Hire Truckers Podcast

00:00 - 00:22
Aaron Craddock: Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast where we interview experts in driver recruiting. We provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game. Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast. I'm your host, Aaron Kraddock, and I have a special episode today. I wanted to jump in here and give you some extra content just as a solo episode.

00:22 - 00:56
Aaron Craddock: So you just had me today. So the episode title is thriving in a tough market, finding opportunity and disruption. And so I just wanted to cast a vision for the industry for you guys. And so this is a vision for just how regardless of what the market's doing, like with equities or the transportation market, we have a couple of different things when we say market. Regardless of what it's doing, you can grow, you can learn, you can innovate.

00:57 - 01:15
Aaron Craddock: And so just a perspective. And so this is an industry just full of fierce competition, innovation and excellence. That's what I believe. And I think more and more so we should have more excellence and innovation and disruption. And think about this is just such a big industry.

01:15 - 01:44
Aaron Craddock: You know, most everything in The US comes on a truck. Like, still, I think, listening to a podcast with someone from ATA recently, and they're saying that 74% of freight still in The US moves on truck. So, yeah, it's just a big a big industry. And we've got to lead with this just the future in mind. And so I'm excited when there's new players, new technology.

01:44 - 02:03
Aaron Craddock: And I think there's more new now than ever. You know, part of me thinks like, Okay, it'll be easier if nothing changed. Like, I kinda, you know, I feel like being in the industry about fifteen years, kinda know the play I would run with my current business. But, yeah, it's just not the case. Things are changing ever ever so quickly.

02:04 - 02:19
Aaron Craddock: And we've got to innovate and learn and grow. So yeah. So that's the big picture of where we're going just how I'm gonna give just some different tips and just my vision for thriving in a tough market. I hope you guys enjoy. So first of all, let's have a reality check.

02:20 - 03:04
Aaron Craddock: Okay? Things are not, you know, not going great. If you watch the news, you know, there are tariffs being slapped on, you know, pros and cons with those internationally, just political shifts like a new administration and collapsing equities like just in the market, just a lot of instability, a lot of fear, you know, with banks disclosing assets that have been changed there with the FDIC. If you look at multifamily real estate and just some of those loans like you might have might have some some challenges there. You just hear hear of different transportation companies are just struggling and and yeah.

03:04 - 03:30
Aaron Craddock: So it's just, you know, it's so when I say have a positive mindset and positive outlook, it's not it's not ignore all the things that are going on. Think I think it's just about perspective. And so so I wanted to chat with you guys about the power of perspective. And so yesterday I was going to the bank to deposit some checks. Yes, I still do that sometimes.

03:30 - 03:59
Aaron Craddock: And the car in front of me stops, like we all stop. And behind me, I see flashing lights. And I know that this this police officer is trying to get around us on a on a busy street. And the car in front of me has a car next to it dart over and slam into it right in front of me, and I see the truck shake. So the truck and then a small car that ran into it.

03:59 - 04:27
Aaron Craddock: So this is literally the truck sitting right in front of me, and then the police officer, like, goes around the car that smashed into the truck. And you can see after he goes on, I was almost in, like, disbelief. I'm like, did the guy in front of me just get hit in the truck? And sure enough, you see as the little car kind of peels off of the truck, it kind of shakes. And and I proceed to drive by and look over, and the side of the small car is just completely smashed.

04:27 - 04:51
Aaron Craddock: Like, the back of the front panel, the front of the back panel just destroyed. And and so the guy is like motioning, like, into the Target parking lot, telling the truck to follow him. At least he stopped because I've seen some hit and run instances too. And I was just thinking like when I got to my bank and chatted with the banker, I was just telling him, like, it's a good day. Like, I didn't just get slammed into by the car.

04:51 - 05:24
Aaron Craddock: And so there's a level of I'm not saying we need to ignore all the changes that are happening in in the industry, the different acquisitions, the different market turmoil on a macro scale, the different industry challenges, regulation challenges, legal challenges. I'm not saying we ignore all those things at all. I'm just saying we control what we can control. So there's a level of, like, whether that truck in front of me or I was worried about getting hit, you know, every time we get out and drive our car, you know, we might never drive anywhere. We'd be should be frozen in fear.

05:25 - 05:40
Aaron Craddock: And there's nothing that guy could have done differently, the guy in front of me, to not be hit. Like, because he was a sitting duck. There's nowhere he could go. Car to the left of him, car in front of him, car behind him. And so, you know, so it might be that your equity portfolio right now is being rocked.

05:40 - 05:57
Aaron Craddock: It might be that your company is experiencing layoffs, might be that you're having to lay off people. You know, there's there's just a hard thing. But but there's this power in perspective. Like, sometimes we get hit. Oh, you can't always stop the impact, but we can control just how we respond.

05:57 - 06:06
Aaron Craddock: Like, how does that guy respond? Like, does it ruin his week? Does it ruin his month? Or is he just like, it's one of the things that happens. I'm gonna I'm gonna tackle the next things to make this right.

06:07 - 06:26
Aaron Craddock: And so I choose gratitude just in this season. You know, my perspective, we like with trucking clicks and hire truckers, you know, haven't grown as fast as we'd like the last couple of years. You know, we've grown a little bit, but not as fast as we'd like. And but I'm just thankful that I grew. Right?

06:26 - 06:45
Aaron Craddock: Because a lot of my peers in the industry, you know, haven't grown. They've they've, you know, really struggled. And, yeah, just thankful for the little bit of growth we have and and the growth that we've had already this year. And, yeah, just optimistic with helping more fleets. And so that goes into my next point.

06:45 - 07:00
Aaron Craddock: What is my vision for the industry? So one of the things you'll notice when you work with our team around our team is. Like, we try to be positive, we try to be encouraging, we try to never say a negative word about somebody. You know, we're imperfect at that. Right?

07:00 - 07:38
Aaron Craddock: A group of imperfect people like even within a company. And but I hope that you see from anyone on our team that you interact with at trade shows, at conferences, on just client calls, that when they're prospecting into new fleets, I hope that you see that we're looking to brighten your day. And, you know, it's like our growth that we've had just the last couple of years isn't isn't purely performance. Like, you know, we strive to be number one, number two, most efficient cost per hire. But some of it's about the energy and like people just want to work with us and be inspired and motivated by our team.

07:38 - 08:14
Aaron Craddock: Then we want to bring that like that's part of our you know, that doesn't happen on accident. Like that's part of our vision is just speaking life to end the people. One of the things, if you've experienced just the words that some of what we've done this year to encourage recruiters, encourage directors recruiting, it's all intentional. There's just such power in the words that we speak. And so we can speak about all of the hard things going around us and and have that be most of our what we communicate and then almost have those doubts and fears become reality.

08:14 - 08:26
Aaron Craddock: Or we can just speak life. We're going to innovate. We're going to figure this out. And again, it's not being delusional. It's like like your car might have just gotten hit or your truck, you know, like things are hard.

08:26 - 08:59
Aaron Craddock: But just where like what if through your hard you could encourage your peers, your other like your vendors, you work with your your family, like what if even on our hard days, even in our tough days, we speak into people and encourage them. So I hope you hope you see that from us. We're going to try to do more of it and more of it. I love all of my friends in the industry that do that as well. I get encouraging texts, and I appreciate them encouraging messages, people encouraging me to keep doing what we're doing, keep building what we're building, and I love it.

08:59 - 09:22
Aaron Craddock: And it gives me the fuel and the fire to keep going, keep pushing, keep growing personally so that I can grow our team and grow in our relationships with our clients. And so next, I wanted to go to go into there's opportunity in disruption. I'll repeat. So there's opportunity in disruption. Opportunity in disruption.

09:23 - 09:45
Aaron Craddock: So when disruption happens, like like example, Driverreach got bought by tenth Street recently. You know, we've like this episode is coming out a month after I recorded it. So recent, but not so recent. And then there's other software acquisitions happening. There's rumors of acquisitions always and changes and and just, yeah, disruption, disruption, disruption.

09:45 - 10:01
Aaron Craddock: And and I'm not making light of that. Like, some of that is a challenge. Like, I'm not again, just some of that's a challenge, like, you know, and. But where can we find positive in it? Like, so it's so cool what driver reaches built.

10:01 - 10:24
Aaron Craddock: So cool. Just 10 treats vision for integrating driver reach, you know, just just trying to have a good perspective in it and and just speak positively. Like, here's what they're doing well. Here's what you're doing well. I think we can all do that as industry peers and not be afraid of speaking positively like there's more than enough freight to go around.

10:26 - 10:42
Aaron Craddock: And and I think this yeah. Just when changes happen. So when margins are thinner at your fleet, yeah, how can you revisit all of your technology? Like, how can you how can you be scrappy with cutting technology costs? How can you cut marketing costs?

10:42 - 10:58
Aaron Craddock: How can you cut advertising costs? And, yeah, just looking at everything, like looking at your technology, looking at your vendors, what do need to change? And a lot of times it's not even a change. It's how do you better utilize what you have? Like, how do you better utilize x budget?

10:59 - 11:39
Aaron Craddock: How do you better utilize this system, this software? Like, what if what if you made one small change and got 10 to 10% more efficient or had 10% better retention? Like, those type of gains are there. But if you're just operating out of fear and the chaos that can happen in a market like, I I was having a conversation with a senior executive at about a 900 truck fleet earlier today, about a thousand truck fleet. And they were saying, like, it feels like she was saying, it feels like we're in COVID, but we could still go outside.

11:40 - 12:01
Aaron Craddock: So again, like pain, disruption, hard market. Alright. Feels like that. Another thing I hear, like my CEO expects me to use a quarter of the budget that I had to get twice the results. You know, there's all varying flavors of that.

12:01 - 12:13
Aaron Craddock: And so I understand that on the marketing side. So, again, is that possible? Like, I think I think we should always approach it with, maybe there's a way. Like, I don't know the way. It's okay to say I don't know the way right now, but maybe there's a way.

12:14 - 12:24
Aaron Craddock: And then we innovate. We test. That leads into my next point. So I encourage you guys to take action over process. So I'm super passionate about this.

12:24 - 12:52
Aaron Craddock: So when every time I see this, like when markets go down, like, instance, again, I'm just thinking of the stock market. Like, there's panic. Like, when truck prices go through the roof roof, like, oh, there's challenges. Like, when credit costs have gone up so much, like, there's panic. And so what most people do, like in my experience, is let's say 30% of people just sit on their hands.

12:52 - 13:13
Aaron Craddock: Like they read, they watch the news, read the news, and sit on their hands. They're paralyzed by fear. And some of this is driven by, you know, other executives like channeling their fear down the team, up to the team, just peers. But a lot of it is just what we consume, like, in terms of media. So, yeah, just be wary of what content you put into your head.

13:13 - 13:35
Aaron Craddock: And and again, I'm not saying we all need to live under a rock, but I think we should be cognizant of the content we consume and whether it is it uplifting, is it encouraging? And that's why I hope I'm here to encourage you. Hope I encourage you today. So instead of just sitting on our hands and taking less action, what if we took more action? Right?

13:35 - 13:46
Aaron Craddock: When the world slows down, we take more action. Like, we test more things. We innovate. We're not afraid. We do do do new deals.

13:46 - 13:57
Aaron Craddock: Like, we step out in boldness. We test new strategies. Like, we like, rather than stopping and having less change, what if we change more? What if we innovate more? Shameless plug.

13:57 - 14:17
Aaron Craddock: If you haven't heard about our mastermind groups with HireTruckers.com, just reach out to anyone on our team. We'll make sure we get you on those lists, get you plugged into those so you can talk about with your peers what's going on, the good, the bad, the ugly, mainly the good. Right? Positivity. Now let's take a minute to thank today's sponsor.

14:17 - 14:45
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14:45 - 15:17
Aaron Craddock: So let's talk about action of paralysis. So I got laid off almost six years ago. You know, a lot of you know my story, but, yeah, a little bit of context about it was May '6 years ago. I worked for a large, large company, an executive role and get get called in and they say, hey, your position has been eliminated, you know, and we talked for over an hour. You know, I it's a private equity owned group and, like, it literally was a business decision.

15:17 - 15:33
Aaron Craddock: So what they explained and just explained, like, hey. I eliminate yours. Your salary or eliminate x number of people on your team. And so we just had to make a decision. So and so it's we eliminate your salary or we eliminate x people on the team.

15:33 - 15:56
Aaron Craddock: So it's just we, you know, had to make a business decision. And anyway, so I was out the door, you know, had a job, didn't expect it to go anywhere, not just a job, a great job. And I've been there seven years and had had a lot of growth and and really appreciate my managers, my leaders. They just really invested in me over those seven years and and just the growth opportunity was incredible. We did some cool things in the industry.

15:58 - 16:12
Aaron Craddock: And but yeah. So that was over. So, again, I knew I was thinking I was like, okay. I need to go have a sonic drink. So I went and got Route 44 dietary limeade, sat down by Black Warrior River, Tuscaloosa.

16:12 - 16:23
Aaron Craddock: Before we moved to Austin. And I was like, how do I tell my wife I just lost my job? She's gonna be like, do we have to sell the house? And I'm gonna be like, I don't know. We might have to sell the house.

16:25 - 16:46
Aaron Craddock: And yes, I did that first. And then I went to a startup incubator in Tuscaloosa called the Edge and got to meet with Teresa, the director there, and just said, hey, can I start on my business tomorrow? And she's like, do you have an LLC? And I said, yeah, I actually do have one for some coaching consulting. And, yes, I used that LLC to start, like, else credit holdings.

16:46 - 16:58
Aaron Craddock: And that was, you know, almost six years ago. And so I asked I said, hey. To the director, was like, can I start here at 08:00 tomorrow? And so the day after I got laid off at eight a. M.

16:58 - 17:12
Aaron Craddock: The next morning, I was sitting there at a desk and working on the plan. And so and and I'd love to say straight up into the right, always easy. It's been a challenge. On and off challenge, growing a business, bootstrapping it to this point. Yeah.

17:12 - 17:22
Aaron Craddock: It's a challenge, but I'm enjoying the challenge. But it's action over prowess. And so when I went home, that was Lauren's question. It was, hey, do we have to sell the house? And I said, I don't know.

17:23 - 17:33
Aaron Craddock: But I'm going to work on my own business tomorrow at 8AM. And yeah. And then cool. It's cool. It's coming up on six years ago.

17:33 - 17:46
Aaron Craddock: And, you know, trucking clicks didn't exist. HireTrucker.com didn't exist. This podcast, you know, it's been that we've been doing for over a year didn't exist. Yeah. So just action over paralysis.

17:46 - 17:58
Aaron Craddock: And so that's what we're doing right now as a team. Like, everybody's taking more action. Like, we're shaking things up, testing new things, building new things. And so, yeah, if you wanna wanna partner with us, just reach out. We'd love to have a chat.

17:58 - 18:18
Aaron Craddock: Yeah. We like to partner with like minded fleets, 500 plus truck fleets that wanna innovate, change things up, not do the same old, same old. So then let's get into just final encouragement for you. So I encourage you whether you're in transportation or not. This is this is for you.

18:18 - 18:34
Aaron Craddock: So keep dreaming, keep moving, don't stop. Right? I've had a few people tell me that. Keep dreaming, keep moving, don't stop. Like, when things get hard because that'll get hard.

18:34 - 18:59
Aaron Craddock: There's there's hard. Choose your hard. When things get hard, like, those are the times that build you, that grow you, that you actually look back on with fondness. And sometimes your scars and your hardest things that you've been through and the things you're ashamed about, like, sometimes those are the building blocks for something great. And so growth around you starts with you.

18:59 - 19:37
Aaron Craddock: And so I just encourage you guys just I love personal growth, but mainly because I believe I have to be different person, like with my vision of building a billion dollars in private companies and also a vision of building, you know, over a billion dollars going towards different nonprofits and causes that I care about. Like, I grow and focus on growth and invest in that because I can't be the person I am today. Definitely not the person I was six years ago when I started the company, but also not the person I am today. Like, I have to grow into a different person to get where I wanna go. And so the growth starts with me.

19:38 - 19:57
Aaron Craddock: And then when I grow, my team's gonna grow. When I grow, our clients are gonna grow. And kind of the cool thing about this industry is what if we're all growing together? Like peers, competitors, I just invite any of you just to join me. Let's let's speak positively of one another.

19:58 - 20:10
Aaron Craddock: Let's build cool things. Let's innovate. Let's shake things up. And and I just appreciate it. So also, like, there like I said, there are a lot of people around me, a lot of people that I know that are doing that.

20:10 - 20:21
Aaron Craddock: So if that's you, keep doing it. Keep being that light. Keep being that encouragement. And I I just appreciate you. And let's be kind.

20:22 - 20:32
Aaron Craddock: Let's be let's be kind to each other. And let's be the let's be the kind of the leaders that this industry needs. Let's operate with honesty. Let's operate with integrity. Let's compete.

20:32 - 20:53
Aaron Craddock: Let's grow. I appreciate all of you, and I hope you I hope you liked just this little bit different content. I just wanted to speak directly to you as the listener, and we'll get back to the regular regular scheduled guest next week. But I just wanted to speak directly to you guys just in this turbulent environment. Don't lose heart.

20:54 - 21:01
Aaron Craddock: Lean in. Do more. Take action. And lastly, again, I'm gonna say it. Keep dreaming.

21:01 - 21:08
Aaron Craddock: Keep moving. Don't stop. I believe in you. I appreciate you. And, again, this is Aaron signing off with the Hire Truckers podcast.

21:08 - 21:21
Aaron Craddock: Thank you for joining us today. Our goal with the Hire Truckers podcast is to provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to level up your recruiting game. If we added value, take a few seconds to share this with your network. Have a great week.