SEVENTH EPISODE - The Secret Sauce of Entrepreneurship: Markiss Cooper

The Secret Sauce of Entrepreneurship is a videocast hosted by myself interviewing local leaders about insider tips and lessons learned in becoming an entrepreneur.

Markiss and I discuss how being a person of color has impacted his business and what Markiss wants people to know. Also, we discuss insights on what inspires Markiss to keep a positive outlook in a competitive business environment.

Series Update: We are unable to live stream any new episodes during this time, but we have a few pre-recorded episodes we plan to post every other week until we can start streaming again. We’ll keep you posted!

Tony

0:00

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of the secret sauce of entrepreneurship. This show is about meeting with experts and other entrepreneurs out there that are working with small medium businesses, could be owners, could be marketing, could be sales. And what we're trying to do is give you a few nuggets that you can use in your own business, or pass on to your clients. Some valuable insights. And today, we've got Markiss Cooper with us, and He is the owner of I haul in Tacoma, Washington. And the thing that we're going to be talking about today is do businesses see color? Do customers see color? And I think it's pretty appropriate that we've, we're talking about this kind of stuff. Here on the show, and welcome, Markiss. Glad to have you.

Markiss

0:53

Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. Thank you. 

Tony

0:59

Oh, yeah, you bet. Tell us a little bit about iHaul delivery.

Markiss

1:04

Yeah, iHaul delivery is a stress free on demand retail delivery service. We provide final mile logistics, solutions for distribution centers, retailers, and also consumers, excuse me, residential consumers. So we operate in the final mile sector of the list of the logistics and supply chain. So where the big, where the big semi trucks can't get into your residential neighborhoods, that's kind of where we come in. It's also known as LTL work, which is limited or excuse me, less than a truckload LTL less than truckload, so anything that can't fit on, you know, a smaller box truck, we kind of go on there, and we deliver to your residence or to your small businesses. So, yeah, that's

Tony

2:04

one of the reasons why we brought you on is because we have been seeing a lot of the posts you make on LinkedIn, very, very inspiring. And so we thought, you know, Markiss is a guy, we need to get out in front of everybody. So I'll just get straight to it, you know, being a person of color, how that impacted your business could be positive or negative, what do you want people to know, out there in terms of being an entrepreneur?

Markiss

2:36

Yeah, um, that's a, that's a very touching subject. But it is because not only being an entrepreneur, but being a first generation entrepreneur, it's been tough, you know, when you, when you come against obstacles, there's not too many people, at least within my family that I can kind of relate to or, or go to them for advice. And being that my industry is so unique, we do cater to a higher level of clients. So with that, it's usually not people that look like me, it's very, it's very rare that I come into contact with people that look like me. So when I first got started in the business, you know, I was blessed to be able to deliver for a high end retail furniture store here in Tacoma. So with that, we would go to higher end homes, we would, you know, dealing with higher end clients. And one thing I noticed, when the owner of the store finally, you know, just kind of let me go and do, I would get a different reaction, as opposed to when I was with him. And it just, it just, it just made me hungrier to improve just to do better. I won't say it's a negative thing. It just made me rethink how, how I went about things. So one of the ways I hope you guys can see this is it's funny, but it's not I went ahead and I created, this is my first ever business card. Okay. And it was a clip art, right? And the original person is not the same color as me. Right? So I did this, so consumers and people of likes would know who they would be coming into contact with when I enter their home. So there would be no confusion, there would be no there would be no uncertainty or it would kind of just ease it would ease people's minds and and, and I'm so serious when I say that, because until I put this card out. You would get at time you get certain people that were unsure if I could do the job, or if I was supposed to be here and that sort of thing. So when I made this card, it not only gave me the peace of mind to know, you know, when I do show up, they, this is what you're going to expect. And color aside, I'm a professional, you know, and I don't let judgment of character or other people's lack thereof knowledge, you know, stop me from my purpose. So if anything, I use this card to educate people, and let them know, you know, this is who I am. And I'm proud of it. So, if you don't, if that's what's gonna stop you from using our service, then, you know, shame on you, you're missing out on a great opportunity. And to meet some great gentlemen, because we're all family, man, you know, we, we love our community, and we love the people we serve. So I would say that was that was, that was a shocker. But it's something I, you know, I expected it because I set the bar that high for myself, where I want it to be in front of that caliber of people. So I knew coming in, that there was a, you know, a chance, and I still get that every now and then when I show up to residences or businesses, and they're looking around, or asking questions, Are you the owner? Or that tell him Yeah, oh, okay. Like, am I not supposed to be here? Something but it's motivation. For me, it really is. It's motivation for me to, to under promise and over deliver on every encounter, I have anybody I come across, so I just use it as fuel more than anything.

Tony

6:47

Thank you for sharing. Now, as I sit here, and just think about my experiences and in business, I didn't have that hurdle. Really? Not that I was aware, anyway. 

Markiss

Right. Right. 

Tony

But I don't think so. You know, I didn't have to consciously think about it, like you're telling us you have had to. And to me, it, it. It's encouraging to hear you've taken that and turned it into a positive motivator. You know, we all have to find ways to motivate ourselves. And I don't think there's color involved in that. And you the challenges you're talking about you You took it and and was like, Hey, I'm just gonna leverage this. To me, that is what being an entrepreneur is all about is figuring out how do you overcome the roadblocks we, we always like to say we have blockers, if if the language we use internally at our agency is, hey, if I'm blocked from doing something that I need to do to get my job done, I raise my hand, say I have a blocker. And it's all about removing all of those things, as best we can, and figuring out a way to not let them weigh you down. And that is really inspiring to me.

Markiss

8:12

I appreciate that.

Tony

8:14

If you were to talk to people out there, whether they're in your industry or in other industries. You know, what, what's the one piece of advice you would give first generation entrepreneurs, let's let's go with that. If you were to give first generation entrepreneurs advice out there,

what would it be?

Markiss

8:38

You know, first and foremost is find your passion. And whatever you're passionate about, that you could feel like that you feel like you could do every day without feeling like you're going to work or dreading getting up at 5am 6am 7am whatever it is that it motivates you every day to get up folk, finding your passion, and car and carving a niche around what that passion is. And it could be anything. I mean, it could be digging in the dirt. It could be you know, creating candles, it could, it could be anything, because there's an industry as we all know, for everything, you know, this is we can all accomplish anything we want to if we put our minds to it. So finding your passion and creating your niche from that. And then everything else I believe everything else takes care of itself, what you put out in the universe, it'll come back to you. Rather it's good or bad. But you have to like you said you have to be prepared for uncertainty or for the storm when it does come. So, but if you're passionate about something, nothing is going to stop you from doing that because that's your passion, regardless of what it is, you know, so that would be My biggest takeaway is his advice I should say is finding your passion, and carving a niche within what you're passionate about.

Tony

10:09

It's gonna take a lot of work anyway. So you might as well

Markiss

10:14

be exactly. I didn't, I didn't like, get up and you know, going to school or getting up and you know, working that nine to five. But the work that I chose to do, because I feel like in my life once I got to the point where I could make my own decisions, because I was a high school dropout at 16. Right. So my trajectory of my life has been one of which I've made my own decisions, whether they have been good or bad. But through that I've navigated life and had to figure it out myself. And I typically try to put myself in positions to where I would enjoy doing what I do, if that was working with children, at you know, an elementary school, or mentoring, you know, youth at the Boys and Girls Club. They're not high paying jobs, but I valued what I was doing, because I was passionate about it. And I created my own niche. Within both of those industries, I built programs I built, you know, help found one of the first charter schools here in Washington State soar Academy on the hilltop of Tacoma. And like I said, it wasn't the best paying job, but to know that I'm making an impact on these young kid’s lives at such a young age, when I didn't have that, at that age. It was, it was mind blowing. I work 12 hour days there. And I get a little irritated. But you know, but I love what I was doing. But it came at a certain point in that work. I had to find what was best for me and kind of again, go out on you know, I don't want to say it was a race thing, but not being valued for what you're bringing to the table. And I can understand if the results weren't there, but when you're showing results and improvement, and you're still being undervalued, at some point, you know, you have to weigh your options. And my option was to tap into this entrepreneur lifestyle and I feel like I've always been an entrepreneur at heart, rather was good or bad. But, you know, I found something that I was passionate about. I don't know how I fell into you know, the transportation and logistics sector but obviously the universe, do it in my lap, and I'm gonna run with it. I'm gonna run with it. I'm ready. I'm ready.

Tony

12:33

Oh, that's great.

Markiss, I really appreciate you.

Markiss

12:40

Appreciate having. And,

Tony

12:48

again, just thank you for being on and we'll talk to you soon.

Markiss

12:51

Yeah, thank you for having me. Have a great day.