Step One Jump! | Mandy Barton

 

About Mandy Barton

Mandy Barton found her purpose, to increase the good of life around her. That’s it. One simple premise, one strong principle that has sprouted an empire built to better yourself, better others and in turn better the world around you. That’s what Mandy Barton believes in. From the moment she decided to leave her job to start her first business from her parents’ kitchen table, she’s been unstoppable. That was in 1997 when she founded Barton Logistics, the first of five, Mandy Barton-founded companies.

A true believer in people and the gifts they have to give this world, Mandy has dedicated an abundance of time into growing personally and growing those around her. Barton Logistics was the first evidence of how influential Mandy is, as her team created and adopted the company ethos whole-heartedly. Together, they cultivated a culture of giving, learning and growing. The results she saw in her team inspired her to do more.

The next thing on Mandy’s path was to take stuff that worked best for her and coach and mentors others. For Mandy it’s about teaching people how to dream, removing the barriers from their limitations and watching them flourish. It’s what makes life worth living. And she doesn’t stop there. In order to share her words of wisdom with the world, to free even more people, from what she calls the chains of mediocre lives, she is publishing her first book: Step One: Jump! Cut the crap already and start creating the life you REALLY want. Hard-hitting and motivational—it’s the awakening that gets you dreaming again, gets you moving towards achievement, and ultimately, gets you on track with who you’re meant to be.

As if entrepreneur, mentor, mother and author weren’t enough, add community leader and rancher to the list. Mandy serves as the Director of the Medina Community Library and the Exotic Wildlife Association. During her down time, you can find her with her two young children on her ranch, where she raises wild gemsbok and kudu, two of the most enchanting species of African hoof stock. Here, she takes time to dream up her next move. Keep your eye on Mandy Barton; you’ll never know where she’ll jump next.

 

Interview Transcript:

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Mandy Barton. She’s also the book of step one, jump. Mandy, welcome to today’s show.

Mandy
Thank you for having me.

Alan
So for the listeners here, can you give me background of how you got to where you are today and yeah, your pathway, and then we can jump into the book.

Mandy
Sure. I’m in the transportation trucking business. So I’ve been in logistics. And I got started. Because right out of college, I couldn’t find a job, I was going to work for a temp agency, and was going to take anything they would give me. And I got hired on by a company that FedEx eventually bought. So I got into the third party logistics business. And every day going to work, I was having a lot of trouble with my brokers. So they would take all of the really easy freight, you know, the Houston to Memphis are and then when I had the amarilla load, they would leave me hanging. So I found that I was spending my work days really ticked off all the time. And so when you’re in your early 20s, and you’re naive, you think you can do things like start trucking companies. So I did that. And I really started just to not quit, not quit on my customers, because as a buyer, that’s all I wanted, when I was in the customer seat. So that’s how I got started, just jumped right in. And five years of really difficult startup. And I’m sure I was out of business two or three times in there, but I was working too hard to notice.

Alan
You know, when you’re when you’re trying to gather courage to say, Okay, I see there’s a problem I need to fill the void. How, you know, Were you prepared to do this and fail? Or did you do that crossed your mind or I was really.

Mandy
Working to solve a problem I failure didn’t occur to me, success didn’t occur to me, I was focused on a problem that needed to be solved.

Alan
And when you went into solving the problem, wizard, way you approach this, and I’ll just figure it out. As I go through this.

Mandy
I always think you know how I just I just knew I wasn’t going to quit. So when I couldn’t find the truck, either for one of these difficult loads, I would continue calling my client, let them know that I was still working on it, what I was doing what I was in the process of what not worked. Because when I was in that seat, I just got abandoned. So I thought, how hard is it to just not quit? I just don’t quit trying. So that’s all I did was just got in there and didn’t quit trying.

Alan
So when when you stepped into logistics, the with the company, is it? Is it a software base for delivery? Or is it actual? Did you have to make it? Did you buy the trucks? Or how did you go about saying I’m in business as a truck company, now?

Mandy
I’m obtained broker authority. So I have legal right to broker freight and the country anything but household goods. And so I just started with my old coworkers were my first clients, they eventually moved on to new customers or new employers, and they became traffic managers and logistics coordinators and whatnot. So they became my first clients.

Alan
So this this fits very naturally into a book that you wrote, step one, jump. And it’s something that not only you wrote about, but it’s actually a true story about processes to use to, to get this going. Can you tell me how long does it How long did it take you to get this book.

Mandy
It was a year and a half in the works. And when you meet with any kind of success in life, you get more and more people wanting to pick your brain ask how you did it. Any tips for me anything like that, and that was becoming four or five times a week. And so I decided I’m gonna put this into a blueprint to the best of my ability and be able to hand that out.

Alan
So when that when you finally got through the book, then I guess it was the timeframe of you putting the process together but you had have editorial boards?

Mandy
Yes, we had an editor go through it after I was done writing it. So it’s been the whole process took a year and a half.

Alan
A year and a half. Okay, so Mandy, I want to get into this step one jump and it really is a it’s a step that is taking person to where they’re not satisfied with their life in how to how to create a real change for them. But I need to take a quick break. Okay, we’ll be back after these messages with Mandy Barton.

Alan
Welcome back are in here today with Mandy Barton. And we’ve been talking about her book, step one, jump. The book was inspired as Mandy jumped into solve a problem when she saw in the logistics industry and ended up starting your own company and, and then wrote about her experience of helping walk individuals through the process or looking for a change in their life. And so maybe I want to start into the the first place that you recommend a person start who’s looking for change?

Mandy
Well, the first thing is, I have always been really good at keeping what’s important on the front burner, which I think is not something a lot of people look at. So what I have in front of my face all the time is the goals. I’m after the quotes that inspire me, I use a digital photo frame that sits on my desk, and it just rolls through the goals for the year, how I’m tracking toward them, quotes that inspire me, I write, then we all have those times when we’re excited non fire about life. And when I’m in that mode, I write the notes to my future self having a down day. So I can get myself back on track very quickly.

Alan
You know, it’s not easy when you’re running a business to always keep up the visit. Not at all. And so when So your advice of keeping things on the front burner, when you encounter a problem in business, and sometimes these problems are not easy to deal with. What advice do you have for the person who wants to take it off the front burner and input it in the back.

Mandy
You have to have a goal that inspires you that you’re working toward without something you’re moving toward mischief and mayhem happens in that space. And when you’re focused and excited about achieving something. And you’ve committed to it. I mean, there’s a key component commitment there, all the noise falls off, all the the down stuff falls away because there’s something more important in its space.

Alan
So how important is accountability to yourself in?

Mandy
It doesn’t work without it. No, I did. It’s all the tricks, the tricks that we procrastinating, I gotta check my email, I got to change my wallet, all the things besides the important thing I’m supposed to do that day. So it’s getting to know your own tricks. And I say in the book, tricking your trickster. When I have to do the hard thing, I know the process I go through, I bury myself in email response, I did silly things that are not not the most important. So I do circle the most important thing I have to do in a day and I don’t let myself do other tasks until that’s done. And then if a certain task shows up on my to do list more than three days in a row, I don’t write it anymore. And I know I’m not going to allow that.

Alan
So if that if that task in the three days is is important. Oftentimes what do you find yourself doing where you’re?

Unknown Speaker
I’ll find myself do it on that third day, because I have a rule, I won’t write it on my to do list. So it’ll be forgotten. And it’s, it works for me. It’s an this is about to go off the radar. If you don’t do it, this is about to go off the radar.

Alan
So as you scale as you find yourself scaling your company and trying to, you know, work with more companies, individuals, how important was hiring the right people in that process?

Mandy
Your team is everything. And you’re the right team. We all have the weaknesses that we need to compensate for with our team. And I say that being a solo artist for a long time in my company. And it goes a lot faster. The growth happens a lot faster when you get the right team around you.

Alan
What is the process of how did you make that decision to say, I’m not going to make this just about me, but I’m going to expand it and bring people in to help me?

Mandy
My results weren’t going as fast as I wanted them to. And that’s the importance of having the big goal that you’re excited about. Because that outcome required me to be different require me to do something different, which required me to be a different person, someone that didn’t have to do it by myself.

Alan
So Mandy, I need to take a quick break keep visiting here today with Mandy Barton. She’s author of the book is step one, jump. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back, I’m here today with Mandy Barton, she has authored a book a step when Mandy, we’re talking about the process by which you, you identified a problem in the logistics space of, you know, not getting the service that you needed to get the deliveries consistently. And so you decided I’m gonna jump out I’m gonna do my own company and, and then you found yourself can’t do it by myself I need to bring others in. In your, in your book, you talk about the dream muscle what what is the dream muscle?

Mandy
Well, we all have one shoulder no have a problem with this. So and they may be the first person on Mars. I mean, they’re not hindered. But somewhere in our early 20s, our dream muscle atrophies, because it’s not getting worked anymore. We wanted to get that degree, we wanted to get the job, the kids the marriage, whatever it was, and we’re not taught to set the next one. And when it’s not exercise, the muscle gets weak.

Alan
It’s so when when you bring people in and exercising that muscle had you get them to consistently follow the same process?

Mandy
Well, I have all the tools that I use to get myself unstuck which I detail in my book. But it’s it doesn’t work if there’s not a big dream you’re going after, if there’s nothing inspiring about your future.

Alan
And so the event, the vision as you as you scale that out, you suddenly find you got one employee, and now you’re up to with 17 With this, but would you say how important is technology in this company.

Mandy
In the logistics business, it’s very important. And the reason for that is 90% of the capacity in the US is Mom and Pop trucking companies less than 20 trucks. And these big retailers manufacturers need a lot bigger fleets than that. But there are too technologically advanced to talk to the mom and pop trucking companies. So I’m that intermediary. I speak on the computer to the big guys, and I speak on the phone to the little guys.

Alan
Yeah, that’s interesting that the way you put that I’m on the phone, one on one with little guys and big guys, you know, the computers fine.

Mandy
And I consider myself one of both, you know, I definitely still a little guy in a lot of ways. So I like that aspect of the trucking industry. There’s just very real, authentic people in the business.

Alan
So in, in dealing with a company, we live in these uncertain times, you know, and oftentimes people will, will will work for I need certainty, I need to know what’s happening to the economy where it’s going in. And unfortunately, we can’t necessarily predict that. But in your book, you talk about never giving up or never quitting.

Mandy
That’s the secret weapon.

Alan
How do you deal with that.

Mandy
It’s just the only thing that makes it all work. And no matter how many failures or how many Whammies you get hit with, if you’re never going to quit, you’re never going to fail, truly fail.

Alan
Now in this process of logistics, and by the way, that the company has been a remarkable success. But were you doing it for the money? Or were you doing it for something else?

Mandy
No, I was doing it because when I was a customer, I was being quit on when the tough load was there that needed to be covered. And I just quit to not quit on the tough loads. That’s, that’s all I did. I’m like, surely I can just not quit. And in doing so I will build the relationships and I’ll get the easier freight as well. And that is how it worked out.

Alan
And so following in pursuing the passion in spite of good or bad times. So as as a person walks through this, this process of change, how do you advise them to to continually reinvent themselves?

Mandy
Well, if you could see if I could see my success now then it would have scared me to death I couldn’t see that far. I always tell people you the path becomes clearer but you have to get on the path first. And you can just take the next step and the next step and you can see more and more as you go. And I would have run screaming if I seen all that there is today right? I just I wasn’t ready for it.

Alan
You know when you look into the future with vision do you have to?

Mandy
It’s a constant pattern of growth. No growth of the company requires growth of the people and I’m excited to see what happens with my people and with myself.

Alan
What advice do you have for the aspiring entrepreneur today?

Mandy
Just jump just get in there and do the first thing you think of and kick down go around, crawl under adjust read Just in just just get on the path just get started.

Alan
Do you in the process of working through we talked a little bit about accountability. Do you advise people to have a mentor or a coach or somebody they can come to you.

Mandy
I have several chapters in my book devoted to this subject. I always have a coach, I’ve always had a coach, and always have a mentor. And I always say, always be a coach and a mentor. Because there’s always something you can teach someone and you get the process of giving and receiving going when you’re mentoring people and you have a mentor. That’s been where you want to go.

Alan
What’s the difference between a coach and a mentor?

Mandy
A coach will get in your business a coach doesn’t care about your feelings a coach is committed to your outcomes. And a mentor has been where you want to go.

Alan
And so when everything’s said and done when you look at the philosophy of life what what do you want them to say about Mandy Barton?

Mandy
Was gonna say she was constantly growing and pushing it.

Alan
Mandy as you if for people that want more information, where to get the book, how would they go about getting getting a copy of your book? Step one jump Mandy barton.com is Mandy barton.com and and then Is it is it paperback and hardback or

Mandy
It’s paperback on Amazon? The Kindle versions are on Amazon and the audio book is supposed to be out today.

Alan
Audiobook Well, that’s that’s a perfect thing for the person who’s driving on the road. Right? Self improvement. I love this. This is a this is really, for the times it concentrates that we have. very timely. So So Mandy, I like to thank you for being up to date.

Mandy
Thank you for having me. It’s fun.

Alan
Visiting here today with Mandt Barton off in the book. Step one. We’ll be right back after these messages.

 

We hope you enjoyed this interview; “Step One Jump! | Mandy Barton”.

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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