Ready, Willing & Able with Liz Wayne

own . I'm your host , Nate Schutz . Let's build something together from the ground up . Hello everybody , and welcome back to the show . We are mid-2025 . We are past the 100-episode mark on sharing founder stories and supply chain and logistics , and this week we get to stay in the Midwest , which is always special to me .

I'm born and raised in Minnesota , if you can't tell by my accent already and we're going to be spending some time in Omaha this week with the founder of Able Transport , Liz Wayne . Liz , good morning , how are you today ?

We're going to go back to the beginnings of Able Transport , unpack part of your journey , and I'd love to draw out a couple of themes that really stood out to me , which means we're going to peel the onion a little bit . But before we go to that , would you mind just explaining what Able Transport is and a little bit of your own background ?

So ABLE is very niche focused . We are an open deck broker , so 95 plus percent of our freight is going to be open deck heavy haul specialized .

I'd love to help promote and share when you have your anniversary party and help you celebrate . So one of the things that you mentioned in starting the business in 2015 was that you wanted to reinvent the

freight broker reputation more positive reputation than they do now , with a lot of the double brokering and freight fraud and the less attractive element that has worked its way into the industry . So what do you remember about freight brokerage reputations 10 years ago versus now ?

So one of our things that able was , you know , and still is , we don't give loads back , so we're going to honor our quote , we're going to provide a truck , you know , and the shippers might not understand that ultimately , brokers who honor their price are gambling every day .

Um , you know , and when we win , more often than we lose , we can build a sustainable business . But at the end of the day , for the most part , when we provide a price to the shipper , we don't know what we're going to pay the truck . And so it was just kind of like provide a more reliable experience for the shipper .

When you used to make calls to sell freight brokerage services , like the first question would be you know , are you an asset based broker ?

Or you know , I don't work with brokers , and so I think that the industry as a whole has leveled up since 2015 , because that is no longer shippers first question , like they are more apt to work with a broker than they were 10 or 15 years ago , and I think that's because our reputation is evolving and I think we've leveled up as a whole .

And I'm like no , it happens all the time , cause I've been on the shipper side and the 3PL side and trying to explain that contract rate doesn't actually mean there's a contract that's enforceable . And to people outside of the industry they're like I don't get it . Why would that be that ? Why does the industry operate that way ?

And to be able to say , yeah , here's my price and I'm committed to it , no matter what happens down the road , is a shift . Even today it's still a shift for some mindsets .

that's sort of newer to their role and just pour this experience into them . And you know , um , and it's funny because what came out yesterday in the meeting was just that was shippers don't always look at a price as a truck . So but we do , you know .

So when my guys are quoting something , it's like , hey , you , you take this , you're going to have a truck like that , and we don't , you know , we don't fail . And it's like they take it so seriously , actually to the point , that it's kind of like they don't understand how the industry totally operates .

Um , because of this kind of just operational mindset that we've instilled in them , which is great , Like I'm not complaining , but it's funny because it's like , you know , we challenged them last week to , you know , when you get a good price in on something , call them and say , hey , how's my price ?

Look , you know , do some followup , and so they had great success with that . And it was kind of like how's that

, How's that work , why is that ? And we came to the conclusion the shippers don't just believe that a number equates to a truck , Like when they hear , hey , I've got a truck 30 miles out ready to rock . It really closes the deal in a way that just the number on its own isn't going to .

So I don't want to sidetrack , but it's just funny because literally we ended the day yesterday with that whole conversation . So it's funny that you share that perspective as a shipper .

about customers , and transportation is a necessary step in that transaction . And oftentimes the shipper doesn't recognize the sale of the goods until it has left their facility . And so a warehouse is not just holding product , it's also the cash register and that truck that's 30 minutes out .

If it doesn't show up , then the sale doesn't happen , oftentimes until the next day , and so it's not just hey , I have to pay overtime to somebody to stay late that evening until the truck can make it after the facility is closed , and there's an assessorial charge or something along those lines .

It is a revenue recognition for the shipper community is part of it , and then their commitments to their customers , for the shipper community is part of it , and then their commitments to their customers , and most product-based shippers are thinking about those types of things not .

I wonder how many trucks are within two hours of us on a Thursday afternoon and that's the value that freight brokerages provide is thinking of all of those variables and what a dynamic market looks like , so that a shipper can focus on growing their business , which is not a transportation business at its core .

And and the deeper I get into my own career , the more appreciation I have for what it actually takes on the ground . I worked at a carrier when I was in college and then 14 years as a 3PL and then about a decade on the shipper side that know their subject matter better than anybody else is a superpower . It's what makes commerce happen .

So if you haven't heard from a shipper in a long time how much your work is appreciated , just know that it is .

That is why they experienced those , those spikes at that time .

And then so I thought you could , just the world was my oyster . I thought you could just do all the things all the time . So I do remember very vividly , like planning out my 200 careers , you know . So that's when I was really , really ,

probably like under 10 years old , I suppose .

I mean , I've never been diagnosed , but I probably do , and I think that's a superpower for entrepreneurs really , because , um , you know , if you look at it that way , it's like we get to do different things all of the time .

I think , you know , yesterday on that call , I was probably complaining about it , as I do sometimes , because there's a burden to wearing all the hats , but also what a privilege , you know , you never get bored .

Um , I wanted to be a freight agent for more flexible hours and I built myself a home office and I had babies at home and well , oh , yeah , okay , I was expecting one when I quit my last job I'm just trying to think through exactly how old the kids are , but it was really in like a , my husband and I had a real estate brokerage and so it was really

like for flexibility and to be able to do the work from home and not commute , go straight upstairs to the kids , and it would allow us to multitask and work on the real estate business .

Um , so that was the plan , was just really for myself and my family in the beginning , and then it quickly turned into like this is a 24 seven gig and that is kind of not what I uh , cause I had always worked , you know , with small teams and offices where like , yeah , there's on call , but you're rotating it .

Or you have , um , you know vacation days , or you know Saturdays , Sundays , and it just got to be . You know the trucking doesn't stop , and so I didn't necessarily want it to be the person um on call 24 , seven . And so I also , at the same time , sort of had been working on a few um .

I had been working on one big opportunity for like six months a long , slow , large sale . Big opportunity for like six months , a long , slow , large sale . Who's still my biggest customer 10 years later ?

Um , and simultaneously another um really large customer just happened to walk in my front door , uh , walk in their dog at my first office space , my little three or 400 foot office space , and so at that time looked around and it's like , okay , I with these couple of accounts , I can support some payroll and with some help I can get some relief from this 24-7

thing . And so that's when kind of the vision turned into having a small office and then to go from , you know , to kind of scale from there . It was all about the customers , like they needed a company like us .

The construction job site had been left behind by transportation , and so once I started to kind of realize that growth was really easy and really fun , you know , until here , post COVID freight recession , it , it . It's been a little less fun lately , but it's um , so it was sort of an evolution . I didn't just set out to have able as it is today .

Did that come naturally to you , or was that a place in your journey where you had to adapt quickly ?

that's you know . Um , as a leader , I can be impatient , I definitely you know . You only sort of know like you spend your whole life in your own head , right , and so you don't know what other people don't know , and I think that's you know .

At some point along the way I started kind of taking opening day training and stuff like way back to the beginning , because , um , you just it's hard to remember every little thing you've took in over all of these years and you bring somebody new in , and so I think that's where I could have done better is probably , um , I don't know if it would have been

like management training or leadership training or that for myself . Um , because I just kind of expected everybody to tick like me and be motivated in the same way and by the same things that I am , and that's just not the case , and nor should it be . It's not their business . You know what I mean , and so kind of it all takes time . You get better .

I think today I'm the best leader that I've ever been , but I still have a long way to go on my journey . You know what I mean .

He called me as bulldog . You know , like that's the energy that I took to situations back then and I think today I bring a more level head .

You know , it's just like there's , I think , when you , if you're not a good leader or manager or whatever the case , it's like just that pound your fist and that gets stuff done and so like , if it gets enough done , you don't really evolve past that . But for me that's what it's been . It's just kind of moving past that and finding you know better ways .

If somebody's really frustrated , it's hey . Can I ask are you upset with the situation and we need to work on that , or are you upset with me and we have something to talk about ? And that simple filter helped me understand , manage up better when you needed to neutralize a difficult situation .

And then , as I made all the mistakes you can make in managing people myself early in my career , I'm able to now reflect back on it and say there's no way I could have grown without somebody pulling me aside and saying , yeah , you can use force sometimes , there is a place for it . But if that's the only note , you know how to play .

You're going to create a culture of fear and then people aren't going to have ideas that they're willing to share , they're not going to take risks , and you'll surround yourself with people that just agree with you , not because they agree with you , but because they're afraid of you , and that was a one of my own aha moments of I thought being in charge was the

goal , like I thought that's all it took . And learning how to influence and shape and develop other people in ways that are good for them , that keep them highly engaged , is good for the business and it's good for me . It's just a different kind of emotional intelligence and maturity .

And then occasionally you come across somebody who's just gifted at all of those things at a really young age or you know they're advanced beyond their years and they're highly inspiring and motivating people and I wish I had been that , but I had to learn things the hard way , by getting it wrong mostly .

When you just said , like some people just have it , he has it and he , you know , listen , I've learned from him , like listening to him talk to some of his people , you know , if he's at the house or something and I hear him take a phone call on that , it's like wow , that was geez , you know .

And for him I've really thought it's come from watching some of his good football coaches . I mean he's got like he played college football and his coaches in the Hall of Fame and it's like I , when I hear him , it's like I know that's where he got some of his you know just all of this because I mean , think about it Like .

I mean , just as a football coach , like just you would never see a football coach that reached a certain level

that that's the only tool they had in their toolbox was banging their fist right Like there is a time and a place , but you've got to bring more to the situation as well , you know .

But I do , I feel like with some of the young people they got it from , because if they haven't had a lot of work experience , that's the leadership experience they're pulling from . You know .

As high school students and for anybody who makes it to the collegiate level , you're generally going to be surrounded with mentors and teachers and people that are going to grow you as athletes but also going to grow you as human beings , and I think that's part of why recruiting is still done heavily at .

You know , for athletics at college campuses in transportation and logistics is competitiveness and grit and adaptability , and- Commitment . Flexibility . All of those skills are so much easier to accumulate in an athletic environment . So were you an athlete yourself ?

Or where , where , where do you feel like you got most of your own development from then people in your life or in your life ?

You know , level up my leadership skills um as well , just kind of , um , you know , getting people in place at ABLE , kind of making sure the right people are in the right seats um to amplify the , the , the good stuff , and then also kind of to balance out what I don't bring to the table and what I don't have .

Where there was a point in ABLE's history where there was probably too much of a certain type of leadership energy , call it . And so you know , I think I've learned balance in that way too .

Like I said , like you know , people amplify the good stuff that I bring to the table and then people to pick up the slack and and clean up behind me where I'm lacking . You know what I mean .

And so I'm in a good place hire a president who had led um you know , some offices for CH , for you know a number of years , a couple of decades , and so it was just very relevant experience , like my office , you know , very much feels like a .

You know , although CH is a really big company , um , with billions in revenue , it was a lot of small offices , you know , and so there's just a lot of similarities there and um , with both of us , you know , leading now it's like I feel like we're able to move a lot faster and just for those reasons , like I said , he he amplifies some work I do and he's

really good at some stuff that I'm not so good at , you know , which is really on on the people side and the leadership side , and so Well , it sounds like you have a path forward for the next 10 years .

I do remember , you know how some things just remember where you were at and what you were doing . I was putting on my shoes in the mudroom and I shouted in and told my husband it's able , calling it able , and it was like capable , reliable , dependable and just all of these things . And so that's kind of where it came from .

But then I sent , when I sent the name over to the graphic designer and that , and when she designed the brand , I was like , yes , I loved the colors , I loved the little road , how she made the A into a road , and , um , yeah , and then I could just see it and it was I . Really I'm still , 10 years later , I'm in love with the brand .

Um , still , so I , yeah , but that's kind of how it came to be .

You never know where that moment of inspiration is going to come from , and it is similar to naming a child , because you're going to have it for a long time and it means something deeply personal , and so thank you , thank you for sharing that with us today , thanks for opening up about your journey journey I'm hoping if somebody is listening right now , that is

maybe where you were 10 years ago that they have heard .

I mean , the themes that I've heard from you are adaptability , just plain old hard work , doing what you said you're going to do , following through and that's maybe why I'm attracted to your story is that those are all very Midwest , humble , straightforward , old fashioned values and with that as your foundation , I have no doubt you're going to continue being successful

and , like I said , we're all rooting for you , thank you .

And , of course , thank you to all the founders who trust us to share their stories .