck.

She says, there's no problem.

It's fine for him to be on there.

And he believes it and hangs up the phone.

And then he says to me, "You're sure lucky.

We just about had to send you on a bus back to Peoria".

- Really, were you freaking out or did you realize it?

- It's like I was kind of nervous, but my quick thinking dad and, in collaboration with my grandma saved the day.

(both chuckling) - What was that Florida?

- It was actually at Ohio, at a scale.

- Ohio, what is wrong with you, Ohio?

(Perry laughing) But did you, moving people, did you have to pick up a couch and do all that stuff?

- We did and it is hard work - Yeah!

- And I consider it a skilled trade because you have to know what you're doing in order to really do it right.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And luckily my dad was a demanding task master and he always demanded that you do things right and if you didn't do it right, you did it over until it was.

And I always found that that was very essential to what I learned on later in life, that if you're gonna do anything, you might as well do it the best way you can.

- D'you ever scratch the wall with a couch and then blame it on a cat?

(Perry laughing) - We might be able to try that, but it would never works, so.

- I did that once.

- So.

- It didn't work.

- Yeah.

(Rob laughs) - I can totally understand.

- All right.

You went to Minnesota and how'd you get back to Peoria?

- Well, I came back to the family business in 1984.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And I worked here for a while and then my dad had Parkinson's disease.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And we had to figure out an exit strategy, for the family business.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- So, at the time my wife and I tried to buy my dad's part of the business and it, there's a lot of reasons it didn't work out.

And in 2002, I joined Federal Warehouse, which is one of the largest Allied Agents in the United States and has been around for over a hundred years.

- Okay.

Explain that a little more because I didn't understand what that was.

- Okay.

- So, what is an Allied Agent?

How does that work with the Federal Warehouse?

- Allied Van Lines is one of the world's largest movers and- - [Rob] These guys, everybody knows this.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- And we have the recognizable trucks and Federal has been with them since 1928 when they started.

- Mm.

- But they are a collection of 500 agents world or in North America.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And then we have our worldwide partners overseas as well, so, collectively we're one of the world's largest movers.

- Wow and Allied.

So, were they here in Peoria?

- Federal started business in 1913 and it was kinda the same way, their family started their business in the kind of the same way our family did.

Just with a hand-built truck and a lot of hard work.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And they built it into basically one of the largest Allied Van Land lines representatives in the United States.

- We're gonna get into how you have been incredibly successful, but going back to when you and your wife were wanting to buy into the family business.

This hits farming and agriculture, you know, right in the feels, - Sure.

- Because one of the hardest part is a succession.

The dream of course, is having the kids take over the business.

But it seems to be one of the hardest things there is out there.

- Mhm.

- If someone asked you advice, on how to make that transition better, how it would have been better for you?

What would you tell 'em?

- If you're a second generation, you have to realize this is a business.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- There is an emotional content to it with, particularly with it being a family business.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And that's fine, but it is a business.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And you have to make money at it.

And it has to be financially solvent and viable going forward.

You have to, basically leave enough for, the next generation to do the same thing that you did.

You know, make it viable.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And that's where we ran into a lot of difficulty.

And frankly, it just wasn't, you know, a viable proposition for us- - [Rob] Yeah.

- Long story short.

- All right.

With Federal, nationally, you are fifth in total sales volume.

They said that's out of seven people.

- Yeah.

- Your fifth.

- Yeah, I'm fifth nationally in the Allied.

- That's a joke.

- Oh.

- There's actually six, but that's okay.

(both laughing) - How many sales people altogether?

- Oh gosh, probably four or 500 at least.

- And you're Fifth?

- Mhm.

- [Rob] That's awful impressive.

- Yeah.

- [Rob] How does that happen?

- There's just a lot of hard work to it.

It's fairly straightforward principles, but I would say what really worked for me over time was having effective messages - [Rob] Mhm.

- That were compelling and also just simply being persistent, just going to work every day, making sure that I kept things moving forward and making sure that I always had enough things in my pipeline so that, we could always maintain the level of business that I was able to build over time.

- In the top 1% of a company that size, number five, out of all those people.

And you're, telling me that it's literally the old adage workin' your tail off.

- It is.

that's fundamentally it.

Mhm.

- I mean, there's gotta be some natural talent, right.

You're a likable guy.

- Yeah, I think.

I got that, my dad was a good salesman too.

I think I got a lot of his traits, which I'm very grateful for and, you know, again, I think for me it was persistence and making sure I had good messages and having good support behind me.

Which Federal has always done.

And I'm very grateful for that.

- I used to sell seed corn and I would go to the farm.

I would talk to the farmer for an hour, have a great conversation.

I could never close a deal.

I could never close a deal.

How do you do that?

- Well, at some point, I think you did, probably started off doing the right thing and building a trust bridge with your customer.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- You know, trying to find levels of commonality where you could relate to each other.

- [Rob] We're usually drinking.

- Yeah, well, you know, that helps too.

- It didn't, it did not help me one bit.

(both laugh) - It can help situationally I'm sure.

but at some point you just have to say, you have to ask for the business.

- [Rob] Mhm.

Can we go forward with this order?

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And you know, that does happen sometimes with people, they get kind of wrapped up in things, but, you know, don't, sometimes don't ask for the business or ask for it at the wrong time.

So, timing is important too.

- What you just said is so simple, right?

You, eventually, you got to hit 'em up for the sale.

- Mhm.

- I'm telling you.

I couldn't, just, I froze.

I couldn't do it.

So, is that something that you ever experienced and just worked through or is it just more natural for you?

- I think it's part, it may be a little more natural, but that happens to everybody.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- Frankly.

That's not an uncommon thing.

But then when you get out, you'll walk away and you start thinking, what could I have done better at that particular proposition then you think, well, okay.

Now, next time I'll ask for the sale and - [Rob] Mhm.

- Then just make that part of your regimen the next time.

- Yeah, do you ever do the thing where you say, I don't know, you better go ahead and buy this, because we have someone coming in this afternoon to look at it.

(Perry laughs) - Yeah, well, that's kind of coercive.

- Yes.

(both laughing) - So, I don't- - That's not the word I was gonna use for it.

(both laugh) - Right.

You know, some people use that.

It's kind of manipulative and I don't believe those sales tactics ultimately work, or certainly, surely don't work for long.

- You actually talked about a good salesman, having empathy for their customer.

That kinda surprised me.

- It's a way to understand what the person in front of you is experiencing.

- [Rob] Mhm.

- And I think it is often something that's often overlooked in terms of salesmanship because frankly, salespeople get tagged as kind of what used car people do.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- They're just like, kind of, self-centered and aggressive - What!

- And just simply after the sale.

- Come on.

(both laughing) - But, if you understand what your prospect needs - [Rob] Mhm.

- And can figure out a good solution for them, then you can oftentimes make the sale.

And that kind of understanding is that's kind of hard to teach.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- That's something generally you have, or you do not.

- That's, I mean, if I was a young salesman, I would definitely listen to what you just said, 'cause I think that's probably, I wish you had taught me somethin'.

So, I could have sold some seed.

Let's switch gear.

What's this?

- That's a stein and it's from Germany.

And I'm proud to celebrate my German heritage.

I'm part German.

- [Rob] Mhm.

Which part?

(both laughing) - It's actually on my mom's side.

So, and I had four years of German when I was in high school.

- Oh, you can speak it?

- Yes.

(speaking German) - I got some bitchikins too.

(both laughing) So, it's fun.

I mean, the Oktoberfest.

The German, I mean the whole German atmosphere is just fun.

Is that what you like to get involved in?

- It is a lot of fun and there's, here we have a German American Society that's been around for many, many years.

- [Rob] Is it like a club?

- It is.

- What do you do?

- They have fests, you know, throughout the summer.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And they also have events throughout the winter as well, a German American Society here in Peoria has a buffet every Friday.

- [Rob] Ah.

- And it's really good German food and they have German beer and it's frankly, inexpensive.

So, they do what they do very well and it's a lot of fun.

- Do you get over ever there ever, to Germany?

- Yes.

I've been there once.

- Yeah?

- And I had the fun experience of driving a car on the German Autobahn.

- Uh, huh.

How fast?

- We were going, probably just between 180, 190 kilometers, which is about 120.

- Okay, that's rolling right along?

- And we still got dusted by people, so.

- We had an Uber driver that rolled it up to 150.

And I honestly, I don't know if that's miles or kilometers, but I was ready for him to slow the hell down.

(both laughing) - That's moving.

- It is.

It is, very true.

- Did you look up like where you were from when you were over there?

- We didn't get to that because we just simply didn't have enough time that, we do know that it's from a place that's close to Koblenz, in the Western part of Germany.

So, my German relatives came over here in the 17 hundreds and were coal miners.

And, so, we were able to trace 'em back, at least that far.

- Do you have a lederhosen?

- Yes, I do.

I have three pairs of them.

(Rob chuckling) - Where do you get those?

- You can get them from e-bay has frankly a lot of good sources (Rob laughs) that you can go directly to Germany for, which is, you know, - [Rob] Yeah.

- Probably the best but there are couple of American manufacturers.

One is called Ernst Licht, which is in Pennsylvania, that you can get authentic clothing from as well as a few others here in the U.S, as well.

- Yeah, I got some extensive education on lederhosen.

'Cause I watched 'em sell on Storage Wars.

You ever watch that show?

- Oh, yeah.

Sure, mhm.

- And I had no idea that they were that expensive.

There is like probably what grandma puts together on her sewing machine and then there's real lederhosen.

- Mhm.

- So, that's what you got, the good stuff?

- Yeah, the stuff that is made of the thick leather and they'll last you a whole lifetime.

Absolutely.

- Really?

Okay.

That's, so, generally during the show, afterwards, they'll come up and they'll give you a card to say, "Hey you got some pictures or whatever".

We'll show them while you're being interviewed.

So, are you gonna give us pictures of you in your lederhosen?

- I can do that if you like.

So- - I would like.

(both laughing) - When we go to the German Fest in the summer, - [Rob] Yeah.

When we go, people expect, all my, the people that follow us on Facebook - [Rob] Yeah.

- Expect me to have a picture of me in my lederhosen - [Rob] Yeah.

- At these events.

They don't get one, they start asking questions.

- [Rob] Really?

- Yeah.

- It's expected?

- Yeah, it's like.

Okay, "Where's the picture at?"

- I'm half German, - Okay.

- Half Irish.

That's an angry drunk.

- Yeah.

Well, I'm part Irish too.

So, I totally relate to where you are.

(both laughing) - Speaking of alcohol, you are, you're educated on wine?

- Mhm.

- Is that just a hobby?

- It's a fair assumption, yeah.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- We really like it.

I've, you know, taught myself about it over time.

What is good?

What is not good?

And... - [Rob] The Boone's farm?

Ever had that?

- Yes.

As best I can remember, that was some time ago.

- It's not bad.

- Yeah.

It's pretty good.

- Mad Dog?

I don't know if you've ever had Mad Dog - Mad Dog 20/20?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- It's been awhile.

- Yeah.

Thank goodness.

- Wines are intimidating.

'Cause you go to wherever, right?

Friar Tuck or wherever and there's a thousand of 'em.

How do you pick a good one?

- We have a scanner that's called.. and it's through an app called Vivino and you take a picture of the label.

And it will tell you everything about it.

What was rated- - [Rob] Really?

- What the variety was, you know, all the basic information.

And there's a lot of other ways that we can discover good things about wine, but that's one of our basic tools that we really like and has been, worked really well for us.

- I'm gonna need that.

I'm guessing Boone's Farm wouldn't rate too high.

- Probably not, I'd say.

- Yeah.

They used to make orange Boone's wine.

That was actually good.

Probably not, (Perry laughing) but I, we drank a lot of it.

(Rob laughs) - Be a good mouthwash or something, so.

- With the schnitzel the German stuff right?

Is that mainly the reds?

- You can, you can put up red wine with that.

Or you can, In Germany, white wine is really what they're known for.

- [Rob] Really?

I didn't know that.

[Indistinct] Rieslings, Gewurztraminer all those particular varietals in Austria, Gruner Veltliner.

But German red wines are starting to get better.

And, but it's still the white wines is what they're best known for.

- The whole German culture, right?

I gotta imagine like, the German clubs that you go to, is it just, kind of, more of a celebration, kind of, just having fun are you guys actually talking about what's happening over in Germany?

- There's a little of both, you know, we're all Americans obviously and many of the people that we encounter at the German American Society have been there, been there many times and I've also been involved with our group that is the sister city Friedrichshafen, Germany, which we have been since 1976.

So, I was on their board for a while.

And so, I've remained active with those folks as well and they do trips as well as have student exchanges, as well with the Friedrichshafen people.

And it's built to, it over time it's built into a very strong partnership.

- Mhm.

You know, when I say I'm from Bradford, a lot of people, like in Peoria, will say, "There was a German restaurant up there".

Did you ever go to that one?

- Yes, I did.

- Was it- - It was good - Was it good for a German place?

- Yeah.

He moved down to The Shoppes at Grand Prairie.

- It didn't, I don't think it worked so well.

- No.

He just kind of..It got to be too much.

It was a nice place, but it was just too expensive.

- Yeah, it was, what we, kind of, learned from people.

It was, Bradford's 45 minutes, an hour away.

It was the whole experience of actually getting out of Peoria and going to somewhere that people liked.

I don't know.

- That place got taken over by someone that does Scottish things, now.

- Yeah, we've been known to partake there.

- And it's, they're very good at what they do.

- Yeah.

- So.

- And she can pour a mean whiskey.

- Mhm.

- That's what we do in Bradford.

- That's good stuff.

- You guys got your wine, - Like (Rob banging) (laughing) - I can talk a long time about whiskey too, so.

(Rob laughing) - You've been incredibly successful.

Young people, gonna look at you as someone they want to strive for, what advice you give 'em?

- Well, I think in terms of sales, they're just simple.

There's nothing really terribly difficult about it overall.

It's just long as you maintain a strong work ethic are simply willing to persist where others give up, you can be successful.

You know, one of the problems we see in sales is that people en visualize their reward, before they do the work.

- Well that's the fun part.

- Yeah.

- That's why you wanna do the work is for the reward.

- Yeah, but you have to realize that if you don't do the work, you won't ever get a reward.

- [Rob] Ah.

- It'll just be a disappointment.

So, you just have to dig in.

Sometimes, it can be a very humbling experience.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- You know not make it a whole lot of money, at first.

But, if you're willing to dig in, persist where others do not, you can be successful.

Sometimes, you just simply have to outlast people.

- You know what Michael Jordan did was pretty simple to.

Just put a ball in a hoop.

- Mhm.

- So, from what I just heard, you're the Michael Jordan of Allied and.. (both laughing) - That's a very nice comparison.

Thank you.

- It's been very fun and enjoyable to get to know you.

It's fun to talk to someone that is successful and that is very secure with how they became successful and also give back to the community as well.

So, it's been fun.

Are you on the TikTok?

Do you have a TikTok account?

- No, actually, I've never been on that.

It's one of the things I've never done.

- Hm.

If people want to learn more about Allied or the German club, is there a place where they can go?

- There's some Facebook things, - [Rob] Mhm.

- The German club has a Facebook presence.

- [Rob] What's it called?

- It's called the German American society.

Or GACS for short, they have a website that you can look at.

And there's also a Facebook presence that posts all the events that they do.

Which is probably one of the best ways to get involved, is just, you know, come on down to the Friday events and have a good meal and a beer and some (German language).

- Some what?

- (German language) - I think I'll go to the Irish.

(Perry laughing) You guys should do a tug of war every year.

(Rob laughing) - You gotta admit, being Irish, German, we got it made.

- I Know it's very.

- We get wit and charm and then work ethic all combined in one.

(Rob laughing) - Perry Johnson.

Perry, thank you very much.

Everybody else we'll catch ya next week.

(upbeat music) (Rob laughs)