Speaker 1: 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.
We're here to change that by sharing their stories and
inspiring others to take the leap.
It's a roller coaster ride that you might ultimately fail.
Speaker 2: That's when I kind of knew I was on to something.
Speaker 1: It was very hard.
It truly is building a legacy.
Speaker 2: The more life you live, the more wisdom you have.
Speaker 1: Because we are where we're supposed to be, kind of
answering the call.
Don't shoulder entrepreneurship on your own.
I'm your host, Nate Schutz.
Let's build something together from the ground up.
Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Bootstrapper's Guide
to Logistics.
We are still doing what we've always done sharing founder
stories, hoping to educate and inspire others.
Some folks are on the fence about whether or not they should
jump into their first business, and then there are others, like
our guest today, Tyson Lawrence , who's the founder and CEO of
Diablo Freight Ventures that are on their third venture, and so
today we're going to unpack parts of his journey, understand
what makes him tick and why he's so bullish about the future
in his third rodeo.
So with that, Tyson, good morning.
It's so good to see you, my friend.
I can't wait to unpack your journey.
How are we finding you today?
Speaker 2: Great Nate, appreciate you having me on.
I've been a fan of the show for a while, so it's kind of a real
honor to be here, and you know I'm a big fan of yours and I
enjoy having conversations with you, so I'm looking forward to
it.
Speaker 1: Same.
I enjoy our conversations because they're wide range and
we talk about everything from family to business, to values
and everything in between.
I think you have a pretty compelling story, because I
already know most of it, but other folks don't, so why don't
we start?
I obviously mentioned this is your third venture.
Why don't you take us first on an overview of what Diablo is,
and then what have you done previously?
Speaker 2: Sure.
So Diablo for me is kind of a culmination of my career to this
point.
I've been in the industry about 25 years and ups and downs, and
I started Diablo to kind of encompass everything that I have
, all the interests that I have in the industry, from some
investments that I have and some industry startups, things like
that.
I do coaching and consulting, you know, m&a to freight
brokerages, to um, and then I have a unishippers franchise
also that.
So it's kind of three separate things all under one umbrella,
um, kind of for me in a given day I'm kind of working on one
of those three things, um, but it keeps me in the kind of in
the ball game a little bit.
And you know that's what I'm doing right now with Diablo
Freight.
But you know, like I said, I got started in the industry 25
years ago, kind of blindly, kind of like a lot of people in
logistics.
You know we find our way to this great industry and then we
can't get out, but nor do I want out out.
But, um, I got hired by ch robinson in 2000, 2001, right
around there, and then kind of got my education, you know, with
them for about two, two and a half years and then realized I
wasn't a real corporate guy, um, and I kind of wanted to get out
and see what some of the smaller options were out there
in the industry.
So worked at drage and then um did some produce for a for a
while out in monterey on the you Coast here and then started my
first freight brokerage in 2006.
So that was my first foyer into it and we were pretty much
niched into refrigerated transportation, so anything you
know produce eggs, some pharmaceuticals, floral,
anything highly perishable we wanted to get involved with.
So, um, that was my first four year and you know I've learned a
lot.
Speaker 1: I wonder if we were at the same new employee seminar
back in the day, because I joined Robinson in very uh,
early 2002.
And we we may have.
I was on the global forwarding side back then, but we may have
crossed paths and didn't know it .
But that's part of the Robinson tree is that it just continues
to expand.
And for others it was XPO or Coyote or somewhere else, was
the beginning of their tree, but I didn't realize that we were
within a year of each other at the same place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're pretty close and that's the thing about
it, and I was very fortunate that Global Trans or CH Robinson
hired me.
I had no clue who they were and what their level of importance
in the industry really, so I mean I walked blindly into it
and at the time there wasn't any really big dogs on the block
right, like Coyote wasn't around .
A lot of these other trees you mentioned that have come about
since they weren't really around .
And CH was an interesting point .
They bought up their competition American Backhaulers
.
At that point I got to see a little bit of that which is
legendary and that kind of sparked a little bit of my
vision of what I wanted to eventually build.
And, yeah, I'm just incredibly grateful that I got an
opportunity to work for CH Robson and I poo pooed him
forever, like I was like whatever you know, like who are
these guys and you know, to their credit, they kept after me
and you know I was applying that was thecom boom kind of
when I came out, or bust really.
But there were a lot of opportunities around that were
more sexy, right, sure, prestigious right, and so, uh,
anyway, all they had to say is they were, they were going to
move me to california and I was in and you're still there to
this day.
Speaker 1: So what?
What ended up happening with your first venture then?
What was it?
Um beyond, so you, you, you mentioned it's refrigerated.
You're doing a lot of perishables, straight brokerage,
and then what happened?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
So you know I kind of taken my experience to that point and I
was at that time I'd worked with large enterprise accounts.
I was very like at CH.
I got an opportunity at a very young age to be in some big
boardrooms you know like Unilever best foods and listen
to some of these conversations right, and kind of break that
veil of you know like scariness of seeing like you know this
isn't too bad, these people are just like you.
It's just they got more experience than you.
And so I kind of walked, worked in that enterprise account area
for a long time and so when I went to a smaller brokerage they
had a big enterprise account that they put me on and allowed
me to kind of start building there and when I left I was able
to kind of take some of that business with me.
So my first business really was around an enterprise account.
It was a large retail grocery chain I'm Safeway it's been so
long now at this point and we worked with their produce on the
I-5.
And out here on the West Coast, california goes off during the
summertime, like most people know, and then in the wintertime
it picks up in Washington.
So there's a kind of a constant cycle that I worked in of
contract freight and enterprise accounts going up and down the
I-5.
So that's where I built the first business off of.
Was um just really focused on um produce.
I mean, like I said, we supplemented it with, you know,
other types of refrigerated stuff, but we really were in the
produce game and I was doing retail uh or like uh, contract
freights or contract rates, which was really, you know it's
really nerve wracking, you know, in the produce game doing that
because there's such swings, you know, and we had that
relationship for a long time, you know, about 10 years if not
longer if I count my previous year.
And so as I was building that company, I started realizing
that I was really in bed with Safeway, like I had 85% of my
business with them.
Speaker 1: Heavy concentration sure.
Heavy concentration Sure.
Speaker 2: Heavy concentration and it was easy to do, right,
when you're building a business and you're trying to bring
things on and you get a good customer and a big customer and
they've got a lot of opportunities inside of their
business.
You know, you kind of think you're diversifying yourself,
you know, but you're really still under one umbrella and I
started to realize that and it got me kind of nervous, you know
, and I was a new business owner , I was 20 at this age, I was 28
, 29.
And you know, kind of in a silo , right, like back then, there
wasn't a lot of information out there.
There was Google, right.
I mean there wasn't social media, youtube.
You know a lot of people, especially out here in
California.
You know I would tell people I did.
You know a lot of people, especially out here in
California.
You know I would tell people I did.
You know I was a freight broker and they'd look at me like I
had a third head.
You know they were just like they didn't know what that meant
.
You know, out in the Midwest it's a little different, right.
You know people, there's a lot more concentration of our
industry there.
So it was just kind of, you know, trying to learn how to run
a business, and that was one of the biggest things that popped
up in my head.
I was bootstrapping it.
I didn't have any money.
Really, what got me off the ground was the fact that I was
able to get paid in 15 days for my customer, and then I was able
to pay my trucks in 30.
Speaker 1: And that kind of allowed me.
So you were cash flow positive as a small brokerage.
Do you know how rare that is?
Speaker 2: Very rare At the as a small brokerage.
Do you know how rare?
That is Very rare, you know.
At the time I didn't.
You know, at the time I thought , you know, this is just like I
got.
You know, all right, let's rock .
You know.
Like you know, I can start a business, you know, cause I
didn't come from money, I didn't have money, I didn't have a lot
of, you know, and this is capital intensive business,
right, and especially if you're an independent broker and so,
anyway, that really was a big lift, you know, to get us going.
You know that changed over time and I had to learn how to
adjust with that because you know they changed their terms.
That made a big difference with me with 85%, you know sometimes
they, you know if they wanted to get paid faster, I became
reliant on that money you know, coming in early.
So, anyway, I was just learning a lot of this stuff about
running a freight brokerage and my biggest concern was, towards
the end, trying to get diversified, and I just couldn't
get there.
And then, sure enough, what happened I was worried about
happening was we got into a dispute with Safeway, which
happens in the produce game.
There's a lot of claims and stuff like that and so, um, you
know, one thing led to another and, um, really, the best route
for me to do is to uh, take the company into bankruptcy.
So you know, that was a really hard decision and that's all.
There was a whole nother.
You know, that's all wrapped around it.
But my first kind of for you, after 10 years we were about 10,
11 years old thought I had gotten over the hump, um, we
were taken out.
So that was a lot of learning.
Speaker 1: How did you handle that, just as a human being?
Forget the business side of it.
I imagine that stirred up a whole bunch of questions about
you.
Speaker 2: Oh sure, absolutely yeah.
I mean it was a really there's.
It was a really pivotal, pivotal time in my life.
You know I was late 20s, early 30s.
I was 30.
We had just early 30s, we just had our second daughter and you
know you're as a father, you're thinking about all that stuff,
you know.
So that was weighing in there, um regret, like man, I wish I
could start over again, like there's so many things that I
would have done differently that were just inherent in our
business and the foundation of how I built it that I just
couldn't turn um around.
So, yeah, there was a lot of conflict there.
There was, you know, feeling like I'd squandered my chance to
be an entrepreneur.
You know it was soul sucking to like have to start looking at
jobs again in corporate America.
And you know it was soul-sucking to like have to
start looking at jobs again in corporate america and you know
thinking that's the route I wanted to go.
So, yeah, it was.
It was very um challenging, but you know there was.
You know, when you go through these moments in life and then
you know I've been through a few of them you know where just,
you get the wind kicked out of your, you know, knocked out of
you, where you have moments clarity, and it's in those
moments of clarity where you have to kind of make the
decisions of how you want to respond and how you want to
handle the situation.
I lost my dad when I was 17 years old, right after high
school, and that was my first one right.
And so within 10 years, from that moment to 26, I went to
college, I graduated with California, started my own
business.
So I was looking at that, going , look, if I can overcome that,
I can definitely overcome this.
I just got to kind of figure out how that is.
I need to adjust my mindset and , you know, try to take another
bite at the apple.
Speaker 1: So would you say, resilience, then, is one of your
biggest strengths.
Speaker 2: Oh, 100%, 100%.
And resilience is like it's a muscle man.
It's really like anybody can have it.
It's a matter of work.
Most people focus on working on their physical muscle and the
brain, and resilience is the same way.
Right, you've got to break it down and rebuild it and then
develop processes in which to handle it.
And I come to I realized, you know, there was a moment during
that clarity when I was thinking like I had a little bit of what
was me, which I'm not, you know , one of those people.
I'm not you know victim.
But I started thinking god dang , am I ever going to be able to
just like cruise, kick my feet up and have everything work
right?
And then it hit me like a thunderbolt where I was like
that's not life.
It's never going to be that way and, especially if you want to
be an entrepreneur and especially if you want to be in
this business, you're never going to be able to put your
feet up.
You're never going to reach that point where you know you
can just like kick back and relax if you're in the game and
if you're pushing and you're wanting to do things.
So I've got to learn how to adjust to this.
I got to learn how to deal with this.
I got to be able to, you know, get my mind around a way to
handle these challenges.
And then I started looking back at how I handled the biggest
challenge of my life and I just started breaking it down.
And it wasn't overnight, you know.
I had a lot of you know moments of you know self-doubt and you
know those quiet moments at night.
Those were hard Because basically I had to take it down
and then I also kind of saw a pathway out and we can talk
about that next.
But it was really kind of trying to not give up on
yourself and really have a good mental narrative in your head
and find the positive stuff and be grateful for what you do have
and then just start from there, because you're really started
from the ground up.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's where I'm curious on how you
took all of that and then went into your next thing, not just
the intellectual part of it, which is okay.
I'm going to do this specific business and business type next
and I'm going to structure it maybe a little bit differently,
but the willingness to get back into it again after a defeat.
So how did you, what did you decide to do?
And then how did you go about activating?
Speaker 2: on it.
Well, first of all, I had to come to terms with who I was as
a person, who I was as a leader.
You know, and at this point you know I was.
I wasn't a young chicken, but I wasn't old either.
You know, I was kind of like in the middle and I I think it was
a real pivotal time to be like you know who am I and what am I
and what do I want to stand for, and you know how do I go
forward the next time I'm building a business and culture
and thoughts and things like that.
And at that time I saw one of my biggest strengths as one of
my biggest weaknesses, and it took me a minute to really look
at it and that's empathy.
So when I, about that time, I was really hard on myself, like
maybe I didn't lead right, maybe I wasn't hard enough on my
people, maybe I wasn't pushing them hard enough, maybe I wasn't
.
Uh, I live out in, you know, san francisco bay area and during
that time, steve jobs passed away and so he was being
lionized in the media and you know about what a great god.
But also, you know he was kind of a, you know, and I I didn't
ever connect with that, you know , and I've never connected with
the, the um being an app or being a jerk to my employees
Right, like I.
Just that's not the way I led, but I always felt like that was
a weakness, like I needed to do it, and so when I realized that
my greatest strength was my empathy and I just needed to,
you know, lean into that and lead by that and be, you know,
like that's who I am and that's how I'm going to build my
businesses, is just being empathetic with my customers,
being empathetic with my employees.
You know, being empathetic to just about any situation.
You get it, understanding where people are coming from and not
running away from it and not seeing it as a like, kindness,
as a weakness, right you?
Speaker 1: know, I think there's a temptation to look at
somebody who's been successful and try to emulate them and how
they lead, and obviously there are significant benefits to
doing that.
But when it's not true to who you are in an area like that, it
can create all sorts of doubt and you're not actually being
true to yourself.
And then you show up kind of weird to others, maybe because
they're like no, you're actually a pretty empathetic person and
you're trying to be really firm and aggressive and it doesn't
feel right somehow, and then it impacts other people, and then
that impacts the business.
So what did you do?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that it's interesting because during
that I keep talking about this moment of clarity, it was just a
lot of thoughts going through my head of like where I've
gotten, where I'm at and where I came from.
I grew up in Eastern Washington in an area and the worst thing
you could be where you're from was a poser.
You know, like it was just very authentic place, like everybody
was very-.
Speaker 1: That's classic late 80s language that doesn't get
used enough anymore classic late 80s language that doesn't get
used enough anymore.
Speaker 2: No, no, I mean, really it was what it was like.
I grew up in the 90s in washington state, the pacific
northwest, you know.
It was all about flannels and boots and you know, being
authentic, who you're, who you are right, it wasn't about hair
and makeup, like we were past that you know, and so I had to
get back and adapt to who that you know.
Not adapt, but just remember who I was right.
You know and you know and being authentic is really at the core
of just how people perceive you or understand you is.
They know what they're going to get.
They know you know that you're.
You're just not a poser, right?
And I just felt like that wasn't me of being a jerk, you
know, and pounding on people, and it was more about uplifting,
teaching, understanding, meeting people where they're at,
trying to understand that we all have our challenges outside
of business, and then we're in a very stressful industry,
especially freight brokerage, and your mental health doesn't
just turn on and turn off when you leave the office.
It's a through line.
So I just wanted to be more empathetic amongst all that and
try to do this the second time around.
Speaker 1: A lot different, right so how did it turn out?
How did the second venture go?
Speaker 2: so, again, this was taking a lot of stuff.
I didn't know.
You know, I wish I knew previously and we started
working as.
So we came back as an agent.
So at this time I had met Global Trans.
I'd met Mike and I'm just keeping my name but Andrew Mike
and Andrew led over Global Trans .
They had just started Global Trans, they were trying to
figure out how to scale it and what they were doing, and I was
looking for an LTL platform because my next iteration.
I wanted to make sure I was very diversified, what I offered
my customers and modes in terms of modes, so then I could
develop a more diversified customer base.
So we started, um, you know, getting ltl customers, you know
bring it in and you know turning it into ltl and whatnot.
But, um, you know, getting a chance to kind of come back as
an agent took a lot of the pressure off financially, not
having to do a lot of the stuff around it, and it kind of opened
my eyes like, wow, this is kind of a better way of doing it.
It allows you to focus on selling and brokering.
Speaker 1: Can you unpack that?
Some more understand not through any fault of their own,
it's not a knock that the freight agent model is
fundamentally different than a full standalone entity that
doesn't have the support of what an agent program does.
One's more of a franchise, one's more of a standalone
entity.
Can you just, in 60 seconds or less, explain what the agent
model is and why it's super helpful for some folks.
Speaker 2: It's very simple.
It takes a lot.
So, as a freight broker or building a freight brokerage,
you have a lot of different hats right and you've got to wear a
lot of different ones in a lot of areas in which you're not
familiar with finance.
I don't know a lot of stuff, but basically the agency model
takes a lot of areas in which you're not familiar with, uh,
finance.
You know, I don't know a lot of stuff because mine but
basically the agency model takes a lot of that stuff off your
plate and allows you to focus just more on customers selling
that type of stuff.
So you don't have to worry about billing.
You don't have to worry about claims.
You don't not that claims don't come up but you're not having
to build out a claims you have help with it?
yeah, you know, and that's what I found Like I was having to
build out all these non-revenue producing you know positions
that were needed within a freight brokerage, but we're,
you know, not producing profits, right, like so that you know
what I mean Like they're not salespeople, they're not just
profit, and even back then I'd hire people just for paperwork,
right, and that type of stuff weighs you down when you're
independent and you've got to have a lot of money to pay out.
Get started.
Get started to pay out on carriers and collect from
customers, because not all shippers pay in 30 days but all
carriers need to be paid in 30 days, and so that can create a
big schism that you've got to be able to kind of navigate while
you're doing all these different things.
So it's very intensive.
Now on the agent side, you take a lot of that off your plate.
You don't need to worry about claims, you don't need to worry
about AR, you don't hire any of those people you know in some
great agencies.
You get some camaraderie and ability to get out of your silo
and talk to other agents and see what they're doing.
You're kind of on the same team in some respects.
So yeah, there's really two fundamental different ways to do
it, and I think it's getting harder and harder to do it as an
independent agent.
Speaker 1: Truly independent sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, truly independent.
I started in 2006.
I literally started by Googling .
I mean, I had worked in freight brokerages but I didn't know
how they worked, so I was really having to Google a lot of stuff
.
Now you got a lot more information and there's a lot
more opportunities to get in the business, a lot with less risk.
Speaker 1: you know more upside, but you also are able to tap
into your own strengths If they're relationship building,
if it's growing sales and that your strengths aren't accounting
.
You know the agent model is a great way to go about it.
If you feel really good at administrative work and you can
do sales and business development on your own, then
doing something independent is going to be maybe more
successful or not more successful, just going to be.
You'll be more successful than folks who don't have those
skillsets.
So it's kind of back to what you were saying about knowing
who you really are and being true to what makes you you.
So you ended up having a far different kind of success under
the agent model.
How did that one end?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
So again, like kind of in that it allowed us to focus on what
we were good at, you know, and allowed me to focus money and
you know stuff towards things that were going to grow the
business and not, you know, be non-revenue producing.
So we scaled faster.
We were much more aware of who we were as a company too.
We focused on small to medium-sized businesses.
I was no longer in the enterprise world.
I didn't like the enterprise world anymore.
It's just we could get into private equity and all that kind
of stuff.
But it's really the same type of mentality.
There's not a lot of relationships that withstand it.
But in the small to medium size you become more of a coach,
consultant, you know, with these new businesses that don't
necessarily know how to ship their products efficiently,
right, and I mean it's the last thing they think about really
when they, when they're starting a business, you know they're,
they're excited about producing what their widgets, you know,
whatever it is, it's not like.
Well then, how do I get it from point A to point B?
So we enjoyed kind of getting in and growing with companies,
and so we had a lot of success with that One of them in
particular.
We got the beverage industry and it had a couple of success
stories there with, like Lagunita Spear we were one of
their first carriers and a company called Hint Water.
Basically they were just doing one or two pallets.
You know, a week we taught them how to.
You know how ltl worked, and then they grew over time and we
were doing you know 20 truckloads a day when I left and
we kind of took them on that, that journey, you know, and
helped them along that way and it strengthened our
relationships right.
So you know, when Uber and CH and all these people discovered
Hint got big enough and they all discovered Hint, you know we
were already three, four, five years knee deep with them, you
know, in a relationship that's taken them from you know small
aspects to here.
So they weren't willing to part with us.
So it made us a little bit more sticky, yeah, and we.
So those were the type of relationships we were building
in that, in that um and at tactic, at that agency, um, and
so it was.
So the company's name was tactic logistics group and
tactic.
I have a little bit of german ancestry and so, uh, it's the
german word for strategy, what's like, oh, cool, yeah, and I,
because I was trying to strategize at the time.
I was going down with the ship, starting a new company and
trying to keep my ass out of jail.
I didn't want to do anything illegal at that point because I
was mixing a lot of relationships and pulling them
over here and whatnot.
So as we built Tactic, we just built it under those
relationships, you know, and we were able to scale it in the
agent model a lot quicker with that direct, intentional, you
know prospect.
You know just the way we were doing it Focus yeah.
Focus right.
Yeah, we're way much more focused.
You know, that's kind of it's different than being, you know,
all in bed with one customer.
It's just being focused on what your strategy is and then, you
know, sticking to it.
And so we became very diverse and a lot more efficient, and so
I grew to that business at about 25 million in five, six
years.
And so, yeah, I mean it was it was hard to sell it.
Yeah, and then I sold it to Global Trans in 2021.
So, you know, because it was a good business right, Like when I
was running around trying to sell my other business, when I
was, you know, going down, I realized how it was a bad
business, fundamentally because I couldn't find anybody to buy
me.
You know, when I got in trouble and so I second time around, I
was like I want to build a good business because when I exit,
it's going to make it that much easier.
So, and that's exactly what happened, you know it was it's
going to make it that much easier, and that's exactly what
happened.
Speaker 1: It was just a good fundamental business.
So how does that then, when you go into Diablo?
Now and you have had a successful exit and you don't
have the pressure and the stress of if this doesn't all go well,
I can't feed my family.
Now you've got a different kind of financial security that
you're starting from.
Do you find yourself showing up um from a position of
confidence or stability, somehow different, that, like your
personal finances, are taken care of so you can make
different kinds of decisions in the third go-round?
Speaker 2: You bet Absolutely Especially for someone who's
bootstrapped everyone in my companies right Like.
This was what I'm playing with house money you know, at this
point right.
And so you know and that was the thing with starting the second
business I had 15 grand left and my wife and I had to have these
conversations where, like, do we take this 15 grand and move
closer to family, get out of the Bay Area, go get a corporate
job, or do we roll it back in and just go for it again?
And she got behind me and said let's do it.
I got faith in you and we literally went week to week,
month to month.
I mean, we were the last to get paid.
I brought my top three guys over, never did cut their
salaries, kept them on everything same bonus programs,
all that type of stuff, but we were the last to get paid.
So it sucked going down and it sucked going up, right.
And so we got to a certain point where we crossed the
threshold.
We were clear.
Plus, we were living personally under the thumb of a trustee,
because we went personally bankrupt too during that time.
Speaker 1: Got it, the company went down, took us down.
Speaker 2: So what I'm getting at was when we finally, when I
sold the business, we had an exit of bankruptcy, our deck was
cleared and I had cash Right and I promised I would never go
back to the way I did business before, where I was chasing
other people's money Right, trying to build my business, and
there is a distinct difference between using your money and
somebody else's money.
When you're building the business, I think you're more
thoughtful about the moves you make and you're just kind of.
There's just a different feeling about it.
But it's a freedom, right.
And so this is where I wanted to be in a position to be able
to make bets and do things, based on my information that
I've gathered over 10 or 15 years and being in the industry
well, 25 years at this point, but at that point it was 20
something years and so it's a different mindset, a lot more
fun.
Speaker 1: Winning is generally more fun than losing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, right.
So but it's you know I also relate, you know, I understand,
you know when you're building a business and that struggle,
especially when you don't have money or you don't come from
money you know it's trying to cross that Rubicon of being able
to be like gosh.
Speaker 1: okay, I got money, now that I can now invest in
myself and move forward uh, cinderella story, where what
people do, storytelling one-on-one for just a quick
second, the the Cinderella story ?
Everybody thinks that it's.
You know, she had a terrible life and then it ended with
Prince charming.
That's not the Cinderella story .
The Cinderella story was um, she had a great life and then
they don't explain why, but her mom died or left or something.
You know the.
Her dad was alone and then got remarried and the stepmother was
wicked and that was the decline .
Right before that, things were pretty good yeah so that that
storytelling you know structure is like there was a rise and
then there was a fall, and that's where the story starts
and then it ends with a rise back to they lived happily ever
after.
What I have found in the hundreds and hundreds of people
that I've interviewed and talked to about their stories, the
ones who understand or who have experienced that pattern like
you you had the rise with business number one and then it
crashed, and then you, in your second business, had the happily
ever after.
You appreciate things differently than somebody who's
never had failure or somebody who's never who's only ever had
up and to the right, and they develop hubris, overconfidence,
and then their fall is coming, not always, but sometimes you
bet, it's usually always.
It's usually just around the corner, and so I think we're so
drawn to stories that remind us of those things, and yours is
one of those.
But you also shared with me before we started recording that
sometimes you still have this imposter syndrome that creeps up
, and is that maybe a fear that you might lose it all again
someday, or that it might've been a your success?
The second time might've been a fluke, like, how do you?
Because from the outside I would hear what you've been
through and think you should have tons of confidence, but a
healthy confidence that you can survive anything, you know, come
what may, because you already have once.
So unpack that for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of some of both.
Really, to be honest with you, I tell anybody now that sells
their business to get a therapist as well.
I mean you need an attorney, you need you know an accountant,
you know tax people, and then you need a therapist, because
there is a lot of mind messing around going on when that
happens.
And I've talked to a lot of other people that have done it
too and they feel the same way.
And it doesn't matter how big.
It is right, it could be a billion dollar company, it could
be a small.
It's something that you know, you kind of tie yourself to, and
then you have to kind of it's a journey, you're on Right and
and then you kind of get to the end of it and you look back on
you're like, wow, I dodged this, I dodged that, I did that.
But yeah, I mean, it was very conflicting for me because you
would think that right, like you would be in this position where
I should have the most supreme confidence in myself at that
point.
And not that I didn't, you know , I do have, you know, a lot of
confidence in myself because I do know that I can handle
anything that's thrown at me and I have the strength of
resilience, this, this muscle I've built up over time.
Um, but it's sitting in that moments of like you know, how
did it happen for me, you know, and it didn't happen for x, y, z
or you know, just kind of like did I get lucky?
It was this.
you know all these things and some of that is true, right like
it plays a role, for sure it plays timing, you know I mean,
but I believe you create your own luck and you know, you take
advantage of your opportunities, and I think that was the
biggest thing for me is and even now, I don't squander, I don't
take opportunities lightly.
You know, I try to identify them and then make the most of
them, and whether they're ones that have fallen in my lap or
ones that I've created for myself, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: They're all treated the same, and so I just kind of
who are you now dangerous question?
Speaker 2: yeah, no, it's kind of, you know, I'm very confident
, obviously, but I'm also humble , right, like you know.
Getting back to the fact that, like it can happen to anybody,
right, business is an imperfect science, it's a sport, it's,
it's a way you know the ball, you know the ball can bounce
different ways and you've got to be able to you, you know, kind
of go with it Right and and be able to learn.
And so I'm doing all that stuff , you know, and I'm still kind
of figuring that out.
But you know, I was in a.
I got interviewed by entrepreneur magazine shortly
after I was kind of coming back and you know I was telling him
about that, my first business.
I had a success.
Especially, it was going through 2008, 2009, when every
other business around you was crumbling.
I was having success.
Everything I touched turned to gold.
I was like, wow, this is easy.
This whole entrepreneur thing.
Like there is another side, there's.
You know you're going to get hit.
If you kind of stay in that mindset and that's kind of what
happened is I just, you know, even though I saw it, kind of
saw it coming, it knocks you off your feet in how you respond to
it and a lot of times.
People have never had that before.
They've never been through a time where they've had to be
resilient and they crumble.
I was fortunate that I kind of had built some coping mechanisms
to be resilient and they crumble.
I was fortunate that I kind of had built some coping mechanisms
to be able to bounce back.
But it's important to understand that you can't get too full
yourself.
No matter how much success you've had, you've always got to
stay learning.
You've always got to stay, you know, continue to be
uncomfortable.
Comfortable being uncomfortable .
You know I talked to my daughters a lot about this right
now, where it's like, you know, I got kind of a real
comfortable life.
You know I talk to my daughters a lot about this right now,
where it's like, you know, I got kind of a real comfortable life
, you know.
So we have to, you know, find some places where they're
uncomfortable sometimes, so we learn some things right and
that's good, you know.
Speaker 1: It's because comfort, comfort and growth don't go
hand in hand.
Very often they don't don't?
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's another challenge, right?
You know, when you do have some comfort now, then how do you
keep that fire burning?
And, um, how do you, you know, keep it going and not just kick
your feet up, like I was talking about earlier?
Um, because I just I'm, I'm a firm believer.
You got to be on your toes.
I mean, I've been playing sports, I'm always in the balls
of my feet, you're moving forward, being ready to react to
what comes your way.
Um, and then get back up.
You know, you, you get knocked down, you're going to get
blindsided.
But yeah, it's just one of those deals where you just have
to be real with yourself and understand that you don't know
it all and you always got to keep learning.
And the more you learn and the more you get up from challenges,
that creates a resiliency that does give you confidence that
there's virtually not much that could.
I can't think of much that could probably come my way that
I couldn't handle, because now I have the structures in place to
be able to process it.
Speaker 1: Well, your story is one that I love sharing.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I hope somebody else is listening to this who is in
the middle of their storm, whatever it is, and recognizes
that this too shall pass.
Now you can't just hope that it's going to pass.
You got to act.
You have to make good choices, you have to do all the things.
If it doesn't turn out and things fail, there's hope after
that also.
Speaker 2: You bet there's actually bigger hope.
You know what I mean.
I feel like some people get spoiled by less.
They don't have any failure right, so they they kind of
plateau the.
The only way to get through greatness is only established
through adversity.
You know, and I've never met a successful person that has not
experienced some sort of adversity and in order to be
successful, it's just something you have to go through well,
well said.
Yeah, it'll come your way.
But you know, at the same time you stick through it, it does
get better on the other side.
You know, I was just thinking about this the other day.
Sometimes I put myself in those moments of where I was the most
stressed.
You know, and you know, I was laying on the floor of my office
like can't breathe and thinking like I'm here now and I would
never have seen myself here now in that moment.
So you just got to get up and you just got to keep fighting.
Speaker 1: I wonder if this is the entrepreneurial version of
you.
Know what your grandparents would say you think you've got
it rough, like we had to walk uphill to school both ways, you
know through the snow with my brother on my back.
Backward, yeah, to school both ways, you know through the snow,
with my brother on my back.
But there is some universal guidance in all of that, and so
thanks for the vulnerability of just like opening up and saying,
hey, here's the good, the bad and the ugly of what I've been
through.
Regardless of what those circumstances are, you can find
success professionally.
It can help develop and grow you individually.
You mentioned your daughters.
I know how big of a role they play in your life and how you
want to model certain things for them and the values that you
show up with in your work life and then in your home life too,
because entrepreneurship isn't just a day job, it's just not
something that happens eight hours a day.
It's a whole family, it's all.
Yeah, it's an encompassing experience and whatever happens
next in your experience, tyson, thank you for well one.
We wish you very, very well.
I want to keep our conversation going for a long time because I
learn something new every time we talk and as I share every
time we talk, and as I share every time we're all rooting for
you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that, nate, and likewise I appreciate
you creating this platform, you know, for people to learn from
and and be on and, you know, share their stories.
So I think it's really important.
You know, when I was going through those difficult times, I
was reaching out to find similar stories.
You know, just to kind of be like okay, like if he can get
through it, I can get through it .
So if I can be that for somebody and you can be that
platform, you know, that's great and I just appreciate it and
thank you again for having me on .
Speaker 1: Of course, if somebody wants to reach out to
you, where's the best place to find you?
Speaker 2: LinkedIn's the best place.
So just look at Tyson Lawrence and LinkedIn.
Or, you know, shoot me an email , t Lawrence at Diablo
freightcom.
You can go to our website, diablo freightcom.
My marketing people put me all over it so you'll see.
Speaker 1: Right on so if they can't, if somebody can't find
you, then you got to have a tough conversation with somebody
in marketing Right on.
Okay, thank you, tyson, take care.
Thanks, nate.
Thanks for listening to another episode of the Bootstrapper's
Guide to Logistics, and a special thank you to our
sponsors and the team behind the scenes who make it all possible
.
Be sure to like, follow or subscribe to the podcast to get
the latest updates.
To learn more about the show and connect with the growing
community of entrepreneurs, visit logisticsfounderscom.
And, of course, thank you to all the founders who trust us to
share their stories.