“Together Talks” #125: Bear Down Logistics

Some Background on Bear Down Logistics

Today's edition of "Together Talks" campaign, KLS had the opportunity to interview Bear Down Logistics and Founder, Desmond Clark. Their brokerage division serves all states and their excess capacity needs for our customers. Being an asset based provider in Central Florida and partnering with 30 year old company Quick Trip Express, they understand the need for being dependable and producing at the highest level, both internally for their team, and externally for their customers. They would like to learn more about your logistics needs within your business and see if we can assist you with any of our asset services, or brokerage services.

When did the company begin?

We started the company back in October of 2021. We started on paper then, I should mention, but then I did a little bit more studying for another seven months. And we actually went into operations of May of 2022. That's when I started making my first calls.

Story of how it was created?

I had I went into full-time speaking and team development coaching at the end of 2019. We all know what happened at the beginning of 2020, everything shut down. I started to get some some speaking engagement on zoom and but it wasn't what I had planned on coming into 2020 then going to 2021. I was introduced to logistics a guy who became a friend of mine, a mentor. He saw what I was doing on LinkedIn as far as marketing and promoting myself and he had some questions. We discussed maybe me coming over and working with him with his business, Andrei Depot, Brian Rice is his name. And that's when I started to learn the business of logistics. I was really interested in it because for one, it's a business that will be around forever, because products have to move from one place to another, regardless of what the market is. So I like that part about it. I like the process oriented, systematic organic, repeatable process part about doing the job. And then I looked at it, I was like, this is something that if done right, it's very, very scalable. And so one of the things that I always wanted to do was to find that business that I can actually, test myself, prove to myself that I have the business mind, and the ability to build a business.

This just seems so perfect once I understood it better. He asked me to come work with him, I lightly told him after a few weeks, maybe a month that, nah, I don't think I want to work for you. I think I want to get into business for myself. And luckily for me, he said, okay, so how can I help? And that was the start of it.

Meaning behind the name?

If you don't know me, I played 12 years in the NFL. I started out with the Denver Broncos.

In 1999, they drafted me in the six round, played three years there. Then played one year in Miami, then I transitioned to Chicago in the 2003 season. And then I finished up my last eight years in Chicago and and I truly see myself as a Chicago Bear. I still have love for Denver because they gave me the opportunity. Miami was you know was really quick, I really didn't get integrated into the the atmosphere and the organization as much because I was only there for a short time. But I look at myself as a Chicago Bear and as I was thinking about a name for my logistics company you know if you already have a name that's out there, you already have a brand that you can stand on, and what people know you buy it only makes sense to to leverage that. People knew me from playing football so what better name to have them Bear Down Logistics and just having that that double meaning. In this industry you have to freaking bear down. And then, you know, it goes back to my days of playing with the Chicago Bears.

Partner with KLS

KLS offers LTL and FTL for both dry and reefer transportation.

Our nationwide coverage provides companies a reliable, consistent, and dependable logistics partner to handle your trucking needs.

For more information on how we can help call our office today 708-980-0920 or reach us via our email quote request here!

What have been the biggest challenges?

I just had to get going and get customers right? So I had the same the same uphill battle as any business or any broker agent that's trying to get into this business. I have to go and make a million freakin phone calls. I finally broke through and finally got that one customer and they gave me two lanes. It was unbelievable. I didn't know what to do, but then once I got into that flow of hey now I got a couple customers and I have I have some freight coming in, then it became I knew I didn't want to do this by myself.

I wanted to build a business but where do I pivot and start to hire people. So that was one of the things that I don't know if I did it right, but I survived it. I probably could have waited a little bit longer before I started to shell out, you know, payroll and this and that and the other and get an office, but it worked out. But once I hired my first two employees, the biggest challenge that we had was we're new, the factoring companies, they didn't want to work with a new broker because we were new. You don't want to work with it. You don't want to work with someone because they're new, how do they ever get experience, right?

So as I'm thinking about this, I'm talking to my employees like okay so let's ask that question and we went to those factory companies and we asked that exact question. Yeah we understand that we're new, we plan on being around for a while, but how do we get experience if you guys don't ever give us an opportunity. Give us one opportunity, extend us $2,500-3,000 to move you know one or two loads and if we do well keep extending. If we we screw it up then we're done simple as that. That proposition right there started to open the doors for us and I believe and I've heard this a lot because I've said this before on different podcast, that story has helped people out who was just beginning. They said man I called and just like you said they extended me a small amount of credit and then we built on that but those are the toughest three is getting that first customer, when do I hire, and then now that we have, we have freight coming in, fighting with the companies to actually let us move freight with their carriers.

Reflect on a goal you set and how it made you feel to accomplish it?

It was just survival, like I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I never had been in this industry before. I'm about to put six figures into this company. I hope I don't lose my freaking money. Being able to pull out 8-% of that initial investment was very very satisfying.

Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?

Coming into 2024, 2023 we ended up with 1.3 million in revenue. My goal was to get up to 10 million in revenue. People are like wow, that's eight times!

Yeah, I understand that that's what we're going for, we can get there. One of the ways that we're getting there is through our broker agents doubling their production that they have from last year, from 1.3 to 2.5 is what we set that on. But then we added in government contracting at the beginning of the year. It took us a little while to get everything going, our processes, hire the right consultant, this, that, and other. But now we're getting to that point where we're consistently turning in solicitations and bids. So now that we're in, in the government contracting, it only takes a handful of those government contracts and boom, you're at 5, 6, 7, 8 million.

What were your concerns about making this transition?

I love to give people the definition of win, the word. When if you look up the origin definition of the word win - it's to gain or succeed by struggling. For me, I always try to look at where am I going to struggle. If I'm going to be successful, if I'm going to win, let me identify my struggles and hopefully I know enough to identify most of the major struggles, right? I had someone who was advising me, thank goodness, and they let me know kind of where the struggles were going to be.

I had a lot of doubt because the biggest doubt was I am starting a business that I have absolutely no experience in and the doubt was am I going to be able to learn enough at the outset to not have this passion burn. So I had to put a lot of study into it and then once I actually launched it, when I'm making all those calls at the beginning and nothing is happening, right? First two months insurance still has to be paid. Luckily I was just working out of the house then but now I got the TMS that has to be paid. I mean I got bills now and after two months I'm like did I make the right decision because nothing's happening.

I've thought, I made these phone calls and there would be at least something. But I was grinding and you feel like when you're grinding so hard, you should get something out of it.

At the beginning, it was nothing. And I called a few people and asked them like, All right, what am I doing wrong? Like, what should I be doing? And they were asking me what am I doing? I tell them, I'm calling here's my script this and that. And man, just keep doing that. just got to keep going. Just got to keep going.

How have you learned to be the face of the company?

I don't know if I had to learn it. I just became it.

I've been in the public eye for a long time now. So, that part wasn't hard. As a speaker, I'm used to being out front in front of people. So, now, how do I tell this story, right? And then that's what I started doing. I started telling this story.

Describe the journey of being an entrepreneur?

This is my first time having to hire people. when you hire people, you're not just hiring that person, right? You're hiring their family also. Because now they're depending on your company to process the systems and everything that goes into it to help them to take care of their family. That's a huge responsibility. But it's a responsibility that I love also. Because I understand the impact that can be created that I can have on people.

And by far, if someone was just to say, hey, what business are you really in? Me now, I wouldn't even say that I'm in the logistics business, so to speak, I'm in the people business.

But I have to to have the system to have the logistics platform for them to be able to go out and do what they they need to do. I was just asked this two days ago, when you get to a hundred million dollars and you're no longer you know pushing all the buttons they said what would your job position be? I would love to have an office and not be all remote so when I walk in the door people be like oh man Des just walked in. Because they know when I walk in I'm gonna get people super motivated, I'm gonna get people super excited, I'm important to people. I want my ultimate position to be chief motivational officer.

Share a mistake and what you learned from that experience?

I almost lost the company. In October of 2022 we had our first hundred thousand dollar revenue month. Then we had another one in November and then we had another one in December. I had my two employees also and now I'm thinking okay the ball is rolling now let's go, I just hire more people. Thinking it's just gonna keep building, I hired five people to begin in 2023 and by April of 2023 I was seriously thinking I may be going out of business.

Luckily, one of my agents hit a home run in April of 2023, a home run really saved the day for me and the company. But I had to cut, I brought on three agents and I brought on two more people for support. And so I brought on all of that salary and, like I say, April, I had to make the decision to cut two out of the three agents. And I hated to do it to the people that were working in operations to support people because they're depending on the sales team to generate revenue. They were doing their job, but that was the biggest mistake that I made of not hiring correctly. Not doing my due diligence of hiring and thinking that I was just about to grow like a weed now, just because I put people in seats.

Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?

I think I had one of my more more inspirational talks with my team yesterday. I got through to them on a level that I don't think I had prior. It was something that had been on my mind.

I will about the tower of Babel and when everybody got together, it was only one language on earth. It was this one community and they said, hey, let us come together and build a tower that reaches up to heaven. Before God destroyed it, he said this. He said, now that they have one language and basically they have united together with one vision, there's nothing that could be withheld from them.

And I was like, I believe this because if you look at our communities, even within our households, when we come together and we're united under one vision, one kind of voice that's all speaking the same language and all one the same direction things tend to usually work out. When we're divided and we got, one person over here saying this and the other person over there saying that and that warning gets each other, falls apart.

So, I created a whole message around that yesterday and I gave it to them and I was so passionate about it. I didn't know I was going to come with that much passion and I think it hit home. I actually had one of my guys text me like, dude, the way he pointed out the way that I connected with all that was truly special to him.

Piece of Advice

This is it. And so this, this has nothing to do with business per se. This is just life in general.

It was the same thing I was telling my son today. That life is freaking tough. Life is hard.

Life is going to throw a bunch of shit at you, like a bunch, a bunch. It's up to us to

build ourselves into a being that can withstand. Me and my son were working out this morning, we can work out because as a man, your outer shell needs to be hard.

It needs to be tough. It needs to withstand some pressure. Get up on this, get up on this bar.

He's 12. He's a little, his nickname is Sticks. So I'm trying to get it into his head right now.

Get up on that bar. You're gonna do these squats. And we're about to attack this. And it's not about the squats. It's about our mentality.

It's about how we attack stuff because later on in your life, son, there's gonna come a time when stuff is gonna get hard, but you're gonna be ready for it because you already put yourself through these tests, right? You already built yourself to be hard. You already built yourself to weather these storms. And then as we were coming home, I told him, I was like, it's not all about the physical. I was like mentally and emotionally. You have to prepare yourself, man. I was like you you don't know it now one day and you gonna come back to me and say dad I'm glad we had these talks.

The world's gonna do what the world's gonna do, you have to be ready to take it on. You have to be ready to go out and attack. Just like you got up this morning you say dad my stomach hurt and I told you I don't care, we want to work out. And I said that for a reason because there is gonna be times when you just don't feel it but you still got to go son. You still got to go out and get it, nobody's gonna care about your stomach hurting. And I wanted to show you that today you had a kickass workout, you went in and you dominated that workout and now you're not even thinking about your stomach. He was like no, I'm not. I was like that's what type of person that you have to be.

I'm saying all it is to say man we have so much more within us than we give ourselves credit

for. If we just stop punking out right and stop wanting to take the shortcut and stop wanting it to be easy. Because no it ain't gonna be easy you know, take that shortcut if you want to but then somewhere is gonna be a longer path that you have to take be willing to go through. That struggle, be willing to build yourself into a being that hey whatever comes my way whatever I have to do I have the courage to go out and get it done.

Now we're humans, that's not going to be every single time, but if you're getting up and just by and large that's your mindset there's nothing that can stop us man. There's nothing and like I said with the whole tower of Babel if we get back to being a community of one even what our differences but like me and you're in here and like we talked about you said you had a podcast, I said, I had a podcast and you say that, hey, man, would you come on mine? Absolutely. Would you come on mine? Absolutely. You have a business. I have a business. We're both trying to grow and we both have a vision.

I want to tap into your vision and help you get there with that one voice. You lead me on the way that you need me to help you. And then I'll lead you on the way that I need you to help me. And then there's nothing that can be withheld from us if we all operate in that type of spirit, and there's nothing that can be held from us. So getting back to that brotherhood, man, getting back to that, I want to see you do well. That has nothing to do with me doing well or not, but I want to see you do well. How can I help you do well? And I want to be able to ask you help also, just getting back to that type of ideology. So, anybody seeing this listening to this, did you hear me see me? Let's get back to that. Come help me. I'll help you. And let's go out and build, build our tower of Babel for the right reasons.

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In Closing

KLS wants to thank Bear Down Logistics and Founder, Desmond Clark for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!

Desmond's Instagram?/ LinkedIn /?Facebook?/ Desmond's Twitter

Business Resources!

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Klimson Logistics Solutions - Together Talks with Bear Down Logistics feature #125