WEBVTT 00:00:01.762 --> 00:00:08.134 Hello and welcome to the Bootstrapper's Guide to Logistics, the podcast highlighting founders doing it the way that doesn't get a lot of attention. 00:00:08.134 --> 00:00:12.570 We're here to change that by sharing their stories and inspiring others to take the leap. 00:00:13.699 --> 00:00:16.449 It's a roller coaster ride that you might ultimately fail. 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:19.068 That's when I kind of knew I was on to something. 00:00:19.068 --> 00:00:20.646 It was very hard. 00:00:20.646 --> 00:00:23.068 It truly is building a legacy. 00:00:23.068 --> 00:00:26.289 The more life you live, the more wisdom you have. 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:30.251 Because we are where we're supposed to be kind of answering the call. 00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:33.209 Don't shoulder entrepreneurship on your own. 00:00:33.209 --> 00:00:35.155 I'm your host, Nate Schutz. 00:00:35.155 --> 00:00:38.203 Let's build something together from the ground up. 00:00:38.203 --> 00:00:43.811 Hello everybody, and welcome back to the show. 00:00:43.811 --> 00:00:46.015 We are mid-2025. 00:00:46.015 --> 00:00:55.990 We are past the 100-episode mark on sharing founder stories and supply chain and logistics, and this week we get to stay in the Midwest, which is always special to me. 00:00:55.990 --> 00:01:08.233 I'm born and raised in Minnesota, if you can't tell by my accent already and we're going to be spending some time in Omaha this week with the founder of Able Transport, Liz Wayne. 00:01:08.233 --> 00:01:09.965 Liz, good morning, how are you today? 00:01:10.381 --> 00:01:11.486 Good Nate, how are you? 00:01:12.381 --> 00:01:13.365 I'm doing fantastic. 00:01:13.365 --> 00:01:35.081 I love to find stories that resonate with me and founders whose stories are appealing on a human level, not just a logistics level or on a business level, and there are several elements of your background that I find really compelling, and so I want to, if you don't mind. 00:01:35.081 --> 00:01:47.834 We're going to go back to the beginnings of Able Transport, unpack part of your journey, and I'd love to draw out a couple of themes that really stood out to me, which means we're going to peel the onion a little bit. 00:01:47.834 --> 00:01:56.234 But before we go to that, would you mind just explaining what Able Transport is and a little bit of your own background? 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:11.145 Yeah, so I have been in the industry for about 23 years now, worked at an asset-based shop, everywhere from accounting to dispatch, and I found ABLE. 00:02:11.145 --> 00:02:16.425 Well, 11 years ago, you know, as an agent on my own, and I started hiring staff. 00:02:16.425 --> 00:02:19.268 It'll be 10 years next month. 00:02:19.268 --> 00:02:22.746 We're having our big ABLE anniversary, so looking forward to that. 00:02:22.746 --> 00:02:25.848 So ABLE is very niche focused. 00:02:25.848 --> 00:02:34.320 We are an open deck broker, so 95 plus percent of our freight is going to be open deck heavy haul specialized. 00:02:37.306 --> 00:02:38.367 And so 10 years. 00:02:38.367 --> 00:02:43.342 In first of all, not a lot of companies make it to the 10 year mark, so congratulations. 00:02:43.342 --> 00:03:00.592 That's a huge milestone in and of itself, especially if I look at the last four years, the number of businesses that have folded or are struggling to survive, so just longevity by itself is something to be celebrated, so congratulations. 00:03:00.592 --> 00:03:08.159 I'd love to help promote and share when you have your anniversary party and help you celebrate. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:34.236 So one of the things that you mentioned in starting the business in 2015 was that you wanted to reinvent the freight broker reputation more positive reputation than they do now, with a lot of the double brokering and freight fraud and the less attractive element that has worked its way into the industry. 00:03:34.236 --> 00:03:40.447 So what do you remember about freight brokerage reputations 10 years ago versus now? 00:03:42.710 --> 00:03:46.435 is is interesting to me because I've never thought about it that way. 00:03:46.435 --> 00:03:52.532 Um, because I don't put the fraudsters in the category of, like, the good guys. 00:03:52.532 --> 00:04:01.443 So when I say reinvent the freight broker's reputation, that's, you know, the goal there was really like from the shippers perspective. 00:04:01.443 --> 00:04:20.120 So one of our things that able was, you know, and still is, we don't give loads back, so we're going to honor our quote, we're going to provide a truck, you know, and the shippers might not understand that ultimately, brokers who honor their price are gambling every day. 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:26.605 Um, you know, and when we win, more often than we lose, we can build a sustainable business. 00:04:26.725 --> 00:04:33.711 But at the end of the day, for the most part, when we provide a price to the shipper, we don't know what we're going to pay the truck. 00:04:33.711 --> 00:04:41.235 And so it was just kind of like provide a more reliable experience for the shipper. 00:04:41.235 --> 00:04:50.708 When you used to make calls to sell freight brokerage services, like the first question would be you know, are you an asset based broker? 00:04:50.708 --> 00:05:15.439 Or you know, I don't work with brokers, and so I think that the industry as a whole has leveled up since 2015, because that is no longer shippers first question, like they are more apt to work with a broker than they were 10 or 15 years ago, and I think that's because our reputation is evolving and I think we've leveled up as a whole. 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:24.305 To be honest, Well, I remember trying to describe what a paper rate was to somebody outside of the industry. 00:05:24.305 --> 00:05:24.867 Now, what do you mean? 00:05:24.867 --> 00:05:25.629 What's a paper rate? 00:05:25.629 --> 00:05:29.911 You would give somebody a price and then charge them something different later. 00:05:29.911 --> 00:05:31.783 Isn't that wrong? 00:05:31.783 --> 00:05:43.531 And I'm like no, it happens all the time, cause I've been on the shipper side and the 3PL side and trying to explain that contract rate doesn't actually mean there's a contract that's enforceable. 00:05:43.531 --> 00:05:47.389 And to people outside of the industry they're like I don't get it. 00:05:47.389 --> 00:05:48.846 Why would that be that? 00:05:48.846 --> 00:05:50.547 Why does the industry operate that way? 00:05:50.547 --> 00:06:00.870 And to be able to say, yeah, here's my price and I'm committed to it, no matter what happens down the road, is a shift. 00:06:00.870 --> 00:06:05.211 Even today it's still a shift for some mindsets. 00:06:06.261 --> 00:06:34.045 It's funny what you just shared and as a shipper, from that perspective, we just had this conversation in my office yesterday, so working on some kind of like account development with that team and just kind of trying to pour some of our I've got a president with, you know, 25, 30 years of experience like myself, so we're really trying to take this group that's sort of newer to their role and just pour this experience into them. 00:06:34.045 --> 00:06:45.031 And you know, um, and it's funny because what came out yesterday in the meeting was just that was shippers don't always look at a price as a truck. 00:06:45.031 --> 00:06:46.874 So but we do, you know. 00:06:46.874 --> 00:06:54.329 So when my guys are quoting something, it's like, hey, you, you take this, you're going to have a truck like that, and we don't, you know, we don't fail. 00:06:54.329 --> 00:07:00.781 And it's like they take it so seriously, actually to the point, that it's kind of like they don't understand how the industry totally operates. 00:07:00.781 --> 00:07:19.302 Um, because of this kind of just operational mindset that we've instilled in them, which is great, Like I'm not complaining, but it's funny because it's like, you know, we challenged them last week to, you know, when you get a good price in on something, call them and say, hey, how's my price? 00:07:19.341 --> 00:07:23.072 Look, you know, do some followup, and so they had great success with that. 00:07:23.072 --> 00:07:27.045 And it was kind of like how's that, How's that work, why is that? 00:07:27.045 --> 00:07:37.002 And we came to the conclusion the shippers don't just believe that a number equates to a truck, Like when they hear, hey, I've got a truck 30 miles out ready to rock. 00:07:37.002 --> 00:07:42.552 It really closes the deal in a way that just the number on its own isn't going to. 00:07:42.552 --> 00:07:48.836 So I don't want to sidetrack, but it's just funny because literally we ended the day yesterday with that whole conversation. 00:07:48.836 --> 00:07:51.336 So it's funny that you share that perspective as a shipper. 00:07:52.478 --> 00:08:24.088 Well, it would be interesting, I think, for everyone to spend a week in everybody else's shoes, from a broker to a carrier to a shipper, and begin to appreciate what it actually takes to move cargo around the country or around the world, and a deeper understanding of shippers aren't thinking like freight brokers, they're thinking about products and they're thinking about customers, and transportation is a necessary step in that transaction. 00:08:24.088 --> 00:08:30.473 And oftentimes the shipper doesn't recognize the sale of the goods until it has left their facility. 00:08:30.473 --> 00:08:39.466 And so a warehouse is not just holding product, it's also the cash register and that truck that's 30 minutes out. 00:08:39.466 --> 00:08:56.054 If it doesn't show up, then the sale doesn't happen, oftentimes until the next day, and so it's not just hey, I have to pay overtime to somebody to stay late that evening until the truck can make it after the facility is closed, and there's an assessorial charge or something along those lines. 00:08:56.054 --> 00:09:12.100 It is a revenue recognition for the shipper community is part of it, and then their commitments to their customers, for the shipper community is part of it, and then their commitments to their customers, and most product-based shippers are thinking about those types of things not. 00:09:12.581 --> 00:09:33.207 I wonder how many trucks are within two hours of us on a Thursday afternoon and that's the value that freight brokerages provide is thinking of all of those variables and what a dynamic market looks like, so that a shipper can focus on growing their business, which is not a transportation business at its core. 00:09:33.207 --> 00:09:43.816 And and the deeper I get into my own career, the more appreciation I have for what it actually takes on the ground. 00:09:43.816 --> 00:09:59.505 I worked at a carrier when I was in college and then 14 years as a 3PL and then about a decade on the shipper side that know their subject matter better than anybody else is a superpower. 00:09:59.505 --> 00:10:01.947 It's what makes commerce happen. 00:10:01.947 --> 00:10:08.480 So if you haven't heard from a shipper in a long time how much your work is appreciated, just know that it is. 00:10:09.062 --> 00:10:15.263 Yeah, no, I love the antidote there and thinking about the warehouse like a cash register. 00:10:15.263 --> 00:10:25.682 I'm going to share that with my team because, you know, I think we all feel it at the end of the month or the end of a quarter, but it's a it feels like a really good way to help them understand why. 00:10:25.682 --> 00:10:29.426 That is why they experienced those, those spikes at that time. 00:10:30.649 --> 00:10:31.291 Yeah, it's not. 00:10:31.291 --> 00:10:40.302 Um, transportation is a part of a shipper's business, but it is not their business, and that's something I try to remind uh other participants in the industry about. 00:10:40.302 --> 00:10:42.346 Is you're thinking about trucking all day? 00:10:42.346 --> 00:10:43.932 Most shippers aren't. 00:10:44.897 --> 00:10:45.097 Yeah. 00:10:45.169 --> 00:10:47.317 They're thinking about products and customers. 00:10:47.317 --> 00:10:54.816 I'd like to go back to a little bit of your early days. 00:10:54.816 --> 00:11:06.600 Me that, when you were young, you had a bunch of different paths that you were considering, in that you had new ideas every day about what you wanted to be when you grew up. 00:11:06.600 --> 00:11:08.312 What were some of the things you wanted to be? 00:11:09.333 --> 00:11:13.384 Well, I remember when I was really young I thought I could be everything. 00:11:13.384 --> 00:11:22.654 So it was like, oh, I'm going to be like a firefighter for a month, and then I'm going to be a banker for a month, and then I'm going to be a banker for a month, and then I'm going to be a teacher. 00:11:22.654 --> 00:11:24.821 Maybe I could give that a whole school year, I don't know. 00:11:24.821 --> 00:11:27.837 And then so I thought you could, just the world was my oyster. 00:11:27.837 --> 00:11:31.313 I thought you could just do all the things all the time. 00:11:31.313 --> 00:11:38.311 So I do remember very vividly, like planning out my 200 careers, you know. 00:11:38.311 --> 00:11:42.551 So that's when I was really, really, probably like under 10 years old, I suppose. 00:11:44.355 --> 00:11:46.480 And as an entrepreneur, you probably get to be all. 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:50.475 You are a banker and you have to put out fires all day and you have to teach other people. 00:11:50.475 --> 00:11:53.643 So maybe you, you've actually achieved it. 00:11:54.051 --> 00:11:54.772 Yeah, for sure. 00:11:54.772 --> 00:11:57.797 I mean I think this entrepreneurial journey is just that. 00:11:57.797 --> 00:12:08.182 It's like getting to wear a hundred hats and I mean, you know, you've heard a lot of people in logistics just say they have ADHD. 00:12:08.182 --> 00:12:22.065 I mean, I've never been diagnosed, but I probably do, and I think that's a superpower for entrepreneurs really, because, um, you know, if you look at it that way, it's like we get to do different things all of the time. 00:12:22.065 --> 00:12:33.981 I think, you know, yesterday on that call, I was probably complaining about it, as I do sometimes, because there's a burden to wearing all the hats, but also what a privilege, you know, you never get bored. 00:12:36.123 --> 00:12:48.567 So what is it about the idea of, or when was it that the idea of entrepreneurship for you started to not just be a random idea, but an actual path? 00:12:51.370 --> 00:13:06.715 You know, I think it really so when I set out, it wasn't really to build the company that I have today. 00:13:06.715 --> 00:13:08.099 So now I am excited to build a bigger company than I have today. 00:13:08.099 --> 00:13:12.250 But you know, 11, 12 years ago or whatever, when I quit my last job, that wasn't necessarily the goal. 00:13:12.250 --> 00:13:50.996 Um, I wanted to be a freight agent for more flexible hours and I built myself a home office and I had babies at home and well, oh, yeah, okay, I was expecting one when I quit my last job I'm just trying to think through exactly how old the kids are, but it was really in like a, my husband and I had a real estate brokerage and so it was really like for flexibility and to be able to do the work from home and not commute, go straight upstairs to the kids, and it would allow us to multitask and work on the real estate business. 00:13:50.996 --> 00:14:12.958 Um, so that was the plan, was just really for myself and my family in the beginning, and then it quickly turned into like this is a 24 seven gig and that is kind of not what I uh, cause I had always worked, you know, with small teams and offices where like, yeah, there's on call, but you're rotating it. 00:14:12.958 --> 00:14:19.817 Or you have, um, you know vacation days, or you know Saturdays, Sundays, and it just got to be. 00:14:19.817 --> 00:14:28.053 You know the trucking doesn't stop, and so I didn't necessarily want it to be the person um on call 24, seven. 00:14:28.114 --> 00:14:33.630 And so I also, at the same time, sort of had been working on a few um. 00:14:33.630 --> 00:14:40.183 I had been working on one big opportunity for like six months a long, slow, large sale. 00:14:40.183 --> 00:14:44.114 Big opportunity for like six months, a long, slow, large sale. 00:14:44.114 --> 00:14:46.217 Who's still my biggest customer 10 years later? 00:14:46.217 --> 00:15:09.484 Um, and simultaneously another um really large customer just happened to walk in my front door, uh, walk in their dog at my first office space, my little three or 400 foot office space, and so at that time looked around and it's like, okay, I with these couple of accounts, I can support some payroll and with some help I can get some relief from this 24-7 thing. 00:15:11.033 --> 00:15:19.823 And so that's when kind of the vision turned into having a small office and then to go from, you know, to kind of scale from there. 00:15:19.823 --> 00:15:27.462 It was all about the customers, like they needed a company like us. 00:15:27.462 --> 00:15:42.253 The construction job site had been left behind by transportation, and so once I started to kind of realize that growth was really easy and really fun, you know, until here, post COVID freight recession, it, it. 00:15:42.253 --> 00:15:47.532 It's been a little less fun lately, but it's um, so it was sort of an evolution. 00:15:47.532 --> 00:15:50.139 I didn't just set out to have able as it is today. 00:15:51.865 --> 00:15:56.297 And what have you learned about yourself in that period of going Well? 00:15:56.297 --> 00:16:04.934 First of all, I also love to understand what is it like to have small children and be a mom while starting a company, and how you would keep your sanity. 00:16:04.934 --> 00:16:05.775 I have no idea. 00:16:05.775 --> 00:16:10.298 I'm responsible for people and I have to shape and mold them. 00:16:10.298 --> 00:16:26.890 Think about processes. 00:16:26.890 --> 00:16:32.062 Did that come naturally to you, or was that a place in your journey where you had to adapt quickly? 00:16:34.691 --> 00:16:36.613 You know partly both. 00:16:36.613 --> 00:16:51.984 I think I'm definitely process oriented, so like it was not ever hard for me to identify the best way to do something and to want that for myself, my team, my company. 00:16:51.984 --> 00:17:04.550 Now getting results through other people, though that's you know, um, that's you know. 00:17:04.550 --> 00:17:05.673 Um, as a leader, I can be impatient, I definitely you know. 00:17:05.673 --> 00:17:13.557 You only sort of know like you spend your whole life in your own head, right, and so you don't know what other people don't know, and I think that's you know. 00:17:14.097 --> 00:17:38.616 At some point along the way I started kind of taking opening day training and stuff like way back to the beginning, because, um, you just it's hard to remember every little thing you've took in over all of these years and you bring somebody new in, and so I think that's where I could have done better is probably, um, I don't know if it would have been like management training or leadership training or that for myself. 00:17:38.616 --> 00:17:50.696 Um, because I just kind of expected everybody to tick like me and be motivated in the same way and by the same things that I am, and that's just not the case, and nor should it be. 00:17:50.696 --> 00:17:51.719 It's not their business. 00:17:51.719 --> 00:17:55.255 You know what I mean, and so kind of it all takes time. 00:17:55.255 --> 00:17:55.817 You get better. 00:17:55.817 --> 00:18:03.132 I think today I'm the best leader that I've ever been, but I still have a long way to go on my journey. 00:18:03.132 --> 00:18:03.834 You know what I mean. 00:18:05.277 --> 00:18:08.202 What are you most proud of, then, in your own growth? 00:18:10.391 --> 00:18:24.762 You know, I guess just probably that I think in the like I was in a leadership role at the last company I worked for and sometimes I think back and I'm like what was he being my boss? 00:18:24.762 --> 00:18:26.076 Like what was he thinking? 00:18:26.076 --> 00:18:34.101 He let me treat people like that or he let me Um, and so I think I'm proud of that. 00:18:34.101 --> 00:18:38.301 I bring um just a more sort of like love. 00:18:38.301 --> 00:18:39.554 He called me as bulldog. 00:18:39.554 --> 00:18:46.439 You know, like that's the energy that I took to situations back then and I think today I bring a more level head. 00:18:46.439 --> 00:19:03.442 You know, it's just like there's, I think, when you, if you're not a good leader or manager or whatever the case, it's like just that pound your fist and that gets stuff done and so like, if it gets enough done, you don't really evolve past that. 00:19:03.442 --> 00:19:04.605 But for me that's what it's been. 00:19:04.605 --> 00:19:08.000 It's just kind of moving past that and finding you know better ways. 00:19:09.530 --> 00:19:11.996 I like the way you said that evolve past that. 00:19:11.996 --> 00:19:29.743 When I've had leaders in my career that expressed anger or, you know, really big frustration about a situation or about a moment, I remember thinking to myself ooh, that's a potentially dangerous way to make change happen. 00:19:29.743 --> 00:19:34.380 I've since come to look at it as it's just information. 00:19:34.380 --> 00:19:39.030 If somebody's really frustrated, it's hey. 00:19:39.030 --> 00:19:46.772 Can I ask are you upset with the situation and we need to work on that, or are you upset with me and we have something to talk about? 00:19:46.772 --> 00:19:57.968 And that simple filter helped me understand, manage up better when you needed to neutralize a difficult situation. 00:19:57.968 --> 00:20:16.616 And then, as I made all the mistakes you can make in managing people myself early in my career, I'm able to now reflect back on it and say there's no way I could have grown without somebody pulling me aside and saying, yeah, you can use force sometimes, there is a place for it. 00:20:16.616 --> 00:20:19.376 But if that's the only note, you know how to play. 00:20:20.299 --> 00:20:42.157 You're going to create a culture of fear and then people aren't going to have ideas that they're willing to share, they're not going to take risks, and you'll surround yourself with people that just agree with you, not because they agree with you, but because they're afraid of you, and that was a one of my own aha moments of I thought being in charge was the goal, like I thought that's all it took. 00:20:42.157 --> 00:20:54.806 And learning how to influence and shape and develop other people in ways that are good for them, that keep them highly engaged, is good for the business and it's good for me. 00:20:54.806 --> 00:21:04.144 It's just a different kind of emotional intelligence and maturity. 00:21:04.144 --> 00:21:20.430 And then occasionally you come across somebody who's just gifted at all of those things at a really young age or you know they're advanced beyond their years and they're highly inspiring and motivating people and I wish I had been that, but I had to learn things the hard way, by getting it wrong mostly. 00:21:21.895 --> 00:21:22.680 Yeah, same. 00:21:22.955 --> 00:21:36.843 I've got a 23-year-old son who's turning into a pretty good leader himself and he works in an organization full of young people, so he's been able to take his first couple of leaps into leadership and stuff and it's really fun to watch him. 00:21:36.914 --> 00:21:53.487 When you just said, like some people just have it, he has it and he, you know, listen, I've learned from him, like listening to him talk to some of his people, you know, if he's at the house or something and I hear him take a phone call on that, it's like wow, that was geez, you know. 00:21:53.487 --> 00:21:59.919 And for him I've really thought it's come from watching some of his good football coaches. 00:21:59.919 --> 00:22:17.132 I mean he's got like he played college football and his coaches in the Hall of Fame and it's like I, when I hear him, it's like I know that's where he got some of his you know just all of this because I mean, think about it Like. 00:22:17.132 --> 00:22:32.644 I mean, just as a football coach, like just you would never see a football coach that reached a certain level that that's the only tool they had in their toolbox was banging their fist right Like there is a time and a place, but you've got to bring more to the situation as well, you know. 00:22:32.744 --> 00:22:42.036 But I do, I feel like with some of the young people they got it from, because if they haven't had a lot of work experience, that's the leadership experience they're pulling from. 00:22:42.036 --> 00:22:42.436 You know. 00:22:43.721 --> 00:22:50.176 Well, and athletics is such a rich environment to learn those types of skills and capabilities. 00:22:50.176 --> 00:22:52.740 I was not much of an athlete myself. 00:22:52.740 --> 00:23:11.926 I made it to high school and then I was not competitive any longer, and so, watching my four children themselves go through athletics programs in volleyball and football and baseball and lacrosse I envy the learnings that they got. 00:23:11.926 --> 00:23:33.868 As high school students and for anybody who makes it to the collegiate level, you're generally going to be surrounded with mentors and teachers and people that are going to grow you as athletes but also going to grow you as human beings, and I think that's part of why recruiting is still done heavily at. 00:23:33.868 --> 00:23:45.249 You know, for athletics at college campuses in transportation and logistics is competitiveness and grit and adaptability, and- Commitment. 00:23:45.634 --> 00:23:46.317 Flexibility. 00:23:46.317 --> 00:23:55.445 All of those skills are so much easier to accumulate in an athletic environment. 00:23:55.445 --> 00:23:57.529 So were you an athlete yourself? 00:23:57.529 --> 00:24:04.923 Or where, where, where do you feel like you got most of your own development from then people in your life or in your life? 00:24:06.015 --> 00:24:07.178 Trial and error. 00:24:07.178 --> 00:24:09.162 I've done everything wrong. 00:24:09.162 --> 00:24:12.067 Now I just get it right sometimes. 00:24:12.067 --> 00:24:24.642 No, I I've shared with you that I've been part of the Vistage community for about five years, so I know, like my, my group here in Omaha has definitely helped me. 00:24:24.642 --> 00:24:50.801 You know, level up my leadership skills um as well, just kind of, um, you know, getting people in place at ABLE, kind of making sure the right people are in the right seats um to amplify the, the, the good stuff, and then also kind of to balance out what I don't bring to the table and what I don't have. 00:24:50.801 --> 00:24:58.415 Where there was a point in ABLE's history where there was probably too much of a certain type of leadership energy, call it. 00:24:58.415 --> 00:25:02.905 And so you know, I think I've learned balance in that way too. 00:25:02.967 --> 00:25:13.164 Like I said, like you know, people amplify the good stuff that I bring to the table and then people to pick up the slack and and clean up behind me where I'm lacking. 00:25:13.244 --> 00:25:13.786 You know what I mean. 00:25:13.786 --> 00:25:47.699 And so I'm in a good place hire a president who had led um you know, some offices for CH, for you know a number of years, a couple of decades, and so it was just very relevant experience, like my office, you know, very much feels like a. 00:25:47.699 --> 00:26:23.349 You know, although CH is a really big company, um, with billions in revenue, it was a lot of small offices, you know, and so there's just a lot of similarities there and um, with both of us, you know, leading now it's like I feel like we're able to move a lot faster and just for those reasons, like I said, he he amplifies some work I do and he's really good at some stuff that I'm not so good at, you know, which is really on on the people side and the leadership side, and so Well, it sounds like you have a path forward for the next 10 years. 00:26:24.455 --> 00:26:27.784 We wish you nothing but success on the in the next chapter. 00:26:27.784 --> 00:26:30.877 Last question what does able transport mean? 00:26:30.877 --> 00:26:31.438 What is? 00:26:31.438 --> 00:26:33.701 Where did the name come from and what does it mean to you? 00:26:33.721 --> 00:26:35.525 come from, and what does it mean to you? 00:26:35.525 --> 00:26:36.507 That's a good question. 00:26:36.507 --> 00:26:47.398 So, ready, willing and able, Um, but how it came to me as it was, it was in the running. 00:26:47.398 --> 00:26:51.185 I can't even remember now like my top two or three names I had chosen. 00:26:51.185 --> 00:26:53.730 But, um, I was putting on my shoes one day. 00:26:53.955 --> 00:26:57.365 I do remember, you know how some things just remember where you were at and what you were doing. 00:26:57.365 --> 00:27:08.777 I was putting on my shoes in the mudroom and I shouted in and told my husband it's able, calling it able, and it was like capable, reliable, dependable and just all of these things. 00:27:08.777 --> 00:27:10.903 And so that's kind of where it came from. 00:27:10.903 --> 00:27:27.345 But then I sent, when I sent the name over to the graphic designer and that, and when she designed the brand, I was like, yes, I loved the colors, I loved the little road, how she made the A into a road, and, um, yeah, and then I could just see it and it was I. 00:27:27.345 --> 00:27:30.036 Really I'm still, 10 years later, I'm in love with the brand. 00:27:30.036 --> 00:27:33.939 Um, still, so I, yeah, but that's kind of how it came to be. 00:27:35.079 --> 00:27:36.040 That is a great story. 00:27:36.040 --> 00:28:02.164 You never know where that moment of inspiration is going to come from, and it is similar to naming a child, because you're going to have it for a long time and it means something deeply personal, and so thank you, thank you for sharing that with us today, thanks for opening up about your journey journey I'm hoping if somebody is listening right now, that is maybe where you were 10 years ago that they have heard. 00:28:02.164 --> 00:28:31.122 I mean, the themes that I've heard from you are adaptability, just plain old hard work, doing what you said you're going to do, following through and that's maybe why I'm attracted to your story is that those are all very Midwest, humble, straightforward, old fashioned values and with that as your foundation, I have no doubt you're going to continue being successful and, like I said, we're all rooting for you, thank you. 00:28:31.142 --> 00:28:31.865 Yeah, thank you. 00:28:34.336 --> 00:28:42.595 Thanks for listening to another episode of the bootstrappers guide to logistics, and a special thank you to our sponsors and the team behind the scenes who make it all possible. 00:28:42.595 --> 00:28:46.875 Be sure to like, follow or subscribe to the podcast to get the latest updates. 00:28:46.875 --> 00:28:53.378 To learn more about the show and connect with the growing community of entrepreneurs, visit logisticsfounderscom. 00:28:53.378 --> 00:28:57.989 And, of course, thank you to all the founders who trust us to share their stories.