Standing Out with Tyson Lawrence from Diablo Ventures!
Join us through the @BETA_Podcast_Network YouTube channel to unravel the complexities of leadership and entrepreneurship. Listen to the candid discussions about the impact of empathy in leadership, and as we dissect the transformation of perceived weaknesses into leadership strengths. All here on Standing Out Tuesday, February 6th
A word about our sponsors:
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
Standing Out with Tyson Lawrence from Diablo Ventures!
Join us through the @BETA_Podcast_Network YouTube channel to unravel the complexities of leadership and entrepreneurship. Listen to the candid discussions about the impact of empathy in leadership, and as we dissect the transformation of perceived weaknesses into leadership strengths. All here on Standing Out Tuesday, February 6th
A word about our sponsors:
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
Yay, siz, oh, hey, hey, it wasn't. I'm not a fan of the music, I'm a fan of the music. I'm not a fan of the music, I'm a fan of the music. I'm not a fan of the music, I'm a fan of the music. I'm not a fan of the music, I'm a fan of the music. I'm not a fan of the music, I'm a fan of the music.
Speaker 1:Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Standing Out, a show about sales, marketing and leadership. I'm Trey Griggs, your host, so happy that you're with us here in the month of February. Can you believe it? One month already gone by here in 2024. Last month, beta Consulting Group was two years old. Last month, january 15th pretty exciting milestone for us as we continue to venture in the world of entrepreneurship and figure things out. Look at that. We get the applause. I love it. That's wonderful, it was great. So make sure you check us out online at betaconsultinggroupcom. See how we're helping companies tell their story to truly communicate with the market effectively. Also, we got a new logo. Look at this. We got some new logos, some new swag coming out. Very excited about that. Shout out to our team Tim Morgan Vertner, natalia Navas and Coleman Ruffin for creating this bad boy, so excited about that. So a lot of new things happening here at Beta Consulting Group and at Standing Out. As you'll notice those that are watching the video version of the show we got a new background, a new layout. It's all fresh here in 2024, a lot of big things coming our way.
Speaker 1:Also, speaking of fresh in the trade show world, which it's that time of the year, folks, for trade show season make sure you visit brokercarriersummitcom. Listen, this is the most unique event in the industry the Broker Carrier Summit. It's going to be in Kansas City April 22 through 24, my hometown home of the hopeful Super Bowl champion chiefs We'll see they are right now. Maybe they will be at this time as well and it's going to be a great time for brokers and carriers to get together to talk about the issues in the industry, to find true partnerships, legitimate players in the industry, to find people that can run the lanes that they're looking for, and it's just great to see people face to face. It's going to be an awesome time. We're going to have a lot of unique events, including the golf tournament. It's a two-day team event. It's the post and pray classic. You can find out about that and the entire event at brokercarriersummitcom. It's going to be a great time. Can't wait to see you guys there and have a good time.
Speaker 1:All right, listen, we got a great episode today. We got a great guest today. I can't wait to bring him on and talk about his experience. He's been in the industry for a long time, done a lot of great work, built some great companies, and now he's helping other companies do the exact same thing. So please welcome to the show my good friend, the CEO of Diablo Ventures, tyson Lawrence. Let's go, metallica. Come on, let's go, tyson. What's up, buddy? How are you?
Speaker 1:Man thanks for having me, trey. This is a joy to start out the year on the show man. It's good to see you, man. I've enjoyed doing some work with you and getting to know your story. I'm excited for you to tell our audience a little bit about your story. So just take a quick moment and tell everybody a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, now I'm in California, out in the Bay Area, been in the transportation logistics game for nearly 25 years now, which is crazy. I've seen a lot of growth and change in the industry and recently sold my business to Global Trans and started a new one that kind of does some consulting and investing and own a Uniship franchise as well. So kind of taking the breadth of my experience in the industry and kind of spreading it out.
Speaker 1:You're living the dream man. You're successful. You exited a company. Now you're getting to play a little bit, do some things you've probably always wanted to do. I can tell you I'm excited for those moments in my career as well, moving forward. So kudos to you on that, and we appreciate you being on the show. So, before we get started, I got to ask you are you a coffee drinker, or would you prefer a water bottle? We're going to send you one for being on the show today. What do you want? Oh, this way. Coffee for sure. Oh, coffee. Okay, we'll get the mug out to you so you can enjoy a few cups on us.
Speaker 2:Pacific Northwest guy, you know, they put us on coffee.
Speaker 1:I know, man. I used to live in Portland. I love it, man. We got a lot of common bonds with that. Could you handle the gloomy weather in the winter? Is that why you went to California, or what got you from the Northwest down to California?
Speaker 2:I mean pretty much that you know. So I grew up in the eastern part of the state of Washington and Believe it or not? There's a desert over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is, that's right, the high desert, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, we got a lot more sun. We get the snow, but it wasn't the wet, gloomy kind of way Seattle and Portland were a lot of friends and family live over there, spending a lot of time over in Seattle.
Speaker 2:I love Seattle and Portland, but I went to Washington State University and I was officially on a summer break one year it was my junior year, going into my senior year and we got snow in May and I was yeah, I was like I'm done, I'm putting up my show snow shovels. So anyway, ch Robinson hired me and brought me down to the Bay Area and Been, you know, in the East Bay for almost 20 years now.
Speaker 1:Okay. Were you in Spokane area or the Tri-Cities? What part of Eastern Washington were you near?
Speaker 2:Tri-Cities born and raised in Kenwick, Washington. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's. That's funny. So my career of door-to-door sales of office supplies. We did a business trip to the Tri-Cities and we blitzed that entire area for five days selling office supplies and I'd never been there before. But man, driving up that Columbia River Gorge getting to the Tri-Cities was a beautiful drive, man, it's a. It's a nice, nice area over there, man, it's not bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty incredible. You know the wine scene is really pop, you know. Yeah, there's a lot of agricultural onions over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so wine is, you know, really big up there now and you know it's really interesting area. It was called the the secret city because it was started. The area Richland called the Tri-Cities Richland, pascom, kenowah for the three cities, and Richland was a federal town born out of the Manhattan Project back in the 40s. Really, they created the plutonium in Richland to fuel the nuclear bombs they dropped in Hiroshima.
Speaker 1:Wow, I did not know that. Wow, there's some history. Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:So the high school, the high school there in Richland is called the Richland Bombers and their logos are with the mushroom cloud.
Speaker 1:They're not hiding that at all. Man, we're the ones, we're the ones. No, and I tell you man, they.
Speaker 2:But it's really interesting, you know Oppenheimer touched on it briefly. They called it Hanford, but you know there was three locations. There was Hanford in Washington, there was Oak Ridge out in Tennessee and then there was Los Alamos in New Mexico. Those three locations came together to to do that.
Speaker 1:Wow, did not. Did not realize that. I've been there a couple times and again that drive on the Columbia River Gorge. It's weird how it goes from like like these, these huge pine trees and greenery everywhere, so then you get to a certain place and it's just desert. There's no trees, it's just.
Speaker 2:It's so awkward man, it's so weird, but it's a great part of the last one where it stops.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, it's crazy man. It's a great part of the country, that's for sure. Now, fun fact about you you are the part owner of a wood baseball bat company. Is this true?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, you know, big sports fan, grew up playing sports. Mainly football and hockey were my two sports. But you know, I played baseball because my friends did and I I claimed to be the best bullpen catcher of the you know of the time. But you know, I you know I love baseball, been involved with it, and my friend and my sisters um, he was about, you know about four years younger than us, played in the minors and was really, you know, interested in what his tool was, you know, and and what bats, and so he started creating his own and, um, when he got done playing, he wanted to start this wood baseball bat company and, you know, I got involved with him early on. Obviously, I had other things going on in the logistics industry, and so he's built it up over the years and I've kind of been a you know a part owner advisor board member and you know we're doing a lot of cool things getting ready to.
Speaker 2:We'll be major league approved here in a few years and so you know we'll be swinging. They'll be seeing some pros swinging soon.
Speaker 1:What's the name of this bat company? Now, I'm so intrigued because I'm a baseball lover myself. Man, like what is it?
Speaker 2:It's called devour bat brothers or Devour brothers. Bat, I'm sorry and at the devocom, if you go to devocom.
Speaker 2:Nice, the founder, yeah, jordan divorce. The founder is incredible. Um, knows so much about you know wood and you know the bats and the manufacturing of it and you know he's all self taught, just very interested about it. There's, you know, one kind of fun fact about it. Um, there's kind of one forest up in, uh, you know, upstate new york that produces a lot of the wood. For it. It started to branch out beyond that. Um, there's more pardon the pun but uh, there's more um Places that they're growing the wood and the maple. But for a long time it originated at a one spot in northern Upstate new york.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fascinating. I got to go to the louisville slugger factory and go through their tour and they talk about that, how there's a forest that like all the All the bats pretty much are made out of the wood that are in these fours, especially the early bats you know back in the early 1900s and you know the bats of bay rooth and some of those guys would use All came from from those fours. So sometimes the players would go and like see the process that come to louisville They'd look at different woods and pick bats out. George Brett went and looked at woods back in the 70s and 80s at the factory. So it's a fascinating process. It's really cool. So now I'm really intrigued. I can't wait to see, uh, the devour brothers name out there. Uh, majorly baseball, that's. That's pretty sweet man, that's cool. Yeah, it's fun stuff. Are you a mariners fan then? Or giants or athletics? So who's your lord?
Speaker 2:I'm a mariners fan, you know. And then I picked I didn't watch nl baseball until I moved down here to the bay area.
Speaker 1:Oh man, so you missed out king griffy and some of those. Well, those are my guys. You know, griffy was my lily maize.
Speaker 2:Jay grew up jay bewner Edgar martinez. Edgar, oh yeah everybody in my family and friends know where we were when you know the. Grand Prix, rounded third and slid into home, um, to beat the Yankees. I mean, that was a seminal moment growing up. Our sports team sucked. I mean the 90s, the adults, the seahawks were horrible. Um, you know, the sonics were decent we had you know, sonics had to run there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they were the finals against the goals, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the mariners were tough. So the mariners that you know, they they've always got a soft spot, but man, they're, they're tough and uh, so, being here in the bay area and following, I came down right when Barry was going off doing his thing, and so that was quite, you know, experience to be around here and seeing that. But you know the a's.
Speaker 1:I went to a lot of a's games.
Speaker 2:So I have a solid spot for them and Was here during the money ball era and kind of you know, I'd watch the mariners and they came to town but the same time they were exciting to watch, so sad to see them leave. But you know, the bay area has become more of a Giants, you know uh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Giants, 49ers, that's for sure. But a lot of history there, a lot of cool moments, that's for sure. I hate to bring up one, but you remember Harold Reynolds getting thrown out of home by my, my favorite player, bo Jackson, from the Kansas City of Worlds back in the day? Do you remember that?
Speaker 2:I absolutely do. You know, bo was one of my uh Nemesis because he kept. You know I was a big Brian Bosworth fan.
Speaker 1:You know yeah. Yeah, he ran over that dude man.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you the one guy that took him on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's phenomenal. All right, let's turn our attention to business a little bit, because you've had an incredible career in transportation. You've built companies up, you've sold them and I wanna focus on leadership a little bit, because that takes a lot of leadership. To do that. There's a lot of vision that goes into it, obviously, creating the right team that can build that type of a company, and then the foresight to keep growing and to find the right buyer and sell it and exit appropriately all those kind of things. It takes a lot of leadership. Where did you start to realize in your journey that man, I'm a leader and I wanna be a leader and I wanna learn and become a better leader? What's that process like for you?
Speaker 2:You know it began playing sports. Really I've always kind of viewed things. I view myself as an athlete, even though I haven't played in a long time.
Speaker 1:but I think we all still do.
Speaker 2:Right, you know I just kinda looked through things. You know that vision. So being a leader was something that I gravitated towards people who were leaders, mentors, things like that and so I've always kind of took notes and tried to be some. I pride myself as being resilient and that kind of tends to draw people towards you and I just, you know I felt comfortable in that role. It wasn't something that was shying away from, something I accepted. And you know I just I've learned as I got into business that not a lot of people want that. They don't accept that. You know they're, you know they're just content on just kind of playing their role and doing their thing. So I found that business is very similar to that where I could kind of build my teams and my groups and that's why I looked at stuff as kind of like a general manager. I want to get the best players and put them in the best position to succeed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and it's interesting, some people really want to play the game, some people want to coach it, some people want to build the team and just you know, finding your place and getting really passionate about that makes a big difference. Did you read any books or any podcasts or anything that really helped you in your leadership journey, especially like maybe some of those tough times, because leadership is not for the faint of heart. It's a difficult job from time to time. Anything that really stands out, that helped you out?
Speaker 2:Oh, certainly. So you know, I had a part of my career where I actually had a big failure when my first business went bankrupt and you know I had to find myself.
Speaker 2:I had that business for 10 years, from when I was 26 to about 35. So you know that's a different part of my life where, you know, I was having kids and things like that and just trying to find myself as a leader. And when I was starting the new business I really took a hard look at myself OK, what am I good at and what am I not good at? And I kind of started leaning into those things that I was good at and trying to find leaders and people who kind of embodied what I wanted to be.
Speaker 2:At the time, around here in the Bay Area, steve Jobs had just passed away. He was getting a lot of, you know, flowers, as I say nowadays, and you know shoutouts and things like that, and personally I kind of never really liked, you know, I figured like he was kind of a dick, and so you saw a lot of people trying to emulate that style and that just wasn't me. And so during that time I leaned on leaders and coaches that I looked at, leaders and coaches who I kind of thought embodied that you know feeling of teamwork and you know empathy and you know mindfulness and all that type of stuff. And Pete Carroll, you know coach for the USC Trojans and obviously my beloved Seahawks, had a great book called Win Forever and it kind of outlined his you know view on things and it was really a he's kind of like a player's coach. He's very into mental health.
Speaker 1:Totally yeah.
Speaker 2:You know all that type of stuff. So that helped big time during that time because it kind of gave me a blueprint to kind of follow. And then you know Gary Vaynerchuk. You know he kind of popped up about that time and I came across his stuff and you know I connected with kind of his viewpoint on a lot of things, one of them being empathy. You know I didn't. I used to. I used to view my I'm a very empathetic person and I used to view that as a weakness.
Speaker 1:And I was yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was trying to fight against it, you know, and, like you know, I thought like I had to be tougher and you know, like Steve Jobs and all this stuff, and it just wasn't jiving with me. And so when I kind of saw him pumping out and kind of leaning into that, I thought, you know, I'm not going to fight it anymore. So I really leaned into that and you know, it changed. You know the way I view everything, you know, I just kind of harnessed it and come to terms with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know Pete Carroll. He's one of those guys that, even though he's won at many different places on different levels, all of his players love playing for him. You know they have such an appreciation for him and I think that at historically, or maybe old school coaching or old school leadership was, you have to be tough. Personal relationships are not important. In fact, that gets in the way of great leadership and great teams, and I think the opposite is true. You're seeing a shift in that. I mean Dan Campbell and the Lions, the run that they've had this year. He's definitely a player's coach Andy reads a player's coach but they also have a high level of excellence. They've got high standards and I think that's the challenge with leadership is maintaining high levels of excellence, high standards for your organization, for yourself, while still being very personable, and I think empathy is the key to that. So I love the fact you talk about that. I'm a big fan of great Vanderchuk. That's to me that's like the actual, the key, the critical component, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was life changing. You know, I don't know, you know it was huge. It just kind of changed my focus and I wasn't afraid of it. You know, yeah, yeah, you know, and you breed competition. I love competition and you know that kind of you can still love people and still compete, you know right, right exactly.
Speaker 2:Down. You know, and yeah, I came from the old school coaching and I never responded well to people getting in my face and yelling at me. You know that type of stuff. But if someone were to take me aside, coach me and say, hey, let's do this, try that, look for this, you know that went a lot further. So you know, I just leaned into that and I've been leaning into that and you know a lot of my I, a lot of my guys in my first company and second company stuck around for 10 and 15 years because I gave them the agency to kind of develop their own careers and opportunities within you know our business as we were moving in the right direction, in the same direction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, my dad was a bobby knight this you know. Disciple coach, my high school basketball coach same way, you know, really tough as nails. But the difference I think was was how much, like my high school coach, he knew he cared about you. He'd give you rides to and from practice. I remember one.
Speaker 1:I remember one time I blew out my shoes in a game, like you just had to win for a cut and I literally blew out my shoes towards the end of the game. I couldn't play the rest of the game because we didn't have extra shoes on backup. That's on. And so I was out, right and that was a Friday night, and he said, hey, uh, what time are you gonna be up in the morning? And I said I don't know, probably eight, nine o'clock. So he goes okay, I'll be your house, it's in a clock. It comes over to my house. He knew I didn't have a lot of money, pick me up, took me to the shoe store and bought me another pair of shoes, just little stuff like that. You're like man, this guy really cares about me, right. But he had this level of excellence, this standard, that he wouldn't compromise on and again, I think that's a big, it's a big part of leadership is managing both of those. How do you keep high standards but also be really, really personable? So we're gonna come back and talk about more leadership in just a minute.
Speaker 1:I say we're gonna take a quick break and talk about our sponsors. Say thanks to them for keeping the bills on. Listen, if you are a freight broker out there and you are looking to get rid of the back office stuff All the things you don't like about having a brokerage or maybe you're an agent and you're not just happy With where you are at your current agency, be sure to check out our friends over at spi logistics. You can find them at success dot, spi 3, plcom. They've got the technology systems, backoffice support to help you succeed and they love helping agents succeed. So again, check them out at success dot, spi 3, plcom and change your career with spi logistics. All right, tyson, gonna get back to the conversation about leadership and consulting now. You are doing a lot of consulting in the industry. You're helping other companies with the lessons you've learned along the way. When did you know that consulting, coaching, that this is really what you wanted to do?
Speaker 2:Um, you know, it was kind of a slow burn Recently. So when I sold my business to global trans Um, I went into agent development with them for a few years and spending some time in there listening to other agents and understanding what they Problems, that they were having issues they were having really opened my eyes to. You know what I can provide and what you know. I guess I just realized I was the old guy in the room all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:It comes up on you fast, doesn't it man?
Speaker 2:I tell you and, um, I just had some things that I had I thought I took for granted that I'd learned in the business that others could use and you know, and kind of pull forward with. So I started looking at it. As you know, this is the point in my career where I'm a coach. Now, you know, um, I kind of Saw myself as a player coach for a long time. I've transitioned to more coaching and mentoring in my roles in my businesses and things like that. So I thought you know, this is an opportunity to kind of take it out there and and you know, help anybody else that I can and provide that mentoring is big. I'm a big, you know. I've had lots of mentors in my life, so I love to be able to kind of Provide that back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's huge, you know. So I'm somewhere along the way you kind of ask yourself when am I gonna have enough experience to be a consultant? And then it shows up and for me it usually it happened about the time that I realized that all of my all my favorite sports athletes I'm now older than all of them. You know I was older, I was older than everybody on the field. I'm like, okay, maybe I've been around the block a little longer than I thought. I've got a little, a little wisdom to potentially share with people, and so I can I can fully appreciate that. Do you feel like your leadership style has changed at all in the last 10 to 15 years? Like what? What does maybe you know change? What have you gotten rid of? What have you added? How are you helping other people really become great leaders?
Speaker 2:Because again, that's the crux of business, in my opinion is great leadership yeah yeah, you know it's more, even more challenging now than ever With virtual um, at least for guys like myself, um, who don't know any better, right, you know we grew up in the environment of having you know someone kind of over your shoulder or whatever. You're in that environment All the time and that's the way I built my past companies.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't like I was micromanaging, but you know you, you have conversations at the water cooler or in the kitchen or whatever, with different people, that's just different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those, those organic conversations I miss and those were big in my early career. We're having those kind of one-off conversations and I got two new guys that are working for me now 21 and 23 to the industry, and that's the challenge I'm finding is, you know, we try to get in the office as much as possible. But you know, with virtual work you know virtual, you know meetings and things like that sometimes, and especially with me traveling and doing the stuff that I'm doing it's easier just to connect that way and I'm trying to find ways to have those conversations when you get to know people and understand, you know what their motivations are and what their goals are, and that stuff helps someone like me in a leadership role. So I know where to put people and what their you know positions to play, and so I'm having a hard time finding those opportunities. So that's a challenge now that I'm dealing with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's an area that a lot of people are trying to figure out, because you know most of the managers and leaders pre-covid, we're used to exactly that having people in office having those spur the moment conversations, watercooler conversations. Let's go have lunch, popping them off as real quick, let's chat for a moment, let me come sit at your desk and help you out with something, and those things are much more difficult now with virtual. You know, you have to be very intentional about it. What we've found that's really interesting is sometimes We'll just jump on a zoom call or teams call, whatever video platform you're using. We'll jump on a video call and just work together Like we're not even working on something together. We're just working together, you know, and that gives us the time to have conversations.
Speaker 1:Oh, did you hear about this? And you know, oh, you know I talked about sports or kind of have those, those conversations and that's helped out a lot. But, man, if you're not used to that, it's, it's weird for people to figure that out. So I think it's critical for leaders to adapt and start to understand hey, there's a new way to lead. There's some new skills that I need to learn to be an effective leader if I'm in that situation. So I think that's why we're seeing a lot of companies wanting to go back to the office, because they're just uncomfortable, they're just not sure how to do it. I think it's very common that you're finding that situation to be the case, so yeah, no, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:It's challenging. I talked to other business leaders and you know some of them have, you know, different businesses. I you know, and I would say this from you know, in building a freight brokerage, I feel like operations really needs to be in in in house. Sales can kind of drift and do different things outside the office, but you know there's a lot of in operations where you're kind of feeding off one another and you know kind of helping you know get the whole thing done and so anyway, I mean I know it's done, virtual too, it's. I think it's somewhere hybrid in there that we're all working towards. Yeah, and I've heard and I've heard other people say the same thing.
Speaker 1:I've heard other people say sales needs to be in house because the competitiveness and operations can be out right. So it's like it's it's kind of you know multiple ways to look at it and then there's not really a right answer. But it's like man, how can we, how can we best make this work in our organization? And I think that's the challenge of this century, or this decade is trying to figure that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry, you know, jump in there, but I think it's culture. You know, really you got to start in figuring out. You know what your culture is, and not necessarily so you know before I I, so I'm Gen X, you know. I think we're about the same age where I had, I had my first email account, like when I started the profession.
Speaker 1:It's almost embarrassing my mind still thinks that way.
Speaker 2:Right, you know. And how do you get it done without technology? Where the new people, the new generation is thinking you know, how do they get it done with technology?
Speaker 2:And I don't want to be an old curmudgeon and be like, oh, you know, we're doing it the old school way. But I think the answer is somewhere in between, you know, and you kind of use the instincts that you developed, you know, without the technology, to help the technology, you know, get better and leverage it. But yeah, it's just a real challenge and you know, I don't think there's one way of doing it. It just kind of depends on your, your culture.
Speaker 1:Right. I mean we're we're a completely virtual company, so we're used to it, so we kind of live that way. But we've taken, so we don't have office space to to pay for. So instead we're working on having retreats where we can all get together twice a year, three times a year, those types of things to try to, you know, facilitate some of those experiences and shared experiences and things like that. But there's no right answer. But man, it's a, it's a challenge for everybody that we have to just kind of figure out. So it'll be interesting to see where it all kind of, where it winds up and where it goes Right.
Speaker 1:We got to, we got to pause for a second, we got to have a little fun on the show. We always like to have a little fun, tyson. So today we've got a game for you called. Would you rather? All right, here we go. Here's how it's going to work. We got five rounds. We're going to put up just a banner with a couple of options and we want you to tell us which one you would pick. All right, so first of all, number one would you rather have two long front teeth like a beaver, or no teeth at all?
Speaker 2:Hmm, I think I'll have to go. Yeah, I'm thinking of utility, so you can get a lot of done with big front teeth. You can not only smile you can non things you can fashion yourself, probably an arrow out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean no teeth. You're really kind of, you know, hamstrung into just like drinking liquids. That's no good. That's no good. I think I'd rather suffer with two big front teeth. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They have to mash everything up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not good, not good, I'm with you on that. I'm with on that. Okay, all right, number two, number two would you rather have to use shrimp flavored toothpaste or deodorant that smells like cheese? Shrimp flavored toothpaste or deodorant that smells like cheese?
Speaker 2:Wow, that's tough one.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've got my answer. What are you going to do? What are you going to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'm going to go with man the shrimp flavored toothpaste.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm with you because you can put a piece of gum in. After that you can totally fix the breath afterwards, like I don't care what the flavor of the toothpaste is. I'm with you. That's because deodorant that smells like cheese, what is that? Who wants to do that? That's, that doesn't make sense. It gets stuck in your clothes. You know just the smell of cheese. It's not good. Yeah, okay, all right. Number three would you rather eat all your food with your hands or use utensils with only your non-dominant hand? Are?
Speaker 2:you going? Are you eating with?
Speaker 1:just your hands, or would you rather you know, eat with your non-dominant hand. Yeah, I'm going with hands.
Speaker 2:I'm going with hands, just pick it up and just get after it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know just get it over. It's just too much effort, you know.
Speaker 1:It's way too much effort, I don't know. Yeah, I kind of like the challenge my dad always challenged me to be in by next year's grown up. So sometimes I'll eat with my left hand and see what it's like. Sometimes I'll write with my left hand and see how bad it is. I don't know, I kind of like that. I may. I may have to go that route, but it would be easier just to pick it up with your hands, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:I'm left handed, so there are. I've grown up in a world in which I've had to kind of get around.
Speaker 1:You know right hand. You've had to use your non-dominant hand a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I mean yeah, I guess that's. I'm thinking that you know you just get after it and you know, move on.
Speaker 1:I like it. I like it, all right. Next one Would you rather spend the day wearing wet socks or with a popcorn kernel stuck in your teeth?
Speaker 2:Oh man, that was tough, neither sounds good. Yeah, I think I would go with the wet socks.
Speaker 1:Really, because see, here's my, here's my take on the kernel stuck in your teeth. Depending on where it's stuck in your teeth, you might not feel it, you might not notice it, but wet socks, man. You're feeling that all day. That's not going to work.
Speaker 2:So I was thinking, the kernel though you can't get out, you know how. I guess there was one that like you know, yeah, the yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Somehow you just got to forget it's in there. I think I'm going kernel because I could probably live with that, but the wet socks, oh man, that would be terrible. All right, final round, final round here. Would you rather be followed by a band wherever you go, or by someone narrating your life?
Speaker 2:Wow, maybe narrating my life, jim Nance, to follow you.
Speaker 1:You have Jim Nance following you around narrating your life Like it's the final round of masters, that would actually be pretty dope A band would be fun, but there's moments where the band would be a problem. You know you go to dinner. That's a problem. You go to a movie. This is a problem. It's a problem with the band.
Speaker 1:So I think yeah, exactly, I think someone narrating your life is probably the way to go on that, all right. Well, that is. Would you rather this time around? Tyson, thanks for playing. Hope you enjoyed that. What is next on the on tap for Diablo? Free adventures, man, what are you working on right now?
Speaker 2:Man, we're just got a really big 2024 start going and we're excited. So the franchise is only eight months old and that's around LTL and small package shipment. My consulting business is still roughly about that old too. So we're and I have investments that I've made in the over the last few months and keeping track of all that stuff and growing all that stuff. It's hard because it's like the first full year. So I don't know what to kind of put out there as a goal. I mean, we have some goals and things like that, but you don't really know what's. You know we haven't felt out our stride yet, but we're going to be making a lot of changes and you know I'm just excited for what's to come to challenge.
Speaker 1:That's great. I love it. I think people need to reach out to you because it's always interesting to me how we grow up in our entire childhood. We have coaches all the way through high school and college, and then we get out of college and we don't think we need a coach anymore. We don't think we need anybody to help us out and they have you as an outside voice to help people with issues they're dealing with. That you've already dealt with. I just think it's a win, you know. So I'm hopeful that people reach out to you and that you know you can help them out with the experience you have. What's the best way for somebody to get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:You go to LinkedIn I'm on LinkedIn or you can see your semi, or go to Diablofreightcom and you can. There's a quick way to just get your information in there and it'll shoot me an email and I'll reach back out to you.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. I love that. And you got some new website coming soon and some different messaging. You're very excited about all of that. So, tyson, thanks for joining us today. Man, always good to talk to you, and you'll have to come back and see us later on in the year. Tell us how things are going.
Speaker 2:Hey, that'd be great, Tray, thanks for having me on and have a great 2024.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, tyson. We'll see you, buddy. All right, everybody, make sure that you come back every Tuesday for a new episode of Standing Out, learn more about sales, marketing and leadership, and be sure to follow us on YouTube. Just search for the Beta Podcast Network and be sure to check us out there. All of our content is going to be there Every episode of Standing Out, every episode of the Word on the Street, which happens live at noon on Fridays, and the Edge as well, on the latest in logistics technology, showcasing all that off. You can find it all right there. If you're interested in becoming on the show or becoming a sponsor, be sure to shoot us an email at hello at betaconsultinggroupcom, and don't forget to subscribe to that YouTube channel when you check it out. Thanks again to our sponsor, spi Logistics, for making it possible. And remember stop standing. Still start standing out. We'll see you next time. Bye.