1 00:00:33,262 --> 00:00:35,267 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Bootstrapper's Guide to 2 00:00:35,307 --> 00:00:37,932 Logistics, the podcast highlighting founders doing it 3 00:00:37,951 --> 00:00:39,634 the way that doesn't get a lot of attention. 4 00:00:39,634 --> 00:00:42,567 We're here to change that by sharing their stories and 5 00:00:42,606 --> 00:00:44,070 inspiring others to take the leap. 6 00:00:44,070 --> 00:00:48,010 It's a roller coaster ride that you might ultimately fail. 7 00:00:48,010 --> 00:00:50,567 That's when I kind of knew I was on to something. 8 00:00:50,567 --> 00:00:52,146 It was very hard. 9 00:00:52,620 --> 00:00:56,243 Speaker 2: It truly is building a legacy the more life you live, 10 00:00:56,243 --> 00:00:59,402 the more wisdom you have, because we are where we're 11 00:00:59,423 --> 00:01:01,751 supposed to be kind of answering the call. 12 00:01:01,751 --> 00:01:04,709 Don't shoulder entrepreneurship on your own. 13 00:01:05,510 --> 00:01:06,655 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Nate Schutz. 14 00:01:06,655 --> 00:01:09,703 Let's build something together from the ground up. 15 00:01:09,703 --> 00:01:14,430 Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Bootstrapper's Guide 16 00:01:14,430 --> 00:01:15,131 to Logistics. 17 00:01:15,131 --> 00:01:18,256 We're moving into the back half of 2025. 18 00:01:18,256 --> 00:01:24,743 We're well past the 100-founder story episode mark and I love 19 00:01:24,783 --> 00:01:27,349 getting to talk to folks who have started their business 20 00:01:27,490 --> 00:01:28,393 post-COVID. 21 00:01:28,393 --> 00:01:33,450 There seems to be a dividing line of folks when they start a 22 00:01:33,490 --> 00:01:36,748 business and they've been in business for 15 years and then 23 00:01:36,768 --> 00:01:39,546 they went through the COVID challenges and then now kind of 24 00:01:39,566 --> 00:01:41,971 the freight recession that's seemingly endless. 25 00:01:41,971 --> 00:01:44,986 And then there are folks like our guest today, Justin McKessie 26 00:01:44,986 --> 00:01:49,103 , who started a company in the middle of all of that and has a 27 00:01:49,144 --> 00:01:52,451 slightly different perspective because he went right into the 28 00:01:52,512 --> 00:01:56,388 fire day one to start his business and so happy to have 29 00:01:56,429 --> 00:01:57,331 him on the show today. 30 00:01:57,331 --> 00:02:01,072 He's the founder and CEO of First Choice Freight, based in 31 00:02:01,111 --> 00:02:01,554 Chicago. 32 00:02:01,554 --> 00:02:03,500 Justin, good morning, how are you today? 33 00:02:04,402 --> 00:02:05,965 Speaker 2: Good morning, nate, I'm doing well, how are you? 34 00:02:06,527 --> 00:02:07,287 Speaker 1: I'm doing great. 35 00:02:07,287 --> 00:02:11,762 There seem to be three or four companies that just about every 36 00:02:11,822 --> 00:02:13,183 freight broker has come out of. 37 00:02:13,183 --> 00:02:15,707 It's either CH Robinson every freight broker has come out of. 38 00:02:15,707 --> 00:02:21,115 It's either CH Robinson, tql, coyote I'm drawing a blank. 39 00:02:21,115 --> 00:02:33,461 Who am I missing? 40 00:02:33,461 --> 00:02:34,925 Tql, coyote, ch and the other big one, xpo, and a handful of 41 00:02:34,944 --> 00:02:35,084 others. 42 00:02:35,084 --> 00:02:35,445 I'm drawing it. 43 00:02:35,445 --> 00:02:37,552 Yeah, having a bit of a senior moment here, but you came out of 44 00:02:37,552 --> 00:02:42,149 the Coyote family and there's a really big number of 45 00:02:42,329 --> 00:02:45,981 entrepreneurs that have started their careers at Coyote and then 46 00:02:45,981 --> 00:02:46,944 went off on their own. 47 00:02:46,944 --> 00:02:50,221 Can you maybe unpack a little bit of your early years, of your 48 00:02:50,221 --> 00:02:54,810 career in logistics, how you got the bug for freight, and 49 00:02:54,870 --> 00:03:00,622 then when did you feel like you had learned enough to start to 50 00:03:01,145 --> 00:03:03,129 have some dangerous thoughts about building something of your 51 00:03:03,129 --> 00:03:03,290 own? 52 00:03:04,759 --> 00:03:07,728 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the Coyote lineage is talked about a 53 00:03:07,728 --> 00:03:08,670 lot and it's definitely out there. 54 00:03:08,670 --> 00:03:10,905 We go a lot of places and everybody says like, wow, 55 00:03:11,025 --> 00:03:16,006 everybody I've met is in some way shape or form from Coyote my 56 00:03:16,006 --> 00:03:16,828 background. 57 00:03:16,828 --> 00:03:20,544 I actually went to school at Central Michigan for logistics 58 00:03:20,564 --> 00:03:24,236 management, so I had logistics in my intentions. 59 00:03:24,236 --> 00:03:26,302 I never thought it'd be in the brokerage space. 60 00:03:26,302 --> 00:03:29,671 I always thought I'd be at some big manufacturer or something 61 00:03:29,692 --> 00:03:31,644 and figuring out the hard puzzles of supply chain. 62 00:03:31,644 --> 00:03:36,501 I got an internship my junior year of college at a place 63 00:03:36,580 --> 00:03:39,810 called ALS in Michigan Automated Logistics Systems in Jackson, 64 00:03:39,830 --> 00:03:40,532 michigan, my hometown. 65 00:03:40,532 --> 00:03:42,425 Fantastic group of people. 66 00:03:42,425 --> 00:03:45,990 And that was my first endeavor into brokerage space. 67 00:03:45,990 --> 00:03:49,788 And then the Coyote thing kind of came by happenstance and, 68 00:03:49,870 --> 00:03:53,228 it's funny, one of the colleagues there in the office 69 00:03:53,328 --> 00:03:57,420 randomly said oh wow, this news article says Coyote's opening an 70 00:03:57,420 --> 00:03:58,564 Ann Arbor Michigan office. 71 00:03:58,564 --> 00:04:00,251 And I said what is Coyote? 72 00:04:00,251 --> 00:04:01,534 And they said, oh, it's this. 73 00:04:01,534 --> 00:04:03,925 You know they do the same stuff as we do, they just have all 74 00:04:03,966 --> 00:04:04,127 these. 75 00:04:04,127 --> 00:04:06,961 You know young people and the office environment. 76 00:04:06,961 --> 00:04:08,882 So I Googled Coyote logistics. 77 00:04:08,882 --> 00:04:12,824 I had one year left of school and I decided like, well, if I'm 78 00:04:12,824 --> 00:04:15,545 going to do another internship, maybe I'll reach out to these 79 00:04:15,586 --> 00:04:18,927 guys Did that and was accepted in. 80 00:04:18,927 --> 00:04:21,430 You know, I took my next summer to Chicago. 81 00:04:21,430 --> 00:04:25,872 I actually pulled out a $2,000 personal loan to move myself to 82 00:04:25,913 --> 00:04:27,153 Chicago for an internship. 83 00:04:27,153 --> 00:04:29,194 I also had to pay Central Michigan for a credit. 84 00:04:29,194 --> 00:04:33,497 We had to have internships, but that was my foray into Coyote. 85 00:04:33,497 --> 00:04:40,264 So I got there as an intern in 2014. 86 00:04:40,264 --> 00:04:41,609 Immediately knew I was going to come back and was accepted 87 00:04:41,649 --> 00:04:42,069 full-time. 88 00:04:42,090 --> 00:04:45,060 The year following Getting to Coyote I was in the traditional 89 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,589 carrier sales role, kind of growing through that. 90 00:04:47,589 --> 00:04:53,185 We were acquired by UPS shortly after my entry there and that 91 00:04:53,225 --> 00:04:56,571 is kind of where my career took the most interesting turn and 92 00:04:56,591 --> 00:04:59,134 really was a springboard for what I've done since then. 93 00:04:59,134 --> 00:05:03,346 I was lucky enough to be part of the early group of folks that 94 00:05:03,346 --> 00:05:09,382 were dedicated to the UPS side at Coyote, got to basically play 95 00:05:09,382 --> 00:05:12,685 in their sandbox and have a ton of different roles, building 96 00:05:12,764 --> 00:05:15,668 teams and building new endeavors all around just how we could 97 00:05:15,687 --> 00:05:17,209 create synergies with UPS. 98 00:05:17,209 --> 00:05:22,035 Literally, my first role there had no job description. 99 00:05:22,035 --> 00:05:25,783 It had the name of one gentleman that said work with 100 00:05:25,903 --> 00:05:27,346 Rock to find synergies. 101 00:05:27,346 --> 00:05:32,084 First hour I was Googling like, is this one of our employees, 102 00:05:32,125 --> 00:05:32,829 is this a company? 103 00:05:32,829 --> 00:05:36,665 And a gentleman by the name of Keith Hargarten, walked in and 104 00:05:36,685 --> 00:05:38,865 said hi, I'm Rock, we're going to be working together. 105 00:05:38,865 --> 00:05:42,485 So he was in charge of a lot of the intermodal side and I got 106 00:05:42,524 --> 00:05:46,137 to work with him and it was wide open, which, as someone that's 107 00:05:46,197 --> 00:05:50,286 a self-proclaimed like builder and tinker my whole life, this 108 00:05:50,387 --> 00:06:01,321 was a space where I could really shine and say you know, 109 00:06:01,341 --> 00:06:02,303 whatever is out there, go find it. 110 00:06:02,303 --> 00:06:03,627 Go find a way that Coyote can help UPS do it on the asset side 111 00:06:03,627 --> 00:06:05,211 , on the intermodal side, and everything was fair game. 112 00:06:05,211 --> 00:06:07,319 So that was really where my entrepreneurial spirit was able 113 00:06:07,358 --> 00:06:10,286 to shine in the world of Coyote UPS. 114 00:06:11,208 --> 00:06:13,692 So I did that for quite a long time, had a lot of success there 115 00:06:13,692 --> 00:06:16,165 and always knew in the back of my mind it was going to turn 116 00:06:16,225 --> 00:06:19,033 into, you know, for my career, something that I wanted to do 117 00:06:19,519 --> 00:06:21,024 start another business. 118 00:06:21,024 --> 00:06:26,963 I again, by stroke of luck, had some friends from Detroit that 119 00:06:27,144 --> 00:06:30,276 had been in contact with me and the timing was right, where they 120 00:06:30,276 --> 00:06:32,362 said hey, we're thinking about starting a brokerage. 121 00:06:32,362 --> 00:06:36,112 I had plans mapped out, I had multiple business plans put 122 00:06:36,132 --> 00:06:38,567 together, different names, different areas we wanted to 123 00:06:38,586 --> 00:06:39,149 focus on. 124 00:06:39,149 --> 00:06:42,382 I flew out the next day and pitched them what I wanted to do 125 00:06:42,382 --> 00:06:45,511 and told them my vision and it was okay, let's do it. 126 00:06:45,511 --> 00:06:48,846 So I was at BP Logistics at the time. 127 00:06:48,867 --> 00:06:51,091 It was a short stint between Coyote and what I'm doing now 128 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,906 and I told them exactly what I was doing Another great group of 129 00:06:54,906 --> 00:06:57,291 people, very honest with them and they told me go do your 130 00:06:57,312 --> 00:06:57,531 thing. 131 00:06:57,531 --> 00:07:00,377 It was no hard feelings, it was . 132 00:07:00,377 --> 00:07:01,701 We see where you're coming from . 133 00:07:01,701 --> 00:07:03,446 So that was my. 134 00:07:03,446 --> 00:07:07,836 My jump into entrepreneurship was okay, it's go time. 135 00:07:07,836 --> 00:07:10,225 There's some other people that I know that are ready to go as 136 00:07:10,305 --> 00:07:10,526 well. 137 00:07:10,526 --> 00:07:14,540 And I closed the laptop at one place and the next morning I 138 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:17,970 opened up my new laptop and got started on the dream that we had 139 00:07:17,970 --> 00:07:18,771 set out in front of us. 140 00:07:19,540 --> 00:07:21,286 Speaker 1: And that dream is now First Choice Freight. 141 00:07:21,286 --> 00:07:24,310 You're in your three, four years in. 142 00:07:24,310 --> 00:07:29,451 It's been a tough climate for a lot of companies in that space, 143 00:07:29,451 --> 00:07:34,706 so you have to be able to have a high pain tolerance to do what 144 00:07:34,706 --> 00:07:40,680 you do, but also be somebody who is chronically not satisfied 145 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:40,680 . 146 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,807 When you start talking about being a builder and a tinkerer, 147 00:07:45,290 --> 00:07:48,745 I'm getting pictures of you as a kid and if you had multiple 148 00:07:48,786 --> 00:07:50,589 business plans and multiple names. 149 00:07:50,589 --> 00:07:53,803 So you're somebody who likely has a very active thought life 150 00:07:54,586 --> 00:07:57,432 and has been that way for a long time. 151 00:07:57,432 --> 00:07:59,004 So what were you like as a kid? 152 00:08:00,266 --> 00:08:02,932 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's absolutely correct. 153 00:08:02,932 --> 00:08:08,170 Growing up I was always messing with something I probably drove 154 00:08:08,170 --> 00:08:13,687 my mom crazy Like a VCR that was eating the tape speakers 155 00:08:13,728 --> 00:08:16,002 that weren't working, that were left behind in our garage. 156 00:08:16,002 --> 00:08:18,949 I would find them, take them apart, find a way to make it 157 00:08:19,009 --> 00:08:21,401 work, and usually I would leave half the parts out and it'd be 158 00:08:21,442 --> 00:08:22,345 working better than before. 159 00:08:22,345 --> 00:08:26,244 Anything that I could get my hands on, I was constantly 160 00:08:26,324 --> 00:08:28,213 messing with it and trying to build it, improve it. 161 00:08:28,213 --> 00:08:30,961 I think in hindsight we probably just had a lot of 162 00:08:31,041 --> 00:08:35,009 voided warranties sitting around after that, but it worked out 163 00:08:35,028 --> 00:08:37,873 sometimes we might have to explain what a VCR is too. 164 00:08:37,893 --> 00:08:38,875 Speaker 1: We got a younger audience. 165 00:08:38,875 --> 00:08:45,649 So keep going, so you did you find ways, then, to make money 166 00:08:45,730 --> 00:08:46,591 doing things like that? 167 00:08:46,591 --> 00:08:48,501 Also, I did so. 168 00:08:48,541 --> 00:08:51,850 Speaker 2: I think from that stage that carried into my you 169 00:08:51,889 --> 00:08:54,622 know my driving stage where I was messing around and tinkering 170 00:08:54,622 --> 00:09:00,490 with my vehicles, my first entrepreneurial endeavor was I 171 00:09:00,530 --> 00:09:03,701 built these light kits for the bed of my truck that went under 172 00:09:03,721 --> 00:09:06,187 the rails and they shine in different colors at nighttime. 173 00:09:06,187 --> 00:09:08,601 This was I don't even know what year it had been before. 174 00:09:08,601 --> 00:09:12,331 It was like standard in trucks today Got a lot of comments on 175 00:09:12,371 --> 00:09:15,392 it and I was like, well, gosh, this took me $30 to put together 176 00:09:15,392 --> 00:09:15,392 . 177 00:09:15,392 --> 00:09:18,101 I started buying up the parts for it. 178 00:09:18,101 --> 00:09:20,287 I assembled instructions on how to do it. 179 00:09:20,287 --> 00:09:25,264 I created a eBay motors page and I posted them on there with 180 00:09:25,725 --> 00:09:28,331 different thoughts and instructions, and it took me a 181 00:09:28,351 --> 00:09:29,503 while to find the price point. 182 00:09:29,503 --> 00:09:32,755 But I was testing it out and lo and behold, I started selling 183 00:09:32,777 --> 00:09:34,361 them for $60, $70. 184 00:09:34,361 --> 00:09:35,644 And I'm like, okay, I'm making money. 185 00:09:36,287 --> 00:09:37,831 I was never serious about it. 186 00:09:37,831 --> 00:09:40,249 It was just something that, again, I was playing around with 187 00:09:40,249 --> 00:09:44,307 , but without even knowing that that was entrepreneurship at the 188 00:09:44,307 --> 00:09:44,687 moment. 189 00:09:44,687 --> 00:09:48,293 It was something that I was like well, I can do this for $30 190 00:09:48,293 --> 00:09:48,293 . 191 00:09:48,293 --> 00:09:49,054 People like it. 192 00:09:49,054 --> 00:09:51,220 I'm seeing companies sell it for $200. 193 00:09:51,220 --> 00:09:54,169 Maybe I can fall from the middle and make a little profit. 194 00:10:03,340 --> 00:10:04,563 So I think that was my first leap and you know, from then on 195 00:10:04,583 --> 00:10:05,827 out, there were actually a period of time where I would buy 196 00:10:05,827 --> 00:10:07,231 and sell cars that I was even driving, or if I just knew 197 00:10:07,251 --> 00:10:07,813 something random like it's. 198 00:10:07,813 --> 00:10:09,138 You know, it's October and there's a four-wheel drive SUV 199 00:10:09,177 --> 00:10:09,820 that's for sale. 200 00:10:09,820 --> 00:10:12,688 It's gonna be worth a lot more in December when people want it. 201 00:10:12,688 --> 00:10:21,025 So if I could pick that up and sit on it for a while and wait 202 00:10:21,046 --> 00:10:22,070 until the time was right, I can make a profit on it. 203 00:10:22,070 --> 00:10:23,416 So my mom would help me clean things up in the yard and repost 204 00:10:23,416 --> 00:10:24,278 them on Craigslist or anything like that. 205 00:10:24,278 --> 00:10:28,447 So yeah, there was always that like what can I do to make money 206 00:10:28,447 --> 00:10:31,995 , to improve something, to find a different way to make money, 207 00:10:33,017 --> 00:10:34,299 to make money and be profitable? 208 00:10:35,121 --> 00:10:37,988 Speaker 1: So that you mentioned price testing on eBay. 209 00:10:37,988 --> 00:10:42,320 Pricing is a complicated thing. 210 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:45,827 On one level, there's a bunch of theory behind it, and then 211 00:10:45,875 --> 00:10:49,342 there's also just the value that somebody places on. 212 00:10:49,342 --> 00:10:52,096 Whatever the thing is that you're selling, and they get to 213 00:10:52,136 --> 00:10:53,840 decide what it's worth, not you. 214 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:58,589 And so when you say I knew what my costs were, I knew what my 215 00:10:58,674 --> 00:11:04,291 competitors were doing and so I wanted to test it, did you just 216 00:11:04,390 --> 00:11:07,361 increase the price by five bucks every time and see where demand 217 00:11:07,361 --> 00:11:07,783 stopped? 218 00:11:07,783 --> 00:11:08,245 Or how did? 219 00:11:08,245 --> 00:11:12,618 Was that just another way to tinker on something different? 220 00:11:13,479 --> 00:11:15,260 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I actually hadn't thought about this until 221 00:11:15,301 --> 00:11:15,881 you brought it up. 222 00:11:15,881 --> 00:11:20,368 But on eBay it would show you if I posted at a hundred dollars 223 00:11:20,368 --> 00:11:22,630 , you got five views and no buy. 224 00:11:22,630 --> 00:11:23,898 It now clicks, right. 225 00:11:23,898 --> 00:11:28,413 So I think I posted it like $120 and no views, no anything. 226 00:11:28,413 --> 00:11:31,698 So I'd go back in and I'd give the old price cut right. 227 00:11:31,698 --> 00:11:35,164 Oh, this is on sale for 99.99 and might've gotten 25 views. 228 00:11:35,164 --> 00:11:39,070 And then I think when I dropped them to like $68, the views 229 00:11:39,110 --> 00:11:42,511 went up and all of a sudden I had the first purchase and then 230 00:11:42,552 --> 00:11:44,393 the second and the third and the fourth and fifth. 231 00:11:44,393 --> 00:11:46,453 So I was like, okay, I just found my sweet spot where I can 232 00:11:46,474 --> 00:11:47,216 sell some of these things. 233 00:11:47,216 --> 00:11:51,379 And it never went more than a dozen or so, but it was a fun at 234 00:11:51,379 --> 00:11:51,681 the time. 235 00:11:51,681 --> 00:11:54,985 It was just fun for me as a young man to say, like all right 236 00:11:54,985 --> 00:11:57,027 , I just made money off selling something on eBay. 237 00:11:57,567 --> 00:11:58,269 Speaker 1: Out of thin air. 238 00:11:59,269 --> 00:11:59,811 Speaker 2: Out of thin air. 239 00:12:07,115 --> 00:12:08,136 Speaker 1: And that is the beauty of entrepreneurship is 240 00:12:08,157 --> 00:12:08,376 the market. 241 00:12:08,376 --> 00:12:08,857 There's a scoreboard. 242 00:12:08,857 --> 00:12:11,342 The market tells you how good your idea plus your execution is 243 00:12:11,342 --> 00:12:11,342 . 244 00:12:11,342 --> 00:12:14,248 There's no subjectivity left. 245 00:12:14,248 --> 00:12:17,923 Somebody made the decision and voted with their dollars that 246 00:12:17,964 --> 00:12:19,275 they want what you sell. 247 00:12:19,275 --> 00:12:24,385 And in the freight world, yes, on one hand it's a pure 248 00:12:24,426 --> 00:12:24,927 commodity. 249 00:12:24,927 --> 00:12:27,720 Transportation is transportation, and yet some 250 00:12:27,779 --> 00:12:30,907 companies have a lot of success selling transportation and 251 00:12:31,027 --> 00:12:31,956 others don't. 252 00:12:31,956 --> 00:12:35,663 And there's going to be a relationship component to it, of 253 00:12:35,663 --> 00:12:35,982 course. 254 00:12:35,982 --> 00:12:42,033 And then there's also going to be knowing what the potential 255 00:12:42,094 --> 00:12:44,942 customer or your existing customer values and trying to 256 00:12:45,023 --> 00:12:46,086 price it right. 257 00:12:46,086 --> 00:12:50,746 So how do you think about tinkering with price and costs 258 00:12:51,296 --> 00:12:53,562 within a freight brokerage in a volatile world? 259 00:12:54,945 --> 00:12:55,767 Speaker 2: Yeah, great question. 260 00:12:55,767 --> 00:12:56,636 For us. 261 00:12:56,636 --> 00:12:59,921 We're in the drayage space international containers, 262 00:13:00,061 --> 00:13:00,964 imports, exports. 263 00:13:00,964 --> 00:13:07,359 It's a space that has lacked a lot of ingenuity or improvement, 264 00:13:07,359 --> 00:13:08,403 really, since day one. 265 00:13:09,015 --> 00:13:13,386 Our hardest endeavor is trying to prove real value. 266 00:13:13,386 --> 00:13:16,958 It's a space that a lot of people are just middlemanning 267 00:13:17,139 --> 00:13:17,320 right. 268 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:20,081 They get a response from a customer, they copy and paste it 269 00:13:20,081 --> 00:13:20,543 to the carrier. 270 00:13:20,543 --> 00:13:21,525 I've watched it happen. 271 00:13:21,525 --> 00:13:24,062 They get a response from the carrier, copy and paste it back, 272 00:13:24,062 --> 00:13:26,899 and it's because it's a very complex part of our industry. 273 00:13:26,899 --> 00:13:28,381 The costs don't make sense. 274 00:13:29,303 --> 00:13:32,999 The jargon that you hear in and out of every conversation it 275 00:13:33,038 --> 00:13:34,061 just it doesn't add up. 276 00:13:34,061 --> 00:13:36,905 So we're doing something different where we're showing 277 00:13:36,946 --> 00:13:38,609 them the data can be useful. 278 00:13:38,609 --> 00:13:40,734 We're showing them transit time on the water, things that 279 00:13:40,774 --> 00:13:41,937 people aren't usually offering. 280 00:13:41,937 --> 00:13:45,831 So for us and we're not even trying to necessarily charge a 281 00:13:45,910 --> 00:13:49,301 premium for it but we're trying to buy our way into their, their 282 00:13:49,301 --> 00:13:54,335 company, at the same or lower cost, but to tell them we're 283 00:13:54,375 --> 00:13:57,298 doing something that truly is more valuable or bringing a new 284 00:13:57,479 --> 00:13:58,240 angle to the industry. 285 00:13:58,681 --> 00:14:01,565 It's incredibly tough to break through the noise of the 286 00:14:01,585 --> 00:14:04,428 industry and say, hey, spend your dollars here because you're 287 00:14:04,428 --> 00:14:05,750 going to get more bang for your buck. 288 00:14:05,750 --> 00:14:10,839 That's our biggest hurdle and that's what we hone in on is if 289 00:14:10,860 --> 00:14:13,384 we can show them the value that they can get more for their 290 00:14:13,424 --> 00:14:13,684 money. 291 00:14:13,684 --> 00:14:18,062 You know they're spending With us, we're winning. 292 00:14:18,062 --> 00:14:20,821 And when we do finally break through and show them, all we 293 00:14:20,841 --> 00:14:23,115 hear time and time again from the customers we do have is like 294 00:14:23,115 --> 00:14:25,222 wow, I can't believe you guys are actually doing this. 295 00:14:25,222 --> 00:14:27,658 You're doing what you said you were going to do, and that seems 296 00:14:27,658 --> 00:14:28,221 so simple. 297 00:14:28,221 --> 00:14:32,754 But yeah, so our value proposition has been exactly 298 00:14:32,894 --> 00:14:33,115 that. 299 00:14:33,115 --> 00:14:36,644 Like we're going above and beyond, not even necessarily to 300 00:14:36,684 --> 00:14:40,080 charge you a premium amount, but just to do what we think is 301 00:14:40,461 --> 00:14:43,488 kind of table stakes today in most parts of the industry. 302 00:14:44,575 --> 00:14:47,823 Speaker 1: And that's the bridge , I think, between sales and 303 00:14:47,984 --> 00:14:48,605 operations. 304 00:14:48,605 --> 00:14:53,198 You take a potential value prop and put it out into the market 305 00:14:53,259 --> 00:14:56,484 and hope somebody is interested enough to try you and you've 306 00:14:56,413 --> 00:14:57,142 generated interest. 307 00:14:57,142 --> 00:14:58,067 But now is interested enough to try you and you've generated 308 00:14:58,086 --> 00:15:00,129 interest, but now you've got to follow through and deliver. 309 00:15:00,129 --> 00:15:04,647 And that's where I think it is frustrating. 310 00:15:04,647 --> 00:15:05,774 I'm an operator myself. 311 00:15:05,774 --> 00:15:09,283 It's frustrating to see the hype that gets thrown out and 312 00:15:09,583 --> 00:15:13,642 marketing messages that get attention when you know some of 313 00:15:13,662 --> 00:15:15,687 the companies behind it can't actually back it up. 314 00:15:16,716 --> 00:15:20,715 And when you're an operator who does things really, really well 315 00:15:20,794 --> 00:15:27,897 and maybe doesn't have the flair or the dramatic pitch, you 316 00:15:27,957 --> 00:15:30,706 can't always trust that the work is going to speak for itself. 317 00:15:30,706 --> 00:15:32,035 You have to. 318 00:15:32,035 --> 00:15:40,015 The customer has to in some cases, be shown the value that 319 00:15:40,035 --> 00:15:40,375 they're getting. 320 00:15:40,375 --> 00:15:43,158 And I'm curious for you also, knowing that you have a 321 00:15:43,220 --> 00:15:45,422 co-founder in the business. 322 00:15:45,422 --> 00:15:49,506 Most of your career up until starting First Choice looks like 323 00:15:49,506 --> 00:15:53,250 it was in ops, and now you're having to do ops and sales. 324 00:15:53,250 --> 00:15:56,881 How did you and your co-founder decide who was going to do what 325 00:15:56,881 --> 00:15:56,881 ? 326 00:15:56,881 --> 00:16:00,000 How did you set boundaries on this? 327 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,570 Is my area, stay out of it or no? 328 00:16:02,570 --> 00:16:04,977 I really need your help on this because you're better at that 329 00:16:05,018 --> 00:16:05,679 thing than I am. 330 00:16:07,044 --> 00:16:09,273 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you just described me to a T. 331 00:16:09,273 --> 00:16:12,120 I've always been the operator and builder behind the scenes, 332 00:16:12,561 --> 00:16:15,716 extremely proud of what I can build and do and put together 333 00:16:15,756 --> 00:16:16,558 great processes. 334 00:16:16,558 --> 00:16:19,821 But I was never that person trying to be out in the 335 00:16:19,860 --> 00:16:23,815 spotlight and necessarily great at showing or talking about what 336 00:16:23,815 --> 00:16:24,296 I was doing. 337 00:16:24,296 --> 00:16:28,625 My co-founder, tyler Billings, has been a sales leader his 338 00:16:28,686 --> 00:16:33,464 entire career, so kind of a great duo in terms of like, hey, 339 00:16:33,464 --> 00:16:37,313 I'm going to build this product that I know there's a market 340 00:16:37,374 --> 00:16:39,238 out there for you. 341 00:16:39,238 --> 00:16:42,365 Go, you know, boots on the ground, show people what we can 342 00:16:42,404 --> 00:16:45,019 do and talk it up and get their engagement. 343 00:16:45,019 --> 00:16:48,793 So in a lot of regard, that's a you know, probably a dream 344 00:16:48,833 --> 00:16:51,480 scenario where you have somebody that's super sales focused and 345 00:16:51,500 --> 00:16:53,626 someone that's super ops and building focused. 346 00:16:54,135 --> 00:16:55,999 Now, that doesn't mean that we're not all selling all the 347 00:16:56,038 --> 00:16:56,318 time. 348 00:16:56,318 --> 00:16:58,102 Right, everybody in every seat. 349 00:16:58,102 --> 00:17:01,509 I have to be selling the vision behind why I wanted to build it 350 00:17:01,509 --> 00:17:01,929 this way. 351 00:17:01,929 --> 00:17:04,825 And gosh, even in the accounting seat they're selling 352 00:17:04,865 --> 00:17:08,077 right the end experience for our people on the other side of the 353 00:17:08,077 --> 00:17:08,539 equation. 354 00:17:08,539 --> 00:17:10,970 If there's bad billing scenarios, that can be as 355 00:17:11,854 --> 00:17:15,001 terrible of an outcome for a customer as the front end 356 00:17:15,021 --> 00:17:15,482 experience. 357 00:17:15,482 --> 00:17:18,128 So we're all selling all the time an outcome for a customer 358 00:17:18,148 --> 00:17:19,511 as the front end experience. 359 00:17:19,511 --> 00:17:20,595 So we're all selling all the time. 360 00:17:20,595 --> 00:17:24,179 But I think having that split where it's if there's something 361 00:17:24,199 --> 00:17:25,722 with the product to be improved or the operations or the overall 362 00:17:25,722 --> 00:17:28,168 business, that's me and I will go do that and having somebody 363 00:17:28,188 --> 00:17:31,083 that is on sales, I can get this message out there and see what 364 00:17:31,104 --> 00:17:31,664 we can bring home. 365 00:17:32,715 --> 00:17:36,823 Speaker 1: And that sounds like you built it with intentionality 366 00:17:36,823 --> 00:17:36,823 . 367 00:17:36,823 --> 00:17:41,057 You built your team with intentionality from day one, and 368 00:17:41,057 --> 00:17:46,499 I know it's easy to romanticize entrepreneurship and yet I also 369 00:17:46,499 --> 00:17:50,419 know it can be a complete grind and a lot of companies get 370 00:17:50,479 --> 00:17:54,607 close to not making it way more than people will ever know. 371 00:17:54,607 --> 00:17:57,721 Were there any lessons like that that you had to learn along 372 00:17:57,721 --> 00:18:00,528 the way or learn the hard way yourself? 373 00:18:01,914 --> 00:18:02,416 Speaker 2: Absolutely. 374 00:18:02,416 --> 00:18:05,723 You know, to rewind and something that was completely 375 00:18:05,784 --> 00:18:08,857 skipped in the first choice freight intro. 376 00:18:08,857 --> 00:18:12,606 You know I mentioned going to Detroit with my partners at the 377 00:18:12,626 --> 00:18:15,384 time and that was the beginning of it Flew out. 378 00:18:15,384 --> 00:18:16,449 We had great plans. 379 00:18:16,449 --> 00:18:19,578 The goal was just to grow and see where we could take a 380 00:18:19,598 --> 00:18:21,221 brokerage in one to five years. 381 00:18:22,806 --> 00:18:25,221 At that point in time, the market being what it was was 382 00:18:25,260 --> 00:18:27,894 coming off of the COVID high Margins weren't there. 383 00:18:27,894 --> 00:18:30,922 Business was hard to come by and you know my two partners at 384 00:18:30,942 --> 00:18:33,576 the time, very successful entrepreneurs in their own right 385 00:18:33,576 --> 00:18:34,597 from the Detroit community. 386 00:18:34,597 --> 00:18:40,387 This was their fifth, sixth, seventh, uh, dive into business. 387 00:18:40,387 --> 00:18:42,093 Right, they've already had successful businesses. 388 00:18:42,093 --> 00:18:44,527 I was the one in the logistics space. 389 00:18:44,527 --> 00:18:48,799 So we got six months in, realized the cash that would 390 00:18:48,819 --> 00:18:51,788 need to be on hand to continue growing it at our pace and we 391 00:18:51,807 --> 00:18:52,650 were growing pretty quickly. 392 00:18:52,650 --> 00:18:57,428 Right off the jump they were like, hey, this is kind of not 393 00:18:57,448 --> 00:18:58,211 what we signed up for. 394 00:18:58,211 --> 00:19:01,704 Let's maybe just scrap the plans and move on to something 395 00:19:01,825 --> 00:19:02,247 else, right? 396 00:19:02,247 --> 00:19:04,714 And that's, in all honesty, probably the right move for them 397 00:19:04,714 --> 00:19:04,714 . 398 00:19:04,714 --> 00:19:07,310 There's a lot of other places where they could have parked 399 00:19:07,351 --> 00:19:09,817 their money outside of logistics at that time. 400 00:19:09,817 --> 00:19:13,650 That would be a smarter move and I was leading with passion 401 00:19:14,049 --> 00:19:17,357 for the industry and the vision they were leading with smart 402 00:19:17,417 --> 00:19:17,617 money. 403 00:19:17,617 --> 00:19:21,090 So, luckily for me, we were able to come up with an amicable 404 00:19:21,090 --> 00:19:25,786 solution, had great partners in them, to where I would continue 405 00:19:25,786 --> 00:19:29,996 on and take the business over entirely, make them whole and 406 00:19:30,636 --> 00:19:31,625 from that point forward. 407 00:19:31,665 --> 00:19:34,313 So we went from months one through six, growing hiring, 408 00:19:34,814 --> 00:19:37,008 realizing it wasn't going to work the way we wanted it to, to 409 00:19:37,008 --> 00:19:40,175 saying like all right, I'm going to take this solo, I'm 410 00:19:40,215 --> 00:19:43,472 going to correct course, essentially make sure this thing 411 00:19:43,472 --> 00:19:47,871 is sound enough to work, and then kind of refound it again 412 00:19:47,990 --> 00:19:48,752 six months later. 413 00:19:48,752 --> 00:19:52,846 So it was the highest high, followed by a reality check 414 00:19:53,008 --> 00:19:53,469 instantly. 415 00:19:53,469 --> 00:19:55,192 And I think that was the biggest lesson. 416 00:19:55,192 --> 00:20:00,608 Was you know, I think from a big place like Coyote, you know 417 00:20:00,648 --> 00:20:04,074 how to pull levers to grow, or what you think is growth? 418 00:20:04,074 --> 00:20:07,637 Right, if you want sales, I can pull a lever that'll drive 419 00:20:07,698 --> 00:20:09,700 sales and drive revenue and we'll get people in. 420 00:20:09,740 --> 00:20:17,426 Well, what's happening on the back end of that? 421 00:20:17,426 --> 00:20:17,948 Is it profitable revenue? 422 00:20:17,948 --> 00:20:19,191 Is it taking us 10 hours to cover a break-even load? 423 00:20:19,191 --> 00:20:21,395 Right, there's a cost associated with that and the 424 00:20:21,435 --> 00:20:22,258 struggles of growth? 425 00:20:22,258 --> 00:20:24,549 Right, we didn't know where some of our receivables were at 426 00:20:24,630 --> 00:20:27,356 one point where and when you're running out of cash, you're 427 00:20:27,376 --> 00:20:29,208 saying, well, we have to go find that right. 428 00:20:29,208 --> 00:20:32,777 So everything, aside from the logistics piece I knew very well 429 00:20:32,777 --> 00:20:36,532 , it's the boring stuff that you don't know about that will come 430 00:20:36,532 --> 00:20:40,172 back and get you, and that was an instant lesson where it could 431 00:20:40,172 --> 00:20:41,015 have been the end. 432 00:20:41,015 --> 00:20:44,203 Six months in and luckily for the partners I had that were 433 00:20:44,223 --> 00:20:47,897 willing to let me continue, we were able to correct course 434 00:20:47,917 --> 00:20:50,526 pretty quickly and get this thing back on the right track 435 00:20:50,566 --> 00:20:51,208 and grow from there. 436 00:20:52,651 --> 00:20:56,659 Speaker 1: I love the candidness that you share with that. 437 00:20:56,659 --> 00:21:02,152 People think businesses fail because they decline. 438 00:21:02,152 --> 00:21:06,980 Sometimes businesses fail because they grow too fast and 439 00:21:07,099 --> 00:21:10,934 their cash flow gets away from them, because it takes a lot 440 00:21:10,974 --> 00:21:14,786 more working capital to run a $20 million freight brokerage 441 00:21:14,806 --> 00:21:18,336 than it does a $2 million freight brokerage, and so more 442 00:21:18,396 --> 00:21:23,632 sales faster can actually speed up the end of a business if they 443 00:21:23,632 --> 00:21:25,817 don't have good accounting. 444 00:21:25,817 --> 00:21:30,436 And it's a healthy reminder for everybody who is maybe 445 00:21:30,477 --> 00:21:34,107 listening and is passionate about an idea that they have 446 00:21:34,127 --> 00:21:38,978 been thinking about for a long time and want to get into their 447 00:21:39,018 --> 00:21:40,708 own business or start their own thing. 448 00:21:42,510 --> 00:21:45,597 The secondary things are what you end up spending a lot of 449 00:21:45,637 --> 00:21:46,066 time on. 450 00:21:46,066 --> 00:21:49,354 I use the example of like a bakery somebody who is a really 451 00:21:49,433 --> 00:21:52,308 good baker and is like I want to make donuts because I or you 452 00:21:52,328 --> 00:21:54,736 know pastries, because I'm really, really good at that, and 453 00:21:54,736 --> 00:21:56,228 so they open a donut shop. 454 00:21:56,228 --> 00:21:59,836 Well, they end up spending the least amount of time actually 455 00:21:59,875 --> 00:22:00,257 baking. 456 00:22:00,257 --> 00:22:03,618 They spend the rest of their time dealing with a landlord and 457 00:22:03,618 --> 00:22:09,875 with vendors and customers and chargebacks and HR issues and 458 00:22:10,035 --> 00:22:13,788 all of that other stuff, and so if you it's kind of the don't 459 00:22:13,867 --> 00:22:18,297 follow your passion advice unless you have people around 460 00:22:18,336 --> 00:22:21,249 you that can fill in those gaps, because, especially in 461 00:22:21,288 --> 00:22:54,173 logistics, the dollar amounts are too big. 462 00:22:54,173 --> 00:23:00,552 It takes a lot of cash to run a even a medium-sized freight 463 00:23:00,592 --> 00:23:01,073 brokerage. 464 00:23:01,073 --> 00:23:05,167 You've got to have millions and millions of dollars available 465 00:23:05,788 --> 00:23:10,417 um, should a customer not pay, or you have to front money to 466 00:23:10,437 --> 00:23:13,708 the carriers before you get paid by your customer in maybe 45 or 467 00:23:13,708 --> 00:23:14,389 50 days. 468 00:23:14,389 --> 00:23:19,557 And those aren't sexy things, but they are the building blocks 469 00:23:19,557 --> 00:23:21,539 of a company that lasts. 470 00:23:29,644 --> 00:23:30,246 Speaker 2: Anything to add to that? 471 00:23:30,246 --> 00:23:31,007 Yeah, I think you nailed it right. 472 00:23:31,007 --> 00:23:31,648 I knew it about six months in. 473 00:23:31,648 --> 00:23:32,909 If we were going to fail, it wasn't going to be because I 474 00:23:32,949 --> 00:23:34,451 didn't know logistics or I didn't know what I was doing. 475 00:23:34,451 --> 00:23:39,177 It was the stuff that you're not seeing and you're not aware 476 00:23:39,317 --> 00:23:40,459 of you haven't been trained on. 477 00:23:40,459 --> 00:23:42,020 There's nobody to train you in these environments. 478 00:23:43,125 --> 00:23:47,729 Right, I think, being open and honest with yourself about what 479 00:23:47,769 --> 00:23:52,493 you don't know as you jump into entrepreneurship, obviously you 480 00:23:52,514 --> 00:23:53,955 have to go figure out everything , right? 481 00:23:53,955 --> 00:23:55,816 So my mentality was I'll figure this out. 482 00:23:55,816 --> 00:23:57,618 Oh, the accounting, I'll figure this out. 483 00:23:57,618 --> 00:23:59,259 I know where to look. 484 00:23:59,259 --> 00:24:01,561 I know it'll figure itself out in some way. 485 00:24:01,561 --> 00:24:04,009 Like, the things are going to come to me that are issues, and 486 00:24:04,028 --> 00:24:05,424 that's very naive, right? 487 00:24:05,424 --> 00:24:08,913 I think if you can't be honest with yourself and say, wait, 488 00:24:08,994 --> 00:24:13,034 this is beyond my reach, maybe I should tap a resource for help. 489 00:24:13,034 --> 00:24:17,049 You my reach, maybe I should tap a resource for help. 490 00:24:17,049 --> 00:24:18,253 You can end up in a lot of trouble very quickly and 491 00:24:18,274 --> 00:24:18,735 sometimes irreversible. 492 00:24:18,735 --> 00:24:20,320 So that's probably a trap that a lot of people fall into. 493 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:23,414 I'd imagine it's one that I almost fell into myself is not 494 00:24:23,455 --> 00:24:26,726 being able to say to yourself you can't necessarily do this 495 00:24:26,927 --> 00:24:27,027 one. 496 00:24:27,027 --> 00:24:28,430 Let's find some help. 497 00:24:29,211 --> 00:24:31,056 Speaker 1: You're a very thoughtful person, justin. 498 00:24:31,056 --> 00:24:34,331 In all the time that I've known you, I know your mind is 499 00:24:34,391 --> 00:24:36,477 constantly working through things. 500 00:24:36,477 --> 00:24:41,453 Do you consciously think about the difference of your 501 00:24:41,574 --> 00:24:44,419 professional life and your personal life as an entrepreneur 502 00:24:44,419 --> 00:24:46,939 , or is it just one big ball of yarn? 503 00:24:46,939 --> 00:24:47,985 It's all mixed up together? 504 00:24:47,985 --> 00:24:53,534 How do you look at the different parts of your life, 505 00:24:54,275 --> 00:24:57,660 given how large of a role entrepreneurship can take and 506 00:24:57,705 --> 00:24:58,506 just dominate? 507 00:24:59,869 --> 00:25:03,875 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think year one was a big ball of yarn 508 00:25:05,817 --> 00:25:06,840 Because there was no other way. 509 00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,553 I had to juggle whatever I could find a way to make things 510 00:25:10,613 --> 00:25:10,853 work. 511 00:25:10,853 --> 00:25:15,390 I try more than ever to be very intentional about the time that 512 00:25:15,390 --> 00:25:18,657 I spend, you know, with my family, with my loved ones, with 513 00:25:18,657 --> 00:25:22,231 my friends, how I show up for them versus how I show up for 514 00:25:22,251 --> 00:25:24,596 the business versus how I show up for myself. 515 00:25:24,596 --> 00:25:28,093 I need my own time where I'm a big fitness enthusiast. 516 00:25:28,093 --> 00:25:33,430 I need that time and making sure that the other areas don't 517 00:25:33,490 --> 00:25:36,916 impact the rest of them, and it's extremely difficult trying 518 00:25:36,956 --> 00:25:41,330 not to bring home the stresses of work, trying not to, you know 519 00:25:41,330 --> 00:25:44,277 , have the carryover from personal life into the business 520 00:25:44,317 --> 00:25:44,825 world Right. 521 00:25:44,825 --> 00:25:48,533 So, yeah, I do think a lot about segmenting them and trying 522 00:25:48,533 --> 00:25:53,109 to understand how they factor into each other and making sure 523 00:25:53,149 --> 00:25:56,668 that they're, all you know, coexisting in a peaceful manner. 524 00:25:56,668 --> 00:25:58,835 That is also not running me completely ragged. 525 00:25:59,825 --> 00:26:02,594 Speaker 1: How do you think about goals, then, for the 526 00:26:02,614 --> 00:26:02,894 future? 527 00:26:05,466 --> 00:26:09,017 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think those they have to intertwine right. 528 00:26:09,017 --> 00:26:12,507 It's you could set goals individually and say, well, I 529 00:26:12,527 --> 00:26:13,489 want the business to do this. 530 00:26:13,489 --> 00:26:17,517 How does that affect my personal life and marriage and 531 00:26:17,557 --> 00:26:19,869 kids and all the things that come, which I'm not there yet, 532 00:26:20,350 --> 00:26:22,477 but I will be in the very near future? 533 00:26:22,477 --> 00:26:27,491 So it's trying to understand does this business goal align 534 00:26:27,511 --> 00:26:29,457 timing wise with what I do with my personal life? 535 00:26:29,457 --> 00:26:32,847 Can my personal life sustain what I'm doing with the business 536 00:26:32,847 --> 00:26:32,847 ? 537 00:26:32,847 --> 00:26:38,253 It's a tight race between all of them together and I think you 538 00:26:38,253 --> 00:26:41,256 have to be intentional and, again, honest with yourself in 539 00:26:41,296 --> 00:26:43,618 the business world, honest with yourself in the personal life 540 00:26:43,638 --> 00:26:46,341 world, to know where you're falling short and where they're 541 00:26:46,361 --> 00:27:00,507 going to work well together helped you form that kind of a 542 00:27:00,527 --> 00:27:01,889 mindset and the ability to be that mature and wise about how 543 00:27:01,909 --> 00:27:02,871 you want your life to go. 544 00:27:05,155 --> 00:27:07,861 Yeah, great question I would. 545 00:27:07,861 --> 00:27:11,769 I mean my mother first and foremost, who raised us as a 546 00:27:11,808 --> 00:27:13,774 single parent, myself and my older sisters. 547 00:27:13,774 --> 00:27:17,388 I think a lot of my intentionality comes from that 548 00:27:18,330 --> 00:27:19,932 Extremely supportive right. 549 00:27:19,932 --> 00:27:24,067 I knew that she was the one that was going to help me 550 00:27:24,710 --> 00:27:26,494 understand things in a way that made sense. 551 00:27:26,494 --> 00:27:30,410 If I was sporadic as a kid or even as an adult, I think she 552 00:27:30,451 --> 00:27:34,664 gave me that courage, if you will, to say like okay, go do 553 00:27:34,684 --> 00:27:36,727 what you want to do, but take care of your responsibilities. 554 00:27:36,727 --> 00:27:39,850 Make sure you're not doing something that's going to hurt 555 00:27:39,930 --> 00:27:41,912 others if you're taking a leap of faith on something. 556 00:27:41,912 --> 00:27:44,354 But I would give most of the credit to my mom and to my 557 00:27:44,394 --> 00:27:44,754 sisters. 558 00:27:44,754 --> 00:27:48,217 They were like second mothers my entire childhood. 559 00:27:48,217 --> 00:27:55,963 That trio of women definitely gave me a strong ability to be 560 00:27:56,004 --> 00:27:59,891 intentional, first and foremost, about my actions and my desires 561 00:27:59,891 --> 00:27:59,891 . 562 00:28:00,793 --> 00:28:03,038 Speaker 1: Well, and I'm sure they're all very proud of seeing 563 00:28:03,038 --> 00:28:07,132 what you've done so far and knowing that you've got a lot of 564 00:28:07,132 --> 00:28:12,168 runway ahead of you, because that's part of why you do what 565 00:28:12,228 --> 00:28:15,142 you do Knowing you, I know that's true. 566 00:28:15,343 --> 00:28:16,626 It's not just about money. 567 00:28:16,626 --> 00:28:20,276 It's not just about solving cool problems, although that's a 568 00:28:20,276 --> 00:28:20,958 part of it too. 569 00:28:20,958 --> 00:28:26,676 It is people that want to have an impact in a positive way and 570 00:28:27,257 --> 00:28:28,659 prioritize what matters. 571 00:28:28,659 --> 00:28:33,712 And when you can find that overlap between your chosen 572 00:28:33,753 --> 00:28:37,904 career, your finances, your friends, your family, your 573 00:28:37,945 --> 00:28:41,332 relationships and something bigger than yourself, then 574 00:28:42,934 --> 00:28:44,659 that's a pretty good place to be . 575 00:28:44,659 --> 00:28:49,228 I mean, you've got to feel very fortunate, and I know you 576 00:28:49,248 --> 00:28:51,554 shared with me beforehand that you haven't had a lot of chances 577 00:28:51,554 --> 00:28:54,347 to stop and think about this journey that you've been on. 578 00:28:54,347 --> 00:28:59,677 I hope this provides some of that a chance to pause, reflect, 579 00:28:59,677 --> 00:29:03,830 recharge for the next stage of what is coming, for First Choice 580 00:29:03,830 --> 00:29:08,385 and for you and we're grateful for you for opening up and 581 00:29:08,405 --> 00:29:11,580 sharing your story I always like to ask is there any advice that 582 00:29:11,580 --> 00:29:15,169 you would give to somebody who's maybe a couple of years 583 00:29:15,209 --> 00:29:18,434 behind where you are right now, so that you can pay it forward 584 00:29:18,475 --> 00:29:21,539 to somebody else who's on their own entrepreneurial journey? 585 00:29:24,245 --> 00:29:26,152 Speaker 2: Yeah well, I definitely appreciate all the 586 00:29:26,192 --> 00:29:26,693 kind words. 587 00:29:26,693 --> 00:29:31,192 I think the thing that I would give the most advice on is 588 00:29:31,393 --> 00:29:34,719 protecting your time, time management and it's something 589 00:29:34,739 --> 00:29:36,369 I've always preached before. 590 00:29:36,369 --> 00:29:37,553 Entrepreneurship as well. 591 00:29:37,553 --> 00:29:41,786 There's a lot of fires that are going to be thrown your way any 592 00:29:41,786 --> 00:29:45,635 given day, right as the guy that has to be the one to you 593 00:29:45,655 --> 00:29:46,658 know the end all be all. 594 00:29:46,658 --> 00:29:49,532 Your day is going to be pulled in a million directions, and if 595 00:29:49,572 --> 00:29:53,411 you can't be, again, intentional with your time and protect it 596 00:29:53,530 --> 00:29:56,336 and decide what fires can be left burning for a little while 597 00:29:56,376 --> 00:30:00,312 while you focus on the main fires, it's a quick recipe for 598 00:30:00,392 --> 00:30:00,953 disaster. 599 00:30:00,953 --> 00:30:04,067 So I think the one thing that has helped me the most is time 600 00:30:04,087 --> 00:30:08,211 management making sure that I am focused on what I need to be 601 00:30:08,251 --> 00:30:11,235 focused on and letting those small fires burn, knowing that 602 00:30:11,255 --> 00:30:11,715 I'll get to them. 603 00:30:11,715 --> 00:30:15,739 It's not ignoring them by any means, but if you don't be very 604 00:30:15,798 --> 00:30:20,222 intentional with your time, you will quickly run out of time and 605 00:30:20,222 --> 00:30:22,170 then realize you didn't get anything done in that day. 606 00:30:23,315 --> 00:30:26,125 Speaker 1: I once heard the analogy of owning a business is 607 00:30:26,186 --> 00:30:29,795 like riding on the back of a lion it's really powerful and it 608 00:30:29,795 --> 00:30:33,692 can take you really far, really really fast, but at any point 609 00:30:33,751 --> 00:30:35,657 it can also turn around and bite your head off. 610 00:30:37,766 --> 00:30:42,250 So it's this beautiful contradiction of risk and reward 611 00:30:42,250 --> 00:30:49,980 , and using the time management part of it and prioritizing what 612 00:30:49,980 --> 00:30:53,884 you're going to focus on gives you a greater likelihood of 613 00:30:53,923 --> 00:30:56,112 being successful, and I love that you brought up health. 614 00:30:56,424 --> 00:31:03,277 It's underappreciated, I think, that to be at your best from a 615 00:31:03,337 --> 00:31:07,748 performance perspective, you need good sleep, you need 616 00:31:08,048 --> 00:31:11,827 exercise, you need a healthy diet, and it not only manifests 617 00:31:11,889 --> 00:31:16,005 itself in your physical body but in the way that you show up for 618 00:31:16,005 --> 00:31:19,073 others, how much stamina you have to make it through the day. 619 00:31:19,073 --> 00:31:23,517 Your mental clarity and the happiest entrepreneurs I'm not 620 00:31:23,576 --> 00:31:26,347 necessarily going to always say the most successful, because 621 00:31:26,368 --> 00:31:30,401 that's subjective, depending on how people define success but 622 00:31:30,461 --> 00:31:34,032 the happiest entrepreneurs that I know tend to be the ones that 623 00:31:34,072 --> 00:31:37,668 prioritize their health, and so that's another good lesson. 624 00:31:37,668 --> 00:31:40,094 It's a reminder for me too. 625 00:31:40,094 --> 00:31:41,356 That's why I love to do. 626 00:31:41,356 --> 00:31:45,295 What I do is I get to learn from dozens and dozens of people 627 00:31:45,295 --> 00:31:49,768 doing what you're doing, justin , and we're grateful to you for 628 00:31:49,807 --> 00:31:51,353 sharing your story and we are definitely all rooting for you. 629 00:31:51,353 --> 00:31:52,777 Awesome, I appreciate it, nate, always great talking to you and 630 00:31:52,777 --> 00:31:53,460 thank you so much for having me . 631 00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:54,363 Speaker 2: All right, are definitely all rooting for you. 632 00:31:54,363 --> 00:31:56,548 Awesome, I appreciate it, nate, always great talking to you and 633 00:31:56,548 --> 00:31:57,592 thank you so much for having me . 634 00:31:58,114 --> 00:31:58,956 Speaker 1: All right, take care, my friend. 635 00:31:58,956 --> 00:32:04,173 Thanks for listening to another episode of the Bootstrapper's 636 00:32:04,234 --> 00:32:06,808 Guide to Logistics, and a special thank you to our 637 00:32:06,849 --> 00:32:09,817 sponsors and the team behind the scenes who make it all possible 638 00:32:09,817 --> 00:32:09,817 . 639 00:32:09,817 --> 00:32:13,314 Be sure to like, follow or subscribe to the podcast to get 640 00:32:13,334 --> 00:32:14,115 the latest updates. 641 00:32:14,115 --> 00:32:17,172 To learn more about the show and connect with the growing 642 00:32:17,211 --> 00:32:20,548 community of entrepreneurs, visit logisticsfounderscom. 643 00:32:20,548 --> 00:32:24,417 And, of course, thank you to all the founders who trust us to 644 00:32:24,417 --> 00:32:25,179 share their stories.