Recruiting Stories

In this solo episode Adrian talks about the number one cause of stress in American's lives: Money.

If we were to have that part of our lives handled, wouldn't we show up better as a spouse, partner, employee, parent or friend? I would.

We explore what some of the averages and medians look like in income in the USA, plus a game plan to become a millionaire as a logistics coordinator or sales executive in the freight game.

• CNBC Article - Finances top Stressor

• The average income in the united states for an individualis $66,000 while the median income is around $61,000.  

• The median net worth saved for retirement is$87,000 and average saved for retirement is  $333,940

• The Median net worth is 192,000while the average net worth is 1 million because of incredibly high networth folks who skew that average.

Recommended Books from this episode:

• The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
• Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
• The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Tallgrass Freight. To learn more about them and becoming a freight agent, visit:

www.tallgrassfreight.com/podcast

In this episode, our guest is Sean Richardson, President of Tallgrass Freight. We talk about Sean's journey from barely recruited high school baseball athlete, to division 1 baseball at the University of Kansas, finance, and then freight. We discuss his journey to leadership, the resiliency it took and also talk about how Tallgrass went from a small idea to a top 100 brokerage in North America and how they maintain a culture that thrives.

Links:

• Tallgrass Freight Website
• Sean Richardson Linkedin

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Tallgrass Freight.

This week we speak with Bryan Nelson, Attorney and Partner at Taylor Nelson Law firm. He specializes in transportation and trucking law and gives us insight in to how he landed in the legal world, the transportation industry as a niche, and what is happening in freight law in 2025 that we need to know about. We ask him about his recruiting story, which is one of my favorites so far, and a few questions from our listeners.

Books Bryan Recommends:

COMIC BOOKS! (Reach out to him for recommendations)

Links:

• Linkedin
• Website
• Email - [email protected]

This episode is brought to you by our sponsors: Tallgrass Freight Company

If you are considering becoming a freight agent, click to learn more.

This week our guest is Joe Kayser, founder and CEO of SynapseVue: a technology, strategy and Ai consulting firm focused on middle market transportation companies.

We talk about his recruiting journey from accounting to AIT Worldwide Logistics, to starting Synapsvue. With the current state of Ai in the world we also discuss how individuals and companies should consider interacting with Ai and how it might change the industry as a whole.

Books Joe Recommends:

• How to make a few billion dollars by Brad Jacobs
• Burn the Boats by Matt Higgins

Links:

• Synapesvue Website
• Joe's Linkedin

This week's conversation is with a longtime friend, educator and motivational speaker Justin Pickens!

"I can't believe you turned out the way you did." That is a common phrase Justin Pickens has heard in his life. With one of the highest Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) scores you can receive (9), the odds said Justin should be on drugs or dead. Justin was the first member from his dad’s side of the family to graduate from college and has since earned two masters degrees.  For the past 13 years, Justin has served as a teacher and coach for multiple sports.  He's a father, husband, educator and motivational. Most importantly he is a dealer of HOPE. Hope instilled in him that gave him a future and he hopes to share with those around the world.

• Justin's Website: https://justinpickens.com/
• Justin's Bio Video
• Justin's Linkedin Page

This week our guest is Nick Dangles, Co-Founder of Sync Logistics Training, a training platform for freight brokers. Nick and I tackle his recruiting story, why freight brokerages struggle with training, and how great training can lead to better employee retention and higher ROI.

https://synclogisticstraining.com/

The Books Nick Recommends are:

• Gap Selling
• Never Split the Difference
• The Hobbit

Stats Referenced in Podcast:

• Freight 360 on training and turnover
• Constraints to hiring and retention in logistics - Flexe
• Task Drive Sales Stats
• 
  

This week our guest is Eric Heath, Managing Partner at Bluejay Advisors joins us to discuss his recruiting story, the marketplace in transportation, how the economy is impacting M&A deals and what a founder might do to prepare his business for a sale or acquisition.

Eric has been in the M&A space for over a decade and is an expert in transportation transactions.

The books he recommends are:

• The E-myth revisted by Michael Gerber
• The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

This week's episode is with Jared Hutkowski , Director of Brokerage at A. Duie Pyle Transportation. Jared and I talk about how he went from being in the military to construction to finding a career in freight brokerage and how his experiences led him to leadership. We also talk about his fitness journey and how that has impacted his success.

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The books he recommends are:

• 21 irrefutable laws of leadership by John Maxwell
• Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy
• Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson
• I am Ozzy by Ozzy Osborne and Chris Ayres
• 33 year old rookie by Chris Coste

This week our guest is Adrian Chapman! Adrian is the founder of Cover 3 Consulting and is interviewed by friend of the show, Shawn Varner. Shawn is a former successful freight broker based out of Kansas City, and has since made a career pivot to financial advising and serves freight industry professionals around the country.

Shawn and Adrian dive in to some of Adrian's background, the state of the recruiting market, the freight agent versus w2 conversation, how to stand out in today's market and more.

This week is a solo episode hosted by Adrian Chapman. This week we celebrate our 40th episode by discussing 5 things Adrian would do if he were on the job market, between jobs, or job hunting.

The 5 things are:

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