UNCHARTED: How to Maximize Your Business Potential For Lasting Success

Starting the conversation:

Knowing your numbers is more than a survival skill in today’s fast-moving marketplace because candid productive conversations with clients occur with hard proof of where bottlenecks exist and why. Colby Varley, Vice President – Partner at Advanced Transportation Services, shares how he manages constant change in the fast-paced world of transportation logistics, from tackling unexpected challenges during holiday shipping rushes to leveraging data for building trust and long-lasting client relationships.

Striving for excellence requires taking risks, especially in ever-changing situations facing your supply chain. Failure is a stop on the path to finding the best way forward right now, and continuous improvement is a big commitment. Sometimes daunting, continuous improvement allows for the focus to be put on how to get better together and to work with clients where optimization and new opportunities exist.

In this episode, you will hear that quick change is necessary to maintain standards and complete the job; data and technology illuminate problems and possibilities; and a focus on your goals reduces opportunity confusion. Jess Dewell talks with Colby Varley, Vice President – Partner at Advanced Transportation Services, about how it is BOLD to embrace change by knowing your business deeply.

Host: Jess Dewell

Guest: Colby Varley

What You Will Hear:

06:15 Make quick changes when expectations are not met.

• When standards are not met, changes are immediately considered and sometimes quickly implemented.
• Customers and vendors expect swift and thoughtful responses if service standards or agreements are not aligned.
• Taking a temporary step back gives both parties a chance to reset and realign their expectations or performance.

13:20 Trust and relationship-building are the backbone of B2B.

• Building long-term, trust-based relationships drives business-to-business success far more than individual transactions.
• Company reputation is important, but personal accountability and reliability are essential for client retention.
• Sustaining ongoing partnerships requires focus on personal service in addition to leveraging the company’s broader resources.

20:15 Data is a critical differentiator for operational improvement.

• Effective use of data helps track performance, identify problems, and provide transparency for customers.
• Upgrading technology and systems has allowed more granular tracking and reporting of operational metrics, such as on-time delivery.
• Sharing relevant data with customers supports trust, enables process improvements, and opens dialogue for more efficient partnerships.

25:50 Let the business show you where to focus for future improvements.

• Decision-making about changes and investments is guided by business metrics, trends, and real-time needs rather than guesswork.
• Multiple opportunities for improvement can create confusion, so allowing the business’ current reality to dictate priorities provides clarity.
• Technology integration is pursued to empower employees and enhance processes, not to replace people.

31:00 Small changes help make lasting organizational change.

• Change is introduced gradually to reduce resistance and allow time for adaptation.
• Buy-in is cultivated with clear communication about the purpose and expected benefits of new processes or technology.
• Incremental, manageable changes have a higher chance of being sustained and positively impacting the business.

36:25 Continuous reflection and idea tracking as a business owner.

• Continuous evaluation is part of daily life as a business owner, with ideas for process improvements arising frequently.
• Ideas and potential initiatives are documented, often on mobile devices, allowing future review and prioritization.
• Some concepts are set aside for later execution when the business is ready, ensuring ongoing progress and preparedness.

39:45 It is BOLD to know your business deeply.

Resources

• Strawberries Don’t Wait — And Neither Do We
• Colby Varley on LinkedIn

Transcript

Jess Dewell 0:00
You can have a plan, but when that plan changes, there are ripple effects of cost, and you have set up dynamic relationships to be like, hey, we know that this is going to happen, and your clients are like, and we want to work with you.

Colby Varley 0:13
The only thing constant in our business is going to be change. If you’ve got a problem with that, you should probably figure out something else, because if there’s one thing that you could count on every day, it’s going to be change.

Jess Dewell 0:24
I’m so glad you’re here. Thanks for stopping by. At the Bold Business Podcast, we are normalizing important conversations.

Yes, there are tips. Yes, there are ways to solve problems. More importantly are going to be, what do you need for yourself to be able to solve those problems and make the most of the education, the training, and the programs that you are already using?

This is a supplement to that. It can sit on top of it, fuel your soul, fuel your mind, and most importantly, regardless of where you’re at on your journey, maybe you’re starting out. Maybe you’re ready to scale. Maybe you’re going through reinvention. The conversations we are having will help you at each of those stages. Hang around, see what’s going on, and I look forward to seeing you engaging with our videos.

Announcer 1:15
You are listening to the Bold Business Podcast, where you will hear firsthand experiences about what it really takes to ensure market relevance and your company’s future.

Jess Dewell 1:28
I’m excited about sharing this conversation with Colby Varley with you. He is the Vice President and partner of a company today, really shows the gamut of depth of knowledge, firsthand experience, as well as the change over time. And that’s what we’re talking about today, is that change over time and really focusing in on his passion for helping people with product, get it from where the product is grown, or made, or at to where the customers can engage and buy that product.

We took a lot of twists and turns. Three things that I’m excited to tell you that you are going to hear in this. The first is about standards. Being able to quickly change, quickly adapt, and do what it takes to get the job done with mutual respect is something that comes from solid standards that everybody is operating by within his company.

The second is that data and technology plays a bigger role than ever before for this 40-year-old transportation company. And what they’re doing with the data and the conversation that enables and allows is transformative, both for knowledge and deepening that relationship, as well as building trust and improving over time.

And the third thing, this concept of too many good ideas, Colby called it opportunity confusion. And let me tell you, that is real. And he was sharing with us about how there are always going to be so many ideas.

And with all of those good ideas, the business has insight that can be used to make those good decisions so that the day-to-day continues to set up the future for success at the same time. Are there things that you know you tolerate in your business that you wish were different, but aren’t quite sure how to make them different yet?

Colby Varley 3:28
I feel like, for the most part, like, if I’m getting consistent bad service or something that is not aligning with our standards or our program, like I’m not afraid to make a change. I think sometimes customers will do it to us too. If there’s an issue consecutively happening, it’s like, hey, we got to cut you back.

So I think being mindful of that and I think as the transportation has evolved with the more data that’s available, it makes it a lot easier.

Jess Dewell 4:00
Really? Tell me more about that.

Colby Varley 4:02
You get people that really care about this business. And at the end of the day, it’s produce and it’s money. And there’s a lot of emotion in people that really care about their job.

And you could do 100 loads correctly and on-time delivery. And there might be one load that’s late. And that seems to be the most important load of those 100 loads for whatever reason.

There’s nothing different about it from how they send it to you, how you’ve picked it up, how you delivered it, and whether they’re having a bad day or whatever the case may be. Sometimes a whole firestorm can come raining down on you. And ultimately, before we weren’t able to track that kind of data.

And now with having actual data, hey, we’ve done this many loads between this time period going to this place. And we’ve delivered all of them on time. And let’s not let one load ruin the whole picture here.

You got to look at the whole picture. So in that sense, it has helped. And also when you’re slipping a little bit, you can really narrow down what carrier is it?

Is it a certain carrier? Is it all the carriers? Why are we having this service failure?

And then if it is one, you can pull all that data and go have a conversation with them and actually show them and say, look, here’s what’s going on. Here’s where you are. Here’s where the rest of the pack is.

You’re there to discipline them or tell them. But a lot of the times, it’s how do you use that to better the relationship? What can we do to help you get there?

We want you to succeed. If they succeed, we succeed. The customer succeeds.

And having that data to show them and say, hey, here’s the data, not, you know, you think this or I think this, here’s the data that supports it. So how are we going to move forward to correct it?

Jess Dewell 5:59
So very proactive all the way around and curious along the way. Something that you said, how does that, what is the response that you get when you are like, oh, okay, do people know that this is the expectation and that can happen? Or is there some surprise along the way?

Colby Varley 6:17
I can’t speak for anyone else’s business, but I try and set a really high expectation. And if you’re not meeting the mark, we’re going to have to figure something out. And a lot of it has to do with some stuff that you can’t measure necessarily.

Like for me, I’m worried about it, right? If something hasn’t been going right, what’s that worry worth on top of the customer, right? What’s that worry worth for me to jeopardize my customer or vice versa?

I’m going to feel better that I made a change and the customer or the vendor, they expect me to do that, right? That’s the expectation. Dude, you have to get this done.

It happens. It’s not forever. It’s not like a fiery breakup where we’re never going to do business again, right?

It’s just, hey, at this moment, our expectations are not in alignment. And let’s take a break. Let’s reset.

Let me move some of that stuff off. And sometimes like they got to get right, or sometimes we got to get right. And it’s like, hey, go get right.

Whether it’s the list is endless, right? Drivers are quitting, breakdowns, out of rotation, right? There’s a bunch of different factors that happen.

Hey, get situated, reset, and let me know when you’re reset and we’ll relook at it.

Jess Dewell 7:41
Actually, I think that’s a really high mutual level of disrespect also for everybody. I’m always looking for the win-win and the extra win, right? And I call that winfinity.

I took that from one of, I took that from a conversation I was having on something like this. I don’t even remember if it was, it might’ve been at the Jess plus Scott plus you show. So it’s something I did before this podcast.

And we had a guest and they said, that’s winfinity when you have the win-win and the win. And I’m listening to what you’re saying and how you just described that. And there’s just a mess left behind to get to the end goal.

It’s okay, we have a job to do. It’s not matching up right now, or you have a job to do and it’s not matching up right now. Let’s go focus on that.

And then let’s talk again. It sounds very respectful. Heck, I know there are times that I look back and I think, Oh, a timeout would have been great.

If we had just taken a timeout, we could have avoided all kinds of things, eroded trust, bigger bumps, trying to fix problems that have never really actually been said out loud. And then assumptions that we’ve made about each other because nobody ever said, Hey, what’s actually going on here?

Colby Varley 8:46
Yeah, exactly. And it gets hard and you get the holidays involved. You got outside factors and you just got to do the best you can.

But ultimately at the end of the day, we’re trying to succeed. If we do need to take a timeout or a break, that’s not the end of the world. And we’ll get through it and regroup when it’s good time for everybody.

Jess Dewell 9:08
You have a lot of moving parts, right? I mean, in transportation in general, and what you’re doing when you’ve got refrigeration and you have perishable goods that you’re moving from place to place, it feels like added complexity standing on the outside. But you tell me how many moving parts are there and how on edge are you to this?

We’ve got to make quick change and I want to do it respectfully is actually happening at any one point in time, like day to day and week to week.

Colby Varley 9:35
The changes in the movement, I couldn’t give you a number, really depends on day to day what’s going on. You know, customers, we had a customer call me yesterday or the day before, and he basically told me a heads up, like, we’re going to have a ton of changes. Just handle it.

Please don’t, I don’t want you to think they’re just doing it on purpose. We’re having some issues. We had a growing region go down.

You know, there’s going to be a ton of changes. And the last two days, we’ve just gotten change, do this. Oh, wait, add this.

Okay, take that off, split it. But when you’re working with a giving you that expectation, I knew it was coming. So I wasn’t getting frustrated about it.

They’re a pretty high end customer. It’s a high value cargo. So they know that I treat them fairly on the rate.

So it’s just when you’re not bound by the price either, when they’re making changes on the fly, that you’re having to cancel a truck or now I got to book a team. Now we’re going from the Midwest. Now we’re going to the east.

Like they know that I’m going to have to make changes and cancel trucks and pay trucks and do this. And they say, just be fair with us, but it’s got to get done at the same time. So when you’re able to maneuver like that, it’s not horrible.

Two days before 4th of July, and it’s just that last push before the 4th of July. And you’re trying to get trucks loaded. You’re trying to get trucks unloaded.

You’re showing up on time for your appointment and they’re sitting 6, 8, 12, 15 hours. That’s where a lot of the complexity starts to really unfold because someone that you might be counting on to reload is stuck. They can’t get there.

So you just got to take it as it comes, right? Put one fire out at a time, get it handled, and then take on whatever’s coming down next. Change is just constant or moving.

And trucks in this time, they understand there’s going to be changes. They’re going to get held up. And we just do our best to maneuver through it, compensate them, communicate them, and just do the best we can.

A lot of that stuff’s outside of our control, right? I can’t control that Kroger had 50% of their unloading staff calling sick today. I have no control over that.

Jess Dewell 11:53
You’re listening to the Bold Business Podcast. I’m your host, Jess Dewell. This is your program for strategizing long-term success while diving deep into what the right work is for your business right now.

Announcer 12:08
You’re listening to the Bold Business Podcast hosted by Jess Dewell, a nationally recognized strategic growth consultant. She works with business owners and executives to integrate just two elements that guide business through the ups and downs of growth. Number one, know what work is necessary.

Number two, do all the work possible. Schedule a complimentary consultation to find out more at reddirection.com.

Jess Dewell 12:38
I’m going to go back to the relationship piece. I got this call and the expectation is that we’ve got all these changes coming and you were ready to receive them. And that impacts the cost of every single aspect.

Every time you can have a plan, when that plan changes, there are ripple effects of cost. And you have set up dynamic relationships to be like, Hey, we know that this is going to happen. And your clients are like, and we want to work with you.

So being able to work with them and meet them there without whatever perceptions they have about what could happen with the price. And you said the words, just treat us fair. That is something that I think is very interesting in the sense of how we work together really matters.

Colby Varley 13:23
That’s the key to our business is trust.

Jess Dewell 13:27
How have you, is the trust in the longevity of the company that you now are a partner in, or is the trust built some other way now that there have been some ownership change?

Colby Varley 13:37
There is some or a lot of trust I’ll say with the ATS name brand started in 1984. So we’re going to be 41 years old. A lot of it comes down to, I always look at it like ATS is that big umbrella.

And yes, I am part owner and that’s great. But at the end of the day, I’m an individual under that umbrella that’s providing a service. So yeah, the ATS name brand and all that is phenomenal.

But at the end of the day, it’s me or my partner or the other three, four other great salespeople that we have that do the job. It’s really on them, right? The ATS umbrella is just the back, the firepower of the infrastructure and the after-hours and the accounting department, the insurance and all the things that allow us to be great.

Ultimately, it comes down to do my customers think that I’m trustworthy? Do my partners, customers think he’s trustworthy? Yeah, it is B2B.

It’s really person-to-person. I think ultimately. Absolutely.

Yeah, it’s daily, multiple times a day. And sometimes it’s seasonally. I just, it really depends, but yes, it’s transactional.

But to your point, longevity is the key and having that trust builds that allows that longevity to continue.

Jess Dewell 15:13
There’s this guy, I’m going to call out Oleg. He’s going to love this. He knew me when I was 20 years old.

That was a long time. I’m now 47. The fact he’s seen me in three different roles in my career, and he stayed the same as a technology guy that whole time.

Also though, some different companies along the way. It’s amazing when you build these relationships that last, that have trust. Some of these people are just around and they’re part of the journey, regardless of where our journey goes.

And I’m guessing it’s going to be fruitful because we are the power of our network in the grandest way.

Colby Varley 15:47
Absolutely. Yeah. And your reputation is everything.

Jess Dewell 15:50
Yeah. So that’s an interesting side note. I’ll have to make a little note to tell him we talked about him.

Colby Varley 15:58
Nine minutes and 20 seconds.

Jess Dewell 16:00
Exactly. That’s exactly right. I’m like, oh, that’s great.

And it’s interesting because what you said, it’s every single day we are there, they are the people who we’re talking to. And here’s what happens. I’m just thinking about the data part now.

So if you don’t track any of this, just say it. There’s a lot of stuff I want to ask you about that. But one of the things I’m like, do you know the length of the relationship in general for your customers that you have?

Colby Varley 16:32
I don’t have the average length, but most of them, I can say for mine, a lot of them have been with us probably quite as long as I have. So probably around eight years. It took me a year and a half, two years to really get it fired up.

But a lot of guys did follow when I came here, but there are some new ones. It’s probably a mix, but overall, I’d probably say we’re somewhere in that 10-year range on average. I would imagine with customers, if not longer.

Jess Dewell 17:04
Do you know what the sales cycle is to acquire a new customer?

Colby Varley 17:09
It really varies. I can tell you, I think it depends on the freight market, what kind of freight market we’re in. If you’re in a very tight, demanding freight market, it seems like it’s a little bit easier if you have trucks to get a customer.

If they’re struggling in today’s freight market, it’s been oversaturated for three-plus years. It’s very difficult, very difficult. You can cold call, you can do all that.

For me, I’ve really moved to trying to be more tactical. What relationships can I use? That seems to be more effective on kicking in some doors than these customers are just inundated.

It’s not something you want to see, but you go do a customer meet and greet. I did one last week. We were doing a, they had an in-house showcase going on and we were in his office and he’s like, dude, look at this.

This is just today. It was just endless emails, phone calls. There’s a lot of pressure right this second.

You really have to find a different way to stand out. Not sure if the cold calling and the cold emailing is super effective, unless you’re in some sort of ultra niche market that you’re not just a regular freight guy.

Jess Dewell 18:25
Or if you happen to get it at the exact right time when the straw broke the camel’s back and something’s got to happen. Those are a few and far between, but yeah, no, I can see. Okay, so I’m going to come back to that because I think that’s interesting, the cycle of your business and the pressures that you have to keep those clients.

Because having a client for 10 years on average is a huge accomplishment. And that is something that there’s so much knowledge and wisdom in that. And then of course there’s the, but we can’t always do what we’ve been doing because everything around us is continuing to change.

So I want to come back to that. I want to stay with the data for just a minute. You’d said we’re starting to track and we’re tracking now things.

So we know how many things go right for the one thing that goes wrong every once in a while. So it’s not based off of our most recent memory of failure, but it’s actually based off of data of here’s actually what’s going on. Have you, is this newer to your organization?

Is this something that has been around for a while and you’re just leveraging more now?

Colby Varley 19:23
Data has kind of been around a little bit longer than we’ve really been dabbling in it. We made a significant investment to upgrade our internal software two and a half years ago, which was a game-changer for us. And we had some customers that were doing, they call them like a scorecard or a report card, right?

So there’s a couple clients that were doing that, which they were tracking all that stuff on their side, but obviously not every customer is equipped or looking to do that. So we really started pinpointing, obviously, with our system, it makes it a lot easier now to extract that data. So we started looking at that.

It’ll tell you everything, pretty much anything that goes into it, it can give you a report on it. But one of the main things was customers were really concerned about on-time delivery metrics. Started over the last two years to just have some customers share theirs.

We don’t really share it unless it’s requested or we’re doing like a customer meeting. Let’s say they’re a seasonal shipper and we want to talk about last season as we head into this season. But a lot of good data stuff, like we were talking to a shipper and we were going over the on-time delivery and it wasn’t as stellar as I’d like it.

It was close, but it’s a wintertime thing. So we had a lot of wintertime-related lates, interstate shutdown, whatnot. And then we brought out the average dwell time at their facility and they had no idea.

Trucks are checked in six, seven, eight hours. I think their average load time was like seven hours. And it was like, hey, were you aware that your average load time from the time that the driver checks in to the time he gets his paperwork is about seven hours?

And they had no idea, right? If we could cut that down maybe two, three hours, maybe that would help. Just some internal data or how long are we sitting at the places that you want us to go, right?

Everyone’s price-conscious, this, that, hey, how much did we bill you in accessorials for detention or layover this and that, and that can correlate to those numbers, right? It’s, hey, every time we go deliver at this place, it takes us eight hours. Maybe that warrants a conversation of, hey, is there a reason that every time I send my truck to you, they sit for eight hours?

So just those kinds of data points to share with the customer, how do we make it more efficient? How can we make it better? Does it make us more cost-effective?

Am I able to save you money by not having to charge a layover or detention or whatever the case is or added pickups? There’s so much data available to share with them that they’re not tracking. They’re just worried about sales.

Jess Dewell 22:15
And I was just reading an article earlier this week. It was talking about all these unexpected things that happen to companies that get the product that’s being transported. You mentioned detention fees, which is also, that was in this article.

There were some other things about how long it stays in a certain place. It sounds to me like when the people are waiting at the truck to have it be unloaded, that’s actually a cost because the person is there on site waiting for the next step. And so when I’m listening to that, I’m thinking your data is your differentiator in a way.

And I know you were saying that there was something around the need to, what is going to make us stand out in this market? And I’m curious, are you having positive response with these people, with your clients, to be able to say things like that, that you’re like, hey, we’ve given ourselves this report card, whatever you’re calling it, and we wanted to share it with you. This is where we think we’re doing really well.

This is where we don’t think we’re doing really well based off of the data. What’s your experience?

Colby Varley 23:12
They’re liking it. And the reason I say that, it’s not just you’re going to talk to them, okay, here’s what we did. Here are the lanes we had.

It was great. You have actually something of substance to discuss. Give them some value, give them something to chew on, give them something to go back and say, hey, we need to look at this.

We spent $5,000 in accessorial fees. Why are we spending that money? Why is our dock so inefficient?

What can we do? And then that could go into a whole nother conversation. You’re showing them, hey, it takes seven hours to load.

And then they’re looking at their overtime on their forklift drivers and it’s to the moon and back. And they’re like, why is this? Why is it taking our guys so long?

What internal processes do we need to improve to cut costs on their end, on a labor percentage, and be a preferred shipper? I can tell you there’s loads that I sell day in, day out, and guys know, and they’re like, hey, do you have this load? They know that shipper’s going to get them loaded in 90 minutes.

Jess Dewell 24:20
Yeah.

Colby Varley 24:21
Rather than, I don’t want to go there because I get hosed every time.

Jess Dewell 24:25
So this helps you manage to your standards. That’s where.

Colby Varley 24:28
It just helps. And then the shipper should want to be a preferred shipper, right? You want truck drivers to come to your facility.

You don’t want to be that shipper, that receiver that has horrible reviews on Google or Yelp or whatnot. And that’s known in the industry as, you know, take a lunch and a dinner because you’re going to be there so long. You don’t want to be known for that.

Jess Dewell 24:50
That’s a big change to be able to have something that wasn’t easily quantifiable. It was, but probably it was just too hard to get to or took too much time. Let’s just be real.

Priority was not there. Technology has helped get this information to get it out. So priority can be there.

That creates a ton of opportunity. And so now I’m listening to what you’re saying about today. I’m going back to what you were saying about, there’s a lot of price pressure because everybody everywhere wants to help you move all of this product that is right.

And when you’ve got in this cycle of business and you’re looking forward, are there other things that you’re considering for your company that you’re to set yourself up for tomorrow’s success? Even if you don’t know what that initiative is yet, because I can see a lot of things being possible. And I’m guessing if you having been in the business as long as you have that there’s some cycle you can lean into.

Colby Varley 25:48
Best term I can use for it is opportunity confusion. There’s so much opportunity and there’s so many different directions that we could improve that it gets a little blurry sometimes. So I think the best way that we kind of look at it or we approach it is we kind of let the business tell us from a higher level, looking down, whether that’s looking at financial statements, whether that’s looking at customer trends, whether that’s looking at truck trends, whether it’s looking at employee trends, like, hey, we’ve had X amount of people call out on these shifts on certain days.

Maybe we need to add another person to that shift just to make sure that we’re covered there. So looking at letting the business tell us where is it, where do we need to focus? Like I said, it could be financially, it could be from what customers are telling us, could be from what carriers are wanting from us.

So whatever those things are, we kind of let it tell us. I do think there’s some opportunity technologically that we haven’t quite taken advantage of yet that I’d like to explore. But I want to be clear, I’m not the guy looking to use technology to replace people.

I’m looking to integrate technology that’s going to enhance people. So if I can get something to do something for a person that frees them up to talk to a driver, to talk to a customer, that’s what we’re going after. We’re not looking to be automated to where you call in and you’re talking to a bot.

That’s not us. That’s where I think to broadly answer your question, letting the business guide us, but yeah, there’s some opportunity to use some more tech to make our people better.

Jess Dewell 27:43
I’m your host, Jess Dewell, and we’re getting down to business on the Bold Business Podcast. This is where we’re tackling the challenges that matter most to you with actionable and achievable advice to get real results that lead to your success.

Announcer 27:59
Focused on growth. Listen to more programs like this, which support the challenges and opportunities you are working with right now. Search Bold Business Podcast for the key terms at red direction.com or your preferred podcast listening app.

Jess Dewell 28:15
When you’re allowing the business to illuminate where to focus by the way, all of that confusion, that potential competing priority, not only within the business of what has been done and where you’re going, but also the opportunities that each of you bring to the table and where you think the priority could be. I think it’s a fantastic way to start. So my question about that is, so is that for 30 days, 90 days, a year?

Do you look out into the future and does it change or is it always, is it always led by the trends we see right now?

Colby Varley 28:49
No, there’s definitely some long-term trends that we’re working towards that are maybe a year, two years out from now that take quite a bit of capital to get there, right? So we got to start saving that. That’s the biggest thing, redeploying the capital into the business for those longer-term improvements that we’re looking to make.

I’d say we have a long-term goal or strategy that we’re shooting for, but then we also, we review everything monthly on a pretty large scale, but then we’re also looking at weekly, not in a macro way, but more in some micro areas, like how many loads did we do? What were the profit margins? What was the load count, right?

So we can gauge and then that same week we’re looking ahead, hey, what did we do a year ago in the same week for the next week? So it’s, oh wow, like everybody gets a print out, hey, what customers did you do? What loads did you do?

So it’s, hey, so-and-so hasn’t been sending these. I better go talk to them and say, hey, are these not happening this year? So that helps guide you on a weekly level, but then also looking at what did we do monthly?

Where are we trying to go? Okay, where were we struggling? Let’s try and correct that.

But I would also say, obviously, we did the buyout and whatnot in March of 2024, but not a lot of major change. We’re looking, we’re not doing anything drastic. We didn’t do anything crazy.

It’s just trying to make little changes, little adjustments just to see what feedback we get. Is it good feedback? Is it bad feedback?

Is it working? Is it not working? So that’s another big thing, like not trying to make huge changes overnight.

Jess Dewell 30:33
And that change ripples. The more complex, the more people, the more levels of people between the points of contact, right? You’ve got the points of contact at product.

You’ve got the points of contact between the getting you saying, this is where the truck is. Who’s going to drive that truck? All of the things.

There are people that are not talking to each other yet show up and everything is happening. So big change could really disrupt that. I think you’re right.

Colby Varley 31:00
Real small change. And a lot of people, they don’t like change. So you got to introduce some things slowly.

Jess Dewell 31:08
Are you one of those people too?

Colby Varley 31:10
No, I was taught, especially when I came here, the only thing constant in our business is going to be change. If you’ve got a problem with that, you should probably figure out something else because if there’s one thing that you could count on every day, it’s going to be changed. So change is okay.

You just got to adapt. And a lot of it is just showing a little bit of it, get some buy-in and then it usually all seems to work out.

Jess Dewell 31:34
It really only takes a little bit of buy-in to make a lot of lasting change. I know while it’s constant, it is also hard. I know a lot of people, they come to me because they’re like everything that we try, nothing seems to stick.

We always end up with all of these new things that nothing seems to stick. And I hear that and it has never changed in all the years I’ve been doing this. And I’ll tell you what, I would even go so far to say that there’s a common theme.

Have you found a common theme to get changed to stick in your company?

Colby Varley 32:08
Not a common theme, but we try and implement it the same way. It’s one of those things, let it marinate for a minute and then try and roll it out slowly. We’re not just coming in and saying, hey, today this is happening.

There’s a process to it where you got to say, hey, here’s the issue or here’s the objective that we’re trying to do. Here’s what we think is going to be the best course of action. Lay it all out.

And especially with technology, we were trying to run some reports and we weren’t clicking a specific box on an order to allow the algorithm to collect that data. So you got people doing hundreds of loads a week and they’re used to not clicking that box. And to them, they look at it like, hey, that’s an extra click for me, right?

That’s actually 150, 170 clicks. I got to make a week now because you want this box click. So it’s like a slow rollout.

Hey, here’s the process. Here’s why we’re doing it. Here’s the value you’re going to gain out of it.

And then a slow rollout to say, hey, 10 days from today, the order is not going to let you proceed unless you click that box. So it gives everybody a little bit of time to read it, understand it, digest it, and start implementing it without them getting frustrated because every time they forget to do it, it’s giving them a pop-up on the screen saying, hey, you can’t proceed.

Jess Dewell 33:38
Accidentally behind the scenes, people started calling. I always have gone by Jess, but I would always introduce myself as Jessica. And it became official when that ICA in the hundreds of emails I would send in a day were, if you add up those ICA out of every single email by letting those go, I was able to answer more emails.

So you are onto something about it might take more click, but in the long run, it makes you happy. I’m like, I total different real-life experience. And it was just me and not a whole team, but there’s some, and our people, right?

The people we work with us, I like to consider myself a little bit curious too. I love how curious they are. And so when you let that marination happen, what occurs?

Okay. It’s an extra click. Can I buy into why you told me it’s important, Colby?

And I get that it’s going to be coming permanent. So I can do this buy-in and I’m feeling like I understand, but that first time I get the response back and I get the benefit that you said I was going to get, that’s going to be the biggest point, that full circle of moving people along closely, but then go, do you remember that benefit? Look what this did for us.

It actually, and it’s, it’s on par or it’s more, or turns out we found something else that actually we need to work on next. Crazy. And sometimes it doesn’t come from us, wherever we are.

It comes from the people who started checking the box.

Colby Varley 34:59
We got into that report and then something else was blanking there and say, Hey, why is this blank? Oh, you need to do this. Oh, okay.

You know, to your point, it’s an evolution. You figure something out, you implement it. And then that takes you to something else that you didn’t realize that was available that you’re just not clicking the box or whatever the answer is.

Jess Dewell 35:19
And I get this a lot, just myself. I talk and somebody will be like, what are you talking about? I’ve never heard of this.

I was like, Oh, I must’ve invited you to the party in my head. And it hasn’t come out of my face yet. Here we go.

And that’s actually, right. That’s actually a truth too. I think people don’t recognize, and I’m included in that.

I’m like, where did that come from? And I wish somebody would tell me they weren’t, had already invited me to the party. I just hadn’t come in the door.

It’s okay.

Colby Varley 35:44
Yeah, we’ll get there.

Jess Dewell 35:45
Yeah, exactly. I think that’s a big one though too, because we have to move fast. We tend to move fast.

We have this pressure around us and we think we’ve done something, but we haven’t. And that’s just okay. That’s why we have conversations.

That’s why we have people that we are not only trust between customers, but trust between the people that we work with.

Colby Varley 36:05
Absolutely.

Jess Dewell 36:07
The time you’re taking to reflect, the time you’re taking to look at what’s happening, so you’ve got the actual reality. And then the time you take to think about what’s showing up that you might consider as changes or as initiatives to keep going forward. What’s that look like in your world?

Colby Varley 36:25
I’d be lying if I told you that it’s every day. As a business owner, I’m constantly thinking about a variety of different things pertaining to the business. Things I think we do really great, things I think we don’t do great.

How do I figure out how to make our email system better? Because I feel like we’re just inundated with emails. And is there somebody or something that could come up with something that it would know how to send it to this person or send it to that person?

And just all kinds of stuff. It’s endless. I’m constantly coming up with ideas, writing them down.

Jess Dewell 37:03
Where do you keep them? Do you write them down in an electronic list?

Colby Varley 37:06
Yeah, I have notes on my phone. So if I’m somewhere and I come across something or I saw something, I’m like, hey, I’ll put it down and then I’ll go back later and add to it. Or whether it’s in my computer or my iPad, it’s all just iNotes.

But just constantly thinking of ways to improve something I saw that I liked that I think would be beneficial for us. So it’s really constant. We’ll be driving down the road and my wife will just look at me like, what are you thinking about right now?

And I’ll tell her just something totally random. She’s like, why are you thinking of that? And it’s because I saw this and I was thinking like, oh, if you did it backward or whatever.

And she’s just, oh, you’re always thinking about something when you’re driving and you’re quiet. And it’s just, what are you thinking about?

Jess Dewell 37:50
Do you keep your lists forever? Do you ever get rid of them?

Colby Varley 37:54
I will delete something. Like if I say I saw something or a product, that’s okay. I want to reach out to them.

If I take a picture and then I remember, I’ll look at it. And then so I’ll go find their info, put it in the CRM, then I’ll delete it. I don’t need it anymore.

Or if I’m putting my thoughts together, like I’m going to send it to my director of IT or my operations manager. If I put it all together, I’ll just email it straight from there. Right.

And then it’s out of there. But there’s some stuff that’s been in there for years that I would say, okay, let me go back and look at this.

Jess Dewell 38:31
Or do you go back and look at it? Or is it just a file that’s got lots of stuff from lots?

Colby Varley 38:36
No, I’ll go back and look at it because something will reignite it. Or if it’s something that’s I know could be really beneficial for our business, but we’re just not there yet as a company, I’m always working on it. Or if I see somebody else doing it and I know somebody, I’ll pick their brain about it.

Hey, when you went to this, what did they do? And people love to tell you, oh, I went on this trip and so did this and this. Ah, interesting.

Okay. Boom. Put it in there.

If we ever do this, make sure you have X, Y, and Z. A lot of them are, we’re not there yet, but we’re going to be there. But you know, they’re right.

They’re on my path. Hey, we’re going to need to do this to elevate us to the next level. So there’s going to come a time where we need to do it.

And it’s like people get stuck on, oh, how do you do it? You got to have a blueprint or some sort of plan. And say, I’ve been thinking about this for the last three and a half years.

Here’s all the notes that I came up with to get us moving in that direction. We’re not starting from scratch.

Jess Dewell 39:45
Okay. I want to know what makes it bold. What makes it bold to know your business deeply?

You’ve been sharing that with us today so that you can grow and thrive for another 20, 40 or more years.

Colby Varley 39:58
I was once told this isn’t a practice life. It’s not a dress rehearsal. That’s how we look at it.

And if we’re going to do it, we’re going to go 110%. Obviously there is failure and you’re going to fail, but it’s like, what did you learn? Something doesn’t work out.

What did you learn from it? I think that’s what makes it bold. Staying on that North star on the North path.

We know where we’re going. It’s way out there, but we’re going to get there not overnight. And just knowing that being okay with it and showing up and doing your best every day.

Jess Dewell 40:29
Every single time I have a conversation, I take away something that I want to share with 25 people. I know when you’re listening to this podcast, you’re also listening for that and we’ll have something that you want to share in the comments. I would like for you to engage with us.

What is that thing that you want to tell 25 people from this program? Here’s why it’s important. It’s important because yeah, there are going to be how-tos. Yes. There are going to be steps. Yes. You’re going to be like, I wish I wrote that down. I wish I wasn’t doing this. And I could actually take action on that right now.

But guess what? You’re not so engaged right now, because that one thing you want to share with others will be the thing that you can figure out how to incorporate in your business, in your workflow, in your style tomorrow.

Announcer 41:20
Jess hosts the bold business podcast to provide insights for building a resilient, profitable business by deeply understanding your growth strategy, ensuring market relevance and your company’s future. It is bold to deeply understand your growth strategy with your host, Jess Dewell. Get more information about how to drive solutions and reset your growth mindset at reddirection.com.

Thank you for joining us. And special thanks to our post-production team at The Scott Treatment.