Desmond Clark
Bear Down Logistics
How NFL Veteran Desmond Clark Is Building a $100M Enterprise
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"I fell victim to people letting people into that inner circle and then being scammed for $750,000, right?
Key Takeaways
- ◆Desmond's middle school coach pulled him out of quitting by showing up at his house, told him he would never quit, and put him at center where he won best offensive lineman of the year, teaching him that team mission overrides individual position ego.
- ◆His daily mindset for business is not 'I want to build a hundred million dollar logistics enterprise' but 'I'm going to build a hundred million dollar logistics enterprise,' setting it as a given rather than a hope.
- ◆Block two hours every day on your calendar as uninterruptible locked-in time with a specific work objective, and let your inner circle know you won't answer phone or messages during that window.
- ◆Be brutally selfish with your time and resources by drawing a straight line to where you're going, then tell people asking for help exactly why you can't do it right now, like telling a business contact that doubled company expenses mean you have no capacity for three to six months.
- ◆Filter every opportunity through alignment with your vision and personal benefit before committing, so that taking time away from core work like appearing on a podcast serves a clear purpose like building brand awareness for your company.
- ◆Desmond deployed his AI agent 'John' to incoming freight leads despite incomplete testing because staying in test mode indefinitely prevents you from learning what actually works, and he accepted losing $15,000 as acceptable cost to advance the company.
- ◆The foundation of a successful business is having an unwavering belief you will get it done, paired with willingness to make a bad decision, own it quickly, and adjust rather than staying bullheaded and letting a speed bump become a business-killing drop.
Full transcript
Show
Chad Paris
What's up everyone? Chad Paris here, and welcome back to Process Over Pressure. The show is for founders, operators who are in it right now. The growing pains, the late nights, the moments you realize the business you built only works when you're in the room. No highlight reel, no LinkedIn polish, just real talk with people who've been there and are still figuring out today. Today, I'm sitting down with Desmond Clark, former NFL tight end for the Chicago Bears and founder of Bear Down Logistics. We're going to talk about the process that lived only in his head, the expertise he had to fake until you built it, and the one relationship that probably held the whole thing up early on. So let's get into it. Ladies and gentlemen, I Desmond Clark played football from age six to thirty-four, went to Wake Forest, made it to the NFL, and retired as a number two tight end in Chicago Bears history in catching short in catch yards, touchdowns. Right behind the legend, Mike Ditka. He got the signed photo on his wall to prove it. After hanging up the cleats, Des didn't go into coaching or commentary. He went into logistics. Today he runs bare-down logistics and he's building an AI chief of staff to run his day because in his world, he's been all over the place. He's also the author of a book and former host of a podcast called Principles of Winning. He knows what it takes to compete. And now he applies that same mentality to building a business from scratch. Desmond, welcome to the show.
Desmond Clark
Hey, I appreciate it, sir. Thanks for having me on.
Chad Paris
Absolutely. I'm I'm I've been looking forward to to having a chat with you. We're both big sports guys, love sports, and but and we probably could do a whole podcast on on football and have fun at it. But w we're not gonna do that today. We're we're gonna we're gonna actually talk talk about, you know, your business and and life after football.
Desmond Clark
I'm sure we could speak sports the whole day. The whole day.
Desmond Clark
You You sure? 'Cause 'cause I'm I'm open to it now. I mean, I don't know what your what your guys want a y what your fan base won't, but if they want to talk some football we can we can get into that too.
Chad Paris
Well, we'll probably end up having a little bit of that in there, I have to believe. So we'll definitely cuss 'cause look, I mean, I I I a lot of principles that I use in my own business is centered around what I learned as a coach, and and being being in involved in that and and and I I I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world 'cause I think people who've never done sports been on that side of understand what the mentality is and and and the characteristic you know, all the character building and all that you have to go through to do it. It's not
Desmond Clark
Yes.
Chad Paris
It's not for the faint of heart.
Desmond Clark
Yeah. And so I'm gonna go further than that, Chad, and I hope I don't alienate myself from some of your fan base and even my fan base, but I believe the people who played team sports, sports in general, at a high level, and when I say high level, you know, they made it to college, right? Whatever whatever division that they made it to. and then
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
step above that, people that play team sports. I just think that they have an explicit advantage in life because of what you have to put yourself through, what you have to allow yourself to be pushed to do. That mental and physical training is something and I should say the military also, that's on another level. That that mental and physical training that you have to go through to put your body and your mind through what what you have to do to be able to
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
Execute on that level, you just can't get that anywhere else. And it and it translates into business, into life, into marriage, into everything.
Chad Paris
Listen, I I totally agree with with you on that. And being being, you know, the word team sport, being a part of a team and learning what how to put yourself into that team and make it work. you know, let's talk you know, your humility, setting setting others before you, you know, discipline, you name it, right?
Desmond Clark
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
Being able being being able to degree to disagree but still move forward because we have one common goal. I don't have to agree with you to move forward with you. I don't have to like everything that you say or everything about you as a person, but as a teammate, I'm still locked in with you because what combines us and what connects us together is this shared mission that we have, is this shared vision that we have. And I think that's one of the reasons why we got that advantage.
Chad Paris
That's right. Yep.
Desmond Clark
And and man, we can go down a rabbit hole in this, especially in today's society, Chad, where everybody is so judgmental and I don't like Chad because he's a bald headed white guy. Chad doesn't like Desmond 'cause he's a bald headed black guy. Like you know what I'm saying? Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
I I I I agree and and and you're right and and yeah, we we c you know it we we live in such a a time and and you know this is the thing I love about this podcast is is there there we don't have no script. We just talk. And and I think, you know, people get it people don't know how to communicate anymore or how to how to relate with somebody anymore and
Desmond Clark
Yeah.
Chad Paris
And you don't have to agree with everything and that's okay. Like you have you you have your theories and thoughts and how you were raised and all that, that's fine. But it doesn't mean that my my way is the only way. Like I'm not I didn't write the book. I didn't sign, seal, and deliver it. But just because that's the way I believe doesn't mean that my way's right. And we we we forget that, you know, and I think you're right, this is what happens to do with team. Like you you you when you work inside a team, you may think that you're the best point guard.
Desmond Clark
Right.
Chad Paris
But coach puts you at a number two because he sees that you're better for the team over there. And you have to be, even though you you you disagree, you think you should be here, you gotta learn to be like, okay, well, they may see something that I can't see. And you and you learn to adapt and move into a different role. And who knows, you may look back and go, man, that was a you know, it's the same thing with people, like you said. Like I like you and I could sit here and dislike each other because of the way we look, but then we get to talking and realize. Man, we got all kinds of stuff in common. Like yeah, he he's just like me. Yeah.
Desmond Clark
Hmm. Yeah. Exactly. But you just gotta be open to it. You gotta be open to having that conversation. And and to highlight what you just said about being put into a different position, Chad. I don't know where we're supposed to go with this whole conversation. It just took off. But but when I was in middle school, right, I had played quarterback or or running back.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah. That's why I love it.
Desmond Clark
Every year in Little League. Like I was I was always the guy in Little League. Then I got to middle school and my coach out I was going out and playing quarterback, which all my guys, they figured that I would be the quarterback. He put somebody else at quarterback and told me he wanted me to play center. And I'm like, Me? Play center? No. I tried to quit. And I didn't show up to practice the next day. When I didn't show up to practice, he left practice that next day and came and found me walking home and pulled that big station wagon up on the curve and told me to get my butt in the car that I would never quit on him or anybody else or on myself. He said, You come into practice and you're playing. I played that whole year at center. And at the end of the year, I won best offensive lineman of the year. Now, the next year I went back to playing quarterback, but I think That was a pivotal time in my young brain when I'm developing to learn a good lesson. Like it's not just about you, it's about the whole team. The the quarterback that we had, his name was Rex Honors. Good athlete, you know. deservedly so he, you know, it wasn't like I was so much better than him at the time. but I think that was a good lesson for me to learn early in life when I was, you know, 14 years old or or whatever it was. That no, it ain't just about you. Like you don't just get to stop and quit and go pout and take your ball home just because, you know, every everybody's not everybody's not seeing it your way. You're like, you you don't know, I'm getting my way, so I'm gonna go home. No. It's it it doesn't work that way.
Chad Paris
You didn't get to wait.
Chad Paris
Yeah, and I I mean i it just just like just like owning the business like you are right now. You know, you you I'm gonna assume here, this is an assumption, that you didn't walk out of the NFL and finish that and go, Well Matt, I I've got my my guy logistics card in my back pocket. I know exactly what I'm gonna do. Like I know I got it all figured out. I mean you had to you had to do some learning there and figure out how to do it, right? I mean you didn't just walk out of the NFL and go, I know how to do that.
Desmond Clark
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Clark
No, I mean I went through a whole lot of different professions before I even got to logistics. And it was a steep learning curve. Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Right. Learn, right? You learn just like we do in in any sport or anything in life. Everything is a learning opportunity. Everything's an opportunity to to gain some type of knowledge. What what the what I see happen a lot is it's all and and this is for business owners too. It's a mindset. It's it's walking into a situation and saying or being able to admit, Man, I might have a problem. I I may not know I have a problem, but I may be I may have a problem. And it it it is hard to have somebody look at you and say, hey, you might need to look at doing this or doing this and doing this, because what's our normal thing? Just like it is in sports and anything, they're saying I'm not good enough or I'm not this or I'm not that. So I'm gonna take my ball, you set it and go home. And we we we as a society, we as people in this world, we live that We get so offended when things don't get told just like we want to, and say, I'm walking away.
Desmond Clark
Well, it's a it's a word that you said in there that I just don't want to blow past because I think we blow past it way too much. You said the word mindset. And when when people say that word, I don't think they give it enough enough depth. Like break that word down. Mindset. We have certain ways that we set our mind to how we believe, what we're gonna think, how we're gonna operate. And that really dictates our behavior and our actions. And when we think about that, like people ha have to go and really think about what type of mindset do I have? Is it a mindset that's gonna help me grow? Is it a mindset that's gonna open doors? Is it a mindset that's going to get me to where I'm trying to go? and I and I think about my mindset often when when I'm hitting certain things, all right, let me let me just stop and and like let me get my mindset on what it is that I need to have it on so I can continue to progress. So when when people say that word mindset, like they just blow past it and don't give it enough enough depth.
Chad Paris
And I'm I'm glad you you you walk back on that because because you're right and and you're you're you're you're dead, you know, we say it and I guess sometimes you you you feel like you say it so much because you you see it, right? And and I get I get asked this all the time, you know, people people will be like, you know, what what it you know, w we need we need some help with our business. And I'm always like, Well well what what do you mean by that? Like how do you how do you what we know what do you what do you even mean? I mean, you say it Okay, which is you're you're admitting that you may have some issues. That's what you're doing, and which kudos to you for doing that. But I I often find that people come come with issues or and and I don't think this is just in business, I think this is in life. People have issues, but sometimes they don't know how to put a finger on it. They don't know they don't know where the problem is. And rather than doing the work, it's the work, right? You gotta dive deep sometime, like like W when when you're number two on the depth chart in football, you got two, you got a choice to make. You you can either accept being number two or you gotta go figure out why you're not number one and how you make it better. That's the only choice you got. No difference than being in life. Like we gotta make a choice. Like we're we're we got issues or we got something going on, or our business is failing, or we're not turning over the revenue we want to. The first place to start is internal. Look at you, right?
Desmond Clark
Right. Yeah. Don't don't upset too many people and and and and don't and now you what you mean, Chad? It ain't me. It ain't me. It's always something else. It's always that person, this thing or that thing. Man. yeah, and and a lot of times, so I have this thing where I don't know where I got it from, but it's some type of proverb that I that I got from somewhere where it says, People
Chad Paris
I know.
Desmond Clark
want to change their circumstances, but they're unwilling to change themselves. And you don't change you don't change, you don't change the circumstances until you change yourself. Like everybody, well this need to change and that and most of the time is no, you need to change. The mindset needs to change. and and just going back to what you was talking about, Chad, of like people saying, I need help this and that.
Chad Paris
Ooh, I like that.
Desmond Clark
I think a lot of times we get caught up in a lot of noise, right? And it and it has to go with mindset. Like my mindset for business when I get up every day is like, I'm going not I want to, I'm going to build a hundred million dollar logistics enterprise. I'm going to, that's the mindset. So whatever it is, I'm gonna find a way to get over through around the obstacles because the obstacles is just. The next breaking point to get to that next level. Right. And then when I when I talk about noise and and distractions, it's like, all right, when I'm in this setting, what matters and what doesn't matter? And a lot of times we we focus in on the things that really don't matter. And if you be brutally honest with yourself. Especially in business, especially when you're in leadership, especially when you got people depending on you, you really have to let go of those things that don't matter. You can't you can't fight the battles that's not going to springboard you forward.
Chad Paris
yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
Yeah. Those are distractions. And I I think a lot of people get caught up in those too much too much.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I I I I and I think, you know, take that a little bit further, what you said there is and I think what we what we do, what people do is they they 'cause 'cause noise is a noise is an enemy, right? Noise is an enemy. And 'cause anything that can take you off of staying focused on what's important, that's that's what's gonna happen. You know. So when you look at when you like you're talking about, when you look at your business or you look at any anything in business life, whatever. The things that usually are the most distracting, you gotta stop sometimes and go, hold on, time out. Why is this being so noisy right now? What is it? And figure out what it is. Because it could be that enemy out there saying you can't do it or whatever, and that and so w this is this is this is real right here. What people happen is.
Desmond Clark
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Chad Paris
As they start listening to all the noise rather than the truth. And it and it and it's crippling. It's crippling. And it's crippling as a business owner. It's crippling as a human being. It cripples us. And that's exactly what the enemy wants to do is to keep us from doing those things so that that we never get to our full potential.
Desmond Clark
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Clark
Right. And our full potential is unlimit. Unlimitless. Or should I say hold on, hold on. That's not even a word, unlimitless. It should be unlimited or limitless, I think. Let me correct that. Unlimitless. That's a that's a that's a new word that I'm I'm coining that word, so nobody out there still that from me. Unlimitless.
Chad Paris
We're designed that way.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Hey, I like it. We got Yeah. This is a new word today. Unlimited. And I like it. Because you know t think about this in you in your own in your own you know, your history, you where you've been, your experiences, right? So so I could look I look at, you know, kind of going back to you said, like you. Like you have your own you have your own story. Like where where you came from, where you grew up. Your story's different from my story. Like we probably we might have some commonalities, but I didn't I didn't
Desmond Clark
Yes.
Chad Paris
I didn't see the world through your eyes. I didn't live where you live, right? You didn't live where I live. And I think we we tried it just just thinking about this for a bit, we try to to stereotype or position people based on the way they look, clothes they've got on, the jobs that they do. And we start we put people in buckets and categorize them rather than
Desmond Clark
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Clark
And boxes.
Desmond Clark
Mm-hmm.
Chad Paris
Really understanding who they are as a person and what they've been through. Because you may have a guy that's sitting there across from you that's wearing an old ragged pair of jeans. He might be a multimillionaire. Happens all the time. And you say to yourself, Well, he he's, you know, look at him. He probably, you da da da da. We make our we make these assumptions about people. We do the same thing, we do the same thing in business. We make assumptions that that that my company does X, Y, and Z based off of certain things, or we look at other people's companies.
Desmond Clark
Okay.
Desmond Clark
Judgment. Yeah.
Chad Paris
I know some business owners that you would you that you saw their companies like there's no way they make that kind of money. And they make millions of dollars and and nobody would ever even think about going into that.
Desmond Clark
Mm. Hey. It's so
Desmond Clark
Being judgmental, right? That's one of the things I talk about. If you want to build great r relationships, you gotta be non-judgmental. But what you gotta understand, like you, like you were saying, is understanding like what we do. I look at Chad where Chad is right now, like today. And then Chad says something, and then I only think about what that little five second, ten second thing that Chad said today, because this is where Chad is today. But If you can go back and not just look at the the conclusion of Chad, but look at the evolution of Chad. Like you said, where did Chad come from? How was he raised? What schools did he go to? What was his parents like? What kind of experiences that that he had? He may have had some traumatic experiences, he may have some great experiences that shape the way you see the conclusion of Chad today. And if you can understand that evolution, now you probably you don't have to agree with the conclusion of who Chad Paris is today, but you can you can understand. And then you can be like, yeah, I see why why he would think something like that or say something like that. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I understand where he's coming from.
Chad Paris
do you how do you think you you know obviously you've been through you know you've been through you've done a lot I mean you know you you you you played be but post post high school I mean you you played college you played pro you was around you know being in the pro you're around you know all kinds of different people accessed you know it wasn't like you just played on the team I mean you were pretty dang good so you know you were in it right you got on the field right you played half the time but
Desmond Clark
I I I got on the field a couple of times.
Chad Paris
You know, but but here's the thing, like That time in your life, love to know this, just the experiences of being around that and judging and and developing and being around all different walks of life, because you are. People's coming at you a thousand miles an hour, right? No matter where you go, people are coming at you. How how how does a guy or person manage that?
Desmond Clark
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Clark
It it just depends on the person. I'll tell you, you know, how I managed it. other people manage it different, right? I was I was I was grounded into the things that I believed in. I was grounded into the to to the things I was focused on. And a lot of that was just just family, right? A lot of that was just I always kept like I knew a lot of people, but a lot of people wasn't in in my inner circle. I you know I fell victim to people letting people into that inner circle and then being scammed for $750,000, right? all of that type of stuff. But what I learned is that no matter who you are, like the NFL player or the guy that's working nine to five at the local factory, right? Everybody is gonna have similar circumstances just in different ways, right? I don't even want to say different levels because his level is is just as crucial as the person that's making, you know, five million dollars a day. I mean a a year, he's making seventy five thousand. That seventy five thousand is just as fucking I'm sorry, important. get me in into this now. As that $5 million. So it's not levels, right? It's it's the same circumstance. So everybody get these, you know, he got he got family members that's probably coming to him and say, hey, can I borrow $2,500? Right? Can you help me with this? But I think the people who are able to deal with that best. Man, I just had a conversation with a new business owner about this. You you have to be selfish.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
And you can't give a damn what people are talking about, but you're not being selfish for the just for the sake of being selfish. You're being selfish with your time and with your resources because you have something that you're trying to get to, right? but for me, I'm I'm very, very selfish with my time because I need to spend most of my time building bearing down logistics. And I have a family.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
Desmond Clark
So I can't give everybody my time. I can't give everybody my resources. I just had a a guy who I did business with a couple years ago. He wanted to come back and do some other things. This was right before I jumped on this podcast. And I told him, like, look, I can't do anything else right now because the expenses for my for my company has doubled since last year. And I can't take on any more expenses, even though I know what you're doing. can help. I can't do that right now and I don't have the time to do it. Once I finish up, you know, these two projects, we could come back together in three to six months and maybe I have the time. But you can't be afraid of this is where I'm at, this is where I'm going, and I'm heading in a straight line and I'm not going to be pulled one direction or the other. And being able to stick to that. And I think that's that's the best way to deal with Again, the distractions, because what you're saying is just another another form of of a distraction.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah, and and I and I I asked that question because I I love your answer because you know coming from somebody, you know, there's no difference than what you just described being a professional athlete as it is as a business owner. Because you're gonna have the people do the same thing. And you just used an example of that, right? And I think what happens a lot, and I I I see this and and just to kind of parallel this alongside what a business is, is that The the people get people get a lot of people coming at you, especially when you're like like like like I'm like a new business owner like myself. I mean, I'm I'm I'm not been, you know, I've I've been in business, but I've started my own thing. It hadn't been that long. Every day I get a call or I get a phone call or an email, hey, wanting to to sell me something or do this or do that. And it's a it's a lot of it's a lot of time because you, you know, you're you gotta go and you gotta is this good, is this not good? You know, do I wanna make this decision, wanna make that decision? It's no different.
Desmond Clark
Mm-hmm.
Chad Paris
You said something very important. It is it's all about your time and your focus. So it goes back to mindset, goes back to all these things we've already talked about. Understanding where you are, understand where you want to go and the path to get there. And if that's where you if you're spending more time away from that, you need to have a reset. Or you're or you're or you're or you're never going to get to that goal. Right. It's you you only got so many good hours in a day.
Desmond Clark
Right.
Chad Paris
We talk I talk about this all the time. There's only so many good hours a day. You know, everybody says, you got eight hours a day. That's not good hours because you got travel, you got, you got eating, you got that that that's not good hours. There, there's you probably as a human being got about four hours of good hours a day, really. Where you're where you're huh? Unless you work at home. But still, even even if you, you know, even even if you're at home or whatever, you got people pulling at you or calls or whatever. And what I mean by that four hours is what I'm getting at is is that that is that is time that you can focus like like
Desmond Clark
Mm.
Desmond Clark
Unless you work at home. Unless you work at home. No.
Chad Paris
without distraction. Lock in. Like that's a lock in time. You you you know, some people less. In that time, what is your time spent? I'm not talking about sitting in front of the TV watching the news clippings or whatever. I mean really where you're just sitting there and having a moment to think about, all right, where we go like strategy, where we are, where we're going, what we're trying to do. Those times are the most important. And and if you're not getting those times or you're finding your day where you don't have a chance to do that,
Desmond Clark
Lock in like just lock in. Yeah.
Chad Paris
That's where you gotta start kind of shifting some things away and moving them off of that. Otherwise you're not gonna gr drive to where you wanna go.
Desmond Clark
Well well two two things. First first, on my calendar, I have it blocked out. It's it's a yellow portion on my calendar. Two hours every day where I cannot be interrupted. This phone could be going off. This could be going off. I let my wife know, hey, from from ten to twelve today, I'm like I'm locked in. I'm not answering the phone. No. And and and I have something specific.
Chad Paris
There you
Desmond Clark
That I'm working on in that time, that time block, right? And I I want to get into the mind of your listeners really quick because I said I'm selfish with my time and I don't let anything pull me away from what I'm doing. And it clicked in my mind that somebody's gonna be like, Well, why are you doing a podcast then if you gotta do all this and do all of that? And so this is the other thing that that I talk about is being like brutally honest, right? So I seen it because when when when I do these things, I do it to build brand. I do it so people can see me, hear me, so when they see bear down logistics, they understand the soul of it and who's behind it, what he's all about. So
Desmond Clark
I seen this as a chance to use Chad's platform to get my brand out. But then on the other side of that, and and and like I said, you know, I'm honest. I don't chat, I think we had a conversation and I said, hey, I want to talk about, you know, what you do, make sure it it was in alignment. Because if it wasn't in alignment with how I see myself and if I can get something out of it, I wouldn't have done it. But on the flip side of that, right?
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
That's the selfish side when I say I'm selfish with my time. But on the flip side of that, I also wanted to know: hey, am I gonna be a plus for Chad? Can I also help Chad push his agenda at the same time? You know, can so I when when I thought about that, I was like, somebody's in and is gonna be listening to this like, well, if you're so selfish with your time, why are you on a podcast? Well, that's That's why I'm on a podcast for my own selfish reasons and to, you know, help hopefully bring some attention or whatever that is to help chat out also.
Chad Paris
No, I
Chad Paris
Well, I'm gonna go back to I'm gonna go back to my coaching days and and and I'm gonna go back to sports since I'm talking to a guy and and I I love talking about sports. So one of the one of the the best things that I that I learned, I I had the opportunity to to to work with a guy named Bill Oliver. People out there may not know who he is, but he was he was played at Alabama. He was a defensive coordinator at Alabama d with Bear Bryant. He he He played under bear. I mean, he's he was a legendary defensive coordinator. If anybody's ever seen that this go back down the 1992 Alabama, Miami national championship game, he was the defensive coordinator that when if you remember they had all the defensive line on the on the line of screamers and people's like, what is he doing? And Gino Toretta was a quarterback from Miami, and I think he threw like three or four interceptions. Like they had him complete. He's the mastermind. He was the defensive quarter. So I had an opportunity where I was I was his GA. And and something that that he taught me that
Desmond Clark
One. Yeah, yeah. I could use most of that.
Chad Paris
that I thought was and he was a ruthless and this guy he's he's he's passed now, but genius. Genius guy. I mean, he he would he would get there at three o'clock in the morning and at that time they didn't have AI and they didn't have these people to do the recordings for you. He literally put a V VHS in and he sat there and scripted every play. He manually watched every play and scripted. I mean a sucker could be in the in the press box he'd be calling down the play before it ever happened. He knew what it was. That's how much you watched film. Like just brilliant.
Desmond Clark
Real.
Chad Paris
So one of the things that he always like we would have these we had lots of conversations. One thing he always said is, is if you're not if you're not trying to help not only yourself, but help others around you, then what are you really trying to do in this world? And that stuck with me. And I said to myself when I when I started this company, the reason I do the podcast, just to be honest with you, is yeah, I'm sure I I want to have brand. I want people to know who I am. I I want people to say, this guy knows, you know, he can be helpful to me. But the backbone behind it was is that I want to create content that helped others. It may be other people that were sitting there listening and going, Yeah, that's me. I struggle with that. Because what I found is nobody wants to be up front and go, Hey, I'm Chad, I have a problem. And I da da da. Nobody wants to do that. But what we do is is we hear stories and it relate to the stories. And we go, Man, that's something I'm dealing with right now. And it may be the nudge they need to hear. And hearing Desmond and what he's done and You know, hey, here's a guy that played at the highest level in college you can play. And he's starting a business and he's and he got struggles like I do. And someone hear that and go, hey man, I want to just ask you a question. What do I do next? I'm open to that. And I know you are too. And that's why I look for the people. Again, you know, having good people on here that I know believe that way, that's important to me. And so I think that's the thing is we have to remember is that the only way we get better.
Desmond Clark
Right.
Chad Paris
Moving forward is helping other people. Because somebody's got to help us. We didn't we we didn't we didn't get there because we didn't have help.
Desmond Clark
Mm-hmm. Right.
Desmond Clark
whole lot of help chat. I and I have those conversations once or twice a week just from people that I meet with on LinkedIn. I was just talking about a conversation that I had with a guy who just started. Actually I think I'm I'm right and I already wrote about him and it's gonna come out next week. But those are those are meaningful conversations, right? where you get to take because a lot of the stuff that I'm telling people is a lot of stuff that was taught to me when I started my business, right?
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
but the the thing that I think a lot of people are afraid of is just coming out and saying, Hey man, this is what I would like for you to help me with, or this is what I really want from you. I mean, you don't say it like that. There's there's a way to to say it, but when when I'm when I'm like thinking about talking to somebody, it's probably 25 people.
Chad Paris
Sure.
Desmond Clark
That can tell you that I sent this message out to them this week. Hey, what is the topic of conversation and what is your desired outcome outcome? I want you to tell me like right up front what you want from me. And so I can know if I can help you get there or if I can't. Because if I can, hey, let's schedule a call. Let's do it. If I can't, yeah, it's not gonna be a good use of our time because I really can't do anything, but you know, I'll offer this or whatever it is. And as in the business community, I think that's how it how it should be. Man, I'm I'm here to help you and I hope you're here to help me too, because I'm not gonna be the one that's gonna be shy about, Hey, can you can you do this for me? Yeah.
Chad Paris
That's right.
Chad Paris
Absolutely. We have to. We have to. you know, this is our this is I mean this is our livelihood. This is what we do, this is how we feed ourselves. And and look at any, it's not easy. Owning a business is not easy. It's not I could I could I could you know, I walked away, look, I walked away from a you know, quarter of a million dollar salary to go start something we got paid nothing. and people may go people go, Are you crazy? Yeah, probably so. But
Desmond Clark
Ooh, that's hot. Yeah, yeah, you are.
Chad Paris
But I believed it and I believe in what I do and I know what I can do and and I took it and I I felt like that it's something that I wanted to do and I did and and here I am and I'm gonna tell you, I I the happiest I've ever been, but scared to death at the same time. I guarantee you you can relate.
Desmond Clark
Yes, man. You crazy enough to believe in yourself. And that's what that's where most people need to get to. Be freaking crazy enough to believe in yourself to know that you can you can you can get it done, whatever that is that you you want to get done. And I believe I and getting back into this whole business conversation. If you're gonna start a business, and if you've started a business. The the foundation of everything is having an unwavering belief that you're going to get it done. Now I say that, and I'm gonna say this, and it sounds like I'm talking out of both sides of my my mouth. There's gonna come times where you're gonna have those times where it's like, man, did I do the right thing? You know what I'm saying? Or, you know, can I get this done?
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
And I just said have an unwavering b belief. But what I mean by that is when you start thinking those thoughts, that's when the mindset kicks in. You're set on, I'm going to get this done. So you might have just lost a little, a little focus for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, a half a day, a day, but you can't let it go on any longer than that before your mindset kicks back in and you kick shit out of whatever that that unbelief that you have and get back to what.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
it is that you truly believe and that's what's gonna drive you. That's what's going to create those those whatever those solutions are in in your head when you truly believe that no, no matter what it is, I'm gonna make sure that I continue to get to that next level. And that's the that's the foundation of a successful business, in my opinion.
Chad Paris
Agree. And I and and I'll add to that is is that don't be afraid to make a decision and don't be afraid to stand behind the decision, but be open to make adjustment when need to be. Cause we we we can't move forward if we don't make a decision and say, okay, I believe this is where I need to go. Look, every decision, I'm gonna tell you right now, every decision that you make is not gonna be the right call. It's not.
Desmond Clark
Yeah. Yeah.
Desmond Clark
No. And probably not right away.
Chad Paris
It's not. If you it i i yeah, and so it it's okay to make the bad call. It's okay. What but what it's not okay is is to is not go, okay, this is a bad what what it gets to become problem is is that when you make that bad decision and you're so bullheaded that you're not willing to go, man, I made a mistake here, I need to reevaluate. that's gonna take a that's what takes businesses from from speed bumps to drop them straight into the ground. And people do it all the time. Yeah.
Desmond Clark
Right.
Desmond Clark
to to to big ass stinkhole. can I can I give a real life example of what you were just talking about? And I and I think the other thing is being afraid to make a decision, right? And you just stay there because you're scared that if you make the decision it's gonna be wrong. So you you talked in the opening about me getting into AI. And so we built our first AI agent. And this AI agent takes our incoming
Chad Paris
Yeah, please.
Chad Paris
Yep.
Desmond Clark
our incoming leads from our lead forms. And this agent then calls, emails, texts, and call back that person within 30 seconds. Right? and it collects all the information and it asks all the questions that we built into it, just like I would ask or my VP would ask, ask. And it gives them a preliminary quote for that freight. And it says, hey, somebody From Bear Down Logistics will call you back within 30 minutes and give you a finalized quote. We named the agent John. Just just John. He's just John, right? Real nice and simple. It could have been Chad, right? Just good good solid, just good, solid, good name, Chad. John, you know. John went to bed.
Chad Paris
Like it. Yeah.
Chad Paris
It should have been Chad. I I would like you done.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like a white guy from from Alabama.
Desmond Clark
Well not so so here here's me being authentic again and not afraid to be authentic. Me and my VP, he was like, Man, we need an old rough white guy name and that that that's in that's in logistics that that you know because a lot of the a lot of the people that's driving the truck, that's that's the demographic, right? Or or they're Hispanic, right? So so
Chad Paris
И нет.
Chad Paris
Absolutely.
Desmond Clark
We couldn't really get that voice, but we did go with the name. So it was like John is a good, hardcore, rough, simple name. but John went to bed the first day. It was it was a disaster. And this and this just this week. I'm talking about recent Monday, we launched. Disaster. John John called somebody back.
Chad Paris
It is.
Desmond Clark
Eight times to the lady got so upset that she called back the office and said, Have this thing stop calling me. John on on something that was like 80,000 pounds quoted to move the load for 273 dollars.
Chad Paris
John got fired on day one.
Desmond Clark
No, no, John didn't get fired. But so it was day one. And I was the one that pushed for hey, we need to go live right now. And what I said, we've done enough enough tests, and I was like, if we mess up something, it's okay. If we blow one or two weeds, it's okay. Because the long term of this is going to pay off. And so, but right away.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Desmond Clark
my guy Alexis Sockwell, who's doing all of the stuff in the back for us, every time John went to bed, boom, he was there to fix it. Boom, he was there to fix it. Boom, he got it stayed up all night, got everything right, got got with our other staff, with our website developers, got all of that stuff right. John, within the next week, John is gonna be a badass. But At w at a certain point, we had to make the decision to go live so we could figure out whether it was gonna be good or whether it's gonna be bad or what what we needed to do. Like we could sit here and keep playing with John in the background and doing all these tests, and everybody feels so good. Man, it's gonna be but we don't know until we actually hit play. And so I j I just told that story, you know, about you gotta make a decision.
Chad Paris
Smart. Yeah. Did it.
Chad Paris
That's right.
Desmond Clark
You gotta go for it. And if John in the next couple weeks continue to mess the bed, we cut it and say that we we lost $15,000, but we were trying to do something to advance our company. Right? there's only one NFL team that ever went undefeated, and I don't know anyone in life that ever went undefeated. So we can learn from the quote-unquote mistakes or losses.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Nope.
Desmond Clark
and become better for that. And that's what we're doing right now with John.
Chad Paris
Hello. Great example. I love that. Well, listen, we're we're on our time. I mean, I could talk to you for another hour, but believe it or not, we've already we've already been going 42 minutes. so Desmond, I I really appreciate it. If someone's out there and and they want to reach out to you, how do they get in touch with
Desmond Clark
Already?
Desmond Clark
the the best way is I'm I'm always on LinkedIn, right? I write stuff almost every day on three different platforms that I have on LinkedIn. My personal page, Bear Down Logistics, and on Bear Down Level Up Podcast, which is a new page for us. That's the best way to communicate with me. I'm on all of the social media stuff, Instagram, Facebook, all that good stuff. but then, you know, email me, Desmond at BearDown. Dash logistics.com. I'm I'm a guy. I I like to communicate with people. but I did tell you that I'm selfish with my time. So it's when I have time to do that. But that's part of that's part of building the business, is making sure that I'm out there and I'm talking to people and I'm finding out what's good and what's not good and you know, all of that stuff. I get a lot from talking just to people that's in this industry and to other business people for that for that, you know, whatever that's worth.
Chad Paris
Love it. Well, thank you so much. Guys, Chad Paris, owner of Stonefly Consulting. This is Process Over Pressure Podcast. Subscribe, join. Love for you to be a part of our community. We're putting out content like this all the time. Desmond, thank you again for for being on. Really enjoyed it. And until next time, guys, we'll see ya.
Desmond Clark
Yes, sir. Process over pressure.
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