Tyrell Morris
Summary
James Tyrell Morris talks about his background and career in logistics. He shares about his consulting firm, JAG Consulting, which he runs with his family. He emphasizes the importance of building relationships and trust in order to unlock an employee's full potential. Leadership is important because it creates the foundation for a successful team. It involves building trust and transferring power to others. Many leadership programs fail because they are built on theory rather than personal experience. At Maersk, their focus on training and development sets them apart. The speaker compares his team to the Patriots, where everyone is motivated and held accountable. He believes in highlighting and celebrating his team's work, which has led to success in his two buildings. He encourages others to do the same: The guest on the show is an operations manager for a large distribution company. He talks about his leadership style and the importance of transparency and communication with his team. He also stresses the importance of showing appreciation to his team on a daily basis. He shares some of the pain points in his facility, such as dealing with peak season, and how he overcomes them by involving his team in the planning and decision-making process. The guest also talks about his book "Make Your Next Move Your Best Ben got another guest for a talking sports. So, it is one more man engaged over a coffee with an ex-ambassador of Atlanta Hawks. He wanted to know the ambassador's perspectives and takes on the trades and the process of trading. Then he talked about the ambassador's book too which is entitled with Expansion: Make Your Next Move Your Best Move . The cover was just like a chess game saying just plan and be prepared with what's next, take a step back and make a In this episode of the Warehouse Underground podcast, host and warehouse expert, Rob Smith, interviews Tyrell Morris, a seasoned warehouse operations manager and consultant. They discuss the challenges and rewards of working in warehousing, the importance of continuous learning and growth, and the keys to success in the industry. Ty also shares his personal journey and offers valuable insights and advice for anyone looking to advance their career in warehousing.
Transcription
Speaker 2
[00.00.11]
All right. Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode at the Warehouse Underground podcast series. This is episode number 19 and another special episode in our manager methods session. Now, the guest on the show today is James Tyrell Morris. This guy is a fantastic leader in the world of warehousing and distribution, but he has done lots of other cool things in his career, right? So he is working on a consulting firm that he's starting up with his family. He is a published author and he's a senior ops manager at Maersk. And if you follow him on LinkedIn like I do, you will see that there is tons of goodness coming out of him, tons of good tidbits of advice. He's very engaging with the people that he follows and mentors and all in all, just a fantastic guy and fantastic leader. And I'm super excited about having him on the show to talk about leadership and management and all the things that he's working on and who knows, who knows what may come out of the show today, but it's just really neat to have great folks like him. On. So excited about bringing him on. I'll bring him on stage right now. Hi. Real man. Welcome to the warehouse Underground. How are you, my friend? Thanks for coming
Speaker 1
[00.01.24]
on. Hey, man, I'm doing good, man. Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure. It is a pleasure.
Speaker 2
[00.01.29]
Yeah. So finally. Right. Like, we we've been trying to we've been trying to record this show now for maybe 4 or 5 months since I had some things come up in the past and you had some things come up in the past. So I'm super excited that we're here and finally doing this, man. So it's good. It's good to good to finally good to finally connect with you. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1
[00.01.49]
Yeah. Everything happens when it's supposed to. That's how I look at it. Yeah. We've been planning and we've been preparing, but everything happens when it's over. So that's right
Speaker 2
[00.01.57]
I love it man. I love it. Right. So I gave a little bit of a intro to you in the beginning. Um, but that's just really just scratching the surface. So before we get too deep in everything, you just tell the audience a little bit about your, your, your background and kind of how you came to be and what you're all about.
Speaker 1
[00.02.16]
Absolutely. Uh, so my name is Tara. You said everybody calls me. My, uh, father was military. My mother, uh, was a teacher, retired assistant principal. So a lot of my experience or my background or my my work ethic is from them. Um, been in the field since about 2006. Started off as a general laborer, um, at Ikea. Uh, play sports my whole life. Football, basketball. So again, those disciplines from my parents as well as sports is what I take into my everyday life. That's what I use in my work, and that's how I build my teams from those type of backgrounds or those type of experiences. Um, but again, that's just a, well, very humble person. I love life, I love, I love God, and I love people. Um, but other than that, um, as we get through the show, we'll talk more about my background. But for the most part, that's the beginning of.
Speaker 2
[00.03.04]
Yeah. I love that about you, man. I mean, like I said in the intro, I follow you. You're not afraid. You're not bashful about putting the things out there that you believe in, uh, for everybody to see. And I. And I really respect that about you, man. But by the way, you know, not everybody is that way. And and I love people that are. So I appreciate that about you. So let me ask you this. So I know and we talked about this a little bit before the show. And it's on your LinkedIn profile and everything. But you are building a consulting firm. So JAG consulting is the firm that you are working to build. So a side hustle, which I can appreciate, you know, with the with the warehouse underground, as you see. But you know, can you talk to me about kind of what that is, what that's all about? You know, what what are kind of the guiding principles of it and who you're working on it with and who your, your, your clients may be out there.
Speaker 1
[00.03.57]
Absolutely. Um, so AG consulting is basically a business firm, uh, where people come to me. So let's let's go back to the beginning. Before I thought about starting a business, people would always come to me for advice, leadership advice, my business. What would I do? What should I do to this business? How do I do this? How do I do this? And I've always was the person that would give advice on fitness, on training, on cooking, all these different things. Right? But my specialty is business. It's literally logistics. I started two businesses. I had a podcast, I wrote a book I did, I've done all these things and been very successful. And I think just over the time people seen that and they experienced that and the results that I or the, the solutions that I give to them provided results. And I was like, well, hey, why not just do this and create a business for it? Why not provide something that's beneficial and I can get some type of profit from it as well. But Jag asked for my middle name and my my two sons middle name. Uh, again, it's family oriented and I just love everything about it. Like, I, I am a consultant at work, so why not just do something outside of work that is still getting a part of my purpose?
Speaker 2
[00.05.08]
Yeah. I mean, and you see that a lot, I think in this, in this industry really this industry. But any industry to where you just start to see these sort of natural leaders begin to arise and people just gravitate towards them. They have a charisma or they have a respect, or they have an energy or whatever you want to call it. People gravitate towards certain folks. And yeah, it sounds like you, you thought, well, if this is if I'm doing this all the time, anywhere, no matter where I go, I'm going to the grocery store and people coming up to me asking me about this, I should be maybe there's a calling here, right? Like, maybe there's a message that's being sent to me that I should go out and do this. So I, I love that, and I appreciate that you're doing it with your sons, too. That's a that's probably a great way for you guys to to bond and and start teaching them some of that stuff too, because it does not
Speaker 1
[00.05.55]
leave leaving a building a legacy, leaving a legacy, showing them the hard work from the ground up. Yeah, we all work in warehouse. We work in logistics, retail. I want them to have that experience, that experience, but not having to do it for somebody else. They're doing it with their father and they're doing it with their family. They're doing it with their mother. They're doing it with people that they know, and they'll raise them, and they're not going to groom them the correct way. Not saying that because that in the real world, but they know for a fact that, hey, my father is going to show me the best way possible to be a to be great men and to be successful in great leaders. So that's that's where it all starts. That yes, that's going to come. Yes, the profits are going to happen. But more than anything, my sons are going to have a solid foundation for what it looks like to be a great leader and to be a great man. Yeah. And I think, you know, the, the profits and stuff. That's a byproduct. Right. Right. I mean, that's, that's a byproduct. But the but the source, the core of the foundation I think is exactly what you're talking about. And that's the most important thing. If the, you know, the prophets will come, the money will come. If you have if you're doing things for the right reason, if it's providing value. Right. The whole the whole nine yards. And so I think that's great, man. I love that you're doing that. And best of luck to you in that, in that, in that firm. So speaking of speaking of that, so talking about, you know, organizations or people, uh, and you know, how to sort of unlock their full potential. Lots of organizations are out there and they say, I've got all these mid-level managers or I've got all these associates, and some of them have shown a lot of potential and a lot of,
Speaker 2
[00.07.31]
uh, you know, ceiling that they might hit, but for some reason, they're just not going there. They're just not doing it. So how do you know what what are for you when you come in and you do this and you coach or you guide, like, what are your go to's on how to best unlock the full talent and the full potential of all the employees that might be in any organization, whether that's sports or warehousing or or whatever.
Speaker 1
[00.07.56]
Easy. That's the easy one. But for me, it's truly building that relationship first. I feel like before you can pull something out of somebody or before you put something into somebody, you need to know exactly where they're at. So building that up, having real depth, genuine conversations, knowing who they are, knowing where they came from, knowing what they want to do or where they want to go. And if they don't know where they want to go and what they want to do, having those conversations and asking the right questions. So I think the first thing we should do is build those relationships. Going back to me and you. Yes. We even have the relationships. I think we can have a solid conversation about the good, the bad, the ups and downs. But I can't trust you. And you didn't trust me. I wouldn't be transparent. You wouldn't be transparent. So the first thing my go to is let's build a solid relationship first. And then once I do that, or once we do that, then we can tap into the potential. Because I know who you are as a person. So now I know what to pour into you. I know what to say to you. I know what questions to ask, and I know you trust me enough to actually act on those things as well.
Speaker 2
[00.09.01]
Yeah, and the analogy that I've always heard, and this is going to be weird. So just go with me on this one for a second. But and I think you'll appreciate this is, it's like a, it's like a plug that goes into the wall for the power. You know, like there's all this power on the one side and there's all this capability of this device on the other side. But until it plugs in the middle, there's no transfer between the two. Right. And so that plug in the middle is that trust I think, that you were talking about. And then once that trust is developed, it's as if that plug is being perfectly curated and designed, and it fits right into that outlet. And that's the trust. And once that happened, boom, now it's all open. All the power can transfer. You can do all this stuff, but that you're right. You have to have that first. Otherwise it's just it could be great over here. It could be great over here, but it's never going to transfer. And and that I think is absolutely important. And the thing is you probably appreciate this. It takes a long time to do that. Depending on like some people it takes a short time, but other people that may take longer. But I think that's where somebody like you, that's a consultant or that's done a lot of leadership can know, okay, I can do this very swiftly or oh, this is going to be much more layered with this person, right? We have to we have to go a longer approach. So,
Speaker 1
[00.10.18]
um, yeah, I love that,
Speaker 2
[00.10.21]
I love that. So let me ask this question to you now. That is the best case scenario. So in the best case scenario we're trying to develop a team. We we we we develop trust. And now we transfer all this goodness into them. And it's received and and they go and the leadership improves. But it seems like if you if you scroll around on the internet or social media, there's just there's leadership stuff everywhere. I mean, it's all over LinkedIn. Everybody has a different program, it seems like, or a different theory, uh, or the whole bit. But a lot of leadership programs fail over, over the long haul, um, because they get tested beyond the paper. I mean, everybody has their presentation. This is a this is my philosophy. This is my this is my thing that I believe in. It's all on paper, but it's sometimes it doesn't hold up. So, you know, I, I do you agree first of all do you agree with me on that, that, that a lot of, um, you know, programs like that fail and if so, you know, why do you why do you think that is? I mean, why do you think that so many different programs ultimately just don't kind of bear fruit. Out there in the industry.
Speaker 1
[00.11.33]
That's a very great question to be. Um, one, yes, I do believe that a lot of those leadership programs fail. And the reason why is I think that those programs are built on what they want to see and not what they have already done or experienced or have created for myself. When I create any type of leadership program, any type of training. It's something that I have done on myself. First I experienced it, I went through it. I've done the the from the foundation all the way to the end result, so I know it works. I've done it, I experienced it, I've been through it. I've done the ups and downs. I had to step back. I had to self evaluate. I had to dive deep within myself and have that awareness to say, hey, this isn't working. Change it. Hey, this isn't working. Change it, readjust. And then I could put that program out to others because now, hey, this is where I started. These are my results. This makes sense. It may not work for everybody else, but here goes. It was parfait. It was Pepsi. It was Pepsi. Because everybody is different. I think most leadership programs are. This is the one fit all. And it should work for Tyrrell. It should work for Ben. It should work for Erica. And it should work for Ashley. But shoulds aren't always the case because everybody is different. So again, you have those relationships and then you have to build a program that you have actually went through yourself. And I think most organizations and leaders don't feel the program based off of something that has already that is proven to work from their experiences. Yeah, I love that. I mean, you you're like, hey, this is a theory. This is not theory. Like, what I'm bringing is not theoretical. This is not coming from a book like this is coming from me, first of all. And then also like years and years and years of doing this with lots of different people. And then I think maybe when you're that way, when you're coming from that place, you can pivot much faster to something that's going to be tailored and work towards the people that you're leading, that you're working on versus, nope, this is my program. This is my thing. If you don't, if it doesn't work for you, I don't know what to tell you. It worked on these people at this company, so y'all must just be different. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2
[00.13.38]
that's insufficient. You know that. That's that's lazy. That that that shallow. So I think for you, where you're coming from is you're saying, hey, this is real. This is authentic. I know how to make changes, and I'm going to tailor this to me. Wherever your guys are at or wherever your team is at. And I think that's a big differentiator for you out there. And I think that is that separates the, you know, the wheat from the chaff, if you will, about
Speaker 1
[00.14.06]
programs,
Speaker 2
[00.14.07]
programs like that. So, yeah. Um, I love that, man. I, I agree with you. I agree with you. So shifting gears a little bit, right. So I mentioned in the intro that you, uh, you work for Maersk, so your, your senior, your senior ops manager there. Obviously everyone most everyone is familiar with the company. If you've seen, uh,
Speaker 1
[00.14.28]
not everybody. But sometimes when I say like what? I'm not really the big blue star. And I'm like, oh, okay, now I know. Yeah,
Speaker 2
[00.14.35]
well they probably need it. They just never. Yeah, they just never thought it just didn't compute. It just it just didn't go in go in there. So I know I know who Maersk is. So, um, but what I don't know though, is I don't know what life is like inside of a marriage facility. I've never worked in one. I've never been in one. And so you're in there. I mean, what's it? What's what's it like in there? You've got a background in warehousing. You've worked a lot of different places, like what's, um, what's the day in the life of, of of, uh, of Maersk employee.
Speaker 1
[00.15.07]
One. I gotta say, I love Maersk, I love the company. I love everything that they owe there. They stand for everything that they're trying to do and everything they're about. I would say the difference between them and any other warehouse or organization is they care about the people and they care about training. So the average day inside of a warehouse or warehouse is starts with training. It starts with videos. It starts with courses. It starts with all these different things that most organizations say they want to do versus actually doing it. They care about the people. They want to be developed. They want them to be better. Um, so that's the most likely that's the biggest difference from the day to day. But other than that, it's you bring in freight, we store freight, we ship freight out. Um, we're in logistics, you know, that's what we do. Um, so the day to day would be that's totally different would be the training, the training aspect of hours cares about their people and want to see them develop.
Speaker 2
[00.16.05]
I got you and now and like I said in the intro, you are very good about highlighting your employees. And that's one of the things that drew me to you on LinkedIn maybe 5 or 6 months ago is, man, this guy is constantly celebrating his team and he's going the extra mile. He's been photos of them and he's writing little blurbs about them and everything. So what do you feel like? I mean, in in any good ops manager or senior ops manager, any manager will tell you that it's ultimately the performance of their team, which is kind of setting them apart and making them look good. So what do you think sets your team apart? Like when you when you look at them as a whole, what is the good things and bad, not bad things, but what are the good things about them? Right. If you if you take a football analogy, like every football team has its own sort of thing that really sets them apart, that they're good at. So what do you what do you think that is for? For your for your team?
Speaker 1
[00.16.59]
Uh, so anybody who's not a Patriots fan, please forgive me. Um, I feel like my team, we're like the Patriots. And I'm gonna stop
Speaker 2
[00.17.06]
the show. I'm gonna stop the show
Speaker 1
[00.17.08]
just on right here. But I came to the Patriots and I'm Tom Brady because no matter who came to the Patriots, Tom Brady was able to make them a well-known player. And he knew how to win. We knew who the players were or not. We knew who they were once they got to the Patriots and once Tom Brady got there. So what sets us apart with my team is again, just being in those relationships, having truly in-depth conversations and letting them know that, hey, you are good, you are successful, you are powerful, you are wonderful. Giving them positive affirmations, things they probably never heard from any leader, things they probably have never heard from any other manager. And I'm not just saying it because it sounds good. One of my managers always says, don't give me, don't give me happy talk. I'm not going to. Yes, I want to motivate you. Yes, I want to. I want to give you positive energy and all those things. But my team also knows that I will hold you accountable. If you're not doing what's right, you're not following standards, you're not following some procedures, you're doing unsafe things. I will hold you accountable, but at the same time. There's more positive than there are negatives. So what sets us apart is we want to win. We want to be successful for our customers, and we want to go home happy. And the best way to do that is to be safe and be productive. Once we do those, I'm giving my team all the kudos because every single day that means we won. So why not give them the praise? Why not let them know that? Hey. And here goes this certificate. Here goes this. This where we can't get a gift card. But here goes this reward or this bonus. You deserve it. Yes, you could have it. And most of the time, people say, I want more money. I can't give you more money, but I can recognize you with this. Or I can buy you this dinner. We can have this this celebration. We can do these type of games. And the other people don't want kitchen parties and they don't want this. I'm telling you, it works. It. My team is proof. I've been in two buildings that merge, and both buildings are doing successful based off of the things that I'm telling you right now. It works. How about highlighting your team, highlighting your associates on an individual level publicly and on one on ones? It works. I'm telling you, it is a game changer for any manager or leader who wants to see success within their team. Just tell your team. Tell your team. Thank you on a day to day basis. I'm promise, I promise you better start making some changes. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.19.23]
And I've always felt like too, that when you do that, in most cases it gets very well received
Speaker 1
[00.19.30]
in my I mean, you may ask a couple of people here, there that are bashful and they don't want to be and they don't want to be highlighted. And that's okay. Right? That's part of you got to know them, figure that out and learn where the trust is with them. And then you don't do that. Right. You you reach them on a on a different level. But I've always looked at it. It's like like it's like tipping people. If you tip a waiter or you tip somebody, it's a very small amount that you give. But the payoff is big. You know, it means the same thing. It's like this only taking a small amount of my time. I snap a picture, I write some stuff, I put it online, I get lunch right. In the grand scheme of things, it's small, but the payoff is is big, so why wouldn't you? I mean, look, just, I mean selfish, just looking at the ROI of it, it's awesome. Right? It's fantastic. So just do it. It's like a secret cheat code that I think a lot of managers out there miss, um,
Speaker 2
[00.20.17]
because for, for whatever, for whatever reason.
Speaker 1
[00.20.20]
And it's again and again and it doesn't have to be a constant thing like. You said maybe 4 or 5 times out of the month or the months that I post. So that's a daily thing. So just imagine if I posted every single day how many people I told. Thank you. Yeah. I'm sorry. You're doing too much. And maybe I and maybe I am. Right. But the more you do it, the more it becomes a habit. And when it becomes a habit, when you don't do it, that's what your team is going to say. Hey, man, you didn't tell me. Thank you today. Oh, man, I'm sorry. I take accountability for that one because I apologize and that they're noticing when you don't do it as well too. So it goes a very, very long way. Yeah. And I think it's just it's just positive, man. Like, you know what I mean? Like it's just positive energy and positive vibes that get put out into the universe whether you do or not or, you know, post online or podcast or whatever. And that's just on the whole, I think that's just good, man. You know what I mean? Like people, people gravitate towards that. It makes the organizations better. It makes people happier. It's just it's just a good thing to do. I wish more people would would be more transparent and more vocal about their praise and and spreading their goodness to everybody. I think that that's a lot of good things.
Speaker 2
[00.21.34]
about. Let me ask you this, though. I mean, is everything. I mean, we talked a little bit about the show. Everything is not always roses inside of a warehouse or distribution center. I mean, you got peak and everything. So what about you? Like, what are the some of the pain points that you have there in your facility or really any facility kind of across the country? And then how do you how do you kind of get through that adversity is that that's part of ops? You know, I mean, that's that's part of the business I think so. Oh yeah. Absolutely. A good another good question. I think not just my, my facility but all facility. Uh, one of the main pain points would be peak. How do we do it? How do we deal with peak? Right. We all have, you know, July 4th weekends or Memorial Day sales and Christmas sales and all these different things. And where it's going up and down. Uh, the main pain point is how do we get our teams to produce more during peak season? And again, it's knowing your team having those positive moments when they are in peak and preparing them for when peak is coming. Again, being very transparent. Hey, in two months this is where we're at. This is the this are the numbers. These are the expectations. What can we get there? And then don't just tell them, hey, peaks, come in. I need you to perform. What can we do to be successful? How can we perform what? What input do you have from as the team? What advice would how solutions do we have? Don't just give them all the directions. Allow them to give you something and be like, hey, let's implement this or let's see how this works because they're the again, they're the ones doing the work. So hey, peak is coming. What can we do to be successful this year? How can we improve from where we were at last year? Give them again. Give them data. Hey, last year we did this. This what we should have done. This is what we did this year. We're expecting this. What can we do to be successful? Successful this time? Give them the numbers. Give them the information. Being very transparent. So to eliminate the pain point,
Speaker 1
[00.23.23]
let them be a part of it. Let them plan. Let them process it. Let them be a part of the decision making. And it may be tough. And sometimes they don't give you all the right answers. That's what we have that communication. We have that collaboration, and we go back and forth. But to lead the best team through adversity is allowing them to be a part of it. Allow them to be a part of the planning in the process of it.
Speaker 2
[00.23.43]
Yeah, yeah, I love that man. And and to kind of going back to what you said when it comes to peak, you know, that's probably going to be harder work, right. There's going to be more tension and more hours and everything. And so it's good to have known that, hey, throughout the entire year I built these people up, I developed trust, I engage them, they feel in every part of it, they feel very appreciated to them. When it comes time to you got to step on the gas extra hard. They're there for it, right? Like like they're ready. Otherwise, if you don't do that when it comes time to put it into overdrive, into extra gear, they might not be willing to do it and point and asking and and and that that happened five months ago didn't happen. Now it happened five months ago, but not everybody. Can can connect the two together. All right. So now get into one of my one of my favorite parts of the show. So you you are a published author.
Speaker 1
[00.24.38]
Yes, sir. You you
Speaker 2
[00.24.39]
you you have a book. I'm bringing it up on stage right now as as we speak. There it is. Right. So you have a book. Uh, I love when people come on the show that have written a book. So this is your book. Make the make your next move, your best move the dream play booklet. So tell me about it, man. Like, what was it like writing it? What was the motivation behind it? And then what's been the kind of the the reception since you, since you
Speaker 1
[00.25.04]
published it? Absolutely. And again, thank you for this. Um, this book is five years old and it's still selling to this day. So it is good that people still see it and still recognize it. And it is transformational, as it says, transformational dream achieving play by play book like this book is very inspirational. But again, if you apply it to your life, you will see changes. But this book is about literally what it says. Make your next move, your next move. What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What do you want to achieve? Who do you want to become? That's what this book is about. And how did I get to this book? So then there was a time in my life where I didn't know. I didn't know what moves I wanted to make. I didn't know where I wanted to be in my career. I had nothing figured out. I had no plan. I was just going through the motions day by day, and I was at a job that I hated. Toxic leadership, toxic workplace, horrible hours. And I was just like, yeah, this isn't it, so I quit. No plan, no plan. No, no nothing. I just quit the job. In that moment after that, I hit rock bottom. I lost my job. Well, I quit my job. I lost my car. I lost my home. I was broke, sleeping in the storage unit, trying to figure it out. Right. So even in that moment, though, I still had a positive outlook on what I wanted to do after that because I was like, well, this isn't it. I hated where I was at and I definitely hate this. So what do I do? I wrote make your next move, your next move. Start planning. Start preparing. So I started having those conversations with myself. What do I want to do? I don't want to work at a toxic place. I don't want to be homeless. What do I want my life to look like? I want to make six figures. I want to start my own business. I want to have kids. And I want them to be successful. I don't want them to look. What? I don't want them to ever be homeless. I started making my best food, and I kept saying that I'll make your next move. Your best move, however, make your next move, your next move, your next move. I will make your next move. Your next move. And I just started planning from that moment. While I was broke, while I was homeless. While I was living in a storage unit. Wow. I didn't have a job. I started to plan my life and the more I planned it and started putting in the action, I planned it, put in the steps, I planned it, I made moves, I planned it. This is how the book. Was published again through that process for the leadership program. I went through it. I experienced it, so I know. Make your next move. Your next move is the best seller because again, I went through it. I'm literally I'm living proof. Um, but once I got through that, once I got through everything and I got back on my feet and I started making money again, I got a job. I was like, I need to put all this stuff out. It was me, and it was inside of me. I kept having these thoughts who can be who can benefit from this as well? To who can, who can? Who's experiencing the same thing that I'm experiencing or who can I help not experience what I just experienced? Uh, I was a a dream coach, started as a dream coach for a nonprofit for young males. Most of my conversations were about my book to an extent, but it was about the things that I experienced, the things that I went through. How can you not? How can you avoid this? How you how can you prepare and set yourself up for something totally different. Something to journal. I started writing all these different things down. All these different thoughts. All the chapters. Everything that I would put into the book. I started journaling, writing it down, writing it down. And then that's how the book it was, it was born. Make your next move, your best move the dream booklet. Um. And what was it like writing it? It was fun. And like I said, it was everything that was already inside of me. Everything that I was already telling myself, everything that I was telling to others prior to the book being published. Now I was just coming out of me and being put on paper. Um, it was fun. It was exciting, I enjoyed it. Um, I love the cover. We went through 2 or 3 different covers, everybody. Why? Why the chest? Why the chest? Why the chest? Cover. Uh, cover again. Make your next move. Your best move. If you know how to play chess, you have to strategize. You have to plan. You have to know what you're going to do. Also, plan for what your opponent is going to end up having. This at this point is like you never know what life is going to throw at you, but you do know what you can do based off of it. It just happens. You weren't prepared. Do this. Make this move. Make this adjustment. Take a step back, reevaluate and make a different move. But make your next move. Your best move is all about planning. Strategizing. Have something set in place, and you don't have to have it all figured out. You always think, well, I'm 30 years old and I have to have it all figured out. I was homeless at 28. I was homeless at 29 years old. I didn't have it all figured out. But once you start planning and knowing what you want to go, then everything makes more sense because you can. If you know where you want to go, you can see if you're on track. But if you don't know you want to go, how do you know if you're going in the right direction, in the right direction or not? So make your next move. Your next move is all about knowing where you want to go, knowing if you're on track and the steps that you need to do to get there.
Speaker 2
[00.30.10]
I love it, man. And I mean, I'm so happy that
Speaker 1
[00.30.14]
you I always tell people this, just put it out there in the universe for other people to benefit from because they're there, right? They're there, but they're just not as bold as you or me. They're a little bit timid, and it's up to people like you to give that nudge, right? Like give that nudge and then you never know what's going to take. But I always tell people this because a lot of people come up to me, well, you know, how do I get hired on at your company? And I'm a temp and everything? I'm like, look. These things are not a foregone conclusion. You know, like, where are you ended up? Today was not a foregone conclusion. You did not know what the outcome was going to be. But you said whatever the outcome is, it's going to be from me giving my very best. Right? So I don't know what's going to happen. You know, I may get beat up or beat down, but I'm not going to lose because I wasn't prepared or I didn't get my very best right. Then I think at the end of the day, you know, back to Bill Belichick. I can't believe I'm doing this right. But do your job right. Your job in that section of your life is I'm going to be fit. I'm going to I'm going to stay alert. I'm going to stay educated. I'm going to put myself out there. I'm going to try to network, whatever it may be. Right. I'm going to do good. You're giving your best. And I'm here to tell you that if you do that long enough, if you keep pushing up against that ceiling, you're going to break through eventually. For some people, it may be their first shot. For other people, it may be their 20th shot. But you don't know. You don't know how thick the wall is. You know what I mean? It's like American gladiators, remember? You watch that show when you're a kid and they love the thing. There's a guy on the other side. Sometimes there's not. Sometimes you go right through the thing and the guy's not there, you know? And you just get up and keep going. Sometimes he's there, but whatever it is, when I hit this wall, I'm hitting it with the best that I've got. There's a guy there. Good. If not good, I'm going to go through. And I think that's an important thing for people to remember, because sometimes people get frustrated with, like, I'm doing this, but I didn't get promoted or I didn't get. That's not really how it goes, man. You just have to like, keep giving your best and you keep ringing that phone. You do it long enough. Somebody to answer that phone,
Speaker 2
[00.32.16]
I guarantee it. All right, so now you get me all. Now I gotta get get on my stage back. You know, promo in your book up here. Everything, uh, all good. So. But let me ask this question though, so, and we talk a little bit about this before the show. You okay. So you you post a lot on LinkedIn. It's awesome stuff right. Like I said, anybody who's not following you should be following you because they're going to get you know, maybe they don't love everything, right. Like I put some stuff out there that I'm sure people don't like, but there might be 1 or 2 pearls of wisdom that just hit with somebody. So I encourage everybody to to follow you out there. But it takes a certain type of person and a certain level of energy and initiative to to do that in comfort level and confidence, whatever you want to call it. Have you always been that way? I mean, have you always been the type of person that is comfortable being out front and posting and being out there with a book? Or did you kind of have to? Sort of turn into that person and gravitate, because I always tell people this, like, I'm sort of naturally an introverted person, but I have this website and the podcasts and everything, and so I have to kind of push myself to, to do this. It doesn't always come naturally to me. Where where were you on that? Where do you come down on that?
Speaker 1
[00.33.28]
Ben. Definitely not a natural person. Uh, even to this day, I still have that feeling of being timid or shy. Right? I'm very confident. I'm very bold. I'm very direct in my approach because I know who I am as an individual. But even like being on videos in the past, very afraid. And I was afraid because I felt or I was wondering what people would think about me. Now I care less. Whatever you think about me, that's a character flaw on you. How do you feel about me or whatever you think about me? Or if you point out a flaw that I have, that's a you thing. I'm not worried about that because I know who I am. God created me this way for a reason, and I'm confident in that in this moment. But yes, before in the past, very, very afraid, very shy. Um, but. And even with that, too. Right, Ben? I think that there's somebody out there that needs something, that I have to say something. That's right. And if I never say it because I'm afraid or because I'm shy. That one person that is waiting to hear what I have to say will never get their life changed. They are never starting their never move forward because I was too afraid to put the message out there. It may not be for the masses. It may not be for the thousands. It may not be for the hundreds. There are ten people who are waiting for you. They're waiting for me to say what I have to say. Because this is my purpose. And if I don't walk into my purpose because I'm afraid of what people are going to say about how I look, how I talk, how I sound. Whatever those things, those ten people are never going to be able to reach their potential. So yes, I am shy. Yes, I may not be comfortable on camera all the time, but my purpose is bigger than that. My why is bigger than that, and what I do is bigger than that, and the message is bigger than that. So anybody is listening or the people who are listening. Walk into your purpose. Be more comfortable. That than being afraid of what if they don't like it? Well, what if they do like it? What if they don't worry about what if they don't like it? Like. Like Ben said, some people aren't going to like it. Take those people off the board and continue to focus on the people who are liking what you're doing and liking what you're sharing, and liking what you're putting out there. There's more. Yeah. And I. And I can save you the suspense. The moment you start doing this immediately, there will be people that don't like it. So if that if that affects you, you need to know about that going in. This is a this is a par for the course man. This is just this is just what happens. This is part of it. You know, you put yourself out there like we do. You get the trackers on almost on day one. And and and then eventually you just say, yeah, but that's not my audience, right. Like that's not, that's I don't really it doesn't bother me because that's not the person that I, that I'm sending this for. They didn't they didn't get it. Maybe they gravitate for somebody else. Maybe somebody else resonate. That's not my crowd. You know. That's not that's not the people that I'm going for. And and you said that like, once you make that shift to I'm not doing this for me, I, I, I honestly feel. Call me whatever you want to call me, but I honestly feel like there are people out there that are listening to this and saying, I love that man like that. That made the difference. Listening to him or how he put it or something that made the difference. And that that, I think, is what ultimately drive you and say, who really gives a crap? You know, if if somebody, if somebody doesn't like your stuff is just not for them. And of course, they're not going to like it, you know, you don't have it like so it's just it's like eating a food that you don't like. I don't like this. Well, of course not. You don't. You don't like that food, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2
[00.36.56]
So, I
Speaker 1
[00.36.58]
mean, we can always take it back to the all the greats, right? We talked about Tom Brady. How many people don't like Tom Brady? A lot of people. How many championships does he have? I like, like he's done a lot. Right? We we talk about the people who don't like Kobe and LeBron and Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. They're still winners, right? They still went out and did what they had to do and they won. My biggest thing right now is I never win. There's going to be people who people who don't like you. There's going to be people who want you to lose. I go win. That's the end. That's the end of it. If you don't win. Figure out why you didn't win. Readjust and go win. That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.37.32]
It's just like back then how it does, I don't care. It doesn't matter because I'm. I'm going to do my best. That's what. That's my my internal measuring stick is that I'm going to send it I'm going to put it out there, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do my best. And how that how that hits and how that resonates, I don't control. You know what I mean? All I can control is I'm going to keep swinging and keep bringing my best. And then then you feel like a winner, right? Because you. Because you're grading yourself on your own internal scale, which is the only skill that people should use to grade themselves and not some external thing, I think from, you know, society or whatever, that that shit's always changing. You know, I mean, you make yourself dizzy if you try to try to be on that. Right. All right, my friend. So. Well, where can people find out more about you? I know on LinkedIn and I and I and whenever you, whenever you get your, uh, consulting firm up, let me know if you get, like a website or wall that I'll post a link on the warehouse underground and all that. But if people want to reach out to you again, they, you know, how do they find out more about you? Where can they. Where can they go?
Speaker 1
[00.38.34]
Right now, I'm just on LinkedIn. Um, Colorado Morris. Um, not on any other social media. No TikTok? No Instagram. No Facebook. Uh, for me, I just like those platforms are a distraction. Um, there are some benefits. So don't get me wrong, there are some benefits and some pros to those. But for me, and what I'm trying to do in my business is I just feel like LinkedIn is the best place for me to network to to build my brand and to and to grow my business. So LinkedIn is it for me? Um, but yes, once the ad is up and running, I would definitely share the link to the website and all that good stuff. But right now it's just it's just LinkedIn. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2
[00.39.12]
awesome, my friend. Like I say, man, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. This has been awesome. Like I love chatting with you. You've got a great perspective that you can bring. You're out there like I am and I love that, I respect that. Uh, I hope you get more out of that. You know, I think you're really one of the good ones, man. And, um, I love chatting with you, and I hope people listen and and good luck to you. Uh, in the future. Let me know. Let me know how I can help you and maybe come back and do another episode one
Speaker 1
[00.39.41]
day. Sounds good man. Thank you, I appreciate it. I enjoyed my my time here. Um, definitely looking forward to another conversation and anything I can do to help you as well. And and the Warehouse Live Underground podcast. Please let me know.
Speaker 2
[00.39.54]
You got it, my friend. Take care. Tyrell. Appreciate it man. Good one.
Speaker 1
[00.39.57]
See it.
Speaker 2
[00.40.00]
Where did I go? All right, guys, that concludes today's show. I love talking with Thai, man. Like I said, if you don't follow him on LinkedIn, you definitely should follow him on LinkedIn. He is a fantastic resource for you. Mentor. Whatever you want to call it. Just a great, positive, good influence guy. I love that. As the warehouse underground goes, like I always say, please sign up for the website if you've not done that. The community is very cool. Tons of great content in there posting, networking and we do some live events in there. If you're not part of that community as you go in there and check it out. Check out podcast number 20. Next week I should be releasing that. If you haven't listened to the Tiger team, I recommend you listen to the Tiger team for some wit, humor, and sarcasm. Uh, with all things that are going on out there in the warehousing and distribution world. Check it out. I think you guys will like it with that. That concludes today's show. Thanks again to Ty. See you next week. God bless everyone. How about.
