In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Desmond Clark, President of Bear Down Logistics.

Join them as they:

Desmond Clark is an ex NFL player turned motivational speaker who is also President of Bear Down Logistics, an asset based transportation company operating out of Central Florida. 

[15:06] When he first founded Bear Down Logistics, Desmond struggled to get customers, constantly reaching out but not getting any loads. After about six weeks, someone gave him an opportunity to show what the company could offer. Working as a one-man company at the time, he wore every hat from operations to sales trying to get the ball rolling. When this customer sent him the load details, he didn’t know what to do with it all, and so had to speak to his associate, Brian, to get some help in reading through the information. It was an incredibly exciting time for Desmond, but also very nerve-wracking as he felt he had to get it 100% right.

[21:30] Every day Desmond follows the mantra “how do I win the day?” He even brings it into his daily meetings with his agents, asking them for their win the day before. The entire company is wrapped around the idea of doing things at the highest level, of executing excellence consistently over time. It’s not about perfection, but of constantly trying to improve and level up processes. 

[35:03] For two consecutive years Bear Down Logistics is ending with over a million dollars in revenue, which is already pretty good going. Desmond’s next goal is to add on a zero, increasing it to ten million, with a long-term goal of 100 million in five years. Desmond attributes some of his success to his high school principal saying to him “All you have is your word and your name, if you lose that, you’ve lost it all.” By realizing what he wants his name to mean to both him and everyone else, and by working to constantly stick to his word on that, he has built up a solid brand of authenticity, trust, and relationship building. His advice to anyone starting out in logistics is to do the same: figure out your name and your word and stick to it. 

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