From corporate to box trucks, can you guys believe that is a business? It's a very good money making business. My grandfather also was a truck driver and I know there's a lot of money to be had there. Today we have a special guest with Sasha Walker, who is the queen of box trucks. Yeah, I just deemed you that. So don't worry about that. And she's going to give us her story, but also more importantly, for those business owners, entrepreneurs to think of a path, a different path, maybe a different way of making money as well as talking about how she created a community around all of it. So without further ado, welcome.

Sausha Walker:
2:01

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity.

Stoy Hall, Host:
2:06

Absolutely. So seriously, let's just jump right into it. How the hell do you go from corporate to being like, what box trucks? That's it. That's what we're going to do. It sounds like more like you threw a dart at a dartboard and here we are.

Sausha Walker:
2:20

That's exactly what happened. Pandemic happened. And so at that moment, we're just like trying to figure out how do we create a different stream of income? We're relying on one stream of income. How can we create more? And if you think about it during the pandemic, the only thing that was running were trucks. So my fiance said, Hey, let's get started in the box truck industry. And I'm like, okay, let's do it. And he said, we're going to bring in a thousand dollars a week. And I'm like, okay, an extra 4, 000 a month, not even thinking about the truck, the insurance, all that stuff that comes with it. So I'm like, okay, let's do it. We just jumped out there. I didn't have a me to call on. So it was a lot of trial and error, but we got it going. And yeah, it was more than a thousand dollars a week. It became, it was, it exceeded our expectations. And so this industry is way bigger than just the income. And so that's how we got into it. Just pandemic, trying out different things, taking a risk and it actually in succeeding in it becoming six figure earners in our first year.

Stoy Hall, Host:
3:31

That's the most business owners do that, right? Like they, they have this idea. Then we just take the jump and it's going to work out. We'll figure it out. So you decided to do this now when people think box trucks, like moving trucks, logistics, those types of things. Are you guys the one driving in around town?

Sausha Walker:
3:49

So I'm not personally, I don't drive the truck. What I, what, so when we started, of course, my fiance, I'm like you have to get on the truck. You have to know the ins and outs on the truck. I'm going to do the admin side of things. I'll do the hiring. I'll do payroll. I'll do scheduling, all of that good stuff. And so he got on the truck and I thought that I had to fire him. Other. He hid in mailboxes and all. And I'm like, do I need to let you go? Like you need to be on the admin side of things, but it all worked out. He learned the business. And now that he knows the ins and outs of the business regarding being on the truck, now we hire people. He does the training and then we do it again for another truck. So that's how we were able to build our fleet, built our fleet as fast as we did. We started off with one truck and then we ended up with seven trucks the next year.

Stoy Hall, Host:
4:47

And where are you at currently?

Sausha Walker:
4:49

We're still at the seven trucks, and this is no bullshit, right? So the pandemic passed, now everyone has furniture, everyone is good now. So it slowed down. We're still just at the seven trucks. And now what we have to do is pivot and get other contracts in different, in different areas. So that's how we'll be able to go and reach the goal of having 25 trucks.

Stoy Hall, Host:
5:15

And that's a very important piece of a business owner, right? It's not, Hey, we're going to do this forever. This is our bread and butter. We're always going to do it. It's your ability to adapt and overcome and see what's coming down the pipe and what's next. Can you talk to us about being a brand new business owner? Cause going in with it, like with zero experience to where you are four years later, what have you learned from like the business perspective? Of how to be a business owner, what it's like emotionally.

Sausha Walker:
5:46

So one thing is in order for us to, when those challenges come up in order for us to get over those challenges, we really had to sit down and figure out what our why was like, why were we starting this business? Because yes, we all want to make money, but at the end of the day, it has to be bigger than money. You have to have a passion for the industry. You have to have a why, because there's going to be days where you want to wave the white flag and walk away, but then you have to go back to the mindset of things of why did you start this business? Who is benefiting from this business outside of yourself? You have to know, though, if you don't have those answers, then you're not going to be able to be successful in any business that you start. So that's how we got over the challenges of what is our why? Who's benefiting outside of us? And what is the passion behind it? Because initially. Like I said, we were like, okay, let's create a different stream of income. But now my why is bigger because now I'm creating jobs for the community creating jobs for the community. Giving people second chances. And also creating a community where whoever wants to get into the box truck industry, I'm able to guide them from A to Z. So I'm creating business owners. So that's what keep us going and being able to get over those hurdles. Because, there's a lot of hurdles in the trucking industry. It's not for the weak at all. No,

Stoy Hall, Host:
7:23

no, it's not. You've got truck costs. You've got fuel costs. You've got contracts to get that's not even talking about just staffing the trucks with drivers and themselves, right?

Sausha Walker:
7:35

It's a lot.

Stoy Hall, Host:
7:38

It's a lot.

Sausha Walker:
7:39

And hiring, one of the things, coming into business, like we're new in the trucking industry and we're trying to be everyone's friend and just make everyone comfortable, but you just, in the trucking industry, you just can't do that. You be friendly, however, and make everyone comfortable, but you still have to Fire fast, hire slow. That has always stuck with me throughout this whole business because we will hire fast and when it came down to the firing, we're just like firing slow and that costs us a lot of money. So hire slow, fire fast. When they make a mistake in the trucking industry, let them go.

Stoy Hall, Host:
8:22

Yeah. That's a really big point for anyone who is hiring and firing. We've all made that mistake of, hiring fast and firing slow and doing the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do, but it's, I think it's a natural progression to understand, Hey, everything we do is a business. Yes. Is there emotions tied to it? Can you still be friends and close to people? Yes, you can, and you should be a good person to do they mess up or they don't perform or whatever it is, you'd let them know and move on because your business and to your credit, you just said your why more importantly, you and your business are affecting way more people than that one person. And if you let the whole thing blow up, then what are you really doing?

Sausha Walker:
9:09

Yeah. So you just, you can't get into this industry because you see. See it on social media. You really have to have a passion for it. I'm telling you, if

Stoy Hall, Host:
9:20

you don't get in it

Sausha Walker:
9:22

Yeah, that social media will have that social media will put you in a bind. Okay, it'll make you have to start all over in life.

Stoy Hall, Host:
9:32

Real quick, make you move to a different country like a new name. So you've got this up and running your now four years in. But before that, so you got it up and running in year two with seven trucks. What was that next thing that decided, okay, we need to do more because you've got a community, you teach as well. What made you like, oh, okay, it's time to add on to this and grow more than just running the business and just doing trucks.

Sausha Walker:
9:59

Because when I walk when the, so first it took me 6 months to secure the contract, which I thought was. crazy. Just the back and forth for three months of calling consistently. That's another thing. A lot of people probably would have walked away after the first few days of calling, but I call it every day until they told me if they would have said, Sasha, stop calling us. We were not interested. Then I would have stopped, but they were answering the phone, taking my messages. Passing it on, so I just kept calling every day and I got in, in, in front of someone finally, and they approved it when I got in the warehouse. I was the only female, only woman, black woman in the warehouse. We were the only black people as contractors. I'm like, where is our people? Where's our people? I'm like, so that's when it became bigger than just me making a another stream of income. I need to let me try this out first and then I'm going to teach you guys how, let me see if it's worth it. And then within six months, I'm like, this is why aren't a lot of people in this world? So that's when I created the free classes You know, I still give free classes till this day and that's when I created a course Basically taking my experience and getting you the contract within 30 to 45 days opposed to six months so it took me to come into the warehouse and see that it wasn't, I was the only woman and the only black person as a contractor. And that's when I took it to the next level to share. You're in

Stoy Hall, Host:
11:39

Houston. Like I'm in Iowa, Des Moines, like there are populations only 1%. So like the numbers would make sense. You're in Houston. It shouldn't like the numbers shouldn't make sense like that. What have you seen or I guess what's been your experience being not only a woman, but a black woman in just business in general. Now we can't, I'm not going to say that some of these things are because of our race, but what are some tough things that you had to go through that maybe others are going through right now and they just need to know they're not alone.

Sausha Walker:
12:12

I will say the. Being treated as if you don't know what you're doing or if you're not knowledgeable about the industry, right? Like just thinking, Oh, you're just a pretty face coming in, putting your trucks on the road. But. Unfortunately, what we have to do, and we should be doing this when you're getting into the industry. You have to be a student of your business. You have to know it front and back because what I noticed, they test you front and back, right? They tend to make sure that you do know your stuff. And unfortunately, what happens is when we get into these industries and we're just like one with the flow and we're not being a student of our business. And when they do test us, we don't know how to stand up for ourselves. So then the respect is gone. And then so you just can't even move forward because they don't even, look at you with respect or look at you like, as if you're knowledgeable. So I already knew. I work for JPMorgan Chase, amazing company. So I have the work ethics. I already know that starting a business, I need to make sure I read that. The contracts, I need to make sure I read the whole handbook. You're right because they, people test you, unfortunately. And I'm not saying it's a black thing, but I'm just saying it's just what we, I experienced, being in, in the industry.

Stoy Hall, Host:
13:43

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's a really good point. We, we see it on social media. We see it in media a lot is everyone want to revert back to the race thing and don't get me wrong. Institutionally. It's not great for us. It's been built against us. Okay. I get that. Like I'm not saying that's not true, but we also have to put in work, right? You also, regardless of your skin color or whatnot, going into a new business industry, learning it. That's just life. That's just what you need to do to be successful regardless of what's going on in the world. And so I think that's a really good point of you saying it's my experience, right? That's what it is. I knew it was going to take X to get to where I need to be, but it comes down to hard work.

Sausha Walker:
14:28

No, it does. And unfortunately, we just have to work a little bit harder. We, it's no slacking. It's no coming with, just being unprofessional. Like we really have to be on top of it all the way through every day,

Stoy Hall, Host:
14:46

every day, all day. When it comes to, so now you've been in the warehouse right now, you look around, it's time to grow this thing. What's been the biggest hurdle of. I guess teaching is the right word to use, teaching others to come into this industry and grow. What's been the biggest hurdle?

Sausha Walker:
15:05

The passion, people don't have a, why they just, Oh, if I see that you doing it, so you can do it. I know I can do it. It's no, what is your, why who are you doing this for, and so that has been a big hurdle in struggle that I deal with. I want to help everyone, of course, but I know if you're passionate about it or not. And so I can't work with everyone. I give the free classes for you to get the information, but in order to work side by side with me being into my mentorship, it's a line of questions that you have to go through, because I want to make sure that you're ready to go. Because once we get started, it's go time. Your truck will be on the road, but mentally, you have to be prepared for that. And a lot of people. No, I was going to say a lot of people I've had a few people, my whole, like times out, I thought I was ready, but maybe I'm not, I'm a come back. I'll revisit it.

Stoy Hall, Host:
16:07

Yeah. That was going to be my question. Have you ever had the negative side, like the, the other side of that coin where people don't want to do it and maybe they recognize it's not for them.

Sausha Walker:
16:17

Yeah, all the time. You, we make it look easy, on social media. We're posting, us getting up every morning, going to the warehouse, making sure our truck's on the road, but we're not recording the, Oh, your driver just hit a mailbox. Oh, your driver didn't tighten the water line on a washer. So now a person's house is flooded, like we don't record that stuff, and if I sit and talk about. Of course the pros outweigh the cons, but the cons be it's it will discourage someone if you don't have the passion for it,

Stoy Hall, Host:
16:52

but if you have things come out, yeah, they come out of it everywhere, every which way and that's why you have to have that. Why? Because it's what you fall back on and be like, you know what? It was a bad day. Maybe I need to teach that driver to, actually tighten the waterline. I don't know. It seems common sense, but Hey, maybe I need to do something extra just for that to not happen. You bring up a really good point of when you're, when you have clients or you're building a business is you personally, like you as a person, you, Sasha only has so much time and energy to give, I think something in all of our industries. In business in general either our community or our friends and family all think that either they should get a discount that you should be the first one to work with them or that they should get some special privilege just because. And I want people to know that's not it. That's not how this works. You are either a fit or you're not a fit, right? Not everyone's a fit. I can't work with everyone. You can't work with everyone. We do have free content. I do too. Throw that out there. You can learn as much as you want, but if you don't fit my line of questioning, you don't fit the type of person I want to work with. It's not personal. Like I'm not saying I don't like you as a person, but as a client, it just don't happen. So for other business owners listening, if you can narrow down and I don't mean like an ideal client thing and all that, but narrow down who you just want to be around and work with. Your business will start to grow in a way that you didn't understand at first because you're taking on too much baggage.

Sausha Walker:
18:27

Yeah. I, my ideal client is someone that's motivated someone that is going to push through when they don't answer the phone or email is not, reply to someone is just gonna be all in and someone that can think outside the box. I don't, I can't work with people that just go off my direction. I still need you to be a student of your business. I still need you to think outside the box so you can move forward through this process. I think people feel like a mentor is a person that's going to. Tell you everything to say how to get out there and hustle, how to pick up the phone and dial a number. Like they think that you supposed to do every little bitty thing, right? And it doesn't work like that. That's not people I want to work with. I need people that is a go getter. This is what I want. You tell me what to do and I'm going to go plus more. That's the type of people that I like to work with. Not, Hey, What should I what time should I call, these companies? Should I call them at seven 30 or eight? Come on call them in the morning, call them in the afternoon, call them in the evening, get someone on the phone, right? So those are the go getters. The ones that's clear about what they want come to me with clear intentions. Hey, I want to start this business because. I want to buy a home for my family. I want to live a different lifestyle. I want to be able to put all of my kids through college. Have a why. Have a why of what you want to do. People, that's my one question is what is your why? And why do you want to get into the box truck industry? What is your passion about the trucking industry? If they can't answer that, I'm not even moving forward with the rest of the questions. Because that's really big to me.

Stoy Hall, Host:
20:34

It's one of the most important things there is. You can't do anything if you don't have that. We talk about it in my firm a lot of when we ask people, we ask them, first question we ask them is, what's your first money memory? And they're always like, I don't know, like something. I'm like, there's something there. The reason for that is we ask because it either was some type of trauma, how you were raised, something, because it directs how you act now. Finding out someone's why is the same way. If they don't have one, they're lost. They do whatever they need. If you have a, why a purpose, it allows the plan to be very, actually relatively easy to follow. Because if you know that my passion is your business, then all the other stuff that comes around, you can say no to, it doesn't follow your plan and your purpose,

Sausha Walker:
21:23

it doesn't align. It doesn't align with you. And that's how it became my entrepreneur. I work for JPMorgan Chase in a money laundering. I was a money launderer investigator for JPMorgan Chase and So it came to a point I moved from, I'm from Detroit, Michigan, and I moved from Detroit, Michigan by myself to Texas. Chase offered me a position when I moved and I said, okay, my, now I'm here. I've got this far. I want to go and visit my family on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And Chase said, no, you can't, you have to pick and you have to put in a bid. And if you don't get picked, then you won't be able to go home. And I was like, no, that's not going to work for me. My, so I'm like, okay, Sasha, what are we going to do? And that's how it became my entrepreneur is I need to create a business where I have control over my time and I can, I want freedom of my time. Like I want to be in control of it. I didn't quit chase because of the money. I quit chase because I couldn't spend time with my family and create the memories with my family when I wanted to. And I put in my two week notice and I became a life insurance agent and I'm still a life insurance agent to this day because that allowed me the freedom of my time. And so I, my why was, and that's why in the first year in the insurance business, six figures. It comes, the money will come guys. The money will, when you have a passion for something and you have you're clear about what you want to do, the money will come. Don't put a price on it. I want to make a hundred thousand. I want to make a million dollars. If you're passionate about something, it'll come because you've got to put your all into it. Yeah,

Stoy Hall, Host:
23:19

absolutely. Talk to us. Okay. Let's get to, I don't want to use marketing term, but let's get to market. Let's get to social media. I want to hit a couple of myths. One being that creating content is work. I don't care what anybody says. You might see the finished project, but it is, it's work. It's exhausting. You might as, might as well be on a five mile run sometimes. Like it's just a lot of work. Talk to us about some of behind the scenes stuff that you do. How much work it is, but why you are doing so much on social media.

Sausha Walker:
23:53

I started off before I started creating content. I had 6, 000 followers and I was so scared to get on live. I was so scared to just to be in front of the camera. And I'm like, people are going to judge me. People are going to get into my business. Like I was just like all over the place. The fear. The fear of failure, right? And that fear was keeping me complacent, keeping me on my, it just. Keeping me comfortable and I'm like, okay, I need to step out. We got the box trucks going and I'm like telling my fiance like, just record me or I'm just gonna record when we're going into the warehouse. I'm just gonna record everything. And I. Posted a video, posted, my free classes and people are responding, people are excited about it, which started making me excited about it. And I'm like, okay, I want to do more, I want to do more. And that build up my confidence, to post more, to put out more information. People are responding, people are interacting. So you just want to put out more. And. I'm like, okay, I think I got this. And I started going on live. I started doing live classes. And then I posted a video of me driving the box truck and that video like hit over a half a million views. And I'm like, oh, so you guys want to see like the interaction. You want to see me, in the field. And I just started recording, and I have to literally, I record a lot, but I'll take a day and I'll sit down and I'll piece things together. And when you're in social media, creating content, you just always want to tell a story, right? About if you can tell a story from start to finish, you can, if you have the content, you can piece it together and put together a reel. And so that's what I started doing. And. Our video got a million views and I'm like, okay, I think I'm on to something. But consistency, I did that posted a real for a good 30 days. And I, so my account went to 37, 000 and, but I can't keep up. You're running so many businesses. You don't have time. You're you, I'm in the moment. I'm, I don't I catch myself not recording the things that I know people will love to see. But I just was, I came to a point where I was like, you know what, Sasha, it's okay. It's okay to be in the moment and it's okay to, capture the moment. Cause I was putting too much pressure on myself and, I'm just like, Hey. You guys would just get it when you get hit at this point. I'm busy.

Stoy Hall, Host:
26:44

See, and that's the difference between a content creator and a business owner that creates content. And that's the real part of it. These influencers and content creators literally full time job is to just

Sausha Walker:
26:55

create

Stoy Hall, Host:
26:56

content. The rest of us like are doing what we're preaching, right? We are doing the content. Then we're also creating the content. And I think that's an important piece for people to understand is, When you're following someone or researching or do whatever on social media and they don't post a video for a while or whatever it is, it's cause they are working in the business, right? That there's a lot to do in the business that doesn't involve, me doing content creation. So I love that you do it. It's great. It's amazing to watch some of those. And also, isn't it cool? Like when something does pop, then you're like, how the hell did that one pop? There's these ones that I'm like, Oh, this is the one. This is it. I put time, nothing random ass one pops. And you're like, I don't get it. I don't get it. But as we wrap this up, what is one thing you want to leave our listeners with so that they can maybe take that next step into entrepreneurship, that next step with getting a box truck company. What is one thing you want to leave so they can take that next step?

Sausha Walker:
27:57

I think I mentioned it just a second ago is I can't stress this enough. Fear. I read in the book, fear will keep us poor and fear will keep us complacent. Fear will keep us from not buying that home that we want, the car, taking a vacation, putting your kid through college. Fear will stop you from moving forward. And I can't stress enough. It's okay to fail. It's okay that you start that business and it didn't go as planned. The failure part is not starting over and trying it again. That's when you fail. When you give up, that's just, that's where you fail. So if you fail, if you go through something, if you're starting a business as an entrepreneur, it didn't go as planned, learn from your mistakes. Try it again, keep trying it until you get that business right. If this is a business that you really want to start, it's okay to keep starting over. It's okay. Get a mentor, get a coach, be a student of your business. I cannot stress that enough. Be a student of your business to learn your business in and out. And one, one thing when you get, if you started a trucking business, be on your trucks, be at the warehouse be in the moment of your business. Do not get a truck and then say, Hey, I got a driver. They're great. I'm going to collect money. You need to know the ins and outs of your business because if you don't the drivers and the helpers that you hire, if they know the business better than you, it's not going to work. It's not going to work. Your team will, can make and break your business. That's what I leave with it. Fear will not keep us poor.

Stoy Hall, Host:
29:46

There you go. Fear will not keep us poor. Hear first, Sash Walker with fear will not keep us poor. Quotes. Going to be in her book when she writes one. Here we go. I appreciate you. Appreciate you having you on.

Sausha Walker:
30:00

Thank you so much. I appreciate being here. Thank you.

Black Mammoth:
30:03

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