05 Dec 2024
In honor of Pride Month, we’re spotlighting a few of our Arrive employees who identify as LGBTQ+. We sat down with Mitch Mazzaro, Senior Business Development Manager on the Arrive Fresh team, to learn more about his day inside and outside of Arrive!
How did you learn about Arrive and start working here?
I kept reading about Arrive and how they were the “new kid on the block” for more than a year before I joined the team in 2016. I knew I wanted to switch from my previous broker because the opportunity here had so much potential. My new role and responsibility was to create what is now Arrive Fresh!
What does your daily routine look like?
My entire day is only semi-routine. I wake up every morning at 4:30 a.m. Let’s get the day started! I usually grab a workout and head into the office so when I arrive, I am already awake and full of energy. After work, I spend my evenings doing whatever I want because I have already worked and worked out for the day. I grab dinner, head to the lake or just relax. It helps me maintain a good work/life balance.
What does an average day in your role look like?
In the office, I am a person that feeds off of other people. I want to get the music playing, banter with the team and book some freight. I want to tackle the issues early so we can continue the day making some money! I would say the majority of my time is focused on landing new business. I enjoy engaging with the team and helping them prospect. Understanding the prospect before we call is a major plus when you are trying to separate yourself from all the cold calls they receive. Most of that information can be found right on the internet! Who is your customer’s customer? If you can understand who they are selling to… you can sell to them. The other part of my day is helping the team fulfill the promises we already made to the customer. Whether that is coverage, updates, invoicing, pricing, etc is even more important. Once we land the customer, our job isn’t over. We have to service them too.
How has your role at Arrive evolved?
I started at Arrive as a manager, but also as an individual contributor. I was on the floor brokering just like everyone else. There is one important lesson I learned as a young manager – I will never ask my team to do something I cannot do or won’t do myself. Keeping that mentality has definitely changed my role over time because I invested countless hours understanding claims, accounting, commissions and operations. Arrive managers have to wear all of those hats. Now, my main focus is developing the reefer and produce business for Arrive. Those customers can be very lucrative, but also very complex.
How has Arrive grown since you first started?
Tremendous growth would be an understatement. When I started talking to Arrive about joining the team, there were only 14 employees. Seeing the accomplishments and struggles is a career shaping experience. Not many companies reach the limits we keep pushing. If you think about it, the rapid growth essentially compacts decisions other companies might make over 5-10 years into one year at Arrive.
What keeps you at Arrive?
Though we have come so far, there is still A LOT more we can do. We haven’t even scratched the surface in the freight industry yet. Our company is still agile enough to make decisions quickly based on business needs and reach our next hurdle of $1B.
Why do you think it’s so important to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace?
Everyone comes to the conversation with different backgrounds, ideas, hesitations and experiences. If we do not promote someone to feel comfortable, then we are suppressing that uniqueness. The first step is starting the conversation by asking questions and giving someone the platform to share. No topic is too big or too small, and it doesn’t always have to be geared toward social issues. Just because you don’t experience something in your life, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You don’t know what you don’t know… but you have the opportunity to know. Educate yourself, ask questions and listen to how someone became the person they are today. I’ve never heard a boring life story.
