May 1, 2025 • 35 mins
The journey from tactical operator to strategic leader requires more than just a promotion - it demands a fundamental shift in thinking. Brandon Taylor, Senior Vice President of Transportation at JB Hunt Transport, returns to share the pivotal moments and hard-won wisdom from his leadership journey.
Brandon's career path took him from selling furniture in Miami to leading transportation strategy at one of America's largest logistics companies. Along the way, a powerful wake-up call from his wife - who told him he was "cheating on her" with his job - forced him to reassess his priorities and ultimately led him to JB Hunt, where authentic relationships and family-first values aligned with his own.
What sets exceptional leaders apart? Brandon reveals that while tactical execution wins battles, strategic vision wins wars - and both are essential. He shares his soccer field analogy for team building: "Everybody's not going to be the center fielder... we need to make sure they understand why I have you playing goalie right now." This approach ensures everyone understands their role within the larger mission.
Perhaps most thought-provoking is Brandon's challenge to conventional wisdom about leadership isolation. "A great leader should never feel lonely," he asserts, encouraging leaders to build genuine connections while remaining coachable, like Tom Brady, who still relied on quarterback coaches while winning Super Bowls.
For aspiring leaders, Brandon's guidance is both simple and profound: "Live your purpose." When leaders align their actions with their values and surround themselves with the right people, profitability naturally follows. Whether you're managing a team or running an organization, this conversation offers practical wisdom on balancing tactical execution with strategic vision while staying true to what matters most.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Taylor (00:00):
We want everybody to be strategic and we
want to have long-term plans,but we need to make sure that we
use the word strategiccorrectly, because being
strategic sometimes is notnecessarily the one battle that
we're winning.
That's tactical.
Ken Leith (00:15):
Welcome to the 4 Bars Podcast.
I'm Ken Lease.
Patti Leith (00:18):
And I'm Patti Lease .
We are your hosts for somecompelling dialogue, encouraging
our listeners to strengthentheir connections and build
strong communities, lifting eachother up and connecting in ways
that matter.
We named the podcast Four Barsas a reference to how hard we
work to find a Four Barsconnection on our devices.
Ken Leith (00:35):
And we wondered what could happen with relationships
if we worked as hard atconnecting.
Patti Leith (00:39):
Let's find out.
Welcome back to Four Bars.
I'm Patti Leith and I have withme and I'm Kit Leith.
And we have Brandon Taylor,who's the Senior Vice President
of Transportation with JB HuntTransport.
This is our second discussionwith Brandon.
In the first one if you haven'tchecked it out, you should go
back and check it out we reallytalked about his story, how he
(01:01):
got to be where he is today, andtoday we want to talk about
your time in transportation as aleader and your rise to senior
leadership and how you lead andmanage.
So welcome.
Brandon Taylor (01:12):
All right, Thank you Appreciate being here Once
again.
I know this is our second time,but I think this one's even
going to be better.
Ken Leith (01:20):
I do too.
I think it has all thepossibility for that.
Patti Leith (01:23):
Yes, Well, tell us about your career.
Ken Leith (01:25):
Yeah.
Brandon Taylor (01:26):
So when I left Tallahassee Florida, moved to
Miami and I started working atAir Ritz and Sales Furniture Wow
, okay.
Patti Leith (01:36):
Yeah.
Brandon Taylor (01:36):
And so I did that and I was there selling
furniture and lease to ownfurniture and I think I was
there for four months and theyasked if I would like to open an
office for them in Michigan andI was like, okay, and I was in
(01:57):
Miami, florida, and so I movedup pretty quickly at that
organization and at the timethey weren't opening offices
with people who had been at theorganization for four months and
so they sent me out to SanDiego.
I got to work out there.
Sent me to Salt Lake City, utah, got to work there.
(02:18):
Worked with the group doing theWinter Olympics.
Patti Leith (02:22):
Oh, wow Fun.
Brandon Taylor (02:23):
Yeah, sent me up to.
Well, I went to Sch Olympics,oh fun.
Yeah, sent me up to Sean.
Well, I went to Schaumburg,illinois and basically what we
were doing in Schaumburg,illinois and Melrose park,
illinois Um, we worked on thePGA championship in 99,.
Um in Medina, illinois, andthat was the first time I got to
see Tiger woods in person.
(02:43):
I was from afar but got to seehim.
And then the last thing theydid, we had to go to Boston and
we worked on the Ryder Cup andso, once again, what Air Rents
and Sales Furniture did is thatthey put together, like the
parson chairs and all of thethings that would be inside the
tent for people to sit down atthe different golf tournaments,
(03:04):
things of that nature, and I wastraveling a lot, a lot, and I
went to Conshohocken, pa.
That was outside of Philadelphia, and I had a one-year-old child
at the time and I hadn't beenmarried for a short amount of
time as well Came back toFarmingtonton, michigan, and I
(03:26):
came in the house and mydaughter cried because she
didn't cry because she was happyI was home.
She cried because I wastraveling so much as she didn't
necessarily know who I was yeah,yeah, that hits hard, that hit
hard and that broke my heart andso I'm like, I mean, I may be
good at this, you all may wantto continue to send me all
(03:49):
around all these differentplaces, but this has to stop.
And so worked there for about ayear up in Michigan and
unfortunately my and it's abeautiful story.
So once again talking about mycareer, but this is a beautiful
story my wife's grandparentspassed away within the same
(04:11):
month.
Oh wow, they had been married61 years.
So my wife's grandfather passedaway, and then her grandmother
passed away, and so we came backto Miami to help support her
mom.
You know who was going throughsome things at the time, um, and
she's doing phenomenal, youknow things that nature.
(04:31):
But we came back just becausewe wanted to be closer to my
wife's family, sure.
And so I thought about you know, what am I gonna do next?
Because I didn't have a planwhen I moved back.
So talked about well, maybeI'll go to the firefighters
college in Ocala, florida.
So I went and took theMiami-Dade County firefighter
(04:54):
exam.
You know, did really well onthat, did the physical exam.
I was like well, I think I'mgoing to become a firefighter.
And you know, lo and behold,there were two different
opportunities and oneopportunity, you know I talked
about a little bit earlier, butone opportunities with a company
that was importing freight fromSouth and Central America.
(05:17):
And then there's anothercompany called CH Robinson had
never heard of it.
Another company called CHRobinson had never heard of it.
You know, when I was in schoolin the 90s there were no well,
there weren't a lot of supplychain courses and I never took
one.
Patti Leith (05:33):
No, they didn't.
Yeah, they didn't have degreesback then.
Brandon Taylor (05:36):
Yeah, so I didn't know what a CH Robinson
was.
I never saw a CH Robinson truckgo down the road.
But when you listen to thefirst one, I made mention of
Joel Kennedy and he's been veryinfluential in my life.
He was very influential as acoach and a mentor.
And so I decided to startworking at CH Robinson and you
(05:59):
know I came in, you know didsome of the sales.
You know I was prettysuccessful with that and after
working there for about threeyears I got the opportunity to
go open my own office inMichigan and so I opened an
office back in Michigan for CHRobinson, did that for about
four years, moved to Atlanta,georgia, managed their sales for
(06:22):
that region and I hope youdon't mind me getting a little
personal, even though we'retalking about career.
Oh no, absolutely Okay so camehome in April of 2009.
And I thought I was reallysuccessful.
I thought I was doing all thethings that I was supposed to do
and my wife said you know,you're cheating on me.
And I'm like what are youtalking about?
(06:44):
And she said you're cheating onme.
And I'm like what are youtalking about?
And she said you're cheating onme with CH Robinson.
And so I never want to lose myfamily.
And so the decision was reallyeasy to make.
So I wrote my letter ofresignation that night and I
turned it in the next day and Iwas like OK, what's next?
You know?
So I had a two-year non-compete, did a couple of things.
(07:06):
You know, my wife and I duringthat time, and my kids we moved
back to Miami, okay, and sohere's me.
So Michigan, primary home,miami, my second home, and so
that's how my travels alwaystend to go.
So I moved back down to Miami,did a couple of things, you know
(07:29):
, worked on a Mary Orielcampaign.
That candidate didn't win, butstill got to hone some of my
skills.
You know, when I was in college, one of the jobs I had, I used
to do a lot of the writing ofscripts that people would cold
call for, or writing of theletters that would be sent out
(07:49):
for political contributions, andso that was just funny to think
about that.
But then JB Hunt had contactedme in April of 2011.
Okay, once my non-compete endedand I was like, yeah, you know,
Alan Crumley, one of my greatguys.
Alan contacted me.
Yeah, I want you to take a look.
We got your name Not interested.
(08:11):
It's like, seriously, yeah, notinterested.
And at the time, I didn't wantto go back into corporate
America because I saw whathappened in 2009.
And I'm an all or nothing guy.
And so it was just like, yeah,I'm not going to do that.
And we were also talking aboutmy wife and I moving our family
to Belize.
And so we were like, look, Iwant to.
(08:33):
You know, I want to go toBelize.
I could.
I could definitely get up andbe in a hammock and you know, do
some other things and export.
You get what I'm saying.
I get what you're saying.
Patti Leith (08:44):
That's really what I was looking at doing.
Brandon Taylor (08:47):
And two weeks later my wife said we're
pregnant again.
I'm like, how did that happen?
And so, yeah, and so I calledAlan Crumley back and said, do
you still have that job?
And he's like, well, you know,you got an interview for it.
I was like like oh, I thoughtyou were just offering it to me
(09:12):
and so came here interviewed forthe job.
And in the interview, you know,I got to meet for the first
time Shelly Simpson and EricMcGee and Shelly is our CEO now
at JB Hunt and Eric McGee is myEVP.
And getting to make thoserelationships early on in my
career at JB Hunt and gettingthe invitations to the different
things, just trying tounderstand that this is a very
(09:35):
inclusive environment, because Ihad never been to Arkansas
first off, so that was a cultureshock, yeah.
Patti Leith (09:42):
I'm loving that.
Brandon Taylor (09:44):
And you know my expectations were different.
Okay, so then I get up here,and when I first interviewed, I
interviewed a week after theJoplin tornado.
Okay, and so when you come infrom the airport for those who
are not local it doesn't looklike a city when you first get
here, and so you're driving fromthe airport, and then I was by
(10:06):
the reservoir and the road wasflooded.
Patti Leith (10:09):
Yeah, we had some terrible storms here right after
that.
Brandon Taylor (10:12):
Yeah.
And so I'm calling my wife,like maybe I made a mistake.
But long story short, it wasgreat.
And you know, I told everybodyduring the interview process you
know well, my wife's pregnant.
I can't leave my family inMiami because one of the things
that JB Hunt does a great jobwith is when they bring on a new
leader, they want that leaderto get acculturated to the
(10:36):
organization, and one thing thatShelly always stated was that
she didn't want you to getacclimated, always stated was
that she didn't want you to getacclimated, she didn't want you
to just become JB Hunt, but shewanted you to bring some of your
own culture, that when you'regetting acculturated, you're
adding to the JB Hunt family.
And that was one thing that shemade really clear at the
(10:57):
beginning.
And so they were like well,okay, well, yeah, just bring
your wife and kids up here.
And I was like, really, and soit made it easy to fall in love,
because you know how manyorganizations just say that at
the beginning they don't know me.
I might have interviewed, well,but they don't know me.
And so to have that trust atthe beginning, know me.
(11:18):
And so to have that trust atthe beginning, it already allows
you to buy in, and it alsoallowed my family to buy in.
And so then, you know, my, myyoungest and my fourth and final
child was born in December of2011.
I had, well, my family went back, you know, when school began
and I moved back to Florida atthat time and I opened an office
in Miami.
I I'll make this part quick Ihired some really good people.
(11:42):
You know, I wouldn't be in theposition I'm in today without
those individuals.
Andy McDonough he's one of ournational account execs at JB
Hunt.
He was a phenomenal number twoin the office.
He allowed me to go out andsell when he would operate and
execute on the business for usto be successful.
And you know all of the peoplethat we brought on.
(12:03):
They were just really greatindividuals.
And in May of 2013, there wasan opportunity for a VP role,
and so I took that opportunityand I moved my family back to
Northwest Arkansas Once again,not even knowing that having
that summer with my family heremade it much easier to convince
(12:26):
my wife and kids to move up here.
Patti Leith (12:28):
Yeah, yeah Right.
Brandon Taylor (12:30):
And so then I spent five years in a VP of
transportation role, where and Ihad different responsibilities,
whether it was one region ofthe country or another region,
because we we switched regionsaround, for you know during
different times and then, inAugust of 2018, I was promoted
to senior VP and that's been therole I've been in since now.
(12:51):
Since that time excuse me andyou know that's changed over
time We've gone throughdifferent structures and
different ways on how we want toattack the market and how we
want to engage and connect withour customers, and at this time,
you know, I feel that we've hadso many different iterations.
We understand exactly whatstructure is best to solve for
(13:17):
our customers today, exactlywhat structure is best to solve
for our customers today, and Ifeel that we are starting to see
a lot of traction even with thevolatility in the market.
Ken Leith (13:26):
Yeah, yeah, very well said.
You mentioned a couple of timesactually in the prior episode,
but also in this onerelationships.
Yeah, what do relationshipslook like?
You told us a little bit abouthow it worked with you across
the organization and how doesthat sometimes permeate out to
your customers and your vendors?
Brandon Taylor (13:42):
Yeah, so you know it's funny.
Before I came here today, youknow we had a customer meeting
earlier, and relationships meaneverything.
Yeah, because I want to ensurethat our customers understand
that there's a seamlessrelationship across the board,
regardless if it's a differentbusiness unit or a different
(14:04):
individual that is working withthe customer.
You know we want our sellers atJB Hunt to be ambassadors for
JB Hunt when they are marketingour brand, when they are selling
to customers and providingsolutions or setting up a
solution for them.
But with the same foot, theyneed to also look at being an
(14:29):
advocate for the customerinternally.
Nobody should care more thanthey do about ensuring that we
are meeting those customer needs, and the easiest way to do that
is based off of relationships.
You want to use relationalauthority and not just
positional authority to getthings done Absolutely, and so
when you have a goodrelationship with somebody or,
(14:51):
even better, a greatrelationship, it makes it a lot
easier to get thingsaccomplished.
Patti Leith (14:56):
Yep, that totally makes sense, and what are some
of the fundamentals that youthink are important in
relationship building?
Brandon Taylor (15:04):
I think listening is probably the most
important, and what I mean bythat is that if both people are
just sitting there in a roomwhere they're just waiting for
the other to speak, that's notgoing to work.
But when it comes to thecommunication and listening,
just being able to understandthat you can get together to
(15:25):
meet the needs or solve for thechallenge or problem that may be
at hand.
You know, one thing I alwaystell people is it's never enough
to be on the same page.
What does that even mean beingon the same page yeah.
I agree, I would rather us be inthe same book, so you could be
on page two and I could be on 22.
(15:47):
I can wait for you until youget to page 22.
But if we're both on page 22but we're in different books,
we're not communicating.
There's a lot of ways thatmisinterpretations or
misperceptions can occur becausewe're not in the same book,
right?
So for me, listening is soimportant.
Patti Leith (16:09):
And the dialogue which is inherent in that is, I
have to ask questions and I haveto listen.
Yes absolutely, but that reallyis the core of what builds a
strong relationship, and thencommunication also takes some
adaptation.
Brandon Taylor (16:25):
Yes, absolutely, and just being able to
sometimes show grace.
Yeah, I like that so true, youknow, we can tell people and I'm
not saying we do this at JBHumble, we can tell people,
leave that at the door.
Well, sometimes things aregoing to impact us and every one
(16:45):
of us is going to have a daythat we're not our best selves,
and so giving somebody thatgrace for those days when
they're not their best selvesbuilds a stronger relationship
as well.
Yeah, when they're not theirbest selves builds a stronger
relationship as well.
Patti Leith (16:57):
Yeah, and we are the same person inside of our
personal connections and ourwork-related connections yes,
absolutely.
And, yes, we have a differentfocus in each, but we are the
same person with the sameexperiences, and you talked in
the last one about character andintegrity.
Ken Leith (17:16):
You bring those to all of your circles right,
100,000 yeah so they blend, they, they mix yeah, and even in our
works that we do sometimes,with coaching for example, and
we hear about um, you know,leaving it at home or leaving it
at the office, and we take adifferent, little bit different
perspective of the fact that wedon't do that because it's it's
(17:38):
not.
Humans can't just turn thingsone and off psychologically and
everything else, but what we cando is figure out how to best
integrate the two, because thereare going to be days to your
point, you want to leave it atthe office, but it's going to
spill over potentially a littlebit in your home life and vice
versa.
Yeah so when we see thathappening that, yeah so when we
see that happening that'ssomething, how do you figure
(17:59):
that balance out?
To point a little bit to talkabout how you balance those a
little bit, yeah so, you knowI'll start with just myself and
talking about it.
Brandon Taylor (18:08):
I'm just happy that I have a very understanding
wife because you know there aretimes that you know you don't
want to necessarily go acrossthe threshold with some of the
challenges or the pressures ofthe job.
And you know, in transportation, and especially with JB Hunt,
we get to touch so many.
You know commerce runs ournation and so there are so many
(18:33):
different things that areimpacted based off the work that
we do at JB, like we keep thecountry moving.
You know, whether it's withIntermodal, whether it's with
Dedicated, whether it's with ourhighway solutions, I mean we
(18:54):
really keep the country moving,and so there are days that are
better than others and there aredays that are a little more
challenging than others and justhaving that balance,
understanding that you need toensure that you have distressors
having conversations, you know,I mentioned earlier you know,
patty, you are a therapist forme for a few years Just having
(19:14):
that outlet where you could talkabout things and just get them
off your chest.
And then I will be honest, oneof the things that I love the
most about JB Hunt that reallyallows for the original point of
your question, ken is thatthere's an open door policy and
our executives listen.
They truly listen, yeah, youknow, whether they go out and
(19:38):
have town halls, whether the waywe engage with all of our
people, with surveys and thingsof that nature.
I feel fortunate that I can goand talk to the president of our
division, nick Hobbs, and say,Nick, this is how I feel about
something, and he will listen.
And it doesn't mean that he'sgoing to change based off of
(20:00):
what I've said, but at leasthe'll listen to my feedback and
say, well, have you thoughtabout it this way?
Patti Leith (20:06):
Yeah, He'll consider it and he'll provide
you.
Consider it.
Brandon Taylor (20:09):
And you know, and you know, at the end of the
day there are going to be somewith a little more wisdom.
Patti Leith (20:14):
Yeah.
Brandon Taylor (20:19):
And there are going to be some who have a
different purview or they may beable to look at a little higher
level.
So you might think that youhave a 50,000 foot view where
they're looking at 80,000 feet,and so just knowing that you
have that outlet makes it a loteasier to be able to de-stress
and find that balance.
On One other thing, we try notto talk about work-life balance,
(20:40):
but it's work-life satisfaction.
Yes, so yesterday I got back.
I had traveled to Florida with acouple of individuals and I was
walking around and somebody hadsaid to me man BT, I haven't
seen you in a while.
Have you been traveling?
I was like, yeah, I wastraveling.
It was like, oh, for work orfor pleasure?
(21:01):
I said, well, when I travel forwork it's always a pleasure.
But you know, but you make itwhat it is, you know it doesn't
have to be a bad thing.
And so when you're able to havethat passion for people, the
purpose of what you're trying todo and meeting the needs of the
community and the people thatengage with JB Hunt, it is a
(21:24):
pleasurable experience.
Ken Leith (21:26):
Absolutely.
That kind of leads me to adifferent kind of question.
If you could go back and talkto yourself, a younger self
let's just say it's the firstday that you start for JB Hunt,
sure, what would you want totell yourself if you could go
back and kind of take about thatShare?
Brandon Taylor (21:44):
your ideas sooner, speak up more when you
first get there.
And once again, for me it wasmore along the lines of I had
never worked in a corporateenvironment.
Now I'd worked for largecorporations, but being on a
corporate campus and almost Idon't want to say almost, but
(22:08):
yeah, almost every engagementseems like an interview, because
you navigated a littledifferent.
You know, when you're in afield location or you're in a
location that's a satelliteoffice away from the corporate
campus, you help create some ofthat culture and so having that
unfamiliarity of being in acorporate environment was
(22:31):
different for me.
And I see now, because I speaka lot like people say Godlly,
okay, would you stop?
But I would tell my youngerself to speak up freely a lot
faster, just because there aretimes that I probably allowed us
to go through certain thingsand if I would have spoke up and
(22:52):
articulated ideas well, wemight have avoided some of the
things that we faced.
Ken Leith (22:59):
Yeah, I like that.
Patti Leith (23:00):
And I don't know if you remember this, but the
first time that we met you hadstarted a leadership coaching
program with our company andback then the remote camera
thing was something I had tosend to you.
We were Skyping back then, butyou were coming into corporate
for a meeting.
Um, and we were.
We had scheduled a meeting, andand um, I was unable to get
(23:24):
into the uh building with mybadge, and so I texted you and
you were in a meeting withshelly do you remember that I do
she had just offered you the vproles.
That when you out, your eyeswere about this big but we spent
a lot of time talking aboutthat.
It's a big difference.
What were some of the biggestdifferences when you went from
(23:47):
being outside of the corporateenvironment to being a leader
inside of it?
Brandon Taylor (23:51):
Yeah, so you know it's funny because we
talked earlier about you're thesame person inside or outside of
work, but in a, in a differentrole, you can manage your
subordinates, wherein, when Ibecame a VP, it was really how
(24:12):
can I influence my colleagues alot more and then also being
able to influence upwards andbeing free with because here it
is.
At the end of the day, my jobis to make sure that my bosses
don't make a mistake, and I saida little bit earlier that they
may be looking at 80,000, footview.
(24:34):
Well, maybe because I'm alittle closer to the ground, I
can see something they don't see, and so I need to be able to
provide that same visibility tothem, and I need to be able to
paint that picture really well,because if they're looking at it
one way and I'm not, then it'sgoing to be a mess, yeah, and so
(24:55):
the need for a VP to manage upand down you know you're you're.
Patti Leith (24:59):
You're now managing leading leaders, as opposed to
managing staff.
Brandon Taylor (25:04):
That's right.
Patti Leith (25:05):
And while you're also driving strategy.
Brandon Taylor (25:07):
That's right yeah.
Patti Leith (25:08):
So it's a different .
It's what got you there,doesn't get you forward?
Brandon Taylor (25:12):
No, it doesn't, and I talk a lot to my teams
about.
Here's the deal.
Yeah, we want everybody to bestrategic and we want to have
long-term plans, but we need tomake sure that we use the word
strategic correctly, becausebeing strategic sometimes is not
necessarily the one battle thatwe're winning.
That's tactical and so ensuringthat people understand the
(25:36):
difference there.
But even in my role today,although I have to be strategic,
I need to be able to understandwhat's happening on the
battlefield, and I'm just usingan analogy that way because you
know from some of my background,from you know, growing up on a
military basis, but you know,when you look at the tactical
things around execution and theoperational excellence that you
(25:59):
need to provide, well, thatallows for the strategic
initiatives or objectives to bemet.
Because you're winning on thetactical side, absolutely.
But you could have the beststrategy, you could create the
greatest strategy in the worldand have the best intent, but be
unable to tactically execute.
(26:19):
You're not gonna win.
Patti Leith (26:21):
Yeah, you're exactly right.
It's the key component when wework with growth clients to to
figure out what you do today tomake that happen yes.
You want to align your actionstoday to your goals, but you
can't spend all your time inthat goal set.
That's right.
You have to connect that too.
Brandon Taylor (26:40):
Yeah, I mean because ideation is great, but
action can be better.
Yeah, you know, and, but weneed both.
Yeah, we need both.
Patti Leith (26:48):
You do need both, but, but action's key.
Now you work in an area of thecompany that's growing quite a
bit.
What are some of the mostimportant things that you tell
your teams as they are goingafter growth goals?
Brandon Taylor (27:01):
Yeah, so the most important thing that I tell
my teams right now is to ensurethat we have the right people
in the right seat.
Okay, because it starts withthe people, starts with the
people.
You know this is a peoplebusiness and you know, in my
role, we work with customers,carriers and our employees, and
(27:23):
so I want a great customerexperience.
I want a great carrierexperience, which is a customer
who happens to have a truck, andthen I want our employees to
have a great experience, butthey can't necessarily have a
great experience if they're notin the right seat.
You know, we talked earlierabout being in the right space
(27:45):
on the field when we looked atthe soccer analogy, and that's
the same thing with our people.
We need to make sure that theyunderstand.
Sometimes you're going to haveto go through this position to
understand what happens overhere.
To be successful, to get overhere, I never want to play
goalie.
Well, you need to understandwhy I have you playing goalie
(28:07):
right now, because if we don'tclose the back end, if we're not
retaining our customers, we'renot going to grow, and so
sometimes you have to talk topeople about I need to put you
in this position for a while soyou can learn what we need to do
here.
Then I can put others in a rolewhere they're going to be
(28:28):
offensive.
Maybe they're the right forwardand the left forward.
Everybody's not going to be thecenter fielder, everybody's not
going to be the person who'sgoing to kick the ball right at
the beginning.
That's not where it's going tohappen, and so ensuring that you
clearly communicate the visionconnected with the mission and
(28:49):
then putting the right people inthe right scene is the first
thing that I would do, and itmakes it a lot easier to get
things accomplished.
Ken Leith (28:58):
It clarifies for everyone.
Yeah, and which is one of thebig things Kind of a slightly
different question for you, sureand this is kind of from your
perspective is what's your hopefor the next generation of
leaders, and what is it that youwant to share with them when it
comes to connecting, whetherthat's internally, externally,
(29:20):
within the communities wherethey work and how they impact
the world that they connect with?
Brandon Taylor (29:24):
Yeah, so to the next group of leaders live your
purpose.
That I mean.
It sounds like I could put thaton a t-shirt, but seriously,
and I really mean, that.
Yeah, because it's live yourpurpose.
Because one, being a managerand being a leader are two
totally different things.
You know, can you manage aprocess?
(29:46):
Sure, and you could be great atit, but that doesn't mean
you're a leader.
And then also, as a leader, youknow this one, you know it st
sting sometimes when people hearthis.
but when you're a leader, thatdoesn't necessarily mean that
you need to be led okay because,once again, you get into
(30:07):
certain roles, you're gonna havea vision and a mission that
you're connecting, and then it'syour responsibility to lead
from that.
Now you may still get providedwith coaching.
Look, we all say that.
Well, let me not say it thatway.
I'm in North Arkansas, so Iknow how some people feel about
Patrick Mahomes, but many peoplewould say that Tom Brady is the
(30:31):
best quarterback ever, but whenhe was winning Super Bowls, he
still had a quarterback coach.
Ken Leith (30:37):
Yes.
Brandon Taylor (30:38):
He did.
There were certain thingsaround mechanics that he had to
do to continue to improve uponhis skills, and so, as a leader
as a leader, you have to leadand not be led.
You can still get coached, butyou're not led, and so I would
want the next generation ofleaders to understand that it's
so important for them to lead,to have passion for what they're
(31:03):
doing and live their purpose,because if they do that, that
brings profitability.
Patti Leith (31:08):
Absolutely every time, every time, every time,
yeah, and you know, in acorporation we need to be
profitable.
Brandon Taylor (31:15):
Yeah, and so you know you do that, you'll be
profitable.
Ken Leith (31:18):
Absolutely, and you'll have some fun along the
way.
Brandon Taylor (31:20):
You have fun yeah, because you're living your
purpose.
Yeah, so it makes it easy.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Patti Leith (31:26):
Well, we have so enjoyed this conversation with
you.
As we wrap up, are there anylast minute thoughts that you
can leave with our listenersabout?
Just about tackling leadershipand career and balancing that
with work and family.
Brandon Taylor (31:44):
Yeah, I would say it this way when you're
looking at leadership, startingyour job, making it a career,
always remember that thefoundation is your family and
you know family starts with an F, foundation starts with an F,
(32:04):
and so, regardless of anythingelse, you've got to make sure
that you have those blockstogether.
And then, when you look at yourfriends, your family foundation
I added that friends part inright there.
Ken Leith (32:18):
I love it.
Brandon Taylor (32:19):
You want to make sure that you're starting there
, that's right.
You're building that villageand so to be the best that you
want to be in, the mostsuccessful, you have to make
sure that you feel right aboutyourself, and if you don't have
that village or thoseindividuals running with you, it
makes it a lot harder.
And you know people have usedthe term.
(32:41):
It's lonely at the top.
It does not have to be.
Patti Leith (32:45):
I agree I agree.
Brandon Taylor (32:46):
So a great leader should never feel lonely.
I 100% agree with that.
Yeah, I'll leave him with that.
A great leader is never lonely.
Ken Leith (32:54):
I like that, love it, I love it.
Again, we appreciate your timetoday and all that you shared
for our listeners.
I do have one question that'snot actually to you.
It's to your daughter with herpodcast.
Okay, yeah, that hopefully,after you being on our podcast,
that she will invite you to beon her podcast.
Brandon Taylor (33:14):
She doesn't want to hear from her dad.
Patti Leith (33:17):
Well, maybe we could invite her to be ours.
How's that?
There you go.
Ken Leith (33:21):
Together that could be.
We haven't done one like that.
Brandon Taylor (33:24):
Yeah, it's funny .
My mom says all the time oh,brandy is just like, she looks
like my wife, so she's beautiful, you know.
But she is so much like me inhow she thinks and engages with
people, so yeah, it would befunny.
Patti Leith (33:41):
Yeah, when you were starting the discussion and you
were sharing that, you workedwith the event planning.
One of the things that eventplanning has in common with
logistics is the number ofvariables that have to connect
in order for success to occur,and so it's a deeply analytical
think about all the components,and so she probably has a lot of
(34:05):
that thinking as well yeah, shedoes, she does.
Brandon Taylor (34:10):
Brandy's a little different Love it All
right.
Patti Leith (34:13):
Well, thank you so much for being here and thank
you listeners, and if you'rewatching, remember to subscribe
and tell your friends.
It's great to see you.
Ken Leith (34:22):
Until next time.
Thank you All right, have agood one everyone.
Patti Leith (34:25):
The Four Bars podcast has been brought to you
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A growth advisory firm based inBentonville, arkansas.
I founded the company in 2001.
Ken Leith (34:34):
Edges promotes growth , people, companies and ideas.
Our team collaboration tool,called Interface Methods, is a
basis for teams to work togethermore collaboratively,
understand each other and acceptdifferences and address
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Patti Leith (34:46):
We also started a nonprofit called Unform your
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We teach kids and their adultinfluencers how to utilize
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That's tactical.
Ken Leith (00:15):
Welcome to the 4 Bars Podcast.
I'm Ken Lease.
Patti Leith (00:18):
And I'm Patti Lease .
We are your hosts for somecompelling dialogue, encouraging
our listeners to strengthentheir connections and build
strong communities, lifting eachother up and connecting in ways
that matter.
We named the podcast Four Barsas a reference to how hard we
work to find a Four Barsconnection on our devices.
Ken Leith (00:35):
And we wondered what could happen with relationships
if we worked as hard atconnecting.
Patti Leith (00:39):
Let's find out.
Welcome back to Four Bars.
I'm Patti Leith and I have withme and I'm Kit Leith.
And we have Brandon Taylor,who's the Senior Vice President
of Transportation with JB HuntTransport.
This is our second discussionwith Brandon.
In the first one if you haven'tchecked it out, you should go
back and check it out we reallytalked about his story, how he
(01:01):
got to be where he is today, andtoday we want to talk about
your time in transportation as aleader and your rise to senior
leadership and how you lead andmanage.
So welcome.
Brandon Taylor (01:12):
All right, Thank you Appreciate being here Once
again.
I know this is our second time,but I think this one's even
going to be better.
Ken Leith (01:20):
I do too.
I think it has all thepossibility for that.
Patti Leith (01:23):
Yes, Well, tell us about your career.
Ken Leith (01:25):
Yeah.
Brandon Taylor (01:26):
So when I left Tallahassee Florida, moved to
Miami and I started working atAir Ritz and Sales Furniture Wow
, okay.
Patti Leith (01:36):
Yeah.
Brandon Taylor (01:36):
And so I did that and I was there selling
furniture and lease to ownfurniture and I think I was
there for four months and theyasked if I would like to open an
office for them in Michigan andI was like, okay, and I was in
(01:57):
Miami, florida, and so I movedup pretty quickly at that
organization and at the timethey weren't opening offices
with people who had been at theorganization for four months and
so they sent me out to SanDiego.
I got to work out there.
Sent me to Salt Lake City, utah, got to work there.
(02:18):
Worked with the group doing theWinter Olympics.
Patti Leith (02:22):
Oh, wow Fun.
Brandon Taylor (02:23):
Yeah, sent me up to.
Well, I went to Sch Olympics,oh fun.
Yeah, sent me up to Sean.
Well, I went to Schaumburg,illinois and basically what we
were doing in Schaumburg,illinois and Melrose park,
illinois Um, we worked on thePGA championship in 99,.
Um in Medina, illinois, andthat was the first time I got to
see Tiger woods in person.
(02:43):
I was from afar but got to seehim.
And then the last thing theydid, we had to go to Boston and
we worked on the Ryder Cup andso, once again, what Air Rents
and Sales Furniture did is thatthey put together, like the
parson chairs and all of thethings that would be inside the
tent for people to sit down atthe different golf tournaments,
(03:04):
things of that nature, and I wastraveling a lot, a lot, and I
went to Conshohocken, pa.
That was outside of Philadelphia, and I had a one-year-old child
at the time and I hadn't beenmarried for a short amount of
time as well Came back toFarmingtonton, michigan, and I
(03:26):
came in the house and mydaughter cried because she
didn't cry because she was happyI was home.
She cried because I wastraveling so much as she didn't
necessarily know who I was yeah,yeah, that hits hard, that hit
hard and that broke my heart andso I'm like, I mean, I may be
good at this, you all may wantto continue to send me all
(03:49):
around all these differentplaces, but this has to stop.
And so worked there for about ayear up in Michigan and
unfortunately my and it's abeautiful story.
So once again talking about mycareer, but this is a beautiful
story my wife's grandparentspassed away within the same
(04:11):
month.
Oh wow, they had been married61 years.
So my wife's grandfather passedaway, and then her grandmother
passed away, and so we came backto Miami to help support her
mom.
You know who was going throughsome things at the time, um, and
she's doing phenomenal, youknow things that nature.
(04:31):
But we came back just becausewe wanted to be closer to my
wife's family, sure.
And so I thought about you know, what am I gonna do next?
Because I didn't have a planwhen I moved back.
So talked about well, maybeI'll go to the firefighters
college in Ocala, florida.
So I went and took theMiami-Dade County firefighter
(04:54):
exam.
You know, did really well onthat, did the physical exam.
I was like well, I think I'mgoing to become a firefighter.
And you know, lo and behold,there were two different
opportunities and oneopportunity, you know I talked
about a little bit earlier, butone opportunities with a company
that was importing freight fromSouth and Central America.
(05:17):
And then there's anothercompany called CH Robinson had
never heard of it.
Another company called CHRobinson had never heard of it.
You know, when I was in schoolin the 90s there were no well,
there weren't a lot of supplychain courses and I never took
one.
Patti Leith (05:33):
No, they didn't.
Yeah, they didn't have degreesback then.
Brandon Taylor (05:36):
Yeah, so I didn't know what a CH Robinson
was.
I never saw a CH Robinson truckgo down the road.
But when you listen to thefirst one, I made mention of
Joel Kennedy and he's been veryinfluential in my life.
He was very influential as acoach and a mentor.
And so I decided to startworking at CH Robinson and you
(05:59):
know I came in, you know didsome of the sales.
You know I was prettysuccessful with that and after
working there for about threeyears I got the opportunity to
go open my own office inMichigan and so I opened an
office back in Michigan for CHRobinson, did that for about
four years, moved to Atlanta,georgia, managed their sales for
(06:22):
that region and I hope youdon't mind me getting a little
personal, even though we'retalking about career.
Oh no, absolutely Okay so camehome in April of 2009.
And I thought I was reallysuccessful.
I thought I was doing all thethings that I was supposed to do
and my wife said you know,you're cheating on me.
And I'm like what are youtalking about?
(06:44):
And she said you're cheating onme.
And I'm like what are youtalking about?
And she said you're cheating onme with CH Robinson.
And so I never want to lose myfamily.
And so the decision was reallyeasy to make.
So I wrote my letter ofresignation that night and I
turned it in the next day and Iwas like OK, what's next?
You know?
So I had a two-year non-compete, did a couple of things.
(07:06):
You know, my wife and I duringthat time, and my kids we moved
back to Miami, okay, and sohere's me.
So Michigan, primary home,miami, my second home, and so
that's how my travels alwaystend to go.
So I moved back down to Miami,did a couple of things, you know
(07:29):
, worked on a Mary Orielcampaign.
That candidate didn't win, butstill got to hone some of my
skills.
You know, when I was in college, one of the jobs I had, I used
to do a lot of the writing ofscripts that people would cold
call for, or writing of theletters that would be sent out
(07:49):
for political contributions, andso that was just funny to think
about that.
But then JB Hunt had contactedme in April of 2011.
Okay, once my non-compete endedand I was like, yeah, you know,
Alan Crumley, one of my greatguys.
Alan contacted me.
Yeah, I want you to take a look.
We got your name Not interested.
(08:11):
It's like, seriously, yeah, notinterested.
And at the time, I didn't wantto go back into corporate
America because I saw whathappened in 2009.
And I'm an all or nothing guy.
And so it was just like, yeah,I'm not going to do that.
And we were also talking aboutmy wife and I moving our family
to Belize.
And so we were like, look, Iwant to.
(08:33):
You know, I want to go toBelize.
I could.
I could definitely get up andbe in a hammock and you know, do
some other things and export.
You get what I'm saying.
I get what you're saying.
Patti Leith (08:44):
That's really what I was looking at doing.
Brandon Taylor (08:47):
And two weeks later my wife said we're
pregnant again.
I'm like, how did that happen?
And so, yeah, and so I calledAlan Crumley back and said, do
you still have that job?
And he's like, well, you know,you got an interview for it.
I was like like oh, I thoughtyou were just offering it to me
(09:12):
and so came here interviewed forthe job.
And in the interview, you know,I got to meet for the first
time Shelly Simpson and EricMcGee and Shelly is our CEO now
at JB Hunt and Eric McGee is myEVP.
And getting to make thoserelationships early on in my
career at JB Hunt and gettingthe invitations to the different
things, just trying tounderstand that this is a very
(09:35):
inclusive environment, because Ihad never been to Arkansas
first off, so that was a cultureshock, yeah.
Patti Leith (09:42):
I'm loving that.
Brandon Taylor (09:44):
And you know my expectations were different.
Okay, so then I get up here,and when I first interviewed, I
interviewed a week after theJoplin tornado.
Okay, and so when you come infrom the airport for those who
are not local it doesn't looklike a city when you first get
here, and so you're driving fromthe airport, and then I was by
(10:06):
the reservoir and the road wasflooded.
Patti Leith (10:09):
Yeah, we had some terrible storms here right after
that.
Brandon Taylor (10:12):
Yeah.
And so I'm calling my wife,like maybe I made a mistake.
But long story short, it wasgreat.
And you know, I told everybodyduring the interview process you
know well, my wife's pregnant.
I can't leave my family inMiami because one of the things
that JB Hunt does a great jobwith is when they bring on a new
leader, they want that leaderto get acculturated to the
(10:36):
organization, and one thing thatShelly always stated was that
she didn't want you to getacclimated, always stated was
that she didn't want you to getacclimated, she didn't want you
to just become JB Hunt, but shewanted you to bring some of your
own culture, that when you'regetting acculturated, you're
adding to the JB Hunt family.
And that was one thing that shemade really clear at the
(10:57):
beginning.
And so they were like well,okay, well, yeah, just bring
your wife and kids up here.
And I was like, really, and soit made it easy to fall in love,
because you know how manyorganizations just say that at
the beginning they don't know me.
I might have interviewed, well,but they don't know me.
And so to have that trust atthe beginning, know me.
(11:18):
And so to have that trust atthe beginning, it already allows
you to buy in, and it alsoallowed my family to buy in.
And so then, you know, my, myyoungest and my fourth and final
child was born in December of2011.
I had, well, my family went back, you know, when school began
and I moved back to Florida atthat time and I opened an office
in Miami.
I I'll make this part quick Ihired some really good people.
(11:42):
You know, I wouldn't be in theposition I'm in today without
those individuals.
Andy McDonough he's one of ournational account execs at JB
Hunt.
He was a phenomenal number twoin the office.
He allowed me to go out andsell when he would operate and
execute on the business for usto be successful.
And you know all of the peoplethat we brought on.
(12:03):
They were just really greatindividuals.
And in May of 2013, there wasan opportunity for a VP role,
and so I took that opportunityand I moved my family back to
Northwest Arkansas Once again,not even knowing that having
that summer with my family heremade it much easier to convince
(12:26):
my wife and kids to move up here.
Patti Leith (12:28):
Yeah, yeah Right.
Brandon Taylor (12:30):
And so then I spent five years in a VP of
transportation role, where and Ihad different responsibilities,
whether it was one region ofthe country or another region,
because we we switched regionsaround, for you know during
different times and then, inAugust of 2018, I was promoted
to senior VP and that's been therole I've been in since now.
(12:51):
Since that time excuse me andyou know that's changed over
time We've gone throughdifferent structures and
different ways on how we want toattack the market and how we
want to engage and connect withour customers, and at this time,
you know, I feel that we've hadso many different iterations.
We understand exactly whatstructure is best to solve for
(13:17):
our customers today, exactlywhat structure is best to solve
for our customers today, and Ifeel that we are starting to see
a lot of traction even with thevolatility in the market.
Ken Leith (13:26):
Yeah, yeah, very well said.
You mentioned a couple of timesactually in the prior episode,
but also in this onerelationships.
Yeah, what do relationshipslook like?
You told us a little bit abouthow it worked with you across
the organization and how doesthat sometimes permeate out to
your customers and your vendors?
Brandon Taylor (13:42):
Yeah, so you know it's funny.
Before I came here today, youknow we had a customer meeting
earlier, and relationships meaneverything.
Yeah, because I want to ensurethat our customers understand
that there's a seamlessrelationship across the board,
regardless if it's a differentbusiness unit or a different
(14:04):
individual that is working withthe customer.
You know we want our sellers atJB Hunt to be ambassadors for
JB Hunt when they are marketingour brand, when they are selling
to customers and providingsolutions or setting up a
solution for them.
But with the same foot, theyneed to also look at being an
(14:29):
advocate for the customerinternally.
Nobody should care more thanthey do about ensuring that we
are meeting those customer needs, and the easiest way to do that
is based off of relationships.
You want to use relationalauthority and not just
positional authority to getthings done Absolutely, and so
when you have a goodrelationship with somebody or,
(14:51):
even better, a greatrelationship, it makes it a lot
easier to get thingsaccomplished.
Patti Leith (14:56):
Yep, that totally makes sense, and what are some
of the fundamentals that youthink are important in
relationship building?
Brandon Taylor (15:04):
I think listening is probably the most
important, and what I mean bythat is that if both people are
just sitting there in a roomwhere they're just waiting for
the other to speak, that's notgoing to work.
But when it comes to thecommunication and listening,
just being able to understandthat you can get together to
(15:25):
meet the needs or solve for thechallenge or problem that may be
at hand.
You know, one thing I alwaystell people is it's never enough
to be on the same page.
What does that even mean beingon the same page yeah.
I agree, I would rather us be inthe same book, so you could be
on page two and I could be on 22.
(15:47):
I can wait for you until youget to page 22.
But if we're both on page 22but we're in different books,
we're not communicating.
There's a lot of ways thatmisinterpretations or
misperceptions can occur becausewe're not in the same book,
right?
So for me, listening is soimportant.
Patti Leith (16:09):
And the dialogue which is inherent in that is, I
have to ask questions and I haveto listen.
Yes absolutely, but that reallyis the core of what builds a
strong relationship, and thencommunication also takes some
adaptation.
Brandon Taylor (16:25):
Yes, absolutely, and just being able to
sometimes show grace.
Yeah, I like that so true, youknow, we can tell people and I'm
not saying we do this at JBHumble, we can tell people,
leave that at the door.
Well, sometimes things aregoing to impact us and every one
(16:45):
of us is going to have a daythat we're not our best selves,
and so giving somebody thatgrace for those days when
they're not their best selvesbuilds a stronger relationship
as well.
Yeah, when they're not theirbest selves builds a stronger
relationship as well.
Patti Leith (16:57):
Yeah, and we are the same person inside of our
personal connections and ourwork-related connections yes,
absolutely.
And, yes, we have a differentfocus in each, but we are the
same person with the sameexperiences, and you talked in
the last one about character andintegrity.
Ken Leith (17:16):
You bring those to all of your circles right,
100,000 yeah so they blend, they, they mix yeah, and even in our
works that we do sometimes,with coaching for example, and
we hear about um, you know,leaving it at home or leaving it
at the office, and we take adifferent, little bit different
perspective of the fact that wedon't do that because it's it's
(17:38):
not.
Humans can't just turn thingsone and off psychologically and
everything else, but what we cando is figure out how to best
integrate the two, because thereare going to be days to your
point, you want to leave it atthe office, but it's going to
spill over potentially a littlebit in your home life and vice
versa.
Yeah so when we see thathappening that, yeah so when we
see that happening that'ssomething, how do you figure
(17:59):
that balance out?
To point a little bit to talkabout how you balance those a
little bit, yeah so, you knowI'll start with just myself and
talking about it.
Brandon Taylor (18:08):
I'm just happy that I have a very understanding
wife because you know there aretimes that you know you don't
want to necessarily go acrossthe threshold with some of the
challenges or the pressures ofthe job.
And you know, in transportation, and especially with JB Hunt,
we get to touch so many.
You know commerce runs ournation and so there are so many
(18:33):
different things that areimpacted based off the work that
we do at JB, like we keep thecountry moving.
You know, whether it's withIntermodal, whether it's with
Dedicated, whether it's with ourhighway solutions, I mean we
(18:54):
really keep the country moving,and so there are days that are
better than others and there aredays that are a little more
challenging than others and justhaving that balance,
understanding that you need toensure that you have distressors
having conversations, you know,I mentioned earlier you know,
patty, you are a therapist forme for a few years Just having
(19:14):
that outlet where you could talkabout things and just get them
off your chest.
And then I will be honest, oneof the things that I love the
most about JB Hunt that reallyallows for the original point of
your question, ken is thatthere's an open door policy and
our executives listen.
They truly listen, yeah, youknow, whether they go out and
(19:38):
have town halls, whether the waywe engage with all of our
people, with surveys and thingsof that nature.
I feel fortunate that I can goand talk to the president of our
division, nick Hobbs, and say,Nick, this is how I feel about
something, and he will listen.
And it doesn't mean that he'sgoing to change based off of
(20:00):
what I've said, but at leasthe'll listen to my feedback and
say, well, have you thoughtabout it this way?
Patti Leith (20:06):
Yeah, He'll consider it and he'll provide
you.
Consider it.
Brandon Taylor (20:09):
And you know, and you know, at the end of the
day there are going to be somewith a little more wisdom.
Patti Leith (20:14):
Yeah.
Brandon Taylor (20:19):
And there are going to be some who have a
different purview or they may beable to look at a little higher
level.
So you might think that youhave a 50,000 foot view where
they're looking at 80,000 feet,and so just knowing that you
have that outlet makes it a loteasier to be able to de-stress
and find that balance.
On One other thing, we try notto talk about work-life balance,
(20:40):
but it's work-life satisfaction.
Yes, so yesterday I got back.
I had traveled to Florida with acouple of individuals and I was
walking around and somebody hadsaid to me man BT, I haven't
seen you in a while.
Have you been traveling?
I was like, yeah, I wastraveling.
It was like, oh, for work orfor pleasure?
(21:01):
I said, well, when I travel forwork it's always a pleasure.
But you know, but you make itwhat it is, you know it doesn't
have to be a bad thing.
And so when you're able to havethat passion for people, the
purpose of what you're trying todo and meeting the needs of the
community and the people thatengage with JB Hunt, it is a
(21:24):
pleasurable experience.
Ken Leith (21:26):
Absolutely.
That kind of leads me to adifferent kind of question.
If you could go back and talkto yourself, a younger self
let's just say it's the firstday that you start for JB Hunt,
sure, what would you want totell yourself if you could go
back and kind of take about thatShare?
Brandon Taylor (21:44):
your ideas sooner, speak up more when you
first get there.
And once again, for me it wasmore along the lines of I had
never worked in a corporateenvironment.
Now I'd worked for largecorporations, but being on a
corporate campus and almost Idon't want to say almost, but
(22:08):
yeah, almost every engagementseems like an interview, because
you navigated a littledifferent.
You know, when you're in afield location or you're in a
location that's a satelliteoffice away from the corporate
campus, you help create some ofthat culture and so having that
unfamiliarity of being in acorporate environment was
(22:31):
different for me.
And I see now, because I speaka lot like people say Godlly,
okay, would you stop?
But I would tell my youngerself to speak up freely a lot
faster, just because there aretimes that I probably allowed us
to go through certain thingsand if I would have spoke up and
(22:52):
articulated ideas well, wemight have avoided some of the
things that we faced.
Ken Leith (22:59):
Yeah, I like that.
Patti Leith (23:00):
And I don't know if you remember this, but the
first time that we met you hadstarted a leadership coaching
program with our company andback then the remote camera
thing was something I had tosend to you.
We were Skyping back then, butyou were coming into corporate
for a meeting.
Um, and we were.
We had scheduled a meeting, andand um, I was unable to get
(23:24):
into the uh building with mybadge, and so I texted you and
you were in a meeting withshelly do you remember that I do
she had just offered you the vproles.
That when you out, your eyeswere about this big but we spent
a lot of time talking aboutthat.
It's a big difference.
What were some of the biggestdifferences when you went from
(23:47):
being outside of the corporateenvironment to being a leader
inside of it?
Brandon Taylor (23:51):
Yeah, so you know it's funny because we
talked earlier about you're thesame person inside or outside of
work, but in a, in a differentrole, you can manage your
subordinates, wherein, when Ibecame a VP, it was really how
(24:12):
can I influence my colleagues alot more and then also being
able to influence upwards andbeing free with because here it
is.
At the end of the day, my jobis to make sure that my bosses
don't make a mistake, and I saida little bit earlier that they
may be looking at 80,000, footview.
(24:34):
Well, maybe because I'm alittle closer to the ground, I
can see something they don't see, and so I need to be able to
provide that same visibility tothem, and I need to be able to
paint that picture really well,because if they're looking at it
one way and I'm not, then it'sgoing to be a mess, yeah, and so
(24:55):
the need for a VP to manage upand down you know you're you're.
Patti Leith (24:59):
You're now managing leading leaders, as opposed to
managing staff.
Brandon Taylor (25:04):
That's right.
Patti Leith (25:05):
And while you're also driving strategy.
Brandon Taylor (25:07):
That's right yeah.
Patti Leith (25:08):
So it's a different .
It's what got you there,doesn't get you forward?
Brandon Taylor (25:12):
No, it doesn't, and I talk a lot to my teams
about.
Here's the deal.
Yeah, we want everybody to bestrategic and we want to have
long-term plans, but we need tomake sure that we use the word
strategic correctly, becausebeing strategic sometimes is not
necessarily the one battle thatwe're winning.
That's tactical and so ensuringthat people understand the
(25:36):
difference there.
But even in my role today,although I have to be strategic,
I need to be able to understandwhat's happening on the
battlefield, and I'm just usingan analogy that way because you
know from some of my background,from you know, growing up on a
military basis, but you know,when you look at the tactical
things around execution and theoperational excellence that you
(25:59):
need to provide, well, thatallows for the strategic
initiatives or objectives to bemet.
Because you're winning on thetactical side, absolutely.
But you could have the beststrategy, you could create the
greatest strategy in the worldand have the best intent, but be
unable to tactically execute.
(26:19):
You're not gonna win.
Patti Leith (26:21):
Yeah, you're exactly right.
It's the key component when wework with growth clients to to
figure out what you do today tomake that happen yes.
You want to align your actionstoday to your goals, but you
can't spend all your time inthat goal set.
That's right.
You have to connect that too.
Brandon Taylor (26:40):
Yeah, I mean because ideation is great, but
action can be better.
Yeah, you know, and, but weneed both.
Yeah, we need both.
Patti Leith (26:48):
You do need both, but, but action's key.
Now you work in an area of thecompany that's growing quite a
bit.
What are some of the mostimportant things that you tell
your teams as they are goingafter growth goals?
Brandon Taylor (27:01):
Yeah, so the most important thing that I tell
my teams right now is to ensurethat we have the right people
in the right seat.
Okay, because it starts withthe people, starts with the
people.
You know this is a peoplebusiness and you know, in my
role, we work with customers,carriers and our employees, and
(27:23):
so I want a great customerexperience.
I want a great carrierexperience, which is a customer
who happens to have a truck, andthen I want our employees to
have a great experience, butthey can't necessarily have a
great experience if they're notin the right seat.
You know, we talked earlierabout being in the right space
(27:45):
on the field when we looked atthe soccer analogy, and that's
the same thing with our people.
We need to make sure that theyunderstand.
Sometimes you're going to haveto go through this position to
understand what happens overhere.
To be successful, to get overhere, I never want to play
goalie.
Well, you need to understandwhy I have you playing goalie
(28:07):
right now, because if we don'tclose the back end, if we're not
retaining our customers, we'renot going to grow, and so
sometimes you have to talk topeople about I need to put you
in this position for a while soyou can learn what we need to do
here.
Then I can put others in a rolewhere they're going to be
(28:28):
offensive.
Maybe they're the right forwardand the left forward.
Everybody's not going to be thecenter fielder, everybody's not
going to be the person who'sgoing to kick the ball right at
the beginning.
That's not where it's going tohappen, and so ensuring that you
clearly communicate the visionconnected with the mission and
(28:49):
then putting the right people inthe right scene is the first
thing that I would do, and itmakes it a lot easier to get
things accomplished.
Ken Leith (28:58):
It clarifies for everyone.
Yeah, and which is one of thebig things Kind of a slightly
different question for you, sureand this is kind of from your
perspective is what's your hopefor the next generation of
leaders, and what is it that youwant to share with them when it
comes to connecting, whetherthat's internally, externally,
(29:20):
within the communities wherethey work and how they impact
the world that they connect with?
Brandon Taylor (29:24):
Yeah, so to the next group of leaders live your
purpose.
That I mean.
It sounds like I could put thaton a t-shirt, but seriously,
and I really mean, that.
Yeah, because it's live yourpurpose.
Because one, being a managerand being a leader are two
totally different things.
You know, can you manage aprocess?
(29:46):
Sure, and you could be great atit, but that doesn't mean
you're a leader.
And then also, as a leader, youknow this one, you know it st
sting sometimes when people hearthis.
but when you're a leader, thatdoesn't necessarily mean that
you need to be led okay because,once again, you get into
(30:07):
certain roles, you're gonna havea vision and a mission that
you're connecting, and then it'syour responsibility to lead
from that.
Now you may still get providedwith coaching.
Look, we all say that.
Well, let me not say it thatway.
I'm in North Arkansas, so Iknow how some people feel about
Patrick Mahomes, but many peoplewould say that Tom Brady is the
(30:31):
best quarterback ever, but whenhe was winning Super Bowls, he
still had a quarterback coach.
Ken Leith (30:37):
Yes.
Brandon Taylor (30:38):
He did.
There were certain thingsaround mechanics that he had to
do to continue to improve uponhis skills, and so, as a leader
as a leader, you have to leadand not be led.
You can still get coached, butyou're not led, and so I would
want the next generation ofleaders to understand that it's
so important for them to lead,to have passion for what they're
(31:03):
doing and live their purpose,because if they do that, that
brings profitability.
Patti Leith (31:08):
Absolutely every time, every time, every time,
yeah, and you know, in acorporation we need to be
profitable.
Brandon Taylor (31:15):
Yeah, and so you know you do that, you'll be
profitable.
Ken Leith (31:18):
Absolutely, and you'll have some fun along the
way.
Brandon Taylor (31:20):
You have fun yeah, because you're living your
purpose.
Yeah, so it makes it easy.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Patti Leith (31:26):
Well, we have so enjoyed this conversation with
you.
As we wrap up, are there anylast minute thoughts that you
can leave with our listenersabout?
Just about tackling leadershipand career and balancing that
with work and family.
Brandon Taylor (31:44):
Yeah, I would say it this way when you're
looking at leadership, startingyour job, making it a career,
always remember that thefoundation is your family and
you know family starts with an F, foundation starts with an F,
(32:04):
and so, regardless of anythingelse, you've got to make sure
that you have those blockstogether.
And then, when you look at yourfriends, your family foundation
I added that friends part inright there.
Ken Leith (32:18):
I love it.
Brandon Taylor (32:19):
You want to make sure that you're starting there
, that's right.
You're building that villageand so to be the best that you
want to be in, the mostsuccessful, you have to make
sure that you feel right aboutyourself, and if you don't have
that village or thoseindividuals running with you, it
makes it a lot harder.
And you know people have usedthe term.
(32:41):
It's lonely at the top.
It does not have to be.
Patti Leith (32:45):
I agree I agree.
Brandon Taylor (32:46):
So a great leader should never feel lonely.
I 100% agree with that.
Yeah, I'll leave him with that.
A great leader is never lonely.
Ken Leith (32:54):
I like that, love it, I love it.
Again, we appreciate your timetoday and all that you shared
for our listeners.
I do have one question that'snot actually to you.
It's to your daughter with herpodcast.
Okay, yeah, that hopefully,after you being on our podcast,
that she will invite you to beon her podcast.
Brandon Taylor (33:14):
She doesn't want to hear from her dad.
Patti Leith (33:17):
Well, maybe we could invite her to be ours.
How's that?
There you go.
Ken Leith (33:21):
Together that could be.
We haven't done one like that.
Brandon Taylor (33:24):
Yeah, it's funny .
My mom says all the time oh,brandy is just like, she looks
like my wife, so she's beautiful, you know.
But she is so much like me inhow she thinks and engages with
people, so yeah, it would befunny.
Patti Leith (33:41):
Yeah, when you were starting the discussion and you
were sharing that, you workedwith the event planning.
One of the things that eventplanning has in common with
logistics is the number ofvariables that have to connect
in order for success to occur,and so it's a deeply analytical
think about all the components,and so she probably has a lot of
(34:05):
that thinking as well yeah, shedoes, she does.
Brandon Taylor (34:10):
Brandy's a little different Love it All
right.
Patti Leith (34:13):
Well, thank you so much for being here and thank
you listeners, and if you'rewatching, remember to subscribe
and tell your friends.
It's great to see you.
Ken Leith (34:22):
Until next time.
Thank you All right, have agood one everyone.
Patti Leith (34:25):
The Four Bars podcast has been brought to you
by Edges Inc.
A growth advisory firm based inBentonville, arkansas.
I founded the company in 2001.
Ken Leith (34:34):
Edges promotes growth , people, companies and ideas.
Our team collaboration tool,called Interface Methods, is a
basis for teams to work togethermore collaboratively,
understand each other and acceptdifferences and address
challenges together.
Patti Leith (34:46):
We also started a nonprofit called Unform your
Bias.
We teach kids and their adultinfluencers how to utilize
storytelling as a means toreduce bias in the world.
We hope you'll check us out,subscribe to our podcast and
look at our website.
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