1
00:00:00,959 --> 00:00:03,302
Speaker 1: Hello everybody and
welcome back to the show.

2
00:00:03,302 --> 00:00:06,524
We are late summer 2025.

3
00:00:06,524 --> 00:00:09,865
It's been a dynamic year in the
logistics industry.

4
00:00:09,865 --> 00:00:13,169
If you've been around for a
minute, you know conditions are

5
00:00:13,228 --> 00:00:16,810
challenging and yet there's
always seemingly hope just

6
00:00:16,870 --> 00:00:17,551
around the corner.

7
00:00:17,551 --> 00:00:21,013
I've heard from a lot of folks
in the entrepreneurial space

8
00:00:21,373 --> 00:00:25,917
that this has been some of the
most challenging times they've

9
00:00:25,996 --> 00:00:26,797
ever experienced.

10
00:00:26,797 --> 00:00:29,652
But on the flip side, there's a
number of folks that are saying

11
00:00:29,652 --> 00:00:32,442
this has been the most
opportunity they've seen in a

12
00:00:32,503 --> 00:00:35,609
long time also, and everybody
has their own experience and

13
00:00:35,649 --> 00:00:41,426
perspective on it, and if you're
in that trough yourself right

14
00:00:41,487 --> 00:00:44,792
now, I encourage you to reach
out to somebody that you can

15
00:00:45,332 --> 00:00:46,034
talk to about it.

16
00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:48,765
Don't go through that difficult
part alone.

17
00:00:48,765 --> 00:00:51,560
That's part of what we try to
do here on the show is connect

18
00:00:51,781 --> 00:00:54,149
founders with other founders to
be able to have some of those

19
00:00:54,189 --> 00:00:55,070
tough conversations.

20
00:00:55,070 --> 00:00:58,313
And if you're on the high end
of that and things are going

21
00:00:58,353 --> 00:01:00,661
great, chances are you're being
really quiet about it.

22
00:01:00,661 --> 00:01:02,847
That's the observation I've
made.

23
00:01:02,847 --> 00:01:07,686
The folks that are really loud
on social media lately generally

24
00:01:07,686 --> 00:01:08,968
aren't the ones doing the best.

25
00:01:08,968 --> 00:01:12,143
The ones who are doing the best
are keeping their head down

26
00:01:14,126 --> 00:01:15,950
while the sun is out there
making hay.

27
00:01:15,950 --> 00:01:19,927
So, wherever you might be on
that spectrum today, we're glad

28
00:01:19,947 --> 00:01:20,590
that you're here.

29
00:01:20,590 --> 00:01:23,643
We're going to hear another
founder perspective from

30
00:01:23,703 --> 00:01:26,649
somebody that I'm going to just
call right off the bat a great

31
00:01:26,730 --> 00:01:27,191
character.

32
00:01:27,191 --> 00:01:32,081
Vin Carano is the president and
owner of Finice Freight

33
00:01:32,121 --> 00:01:33,545
Brokerage on the East Coast.

34
00:01:33,545 --> 00:01:35,790
Vin, good morning, how are you
today?

35
00:01:36,230 --> 00:01:37,212
Speaker 2: Hey Nate, how are you
doing today?

36
00:01:37,879 --> 00:01:38,822
Speaker 1: I'm doing quite well.

37
00:01:38,822 --> 00:01:42,781
When we first got introduced
through our mutual friend, trey

38
00:01:42,820 --> 00:01:46,882
Griggs, he goes I got somebody
you've got to meet and whenever

39
00:01:46,942 --> 00:01:49,569
I hear something like that, I'm
like there's always a story

40
00:01:49,609 --> 00:01:51,703
behind it and I love telling
stories and sharing them.

41
00:01:51,703 --> 00:01:55,052
So we were five minutes into
our first conversation and I was

42
00:01:55,052 --> 00:01:58,168
like, all right, we might need
to do more than just a podcast

43
00:01:58,228 --> 00:01:58,510
episode.

44
00:01:58,510 --> 00:02:02,825
We might need to do one of
those in-depth investigative

45
00:02:02,865 --> 00:02:06,150
journalism feature length
stories.

46
00:02:06,150 --> 00:02:08,354
Why don't we start?

47
00:02:08,354 --> 00:02:11,450
Well, we'll unpack all of it,
I'm sure, today, but why don't

48
00:02:11,471 --> 00:02:15,865
we just start with a basic
introduction and your entry into

49
00:02:15,865 --> 00:02:16,727
the logistics world?

50
00:02:17,508 --> 00:02:20,175
Speaker 2: Oh goodness, my name
is Vin Carano.

51
00:02:20,175 --> 00:02:24,145
My grandma called me Vinny and
so some people call me Vin Vinny

52
00:02:24,145 --> 00:02:28,032
still, and I like that a lot
because it's different Than what

53
00:02:28,032 --> 00:02:28,960
you get in a lot of places.

54
00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:35,449
But my grandfather Was a
trucking company owner and he

55
00:02:35,669 --> 00:02:36,915
passed away At a very young age.

56
00:02:36,915 --> 00:02:42,616
He was only 49 and my dad and
my uncle basically Dropped out

57
00:02:42,657 --> 00:02:45,164
of school, came home from the
military and started driving the

58
00:02:45,164 --> 00:02:46,965
trucks, cause the only thing
they knew is how to support

59
00:02:46,985 --> 00:02:47,447
their family.

60
00:02:47,447 --> 00:02:49,483
It's what they learned from
their father, who learned it

61
00:02:49,522 --> 00:02:53,632
from his father, who came over
through Ellis Island and was on

62
00:02:53,671 --> 00:02:57,829
a boat with a bunch of other,
just laborers and, um, you know,

63
00:02:57,829 --> 00:03:00,381
we we have these records that
trace all the way back, which is

64
00:03:00,381 --> 00:03:02,064
really cool, but I digress.

65
00:03:02,064 --> 00:03:10,979
So Grandpa was a truck driver,
trucking company owner, my

66
00:03:11,039 --> 00:03:13,006
father was with his brother and
they did really, really well.

67
00:03:13,006 --> 00:03:15,673
They got up to about 125 trucks
running an LTL operation with

68
00:03:15,693 --> 00:03:18,659
terminals in Rhode Island and
New Haven Connecticut was the

69
00:03:18,699 --> 00:03:23,527
base of operations Allentown,
camden, new Jersey and they had

70
00:03:23,568 --> 00:03:28,039
a nice little operation running
Fast forward to 1989, little

71
00:03:28,061 --> 00:03:29,383
Vinny was getting out of college
.

72
00:03:29,745 --> 00:03:32,560
I went to Bentley it was Bentley
College at the time Bentley

73
00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:35,628
University now and I thought I
was going to take this

74
00:03:35,709 --> 00:03:38,765
management degree and run
daddy's trucking company and

75
00:03:38,786 --> 00:03:40,409
well as the logistics world does
to people.

76
00:03:40,409 --> 00:03:44,655
It sort of twisted things
around on us and they closed

77
00:03:44,675 --> 00:03:48,085
that company about three months
before I got out of college due

78
00:03:48,104 --> 00:03:49,388
to some union issues.

79
00:03:49,388 --> 00:03:52,782
There was some underfunded
pensions, it was just there was

80
00:03:52,822 --> 00:03:53,925
a real mess going on.

81
00:03:53,925 --> 00:03:58,580
My dad took a warehousing
company and said I'm going to

82
00:03:58,621 --> 00:04:01,088
try to keep doing this but I
don't really have a place for

83
00:04:01,128 --> 00:04:01,610
you right now.

84
00:04:01,610 --> 00:04:07,451
I said that's okay, and during
my summers I had worked for

85
00:04:07,671 --> 00:04:08,493
their trucking company.

86
00:04:08,493 --> 00:04:13,847
I learned how to do things like
claims and customer service and

87
00:04:13,847 --> 00:04:19,375
some real kind of basic OS&D
and this kind of thing from a

88
00:04:19,535 --> 00:04:19,975
great man.

89
00:04:19,975 --> 00:04:22,086
Their office manager at the
time was Joe Valentino and we're

90
00:04:22,086 --> 00:04:22,829
still friends today.

91
00:04:22,829 --> 00:04:24,245
So I love this man a lot.

92
00:04:24,245 --> 00:04:25,665
He's just really been good to
me.

93
00:04:25,665 --> 00:04:26,805
He's taught me so much.

94
00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:33,920
But I didn't have a job and I
didn't have a place to go and I

95
00:04:33,940 --> 00:04:36,865
had this great management degree
and so I started looking for

96
00:04:36,904 --> 00:04:39,704
something to do and I took a
couple sales jobs selling copy

97
00:04:39,725 --> 00:04:42,612
machines and plumbing parts and
all just whatever I could take

98
00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:48,244
and I saw an ad in paper for New
England Motor Freight.

99
00:04:48,244 --> 00:04:52,538
They're looking for an OSND
supervisor and I knew OSND so I

100
00:04:52,559 --> 00:04:54,264
was like, well, I don't know
what supervisor means, but I'll

101
00:04:54,303 --> 00:04:54,725
go down there.

102
00:04:54,725 --> 00:04:57,642
So I went down to the terminal
and I filled out a job

103
00:04:57,723 --> 00:05:01,838
application and a man named John
Weber said I know your dad and

104
00:05:01,939 --> 00:05:02,961
I'm going to give you a shot.

105
00:05:02,961 --> 00:05:04,505
I said, well, what's the
supervisor mean?

106
00:05:04,505 --> 00:05:06,932
First, because I don't really
know about supervising.

107
00:05:06,932 --> 00:05:07,360
And he goes.

108
00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,406
There's three guys on the
doctor in the day for three

109
00:05:10,447 --> 00:05:10,949
hours a day.

110
00:05:10,949 --> 00:05:11,249
He goes.

111
00:05:11,249 --> 00:05:11,730
You could do it.

112
00:05:11,730 --> 00:05:16,440
I said okay, and he had a lot
of faith and I worked OS&D there

113
00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:19,362
and I worked dispatch and I
worked inbound supervisor,

114
00:05:19,423 --> 00:05:20,343
outbound supervisor.

115
00:05:20,343 --> 00:05:21,564
I worked my way up.

116
00:05:21,824 --> 00:05:25,767
I became the terminal manager at
some point and about 10 years

117
00:05:25,807 --> 00:05:28,389
later dad called and he says
well, this warehousing company

118
00:05:28,470 --> 00:05:31,471
is a little beyond me and I
really want to buy your uncle

119
00:05:31,572 --> 00:05:33,413
out, but I need help.

120
00:05:33,413 --> 00:05:35,415
I said, all right, let's do it.

121
00:05:35,415 --> 00:05:38,377
You're my father and family is
family, so let's go.

122
00:05:38,377 --> 00:05:44,072
And so he did and we ran the
warehouse for 14 years.

123
00:05:45,100 --> 00:05:45,600
It was a mess.

124
00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:47,461
It was uh, it was very, very
hard.

125
00:05:47,461 --> 00:05:50,564
It was too small to make enough
money to be to make a

126
00:05:50,625 --> 00:05:55,228
difference, and it was too big
to not have all the things you

127
00:05:55,288 --> 00:05:55,449
need.

128
00:05:55,449 --> 00:05:57,531
As a warehouse man, I mean, if
it was just me in the warehouse,

129
00:05:57,531 --> 00:05:59,572
I probably would have waived
workers comp, but it wasn't just

130
00:05:59,572 --> 00:06:00,752
me, it was a whole bunch of
people.

131
00:06:00,752 --> 00:06:06,757
So you know crazy things like
$40,000 insurance bills and

132
00:06:07,379 --> 00:06:11,586
$60,000 electric bills to heat
the place, and so these things

133
00:06:11,625 --> 00:06:15,541
got out of hand really quickly
and finally, a few years after

134
00:06:15,562 --> 00:06:19,891
that, I had gone to my dad and I
said, dad, this is not why I'm

135
00:06:19,951 --> 00:06:22,668
killing myself, I'm working 20
hours a day and we're not

136
00:06:22,754 --> 00:06:23,461
getting anywhere.

137
00:06:23,461 --> 00:06:24,754
He says, well, what's working?

138
00:06:24,754 --> 00:06:26,154
Telling myself I'm working 20
hours a day and we're not

139
00:06:26,175 --> 00:06:26,514
getting anywhere.

140
00:06:26,514 --> 00:06:27,576
He says, well, what's working?

141
00:06:27,576 --> 00:06:28,576
And I said, well, here's the
weird thing.

142
00:06:28,576 --> 00:06:31,043
We got a couple of customers in
the warehouse who keep asking

143
00:06:31,122 --> 00:06:34,576
us for how to, how to get these
shipments to where they have to

144
00:06:34,617 --> 00:06:37,185
go, and I just keep giving them
to my friends at the LTL

145
00:06:37,225 --> 00:06:40,492
companies and bumping up the
price a little bit and making a

146
00:06:40,540 --> 00:06:41,781
little money on broker in this
freight.

147
00:06:41,781 --> 00:06:42,041
He goes.

148
00:06:42,041 --> 00:06:43,084
So why don't we broker freight?

149
00:06:43,084 --> 00:06:45,086
I said, okay.

150
00:06:45,086 --> 00:06:48,350
So we started really getting
active in the broker world and

151
00:06:48,632 --> 00:06:51,276
um in 2010,.

152
00:06:51,276 --> 00:06:55,369
We closed the warehouse and
just went full into brokering.

153
00:06:55,850 --> 00:06:58,423
I tell people the story all the
time I was, I was laying under a

154
00:06:58,423 --> 00:07:01,630
truck our last winter owning
trucks, I was laying under a

155
00:07:01,670 --> 00:07:04,848
truck and I had a torch in one
hand and a sledgehammer in the

156
00:07:04,928 --> 00:07:07,206
other and I was pounding the
brakes trying to get him to free

157
00:07:07,206 --> 00:07:07,367
up.

158
00:07:07,367 --> 00:07:09,783
It's a January night, like
three o'clock in the morning,

159
00:07:11,266 --> 00:07:13,009
and the driver's in the truck.

160
00:07:13,009 --> 00:07:16,124
He gets down out of the truck
and God rest his soul.

161
00:07:16,124 --> 00:07:17,406
Joe Tripp was.

162
00:07:17,406 --> 00:07:20,242
He became a very good friend of
mine, but he had a great truck

163
00:07:20,262 --> 00:07:20,903
driver attitude.

164
00:07:20,903 --> 00:07:24,512
And he comes down out of the
truck and he goes hey, what are

165
00:07:24,531 --> 00:07:25,012
you doing?

166
00:07:25,012 --> 00:07:26,141
Like this.

167
00:07:26,141 --> 00:07:30,651
And I'm under the wheels and I
look up through between the rear

168
00:07:30,651 --> 00:07:32,862
tandems and I go what does it
look like I'm doing?

169
00:07:32,862 --> 00:07:34,949
He goes well, I'm freezing, I'm
getting back in the truck.

170
00:07:34,949 --> 00:07:38,163
I said that's it and that was
it.

171
00:07:38,163 --> 00:07:41,209
I said that I'm done, I don't
care if it's working or not,

172
00:07:41,309 --> 00:07:42,269
this part is over.

173
00:07:42,850 --> 00:07:47,184
And so I really worked hard,
hard, hard to uh, to start

174
00:07:47,204 --> 00:07:49,134
brokering a lot of freight, and
what I realized is we didn't

175
00:07:49,175 --> 00:07:55,271
have the tools, we didn't have
the, the uh, the um financial uh

176
00:07:55,271 --> 00:07:59,300
ability that it takes to pay
these carriers in 15 or 20 days

177
00:07:59,341 --> 00:08:02,185
and wait 30 or 40 for the for
the customers to pay us.

178
00:08:02,185 --> 00:08:03,889
And so I said, you know what?

179
00:08:03,889 --> 00:08:06,394
I'm going to find a big
brokerage to help me out here.

180
00:08:06,394 --> 00:08:10,850
And so I went to work for a guy
who owned an Echo Global

181
00:08:11,492 --> 00:08:11,992
brokerage.

182
00:08:11,992 --> 00:08:17,348
It was a great lesson I mean a
fantastic lesson on how not to

183
00:08:17,389 --> 00:08:17,911
do your work.

184
00:08:20,084 --> 00:08:22,350
This guy this guy, nate, it gets
great.

185
00:08:22,350 --> 00:08:27,303
This guy started a second
company in a different name and

186
00:08:27,324 --> 00:08:31,588
he made him a customer of his
Echo agency and then he was

187
00:08:31,788 --> 00:08:36,532
billing his customer who was him
, and then rebilling all the

188
00:08:37,874 --> 00:08:39,375
clients for a higher price.

189
00:08:39,375 --> 00:08:41,836
So he was basically stealing
margin off of the revenue split.

190
00:08:42,100 --> 00:08:43,883
Speaker 1: Double brokering, but
in disguise.

191
00:08:44,124 --> 00:08:47,671
Speaker 2: He completely,
completely violated the

192
00:08:47,711 --> 00:08:50,741
agreement, and when they figured
it out, he was out of business

193
00:08:52,044 --> 00:08:55,173
and it left me and my customers
with I don't know what to do.

194
00:08:55,173 --> 00:09:00,630
And so I had been working on
going solo and I had our

195
00:09:00,650 --> 00:09:01,812
authority and I was really.

196
00:09:01,812 --> 00:09:04,244
I was in a position where I
really didn't need them anymore

197
00:09:04,384 --> 00:09:04,784
anyway.

198
00:09:04,784 --> 00:09:07,730
So one of the girls in the
office looked at me and said,

199
00:09:08,812 --> 00:09:10,094
why don't we just do this on our
own?

200
00:09:10,094 --> 00:09:11,846
And I said okay, let's go.

201
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:14,629
So Angela and I sat in my
basement for about a year with

202
00:09:14,850 --> 00:09:18,940
two laptops, two desks facing
each other and cell phones, and

203
00:09:18,980 --> 00:09:21,962
we just, we just worked our
butts off to get this thing

204
00:09:21,982 --> 00:09:22,403
going.

205
00:09:22,403 --> 00:09:29,350
We went from $200,000 or
$300,000 the first year and

206
00:09:29,431 --> 00:09:35,136
barely making enough to survive
to really ramping it up.

207
00:09:35,136 --> 00:09:40,691
Angela was here at Finiche
until about a year and a half

208
00:09:40,770 --> 00:09:41,894
ago or two years ago.

209
00:09:41,894 --> 00:09:49,761
At that point we were around $8
million, $9 million brokerage.

210
00:09:49,761 --> 00:09:58,014
You were talking earlier about
how the economy is hurting some

211
00:09:58,054 --> 00:10:02,729
people and my foot's on the
throttle and my sons work here

212
00:10:02,769 --> 00:10:02,889
now.

213
00:10:02,889 --> 00:10:04,981
My sons are fourth generation
in the logistics business and

214
00:10:05,001 --> 00:10:06,086
their foot's on the throttle too
my sons work here now.

215
00:10:06,106 --> 00:10:07,312
My sons are fourth generation in
the logistics business and

216
00:10:07,332 --> 00:10:08,498
they're here now and their
foot's on the throttle too, and

217
00:10:08,518 --> 00:10:11,004
so we're bringing in new agents
and we're talking to new

218
00:10:11,066 --> 00:10:13,652
customers and we're really
doubling down on everything we

219
00:10:13,700 --> 00:10:14,081
do.

220
00:10:14,081 --> 00:10:16,547
We're probably going to be
close to 15 million this year,

221
00:10:16,586 --> 00:10:19,861
which is, you know, it's tiny in
the brokerage world, but our

222
00:10:19,922 --> 00:10:24,208
growth is, you know, in double
digit growth at a time when most

223
00:10:24,208 --> 00:10:30,423
people are struggling to stay
at least even and worse, the

224
00:10:30,745 --> 00:10:33,990
truckload rates are just down so
much.

225
00:10:33,990 --> 00:10:35,354
Over the last four or five
years.

226
00:10:35,354 --> 00:10:38,823
You know, the COVID level was
an aberration and it was just

227
00:10:38,923 --> 00:10:42,109
something that happened once in
a lifetime moment where these

228
00:10:42,168 --> 00:10:46,961
rates were super sky high, but
people who went out and and got

229
00:10:47,663 --> 00:10:52,993
two and a half or 3% money based
on 60% margins that's not.

230
00:10:53,212 --> 00:10:53,854
That's not where we are.

231
00:10:53,854 --> 00:10:56,486
We have no money from anybody
the, you know we're entirely

232
00:10:56,527 --> 00:10:57,067
bootstrapped.

233
00:10:57,067 --> 00:10:58,731
We have no loans.

234
00:10:58,731 --> 00:11:00,544
We have no equity sold off.

235
00:11:00,544 --> 00:11:01,005
We have.

236
00:11:01,005 --> 00:11:01,947
We don't factor.

237
00:11:01,947 --> 00:11:06,279
And so, you know, everything we
do has to be slow and steady

238
00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:07,682
and it has to be right.

239
00:11:07,682 --> 00:11:11,312
Every customer has to be a good
fit, every agent has to be a

240
00:11:11,351 --> 00:11:14,424
good fit, and so we work really,
really hard to make sure that

241
00:11:14,465 --> 00:11:20,523
everything we do has you know,
like a, that we're working with

242
00:11:20,562 --> 00:11:23,090
quality individuals who care
about the company, who care

243
00:11:23,129 --> 00:11:24,553
about the industry, care about
the drivers, care about the

244
00:11:24,595 --> 00:11:26,224
drivers, care about the
customers.

245
00:11:26,224 --> 00:11:30,160
It's it's really important that
, like I said, we're on our

246
00:11:30,201 --> 00:11:30,984
fourth generation.

247
00:11:32,107 --> 00:11:34,424
Speaker 1: And you don't, you
don't get there through four

248
00:11:34,465 --> 00:11:36,919
generations without some
disappointments and some

249
00:11:36,940 --> 00:11:39,807
failures and lessons learned
along the way, we've had them

250
00:11:39,846 --> 00:11:39,966
all.

251
00:11:41,772 --> 00:11:44,647
And but that's, I think, where
the greatest learning

252
00:11:44,687 --> 00:11:48,479
opportunities come from is is
failure.

253
00:11:48,479 --> 00:11:51,145
I saw someone explained it this
way.

254
00:11:51,145 --> 00:11:53,591
They said you know it's great
to get the book learning, that's

255
00:11:53,591 --> 00:11:56,907
the theory, but then you get
more learning when you're able

256
00:11:56,947 --> 00:12:00,581
to apply the theory in practice
and you have a management degree

257
00:12:00,581 --> 00:12:05,697
and then you get to practice
being a manager and you learn

258
00:12:05,736 --> 00:12:05,956
more.

259
00:12:05,956 --> 00:12:08,866
But your greatest learnings
actually come from the failures,

260
00:12:08,866 --> 00:12:13,380
and then you learn what not to
do and how that shapes your next

261
00:12:13,380 --> 00:12:20,190
phase of leadership or
entrepreneurship.

262
00:12:20,190 --> 00:12:25,900
So when you look back at what
your the difficult decision to

263
00:12:25,941 --> 00:12:28,222
shut down a trucking company,
for example, or to shut down

264
00:12:29,443 --> 00:12:33,167
assets, whether it's a warehouse
or otherwise, and fundamentally

265
00:12:33,167 --> 00:12:37,970
shift what my conversation with
them would be, if we're

266
00:12:48,019 --> 00:12:51,268
recording this and with them in
25 years and they'll say here's

267
00:12:51,349 --> 00:12:56,126
what my dad did right and here's
the big mistake that I learned

268
00:12:56,167 --> 00:12:56,368
from.

269
00:12:56,368 --> 00:12:57,451
That I'm not going to repeat.

270
00:12:57,740 --> 00:13:04,947
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope and I
pray every day that they absorb

271
00:13:05,328 --> 00:13:09,113
some of my negative experiences
and understand how I got to

272
00:13:09,153 --> 00:13:11,434
those negative and how my dad
and my uncle got to their

273
00:13:11,495 --> 00:13:15,924
negative experiences, because it
doesn't always listen.

274
00:13:15,924 --> 00:13:17,808
You're going to fail and you're
going to have problems and

275
00:13:17,828 --> 00:13:20,594
you're going to have ways to
overcome them.

276
00:13:20,594 --> 00:13:24,931
I think what makes a good
entrepreneur or in our business

277
00:13:24,951 --> 00:13:27,085
we call them co-preneurs right,
our agents are co-preneurs.

278
00:13:27,085 --> 00:13:29,280
They're in business for
themselves but not by themselves

279
00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:29,280
.

280
00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:33,288
But what makes a good
entrepreneur is someone who can

281
00:13:33,350 --> 00:13:36,543
overcome that resistance or
overcome those objections or

282
00:13:36,663 --> 00:13:39,671
overcome those issues and find
new ways and be creative.

283
00:13:39,671 --> 00:13:43,764
I mean, you know, jobs and
Wozniak invented a computer in

284
00:13:43,825 --> 00:13:48,192
Wozniak's garage because they
just had a feeling they had

285
00:13:48,253 --> 00:13:50,926
something good and they were out
and they tried something

286
00:13:50,966 --> 00:13:55,250
different and they staked their
entire lives on this one trial

287
00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:56,565
and I mean, look what Apple did.

288
00:13:57,321 --> 00:13:59,884
Speaker 1: I mean it's insane.

289
00:13:59,884 --> 00:14:05,033
One of the questions that I've
been asked and have been asking

290
00:14:05,673 --> 00:14:10,490
other entrepreneurs is when do
you know it's the right time to

291
00:14:10,549 --> 00:14:10,890
quit?

292
00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:13,946
Speaker 2: No, idea Never have.

293
00:14:15,441 --> 00:14:19,171
Speaker 1: So you're all
throttle all the time, no matter

294
00:14:19,171 --> 00:14:19,412
what.

295
00:14:20,559 --> 00:14:21,222
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think breaks.

296
00:14:21,222 --> 00:14:21,946
Just slow you down.

297
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,321
Speaker 1: And I asked that
because there's a handful of

298
00:14:25,380 --> 00:14:28,243
folks that I've chatted with in
the last couple of months.

299
00:14:28,243 --> 00:14:31,504
I said, hey, I've been working
on this idea Maybe it's a tech

300
00:14:31,565 --> 00:14:34,947
product, maybe it's a service
for the industry and I've not

301
00:14:34,988 --> 00:14:36,067
been able to get traction.

302
00:14:36,067 --> 00:14:39,770
And now expenses are getting
higher than revenue and we have

303
00:14:39,890 --> 00:14:42,032
one side that says it's all
throttle all the time and

304
00:14:42,091 --> 00:14:44,474
there's another side that says
maybe it's time to pivot or try

305
00:14:44,514 --> 00:14:47,596
something different, and letting
go is tough.

306
00:14:47,596 --> 00:14:52,325
So, if we can go back to the
conversation with your dad and

307
00:14:52,345 --> 00:14:56,360
your uncle of, hey, it's time to
quit this side of the business,

308
00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:01,870
do you remember that tension
between all throttle and hey,

309
00:15:01,890 --> 00:15:03,682
maybe this isn't the right thing
, because somehow you have to

310
00:15:03,618 --> 00:15:04,308
resolve that tension.

311
00:15:04,308 --> 00:15:04,519
See, I think that is all
throttle and hey, maybe this

312
00:15:04,455 --> 00:15:05,349
isn't the right thing because
somehow you have to resolve that

313
00:15:05,349 --> 00:15:05,424
tension.

314
00:15:06,779 --> 00:15:08,768
Speaker 2: See, I think that is
all throttle.

315
00:15:08,768 --> 00:15:13,783
I think that is all throttle, I
think, when you're looking at

316
00:15:13,802 --> 00:15:15,006
your business and you're looking
at what you're doing.

317
00:15:15,006 --> 00:15:17,235
For example, I'm looking at
150,000, 200,000 square feet of

318
00:15:17,254 --> 00:15:18,759
warehouse space and 40% of it is
empty.

319
00:15:18,759 --> 00:15:22,794
We had a very, very large
customer, like a Fortune 500,

320
00:15:22,815 --> 00:15:35,081
that my grandfather started
doing business with, and they

321
00:15:35,100 --> 00:15:36,504
moved their logistics, um admin
to this company who was going to

322
00:15:36,504 --> 00:15:38,168
just be the admin for all of
their operations at all their

323
00:15:38,227 --> 00:15:38,427
warehouses.

324
00:15:38,447 --> 00:15:41,121
And um, the guy's name was Carl
and he came to my office one day

325
00:15:41,121 --> 00:15:42,988
and he says, vin, I got news
for you.

326
00:15:42,988 --> 00:15:44,681
He says we're going to be
moving out of your warehouse.

327
00:15:44,681 --> 00:15:46,947
I'm like, whoa, we've been
doing this for 30 years.

328
00:15:46,947 --> 00:15:49,152
And he goes yeah, he goes.

329
00:15:49,152 --> 00:15:50,864
Oh, I'm sorry, we've been
building a warehouse in

330
00:15:50,884 --> 00:15:52,549
Bethlehem, pennsylvania, so
we're going to move out.

331
00:15:52,549 --> 00:15:54,407
I go oh well, when did you
start building it?

332
00:15:54,407 --> 00:16:07,850
He goes well, that's what I
want to talk.

333
00:16:07,850 --> 00:16:09,196
You have 100,000 square feet of
space.

334
00:16:09,196 --> 00:16:11,860
I just signed a five-year lease
for you, based on the fact that

335
00:16:11,860 --> 00:16:13,945
we did business for 30 years
with my family, and you're going

336
00:16:13,945 --> 00:16:15,226
to come in and tell me I have
30 days.

337
00:16:15,226 --> 00:16:15,567
That's not cool.

338
00:16:15,587 --> 00:16:20,121
And so I'm looking at 40% of our
space is empty and I'm thinking

339
00:16:20,121 --> 00:16:21,964
we have to pivot.

340
00:16:21,964 --> 00:16:26,730
We either have to sell this
space or sublet the space or

341
00:16:27,793 --> 00:16:33,005
void the lease or, I don't know,
do something else.

342
00:16:33,005 --> 00:16:37,133
And so we did something else.

343
00:16:37,133 --> 00:16:38,360
We did a number of things
actually.

344
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:41,547
I unfortunately at that point
had to.

345
00:16:41,547 --> 00:16:44,494
We filed a chapter 13 to void
the lease.

346
00:16:44,494 --> 00:16:47,936
At that point, we filed a
Chapter 13 to void the lease.

347
00:16:47,936 --> 00:16:49,421
We moved out of one of the
buildings.

348
00:16:49,421 --> 00:16:54,725
Everybody got paid except the
landlord lost his tenant, which

349
00:16:54,784 --> 00:16:56,626
was not cool, but it is what it
is.

350
00:16:56,626 --> 00:17:00,509
It's an ugly fact in business,
and if that doesn't make I was

351
00:17:00,529 --> 00:17:03,052
going to say give you gray hairs
, but if that't make them, fall

352
00:17:03,072 --> 00:17:03,131
out.

353
00:17:03,152 --> 00:17:04,492
Speaker 1: I don't have any hair
left.

354
00:17:05,213 --> 00:17:05,814
Speaker 2: Nothing does.

355
00:17:05,814 --> 00:17:15,740
But you know, we learned a lot
from that moment and, yes, there

356
00:17:15,740 --> 00:17:16,000
was a pivot.

357
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:16,882
But I don't look at that as a
failure.

358
00:17:16,882 --> 00:17:20,007
I look at that as an
opportunity to do something

359
00:17:20,167 --> 00:17:24,074
either a little different, or to
maybe not get into that

360
00:17:24,114 --> 00:17:24,994
situation in the future.

361
00:17:24,994 --> 00:17:27,986
Maybe next time you don't trust
the fortune 500 company to just

362
00:17:27,986 --> 00:17:30,092
be there, maybe you get
something in writing.

363
00:17:30,092 --> 00:17:34,685
And so you know, um, we, we.

364
00:17:34,685 --> 00:17:39,615
At that point we brought in a
couple of new customers who

365
00:17:40,161 --> 00:17:42,606
didn't use as much space but
they needed peer support.

366
00:17:42,606 --> 00:17:45,541
So we leased a bunch of trucks
and started running down to,

367
00:17:46,483 --> 00:17:48,669
running down to uh, to the
terminals in New York and New

368
00:17:48,689 --> 00:17:50,252
Jersey and bringing containers
back up.

369
00:17:50,252 --> 00:17:55,307
And you know, we did okay with
it, but it was never really

370
00:17:55,648 --> 00:17:57,953
where I wanted to be.

371
00:17:57,953 --> 00:17:59,506
It wasn't the space I wanted to
be in.

372
00:17:59,506 --> 00:18:00,962
So I was always looking for the
next thing.

373
00:18:00,962 --> 00:18:01,805
We're survivors.

374
00:18:02,547 --> 00:18:04,250
Speaker 1: Yeah, entrepreneurs,
I'm picking up on that.

375
00:18:04,592 --> 00:18:10,682
Speaker 2: Yeah, entrepreneurs
we're just.

376
00:18:10,682 --> 00:18:11,445
I think we're just survivors.

377
00:18:11,445 --> 00:18:12,450
I look at myself as like a
serial entrepreneur.

378
00:18:12,450 --> 00:18:14,096
I just keep trying new things
until something sticks, and this

379
00:18:14,096 --> 00:18:15,320
thing we're doing now at Fenice
.

380
00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:19,171
It's sticking pretty good and I
don't have any plans to pivot

381
00:18:19,211 --> 00:18:19,652
off of this.

382
00:18:19,652 --> 00:18:23,827
But, god forbid, the market
tanks or something goes really

383
00:18:23,867 --> 00:18:26,752
bad our market, because
obviously the market in general

384
00:18:26,792 --> 00:18:27,193
did tank.

385
00:18:27,193 --> 00:18:32,469
But when our world falls apart,
or if it does, I'm sure

386
00:18:32,509 --> 00:18:35,634
there'll be something else that
we're going to be able to pivot

387
00:18:35,653 --> 00:18:42,009
to and we're diversified in the
kind of work we're doing at this

388
00:18:42,009 --> 00:18:42,369
point.

389
00:18:42,369 --> 00:18:46,035
So I don't see anything other
than what we're doing now,

390
00:18:47,201 --> 00:18:49,229
possibly with some refinements
that would.

391
00:18:49,229 --> 00:18:52,005
That would change things,
should there be a drastic change

392
00:18:52,005 --> 00:18:52,005
.

393
00:18:52,005 --> 00:18:55,145
But look Q2, they just refined
the numbers right.

394
00:18:55,145 --> 00:18:57,568
Their economy was up 3.3%.

395
00:18:57,568 --> 00:18:59,263
Hiring is.

396
00:18:59,263 --> 00:19:00,367
I mean it looks like.

397
00:19:00,367 --> 00:19:02,728
It looks like interest rates
are going to come down.

398
00:19:02,728 --> 00:19:04,748
I think there's a very bright
future.

399
00:19:04,748 --> 00:19:06,102
I it looks like interest rates
are going to come down.

400
00:19:06,102 --> 00:19:06,486
I think there's a very bright
future.

401
00:19:06,412 --> 00:19:07,300
Speaker 1: I think there's a
very, very bright future and if

402
00:19:07,340 --> 00:19:09,363
you didn't believe that you
shouldn't, or don't believe that

403
00:19:09,363 --> 00:19:13,566
you shouldn't be an
entrepreneur, because if you

404
00:19:13,625 --> 00:19:17,801
can't wake up and see the glass
half full every single day, you

405
00:19:17,862 --> 00:19:20,923
probably shouldn't be owning a
company, because you're going to

406
00:19:20,923 --> 00:19:25,285
need that just to get through
coffee on Tuesday morning in any

407
00:19:25,285 --> 00:19:29,607
given week you were talking
about earlier not taking on any

408
00:19:29,688 --> 00:19:33,846
debt, not giving up any equity
and bootstrapping the whole

409
00:19:33,886 --> 00:19:34,086
thing.

410
00:19:34,086 --> 00:19:37,480
I have always thought of our
show as kind of like the dirty

411
00:19:37,619 --> 00:19:40,326
jobs show of the logistics
industry, like we want to

412
00:19:40,366 --> 00:19:44,494
celebrate the people that are
doing the hard work without a

413
00:19:44,536 --> 00:19:45,160
lot of attention.

414
00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:49,730
I admire that approach,
obviously, and named the show

415
00:19:49,830 --> 00:19:53,329
after it, but it comes with
limitations.

416
00:19:54,020 --> 00:19:55,266
And you said growth.

417
00:19:55,266 --> 00:20:01,085
So for someone who's got stars
in their eyes about starting a

418
00:20:01,125 --> 00:20:04,127
freight brokerage and becoming a
$100 million business, for

419
00:20:04,167 --> 00:20:09,557
example, what are the trade-offs
and the tough choices you have

420
00:20:09,577 --> 00:20:12,544
to make about growing steadily
versus quickly?

421
00:20:15,931 --> 00:20:18,637
Speaker 2: So we've looked at
different ways to grow this much

422
00:20:18,637 --> 00:20:24,919
faster than we've grown it, and
all of it comes with loss of

423
00:20:25,038 --> 00:20:32,116
control one way or the other,
and for me it's always been

424
00:20:32,156 --> 00:20:33,522
about doing it the way I want to
do it.

425
00:20:33,522 --> 00:20:38,717
It's always been about being a
tech first broker with a human

426
00:20:38,758 --> 00:20:39,219
connection.

427
00:20:39,219 --> 00:20:42,291
I always want my agents to talk
to my customers, but to

428
00:20:42,372 --> 00:20:47,281
leverage a huge tech stack that
we have to make their jobs so

429
00:20:47,321 --> 00:20:50,055
much easier that they could deal
with more customers, right, and

430
00:20:50,055 --> 00:20:55,727
so I feel like the money that
we could be spending on interest

431
00:20:55,727 --> 00:21:00,096
payments or sharing profits
with an investor or whatever, we

432
00:21:00,096 --> 00:21:05,569
could put into tech, we could
put into agent opportunities, we

433
00:21:05,569 --> 00:21:08,277
could put into different things
that make people's lives better

434
00:21:08,277 --> 00:21:08,277
.

435
00:21:08,277 --> 00:21:11,373
Who work here that I have
direct contact with.

436
00:21:11,373 --> 00:21:13,920
We don't have a broker here
that I don't have a relationship

437
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:14,080
with.

438
00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:18,077
Every single person who works
here I know they know my kids.

439
00:21:18,077 --> 00:21:19,460
Uh, we have a.

440
00:21:19,460 --> 00:21:22,152
We have a manager of agent
development.

441
00:21:22,152 --> 00:21:22,873
Her name is leslie.

442
00:21:22,873 --> 00:21:27,063
She's amazing, um, and and they
, you know they talk to her

443
00:21:27,123 --> 00:21:30,633
first, but before we bring them
in, they talk to me too.

444
00:21:35,657 --> 00:21:37,960
What's the pitfalls to starting
a new brokerage and getting to

445
00:21:37,980 --> 00:21:38,601
100 million?

446
00:21:38,601 --> 00:21:43,586
There's 10 million pitfalls and
any of them could hurt you

447
00:21:44,226 --> 00:21:45,047
really really badly.

448
00:21:45,047 --> 00:21:53,612
But the worst thing you could
do, I think, is to give up the

449
00:21:53,632 --> 00:21:55,474
small profit margins that you
actually end up with and

450
00:21:55,494 --> 00:22:00,782
sacrifice those to a factor, for
example, and have to lose

451
00:22:01,002 --> 00:22:04,272
either your ability to have
those relationships with your

452
00:22:04,333 --> 00:22:13,517
people or, again, it's loss of
control more than anything else,

453
00:22:13,517 --> 00:22:14,580
it's loss of control.

454
00:22:15,451 --> 00:22:16,694
I don't want someone telling me
what to do.

455
00:22:16,694 --> 00:22:17,296
I've had enough.

456
00:22:17,296 --> 00:22:18,318
I'm 58 years old.

457
00:22:18,318 --> 00:22:19,181
I've been doing this a long
time.

458
00:22:19,181 --> 00:22:23,176
I don't need anybody to tell me
what to do.

459
00:22:23,176 --> 00:22:23,798
I know how to do it.

460
00:22:23,798 --> 00:22:26,113
My grandfather did it, my
father did it, my kids are doing

461
00:22:26,113 --> 00:22:26,958
it.

462
00:22:28,270 --> 00:22:30,594
Speaker 1: I noticed a trend, by
the way, when you're describing

463
00:22:30,594 --> 00:22:35,651
somebody um favorably, you use
their name.

464
00:22:35,651 --> 00:22:39,499
When you described someone that
you didn't maybe not quite so

465
00:22:39,558 --> 00:22:44,865
favorable, it was this guy, um I
don't want to say you're not

466
00:22:44,884 --> 00:22:51,479
going to name somebody but you,
you are such a family first guy

467
00:22:52,641 --> 00:22:55,270
and yet there are all these
realities of business and

468
00:22:55,310 --> 00:22:56,896
sometimes you have to make
really tough choices.

469
00:22:56,896 --> 00:23:01,317
So how have you, or how would
you describe your overall

470
00:23:01,356 --> 00:23:04,523
philosophy of leadership at this
point in your journey?

471
00:23:07,934 --> 00:23:11,500
Speaker 2: um, I'm a god.

472
00:23:11,500 --> 00:23:14,325
I sound like a 17 year old at
an interview at mcdonald's or

473
00:23:14,365 --> 00:23:15,771
something right, but I'm a
people person.

474
00:23:15,771 --> 00:23:18,176
I am a people person.

475
00:23:18,176 --> 00:23:19,780
I love meeting new people.

476
00:23:19,780 --> 00:23:20,843
I love talking to people.

477
00:23:20,843 --> 00:23:22,112
I love getting to know people.

478
00:23:22,112 --> 00:23:28,760
We have we have, um, such a
great team and I know every

479
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,483
single person here and I care
about people.

480
00:23:31,565 --> 00:23:36,439
So it's not like you know, it's
not like I'm sitting here going

481
00:23:36,499 --> 00:23:37,300
growth, growth, growth.

482
00:23:37,300 --> 00:23:38,590
I'm not standing over anybody.

483
00:23:38,590 --> 00:23:40,998
I'm not telling anybody what to
do and when to do it.

484
00:23:40,998 --> 00:23:45,696
For the most part, I mean, we
have some staff people who are

485
00:23:46,178 --> 00:23:49,211
in task oriented jobs where you
have to sort of give them a list

486
00:23:49,211 --> 00:23:49,311
of.

487
00:23:49,311 --> 00:23:50,214
This is what I expect.

488
00:23:50,214 --> 00:24:01,075
But we don't have anybody here
who punches a clock.

489
00:24:01,075 --> 00:24:04,721
We don't have anybody here who
is on like a piece work kind of

490
00:24:04,780 --> 00:24:04,961
thing.

491
00:24:04,961 --> 00:24:06,884
I guess I don't really know how
to describe it.

492
00:24:06,944 --> 00:24:09,815
But basically, I like to give
people a job and tell them this

493
00:24:09,894 --> 00:24:11,778
is what I expect you to do.

494
00:24:11,778 --> 00:24:14,384
I don't care how you do it, I
don't care when you do it.

495
00:24:14,384 --> 00:24:16,094
I don't care where you're
sitting when you do it.

496
00:24:16,094 --> 00:24:19,290
If you want to take your laptop
and go to the Caribbean and sit

497
00:24:19,290 --> 00:24:21,673
on a beach in St Thomas.

498
00:24:21,673 --> 00:24:26,920
I don't care, I hope you can
and I hope you do, because I

499
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:28,401
know when I can, I do.

500
00:24:29,102 --> 00:24:36,510
And so I feel like the job for
me is to empower people to be

501
00:24:36,612 --> 00:24:41,661
their best and to allow the
entrepreneurial spirit to flow

502
00:24:41,721 --> 00:24:42,061
through.

503
00:24:42,061 --> 00:24:44,553
And again, that's why we call
our agents co-preneurs, right,

504
00:24:45,034 --> 00:24:46,036
we want them to go.

505
00:24:46,036 --> 00:24:49,771
Hey, I could work for three
hours a day and make enough to

506
00:24:49,791 --> 00:24:50,212
get by.

507
00:24:50,212 --> 00:24:53,240
Or I could work for five hours
a day and put my kid through

508
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:57,961
college, or I could work for 10
hours a day and whatever.

509
00:24:57,961 --> 00:24:58,461
You know what I mean.

510
00:24:58,461 --> 00:25:03,298
And so I feel like if we
empower people to do really good

511
00:25:03,298 --> 00:25:06,265
things and just do them in our
pipeline, then we all benefit.

512
00:25:06,265 --> 00:25:09,092
And so is that a leadership
style?

513
00:25:09,092 --> 00:25:10,954
I don't know, maybe it is, I
don't know benefit, and so is

514
00:25:10,974 --> 00:25:11,556
that a leadership style.

515
00:25:11,576 --> 00:25:12,357
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe
it is, I don't know.

516
00:25:12,357 --> 00:25:14,902
I think there's elements of
just who you are that naturally

517
00:25:15,001 --> 00:25:16,284
lend itself to that.

518
00:25:16,284 --> 00:25:23,352
I don't want to be, and that's
what I picked up when we first

519
00:25:23,372 --> 00:25:23,571
met too.

520
00:25:23,571 --> 00:25:25,214
Was I just I want to have a
beer with you, I want to have a

521
00:25:25,234 --> 00:25:25,654
coffee with you.

522
00:25:25,654 --> 00:25:27,076
I just want to sit around and
chop it up and talk about

523
00:25:27,198 --> 00:25:31,183
anything that comes to mind,
because I can clearly tell that

524
00:25:31,203 --> 00:25:32,144
you're a people person.

525
00:25:32,144 --> 00:25:36,237
If you weren't doing what
you're doing now, what would you

526
00:25:36,237 --> 00:25:36,657
have done?

527
00:25:39,723 --> 00:25:43,538
Speaker 2: No idea, I told you
in the beginning I sold copy

528
00:25:43,558 --> 00:25:43,980
machines.

529
00:25:43,980 --> 00:25:48,672
I hated every moment of my life
, what that sounds like so much

530
00:25:48,731 --> 00:25:49,011
fun.

531
00:25:49,833 --> 00:25:50,473
Here's what it was.

532
00:25:50,473 --> 00:25:55,361
I walk in the door, there's 80
or 90 sales reps in this

533
00:25:55,401 --> 00:26:04,910
building and my boss was a guy
named Bruce Manley who said to

534
00:26:04,930 --> 00:26:05,912
me Vin, we've got a new product
for you to sell.

535
00:26:05,912 --> 00:26:07,192
You're going to be in the
typewriter division, but we've

536
00:26:07,212 --> 00:26:08,214
got a new product and it's going
to be a hit.

537
00:26:08,214 --> 00:26:10,477
When you see these things,
they're called fax machines.

538
00:26:10,477 --> 00:26:13,942
Okay, here's what I had to do.

539
00:26:13,942 --> 00:26:17,385
I had to take two fax machines
and these were big.

540
00:26:17,385 --> 00:26:20,112
These were 30 pound machines at
the time.

541
00:26:20,112 --> 00:26:21,556
I had to take two of them and
put them in my car and this

542
00:26:21,596 --> 00:26:24,069
little black box that you put in
between them, and you would

543
00:26:24,089 --> 00:26:26,292
have to prove to people that you
could stick the paper on one

544
00:26:26,354 --> 00:26:29,438
side and have it come out the
other, and so you'd bring log

545
00:26:29,458 --> 00:26:31,861
these two machines for demos
into people's conference rooms.

546
00:26:32,162 --> 00:26:33,923
You'd set up two machines and
you put.

547
00:26:33,923 --> 00:26:35,150
People didn't believe that you
could.

548
00:26:35,150 --> 00:26:40,320
You could transmit paper, and
so maybe that was the tech thing

549
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:44,094
that made me realize that I
don't know, it probably wasn't.

550
00:26:44,094 --> 00:26:47,711
My first computer was a TRS 80
model, one level one with 4k of

551
00:26:47,791 --> 00:26:51,121
Ram, so I I think, um, so I
think I was into tech in the

552
00:26:51,161 --> 00:26:53,470
beginning and maybe that's why
they threw me into the fact side

553
00:26:53,470 --> 00:26:53,470
.

554
00:26:54,753 --> 00:27:00,796
But that company had two black
and white copier reps in three

555
00:27:00,836 --> 00:27:03,616
little towns in Connecticut New
Haven, west Haven and Hamden.

556
00:27:03,616 --> 00:27:06,611
They had one who did the odd
side of the street and one who

557
00:27:06,631 --> 00:27:08,278
did the even numbered places.

558
00:27:08,278 --> 00:27:11,394
Then they had two fax and
typewriter reps in the same area

559
00:27:11,394 --> 00:27:12,196
and a color rep.

560
00:27:12,196 --> 00:27:14,438
We had five reps in three towns
.

561
00:27:14,438 --> 00:27:19,942
Total population in those three
towns is probably 200,000

562
00:27:19,981 --> 00:27:23,077
people, so it's not like there
was any room to really do the

563
00:27:23,138 --> 00:27:23,318
work.

564
00:27:23,318 --> 00:27:28,471
And so what I hated was I hated
knocking on doors, I hated

565
00:27:30,115 --> 00:27:34,553
being just another copier rep
walking in the door and I found

566
00:27:34,573 --> 00:27:36,940
it difficult to differentiate
myself in that.

567
00:27:36,940 --> 00:27:39,157
So I know I wouldn't be selling
copiers.

568
00:27:39,951 --> 00:27:42,680
I really enjoyed the plumbing
place that I worked at.

569
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:43,955
We had a great time.

570
00:27:43,955 --> 00:27:47,349
I learned so much about a trade
I knew nothing about.

571
00:27:47,349 --> 00:27:51,340
I forged some friendships that
I still have today, 30 years

572
00:27:51,421 --> 00:27:51,662
later.

573
00:27:51,662 --> 00:27:56,240
So that probably would have
been somewhere where I ended up.

574
00:27:56,240 --> 00:28:01,361
But I think the logistics space
is sort of baked into my family

575
00:28:01,361 --> 00:28:01,361
.

576
00:28:01,361 --> 00:28:02,482
I really do.

577
00:28:02,482 --> 00:28:09,101
My grandparents my grandfather
on my dad's side, who died very

578
00:28:09,161 --> 00:28:13,048
young his family was into
transportation they all had some

579
00:28:13,048 --> 00:28:14,330
version of it.

580
00:28:14,330 --> 00:28:18,520
On the other side, my mother's
mother, who was a daughter of

581
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:19,682
the American Revolution.

582
00:28:19,682 --> 00:28:22,496
She was born to a sharecropper
in Colorado.

583
00:28:22,496 --> 00:28:26,344
They migrated up to Iowa where
her father ended up with

584
00:28:26,390 --> 00:28:28,432
tuberculosis and died at a young
age.

585
00:28:28,432 --> 00:28:30,875
But my grandmother was one of
nine kids.

586
00:28:30,875 --> 00:28:32,999
They were very lucky.

587
00:28:32,999 --> 00:28:36,865
They rented a farm and had a
three-hole outhouse no power.

588
00:28:36,884 --> 00:28:40,739
Wow, wow, yeah, but they were
very lucky in 1935 or whatever

589
00:28:40,779 --> 00:28:41,101
it was.

590
00:28:41,101 --> 00:28:45,156
She met my grandfather in 1939,
and he had a friend who had a

591
00:28:45,237 --> 00:28:48,423
job making guns in Hamden,
connecticut, and they drove from

592
00:28:48,423 --> 00:28:51,711
Iowa to Connecticut with their
kid and settled there and they

593
00:28:51,750 --> 00:28:56,258
were married for 65 years until
he passed away.

594
00:28:56,258 --> 00:29:02,593
But during World War II he
always says he was drafted I

595
00:29:02,613 --> 00:29:04,799
don't know if they draft people
with four kids and don't let

596
00:29:04,819 --> 00:29:06,712
them leave the United States but
he might've volunteered.

597
00:29:06,712 --> 00:29:09,779
Anyway, they put him in the
Navy, they sent him out to

598
00:29:09,819 --> 00:29:14,294
Brooklyn and taught him
refrigeration repair and when he

599
00:29:14,294 --> 00:29:16,441
got out he was doing what he
knew.

600
00:29:16,441 --> 00:29:19,636
He was repairing refrigerators
and small appliances and big

601
00:29:19,676 --> 00:29:23,231
appliances and started selling
parts as a side gig and at one

602
00:29:23,271 --> 00:29:27,159
point became GE and
Westinghouse's largest parts

603
00:29:27,199 --> 00:29:30,003
distributor for large appliance
parts in New England.

604
00:29:30,003 --> 00:29:34,392
So that was washers, dryers,
refrigerators and they had a

605
00:29:34,613 --> 00:29:38,077
really nice appliance parts
business until those products

606
00:29:38,138 --> 00:29:43,935
became dispensable and basically
your washer breaks, you

607
00:29:43,955 --> 00:29:44,778
probably don't have it fixed.

608
00:29:44,778 --> 00:29:49,338
Today they buy a new one that's
probably made overseas

609
00:29:49,380 --> 00:29:53,051
somewhere and, um, it's just
cheaper than having it fixed.

610
00:29:53,051 --> 00:29:55,617
So their business was really
really good.

611
00:29:55,657 --> 00:29:57,342
My grandfather was very
successful.

612
00:29:57,342 --> 00:30:00,037
He had a little four-seater
single engine cessna.

613
00:30:00,037 --> 00:30:02,651
He had property in new
hampshire or not late, you know

614
00:30:02,671 --> 00:30:04,795
he he did really well, um.

615
00:30:04,795 --> 00:30:09,044
So I feel like I feel like the
entrepreneurial spirit is baked

616
00:30:09,144 --> 00:30:10,195
in, I feel like the logistics
thing is baked in.

617
00:30:10,195 --> 00:30:14,635
And I feel like the logistics
thing is baked in and I don't

618
00:30:14,675 --> 00:30:15,419
know that I had a choice.

619
00:30:15,419 --> 00:30:19,480
I think it's just where I was
supposed to be.

620
00:30:20,470 --> 00:30:23,855
Speaker 1: I would imagine, then
, that your sons also feel like

621
00:30:23,895 --> 00:30:24,596
it's a choice for them.

622
00:30:24,596 --> 00:30:26,179
They don't have to do it, they
choose to do it.

623
00:30:28,643 --> 00:30:29,144
Speaker 2: I think so.

624
00:30:29,144 --> 00:30:30,286
James is my oldest.

625
00:30:30,286 --> 00:30:32,817
James got a degree in history.

626
00:30:32,817 --> 00:30:33,619
He wanted to be a teacher.

627
00:30:33,619 --> 00:30:34,451
He loves history.

628
00:30:34,451 --> 00:30:35,414
He wanted to be a teacher.

629
00:30:35,414 --> 00:30:36,176
He got a degree.

630
00:30:36,176 --> 00:30:39,753
He did his student teaching and
went oh these kids are nuts, I

631
00:30:39,773 --> 00:30:42,040
don't want to do this Teaching
is hard.

632
00:30:42,549 --> 00:30:43,152
Teaching is hard.

633
00:30:43,152 --> 00:30:47,121
And so he said while I'm
looking for a job, is there

634
00:30:47,141 --> 00:30:47,971
anything you have for me?

635
00:30:47,971 --> 00:30:49,034
So I said, yeah, I'm going to
have you.

636
00:30:49,034 --> 00:30:52,604
We were doing a freight payment
audit program at the time.

637
00:30:52,604 --> 00:30:53,968
I said, yeah, you teach these.

638
00:30:53,968 --> 00:30:57,596
And so James started by typing
bills, which is ironic because I

639
00:30:57,596 --> 00:31:00,650
started at Kronos Express doing
things like OS&D and customer

640
00:31:00,690 --> 00:31:05,136
service, and so his start was
very similar to mine.

641
00:31:05,136 --> 00:31:09,963
And I think James, I think he's
got the bug, I think it's in

642
00:31:10,003 --> 00:31:11,566
him and I don't think it's going
anywhere.

643
00:31:11,566 --> 00:31:14,537
My other son, stephen, is two
years younger.

644
00:31:15,529 --> 00:31:16,957
Stephen wanted to be in law
enforcement.

645
00:31:16,957 --> 00:31:22,069
His mother is a police officer
in our town in Connecticut and

646
00:31:24,715 --> 00:31:28,284
Stephen went to the academy for
Connecticut State Police and it

647
00:31:28,324 --> 00:31:31,671
was right around the time of a
lot of bad things happening and

648
00:31:31,830 --> 00:31:35,279
police officers getting blamed
for things that probably were

649
00:31:35,319 --> 00:31:37,311
okay a few years before and then
they weren't.

650
00:31:37,311 --> 00:31:39,719
And then there was in
Connecticut.

651
00:31:39,719 --> 00:31:45,404
There was not just fault as an
officer for things that happened

652
00:31:45,404 --> 00:31:47,269
, but they could hold you
personally responsible for

653
00:31:47,289 --> 00:31:48,192
things your partner did.

654
00:31:48,192 --> 00:31:53,762
And so he came to me and said
Dad, I can't, I'm not doing this

655
00:31:53,762 --> 00:31:54,463
, I'm dropping out.

656
00:31:54,463 --> 00:31:55,714
I said, well, what do you plan
to do?

657
00:31:55,714 --> 00:31:57,807
He goes, I have a job as a
security guard at the local

658
00:31:57,846 --> 00:31:58,170
hospital.

659
00:31:58,170 --> 00:32:00,659
I'm like, okay, is that going
to be enough to make ends meet?

660
00:32:00,659 --> 00:32:01,775
And he says, yeah, I think so.

661
00:32:01,775 --> 00:32:06,200
He had just gotten married to
this wonderful young lady Her

662
00:32:06,220 --> 00:32:14,657
name is Liz, and they he just I
don't.

663
00:32:14,657 --> 00:32:19,347
I don't think he had kind of
enough, like he was doing okay,

664
00:32:19,448 --> 00:32:22,560
but just okay, and I finally
said to him why are you working

665
00:32:22,601 --> 00:32:23,383
nights and weekends?

666
00:32:23,383 --> 00:32:24,486
We need help here.

667
00:32:24,486 --> 00:32:26,279
You're a smart kid, you have a
degree.

668
00:32:26,279 --> 00:32:28,125
I know it's criminal justice,
but you have a degree.

669
00:32:28,125 --> 00:32:32,722
Why don't we teach you how to
do some side of this business

670
00:32:32,762 --> 00:32:34,307
that maybe your brother's not
doing?

671
00:32:35,155 --> 00:32:38,566
And so Stephen now handles
payroll.

672
00:32:38,566 --> 00:32:43,097
He handles payments, accounts,
payable, and he has a handful of

673
00:32:43,097 --> 00:32:44,904
accounts that he's managing.

674
00:32:44,904 --> 00:32:50,636
And James handles customer
relationship type stuff Accounts

675
00:32:50,636 --> 00:33:00,135
, receivable, customer
relationships, relationships and

676
00:33:00,135 --> 00:33:00,317
, um, yeah.

677
00:33:00,317 --> 00:33:01,760
And so I think we found
positions for each of them that

678
00:33:01,780 --> 00:33:04,146
are really uniquely suited to
fit kind of who they are james,

679
00:33:04,568 --> 00:33:06,894
james's, james's role is
something like director of

680
00:33:06,976 --> 00:33:09,564
operations, uh, customer
relationships.

681
00:33:09,564 --> 00:33:12,994
And steven is director of
operations uh, network network

682
00:33:13,194 --> 00:33:20,030
payments, and so, uh, those two
roles I expect to get bigger and

683
00:33:20,030 --> 00:33:24,926
bigger as we build departments
under them, and so, yeah, that's

684
00:33:24,926 --> 00:33:26,794
where I think that what would
they be doing otherwise?

685
00:33:26,794 --> 00:33:29,298
I don't know.

686
00:33:29,298 --> 00:33:31,242
I think they both have the bug.

687
00:33:31,242 --> 00:33:31,583
I think.

688
00:33:32,345 --> 00:33:34,888
Speaker 1: Well, and it's fun to
get to watch, from my

689
00:33:35,035 --> 00:33:39,010
perspective, the impact of
entrepreneurship on the

690
00:33:39,131 --> 00:33:40,015
entrepreneurs families.

691
00:33:40,015 --> 00:33:43,224
I always like to ask those
kinds of questions because

692
00:33:44,848 --> 00:33:45,872
anybody who has a career.

693
00:33:45,872 --> 00:33:50,481
It still impacts your family as
well, myself included, but the

694
00:33:51,044 --> 00:33:52,385
I can bring work home with me.

695
00:33:52,385 --> 00:33:57,237
For sure, that's part of life
sometimes, but I can leave work

696
00:33:58,798 --> 00:34:01,940
If you're an entrepreneur,
you're on vacation, maybe your

697
00:34:01,980 --> 00:34:04,122
company is doing well enough and
it affords you a certain

698
00:34:04,162 --> 00:34:07,923
lifestyle to be able to travel
and to have great experiences.

699
00:34:07,923 --> 00:34:11,586
But for most you are still
connected and the family is

700
00:34:11,666 --> 00:34:16,090
benefiting from the
entrepreneurial success.

701
00:34:16,090 --> 00:34:19,592
But the family has also had to
make a ton of sacrifices

702
00:34:19,672 --> 00:34:28,615
simultaneously, and so it is a
whole family experience on some

703
00:34:28,655 --> 00:34:30,257
level for most not for everybody
, but that's a theme that I've

704
00:34:30,277 --> 00:34:35,563
identified more and more over
the years, and I had the thought

705
00:34:35,563 --> 00:34:41,047
one time of doing a spouse's
version of, maybe a mini series

706
00:34:41,288 --> 00:34:44,070
of, what is it like being
married to a bootstrapped

707
00:34:44,130 --> 00:34:45,472
logistics entrepreneur?

708
00:34:46,775 --> 00:34:48,503
Speaker 2: I am not calling her
from the next one Okay.

709
00:34:48,503 --> 00:34:53,527
I'm not bringing her in because
Too much truth.

710
00:34:53,527 --> 00:34:58,766
Well, there's plenty of days
where she's like do you have to

711
00:34:58,806 --> 00:35:00,538
be working all the time, for
example?

712
00:35:00,538 --> 00:35:03,402
So we live in North Carolina,
the company is in Connecticut,

713
00:35:04,295 --> 00:35:06,498
james and Steve live in
Connecticut, their wives and

714
00:35:06,518 --> 00:35:07,521
their kids are in Connecticut.

715
00:35:07,521 --> 00:35:10,581
My mother is in Connecticut, so
we do a lot of back and forth

716
00:35:11,275 --> 00:35:15,574
and when we drive together she
drives because I have the laptop

717
00:35:15,574 --> 00:35:15,574
.

718
00:35:15,715 --> 00:35:17,222
Speaker 1: You have a text and
email.

719
00:35:17,262 --> 00:35:21,579
Speaker 2: yeah, I'm working and
we we have uh, we have a time

720
00:35:21,599 --> 00:35:23,967
share in the caribbean and we go
once a year and guess what,

721
00:35:25,271 --> 00:35:27,800
every morning I'm sitting
outside by the pool with my

722
00:35:27,860 --> 00:35:30,532
laptop putting out whatever
fires I have to put out.

723
00:35:30,532 --> 00:35:33,079
I mean, everybody knows that
vin's on vacation, so he's only

724
00:35:33,099 --> 00:35:34,902
available for four or five hours
a day.

725
00:35:34,902 --> 00:35:38,068
I don't know any other way to
live.

726
00:35:40,155 --> 00:35:43,065
Speaker 1: And there's joy in
that for a lot of us too.

727
00:35:43,065 --> 00:35:44,349
I love being busy.

728
00:35:44,349 --> 00:35:46,536
I love feeling like I'm having
an impact.

729
00:35:46,536 --> 00:35:48,101
It's not a drain.

730
00:35:48,101 --> 00:35:51,655
Sometimes the work is the work
and it's not awesome, but in

731
00:35:51,735 --> 00:35:57,849
general, if you love the work
itself, it's easy to work 8, 10,

732
00:35:57,849 --> 00:36:02,838
12, 15 hours not forever, but
in periods where you're, the

733
00:36:02,878 --> 00:36:04,702
adrenaline is just a blast.

734
00:36:04,963 --> 00:36:06,766
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I totally
agree.

735
00:36:06,766 --> 00:36:08,375
I, you know it's funny.

736
00:36:08,375 --> 00:36:13,219
I, um, I love what I do and I
love who I do it with.

737
00:36:13,219 --> 00:36:14,081
I love what I do it.

738
00:36:14,081 --> 00:36:15,141
4, right.

739
00:36:15,282 --> 00:36:20,547
And so that 4 is for the people
who work here, for our family,

740
00:36:21,509 --> 00:36:27,161
for my family that's not in the
business and so my wife has a

741
00:36:27,201 --> 00:36:27,663
great job.

742
00:36:27,663 --> 00:36:30,844
She's a latent print examiner
for the city of Durham.

743
00:36:30,844 --> 00:36:34,065
She absolutely loves working in
forensics.

744
00:36:34,065 --> 00:36:38,581
She's smart as hell and so
sometimes she comes home and

745
00:36:38,621 --> 00:36:41,559
she's like I have to vent and
I'm like I've got to book a

746
00:36:41,579 --> 00:36:41,920
truck.

747
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:47,317
So you know, you know, we, we
have a great time with this back

748
00:36:47,317 --> 00:36:51,385
and forth, but we both
understand the other's role.

749
00:36:51,385 --> 00:36:55,820
You know, and uh, and we do, we
do really really well together

750
00:36:56,041 --> 00:37:01,597
in that I joke around that she
gives me grief about it, but at

751
00:37:01,617 --> 00:37:04,215
the end of the day she's very
patient and she's very kind and

752
00:37:04,255 --> 00:37:09,005
she knows that this is one of
the big things that bring me joy

753
00:37:09,005 --> 00:37:10,989
, besides those three little
grandkids I have.

754
00:37:10,989 --> 00:37:13,844
But this is one of the things
that brings me joy.

755
00:37:15,737 --> 00:37:18,240
And I get out of bed every
morning and my feet hit the

756
00:37:18,282 --> 00:37:19,023
floor and I'm running.

757
00:37:19,023 --> 00:37:23,989
Um, I, in fact I've sent a
newsletter to all of our agents

758
00:37:24,617 --> 00:37:24,938
every week.

759
00:37:24,938 --> 00:37:26,362
I call it the happy Monday
newsletter.

760
00:37:26,362 --> 00:37:27,605
It never goes out on a Monday.

761
00:37:27,605 --> 00:37:30,498
If it does, it's just pretty
long.

762
00:37:30,498 --> 00:37:33,463
And I call it happy Monday
because I feel like Mondays are

763
00:37:33,923 --> 00:37:36,547
one of these days where people
get up, who work regular jobs

764
00:37:36,588 --> 00:37:36,907
and they go.

765
00:37:37,128 --> 00:37:38,090
Oh, I got to go to work.

766
00:37:38,090 --> 00:37:40,583
I hate this job Weekend's over.

767
00:37:40,583 --> 00:37:42,619
And I get up on Monday and I go
.

768
00:37:42,619 --> 00:37:44,144
I love Mondays.

769
00:37:44,144 --> 00:37:46,061
Monday's a day to reset.

770
00:37:46,061 --> 00:37:48,961
Monday's a day to forgive what
the bad things that happened

771
00:37:49,021 --> 00:37:51,246
last week or fix those problems
from last week.

772
00:37:51,246 --> 00:37:53,422
Monday's a day for a fresh
start.

773
00:37:53,422 --> 00:38:02,099
And I just I try to give
everybody here and everybody

774
00:38:02,119 --> 00:38:03,943
around us that same kind of
feeling in that don't dread your

775
00:38:03,943 --> 00:38:04,143
job.

776
00:38:04,143 --> 00:38:05,768
If you dread your job, you're
doing the wrong job.

777
00:38:05,768 --> 00:38:08,884
If you don't, if you don't love
your job, if you don't love

778
00:38:08,943 --> 00:38:10,916
what you do, you're going to
work every day in your life and

779
00:38:10,956 --> 00:38:11,217
I don't.

780
00:38:11,217 --> 00:38:13,000
I don't feel like what I do is
work.

781
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:13,820
I, I.

782
00:38:13,820 --> 00:38:16,626
There's plenty of days with
stress and there's plenty of

783
00:38:16,666 --> 00:38:22,021
days when I sit on my butt all
day long pounding the keys and I

784
00:38:22,021 --> 00:38:26,548
am exhausted at the end of the
day, but I'm happy to do it.

785
00:38:28,114 --> 00:38:28,396
Speaker 1: That is.

786
00:38:28,396 --> 00:38:33,666
That is a joy to find your spot
yeah.

787
00:38:33,666 --> 00:38:34,306
To find your joy.

788
00:38:34,306 --> 00:38:35,007
I like that a lot.

789
00:38:35,027 --> 00:38:35,588
Speaker 2: Your happy place.

790
00:38:36,275 --> 00:38:41,101
Speaker 1: Who would you like to
give a shout out to for either

791
00:38:41,141 --> 00:38:45,007
their support along the way or
their support right now, their

792
00:38:45,088 --> 00:38:46,811
influence on you, over your
career?

793
00:38:46,811 --> 00:38:49,563
Who is somebody that you want
to celebrate today?

794
00:38:50,775 --> 00:38:51,478
Speaker 2: Can I give you a list
?

795
00:38:52,041 --> 00:38:53,164
Speaker 1: Yeah, by all means
All right.

796
00:38:54,315 --> 00:38:55,199
Speaker 2: First, joe Valentino.

797
00:38:55,199 --> 00:38:58,063
Joe Valentino was the office
manager at Carano's Express.

798
00:38:58,063 --> 00:39:00,260
Joe taught me how to balance
the cash box.

799
00:39:00,260 --> 00:39:03,380
The drivers would come back
with toll receipts and money and

800
00:39:03,380 --> 00:39:05,891
at the time we used to have to
give them dimes so they could go

801
00:39:05,891 --> 00:39:07,338
out and make phone calls and
call dispatch.

802
00:39:07,338 --> 00:39:09,664
And so Joe taught me how to
balance the cash box.

803
00:39:09,664 --> 00:39:14,900
He taught me how to handle OS&D
and he might have done some

804
00:39:15,420 --> 00:39:17,623
funny things with claims,
because if a claim didn't come

805
00:39:17,724 --> 00:39:20,148
in certified mail because there
was no faxes at the time,

806
00:39:20,208 --> 00:39:22,309
remember didn't come in
certified mail, it went in the

807
00:39:22,329 --> 00:39:22,731
trash.

808
00:39:22,731 --> 00:39:29,586
But Joe taught me some of the
real basics of business and that

809
00:39:29,586 --> 00:39:30,168
was really cool.

810
00:39:30,815 --> 00:39:33,260
John Weber, new England Motor
Freight Manager, became the

811
00:39:33,300 --> 00:39:35,606
regional manager, was my boss
for the whole 10 years.

812
00:39:35,606 --> 00:39:36,068
I was there.

813
00:39:36,068 --> 00:39:37,757
Love this guy.

814
00:39:37,757 --> 00:39:39,985
He taught me so much.

815
00:39:39,985 --> 00:39:46,987
But one of the biggest lessons
in my life was we had I'll tell

816
00:39:47,007 --> 00:39:47,588
you what the account was.

817
00:39:47,588 --> 00:39:51,427
The account was Russell Stover
Candy and they shipped out of

818
00:39:51,487 --> 00:39:55,161
Somersworth, new Hampshire, and
they would put 3,000 or 4,000

819
00:39:55,222 --> 00:39:58,639
little boxes in a trailer on the
floor and those boxes were

820
00:39:58,679 --> 00:39:59,001
mixed.

821
00:39:59,001 --> 00:40:04,436
They had like a black stamp on
them with the different I think

822
00:40:04,456 --> 00:40:07,996
there were pharmacies they all
went to at the time and so they

823
00:40:08,018 --> 00:40:09,896
would have three or four orders
mixed in the trailer and we

824
00:40:09,936 --> 00:40:12,659
would have to separate them all
and we would have to put them on

825
00:40:12,659 --> 00:40:14,023
pallets and then go deliver
them.

826
00:40:14,023 --> 00:40:18,766
That day and one night we got
four loads with 4,000 cartons,

827
00:40:18,846 --> 00:40:20,016
each unexpected.

828
00:40:20,016 --> 00:40:22,239
That showed up at midnight and
they were all supposed to be out

829
00:40:22,239 --> 00:40:26,277
for delivery the next day and I
had four guys on my dock and so

830
00:40:26,277 --> 00:40:29,141
it didn't happen and I got a
call from the regional manager.

831
00:40:29,255 --> 00:40:32,199
John was sitting in his office
and the regional manager was a

832
00:40:32,219 --> 00:40:34,766
guy named Rich I don't remember
his last name and he said Vin,

833
00:40:34,806 --> 00:40:35,226
what's going on?

834
00:40:35,226 --> 00:40:36,626
I said you don't understand.

835
00:40:36,626 --> 00:40:38,327
This place is really effed up.

836
00:40:38,327 --> 00:40:39,989
There's no way to do this.

837
00:40:39,989 --> 00:40:40,769
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

838
00:40:40,769 --> 00:40:41,769
I kind of complained to him.

839
00:40:41,769 --> 00:40:44,152
He said I don't care what you
have to do, get the job done.

840
00:40:44,152 --> 00:40:45,713
I hung up with Rich.

841
00:40:45,713 --> 00:40:51,181
John goes in his office and he
goes Carano, get in here, damn.

842
00:40:51,181 --> 00:40:52,422
I walk in his office, he goes.

843
00:40:52,422 --> 00:40:54,947
No matter how effed up you are,
you never tell the boss that

844
00:40:54,965 --> 00:40:55,487
you're effed up.

845
00:40:55,487 --> 00:40:58,391
That's a huge lesson.

846
00:40:58,391 --> 00:40:59,657
That's a huge lesson.

847
00:40:59,657 --> 00:41:03,965
The lesson was handle it,
figure out what's wrong and fix

848
00:41:04,025 --> 00:41:04,085
it.

849
00:41:04,085 --> 00:41:05,456
So that was huge.

850
00:41:05,456 --> 00:41:10,824
That was, um something that I
still remember to this day and

851
00:41:10,864 --> 00:41:12,126
it's 25 years ago.

852
00:41:12,126 --> 00:41:20,137
You know um the who else, the
the people here.

853
00:41:20,297 --> 00:41:23,340
I just want to talk about two
people here Steve and Leslie.

854
00:41:23,340 --> 00:41:26,583
Leslie, uh, came to us with a
different agency.

855
00:41:26,583 --> 00:41:31,186
Um, they didn't like some of
the things that she was doing.

856
00:41:31,186 --> 00:41:34,268
I saw a glimmer in her eye and
I knew that she would be really,

857
00:41:34,268 --> 00:41:36,268
really good in the recruiting
position.

858
00:41:36,268 --> 00:41:41,052
She's in that position and
she's just on fire.

859
00:41:41,052 --> 00:41:44,181
She's so good, so I'm really
happy about that.

860
00:41:44,181 --> 00:41:46,817
She's leading our recruiting
team and the first agent we put

861
00:41:46,938 --> 00:41:50,547
on, steve, believed in us during
COVID.

862
00:41:51,556 --> 00:41:54,724
I think his big thing was you
don't have a vaccine mandate at

863
00:41:54,764 --> 00:41:55,204
your company.

864
00:41:55,204 --> 00:41:56,135
And I said, no, he goes.

865
00:41:56,135 --> 00:41:56,960
When can I start?

866
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,400
But he trusted me.

867
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:01,083
It was me, he trusted it.

868
00:42:01,083 --> 00:42:01,425
It wasn't.

869
00:42:01,425 --> 00:42:02,306
There was no group.

870
00:42:02,306 --> 00:42:06,262
We were doing 5 million bucks a
year when Steve showed up, um,

871
00:42:06,443 --> 00:42:08,507
and he's been one of our best.

872
00:42:08,507 --> 00:42:10,898
He's one of our higher margin
um agents.

873
00:42:10,898 --> 00:42:14,043
Uh, he's got, he's got people
working for him now in his

874
00:42:14,123 --> 00:42:14,563
agency.

875
00:42:14,563 --> 00:42:15,905
He's just a great success story
.

876
00:42:15,905 --> 00:42:19,097
So there's that, but honestly,
at the end of the day, the one,

877
00:42:19,759 --> 00:42:21,806
the big one, the only one really
is my dad.

878
00:42:23,695 --> 00:42:29,898
My father was not college
educated, in fact he wasn't even

879
00:42:29,898 --> 00:42:30,702
high school educated.

880
00:42:30,702 --> 00:42:34,422
He barely finished, in fact I
don't think he did finish.

881
00:42:34,422 --> 00:42:36,360
He drove a truck.

882
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:53,597
He fueled the trucks, he
greased the trucks, he unloaded

883
00:42:53,657 --> 00:42:54,940
the freight, he loaded the
freight, he learned how to write

884
00:42:54,940 --> 00:42:57,423
manifest and customer invoices,
and when Coke would drop off

885
00:42:57,443 --> 00:42:57,625
was um.

886
00:42:57,625 --> 00:43:02,393
He was personality wise.

887
00:43:02,393 --> 00:43:03,820
He was the opposite of my uncle
.

888
00:43:03,820 --> 00:43:09,784
My uncle was fiery and hard to
work with and demanding, and

889
00:43:10,545 --> 00:43:14,036
people respected him, but they
weren't friendly with him Like

890
00:43:14,056 --> 00:43:14,878
the workers would.

891
00:43:14,878 --> 00:43:15,820
Would.

892
00:43:15,820 --> 00:43:18,184
Um, they'd sort of be afraid of
him.

893
00:43:18,184 --> 00:43:18,927
They'd steer clear.

894
00:43:18,927 --> 00:43:20,657
If he was in the hallway they'd
use the other hallway.

895
00:43:20,657 --> 00:43:24,565
My dad was friends with
everybody and my dad got things

896
00:43:24,686 --> 00:43:29,768
done, not by yelling and not by
demeaning people or whatever.

897
00:43:29,768 --> 00:43:32,016
My dad put his arm around
somebody and said let me show

898
00:43:32,036 --> 00:43:34,498
you how this has got to be done.

899
00:43:34,498 --> 00:43:36,302
He understood people.

900
00:43:36,322 --> 00:43:40,126
In 1978, my dad was diagnosed
with MS.

901
00:43:40,126 --> 00:43:44,257
He was 35 years old, I think 34
.

902
00:43:44,257 --> 00:43:47,585
And he was very, very scared.

903
00:43:47,585 --> 00:43:50,797
There was three young kids at
home, wife trying to take care

904
00:43:50,838 --> 00:43:51,679
of her.

905
00:43:51,679 --> 00:43:52,983
She barely worked.

906
00:43:52,983 --> 00:43:54,166
She had a part-time job.

907
00:43:54,166 --> 00:44:00,280
He had a part-time job and so
he went his entire career and

908
00:44:00,300 --> 00:44:03,101
his entire life not knowing what
the end was going to bring.

909
00:44:03,101 --> 00:44:08,507
His aunt died with MS and it
was an awful time.

910
00:44:09,447 --> 00:44:14,791
And so my dad, he did everything
the doctors told him to do.

911
00:44:14,791 --> 00:44:19,398
It was all experimental stuff
and crazy things that didn't

912
00:44:19,418 --> 00:44:21,101
work, and the timeshare that I
told you about in the Caribbean.

913
00:44:21,101 --> 00:44:25,115
They bought it so he could go
and they did, and he did

914
00:44:25,175 --> 00:44:29,202
everything and at the end it was
the last 10 years were scooters

915
00:44:29,202 --> 00:44:33,110
and canes and walkers and
eventually a wheelchair.

916
00:44:33,110 --> 00:44:38,067
And you know he didn't really
let anything stop him.

917
00:44:38,067 --> 00:44:40,583
He loved, loved his
great-grandkids.

918
00:44:40,583 --> 00:44:41,719
He couldn't wait for them.

919
00:44:42,775 --> 00:44:51,577
My dad passed in May but in
April I had two grandkids and

920
00:44:51,697 --> 00:44:54,414
about two weeks old Stephen's
son, cooper, came to visit and

921
00:44:54,436 --> 00:44:59,898
I've got a great picture of my
dad holding Cooper, making sure

922
00:44:59,938 --> 00:45:02,927
he wasn't going to drop him but
holding him, and he just had the

923
00:45:02,927 --> 00:45:02,927
.

924
00:45:02,927 --> 00:45:05,077
It was like might be the last
smile I ever saw him.

925
00:45:05,077 --> 00:45:12,657
And so my dad inspired me, not
because he was a hard-nosed

926
00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:15,965
businessman who could grow a big
company and make things work.

927
00:45:15,965 --> 00:45:21,217
He was businessman who could
grow a big company and make

928
00:45:21,237 --> 00:45:21,518
things work.

929
00:45:21,518 --> 00:45:23,141
He was, but he did it a
different way and I hope and

930
00:45:23,161 --> 00:45:25,947
pray that just a little bit of
that comes through, comes

931
00:45:25,967 --> 00:45:26,266
through me.

932
00:45:26,266 --> 00:45:28,759
I don't want to be the guy
yelling at people.

933
00:45:28,759 --> 00:45:31,545
I don't want to be the guy
making people do things.

934
00:45:31,545 --> 00:45:34,302
I want them to want to do them
because it's right for them,

935
00:45:34,362 --> 00:45:35,856
it's right for us, it's right
for our customers.

936
00:45:38,581 --> 00:45:41,266
Speaker 1: Well, I would venture
to say, then, that he would be

937
00:45:41,306 --> 00:45:48,615
proud of you, not for what
you're doing but for how you're

938
00:45:48,635 --> 00:45:49,215
doing it.

939
00:45:49,235 --> 00:45:49,757
Speaker 2: I hope so, I hope so.

940
00:45:49,757 --> 00:45:52,501
I mean I told him about this
stuff every chance I got there

941
00:45:52,521 --> 00:45:52,740
was.

942
00:45:52,740 --> 00:45:55,824
So MS affects people different
ways ways.

943
00:45:55,824 --> 00:46:04,137
But part of his um decline was
the dementia aspect and there

944
00:46:04,177 --> 00:46:06,864
was a moment he was in the
hospital with like a mercer

945
00:46:06,885 --> 00:46:07,365
infection.

946
00:46:07,365 --> 00:46:09,117
It was, you know, just a lot of
bad times.

947
00:46:09,177 --> 00:46:12,007
But he's in the hospital and
we're in downtown new haven I'm

948
00:46:12,047 --> 00:46:14,958
like I don't know the eighth or
ninth floor and he says to me

949
00:46:15,740 --> 00:46:17,764
then, vin, you got to move the
truck.

950
00:46:17,764 --> 00:46:19,547
I said what truck?

951
00:46:19,547 --> 00:46:22,556
He goes the F8.

952
00:46:22,556 --> 00:46:24,641
He goes the F8.

953
00:46:24,641 --> 00:46:26,485
I parked it here and I came
inside.

954
00:46:26,485 --> 00:46:27,307
They won't let me leave.

955
00:46:27,307 --> 00:46:29,079
And so I know where he's going.

956
00:46:29,079 --> 00:46:29,559
I get it.

957
00:46:29,559 --> 00:46:31,465
I said that's all right, dad,
I'll bring it back to the

958
00:46:31,514 --> 00:46:31,896
terminal.

959
00:46:31,896 --> 00:46:35,621
He goes no, no, no, bring it
back to mommy's house, okay.

960
00:46:35,621 --> 00:46:39,389
I said, um, could I just, could
I just have one of the guys

961
00:46:39,429 --> 00:46:39,690
bring it?

962
00:46:39,690 --> 00:46:42,420
He goes, yeah, tell Bobby to
come and get it.

963
00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:45,025
Now there were two Bobbies there
.

964
00:46:45,025 --> 00:46:49,487
There was a guy uh, they called
cigars, cause he smoked, and

965
00:46:49,527 --> 00:46:50,532
there was a guy named Bobby Toro
.

966
00:46:50,532 --> 00:46:51,275
They called Bobby Toro.

967
00:46:51,275 --> 00:46:52,878
So, um, they called Toro.

968
00:46:52,878 --> 00:46:54,041
So I said who do you?

969
00:46:54,041 --> 00:46:55,023
Who cigars are Toro.

970
00:46:55,023 --> 00:46:58,168
He goes, cigars dropped dead a
year ago.

971
00:46:58,168 --> 00:47:00,655
He goes tell Toro to come and
get it.

972
00:47:00,655 --> 00:47:02,978
Bobby Cigars had died a year
before.

973
00:47:02,978 --> 00:47:07,164
And there was that moment of
clarity, you know, and Bobby

974
00:47:07,204 --> 00:47:11,989
Toro is still with us and he saw
my dad and my mom right up

975
00:47:12,030 --> 00:47:12,510
until the end.

976
00:47:12,510 --> 00:47:18,875
So I said, okay, I'll call him.

977
00:47:18,875 --> 00:47:22,036
A short time later my dad had
passed and we had planned

978
00:47:22,056 --> 00:47:22,817
services or whatever.

979
00:47:22,817 --> 00:47:23,597
And there was a line.

980
00:47:23,597 --> 00:47:24,978
I mean, there was a lot of
people, there was a couple

981
00:47:24,998 --> 00:47:27,782
hundred people who showed up for
the wake and at one point I

982
00:47:27,842 --> 00:47:34,626
looked over and there were 13 of
his former drivers at his wake

983
00:47:35,628 --> 00:47:36,608
standing around in a circle.

984
00:47:36,608 --> 00:47:39,592
This company closed in 1989.

985
00:47:39,592 --> 00:47:40,391
Wow, and they showed up.

986
00:47:40,391 --> 00:47:44,579
So if I could be that guy, I'd
be happy to be that guy.

987
00:47:46,302 --> 00:47:48,266
Speaker 1: Wow, what a tribute.

988
00:47:48,266 --> 00:47:52,563
Yep, yep 35 years after the
company closed.

989
00:47:52,894 --> 00:47:53,436
Speaker 2: Wakes and funerals.

990
00:47:53,436 --> 00:47:55,063
You always make these picture
boards, you know.

991
00:47:55,063 --> 00:47:59,001
And so there's a picture on the
board of me and my two sisters

992
00:47:59,081 --> 00:48:00,585
I must have been 12.

993
00:48:00,585 --> 00:48:04,117
And we're standing in front of
an R model Mac, and it was super

994
00:48:04,117 --> 00:48:04,438
clean.

995
00:48:04,438 --> 00:48:06,324
Their trucks were usually
pretty clean, but it was super

996
00:48:06,344 --> 00:48:06,565
clean.

997
00:48:06,565 --> 00:48:10,463
And so four or five of these
drivers who are in their 80s are

998
00:48:10,463 --> 00:48:12,697
huddled around the picture
going whose truck is that?

999
00:48:12,697 --> 00:48:13,840
How come it's so clean?

1000
00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:15,425
Did they clean his and not mine
?

1001
00:48:15,425 --> 00:48:16,556
And they're arguing.

1002
00:48:16,576 --> 00:48:20,186
Speaker 1: Still arguing yeah,
like it's 1986, all over again.

1003
00:48:20,206 --> 00:48:21,027
Speaker 2: Oh, it's wonderful.

1004
00:48:21,047 --> 00:48:22,211
Speaker 1: It's a fantastic
moment.

1005
00:48:22,211 --> 00:48:23,355
Absolutely fantastic.

1006
00:48:23,355 --> 00:48:26,083
I can picture these things as
you describe them.

1007
00:48:26,083 --> 00:48:31,179
You have such a vivid way of
explaining and you're a good

1008
00:48:31,219 --> 00:48:31,701
storyteller.

1009
00:48:31,701 --> 00:48:33,601
Maybe you should have a podcast
.

1010
00:48:34,063 --> 00:48:34,463
Speaker 2: Oh God.

1011
00:48:34,976 --> 00:48:39,105
Speaker 1: Of your own with all
the free time that you have.

1012
00:48:39,827 --> 00:48:43,876
Vin, that is genuinely a
wonderful tribute.

1013
00:48:43,876 --> 00:48:49,143
A multi-generational family in
the industry.

1014
00:48:49,143 --> 00:48:56,556
You have done and seen a lot
and I hope you have a moment,

1015
00:48:56,577 --> 00:48:59,139
maybe today, if you can take
five minutes after this, or

1016
00:48:59,219 --> 00:49:03,244
sometime this evening maybe, and
just pause to reflect on all of

1017
00:49:03,244 --> 00:49:09,208
that for the next phase of your
journey and the journey with

1018
00:49:09,248 --> 00:49:13,817
your own family and the
generations to come Sure, to

1019
00:49:13,916 --> 00:49:17,885
internalize what you want that
to be and how you want to

1020
00:49:17,925 --> 00:49:23,021
continue showing up so that you
can have that same kind of

1021
00:49:23,101 --> 00:49:26,128
legacy and the way that you've
shared it with me.

1022
00:49:26,128 --> 00:49:29,045
I have no doubt that you will,
but I just want to offer that to

1023
00:49:29,045 --> 00:49:32,496
you as a a 90 second
opportunity in your in your

1024
00:49:32,516 --> 00:49:36,204
journey to just pause and and
spend a few moments there.

1025
00:49:36,204 --> 00:49:38,889
Thank you also for just opening
up.

1026
00:49:38,889 --> 00:49:42,021
I know it's sometimes easy to
talk about the business side of

1027
00:49:42,061 --> 00:49:45,487
things and it's not always easy
to talk about the personal side,

1028
00:49:45,487 --> 00:49:49,143
and so thanks for being so open
and willing to share your

1029
00:49:49,204 --> 00:49:50,427
family's story with us.

1030
00:49:51,597 --> 00:49:52,923
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate
the opportunity.

1031
00:49:52,923 --> 00:49:54,880
Yes, I'm an open book.

1032
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:59,876
I am, yes, I'm an open book.

1033
00:49:59,876 --> 00:50:01,402
Um, if somebody asked me a
question, I I try to answer as

1034
00:50:01,563 --> 00:50:03,451
honestly and as passionately as
I can, because I feel like

1035
00:50:03,471 --> 00:50:04,152
that's that's that's who I am.

1036
00:50:04,293 --> 00:50:05,657
Speaker 1: And that's live life
to the fullest.

1037
00:50:05,737 --> 00:50:08,585
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that,
but that's, that's how we built

1038
00:50:08,625 --> 00:50:10,737
the things we built, and it's
not just business, it's.

1039
00:50:10,737 --> 00:50:14,708
It's, it's totally personal,
it's totally personal, I'm not.

1040
00:50:26,014 --> 00:50:27,137
Speaker 1: I'm not married to
the woman I'm married to because

1041
00:50:27,137 --> 00:50:28,221
of me being anybody other than
who you see today.

1042
00:50:28,221 --> 00:50:29,123
Yeah well, I, I love all of it.

1043
00:50:29,123 --> 00:50:30,387
Uh, last question, then, vin,
is um, where should somebody

1044
00:50:30,407 --> 00:50:32,672
find you if they want to reach
out to you, um, and connect?

1045
00:50:33,153 --> 00:50:33,875
Speaker 2: yeah, that's awesome.

1046
00:50:33,875 --> 00:50:36,356
Um, linkedin is probably the
best, of course.

1047
00:50:36,356 --> 00:50:36,717
Just look.

1048
00:50:36,717 --> 00:50:37,617
Just look me up, Vin Carano.

1049
00:50:37,617 --> 00:50:40,599
It's LinkedIn slash
V-C-A-R-A-N-O.

1050
00:50:40,599 --> 00:50:44,101
Or you can email me at
V-C-A-R-A-N-O.

1051
00:50:44,101 --> 00:50:48,043
At Finicecom, you could
actually email anything at

1052
00:50:48,103 --> 00:50:48,324
Finice.

1053
00:50:48,324 --> 00:50:48,804
Somebody wants to to?

1054
00:50:48,804 --> 00:50:49,804
To reach out to one of the
Finiche agents.

1055
00:50:49,804 --> 00:51:04,719
If someone was interested in
what the Copernic model is all

1056
00:51:04,759 --> 00:51:08,873
about, I'd love to talk about it
and you know, and just spend a

1057
00:51:08,893 --> 00:51:09,376
little time.

1058
00:51:09,376 --> 00:51:12,782
Leslie's out there like crazy
doing the same thing.

1059
00:51:12,782 --> 00:51:13,083
She's.

1060
00:51:13,083 --> 00:51:15,188
She's all over LinkedIn as well
.

1061
00:51:15,188 --> 00:51:19,264
So, yeah, reach out to us,
whether it be shipping needs,

1062
00:51:19,786 --> 00:51:23,121
business advice, logistics
advice that has nothing to do

1063
00:51:23,161 --> 00:51:25,179
with what we do I'm happy to
talk about it.

1064
00:51:25,179 --> 00:51:28,557
I love my business, I love that
people work for me and I'm

1065
00:51:28,577 --> 00:51:31,106
happy to talk about any of this
stuff with just about anybody.

1066
00:51:31,775 --> 00:51:34,159
Speaker 1: We appreciate it, Vin
, and we are all rooting for you

1067
00:51:34,159 --> 00:51:34,159
.

1068
00:51:34,159 --> 00:51:36,063
Awesome Thanks, Nate Appreciate
it Thanks.

1069
00:51:36,063 --> 00:51:36,284
Vin.