1 00:00:01,762 --> 00:00:03,766 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Bootstrapper's Guide to 2 00:00:03,806 --> 00:00:06,432 Logistics, the podcast highlighting founders doing it 3 00:00:06,451 --> 00:00:08,134 the way that doesn't get a lot of attention. 4 00:00:08,134 --> 00:00:11,067 We're here to change that by sharing their stories and 5 00:00:11,106 --> 00:00:12,570 inspiring others to take the leap. 6 00:00:12,570 --> 00:00:16,510 It's a roller coaster ride that you might ultimately fail. 7 00:00:16,510 --> 00:00:19,068 That's when I kind of knew I was on to something. 8 00:00:19,068 --> 00:00:20,646 It was very hard. 9 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,743 Speaker 2: It truly is building a legacy the more life you live, 10 00:00:24,743 --> 00:00:27,902 the more wisdom you have, because we are where we're 11 00:00:27,922 --> 00:00:30,251 supposed to be kind of answering the call. 12 00:00:30,251 --> 00:00:33,209 Don't shoulder entrepreneurship on your own. 13 00:00:34,011 --> 00:00:35,155 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Nate Schutz. 14 00:00:35,155 --> 00:00:38,203 Let's build something together from the ground up. 15 00:00:38,203 --> 00:00:42,929 Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Bootstrapper's Guide 16 00:00:42,929 --> 00:00:43,631 to Logistics. 17 00:00:43,631 --> 00:00:46,756 We're moving into the back half of 2025. 18 00:00:46,756 --> 00:00:53,243 We're well past the 100-founder story episode mark and I love 19 00:00:53,283 --> 00:00:55,850 getting to talk to folks who have started their business 20 00:00:55,990 --> 00:00:56,893 post-COVID. 21 00:00:56,893 --> 00:01:01,951 There seems to be a dividing line of folks when they start a 22 00:01:01,990 --> 00:01:05,248 business and they've been in business for 15 years and then 23 00:01:05,268 --> 00:01:08,046 they went through the COVID challenges and then now kind of 24 00:01:08,066 --> 00:01:10,471 the freight recession that's seemingly endless. 25 00:01:10,471 --> 00:01:13,486 And then there are folks like our guest today, Justin McKessie 26 00:01:13,486 --> 00:01:17,603 , who started a company in the middle of all of that and has a 27 00:01:17,644 --> 00:01:20,951 slightly different perspective because he went right into the 28 00:01:21,012 --> 00:01:24,888 fire day one to start his business and so happy to have 29 00:01:24,929 --> 00:01:25,831 him on the show today. 30 00:01:25,831 --> 00:01:29,572 He's the founder and CEO of First Choice Freight, based in 31 00:01:29,611 --> 00:01:30,054 Chicago. 32 00:01:30,054 --> 00:01:32,000 Justin, good morning, how are you today? 33 00:01:32,902 --> 00:01:34,465 Speaker 2: Good morning, nate, I'm doing well, how are you? 34 00:01:35,027 --> 00:01:35,787 Speaker 1: I'm doing great. 35 00:01:35,787 --> 00:01:40,262 There seem to be three or four companies that just about every 36 00:01:40,322 --> 00:01:41,683 freight broker has come out of. 37 00:01:41,683 --> 00:01:44,207 It's either CH Robinson every freight broker has come out of. 38 00:01:44,207 --> 00:01:49,615 It's either CH Robinson, tql, coyote I'm drawing a blank. 39 00:01:49,615 --> 00:02:01,960 Who am I missing? 40 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:03,424 Tql, coyote, ch and the other big one, xpo, and a handful of 41 00:02:03,444 --> 00:02:03,584 others. 42 00:02:03,584 --> 00:02:03,945 I'm drawing it. 43 00:02:03,945 --> 00:02:06,052 Yeah, having a bit of a senior moment here, but you came out of 44 00:02:06,052 --> 00:02:10,649 the Coyote family and there's a really big number of 45 00:02:10,829 --> 00:02:14,481 entrepreneurs that have started their careers at Coyote and then 46 00:02:14,481 --> 00:02:15,444 went off on their own. 47 00:02:15,444 --> 00:02:18,721 Can you maybe unpack a little bit of your early years, of your 48 00:02:18,721 --> 00:02:23,310 career in logistics, how you got the bug for freight, and 49 00:02:23,370 --> 00:02:29,122 then when did you feel like you had learned enough to start to 50 00:02:29,645 --> 00:02:31,629 have some dangerous thoughts about building something of your 51 00:02:31,629 --> 00:02:31,790 own? 52 00:02:33,259 --> 00:02:36,228 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the Coyote lineage is talked about a 53 00:02:36,228 --> 00:02:37,170 lot and it's definitely out there. 54 00:02:37,170 --> 00:02:39,405 We go a lot of places and everybody says like, wow, 55 00:02:39,525 --> 00:02:44,506 everybody I've met is in some way shape or form from Coyote my 56 00:02:44,506 --> 00:02:45,328 background. 57 00:02:45,328 --> 00:02:49,044 I actually went to school at Central Michigan for logistics 58 00:02:49,064 --> 00:02:52,736 management, so I had logistics in my intentions. 59 00:02:52,736 --> 00:02:54,802 I never thought it'd be in the brokerage space. 60 00:02:54,802 --> 00:02:58,171 I always thought I'd be at some big manufacturer or something 61 00:02:58,192 --> 00:03:00,144 and figuring out the hard puzzles of supply chain. 62 00:03:00,144 --> 00:03:05,001 I got an internship my junior year of college at a place 63 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,310 called ALS in Michigan Automated Logistics Systems in Jackson, 64 00:03:08,330 --> 00:03:09,032 michigan, my hometown. 65 00:03:09,032 --> 00:03:10,925 Fantastic group of people. 66 00:03:10,925 --> 00:03:14,490 And that was my first endeavor into brokerage space. 67 00:03:14,490 --> 00:03:18,288 And then the Coyote thing kind of came by happenstance and, 68 00:03:18,370 --> 00:03:21,728 it's funny, one of the colleagues there in the office 69 00:03:21,828 --> 00:03:25,920 randomly said oh wow, this news article says Coyote's opening an 70 00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:27,064 Ann Arbor Michigan office. 71 00:03:27,064 --> 00:03:28,751 And I said what is Coyote? 72 00:03:28,751 --> 00:03:30,034 And they said, oh, it's this. 73 00:03:30,034 --> 00:03:32,425 You know they do the same stuff as we do, they just have all 74 00:03:32,466 --> 00:03:32,627 these. 75 00:03:32,627 --> 00:03:35,461 You know young people and the office environment. 76 00:03:35,461 --> 00:03:37,382 So I Googled Coyote logistics. 77 00:03:37,382 --> 00:03:41,324 I had one year left of school and I decided like, well, if I'm 78 00:03:41,324 --> 00:03:44,045 going to do another internship, maybe I'll reach out to these 79 00:03:44,086 --> 00:03:47,427 guys Did that and was accepted in. 80 00:03:47,427 --> 00:03:49,930 You know, I took my next summer to Chicago. 81 00:03:49,930 --> 00:03:54,372 I actually pulled out a $2,000 personal loan to move myself to 82 00:03:54,413 --> 00:03:55,652 Chicago for an internship. 83 00:03:55,652 --> 00:03:57,694 I also had to pay Central Michigan for a credit. 84 00:03:57,694 --> 00:04:01,997 We had to have internships, but that was my foray into Coyote. 85 00:04:01,997 --> 00:04:08,764 So I got there as an intern in 2014. 86 00:04:08,764 --> 00:04:10,109 Immediately knew I was going to come back and was accepted 87 00:04:10,149 --> 00:04:10,569 full-time. 88 00:04:10,590 --> 00:04:13,560 The year following Getting to Coyote I was in the traditional 89 00:04:13,741 --> 00:04:16,089 carrier sales role, kind of growing through that. 90 00:04:16,089 --> 00:04:21,685 We were acquired by UPS shortly after my entry there and that 91 00:04:21,725 --> 00:04:25,071 is kind of where my career took the most interesting turn and 92 00:04:25,091 --> 00:04:27,634 really was a springboard for what I've done since then. 93 00:04:27,634 --> 00:04:31,846 I was lucky enough to be part of the early group of folks that 94 00:04:31,846 --> 00:04:37,882 were dedicated to the UPS side at Coyote, got to basically play 95 00:04:37,882 --> 00:04:41,185 in their sandbox and have a ton of different roles, building 96 00:04:41,264 --> 00:04:44,168 teams and building new endeavors all around just how we could 97 00:04:44,187 --> 00:04:45,709 create synergies with UPS. 98 00:04:45,709 --> 00:04:50,535 Literally, my first role there had no job description. 99 00:04:50,535 --> 00:04:54,283 It had the name of one gentleman that said work with 100 00:04:54,403 --> 00:04:55,846 Rock to find synergies. 101 00:04:55,846 --> 00:05:00,584 First hour I was Googling like, is this one of our employees, 102 00:05:00,625 --> 00:05:01,329 is this a company? 103 00:05:01,329 --> 00:05:05,165 And a gentleman by the name of Keith Hargarten, walked in and 104 00:05:05,185 --> 00:05:07,365 said hi, I'm Rock, we're going to be working together. 105 00:05:07,365 --> 00:05:10,985 So he was in charge of a lot of the intermodal side and I got 106 00:05:11,024 --> 00:05:14,637 to work with him and it was wide open, which, as someone that's 107 00:05:14,697 --> 00:05:18,786 a self-proclaimed like builder and tinker my whole life, this 108 00:05:18,887 --> 00:05:29,821 was a space where I could really shine and say you know, 109 00:05:29,841 --> 00:05:30,803 whatever is out there, go find it. 110 00:05:30,803 --> 00:05:32,127 Go find a way that Coyote can help UPS do it on the asset side 111 00:05:32,127 --> 00:05:33,711 , on the intermodal side, and everything was fair game. 112 00:05:33,711 --> 00:05:35,819 So that was really where my entrepreneurial spirit was able 113 00:05:35,858 --> 00:05:38,786 to shine in the world of Coyote UPS. 114 00:05:39,708 --> 00:05:42,192 So I did that for quite a long time, had a lot of success there 115 00:05:42,192 --> 00:05:44,665 and always knew in the back of my mind it was going to turn 116 00:05:44,725 --> 00:05:47,533 into, you know, for my career, something that I wanted to do 117 00:05:48,019 --> 00:05:49,524 start another business. 118 00:05:49,524 --> 00:05:55,463 I again, by stroke of luck, had some friends from Detroit that 119 00:05:55,644 --> 00:05:58,776 had been in contact with me and the timing was right, where they 120 00:05:58,776 --> 00:06:00,862 said hey, we're thinking about starting a brokerage. 121 00:06:00,862 --> 00:06:04,612 I had plans mapped out, I had multiple business plans put 122 00:06:04,632 --> 00:06:07,067 together, different names, different areas we wanted to 123 00:06:07,086 --> 00:06:07,649 focus on. 124 00:06:07,649 --> 00:06:10,882 I flew out the next day and pitched them what I wanted to do 125 00:06:10,882 --> 00:06:14,011 and told them my vision and it was okay, let's do it. 126 00:06:14,011 --> 00:06:17,346 So I was at BP Logistics at the time. 127 00:06:17,367 --> 00:06:19,591 It was a short stint between Coyote and what I'm doing now 128 00:06:19,740 --> 00:06:23,406 and I told them exactly what I was doing Another great group of 129 00:06:23,406 --> 00:06:25,791 people, very honest with them and they told me go do your 130 00:06:25,812 --> 00:06:26,031 thing. 131 00:06:26,031 --> 00:06:28,877 It was no hard feelings, it was . 132 00:06:28,877 --> 00:06:30,201 We see where you're coming from . 133 00:06:30,201 --> 00:06:31,946 So that was my. 134 00:06:31,946 --> 00:06:36,336 My jump into entrepreneurship was okay, it's go time. 135 00:06:36,336 --> 00:06:38,725 There's some other people that I know that are ready to go as 136 00:06:38,805 --> 00:06:39,026 well. 137 00:06:39,026 --> 00:06:43,040 And I closed the laptop at one place and the next morning I 138 00:06:43,100 --> 00:06:46,470 opened up my new laptop and got started on the dream that we had 139 00:06:46,470 --> 00:06:47,271 set out in front of us. 140 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:49,786 Speaker 1: And that dream is now First Choice Freight. 141 00:06:49,786 --> 00:06:52,810 You're in your three, four years in. 142 00:06:52,810 --> 00:06:57,951 It's been a tough climate for a lot of companies in that space, 143 00:06:57,951 --> 00:07:03,206 so you have to be able to have a high pain tolerance to do what 144 00:07:03,206 --> 00:07:09,180 you do, but also be somebody who is chronically not satisfied 145 00:07:09,180 --> 00:07:09,180 . 146 00:07:09,180 --> 00:07:12,307 When you start talking about being a builder and a tinkerer, 147 00:07:13,790 --> 00:07:17,245 I'm getting pictures of you as a kid and if you had multiple 148 00:07:17,286 --> 00:07:19,089 business plans and multiple names. 149 00:07:19,089 --> 00:07:22,303 So you're somebody who likely has a very active thought life 150 00:07:23,086 --> 00:07:25,932 and has been that way for a long time. 151 00:07:25,932 --> 00:07:27,504 So what were you like as a kid? 152 00:07:28,766 --> 00:07:31,432 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's absolutely correct. 153 00:07:31,432 --> 00:07:36,670 Growing up I was always messing with something I probably drove 154 00:07:36,670 --> 00:07:42,187 my mom crazy Like a VCR that was eating the tape speakers 155 00:07:42,228 --> 00:07:44,502 that weren't working, that were left behind in our garage. 156 00:07:44,502 --> 00:07:47,449 I would find them, take them apart, find a way to make it 157 00:07:47,509 --> 00:07:49,901 work, and usually I would leave half the parts out and it'd be 158 00:07:49,942 --> 00:07:50,845 working better than before. 159 00:07:50,845 --> 00:07:54,744 Anything that I could get my hands on, I was constantly 160 00:07:54,824 --> 00:07:56,713 messing with it and trying to build it, improve it. 161 00:07:56,713 --> 00:07:59,461 I think in hindsight we probably just had a lot of 162 00:07:59,541 --> 00:08:03,509 voided warranties sitting around after that, but it worked out 163 00:08:03,528 --> 00:08:06,372 sometimes we might have to explain what a VCR is too. 164 00:08:06,392 --> 00:08:07,375 Speaker 1: We got a younger audience. 165 00:08:07,375 --> 00:08:14,149 So keep going, so you did you find ways, then, to make money 166 00:08:14,230 --> 00:08:15,091 doing things like that? 167 00:08:15,091 --> 00:08:17,002 Also, I did so. 168 00:08:17,041 --> 00:08:20,350 Speaker 2: I think from that stage that carried into my you 169 00:08:20,389 --> 00:08:23,122 know my driving stage where I was messing around and tinkering 170 00:08:23,122 --> 00:08:28,990 with my vehicles, my first entrepreneurial endeavor was I 171 00:08:29,031 --> 00:08:32,201 built these light kits for the bed of my truck that went under 172 00:08:32,221 --> 00:08:34,687 the rails and they shine in different colors at nighttime. 173 00:08:34,687 --> 00:08:37,101 This was I don't even know what year it had been before. 174 00:08:37,101 --> 00:08:40,831 It was like standard in trucks today Got a lot of comments on 175 00:08:40,871 --> 00:08:43,892 it and I was like, well, gosh, this took me $30 to put together 176 00:08:43,892 --> 00:08:43,892 . 177 00:08:43,892 --> 00:08:46,601 I started buying up the parts for it. 178 00:08:46,601 --> 00:08:48,787 I assembled instructions on how to do it. 179 00:08:48,787 --> 00:08:53,764 I created a eBay motors page and I posted them on there with 180 00:08:54,225 --> 00:08:56,831 different thoughts and instructions, and it took me a 181 00:08:56,851 --> 00:08:58,003 while to find the price point. 182 00:08:58,003 --> 00:09:01,255 But I was testing it out and lo and behold, I started selling 183 00:09:01,277 --> 00:09:02,861 them for $60, $70. 184 00:09:02,861 --> 00:09:04,144 And I'm like, okay, I'm making money. 185 00:09:04,787 --> 00:09:06,331 I was never serious about it. 186 00:09:06,331 --> 00:09:08,749 It was just something that, again, I was playing around with 187 00:09:08,749 --> 00:09:12,807 , but without even knowing that that was entrepreneurship at the 188 00:09:12,807 --> 00:09:13,187 moment. 189 00:09:13,187 --> 00:09:16,793 It was something that I was like well, I can do this for $30 190 00:09:16,793 --> 00:09:16,793 . 191 00:09:16,793 --> 00:09:17,554 People like it. 192 00:09:17,554 --> 00:09:19,720 I'm seeing companies sell it for $200. 193 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:22,669 Maybe I can fall from the middle and make a little profit. 194 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:33,063 So I think that was my first leap and you know, from then on 195 00:09:33,083 --> 00:09:34,327 out, there were actually a period of time where I would buy 196 00:09:34,327 --> 00:09:35,731 and sell cars that I was even driving, or if I just knew 197 00:09:35,751 --> 00:09:36,313 something random like it's. 198 00:09:36,313 --> 00:09:37,638 You know, it's October and there's a four-wheel drive SUV 199 00:09:37,677 --> 00:09:38,320 that's for sale. 200 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:41,188 It's gonna be worth a lot more in December when people want it. 201 00:09:41,188 --> 00:09:49,525 So if I could pick that up and sit on it for a while and wait 202 00:09:49,546 --> 00:09:50,570 until the time was right, I can make a profit on it. 203 00:09:50,570 --> 00:09:51,916 So my mom would help me clean things up in the yard and repost 204 00:09:51,916 --> 00:09:52,778 them on Craigslist or anything like that. 205 00:09:52,778 --> 00:09:56,947 So yeah, there was always that like what can I do to make money 206 00:09:56,947 --> 00:10:00,495 , to improve something, to find a different way to make money, 207 00:10:01,517 --> 00:10:02,799 to make money and be profitable? 208 00:10:03,621 --> 00:10:06,488 Speaker 1: So that you mentioned price testing on eBay. 209 00:10:06,488 --> 00:10:10,820 Pricing is a complicated thing. 210 00:10:10,820 --> 00:10:14,327 On one level, there's a bunch of theory behind it, and then 211 00:10:14,375 --> 00:10:17,842 there's also just the value that somebody places on. 212 00:10:17,842 --> 00:10:20,596 Whatever the thing is that you're selling, and they get to 213 00:10:20,636 --> 00:10:22,340 decide what it's worth, not you. 214 00:10:22,340 --> 00:10:27,089 And so when you say I knew what my costs were, I knew what my 215 00:10:27,174 --> 00:10:32,791 competitors were doing and so I wanted to test it, did you just 216 00:10:32,890 --> 00:10:35,861 increase the price by five bucks every time and see where demand 217 00:10:35,861 --> 00:10:36,283 stopped? 218 00:10:36,283 --> 00:10:36,745 Or how did? 219 00:10:36,745 --> 00:10:41,118 Was that just another way to tinker on something different? 220 00:10:41,979 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I actually hadn't thought about this until 221 00:10:43,801 --> 00:10:44,381 you brought it up. 222 00:10:44,381 --> 00:10:48,868 But on eBay it would show you if I posted at a hundred dollars 223 00:10:48,868 --> 00:10:51,130 , you got five views and no buy. 224 00:10:51,130 --> 00:10:52,398 It now clicks, right. 225 00:10:52,398 --> 00:10:56,913 So I think I posted it like $120 and no views, no anything. 226 00:10:56,913 --> 00:11:00,198 So I'd go back in and I'd give the old price cut right. 227 00:11:00,198 --> 00:11:03,664 Oh, this is on sale for 99.99 and might've gotten 25 views. 228 00:11:03,664 --> 00:11:07,570 And then I think when I dropped them to like $68, the views 229 00:11:07,610 --> 00:11:11,011 went up and all of a sudden I had the first purchase and then 230 00:11:11,052 --> 00:11:12,893 the second and the third and the fourth and fifth. 231 00:11:12,893 --> 00:11:14,953 So I was like, okay, I just found my sweet spot where I can 232 00:11:14,974 --> 00:11:15,716 sell some of these things. 233 00:11:15,716 --> 00:11:19,879 And it never went more than a dozen or so, but it was a fun at 234 00:11:19,879 --> 00:11:20,181 the time. 235 00:11:20,181 --> 00:11:23,485 It was just fun for me as a young man to say, like all right 236 00:11:23,485 --> 00:11:25,527 , I just made money off selling something on eBay. 237 00:11:26,067 --> 00:11:26,769 Speaker 1: Out of thin air. 238 00:11:27,769 --> 00:11:28,311 Speaker 2: Out of thin air. 239 00:11:35,615 --> 00:11:36,636 Speaker 1: And that is the beauty of entrepreneurship is 240 00:11:36,657 --> 00:11:36,876 the market. 241 00:11:36,876 --> 00:11:37,357 There's a scoreboard. 242 00:11:37,357 --> 00:11:39,842 The market tells you how good your idea plus your execution is 243 00:11:39,842 --> 00:11:39,842 . 244 00:11:39,842 --> 00:11:42,748 There's no subjectivity left. 245 00:11:42,748 --> 00:11:46,423 Somebody made the decision and voted with their dollars that 246 00:11:46,464 --> 00:11:47,775 they want what you sell. 247 00:11:47,775 --> 00:11:52,885 And in the freight world, yes, on one hand it's a pure 248 00:11:52,926 --> 00:11:53,427 commodity. 249 00:11:53,427 --> 00:11:56,220 Transportation is transportation, and yet some 250 00:11:56,279 --> 00:11:59,407 companies have a lot of success selling transportation and 251 00:11:59,527 --> 00:12:00,456 others don't. 252 00:12:00,456 --> 00:12:04,163 And there's going to be a relationship component to it, of 253 00:12:04,163 --> 00:12:04,482 course. 254 00:12:04,482 --> 00:12:10,533 And then there's also going to be knowing what the potential 255 00:12:10,594 --> 00:12:13,442 customer or your existing customer values and trying to 256 00:12:13,523 --> 00:12:14,586 price it right. 257 00:12:14,586 --> 00:12:19,246 So how do you think about tinkering with price and costs 258 00:12:19,796 --> 00:12:22,062 within a freight brokerage in a volatile world? 259 00:12:23,445 --> 00:12:24,267 Speaker 2: Yeah, great question. 260 00:12:24,267 --> 00:12:25,136 For us. 261 00:12:25,136 --> 00:12:28,421 We're in the drayage space international containers, 262 00:12:28,561 --> 00:12:29,464 imports, exports. 263 00:12:29,464 --> 00:12:35,859 It's a space that has lacked a lot of ingenuity or improvement, 264 00:12:35,859 --> 00:12:36,903 really, since day one. 265 00:12:37,515 --> 00:12:41,886 Our hardest endeavor is trying to prove real value. 266 00:12:41,886 --> 00:12:45,458 It's a space that a lot of people are just middlemanning 267 00:12:45,639 --> 00:12:45,820 right. 268 00:12:45,820 --> 00:12:48,581 They get a response from a customer, they copy and paste it 269 00:12:48,581 --> 00:12:49,043 to the carrier. 270 00:12:49,043 --> 00:12:50,025 I've watched it happen. 271 00:12:50,025 --> 00:12:52,562 They get a response from the carrier, copy and paste it back, 272 00:12:52,562 --> 00:12:55,399 and it's because it's a very complex part of our industry. 273 00:12:55,399 --> 00:12:56,881 The costs don't make sense. 274 00:12:57,803 --> 00:13:01,499 The jargon that you hear in and out of every conversation it 275 00:13:01,538 --> 00:13:02,561 just it doesn't add up. 276 00:13:02,561 --> 00:13:05,405 So we're doing something different where we're showing 277 00:13:05,446 --> 00:13:07,109 them the data can be useful. 278 00:13:07,109 --> 00:13:09,234 We're showing them transit time on the water, things that 279 00:13:09,274 --> 00:13:10,437 people aren't usually offering. 280 00:13:10,437 --> 00:13:14,331 So for us and we're not even trying to necessarily charge a 281 00:13:14,410 --> 00:13:17,801 premium for it but we're trying to buy our way into their, their 282 00:13:17,801 --> 00:13:22,835 company, at the same or lower cost, but to tell them we're 283 00:13:22,875 --> 00:13:25,798 doing something that truly is more valuable or bringing a new 284 00:13:25,979 --> 00:13:26,740 angle to the industry. 285 00:13:27,181 --> 00:13:30,065 It's incredibly tough to break through the noise of the 286 00:13:30,085 --> 00:13:32,928 industry and say, hey, spend your dollars here because you're 287 00:13:32,928 --> 00:13:34,250 going to get more bang for your buck. 288 00:13:34,250 --> 00:13:39,339 That's our biggest hurdle and that's what we hone in on is if 289 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:41,884 we can show them the value that they can get more for their 290 00:13:41,924 --> 00:13:42,184 money. 291 00:13:42,184 --> 00:13:46,562 You know they're spending With us, we're winning. 292 00:13:46,562 --> 00:13:49,321 And when we do finally break through and show them, all we 293 00:13:49,341 --> 00:13:51,615 hear time and time again from the customers we do have is like 294 00:13:51,615 --> 00:13:53,722 wow, I can't believe you guys are actually doing this. 295 00:13:53,722 --> 00:13:56,158 You're doing what you said you were going to do, and that seems 296 00:13:56,158 --> 00:13:56,721 so simple. 297 00:13:56,721 --> 00:14:01,254 But yeah, so our value proposition has been exactly 298 00:14:01,394 --> 00:14:01,615 that. 299 00:14:01,615 --> 00:14:05,144 Like we're going above and beyond, not even necessarily to 300 00:14:05,184 --> 00:14:08,580 charge you a premium amount, but just to do what we think is 301 00:14:08,961 --> 00:14:11,988 kind of table stakes today in most parts of the industry. 302 00:14:13,075 --> 00:14:16,323 Speaker 1: And that's the bridge , I think, between sales and 303 00:14:16,484 --> 00:14:17,105 operations. 304 00:14:17,105 --> 00:14:21,698 You take a potential value prop and put it out into the market 305 00:14:21,759 --> 00:14:24,984 and hope somebody is interested enough to try you and you've 306 00:14:24,913 --> 00:14:25,642 generated interest. 307 00:14:25,642 --> 00:14:26,567 But now is interested enough to try you and you've generated 308 00:14:26,586 --> 00:14:28,629 interest, but now you've got to follow through and deliver. 309 00:14:28,629 --> 00:14:33,147 And that's where I think it is frustrating. 310 00:14:33,147 --> 00:14:34,274 I'm an operator myself. 311 00:14:34,274 --> 00:14:37,783 It's frustrating to see the hype that gets thrown out and 312 00:14:38,083 --> 00:14:42,142 marketing messages that get attention when you know some of 313 00:14:42,162 --> 00:14:44,187 the companies behind it can't actually back it up. 314 00:14:45,216 --> 00:14:49,215 And when you're an operator who does things really, really well 315 00:14:49,294 --> 00:14:56,397 and maybe doesn't have the flair or the dramatic pitch, you 316 00:14:56,457 --> 00:14:59,206 can't always trust that the work is going to speak for itself. 317 00:14:59,206 --> 00:15:00,535 You have to. 318 00:15:00,535 --> 00:15:08,515 The customer has to in some cases, be shown the value that 319 00:15:08,535 --> 00:15:08,875 they're getting. 320 00:15:08,875 --> 00:15:11,658 And I'm curious for you also, knowing that you have a 321 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:13,922 co-founder in the business. 322 00:15:13,922 --> 00:15:18,006 Most of your career up until starting First Choice looks like 323 00:15:18,006 --> 00:15:21,750 it was in ops, and now you're having to do ops and sales. 324 00:15:21,750 --> 00:15:25,381 How did you and your co-founder decide who was going to do what 325 00:15:25,381 --> 00:15:25,381 ? 326 00:15:25,381 --> 00:15:28,500 How did you set boundaries on this? 327 00:15:28,500 --> 00:15:31,070 Is my area, stay out of it or no? 328 00:15:31,070 --> 00:15:33,477 I really need your help on this because you're better at that 329 00:15:33,518 --> 00:15:34,179 thing than I am. 330 00:15:35,544 --> 00:15:37,773 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you just described me to a T. 331 00:15:37,773 --> 00:15:40,620 I've always been the operator and builder behind the scenes, 332 00:15:41,061 --> 00:15:44,216 extremely proud of what I can build and do and put together 333 00:15:44,256 --> 00:15:45,058 great processes. 334 00:15:45,058 --> 00:15:48,321 But I was never that person trying to be out in the 335 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:52,315 spotlight and necessarily great at showing or talking about what 336 00:15:52,315 --> 00:15:52,796 I was doing. 337 00:15:52,796 --> 00:15:57,125 My co-founder, tyler Billings, has been a sales leader his 338 00:15:57,186 --> 00:16:01,964 entire career, so kind of a great duo in terms of like, hey, 339 00:16:01,964 --> 00:16:05,813 I'm going to build this product that I know there's a market 340 00:16:05,874 --> 00:16:07,738 out there for you. 341 00:16:07,738 --> 00:16:10,865 Go, you know, boots on the ground, show people what we can 342 00:16:10,904 --> 00:16:13,519 do and talk it up and get their engagement. 343 00:16:13,519 --> 00:16:17,293 So in a lot of regard, that's a you know, probably a dream 344 00:16:17,333 --> 00:16:19,980 scenario where you have somebody that's super sales focused and 345 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,126 someone that's super ops and building focused. 346 00:16:22,635 --> 00:16:24,499 Now, that doesn't mean that we're not all selling all the 347 00:16:24,538 --> 00:16:24,818 time. 348 00:16:24,818 --> 00:16:26,602 Right, everybody in every seat. 349 00:16:26,602 --> 00:16:30,009 I have to be selling the vision behind why I wanted to build it 350 00:16:30,009 --> 00:16:30,429 this way. 351 00:16:30,429 --> 00:16:33,325 And gosh, even in the accounting seat they're selling 352 00:16:33,365 --> 00:16:36,577 right the end experience for our people on the other side of the 353 00:16:36,577 --> 00:16:37,039 equation. 354 00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:39,470 If there's bad billing scenarios, that can be as 355 00:16:40,354 --> 00:16:43,501 terrible of an outcome for a customer as the front end 356 00:16:43,522 --> 00:16:43,982 experience. 357 00:16:43,982 --> 00:16:46,629 So we're all selling all the time an outcome for a customer 358 00:16:46,649 --> 00:16:48,011 as the front end experience. 359 00:16:48,011 --> 00:16:49,095 So we're all selling all the time. 360 00:16:49,095 --> 00:16:52,678 But I think having that split where it's if there's something 361 00:16:52,698 --> 00:16:54,222 with the product to be improved or the operations or the overall 362 00:16:54,222 --> 00:16:56,668 business, that's me and I will go do that and having somebody 363 00:16:56,688 --> 00:16:59,583 that is on sales, I can get this message out there and see what 364 00:16:59,604 --> 00:17:00,164 we can bring home. 365 00:17:01,215 --> 00:17:05,323 Speaker 1: And that sounds like you built it with intentionality 366 00:17:05,323 --> 00:17:05,323 . 367 00:17:05,323 --> 00:17:09,557 You built your team with intentionality from day one, and 368 00:17:09,557 --> 00:17:14,999 I know it's easy to romanticize entrepreneurship and yet I also 369 00:17:14,999 --> 00:17:18,919 know it can be a complete grind and a lot of companies get 370 00:17:18,979 --> 00:17:23,107 close to not making it way more than people will ever know. 371 00:17:23,107 --> 00:17:26,221 Were there any lessons like that that you had to learn along 372 00:17:26,221 --> 00:17:29,028 the way or learn the hard way yourself? 373 00:17:30,414 --> 00:17:30,916 Speaker 2: Absolutely. 374 00:17:30,916 --> 00:17:34,223 You know, to rewind and something that was completely 375 00:17:34,284 --> 00:17:37,357 skipped in the first choice freight intro. 376 00:17:37,357 --> 00:17:41,106 You know I mentioned going to Detroit with my partners at the 377 00:17:41,126 --> 00:17:43,884 time and that was the beginning of it Flew out. 378 00:17:43,884 --> 00:17:44,949 We had great plans. 379 00:17:44,949 --> 00:17:48,078 The goal was just to grow and see where we could take a 380 00:17:48,098 --> 00:17:49,721 brokerage in one to five years. 381 00:17:51,306 --> 00:17:53,721 At that point in time, the market being what it was was 382 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:56,394 coming off of the COVID high Margins weren't there. 383 00:17:56,394 --> 00:17:59,422 Business was hard to come by and you know my two partners at 384 00:17:59,442 --> 00:18:02,076 the time, very successful entrepreneurs in their own right 385 00:18:02,076 --> 00:18:03,097 from the Detroit community. 386 00:18:03,097 --> 00:18:08,887 This was their fifth, sixth, seventh, uh, dive into business. 387 00:18:08,887 --> 00:18:10,593 Right, they've already had successful businesses. 388 00:18:10,593 --> 00:18:13,027 I was the one in the logistics space. 389 00:18:13,027 --> 00:18:17,299 So we got six months in, realized the cash that would 390 00:18:17,319 --> 00:18:20,288 need to be on hand to continue growing it at our pace and we 391 00:18:20,307 --> 00:18:21,150 were growing pretty quickly. 392 00:18:21,150 --> 00:18:25,928 Right off the jump they were like, hey, this is kind of not 393 00:18:25,948 --> 00:18:26,711 what we signed up for. 394 00:18:26,711 --> 00:18:30,204 Let's maybe just scrap the plans and move on to something 395 00:18:30,325 --> 00:18:30,747 else, right? 396 00:18:30,747 --> 00:18:33,214 And that's, in all honesty, probably the right move for them 397 00:18:33,214 --> 00:18:33,214 . 398 00:18:33,214 --> 00:18:35,810 There's a lot of other places where they could have parked 399 00:18:35,851 --> 00:18:38,317 their money outside of logistics at that time. 400 00:18:38,317 --> 00:18:42,150 That would be a smarter move and I was leading with passion 401 00:18:42,549 --> 00:18:45,857 for the industry and the vision they were leading with smart 402 00:18:45,917 --> 00:18:46,117 money. 403 00:18:46,117 --> 00:18:49,590 So, luckily for me, we were able to come up with an amicable 404 00:18:49,590 --> 00:18:54,286 solution, had great partners in them, to where I would continue 405 00:18:54,286 --> 00:18:58,496 on and take the business over entirely, make them whole and 406 00:18:59,136 --> 00:19:00,125 from that point forward. 407 00:19:00,165 --> 00:19:02,813 So we went from months one through six, growing hiring, 408 00:19:03,314 --> 00:19:05,508 realizing it wasn't going to work the way we wanted it to, to 409 00:19:05,508 --> 00:19:08,675 saying like all right, I'm going to take this solo, I'm 410 00:19:08,715 --> 00:19:11,972 going to correct course, essentially make sure this thing 411 00:19:11,972 --> 00:19:16,371 is sound enough to work, and then kind of refound it again 412 00:19:16,490 --> 00:19:17,252 six months later. 413 00:19:17,252 --> 00:19:21,346 So it was the highest high, followed by a reality check 414 00:19:21,508 --> 00:19:21,969 instantly. 415 00:19:21,969 --> 00:19:23,692 And I think that was the biggest lesson. 416 00:19:23,692 --> 00:19:29,108 Was you know, I think from a big place like Coyote, you know 417 00:19:29,148 --> 00:19:32,574 how to pull levers to grow, or what you think is growth? 418 00:19:32,574 --> 00:19:36,137 Right, if you want sales, I can pull a lever that'll drive 419 00:19:36,198 --> 00:19:38,200 sales and drive revenue and we'll get people in. 420 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:45,926 Well, what's happening on the back end of that? 421 00:19:45,926 --> 00:19:46,448 Is it profitable revenue? 422 00:19:46,448 --> 00:19:47,691 Is it taking us 10 hours to cover a break-even load? 423 00:19:47,691 --> 00:19:49,895 Right, there's a cost associated with that and the 424 00:19:49,935 --> 00:19:50,758 struggles of growth? 425 00:19:50,758 --> 00:19:53,049 Right, we didn't know where some of our receivables were at 426 00:19:53,130 --> 00:19:55,856 one point where and when you're running out of cash, you're 427 00:19:55,876 --> 00:19:57,708 saying, well, we have to go find that right. 428 00:19:57,708 --> 00:20:01,277 So everything, aside from the logistics piece I knew very well 429 00:20:01,277 --> 00:20:05,032 , it's the boring stuff that you don't know about that will come 430 00:20:05,032 --> 00:20:08,672 back and get you, and that was an instant lesson where it could 431 00:20:08,672 --> 00:20:09,515 have been the end. 432 00:20:09,515 --> 00:20:12,703 Six months in and luckily for the partners I had that were 433 00:20:12,723 --> 00:20:16,397 willing to let me continue, we were able to correct course 434 00:20:16,417 --> 00:20:19,026 pretty quickly and get this thing back on the right track 435 00:20:19,066 --> 00:20:19,708 and grow from there. 436 00:20:21,151 --> 00:20:25,159 Speaker 1: I love the candidness that you share with that. 437 00:20:25,159 --> 00:20:30,652 People think businesses fail because they decline. 438 00:20:30,652 --> 00:20:35,480 Sometimes businesses fail because they grow too fast and 439 00:20:35,599 --> 00:20:39,434 their cash flow gets away from them, because it takes a lot 440 00:20:39,474 --> 00:20:43,286 more working capital to run a $20 million freight brokerage 441 00:20:43,306 --> 00:20:46,836 than it does a $2 million freight brokerage, and so more 442 00:20:46,896 --> 00:20:52,132 sales faster can actually speed up the end of a business if they 443 00:20:52,132 --> 00:20:54,317 don't have good accounting. 444 00:20:54,317 --> 00:20:58,936 And it's a healthy reminder for everybody who is maybe 445 00:20:58,977 --> 00:21:02,607 listening and is passionate about an idea that they have 446 00:21:02,627 --> 00:21:07,478 been thinking about for a long time and want to get into their 447 00:21:07,518 --> 00:21:09,208 own business or start their own thing. 448 00:21:11,010 --> 00:21:14,097 The secondary things are what you end up spending a lot of 449 00:21:14,137 --> 00:21:14,566 time on. 450 00:21:14,566 --> 00:21:17,854 I use the example of like a bakery somebody who is a really 451 00:21:17,933 --> 00:21:20,808 good baker and is like I want to make donuts because I or you 452 00:21:20,828 --> 00:21:23,236 know pastries, because I'm really, really good at that, and 453 00:21:23,236 --> 00:21:24,728 so they open a donut shop. 454 00:21:24,728 --> 00:21:28,336 Well, they end up spending the least amount of time actually 455 00:21:28,375 --> 00:21:28,757 baking. 456 00:21:28,757 --> 00:21:32,118 They spend the rest of their time dealing with a landlord and 457 00:21:32,118 --> 00:21:38,375 with vendors and customers and chargebacks and HR issues and 458 00:21:38,535 --> 00:21:42,288 all of that other stuff, and so if you it's kind of the don't 459 00:21:42,367 --> 00:21:46,797 follow your passion advice unless you have people around 460 00:21:46,836 --> 00:21:49,749 you that can fill in those gaps, because, especially in 461 00:21:49,788 --> 00:21:52,233 logistics, the dollar amounts are too big. 462 00:21:52,233 --> 00:21:58,612 It takes a lot of cash to run a even a medium-sized freight 463 00:21:58,652 --> 00:21:59,133 brokerage. 464 00:21:59,133 --> 00:22:03,227 You've got to have millions and millions of dollars available 465 00:22:03,847 --> 00:22:08,477 um, should a customer not pay, or you have to front money to 466 00:22:08,497 --> 00:22:11,768 the carriers before you get paid by your customer in maybe 45 or 467 00:22:11,768 --> 00:22:12,449 50 days. 468 00:22:12,449 --> 00:22:17,616 And those aren't sexy things, but they are the building blocks 469 00:22:17,616 --> 00:22:19,599 of a company that lasts. 470 00:22:27,704 --> 00:22:28,306 Speaker 2: Anything to add to that? 471 00:22:28,306 --> 00:22:29,067 Yeah, I think you nailed it right. 472 00:22:29,067 --> 00:22:29,708 I knew it about six months in. 473 00:22:29,708 --> 00:22:30,969 If we were going to fail, it wasn't going to be because I 474 00:22:31,009 --> 00:22:32,510 didn't know logistics or I didn't know what I was doing. 475 00:22:32,510 --> 00:22:37,237 It was the stuff that you're not seeing and you're not aware 476 00:22:37,376 --> 00:22:38,519 of you haven't been trained on. 477 00:22:38,519 --> 00:22:40,080 There's nobody to train you in these environments. 478 00:22:41,185 --> 00:22:45,788 Right, I think, being open and honest with yourself about what 479 00:22:45,829 --> 00:22:50,553 you don't know as you jump into entrepreneurship, obviously you 480 00:22:50,574 --> 00:22:52,015 have to go figure out everything , right? 481 00:22:52,015 --> 00:22:53,875 So my mentality was I'll figure this out. 482 00:22:53,875 --> 00:22:55,678 Oh, the accounting, I'll figure this out. 483 00:22:55,678 --> 00:22:57,318 I know where to look. 484 00:22:57,318 --> 00:22:59,621 I know it'll figure itself out in some way. 485 00:22:59,621 --> 00:23:02,068 Like, the things are going to come to me that are issues, and 486 00:23:02,088 --> 00:23:03,484 that's very naive, right? 487 00:23:03,484 --> 00:23:06,973 I think if you can't be honest with yourself and say, wait, 488 00:23:07,054 --> 00:23:11,094 this is beyond my reach, maybe I should tap a resource for help. 489 00:23:11,094 --> 00:23:15,109 You my reach, maybe I should tap a resource for help. 490 00:23:15,109 --> 00:23:16,313 You can end up in a lot of trouble very quickly and 491 00:23:16,334 --> 00:23:16,795 sometimes irreversible. 492 00:23:16,795 --> 00:23:18,380 So that's probably a trap that a lot of people fall into. 493 00:23:18,380 --> 00:23:21,474 I'd imagine it's one that I almost fell into myself is not 494 00:23:21,515 --> 00:23:24,786 being able to say to yourself you can't necessarily do this 495 00:23:24,987 --> 00:23:25,086 one. 496 00:23:25,086 --> 00:23:26,490 Let's find some help. 497 00:23:27,271 --> 00:23:29,115 Speaker 1: You're a very thoughtful person, justin. 498 00:23:29,115 --> 00:23:32,391 In all the time that I've known you, I know your mind is 499 00:23:32,451 --> 00:23:34,537 constantly working through things. 500 00:23:34,537 --> 00:23:39,513 Do you consciously think about the difference of your 501 00:23:39,634 --> 00:23:42,479 professional life and your personal life as an entrepreneur 502 00:23:42,479 --> 00:23:44,999 , or is it just one big ball of yarn? 503 00:23:44,999 --> 00:23:46,045 It's all mixed up together? 504 00:23:46,045 --> 00:23:51,594 How do you look at the different parts of your life, 505 00:23:52,335 --> 00:23:55,720 given how large of a role entrepreneurship can take and 506 00:23:55,765 --> 00:23:56,566 just dominate? 507 00:23:57,929 --> 00:24:01,934 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think year one was a big ball of yarn 508 00:24:03,877 --> 00:24:04,900 Because there was no other way. 509 00:24:04,900 --> 00:24:08,613 I had to juggle whatever I could find a way to make things 510 00:24:08,673 --> 00:24:08,913 work. 511 00:24:08,913 --> 00:24:13,450 I try more than ever to be very intentional about the time that 512 00:24:13,450 --> 00:24:16,717 I spend, you know, with my family, with my loved ones, with 513 00:24:16,717 --> 00:24:20,291 my friends, how I show up for them versus how I show up for 514 00:24:20,311 --> 00:24:22,656 the business versus how I show up for myself. 515 00:24:22,656 --> 00:24:26,153 I need my own time where I'm a big fitness enthusiast. 516 00:24:26,153 --> 00:24:31,490 I need that time and making sure that the other areas don't 517 00:24:31,549 --> 00:24:34,976 impact the rest of them, and it's extremely difficult trying 518 00:24:35,016 --> 00:24:39,390 not to bring home the stresses of work, trying not to, you know 519 00:24:39,390 --> 00:24:42,336 , have the carryover from personal life into the business 520 00:24:42,376 --> 00:24:42,884 world Right. 521 00:24:42,884 --> 00:24:46,593 So, yeah, I do think a lot about segmenting them and trying 522 00:24:46,593 --> 00:24:51,169 to understand how they factor into each other and making sure 523 00:24:51,209 --> 00:24:54,728 that they're, all you know, coexisting in a peaceful manner. 524 00:24:54,728 --> 00:24:56,894 That is also not running me completely ragged. 525 00:24:57,884 --> 00:25:00,653 Speaker 1: How do you think about goals, then, for the 526 00:25:00,673 --> 00:25:00,954 future? 527 00:25:03,526 --> 00:25:07,076 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think those they have to intertwine right. 528 00:25:07,076 --> 00:25:10,567 It's you could set goals individually and say, well, I 529 00:25:10,586 --> 00:25:11,548 want the business to do this. 530 00:25:11,548 --> 00:25:15,576 How does that affect my personal life and marriage and 531 00:25:15,616 --> 00:25:17,929 kids and all the things that come, which I'm not there yet, 532 00:25:18,410 --> 00:25:20,537 but I will be in the very near future? 533 00:25:20,537 --> 00:25:25,551 So it's trying to understand does this business goal align 534 00:25:25,571 --> 00:25:27,517 timing wise with what I do with my personal life? 535 00:25:27,517 --> 00:25:30,907 Can my personal life sustain what I'm doing with the business 536 00:25:30,907 --> 00:25:30,907 ? 537 00:25:30,907 --> 00:25:36,313 It's a tight race between all of them together and I think you 538 00:25:36,313 --> 00:25:39,316 have to be intentional and, again, honest with yourself in 539 00:25:39,355 --> 00:25:41,678 the business world, honest with yourself in the personal life 540 00:25:41,698 --> 00:25:44,401 world, to know where you're falling short and where they're 541 00:25:44,421 --> 00:25:58,567 going to work well together helped you form that kind of a 542 00:25:58,586 --> 00:25:59,949 mindset and the ability to be that mature and wise about how 543 00:25:59,969 --> 00:26:00,931 you want your life to go. 544 00:26:03,215 --> 00:26:05,921 Yeah, great question I would. 545 00:26:05,921 --> 00:26:09,828 I mean my mother first and foremost, who raised us as a 546 00:26:09,868 --> 00:26:11,834 single parent, myself and my older sisters. 547 00:26:11,834 --> 00:26:15,448 I think a lot of my intentionality comes from that 548 00:26:16,390 --> 00:26:17,992 Extremely supportive right. 549 00:26:17,992 --> 00:26:22,127 I knew that she was the one that was going to help me 550 00:26:22,769 --> 00:26:24,554 understand things in a way that made sense. 551 00:26:24,554 --> 00:26:28,470 If I was sporadic as a kid or even as an adult, I think she 552 00:26:28,510 --> 00:26:32,724 gave me that courage, if you will, to say like okay, go do 553 00:26:32,744 --> 00:26:34,787 what you want to do, but take care of your responsibilities. 554 00:26:34,787 --> 00:26:37,910 Make sure you're not doing something that's going to hurt 555 00:26:37,990 --> 00:26:39,971 others if you're taking a leap of faith on something. 556 00:26:39,971 --> 00:26:42,413 But I would give most of the credit to my mom and to my 557 00:26:42,453 --> 00:26:42,814 sisters. 558 00:26:42,814 --> 00:26:46,277 They were like second mothers my entire childhood. 559 00:26:46,277 --> 00:26:54,023 That trio of women definitely gave me a strong ability to be 560 00:26:54,064 --> 00:26:57,951 intentional, first and foremost, about my actions and my desires 561 00:26:57,951 --> 00:26:57,951 . 562 00:26:58,853 --> 00:27:01,097 Speaker 1: Well, and I'm sure they're all very proud of seeing 563 00:27:01,097 --> 00:27:05,192 what you've done so far and knowing that you've got a lot of 564 00:27:05,192 --> 00:27:10,228 runway ahead of you, because that's part of why you do what 565 00:27:10,288 --> 00:27:13,201 you do Knowing you, I know that's true. 566 00:27:13,403 --> 00:27:14,686 It's not just about money. 567 00:27:14,686 --> 00:27:18,336 It's not just about solving cool problems, although that's a 568 00:27:18,336 --> 00:27:19,018 part of it too. 569 00:27:19,018 --> 00:27:24,736 It is people that want to have an impact in a positive way and 570 00:27:25,317 --> 00:27:26,719 prioritize what matters. 571 00:27:26,719 --> 00:27:31,772 And when you can find that overlap between your chosen 572 00:27:31,813 --> 00:27:35,964 career, your finances, your friends, your family, your 573 00:27:36,005 --> 00:27:39,392 relationships and something bigger than yourself, then 574 00:27:40,994 --> 00:27:42,719 that's a pretty good place to be . 575 00:27:42,719 --> 00:27:47,288 I mean, you've got to feel very fortunate, and I know you 576 00:27:47,307 --> 00:27:49,614 shared with me beforehand that you haven't had a lot of chances 577 00:27:49,614 --> 00:27:52,407 to stop and think about this journey that you've been on. 578 00:27:52,407 --> 00:27:57,737 I hope this provides some of that a chance to pause, reflect, 579 00:27:57,737 --> 00:28:01,890 recharge for the next stage of what is coming, for First Choice 580 00:28:01,890 --> 00:28:06,445 and for you and we're grateful for you for opening up and 581 00:28:06,465 --> 00:28:09,640 sharing your story I always like to ask is there any advice that 582 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:13,229 you would give to somebody who's maybe a couple of years 583 00:28:13,269 --> 00:28:16,494 behind where you are right now, so that you can pay it forward 584 00:28:16,535 --> 00:28:19,599 to somebody else who's on their own entrepreneurial journey? 585 00:28:22,305 --> 00:28:24,211 Speaker 2: Yeah well, I definitely appreciate all the 586 00:28:24,251 --> 00:28:24,753 kind words. 587 00:28:24,753 --> 00:28:29,252 I think the thing that I would give the most advice on is 588 00:28:29,452 --> 00:28:32,778 protecting your time, time management and it's something 589 00:28:32,798 --> 00:28:34,429 I've always preached before. 590 00:28:34,429 --> 00:28:35,613 Entrepreneurship as well. 591 00:28:35,613 --> 00:28:39,846 There's a lot of fires that are going to be thrown your way any 592 00:28:39,846 --> 00:28:43,695 given day, right as the guy that has to be the one to you 593 00:28:43,715 --> 00:28:44,718 know the end all be all. 594 00:28:44,718 --> 00:28:47,592 Your day is going to be pulled in a million directions, and if 595 00:28:47,632 --> 00:28:51,471 you can't be, again, intentional with your time and protect it 596 00:28:51,590 --> 00:28:54,396 and decide what fires can be left burning for a little while 597 00:28:54,436 --> 00:28:58,372 while you focus on the main fires, it's a quick recipe for 598 00:28:58,451 --> 00:28:59,013 disaster. 599 00:28:59,013 --> 00:29:02,126 So I think the one thing that has helped me the most is time 600 00:29:02,147 --> 00:29:06,271 management making sure that I am focused on what I need to be 601 00:29:06,311 --> 00:29:09,295 focused on and letting those small fires burn, knowing that 602 00:29:09,315 --> 00:29:09,775 I'll get to them. 603 00:29:09,775 --> 00:29:13,798 It's not ignoring them by any means, but if you don't be very 604 00:29:13,858 --> 00:29:18,282 intentional with your time, you will quickly run out of time and 605 00:29:18,282 --> 00:29:20,230 then realize you didn't get anything done in that day. 606 00:29:21,375 --> 00:29:24,185 Speaker 1: I once heard the analogy of owning a business is 607 00:29:24,246 --> 00:29:27,855 like riding on the back of a lion it's really powerful and it 608 00:29:27,855 --> 00:29:31,751 can take you really far, really really fast, but at any point 609 00:29:31,811 --> 00:29:33,717 it can also turn around and bite your head off. 610 00:29:35,826 --> 00:29:40,310 So it's this beautiful contradiction of risk and reward 611 00:29:40,310 --> 00:29:48,039 , and using the time management part of it and prioritizing what 612 00:29:48,039 --> 00:29:51,943 you're going to focus on gives you a greater likelihood of 613 00:29:51,983 --> 00:29:54,172 being successful, and I love that you brought up health. 614 00:29:54,484 --> 00:30:01,336 It's underappreciated, I think, that to be at your best from a 615 00:30:01,397 --> 00:30:05,807 performance perspective, you need good sleep, you need 616 00:30:06,108 --> 00:30:09,887 exercise, you need a healthy diet, and it not only manifests 617 00:30:09,949 --> 00:30:14,065 itself in your physical body but in the way that you show up for 618 00:30:14,065 --> 00:30:17,133 others, how much stamina you have to make it through the day. 619 00:30:17,133 --> 00:30:21,576 Your mental clarity and the happiest entrepreneurs I'm not 620 00:30:21,636 --> 00:30:24,407 necessarily going to always say the most successful, because 621 00:30:24,428 --> 00:30:28,461 that's subjective, depending on how people define success but 622 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:32,092 the happiest entrepreneurs that I know tend to be the ones that 623 00:30:32,132 --> 00:30:35,728 prioritize their health, and so that's another good lesson. 624 00:30:35,728 --> 00:30:38,153 It's a reminder for me too. 625 00:30:38,153 --> 00:30:39,416 That's why I love to do. 626 00:30:39,416 --> 00:30:43,355 What I do is I get to learn from dozens and dozens of people 627 00:30:43,355 --> 00:30:47,827 doing what you're doing, justin , and we're grateful to you for 628 00:30:47,867 --> 00:30:49,413 sharing your story and we are definitely all rooting for you. 629 00:30:49,413 --> 00:30:50,836 Awesome, I appreciate it, nate, always great talking to you and 630 00:30:50,836 --> 00:30:51,519 thank you so much for having me . 631 00:30:51,539 --> 00:30:52,423 Speaker 2: All right, are definitely all rooting for you. 632 00:30:52,423 --> 00:30:54,608 Awesome, I appreciate it, nate, always great talking to you and 633 00:30:54,608 --> 00:30:55,652 thank you so much for having me . 634 00:30:56,173 --> 00:30:57,016 Speaker 1: All right, take care, my friend. 635 00:30:57,016 --> 00:31:02,232 Thanks for listening to another episode of the Bootstrapper's 636 00:31:02,294 --> 00:31:04,868 Guide to Logistics, and a special thank you to our 637 00:31:04,909 --> 00:31:07,876 sponsors and the team behind the scenes who make it all possible 638 00:31:07,876 --> 00:31:07,876 . 639 00:31:07,876 --> 00:31:11,374 Be sure to like, follow or subscribe to the podcast to get 640 00:31:11,394 --> 00:31:12,175 the latest updates. 641 00:31:12,175 --> 00:31:15,231 To learn more about the show and connect with the growing 642 00:31:15,271 --> 00:31:18,608 community of entrepreneurs, visit logisticsfounderscom. 643 00:31:18,608 --> 00:31:22,477 And, of course, thank you to all the founders who trust us to 644 00:31:22,477 --> 00:31:23,239 share their stories.