Driver Recruiting Happy Hour Podcast

Darin:
Cheers everybody, and welcome to the Driver Recruiting Happy Hour podcast. My name is Darin Williams. I'm the President of CDLjobs.com with me, as always, is the President of Ten4 Recruiting, and a man who just narrowly lost his bid to become the Tennessee Congressman, Matt Beach.

Beach:
So, short of you

Darin:
Beach, in retrospect, was it a good idea to wear jorts and an American flag blazer to all your fundraisers?

Beach:
Well, you know, I always, I always wanna say, first of all, thank you for America. Thank you for my mom, dad, love you for all the, just all the wonderful things.

Darin:
Do you think they would vote for you if you ran for Congress?

Beach:
No. No.

Darin:
Your parents would not vote for you?

Beach:
No, not, they would go, we we're already smelling through the bullshit. We're not doing this. No, no, no.

Darin:
<Laugh>

Beach:
Get him off the ballot. Now

Darin:
We know this kid.

Beach:
We do have a, we have a, we have a, a niche here in Chattanooga, there's, there's at least two, there's 17 of us that when we go vote, we have to at least write in one person's name. And so this year I was the chosen one for a write in for a particular spot. And yeah, I got 17 votes, I'll say that.

Darin:
So if you get your, is it enough to get your name on the TV scroller?

Beach:
No. No, no. Not even enough. Not even a percent. Nothing. Not even that. And so, but still, it's nice to know that I was voted for, because that's the one thing is, especially in our neighborhood, you know, neighborhood, you're not supposed to have like any political signs. I'm like, well, I'm gonna have a political sign cuz it's my yard. Right? And the HOAs like No, you can't; I'm like, we're putting a sign out. So I,

Darin:
In place of the Halloween decorations.

Beach:
Yeah. I just want, I just want to do, all I wanna do is hold on a second. I just wanna go in and just have a sign made that is nothing that just says Vote Beach. I don't care what, just whatever it is. And they're like, well, what are you running for? I don't know. Just vote. Just go put my name down.

Aaron Craddock:
Would it still be your face? Like the stickers?

Beach:
Yeah. I mean, the sticker thing is just, it is blown up. Right? I mean, I've got some right here. Look at this. It's just like a deck of cards. It's a deck of Beach. <Laugh>

Darin:
Beach. It's a beach, all right? Holy cow. That's a good place to stop that.

Beach:
But I just, I just wanna be able to have, I just wanna put a sign out there, it says Vote Beach. And people are like, what? What is he running for?

Darin:
What are you running for?

Beach:
What's he doing? You know, and just, and just stir it up.

Darin:
Well, I served as the mayor of my small town several years ago, and somebody with the name Williams was running for Senate or Congress or something, I don't even know. And so a sign started popping up and people thought I had lost my mind and decided to go for some regional or state government, which I have not, will not, but anyway, enough about that. Enough about politics. Holy cow. We're gonna get canceled. We, we should be canceled.

Beach:
We should, that's fine. I'm ok with that.

Darin:
It might be best. But hey, Beach, our guest today is the CEO of Trucking Clicks with an L, Aaron Craddock. Aaron, tell the story about what Beach thought you were doing when you met him.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. So

Darin:
What your website was.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. So I was at an industry conference not too long ago and walked, I came up the escalator and I was like, Hey Matt, you know, I've seen your stuff on social media a few times. I know we haven't talked that many times. And he was staring at my name tag and he was like, Trucking Chicks? And I was like, and then and we just had a good laugh over that. And again, there's, you know, a million different business ideas in the space. It wouldn't be...

Beach:
And I think that could be it. That could be the one.

Darin:
Somebody's registering the name right now.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. I shoulda gone ahead and bought the domain.

Darin:
There you go.

Beach:
Already. That's not already. It's trucking chicks.net

Aaron Craddock:
<Laugh> net. Seem to get more, more sketchy. I like it.

Beach:
<Laugh>. Oh,

Darin:
So tell us a little bit about TruckingClicks, Aaron.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah, so I,

Darin:
Five minute, the 5 cent tour.

Aaron Craddock:
All right. I'll do the quick version. So I've been in the space about 11 years and worked at a one of, one of the larger digital,

Darin:
You can say it

Aaron Craddock:
Randall Riley for a number of years.

Darin:
Oh, I didn't know it was that. You shouldn't have said that.

Aaron Craddock:
And then <laugh>,

Beach:
What are you doing? What are you doing? <Laugh>

Aaron Craddock:
I had a great career there. Really enjoyed my time and built out the performance marketing department from around four people to 60 people. And then flash forward a few years, like I was working on some moonshot projects, doing addressable TV in the transportation space and a few other things. And, and I get called in one day and, and lose my job. And and that, you know, that was a hard moment and spent a little time reflecting and about, I went and got a Diet Cherry Limeade and was sipping on it by the river. I remember that distinctly. I highly recommend it from Sonic. And then I was like, how do I tell my wife I got laid off? And long story short, like I mean, the next day at 8:00 AM I started working on Cradock Holdings at the time which was our general marketing brand doing marketing for a bunch of different companies and real estate and other markets for a while as I waited out my non-compete. And then got back into the trucking industry and we launched TruckingClicks.com at MATS last year. Our team has over $150 million in ad buying experience in the driver recruiting space and over, over 50 years experience. And so yeah, but's still, you know, a small team of nine and do driver recruitment marketing.

Darin:
And we kind of connected because I saw that story on LinkedIn and chimed in that that's kind of how I started what I do. I had a very similar, except I was kind of I quit

Beach:
It wasn't Cherry Limeade, was it?

Darin:
And there was no Cherry Limeade,you know me better than that Beach

Beach:
Now Aaron, I wasn't meaning to laugh, but it was just like, I just got a cherry limeade and just had to sit down, figure things out. Cuz I know it would've not been a cherry limeade

Darin:
If there was a drink involved, it was not a cherry limeade. My wife was at home on bedrest, expecting our second child when I quit my job with no pay.

Aaron Craddock:
Oh wow, yeah.

Darin:
Yeah. It wasn't very popular decision in the Williams household.

Aaron Craddock:
I can't imagine

Darin:
It all turned out well.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah, my wife's first question was, do we have to sell the house? And thankfully, you know, I didn't take a paycheck for a couple years outta the business, but we didn't have to sell our house, so we still got that going for us. So

Darin:
Having a place to live is always nice.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. Yep.

Darin:
Yeah, my wife's first question was, well, what are you gonna do? And I said, well, right now I'm gonna go cut the grass. We'll figure it out later. And it came, it it works. It's a great great industry to be in. And yeah, Randall there Pettus Randall is kind of the godfather of all this stuff, man. If you trace it back to him and Marvin Shefsky and even Keith Pollard was kind of a guy, you know, that's still around, Keith's still in, in the business. But yeah, Randall Riley's been a, been a stronghold in this industry for as long as I've been in it. And I started in 93, I think.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. I actually remember having a lunch with Mike Riley and I was asking him again, and I'm always business focused. I was like, what stock should I invest in? And he was like, Aaron, you need to invest in yourself, like invest in your own business and your own opportunity at some point. And so I kind of remembered, you know, when I got laid off, like I kind of remembered that and yeah. Went with it. So, good group.

Darin:
Yeah. Well, congratulations. It seems to have been been a successful move for you.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah, it's been, it's, there's been ups and downs. Like there was one time early where we lost all of our business like on a, on a Thursday. Yeah. Like, I mean, we had,

Darin:
Like every client said we were taking this month off.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah, yeah. It was, it was, you know, before we got back into trucking.

Darin:
Right back to the Cherry Limeade.

Beach:
Yeah, exactly. Going back to the park and siton my bench with the Cherry Limeade. I'll be right back

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah, I, you know, I debated that. I probably did, honestly, I still, I still have one of those at least once a week, but no, but the next day, like, just kind of a story of God providing the next day it was like on a, a Friday and then Monday was the start of the month. Like we had a new deal roll in that ended up being as much revenue as we had lost.

Beach:
Oh wow.

Aaron Craddock:
Like, so it was like within 24 hours. And that's kind the story of the entrepreneurial journey. It's like it can change every 24 hours. It's like you're pulling your hair out and things like that.

Darin:
Yeah. Hey, look, I've been in it a lot longer than you have. Look what happened to me.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah, I, so I guess my destiny is, is this, this hair

Beach:
Started off right now. I've got like this little island right here and I have to shave it cuz it's just separating from its continent. It's just

Aaron Craddock:
<Affirmative>.

Darin:
Beach is still young enough that he could grow hair if he wants to. I'm, I'm kinda, that ship has sailed.

Beach:
Oh no, it, it's, it's like, it like if I, if I grew my hair out right now, I would look like Gallagher and rest in peace, by the way, Gallagher.

Darin:
Oh, let's do that.

Beach:
Wouldn't that be great?

Darin:
Absolutely. If you did that, if you started that right now by the Recruit and Retain conference in February, it would be prime time.

Aaron Craddock:
It is No Shave November. So I think that should apply to your hair.

Beach:
I did a mustache and I wasn't like a it did not, it didn't fit. Well, let's just say that it didn't look good.

Aaron Craddock:
I feel like that would make better, better stickers if you make it a little more unique. You know, this little fro going on in the back and then

Darin:
Exactly. Gallagher haircut and a Fu Manchu. I say we let the people decide.

Beach:
I agree. I agree. And on top of that, what is the best Sonic drink? And and for me is a Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper with cherries and real strawberries added. I'm calling it.

Aaron Craddock:
That sounds strong. I wanna hear

Beach:
It's a strong, it's a strong mood. It's, it's a strong play and it is strong all, all over. I mean, it's just strong flavor. The whole thing is just amazing.

Aaron Craddock:
And it's

Darin:
So as someone who's older than you guys and is watching his cholesterol and I, I don't think I've ever had a fountain drink from Sonic. Apparently you can make your own, you mix and match these things.

Beach:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Darin:
It's not, you just don't order a diet Coke.

Beach:
No, no. You don't want to go, you don't go through the line. You don't sit in the line for that long just to order a large diet Coke. You've gotta add

Darin:
It's gotta be some sort of circus thing.

Beach:
Yeah. Gimme a Diet Coke with Nerd candy added to it. That's exactly what I want.

Darin:
Are you making that up or will they really do that?

Beach:
Yeah, they'll do that.

Aaron Craddock:
Oh yeah,

Beach:
Yeah.

Aaron Craddock:
I need to try the Nerds in my Diet Cherry Limeade. I might, I might mix it up and do a post.

Beach:
You should. So my son gets a blue Powerade Blast with Nerd candy added to it.

Aaron Craddock:
That's awesome.

Beach:
It's very, it's it's tasty. Let's just say that.

Darin:
It sounds like more sugar than you should have in a month.

Beach:
Yeah. Yeah. That's why 13

Darin:
<Laugh> all for 39 cents.

Aaron Craddock:
See Matt, Matt and I are at least getting the, the fake sugar that's even worse for us, you know, in

Darin:
The diet. The Diet Cherry Limeade with the Nerds in it. Yeah. Yeah.

Beach:
My, my whole thing is I'm just hoping that, that when I add like a good bourbon to it, it just kills, it just burns up that bad stuff. And just level flip and something.

Darin:
Yeah. Don't, don't, don't mix good bourbon with Nerd candy.

Aaron Craddock:
I don't think he's saying at the same time. I think he's

Beach:
No, I'm just talking about like a coke. Like a Coke zero aspertame or what is it? What's the fake sugar called? What is it? Just fake sugar. It doesn't really hurt me.

Darin:
High fructose syrup.

Beach:
Yeah, the bourbon's actually burning me up. And so it helps in my digestive system. So in my mind I'm, I'm okay.

Aaron Craddock:
See people didn't know they were coming here for health advice, but

Darin:
There you go.

Beach:
All kinda things.

Darin:
<Laugh>. Yeah. If they came here for health advice, bourbon and, and Nerd soda is probably not the best idea.

Beach:
So trucking, TruckingClicks. How, how many, how many people you got right now working with you?

Aaron Craddock:
We have nine, nine people right now. But in the, you know, it, the name of the game is cash and making sure we don't burn up all our resources. So a lot of, a lot of our team is fractional, so we have some people on the team that may work 10 hours a week, 20 hours a week. And then we have four full-time folks on the team, team on the team right now. So

Darin:
You have a brick and mortar standalone place or does, is it remote? Everything? Remote.

Aaron Craddock:
So we planned on being in office out of co-working spaces and so our main office is in Tuscaloosa. And so we have an office there, but only one person works out of it. I just moved to Austin, Texas about four months ago and we have an office in Giddings, Texas as well. And so I was actually in that office yesterday. We had some client meetings in person and then working outta my house today. So, so because of Covid we, we shifted our model from mostly in person teams to now just letting people work from wherever.

Darin:
It may have been the biggest benefit of the pandemic is the education that, that people went through. And I'll tell you, I mean there was a lot of people that were on the forefront of it. Matt works for one of 'em that started figuring out how to do orientations, which I thought was gonna kill our industry. Yeah. specifically my business that man, nobody's gonna need truck drivers cuz they can't send 'em to orientation and people much smarter than I figured out how to do that online. And I think it's just, it was a, it was a huge shove in the right direction for our industry that was, that tends to lag a little bit behind the other industries. You know, we're kinda at the backside of the bell curve usually when it comes to technology. That really was a boost I think.

Aaron Craddock:
I think it jumped us forward like five years easily, like in terms of just the digital communication and ability for people to work from wherever. It's been really cool.

Darin:
So I, I noticed you have an MBA. Does that come from the University of Alabama?

Aaron Craddock:
It does. Roll Tide, actually.

Darin:
Is that in crayon or how does the Alabama MBA, is that on construction paper?

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah, it's on like a

Darin:
Googly eyes or a big star? What is it?

Aaron Craddock:
They spring for the heavy card stock with crayon.

Beach:
It's those Lite Brite push things. You know what I'm talking about?

Aaron Craddock:
<Laugh>Plug it in? Yep.

Darin:
We have to get that. There's a lot of people, a lot of Alabama people in our industry. A lot of Alabama fans.

Aaron Craddock:
And isn't that weird? Like how much of the industry is in

Beach:
It's all in Alabama

Darin:
It all started in Anniston, Alabama.

Aaron Craddock:
Anniston Alabama and a little bit of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. That's kinda the central

Beach:
Favorite BBQ in Tuscaloosa?

Darin:
The digest the digest size books, which are kind of a, you know, a little bit of a dinosaur anymore. They're still, there's still at least one or two that are, that are very popular out there. But when they started Marvin Shefsky started them in Atlanta and then there was a, I can't remember the name of the company that, that got this thing going, but that gave you your Keith Pollards and the guys that all started and they were all from Anniston, Alabama.

Beach:
Yeah.

Darin:
And when they just, when they quit working, you know, together that one start another one and pretty soon you've got 20 of 'em all right there. All very successful and then did a great job, man. It was kind crazy for a while.

Aaron Craddock:
And most of 'em are, most of 'em are still in the industry too. Like we've had, you know, a few,

Darin:
Yeah, a lot of people,

Aaron Craddock:
A few leave the industry in the last five years maybe, but most of 'em are still, still at it all over the place.

Darin:
Yeah.

Beach:
Well I, what's favorite barbecue in Tuscaloosa?

Aaron Craddock:
Ooh. I guess I would have to go, u there's Nick's in the Sticks. It's kind of an off the grid place. I know most people say Dreamland, but

Beach:
Well see, I would go to the original Dreamland and get just a rack. Just, just gimme a rack of ribs and then I would go to Archibald's and get the sauce.

Aaron Craddock:
Yep.

Beach:
That's all I wanted. I hated their bar. I hated their ribs, but I love Archibald sauce and I hated, or I love Archibald, but I hated Dreamland sauce. I, I just finally didn't, they finally caught on what I was doing and guys was like, I'm here's, here's your, here's your little thing of salt, but you're gonna pay 20 bucks for it.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. This is probably an insult to Alabama, but I've had better, better barbecue here so far.

Beach:
In Austin?

Aaron Craddock:
So there's, yeah, there's a place called Rudy's that's like, it's like out of a gas station, like the one I go to

Beach:
Gas station?

Aaron Craddock:
No, but it has like, I mean brisket, that is phenomenal.

Beach:
Well see now what's is like Bucky's

Aaron Craddock:
We went Sunday.

Beach:
Bucky's is like supposedly known for their brisket,

Aaron Craddock:
So yeah, I haven haven't gotten brisket there, but I was at, at coming back from our Giddings Texas office yesterday. I was at Bucky's and had to not buy my son more Bucky's toys. Those are his favorite, favorite one

Beach:
I went to, I went to one on right up out of Corbin Kentucky and just like, not impressed. The bathroom's very clean. I enjoyed the bathroom experience. Yeah. Other than that, <laugh> not a fan. I walked in and was like, get me outta here, let's get me outta here. I was claustrophobic. Didn't wanna deal with it.

Darin:
Right. From someone who lives above the Mason Dixon line. What is Bucky's?

Beach:
Oh my gosh. Where have you been? Bro?

Darin:
Iowa.

Aaron Craddock:
So

Darin:
I've never, I don't know what Bucky's about.

Aaron Craddock:
It is a giant gas station that is kind of what it started with, with clean bathrooms. But it has just amazing food, beef jerky. I mean it's like a whole shopping experience.

Darin:
Convenience store.

Beach:
Yeah. We're not gonna get sponsored by Buckys by no means after what I just said.

Darin:
Not after what you just said.

Beach:
No, I I wasn't, I wasn't over, I wasn't over the top. Wasn't over the top. Everybody's like, we gotta drop. So there's a like of Buckys that's literally, I don't know, 30 minutes down the road and people wake up in the morning on Saturday, gotta go to Buckys, we gotta go shopping, we gotta get Christmas gifts, we gotta do all this. I mean, but I hear my, my my my sister just spec just says that the, it is the best brisket ever.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. They have a brisket sandwich that's really good. So my son, so my son, guess what my son was for Halloween.

Beach:
Bucky's.

Aaron Craddock:
You got context. So Yes. My, my, my mom bought him a Bucky's costume and so he was a little Bucky running around.

Darin:
Is Bucky a beaver? I would guess.

Aaron Craddock:
Beaver, yes.

Darin:
He's a beaver. Hey, how about that?

Aaron Craddock:
My son was rocking the, the beaver tail and Bucky costume. He got so many compliments. It's, he's a celebrity. Bucky's a celebrity.

Darin:
He's a celebrity.

Beach:
<Laugh>

Darin:
A celebrity in Austin or Tuscaloosa? I mean what city are we?

Aaron Craddock:
This is Austin. They have one in close to Tuscaloosa now.

Beach:
There's gotta be one closer, but there's gotta be one up Iowa. I bet there is.

Darin:
I've never heard of it.

Beach:
I can't, well I can't believe it.

Aaron Craddock:
It just started expanding out of Texas not too long ago.

Beach:
They won't take truck drivers.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah.

Darin:
Why would you want 'em as a sponsor?

Beach:
Well, I know, but I just said they won't take you. It's like the big thing that no truck drivers allowed. Huh?

Aaron Craddock:
I think about that.

Darin:
They specifically say that?

Aaron Craddock:
That's the sign. Yeah, it has a sign. When I drove in yesterday, it has No and then the little semi truck.

Beach:
Yep.

Darin:
Wow.

Beach:
I mean the gas is, how how many gas that, how many gas pumps do you think there are? At least 200.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. That, that's probably not far fetched. I mean they're on all sides.

Beach:
Yeah, it's crazy.

Aaron Craddock:
I mean the place is like, I mean the parking lot and gas pumps like the size of a Walmart parking lot,

Darin:
But they don't have road fuel diesel.

Beach:
Mm-Hmm. Hmm. I yeah, they do for, you know, your standard truck.

Darin:
Well yeah, like number two diesel or whatever. So, but they won't even let a driver pull a semi in there just to stop and go buy his kid a Bucky's costume.

Beach:
Nope.

Aaron Craddock:
You got to park next door.

Beach:
Yep.

Darin:
Huh? That seems like a bold business decision.

Beach:
It is.

Aaron Craddock:
They're rocking and rolling.

Beach:
They're they're blowing it up. Blowing it up.

Aaron Craddock:
Oh, I had to, I had to not buy the Bucky little stuffed animal that had a Santa Claus beard yesterday. So, so yep.

Beach:
Hey, so Aaron, I have another, another industry que what do you, what do you find it most challenging about the trucking industry, especially in the, in on the side of the business you're on?

Aaron Craddock:
Oh man, that's a tough question. I think, I think it's still talent. Like just the, the amount of expertise you have to have to understand the applicant tracking systems, to understand the industry terms, to understand just the different marketing techniques. It's unlike any other industry. Like, just in terms of lead gen the way you do it. And so yeah, I would say just still there's more talent in the industry now than you know, when I started a decade or so ago. But there's still not, I mean you still have to, I'm just finding that you still have to train a lot of new talent just to get, because I mean it, a lot of times it takes five years before you even understand. I mean, I'm still learning new terminology today and, and new systems, new vendors, new it's just it's own unique separate ecosystem. I would kinda be curious what y'all's thoughts are on that.

Beach:
I created a crossword puzzle for people coming new into the industry for recruiters.

Aaron Craddock:
Yes, I need this.

Beach:
I'll send it to you. And so it is actually, it's, it's tough. It's tough. I even created it and went back through it and forgot and missed several of the answers going, what the heck did I, what was my brain thinking? <Laugh>,

Aaron Craddock:
I wanna try to do it with no, no help and see how

Beach:
Yeah. See how good you come out of. Yeah. Of like,

Darin:
That might be the most Beach thing that's ever been said in this podcast. You designed the crossword and then you couldn't complete it.

Aaron Craddock:
<Laugh>

Beach:
Nailed it, <laugh>. I even wrote the word. I was like, I know it don't fit, but it makes the... Like it was hazmat: H-A-Z-M-A..., I really need that in. I'm going with it. <Laugh>.

Darin:
We may need to leave that out.

Aaron Craddock:
They still sound about the same, HAZMAT.

Beach:
HAZMA.

Darin:
Well I can tell you when I started on when I started the industry, I didn't know anything from up from anything. And I went through a two and a half day driver orientation. They gave me a pad of paper and a telephone and said, hire drivers. That was it. Go, baptism by fire.

Aaron Craddock:
How'd you do out of the gate?

Darin:
It was a struggle.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah.

Darin:
And I, you know what? It's really scary. 30 years later there's still some companies that do that.

Aaron Craddock:
Oh yeah,

Beach:
Yeah. So here, here, here go go talk to someone about something you have no, you know, mention the word CPM and then explain to 'em exactly what that is. I have no idea.

Darin:
Sell em on it.

Beach:
<Laugh> what about percentage? What about this? I, I I mean it is one of the, you know, I thought, and, and a lot of them are, but we had a, I had a huge bump. So I all my, all my recruiters, we've got 44 recruiters right now and they're all 1099 independent contractors. My whole main focus is if I could find everyone that knew Tenstreet experience, which the majority of 'em do, but the ones who've never done it before, it's about a two week, three week process of training them. Kinda like we were saying, getting to know the verbiage and what to say and getting that script down, you know. But, you know, I thought, man, surely what the, the, the people who would win in this is, and one, especially the ones who have never done this industry before, is the ones who like, who can call people to say, Hey, you need to pay your medical bill.
Right? And make, and how they get hung up on and and told multiple times where you can go do it yourself and everything else. And so I'm like, I want those people, I want those people to make a hundred calls. Like your mentality is I can pick up that phone right there and I can make a hundred calls today with no problem, boom, get I need you. Because to me that's one of the hardest parts.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah it is.

Beach:
Being able to can, your mentality is, are you okay to sit here and do this? Cause if you're not, that's the, that that's to me is a, is a thing that I can't teach. I can't force you to do this cuz if you don't like it, I can't, I can train you what to say. I can give you a script, I can show you how to maneuver within the ATS. But other than that, if you can't, if you're not willing to do this and then you're not okay with people telling you No you know, out of a hundred calls, 90 of them are gonna tell you no or you're not gonna get an answer. That's, that's, that's tough.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. Yeah. I, I struggle with that. Like just getting told No, like I, you know, I'm such a people pleaser and don't, yeah just getting, just even, you know, getting told no, like as we're trying to make a sale or prospect a new client, like a lot of times I won't make the calls because I don't want the potential of someone saying no. So I definitely couldn't do a hundred calls a day.

Darin:
Yeah, it's tough. Any persistence. It's, it's, it's a sales job now. It's no longer, I mean we call it recruiting, but it's sales. You've gotta have plans and processes and follow up

Beach:
Hundred percent.

Darin:
Organizational, I mean it's, it's just not the way it used to be. And honest when I started, again, it's been almost 30 years I was a glorified order taker. We had a package that sold itself wrote down information, got 'em into orientation and we went. It was very simple. Yeah, it's changed a lot, a lot.

Aaron Craddock:
Were there even applicant tracking systems back then, or was that before?

Darin:
No, there wasn't even computers back then. Aaron <laugh>. Seriously, I was doing on a, a steno pad and a pencil. No joke. All our papers, everything we did for the DOT was paper.

Beach:
Rolodex.

Darin:
Yeah, Fred Flinstone was my first boss. <Laugh>. Yeah. It was a, I mean the the, the, the inception of all that started shortly thereafter, but I mean nothing like it is today. We, we were placing newspaper ads magazine ads and that was it.

Beach:
I, I think it, I find it, I find it super interesting that, you know, I, I was at Covenant Transport for a long time and then looking back at some of their old school photos, it was like everyone was forced, like you, part of the, you had to wear uniform, uniform was a, a suit and a tie every day you showed up was a suit and tie bag. And then I'm like to recruit drivers. Oh yeah, yeah you do. You showed up in nice dress. You had tell 'em like what for? Well that and then you had somebody, we gotta bring that right back. That's what we need to bring back. I'm like, oh no, I wanna wear my camo

Darin:
<Laugh>. Yeah,

Beach:
No, don't do that. But I remember I was part of that during that phase when they started transitioning out of that, you know, business attire to that more business casual type scenario and which I love, you know, but at the same time it's just neat to see that transition just in business. Just in business in general. Just how you know, and now like what you talking about here we are, majority of us are working from home. Yeah. And I would find it interest, I would find it would be interesting to know actually, whatever, wherever that data is to go, is it more productive now or is it less productive?

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah,

Beach:
I don't know, I mean, I, I like to work from home, I don't get me wrong, the freedom of it, I, I come in the office four days a week just to be able to kind of get, cuz I, it's hard for me to be at home. I'm that I am again, I am the, the dog from Up, squirrel, you know, literally looking at the window constantly.

Aaron Craddock:
Me too.

Beach:
Yeah. And so I just can't, it's, it's tough. I've gotta be in a, I'm not, I've gotta be in an office box top setting to be able to fully focus and get stuff done. Other than that I'm like, that, that's, that's gotta be fixed over there. Look at that leg of that chair. It's crooked, now I gotta go fix that.

Darin:
I used to be that way and that's why, I mean when I started, I worked out of my home. And it got to the point where we needed to buy an office and, and, and go that route. And now I work from home at least three days a week.

Beach:
Yeah.

Darin:
I mean I'm perfectly, I think I am more productive when I work from home. I just, I don't know, it's just a complete mind shift than what it was for me 20 years ago.

Aaron Craddock:
Yeah. I'm still about 50, like 50% as productive from home. About half. Like, cuz I, same thing. Like I'll be like, oh, I need to fix the, you know, just whatever.

Darin:
So Aaron, what's the future look like? Are you gonna stick slow, kind of focus your efforts specifically to trucking now? Or are you still doing other industries? Are you gonna go back to that? What's the

Beach:
It better be baseball Trucking Chicks, I mean, Clicks it better be

Darin:
Besides TruckingChicks.com.

Aaron Craddock:
So TruckingClicks.com, we yeah, so we we're gonna, we're right now a hundred percent focused on transportation. We do have some other client leads that come into us and we've been giving those to partner partner companies that we've trained up. And so I have other people running those with their own businesses. Even some people on the team have marketing companies on the side. And so we'll funnel that business over their, their business. Just because like I, I missed the trucking industry having to, you know, I was in it nine years and then had to be out for two and I didn't know that I would miss the trucking industry as much as I did. But I did. And I just think there's a lot of opportunity to improve the industry and and, and both of y'all have been a part of that in y'all's businesses and in innovating coming up with new processes and so yeah, no, I think, yeah, we're just gonna focus on TruckingClicks.com right now.
There is, I mean, in the long term plan, like to have different companies like RealEstateClicks.com and you know, student, student recruit recruitment and stuff like that. But right now we're just really narrow focus. And you kinda have to be with a limited number of resources and team members. So we're all in on trucking and yeah, we, we five x the company last year and then about doubled this year. And, and our goal is to double again this next year. And so yeah, we think there's just a lot of opportunity in, in innovating in the, in the trucking space. So, and that's where most of our expertise is on the team. Everybody I've been hiring.

Darin:
Nice. Well, thank you for joining us today. Don't completely close the door on the TruckingChicks.net thing.

Beach:
Go with it with, we're giving you the opportunity to take.

Darin:
We'll see where that takes us. But hey, thanks again for joining us. I know we brought you outta your comfort zone a little bit today, but it was good for all of us.

Aaron Craddock:
I like it. Thank you guys. Appreciate your time.

Beach:
I owe you a crossword puzzle.

Aaron Craddock:
Yes.

Beach:
<Laugh>

Darin:
That's right. Hey, thanks everybody. Until next time, be safe and keep on trucking.

Beach:
See ya Aaron. See you guys.

Aaron Craddock:
Bye thanks.