Lightning like Steve McQueen? I'm in the fast lane when the light turns green? And I built tough? Find nothing but grit? Cause I made rugged blood sweat and spit? Yeah, like a horse I fly? Better put yourself in for a bumpy ride? I like to play hard but I work harder?
And I weather the storm?
Cause I'm built stronger.
What is up, ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is a freight coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30 in Pacific, 10:30 Central, to break down some industry headlines, but most importantly, provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve.
So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it, and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Monday, everybody. Corey Bukin. Happy Monday. If you're watching this, I received notification that LinkedIn is having issues with it going live on there. This is also hence why we go live on YouTube and Facebook and everything. So you guys can make sure to always catch it. So, you know, again, migrate over to YouTube if LinkedIn is not working out there. But, you know, I, I got a very special guest for you guys here today. I'm gonna. He's been on the show, but he, you know, he's. He's out here doing a new venture and he's been through some, like, real life stuff, you guys, and he's overcame a lot of it. And we're going to be talking about a lot of that, right?
It's building that system out to kind of achieve a lot of those things. So I got my man Nick with stride motivation back on the show. So, Nick, thank you so much for joining me.
Chris, thanks for having me again, brother.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, especially now that you got your venture up and running, you've decided like, hey, this is what I'm doing and this is what I'm going with. I had to get you back on the show. And especially I, dude, I didn't even know this, but last Friday was like National Quitter Day or something like that in the New Year's resolution. So ironically, this just lined up. And you can vouch we Planned this out like early December on when you were. It was not an accident.
No. That was very serendipitous timing.
Yeah, dude, absolutely. So what's good, man? What, what's going on? How's, how's everything going in your world?
You know, I, were talking before the show a little bit. I'm gonna say that life is very good, but it's been very chaotic. You know, my wife and I are selling our house. We didn't have running water for a month with plumbing issues. Just had the whole piping redone, Moved into a new house. Don't know where anything is. And you know, business doesn't stop. So it's been, it has been full fledged logistics lifestyle without the logistics.
Dude, I'm right there with you, man. It's, it's been wild. But, you know, I've also learned in, you know, I, I completed Live Hard last year, and my going into this year has really just kind of changed my perspective on a lot of things where now I actually view this as like, everything is a system, all right? And you can build a system around almost everything. I would argue you can build a system around everything to ensure that you're getting things done. And you know, for me, I always struggled with, like, I have very big goals. Goals that people probably laugh about when I say, like, I'm gonna build the largest transportation company in North American history. Like, I'm going to do that. But I was always in my mind framing it up.
Like, I had to do it today as opposed to, no, that's my lifetime goal. Like, that's Chris in 30 or 40 years. That's where the achievement lies. And then I tied it all the way back down to what do I have to do today to get to that next step in that journey, right? So it was like I was looking at my daily tasks and I was like, I'm not even moving the needle at that. But then I broke it down into, all right, what's the next step in the journey? Right? Like, we hit our first seven figures in revenue out there. So, like, that's a big milestone to hit. And, and now it's like, all right, so how do we get to that? Build up that consistency of that consistent revenue?
Because one thing that's not talked about in building a business is the roller coaster aspect of it, right? You have a good three, four months, then you have a shitty two months, and then it's about kind of closing that gap. So now I just have it broken down into what is the next step in the journey. So. And that's what we've built, our entire framework, me and my business partner for this year, for business is. Is what do we have to do every single day? And my only focus now on everything, whether it's my health or my business, is, what did I do today? Did I win today or not? Yes or no? Very cut and dry.
I absolutely love this topic for so many reasons. And let me. Let me tell you a story of the way I learned this. So, you know, I love telling stories and I love telling stories about obstacle course racing. So a couple years ago, there was a mountain race that I'm training for. It was a 31 mile race in Killington, Vermont, almost 20,000ft of climbing, one of the hardest races in North America with the highest DNF rate. And I was a little bit behind in my training. And I was stretching one night before bed, and I started to just freak out. And I'm like, how am I going to climb this mountain? How am I going to get in so much shape? I live in Florida. Where am I going to get the training mountains? How am I going to do it? Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And then I was like, you know what? All right, what's the next important thing that have to happen in order for me to achieve my goal? I said, well, I need to make sure I get my workout in.
In the morning.
Okay. In order for me to do that, what do I need to do? I need to wake up when the alarm goes off, so I need to get a good night's sleep. So what do I need to do? I need to go to bed relaxed. I was currently stretching. So what is the wildly specific and stupidly simple thing that I can do right now to help me achieve my goals? Climbing a mountain came down to one breath.
Yeah.
Because that was the action I had available to me. So between that and I'm going to say this. 10 years of sobriety is 10 years of practicing one day at a time, living. And so when I left my job 15 months ago, the timing of which was not my choice to. To begin this venture and to get into it and having to. You know, were talking about this a minute ago. I mean, that just the life of doubt and the. The all of it, right. You have a vision of where you want to go, but you're not entirely sure you want to get there or how you want to get there. And so you have to break it down to the daily action. And I actually reread the book, the One Thing this year, I highly recommend it to anybody who.
I recommend it to anybody.
What's it called? The One Thing.
The One Thing.
Okay.
And it's about taking the wildly. The, you know, the really big goals, right? The visions of you want for your life and how to break those down to the very first domino that you need to hit. And that's what it all comes down to. What is the simplest and stupid? What is the wildly specific and stupidly simple action step that I can take just to get started?
Yeah, I'm going to. So Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, Jim Collins. This talks about this, that exact thing, but in the business world about doing just. Just that, right? And because I, Dude, I think, like, I look at it as, you know, again, I will always use myself as an example because I spelled. Spent the majority of my life as a disaster. I was drunk, obese, everything. So, like, I resonate with a lot of that stuff. And it was always, you know, it was always that comparison, right? It was always the where am I not? And then it was really focusing in on that stuff. And then I just find. And I. And I credit this to the, you know, the Live Hard program that I completed last year is. Is I was framing everything wrong.
I like, and that was up until, you know, I'm 38 years old, you guys. I'm going to be 39 in three months. So for my entire life, I've just been framing things ass backwards where it's like, I wasn't thinking about things wrong. I was thinking about creating a better life for myself. But it was like I was just overlooking what I actually needed to do to kind of get the ball rolling. And, you know, you can go because, you know, and it's hard, right? Like, I can sympathize with people. You're on social media. Everybody's perfect. Everybody's got it all figured out. Everybody's a millionaire, actually, if you didn't know that, Nick, if you're on. So everybody's a success. So it's like, of course all of that stuff starts to weigh in on. On everybody, right? But it's like, dude, I've made.
Last year, the last half of last year, I made a conscious effort to remove social media from my life. And it's going to sound ironic because my shit's all over the place on social media. And I've used social media to build a company. But one thing I can say, and as the kids say, I have receipts. I've only talked about, like, training, like training and Development and like helping people in business. It's never been why I'm better than everybody else, right? And I think that I, it was about what I was consuming as well, outside of that stuff, because it's very easy again, it's very easy to see where you are right now, whether you're not happy in your business, physique, whatever that looks like. And then scroll on social media and you think everybody else has it all figured out.
But it's like, and this is one of my main things for 2025 is my word of the year is consistency, right? I'm going to consistently do my daily tasks and I need to learn because, like, again, this is the, I'm starting out in shape for the first time in my entire life this year where it's like, I got to keep this up, right? Like, I'm going to try and do this without being on a program is like, did I ingrain these habits in myself enough to just do the work every single day? And a lot of it will just boil down to me. My tasks, my business, my results.
Only becomes a lifestyle. You know, it starts when I talk about breaking things down to the wildly specific and stupidly simple. I put a video out about it the other day on quitters day. I was like, don't quit today. Just go to the gym today. Just drive there. You know, there's an expression, right? If you spend enough time or at the barbershop, you're going to get a haircut. So don't be so intimidated by what you can't do or what you think you have to do. Focus on that initial step, however stupid it is.
Because if you consistently drive to the gym, you're going to get out of the car, you're going to go inside, you're going to do the first exercise, you're going to learn how to do something, you're going to ask someone for help for the thing you don't know how to do. YouTube is your friend. Whenever I don't know how to do something, it becomes step one, learn how to do it. If I don't have time for something, you schedule it. You know, that always comes down to those initial steps. And so as you begin to take them, they become a habit. And it becomes. And you build up momentum and then the habits become your lifestyle.
I, the first couple weeks of this year were almost tough for me because I didn't have a specific training plan that I've been following, but I'm still getting up every day, lacing up and going out and doing a workout, even if it's just a consistent, like, regular thing, you know, it just becomes part of your lifestyle.
How important is it? You know, I put a post out this morning and I didn't even think about the correlation to the fact that you were going to be on the show today. But how important is it to. For people to just start, right? Like, just start getting out, doing whatever it is. Just start doing the cold calling if they're having cold call anxiety or, you know, workouts, whatever that is, and then just figure it out as you go. Because if they're, you know, and my whole point of what I had posted out there today is it's like, dude, if I look back, like, I don't have a plan, right? Like, I have, like, yes, I have a strategy and stuff like that, but it's not perfect, like the perfection. All of that stuff comes in the action.
It comes in actually going out and doing that stuff. Because like, again, what works for you, there is no, like, I guess there's no one box of success that works for that. There's one size fits all. Because I guarantee what works for you, what gets you going, might work for me, but reality is it doesn't. It doesn't work for me at all. I have my own ways of doing things.
Yeah, absolutely. And we do find out. You know, I always use a, the analogy of a car and how efficient the vehicle is running and how what is most efficient and effective for me may or may not be the same. That's going to be most efficient, effective for you, but without, man, I could sit around planning workouts forever and I'm not going to get any faster until I get my ass out on the street. You know, we can train and we can role play and we can practice our scripts all day long, but we can't make sales until we dial the phone. You simply can't learn the things that you don't know until we get out there and do it.
We can't be so intimidated by the threat of failure or by the things that we don't know or God forbid, being embarrassed or imposter syndrome, all those silly things that hold us back. Or we're intimidated by step 10 so we don't do step one. Every little step, which one step at a time is the only way anyone's ever got anywhere. Every step we take makes the next step that much closer.
Yeah, I, I'm right there with you, man. I think from, you know, again, at least from my perspective out there is when you're, you know, when you're out, like, we make all. Make our lives way. Like, I'm trying to think of the best way to put this without sounding like an. But we make our lives. Like, we think we're impacting so many people and throwing them off of their trajectory so much more than it actually happens, right? Because obviously we're the main character in our lives, right? The people that we're contacting, they're the main character in their lives, right? So, like, they got their own shit. They're not thinking about you or how you made them feel in that moment outside of when you're picking up the phone and dialing them, right. Or when you're, like, going out there and doing it.
And like, a lot of the confidence that everybody's really searching for out there, again, it just comes in and going through it and actually realizing that, right. Like, trust me one thing. If you have anxiety for cold calling, for whatever reason it is, I've been there. I'm not afraid to admit it. Wait till you have a really good conversation with somebody and then, like, at least from your perspective, and then you call them back in a few weeks and they don't remember your name. They don't remember even talking to you. That will help your framing, and that will make a lot more sense of what I just said there in the regards of, like, hey, you're the main character in your life, they're the main character in their own. And they're not.
You're not throwing them off as much as you think that you are.
The fish never remembers the fisherman.
Yeah. Yeah, There you go. You can use that one, too.
We. It is, though, and I get it. Because we. We do make it to be bigger in our heads. And so I can't call them. I just called them yesterday. They don't remember you. Yeah, they don't. And it's actually a good thing if they do. Like, you want to build that sort of consistency and awareness anyway, like, who cares? So the. All the, you know, when I have. I have a call I have to make today. All right. To the insurance company, so that'll be fun, right? My nature would be to put this off because I don't want to do it. There are things I don't know. There's, you know, there's just so much unknown. I'm frustrated. I'm having the fight in my head anyway. So what I first need to do is schedule it. So I do.
I actually have 15 minutes is all I put on my calendar for it either. So I don't sit around and think about it. And then I break it down to the stupid Step one, get the phone number. That's it. Find the phone number. I, I don't have to have the call yet. Just find the phone number. I mean, step two is dial the number. But when I have it becomes that much easier. We just take the action steps that we don't need to think too much about. Our brain gets in the way. You know, our brain is looking for safety and for comfort, but we need to sort of get past those governors.
Yeah, I look at it. So, like when I make my sales calls, for example, I will set up and I will preset all of my calls. I'll have all the numbers list out. I don't have a CRM. Yes, I understand there's a bunch of shit that people can insert here, but I'm just going off of what I do and what works for me. And, you know, you can have all the fancy tools in the world, but if you don't actually pick up the phone and do anything with them, it's kind of irrelevant, right? So, so this is what works for me. I preset all of my calls for the day. Like, that's my first task because I'm not cold emailing anybody. I did not have enough success with it. All of our results came from cold calling and site visits.
That's all we're doing from a business development standpoint for the foreseeable future. No, I don't care about your sales solution. So. But what I do is I go in there and I set it up. All of my calls listed out. I have the phone numbers, the cities are located in everything. And then from there I just tell myself, five, do five. And then I go in, and then I do five. And then boom, before I know it, I've got 25 calls done, right? And it's because it's all preset, Everything's listed out. And then I just go down there. And again, I want people to also focus on stop the spray and pray methodology. Like we tried that, you know, we tried chasing different sectors. We have only found success in one thing, man. That's full truckload, primarily open deck.
And that's all we're doing, right? So, like, that's all I'm going after when I'm doing it. So I'm not just looking to quote for the sake of quoting or anything like that. Like, I have a plan, I have a strategy, and I'm following it. That took me like 15 months to come up with you guys, right? This isn't anything that happened overnight. And it was. I've just found what is effective for me. And again, and that's what it's always going to boil down to is when you're building up a system or a framework for you got to find what works for you. Okay? So for me, for example, like I said, I can probably, depending on how many people are answering the phone and everything in a given list of calls, I can get probably 25 calls done in an hour.
Now, that wasn't always the case. I used to maybe only get 15, maybe 10 at that time. Right. Because I was having a buildup aspect of it. Right. I thought I had to do all of these additional steps. And then eventually I have it down to a system of like, I know exactly what I'm doing. And this took time to build up, you guys. But again, it always started with five. Hey, man, just make five calls. You can make any one of you who's commenting on this show right now or who's going to listen to this on the replay later, all of you have what's inside of you to make five sales calls. Look at the people, why you're doing it for. All right? It's very simple. I have my wife and my son on my phone at all times.
If I ever don't feel like doing anything, I see that and I look at them, I'm like, that's all that matters. I'm going to pick up the phone and do it. So it's like, you got to find that. But again, you got to do it today. And then after I go through and I do my tasks for the day, because I have my five critical tasks that I'm going to do today. Guess what? When I wake up tomorrow, it's a brand new day. Whatever I did today, you know, on Tuesday is irrelevant, right? I got to come over and I got to put the work in.
I think that you mentioned something that I think we interacted one of your posts about in the first place because you were talking about the daily actions and. But what you just mentioned is about the. Remember why you're doing it. It. To me, it doesn't matter what you're doing. What matters is why you're doing it. When I was my last couple years in logistics and knowing that I wanted to do what I'm doing now, the thing that kept me engaged was knowing that my purpose is ultimately to help other people. So even though I was in a role that didn't necessarily support what I want to do right now. It still gave me the opportunity to help others, learn from others, engage with others, gain connections and relationships, you know, new opportunities, all things that would support. Support my higher purpose.
So whether it be your family or, you know, helping others or something like that, it is important to gut check why we're doing what we're doing, because that's gonna, you know, that's what's ultimately gonna give me that spark that keeps going, that stays me connected to it. Now comes into the discipline and habits which absolutely, when there's something I don't want to do, break it down to those meaningful chunks. You know, one thing. Now, there was a time where I would say I would have buried my head in my calls for two hours. Maybe there's just too many red dots in the world now. So whether it be 30 minutes at a time, whether it be five calls at a time, I don't care. Five emails, five messages, five clicks. Something that just gets the action going. Because nothing inspires action like action.
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. And dude, it's to me, like, I think that with everything that is at our disposal now, it almost creates analysis paralysis more than anything because there is so much information at your disposal. There is so many get rich quick or 5 minute abs or all that goes on out there. Nobody actually wants to talk about the discipline and like, the time it takes to achieve a lot of these things. And you know, again, it's taken me five years. When it really, when it boils down to it's taken me five years to keep £70 off my frame. Five years, right? And it was a lot of me thinking I had it all figured or like, it was a lot of me thinking that there was an easier route.
And probably four of those years were spent trying to find the easy route. One year was when I finally. Then this was this last year when I finally had the realization, like, there is no easy route. You just gotta do it and it's gonna suck, but guess what? It's gonna be worth it. And I'm sitting here and trying to tell you guys, like, it is completely worth it. But just focus on the day straight up, just focus on the day when shit's really hard for me, you guys, because I'm not just like this all the time, right? Like, I have fucking worries and doubts just like every single one of you. I just focus on my next task, right? As soon as we're done with this, guess what? My next task? Make more cold calls. Right?
Like, so as soon as I'm done talking to Nick, this is all I'm focused on right now. But as soon as this is done, that's my next task and that's all I'm going to focus on until that is done and then I'm going to go forward with it. And again, it's like I've made a very big push to limit social media. I will only go on LinkedIn during the workday and that is if it is for a revenue generating activity. Like I'm not going to doom scroll on there or anything like that. It is a revenue generating activity only, otherwise I'm out and I'm working on my business.
One of the, you mentioned the word one again and when you mentioned that your word of the year is consistency. My word for this year is one. And it's about one thing at a time, one thing only at a time, and one thing until it's done. Because that's where I'm very good at the focus and the one thing at a time. But I'm not as good about just do this one thing until it's done. And so I realized I've had too much of a spray and pray, you know, sort of approach to the year. But also there's a lot of learning, you know, to your point, like you had to learn what works for you, what doesn't. And so I've been doing that as well.
And now I'm just going to get a lot more targeted because I do believe you move a lot more faster. At the same time, I don't need to be all things to all people. I need to learn how to do one thing well and then I can learn how to do the next thing well and I can conquer that one domino and then conquer each domino from there. Yeah, I lost 40 pounds long before I ever considered Spartan or anything like that. It was, and it was all by managing the macros. It was one small decision at a time, just putting my calories into an app, making small, better decisions. I, it was something I had. Oh yeah. So when a friend of mine from high school had asked me how long it took me to lose that 40 pounds, I answered him.
I said about six years, five and a half years of bitching about it and six months of losing the weight.
Yeah, dude, that's, I mean, I had Mike Lombard on the show last week and he was saying that he's down, I think he's down like £100, but was over six years and stuff like that. And you know, again it is, it's just that I, I think it's a lot of things that most individuals and this is for me anyways, a lot of things I want to accomplish. It's simple. It's just not easy. You know, it's simple on what to do. It's just not easy and it's never going to come as fast as you want. But again, like if it didn't, if it came quick and I don't think anybody would appreciate that like the discipline and the framework and everything that comes along with it to keep it up long term, right.
It's just like at this point where, you know, I've bootstrapped my businesses for the last, you know, it'll be five years here in April since I've been self employed and I've bootstrapped everything from the beginning. Dollar in, dollar out the whole time. I've never had investment or anything like that. I have the confidence now, like I don't want investment and this isn't me saying that I do, but I have the confidence now that if somebody gave me $10 million to grow my company, I would properly allocate it. I wouldn't easy in, easy out mentality with which comes a lot of. With it, right? And you know, and again I'll equate it down to, you know, the quick buck that you make in business or like the quick weight that you might drop.
Then you think you got it all figured out and then you spike back up and all of that stuff, right? So again, back down to the consistency. I'm just focusing on that, right. Like, and I'm trying to make it as simple as possible in my mind so I can stick with it long term and then assess it on a day by day basis and then look at it by a month and then six months and then the year and everything and then really attack it like that. But I just think everybody needs to choose one thing. What is it? You know, maybe they want to make more sales calls. Maybe they want to lose weight. For me, Nick, everything's connected. Mind, body, soul, output, all of that stuff is connected.
And sometimes it's just more beneficial to choose one thing to focus on right now as opposed to looking at, you know, the, to like at least this was for me, I like five years ago. I'm like, dude, you're a fucking dumpster fire of a person. You Got to get your shit together. And that was me talking to myself. And then it was a dude. It's just been one thing at a time, man. It's just been one thing at a time, one area of improvement at a time. And it's. It's not sexy. None of what I do in a day is sexy, but it's effective.
Good habits are a gateway drug.
Yeah, no, they are.
I didn't sign up for hundreds of races. I didn't change my diet. I signed up for one race.
Yeah.
And I started training for it, and then I wanted another race, and so I started stretching and I started adding nutrition. And, you know, the. It's. It's a constant evolution. I'm 45 now, too, and body's gonna keep changing. Things are going to keep changing. I'm gonna get other needs. I don't know if I'm going to be doing endurance, like, athletics and stuff forever either. So there may be something else that I adopt into my life, but I know that this, the higher purpose for me is to be happy, joyous, and free to live a fit and active lifestyle. So whether it be endurance racing, maybe I pick up pickleball one day, I don't know. But something's going to keep me active because I don't want to go back to the way I was. I don't want to go back to who I was.
I have a thousand times more energy throughout the day. Getting the blood flowing is not just a metaphor. These are real things that, like, you feel better, you're more productive, and I'm able to help people. So whether the vehicle for what I do is marathons and obstacle course racing, whether it just be bike riding, I don't know. There's always going to be something. I hope that keeps me engaged in an active lifestyle.
All right. As we're wrapping up here, this flew by, and I knew it would. But I want to look at it like this. I want, like, say there's one thing I want. People, you know, everybody's got that one thing that they want to change, right? What is something that anybody who's listening to this can do, you know, and insert it, use a broad term from it. But again, it's that one thing, whether it's their weight, make more sales calls, grow their business, what is it that they can do? What is one thing that can show an actionable results over time? I'll put it. Because nothing's going to be instant gratification.
So if we want to pick, lose weight, sure. 30 minutes 30 minutes Walk in a day. One thing. Yeah, one thing. Change your life. All right? Absolutely. Change your life. As a matter of fact, I'm going to give that answer across the board. If your thing is about making more money in sales, schedule 30 minutes a day of uninterrupted outbound sales calls.
Yep.
The, the X factor. Schedule it, block it off, turn your cell phone off, turn other things off, remove distractions. Say during this time, I'm doing this one thing. So break it down to the wildly specific and stupidly simple action step. And that always, almost always comes down to schedule it. If you don't know how to do it, Google it or just do the thing right now.
Yeah, dude, I, I think it is really that simple, you guys. It. It is that simple. And then it's do it every single day, though. Like every single day. I, I look at it from a growth perspective, Nick. It is way more effective for you to go on a 30 minute walk every single day for a month straight. Then it like it to increase it to 45 one day and then, you know, maybe you're up to an hour, but then one day you're like, oh, I'm only going to do it for 15 minutes because I'm only averaging 30. No, it's 30 minutes a day every single day. Or it's 30 minutes of uninterrupted sales calls a day every single day.
Totality of the actions that add up.
Not, not just like, hey, I made an hour today, so I'm not going to do it tomorrow or anything like that. Like, just do the one thing and give yourself 30 days and I will sit here and guarantee you will see different results. You will see greater results just by doing something like that. But Nick, A, thank you for joining me. Robert Peterson was right. Like, I am ready to go rock some stuff out right now. How, how does anybody reach out to you to find out more about what you have going on with your company?
Find me anywhere on social media at Stride Motivation. Doom. Scroll away. I post everywhere every day. Or you can find me on my website@stride motivation.com I love it.
Nick, thank you so much for joining me. That's going to be today, you guys. We got more guests coming on this week, but as always, if you guys got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show. If you're feeling motivated, which I know you are after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify. Do me that solid. Because if you see value, that's how your network's going to see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys, and we'll be talking to you soon. Dude, that was money.