In this episode, Aaron Craddock challenges the idea of perfect work-life balance and shares how leaders can navigate demanding seasons of business and personal growth.
In trucking, recruiting, and leadership, some seasons demand more time, energy, and attention than others. Aaron shares how his priorities have shifted throughout his entrepreneurial journey, from growing Hire Truckers and adapting recruiting strategies to pursuing personal health goals and making intentional time for his family.
He also explains why effective leadership requires flexibility rather than rigid routines. Whether it's spending more time developing recruiters, testing new strategies, or responding to changing market conditions, leaders need to recognize where their attention is most valuable.
The key isn't making every area of life perfectly balanced. It's understanding the opportunities in your current season, recognizing what needs attention, and protecting the priorities that matter most.
Transcript
00:00 - 00:32Aaron Craddock: So balance is a myth. So you're not alone in this recruiting season. Yeah. Just if you're putting in some extra hours, things may seem out of balance. So I'm sitting here, it's 10:00 at night in Austin, and I'm back at the office recording this episode.
00:33 - 01:18Aaron Craddock: I could have got it done earlier, but I would have had to postpone date night with the wife. And that's one of our non negotiables every week. And so yeah, so we went out to dinner, had some good conversation, and probably talked more about work than we typically would, but it was just good conversation. And the main thing I was thinking about that I've been thinking about today is just how I've had to get out of balance in different seasons. And so I think when I set out on the entrepreneurial journey a few years ago to build a business and had a big vision, I think I had this overly idealistic perspective that I would have the perfect workout time every day, you know, maybe two hours of lunch.
01:19 - 01:52Aaron Craddock: And then I would have, you know, the perfect time with our now three kiddos about to be four, the perfect time with Lauren, the perfect time with our yeah, just on the different priorities. And yeah, if you looked at my schedule today, like this Thursday, and honestly, any day this week, I don't think you'd say it was balanced. I think you'd say, yeah, maybe a little too many hours at work. And I know this is just a season. I've had to make adjustments in other seasons as well.
01:53 - 02:26Aaron Craddock: And so you can't give everything your maximum attention at any given time. And so, sometimes at date night with Lauren, I'm more intentional and we even have better conversation. Just if I've had maybe, let's say, an hour buffer between between when we go on our date night and when we... When I leave work. And same thing, like I may enter the house more centered and be more present with the boys if I have a little bit buffer.
02:26 - 03:34Aaron Craddock: And just some in some seasons that doesn't happen. And whenever you're really striving for extraordinary growth, let's say that's getting trucks off the fence in your recruiting department, let's say that's you're on your own health journey, whether that's trying to get 10,000 steps a day or trying to run an ultra marathon, there's just a different level of how you have to allocate time in different buckets. And in the season, you're training for that big race or trying to lose a bunch of weight, like you're gonna reallocate time from other buckets. And so I found when I had the biggest gains that I get a little bit out of balance. And so an example though of just some good seasons that I've had is like the the one one one year, I think it was two years ago, it would have been 2025.
03:34 - 04:11Aaron Craddock: I had a streak where I did an adventure with our oldest every week. And so I would put two hours on the calendar, and we would go to a hike, go to a hike, go to a new restaurant, go to the pet store, it would just be a different adventure that was a new experience that he had never experienced. And when I looked back on that year, that was my biggest win. Like that we did that, had fifty two minutei adventures. And I think those will be just memorable moments for him and definitely memorable moments for me, because they were out of the ordinary, they were different, they were intentional.
04:11 - 04:37Aaron Craddock: We had good conversations or ate good food or did fun things. And so that's an example of just in my personal life where I've made adjustments and in a season. And then another season was really my health journey. And so I used to be about eighty pounds heavier than I am as of today. And a couple of different times I've been down 100.
04:39 - 05:07Aaron Craddock: And the way I did that was 75 Hard, which if you've heard of that program, it is not the definition of balance. It's of a little extreme and not for everybody. I've really enjoyed it. I've done the 75 Hard program three times now. And so that's something where you do a forty five minute outside workout during the day, like it has to be outside and then you do another forty five minute workout.
05:08 - 05:39Aaron Craddock: They can both be outside, but at least one has to be outside. You drink a gallon of water, which I still stick to or try to stick to now. And so I've got my got my for those of you not on video, you can watch this on YouTube, I have my this is a 50 ounce bottle. And so usually I get two of these in and then I easily get my gallon for the day just from drinking other water. And then you read 10 pages a day, which again is an excellent habit.
05:39 - 05:57Aaron Craddock: You have to take a picture every day, and then you have to stick to a diet and you can have no cheat meals, no snacks, no nothing. You just stick to whether it's high protein or whatever. And you have to do that for seventy five days. You can't miss a picture. You can't miss a workout.
05:58 - 06:23Aaron Craddock: I've done workouts at one in the morning, two in the morning. And is that sustainable for your whole life? Like, maybe if your main career is being an athlete, a professional athlete, but not... I don't think that's sustainable in all seasons. I think there will be other seasons of my life where I'll do that again.
06:23 - 06:54Aaron Craddock: And maybe, you know, for a lot longer period. Like, think the longest I've done it is like one hundred and thirty five days consecutive. And I think in that I missed maybe a couple pictures, but I did everything else. And so yeah, so it's out of sync in other areas and some lift in other areas because I did that. And net, you know, I've been able to keep off at least 80 of the 100 pounds for a while now, and for a few years.
06:55 - 07:42Aaron Craddock: And so, yeah, just radical life change. Then yeah, currently in the business, just we're in a season where fleets are calling us almost every day to help with recruitment advertising, and to get trucks off the fence, to scale, to drive efficiency in their business. And and so it's just a different season. It's more of those calls and then more calls with current clients just trying to innovate and test new things improve results. You can't, you know, you can't stay static in a market where just things are getting more competitive.
07:42 - 08:13Aaron Craddock: You have to test new strategies, you have to iterate, you have to adapt. You can't think that the strategy that's always worked will continue to work. Because just in doing this for sixteen years, just things always change. The best performing platforms change, the best performing strategies in the platforms change, the technology changes, the vendor partners change. And with that, you to adapt to not be said in your old ways.
08:14 - 08:33Aaron Craddock: And like in Adam Grant's book, Think Again, one of the things we adhere to in our business is just think like a scientist. And so in your recruiting departments, think like a scientist. Like this is just an experiment. Like this is what I think will work. We're gonna do that.
08:33 - 08:46Aaron Craddock: And then we're gonna measure results. And then if it works, we'll do more of that. If it doesn't work, we'll do something different. And then having an attitude of just I can always find a way.
08:46 - 09:04Ginger Craddock: Hiring CDL drivers isn't about more leads. It's about better ones. That's why serious carriers partner with Hire Truckers by Trucking Clicks. We don't sell ads. We bring clear strategy, straight talk, and a relentless focus on quality drivers.
09:05 - 09:31Ginger Craddock: Even in a tough market, our clients see improved performance month over month. By optimizing smarter and making every hiring dollar work harder. For honest insight, sharper targeting and results that you can trust. Visit truckingclicks.com or call (512) 982-0816. Hire Truckers by Trucking Clicks.
09:31 - 09:34Ginger Craddock: Clarity, Courage, Results.
09:34 - 10:35Aaron Craddock: But yeah, how that pertains to this just where balance is a myth or I'm starting to feel that way in this season is that yeah, just in this season, I'm spending just a lot more hours in the business and on the business, and just living and breathing driver recruitment, marketing, and culture and teaching our team just values and principles and things like that. And even one thing, like thinking about Balance, so I typically will do like a couple personal development conferences every year. And so I'm going to one this next week, like I'll be there for six days starting on Saturday. And usually I can completely focus on those. I might check-in a couple times a day, but we're running full steam, the team's firing on all cylinders.
10:36 - 11:11Aaron Craddock: And I can do that. And I don't see an adverse effect on the business or on our clients. And what I'm noticing in this season, like with that trip coming up in a couple days, it'll actually, I'll be on that trip when this airs, specifically, is on that trip, like I know I'm still going to do the daily stand ups with our team. Like I'm still going to plug in for multiple hours in the weeds of different parts of the business. And so yeah, that's gonna look different.
11:11 - 11:34Aaron Craddock: You know, I might not be able to fully be at every session and then hanging out with people till 10:00. It'll just look differently. And that's okay. I think you have to know when to make those adjustments based on what the market's doing. Yeah, and it's just...
11:35 - 12:21Aaron Craddock: Yeah, one of those seasons, it's gonna look a little bit differently. I'm gonna ship a monitor to where I'm going. And so I'll have the extra monitor in my hotel room to be able to work a little more efficiently. And then also just as we've grown the last seven years, just with one person on the team, two people on the team, five people on the team, 10 people on the team, Just as those seasons have changed, and as we've continued to grow, just everyone has looked completely different with how I structure my time. There are seasons where I'm more in sales and building relationships with prospects and clients.
12:21 - 13:01Aaron Craddock: There are seasons where I'm more in operations and just making sure we're adhering to our principles and values there and making sure we have the right people on the team that are going to innovate and just continue to take us to that next level that I know is required in this market. And so, I mean, all of those seasons look different. Like another example is like I am the no, like not many meeting person. We try to put most of our meetings on Monday, and then I try to keep my schedule open from internal meetings. And then be and then I just just try to be available.
13:01 - 13:45Aaron Craddock: And so throughout the day, there's a bottleneck on any of our teams, or a challenge, and they would like some insight or to talk through it or to collaborate or they have an idea, they can just reach out and we can have an hour conversation. And so all of my hours are full, but it's not scheduled internal meetings. And then there's been other seasons in the business right now, where we're meeting sometimes multiple times a day on one team. Like I might be meeting multiple times with client success, I might be meeting multiple times with operations, I might be meeting with biz dev and sales multiple times. And that's just the season.
13:45 - 14:15Aaron Craddock: And I had to have way more scheduled meetings. And actually someone this last week on our team called me out and said, hey, like, you said that we don't need to have too many meetings, like why are we scheduling more meetings? I'm like, basically, on feedback I got from the team is that we need to huddle more. And so now do I think that's gonna be a long term thing? Like, no, I think more of a short term thing.
14:15 - 15:23Aaron Craddock: I think it's a seasonal thing. Just as there's more changes, more innovation, more technology, changes internally that we're building, like that, that's going to require just more huddles just to keep aligned on product, to keep aligned on marketing strategy, to keep aligned on like branding positioning. It's just gonna require more meetings just to provide this the same level of customer service and success that we've always provided at Trucking Clicks, now Hire Truckers. And yeah, that's just what it takes. Yeah, my time at work, I think if I had this rigid view of this, like, okay, I'm the CEO of Hire Truckers, and this is exactly how I'm going to use my time, I'm only going to meet on this day at this time, then I don't think we would have some of the momentum we have right now in the market.
15:23 - 15:47Aaron Craddock: And so yeah, so my time at work is always shifting. There's sometimes at conferences where I go from seven in the morning till eleven at night meeting with people. There's times at conferences where I am in meetings for four hours and then I'm on work calls for eight hours. Like it's just different. Different in every season.
15:48 - 16:46Aaron Craddock: And so how could look is this season you may be spending more time training recruiters and investing in them. In this season, you may be spending more time recruiting recruiters. Like in this season, you may be spending more time testing different partners. In this season, You may try a different strategy like leaning more owner operator than company driver, leaning more company driver than owner operator, like incorporating students, incorporating lease, trying to grow dedicated, like it's just, it's different, like coming up with a different OTR strategy. Like in each season, you look at the numbers with your fleet and what's working, what's not working, and then double down on what's working and cut what's not working.
16:46 - 17:43Aaron Craddock: And so that's the way I like to think about it. And then as you're doing this, like how as a leader in trucking, and do you make sure that you don't lose focus on the things that matter most? And so just through talking to different mentors over the years, like the ditch they've said that people fall in most often is not spending enough time with their spouse or partner, kind of depending on their love language. I know that if Lauren and I don't spend two hours once a week, just talking about our days, talking about what we're excited about, that we just get really out of sync and start getting more short with each other and not feeling connected. And so I know that's a non negotiable.
17:43 - 18:43Aaron Craddock: And so that's been a consistency, a consistent thing the last few years where, we do at least 50, 60 date nights a year. And then that's increasingly important, just if any of you have young kids, just to find a way to creatively do that and just make it a non negotiable. And for us, it's often coordinating two weeks in advance to have someone that can watch our boys And then putting it on the calendar and being like, no matter what's going on, we're gonna meet up at this time. And we're gonna go spend a couple hours together. And yeah, and so yeah, and so even today, so I intended to get this podcast knocked out before I left, but then 05:30 rolled around and I needed to go because we were headed out date night at 06:15.
18:43 - 19:28Aaron Craddock: So that's one of my non negotiables. And then yeah, spending quality time with the boys every week, like every time, every night when I'm at home, like every time when I'm in town, just reading to them at bedtime, letting them talk about their days, doing dinner at the table. And yeah, just doing as much as possible. And just having those daily rhythms, I think is really important. I don't want to look back twenty years from now and be like, oh, I wish I had spent more time with my kiddos in that short window that we have them at the house.
19:28 - 19:56Aaron Craddock: Because everybody I've talked to said it goes really fast. It doesn't currently feel crazy fast with a six, three, one, and then one on the way. So three here and one on the way in March. Doesn't currently I think the days feel slow, but the years feel fast. And I'm sure when we look back, it's like the years will feel slow And the decades will will feel fast.
19:56 - 20:29Aaron Craddock: So, yeah, just even if you're going for, you know, 10x growth in a different area of your life, whether that's health, business, whatever, just find out what your non negotiables are, and stick to those. And then also listen for cues. And so how do you know when you're overly out of balance? Because again, I think balance is a myth, and we're always adjusting and always tweaking. Just looking for cues, am I disconnected with Lauren?
20:30 - 21:03Aaron Craddock: And if I am, okay, well, I know, like, we need to spend quality time together and actually have a conversation. And then if there's been a couple times where one of our boys will be like, Daddy, I really want to go on an adventure. And then I make an adjustment and make sure I schedule and get it in that week, or the following week. And yeah, and so just knowing to make those little tweaks. Another thing like listening for cues.
21:03 - 21:34Aaron Craddock: Yeah, so last week there were a couple days where I was overly anxious and just feeling overwhelmed. And I was like, I have not done a walk outside in a month. And that was something, you know, I would do forty five minutes every day for, you know, maybe six months ago. And that was just one area that I cut just based on a different season. And I noticed that it was adversely affecting my serenity and peace.
21:34 - 22:13Aaron Craddock: And yeah, just something getting sunlight, getting outside, getting some steps in. So in this season, it's not a forty five minute walk in the mornings, it's a twenty minute walk in the mornings. Then sometimes it's not first thing, sometimes it's at 09:00, 10:00, just depending on my schedule for the day. But just, yeah, just keep noticing how you're feeling and keep adjusting, like keep checking in with those around you and make adjustments. So next, I wanted to give you guys just one practical move.
22:13 - 22:37Aaron Craddock: So where is the opportunity this season? Like what needs attention? And then what will I protect? So where is the opportunity in this season? Is it to double down on recruiting and your closed rate and to get more drivers in with your fleet?
22:37 - 22:52Aaron Craddock: Is it to improve retention? Just where is the opportunity in this season? And then what needs attention kind of within that opportunity bucket? What people need more attention? What are you neglecting?
22:52 - 23:08Aaron Craddock: Like what have you been dropping? Where are you the bottleneck? And then kind of what will you protect in that season? And so as you're thinking through your personal decision, ask, where are my opportunities right now? Think through that.
23:09 - 23:36Aaron Craddock: What needs attention? So within that opportunity, what needs attention? And lastly, what will I protect? And so with me, it's date night and then I'm adding back in the protection of the walk every day, and then just scheduling that and getting it on my calendar. And then revisit those choices with the people that matter most to you.
23:36 - 24:06Aaron Craddock: So, you know, I revisit those choices with people on our team. Like here's how I'm planning on using my time in this season. Like, does that work for you? What can I do better? And then with personal relationships, so with Lauren, I talk about like, hey, this is what I'm planning on doing in this season in terms of work, in terms of just how my schedule may look a little different.
24:06 - 24:41Aaron Craddock: Like, what do you need in this season and how does it affect you? And then we just pull together. And that's one thing I'm thankful for with Lauren, as she's been my biggest fan since I started this business a little over seven years ago. And she's believed in me from day one without any proof. And yeah, and as I share different wins in the business and things like that, she's never really surprised because she's like, Yeah, was in your vision from five years ago.
24:42 - 25:14Aaron Craddock: And so it's just cool to have that type of partner. In summary, you don't have to make every part of your life look perfectly balanced this week. Just think about the area of opportunity in this season, and what do you need to protect in this season, And then just adapt accordingly. And so just give yourself permission to get a little out of balance, like if you need to make major gains in your health. Get a little out of balance if you need to build stronger relationships and spend more time with certain people.
25:15 - 25:30Aaron Craddock: And yeah, so just feel free to make those adjustments and just realize that it's a season, every season does not last forever. And with that, I'm Aaron Craddock, thanks for listening to the Hire Truckers Podcast. I hope you have a great week.