October 25, 2021 • 12 mins
Hey there Money Movers! Todays episode we are joined by trucking queen Casey Cooper. She is the CEO of the Compass circle, a trucking company she founded in 2016. She now teaches women and minority own companies how to scale their business through government contracts.
Casey & Tanya discuss the importance of staying commited to your goals, building relationships with mentors, the negative mindset that social media can bring, failing forward, and the experience of being a black female in a white mans space and much more.
Host: IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @thecompasscircle
Guest Twitter: @CaseyCasem1
Learn more about the compass circle https://www.thecompasscircle.com/
Find a list of episodes and more tips at BankGreenwood.com
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Let's jump right in
with our first guest today. Welcome Casey Cooper, the CEO
(00:22):
of the Compass Circle, a trucking company she founded in
two thousand and six and successfully scaled into contracting for
the federal government. She now teaches women and minority owned
companies how to scale and grow their businesses through government contracts. Hi, Casey,
welcome to the show. Thank Daniel, thanks for having me
with gorgeous Oh thank you, so do you. But Hey,
(00:43):
do not let the pretty fool you. Our guest today
is an incredible woman with huge brains and I'm gonna
say big balls because you went into the trucking industry UM,
which is typically a very male dominated industry, and you
are excelling. So kudos and congrats to you girlfriend. Thank
you so much, I mean so much coming from you, Casey.
I want to dive into how you got your starting entrepreneurship,
(01:05):
especially as we dive into the trucking industry. Well, Tanya,
it was about sixteen years ago. I was much younger
than I am now, uh, and I was about to
have a baby. I was newly married, and you know,
like most black women, of course, we're always trying to
find ways to you know, empower our families. I was
little different because I had this epiphany one day. I
(01:25):
was like, you know what, I'm gonna buy a truck.
I'm gonna put a driver in it. I'm going to
you know, become this millionaires and I'm going to retire
by the time I'm five. And that was not the case.
I love the big dreams. Girl, come on, you do.
That didn't quite happen that way, but um, I basically
just me. I always get my paperwork together first, so
I had enough fortitude to go and get the permit
(01:47):
to drive the truck first. Didn't I was gonna have
to end up driving, but I did. Um and you know,
I just forged away, forged ahead. Unfortunately, my marriage did
not survive my business. And you know, it's not a
pity party, because I wouldn't have it any other way.
I wouldn't be the one I am today. But I
basically just you know, I kept getting truck after truck
(02:08):
after truck. I ended up diversifying and then I eventually
found the federal government and that's when I really took off.
So that's that's how the journey was. I mean, Casey,
you make it sound really easy, and I know it wasn't.
I know that so much of your blood, sweat, tears
went into building this business from you know, the ground up.
So take us back to what was it first about
the trucking industry that made you realize you could make
(02:30):
some substantial money here. So, to be honest with you, Daniel,
you know, I was twenty five. I think my husband's
about thirty at the time, and we had a couple
of thousand dollars you know, tuk the way or whatever,
and I didn't have time to go to school to
be a dentist doctor. Uh, you know, I didn't have
time for that. I was like, Okay, what can I do?
Where can I put my money that I can put
somebody else in a position to go to work for me.
(02:51):
Trucking just you know, popped up back then. It was
almost twenty years ago, so it definitely wasn't um as
woman focused as it is now. You know, on Instagram
we see all these different women and you know, they're
excelling in all these different arenas, but back then it
wasn't like that. So I just basically, you know, I
went out there, almost killed myself learning how to drive,
you know, almost fell off a couple of cliffs. Um,
(03:13):
but I just stuck it out, and you know, eventually
it paid off. I love that, Casey, You're like clearly
the epitome of an entrepreneur. Um. One of the things
that really struck out to me is even from a
young age, you were intent on finding a career in
a business where your money was working for you and
on money moves. We talked about this a lot. Where
(03:33):
did you get that mindset from? Just I mean, you
were twenty five. Your mom like, that's really years ahead
of the game. So when I was about fifteen, I
was like, you know what I need to do something.
I convinced the seventy year old man in my neighborhood
who had all these venning machines to please rent me
to Venning machines. But he rented me these two venning
machines for twenty five dollars a month. A friend of
(03:54):
mine had a music studio, so I put the Venning
machines in there, and that was my first kind of
you know, uh, welcome into entrepreneurship. Years later, I was
like twenty, I had a shoe store. So it's kind
of always been there, um and failing forward. Also, you
don't normally just start out and you know, you just
go from zero to a hundred and just make all
these millions, so that again, yeah, you don't just get
(04:17):
in it and it just you know, pops off. You
definitely have to you know, work at it. So it
took a while, but I mean it ended up paying off,
so it worked out. So you just used a phrase
fail forward, um, And there's a lot of different iterations
of that, fail fast, fail forward. And oftentimes I feel
like in our community it's the fear of failure that
holds people back. Can you talk about, you know, how
(04:39):
you really think about forward failure? Failing forward really wasn't
something that I used to even you know, I didn't
even have that in my repertoire. It wasn't until I
started teaching people about you know, contracts and things like that,
and I started to realize, hey, this whole time you've
been failing forward. I don't come from a lineage of
(04:59):
you know, millionaires. I don't come from a lineage of truckers.
I was the first one that you know, set out
in my family. So to be honest with you, you know,
I used to be ashamed about, you know, some of
my losses and things. But you're not gonna get anywhere
unless you fail forward. Nobody hits it out of the park,
you know, and just continually hits it up the park
now all the time, you know, I really like teach
(05:20):
that you're going to make mistakes, You're going to fall,
you just have to get back up, and you just
have to keep going. And I love that because I
think like true entrepreneurs, um they see life like that,
you know. Every you can watch the Facebook movie and
it's like ninety minutes and this kid's a million billionaire
in instance, right, But if you actually look at successful
serial entrepreneurs, they've had so many failures, you know, and
(05:42):
the key is to really learn from those lessons and
incorporate them into your next success and actually telling you
just to be candid. You know, if I did not
just keep enduring what I was going through, I would
not be talking to you today. I feel like I
was kind of like a late bloomer. I started when
I was twenty five. It didn't really like pop for
me until I was over thirty five. So if I
(06:02):
had not kept going in those ten years, I would
not be where I am today. So just to all
the listeners out there, it doesn't always happen overnight. The
first year, the second year, the third, fourth, fifth order.
Sometimes you gotta go past that ten year mark and
that's the case a lot of time. So, you know,
just encouraging all the listeners to just keep going. Oh
my gosh, you're like a ray of sunshine. One of
(06:23):
the most amazing things about you is that you're not
just a personal success, but you use your own success
as a platform to educate others. What motivated you for
your decision to reach back out and help others? You know,
an tanie is so funny because you hear all these
cliche sayings, and until you're really in that space where
you need that cliche saying, it doesn't really register to you.
I would go to all these contracting seminars and blah
(06:46):
blah blahs, and I would leave with information overload, and
I didn't know what the hell anybody was saying. So
it's not until one day a black woman showed up
at my door who was in the contracting space also
um and I needed that push because I was trying
to make the jump from Earth to Pluto and I
didn't have anybody there to teach me, will avoid Mars
(07:06):
go to Jupiter. I didn't have anybody to do that.
So when she showed up with her smiling brown face.
You know, really at that time when I first met her,
I didn't want to be weird and kind of just
leach onto her and say, hey, you know, take me
on your wing. But we ended up forging her friendship,
and to this day she has a seven fifty million
dollar contract, so it's a very substantial contract. But she
actually became my mentor, so, you know, just having that push,
(07:29):
just having somebody who looks like me. When you walk
a room of men who are white in sixty five
and older, they all have on blazers and here I
come with my baby hair and ear rings. You know, first,
it was very like off off put because I was like, wow,
there's the one older Indian lady, there's the one older
(07:50):
black lady, and everybody else is a white male. So
I just once I kind of got my legs about me.
I said, you know what, I'm gonna dum me this
information down because very and I'm gonna start teaching women
that look like me how to get into this space.
So that's what pushed me to do it. There's something
to be said when you know you're in a business environment,
when you've been the only person you feel like you're
there on an island. It doesn't matter, because you'll soldier
(08:12):
through when you'll persevere, But there is something really nice
when you find a mentor that you can connect with
and build with. Can you talk more about that relationship
of when you did find her, because people often ask like,
how do you find a mentor um? And did it
happen overnight? And how did you really facilitate that? So
initially what happened was my mentor actually provided other services
(08:33):
um to the government. So she did a lot of
clerical admin, a lot of policies and procedures. And as
I was forging, you know forward, you have to have
business plans. So I hired her initially to do my
business plan, and you know, I told her what I
was going for. She was in the same space also,
so it kind of started, you know, just organically, Hey,
let's have lunch, let's have coffee. And as much as
(08:55):
I wanted to latch onto her again, I did not
want to be weird. I wanted to be very respectful
her time, because I didn't want to be blowing up
her phone every five minutes asking her about section L
and M. Can you give us some our money moves audience,
some advice on how you stay focused and positive even
in the most trying times of being a business owner.
(09:16):
So a couple of years ago, I mean, I had
a very huge loss, a loss of about five thousand
dollars of my own money. I didn't have some NFL boyfriend,
you know, footing my bill. Um and and actuality. I'm
not mad about it because now I just use my
own money for things. People talk about getting loans, I'm
wanna do that. I'll use my own I'll get it.
I'll get it myself. UM. I would just say I
(09:36):
spent a lot of time in my own world. I
don't have a whole bunch of friends, and I'm not
saying that you can't. But I focus on my children,
I focus on, you know, my business. Every day I'm
working on ways to make my business better. Um. Social
media sometimes can get a little bit you can just
get consumed, you know, people making comments or you're just
seeing what other people are doing, and sometimes you don't
(09:58):
feel as adequate. Or oh wow, you see she just
got a Lamborghini. Wow, I don't have a Lamborghini. You know,
you can kind of get into that. So I just
really I don't pay attention. I look forward because I
have a goal in mind, and look into the right
or to the love is not gonna help me with
my own assignment. So I'm a little bit older and
a little bit wiser. Um. But I also to tell you,
let's just be clear, because I saw you on that
yacht on your Instagram page. I take money, Okay, I
(10:21):
get out there on those boats. I just got a
new place in Miami, so I take time. I have
a big, very good work life balance. If I'm working
for two hours, guess what, I'm probably not working for
three because you have to have balance. I do a
lot of intense work, research, you know, giving your time
and energy, consulting with people. That takes a lot of energy.
(10:42):
So I take breaks. I enjoy my life, and I
enjoy the fruits of my labor and just balance it
all and just focus on my own work. I love that.
I love that. Okay, Casey, You've been enjoyed to have
on here. I love boss women on our program, and
thank you so much for inspiring so many others, you know, women, men,
everyone alike to just pursue their dreams and build something
(11:03):
from nothing. Um, Casey, can you tell everyone where to
reach you on social media? Instagram? Tell us where where
your company is found on the worldwide Web? Absolutely so,
you guys can find me on Instagram at the Compass Circle.
That's on Facebook, at the Compass Circle. That's Twitter on
the Compass Circle. UM, and also our website is www
(11:24):
dot the Compass Circle dot com. I'm always available and um,
I look forward to working with Gus. It was so
great to hear from you and money Movers. If you
want a recap or the A b c s are
the one two threes of getting into trucking or government proposals,
please check out our Money Moves blog on Bank Greenwood
dot com. Stay tuned tomorrow and every day this week
(11:44):
from very special Money Versus Moves. I hope people are
listening to that because this is like the keys to
the Kingdom of financial wealth that we talked about or
from our expert. My company was on a pinky toe like. Honestly,
that's a really huge success for me. I would love
to etch about more because I hadn't even known some
of these ways. Okay, so I always teach on the
three things. Oh my gosh, that is a word hello,
(12:07):
and you won't want to miss. Former Mayor Cassine reads,
It's not easy being a front runner in such a
tough race. Your life has no roof on it, and
you literally can achieve anything and go anywhere where your
talents can take you. Money Moves is an I heart
Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
(12:29):
For more podcast on iHeart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Let's jump right in
with our first guest today. Welcome Casey Cooper, the CEO
(00:22):
of the Compass Circle, a trucking company she founded in
two thousand and six and successfully scaled into contracting for
the federal government. She now teaches women and minority owned
companies how to scale and grow their businesses through government contracts. Hi, Casey,
welcome to the show. Thank Daniel, thanks for having me
with gorgeous Oh thank you, so do you. But Hey,
(00:43):
do not let the pretty fool you. Our guest today
is an incredible woman with huge brains and I'm gonna
say big balls because you went into the trucking industry UM,
which is typically a very male dominated industry, and you
are excelling. So kudos and congrats to you girlfriend. Thank
you so much, I mean so much coming from you, Casey.
I want to dive into how you got your starting entrepreneurship,
(01:05):
especially as we dive into the trucking industry. Well, Tanya,
it was about sixteen years ago. I was much younger
than I am now, uh, and I was about to
have a baby. I was newly married, and you know,
like most black women, of course, we're always trying to
find ways to you know, empower our families. I was
little different because I had this epiphany one day. I
(01:25):
was like, you know what, I'm gonna buy a truck.
I'm gonna put a driver in it. I'm going to
you know, become this millionaires and I'm going to retire
by the time I'm five. And that was not the case.
I love the big dreams. Girl, come on, you do.
That didn't quite happen that way, but um, I basically
just me. I always get my paperwork together first, so
I had enough fortitude to go and get the permit
(01:47):
to drive the truck first. Didn't I was gonna have
to end up driving, but I did. Um and you know,
I just forged away, forged ahead. Unfortunately, my marriage did
not survive my business. And you know, it's not a
pity party, because I wouldn't have it any other way.
I wouldn't be the one I am today. But I
basically just you know, I kept getting truck after truck
(02:08):
after truck. I ended up diversifying and then I eventually
found the federal government and that's when I really took off.
So that's that's how the journey was. I mean, Casey,
you make it sound really easy, and I know it wasn't.
I know that so much of your blood, sweat, tears
went into building this business from you know, the ground up.
So take us back to what was it first about
the trucking industry that made you realize you could make
(02:30):
some substantial money here. So, to be honest with you, Daniel,
you know, I was twenty five. I think my husband's
about thirty at the time, and we had a couple
of thousand dollars you know, tuk the way or whatever,
and I didn't have time to go to school to
be a dentist doctor. Uh, you know, I didn't have
time for that. I was like, Okay, what can I do?
Where can I put my money that I can put
somebody else in a position to go to work for me.
(02:51):
Trucking just you know, popped up back then. It was
almost twenty years ago, so it definitely wasn't um as
woman focused as it is now. You know, on Instagram
we see all these different women and you know, they're
excelling in all these different arenas, but back then it
wasn't like that. So I just basically, you know, I
went out there, almost killed myself learning how to drive,
you know, almost fell off a couple of cliffs. Um,
(03:13):
but I just stuck it out, and you know, eventually
it paid off. I love that, Casey, You're like clearly
the epitome of an entrepreneur. Um. One of the things
that really struck out to me is even from a
young age, you were intent on finding a career in
a business where your money was working for you and
on money moves. We talked about this a lot. Where
(03:33):
did you get that mindset from? Just I mean, you
were twenty five. Your mom like, that's really years ahead
of the game. So when I was about fifteen, I
was like, you know what I need to do something.
I convinced the seventy year old man in my neighborhood
who had all these venning machines to please rent me
to Venning machines. But he rented me these two venning
machines for twenty five dollars a month. A friend of
(03:54):
mine had a music studio, so I put the Venning
machines in there, and that was my first kind of
you know, uh, welcome into entrepreneurship. Years later, I was
like twenty, I had a shoe store. So it's kind
of always been there, um and failing forward. Also, you
don't normally just start out and you know, you just
go from zero to a hundred and just make all
these millions, so that again, yeah, you don't just get
(04:17):
in it and it just you know, pops off. You
definitely have to you know, work at it. So it
took a while, but I mean it ended up paying off,
so it worked out. So you just used a phrase
fail forward, um, And there's a lot of different iterations
of that, fail fast, fail forward. And oftentimes I feel
like in our community it's the fear of failure that
holds people back. Can you talk about, you know, how
(04:39):
you really think about forward failure? Failing forward really wasn't
something that I used to even you know, I didn't
even have that in my repertoire. It wasn't until I
started teaching people about you know, contracts and things like that,
and I started to realize, hey, this whole time you've
been failing forward. I don't come from a lineage of
(04:59):
you know, millionaires. I don't come from a lineage of truckers.
I was the first one that you know, set out
in my family. So to be honest with you, you know,
I used to be ashamed about, you know, some of
my losses and things. But you're not gonna get anywhere
unless you fail forward. Nobody hits it out of the park,
you know, and just continually hits it up the park
now all the time, you know, I really like teach
(05:20):
that you're going to make mistakes, You're going to fall,
you just have to get back up, and you just
have to keep going. And I love that because I
think like true entrepreneurs, um they see life like that,
you know. Every you can watch the Facebook movie and
it's like ninety minutes and this kid's a million billionaire
in instance, right, But if you actually look at successful
serial entrepreneurs, they've had so many failures, you know, and
(05:42):
the key is to really learn from those lessons and
incorporate them into your next success and actually telling you
just to be candid. You know, if I did not
just keep enduring what I was going through, I would
not be talking to you today. I feel like I
was kind of like a late bloomer. I started when
I was twenty five. It didn't really like pop for
me until I was over thirty five. So if I
(06:02):
had not kept going in those ten years, I would
not be where I am today. So just to all
the listeners out there, it doesn't always happen overnight. The
first year, the second year, the third, fourth, fifth order.
Sometimes you gotta go past that ten year mark and
that's the case a lot of time. So, you know,
just encouraging all the listeners to just keep going. Oh
my gosh, you're like a ray of sunshine. One of
(06:23):
the most amazing things about you is that you're not
just a personal success, but you use your own success
as a platform to educate others. What motivated you for
your decision to reach back out and help others? You know,
an tanie is so funny because you hear all these
cliche sayings, and until you're really in that space where
you need that cliche saying, it doesn't really register to you.
I would go to all these contracting seminars and blah
(06:46):
blah blahs, and I would leave with information overload, and
I didn't know what the hell anybody was saying. So
it's not until one day a black woman showed up
at my door who was in the contracting space also
um and I needed that push because I was trying
to make the jump from Earth to Pluto and I
didn't have anybody there to teach me, will avoid Mars
(07:06):
go to Jupiter. I didn't have anybody to do that.
So when she showed up with her smiling brown face.
You know, really at that time when I first met her,
I didn't want to be weird and kind of just
leach onto her and say, hey, you know, take me
on your wing. But we ended up forging her friendship,
and to this day she has a seven fifty million
dollar contract, so it's a very substantial contract. But she
actually became my mentor, so, you know, just having that push,
(07:29):
just having somebody who looks like me. When you walk
a room of men who are white in sixty five
and older, they all have on blazers and here I
come with my baby hair and ear rings. You know, first,
it was very like off off put because I was like, wow,
there's the one older Indian lady, there's the one older
(07:50):
black lady, and everybody else is a white male. So
I just once I kind of got my legs about me.
I said, you know what, I'm gonna dum me this
information down because very and I'm gonna start teaching women
that look like me how to get into this space.
So that's what pushed me to do it. There's something
to be said when you know you're in a business environment,
when you've been the only person you feel like you're
there on an island. It doesn't matter, because you'll soldier
(08:12):
through when you'll persevere, But there is something really nice
when you find a mentor that you can connect with
and build with. Can you talk more about that relationship
of when you did find her, because people often ask like,
how do you find a mentor um? And did it
happen overnight? And how did you really facilitate that? So
initially what happened was my mentor actually provided other services
(08:33):
um to the government. So she did a lot of
clerical admin, a lot of policies and procedures. And as
I was forging, you know forward, you have to have
business plans. So I hired her initially to do my
business plan, and you know, I told her what I
was going for. She was in the same space also,
so it kind of started, you know, just organically, Hey,
let's have lunch, let's have coffee. And as much as
(08:55):
I wanted to latch onto her again, I did not
want to be weird. I wanted to be very respectful
her time, because I didn't want to be blowing up
her phone every five minutes asking her about section L
and M. Can you give us some our money moves audience,
some advice on how you stay focused and positive even
in the most trying times of being a business owner.
(09:16):
So a couple of years ago, I mean, I had
a very huge loss, a loss of about five thousand
dollars of my own money. I didn't have some NFL boyfriend,
you know, footing my bill. Um and and actuality. I'm
not mad about it because now I just use my
own money for things. People talk about getting loans, I'm
wanna do that. I'll use my own I'll get it.
I'll get it myself. UM. I would just say I
(09:36):
spent a lot of time in my own world. I
don't have a whole bunch of friends, and I'm not
saying that you can't. But I focus on my children,
I focus on, you know, my business. Every day I'm
working on ways to make my business better. Um. Social
media sometimes can get a little bit you can just
get consumed, you know, people making comments or you're just
seeing what other people are doing, and sometimes you don't
(09:58):
feel as adequate. Or oh wow, you see she just
got a Lamborghini. Wow, I don't have a Lamborghini. You know,
you can kind of get into that. So I just
really I don't pay attention. I look forward because I
have a goal in mind, and look into the right
or to the love is not gonna help me with
my own assignment. So I'm a little bit older and
a little bit wiser. Um. But I also to tell you,
let's just be clear, because I saw you on that
yacht on your Instagram page. I take money, Okay, I
(10:21):
get out there on those boats. I just got a
new place in Miami, so I take time. I have
a big, very good work life balance. If I'm working
for two hours, guess what, I'm probably not working for
three because you have to have balance. I do a
lot of intense work, research, you know, giving your time
and energy, consulting with people. That takes a lot of energy.
(10:42):
So I take breaks. I enjoy my life, and I
enjoy the fruits of my labor and just balance it
all and just focus on my own work. I love that.
I love that. Okay, Casey, You've been enjoyed to have
on here. I love boss women on our program, and
thank you so much for inspiring so many others, you know, women, men,
everyone alike to just pursue their dreams and build something
(11:03):
from nothing. Um, Casey, can you tell everyone where to
reach you on social media? Instagram? Tell us where where
your company is found on the worldwide Web? Absolutely so,
you guys can find me on Instagram at the Compass Circle.
That's on Facebook, at the Compass Circle. That's Twitter on
the Compass Circle. UM, and also our website is www
(11:24):
dot the Compass Circle dot com. I'm always available and um,
I look forward to working with Gus. It was so
great to hear from you and money Movers. If you
want a recap or the A b c s are
the one two threes of getting into trucking or government proposals,
please check out our Money Moves blog on Bank Greenwood
dot com. Stay tuned tomorrow and every day this week
(11:44):
from very special Money Versus Moves. I hope people are
listening to that because this is like the keys to
the Kingdom of financial wealth that we talked about or
from our expert. My company was on a pinky toe like. Honestly,
that's a really huge success for me. I would love
to etch about more because I hadn't even known some
of these ways. Okay, so I always teach on the
three things. Oh my gosh, that is a word hello,
(12:07):
and you won't want to miss. Former Mayor Cassine reads,
It's not easy being a front runner in such a
tough race. Your life has no roof on it, and
you literally can achieve anything and go anywhere where your
talents can take you. Money Moves is an I heart
Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
(12:29):
For more podcast on iHeart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.