June 23, 2025 • 29 mins
Carlos M. Llanes Jr. is the founder and CEO of Spartan Carrier Group, one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing logistics companies in North America. A U.S. Army combat veteran, accomplished executive, and man of deep Christian faith, Llanes has built Spartan into a powerhouse—closing in on $75 million in annual revenue in under three years, all without venture capital or outside investment.
Recognized as one of the Top 500 Largest Hispanic-Owned and Veteran-Owned Businesses in the United States, Llanes’ company has earned national attention for its rapid growth, operational excellence, and unwavering values. Spartan Carrier Group operates over 650+ assets across 12 locations in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, providing asset-based transportation, 3PL solutions, cross-border logistics, warehousing, and freight management.
Llanes’ leadership is shaped by four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division, and by a steadfast belief that his success is a direct result of his Christian faith. Guided by biblical principles of service, integrity, and stewardship, Carlos leads a mission-driven organization that prioritizes people over profit and purpose over prestige.
Spartan Carrier Group has earned the trust of major clients such as Toyota Motor North America, Foot Locker, Highland Dairy, and leading Tier-1 automotive suppliers. The company boasts a 98% on-time delivery rate and is at the forefront of nearshoring efforts, supporting over 24 million square feet of warehousing and cross-docking space through key alliances across the U.S.–Mexico border.
More than a logistics company, Spartan is a movement—one powered by faith, forged in discipline, and focused on revolutionizing the supply chain industry. As Llanes continues to scale his operations and influence, he stands as a rising star in logistics, a bold entrepreneur, and a living testament to the power of purpose-driven leadership.
Recognized as one of the Top 500 Largest Hispanic-Owned and Veteran-Owned Businesses in the United States, Llanes’ company has earned national attention for its rapid growth, operational excellence, and unwavering values. Spartan Carrier Group operates over 650+ assets across 12 locations in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, providing asset-based transportation, 3PL solutions, cross-border logistics, warehousing, and freight management.
Llanes’ leadership is shaped by four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division, and by a steadfast belief that his success is a direct result of his Christian faith. Guided by biblical principles of service, integrity, and stewardship, Carlos leads a mission-driven organization that prioritizes people over profit and purpose over prestige.
Spartan Carrier Group has earned the trust of major clients such as Toyota Motor North America, Foot Locker, Highland Dairy, and leading Tier-1 automotive suppliers. The company boasts a 98% on-time delivery rate and is at the forefront of nearshoring efforts, supporting over 24 million square feet of warehousing and cross-docking space through key alliances across the U.S.–Mexico border.
More than a logistics company, Spartan is a movement—one powered by faith, forged in discipline, and focused on revolutionizing the supply chain industry. As Llanes continues to scale his operations and influence, he stands as a rising star in logistics, a bold entrepreneur, and a living testament to the power of purpose-driven leadership.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was born and raised in Miami, Florida, coming from
a very humble upbringing in the metroplex in Miami. It's
a melting pot culture melting pot.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Uh. I was raised by a single mother.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
My father left when I was about six years old
and left there pregnant with five kids. We were brought
up in the metroplex, a musing Section eight housing and welfare,
et cetera. My mom instilled this disciplined in me at
a very early age.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It was just me and her.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I was the oldest of all those kids, so I
had to help raise them, and that brought the maturity
in me early in life, and I went to school
high uh at Dupuis Elementary, then Palm Springs Middle School,
where I was exposed to music. It became professional musician
early on in life. By the age of sixteen, I
was playing with all the famous guys like Marc Anthony,
Elia Cruz, a lot of salsa bands. I was exposed
(00:49):
to all of that at a young age. Helped pay
the bills. Then I went to highly my Miliksina High
and had a fantastic music program. So I harnessed my
skills dead and eventually a at a about the age
of nineteen, I was working in restaurants and playing music,
doing both collectively. I became the youngest general manager for
a couple of called Miami Subs, and.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
That's what started me down the journey.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
After a few years of doing that, I realized I
don't want to go see the world, and that's why
I joined the US.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
All, well, we're going to talk a lot about that
because I think there's a lot of correlations and I'm
sure you would agree, Carlos, when it comes to serving
and then also running a company. So from the private
sector and the military, there's a lot of things that
we could talk about there. But I did want to
talk to you about music because you brought it up.
I hope music is still in your life. Is it
a part of your life still?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
It still is, just different change paths. When I was younger,
it was all about my self glorification. I enjoyed being
on stage and playing for people and entertaining them, and
it was a talent given to me by God himself.
So today, fast forward, I'm a believer. Now I use
those talents to glorify Him. So instead of going out
there and making money for those things, I actually go
(01:56):
out there and worship and teach people, entertain them in.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
That way outstanding.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I used it as the industry.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So it's a big step to go to the military.
Why did you choose the US Army and how long
did you serve?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So I served thirteen years, and I chose the US
Army because they had the most abundant opportunities. There are
five forces now right, and all those forces have different
jobs and things that you could transition out of after
you get out.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The US Army just had the most robust package.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I joined and, as any military person would attest to,
my recruiter lied to me it's a story that I
was here. Told me, hey, we haven't been at war
since Vietnam, and the golf for was very short. There's
almost zero change that we're going to go anywhere. And
I joined a year before September eleventh, and that changed everything.
Then I joined, I wanted to be an infantryman. I
(02:46):
chose to be a logistics guy. They still sent me
to infantry school, so I was in four Banning, Georgia.
I was exposed to the infantry because I was a
male and it was in great shape. Sent me to
one hundred first air Born Division, and I spent my
entire career in the US. I saw me at the
Hunter and first Airboat Division, had four combat tours to
Againistan in Iraq, and I retired with a bronze star.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well outstanding and listen, first of all, thank you for
your service. And somebody that lives in the DMV here
and working with so many different military people in this series,
I'm just always very appreciative somebody that makes a commitment
like that. So obviously you got out after that great
years that you put together. When it came to that,
did you know exactly what you wanted to do coming out?
(03:28):
Did you have a plan?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
See? I did, and I didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I knew that I needed to be impactful and I
couldn't do it in the military. I had already served
four combat tours. I'm raising up the ranks. I was
senior and no commissioned officer. But in my journey of
being in the services, I became very very good at
building enterprises within the military. So in these combat centers,
you were exposed to contracting, you were exposed to villagers
(03:57):
in foreign territories, and I was deeply involved in operations
and setting up I mean that your cities, moving things,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I realized that I could use that.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Skill set in the civilian sect and build something big.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I just didn't know how right right now, I see
that when we'll spend a lot of time on it.
But you know, you've been a manager, and you've been
in charge of other companies before in the service industry,
and I think that pertains to you obviously getting all
the credit now and being with the Spartan Carrier group
of all that experience. I'd love for you to talk
about that, and then we don't necessarily have to talk
(04:29):
about the other companies, but I'd like you to talk about.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Working your way up through a company.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And as I talk in this series to leaders, there's
obviously a lot of people that just started as a
president and CEO because of their experience, and we get that,
but in other companies, you've worked your way up the system.
And what I get back in the feedback from talking
to leaders is knowing that the company, intimately, because they
did all these different jobs as they worked the way up,
the ladder was just paramount to be for them to
(04:55):
be a leader.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Someday. Can you talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So while being in the Service and deployed to all
these different locations, people take for granted what we have
here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
We have access to anything, right.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's why a lot of all mechanics don't necessarily know
how to refurbish engines. They know how to swap parts, right,
But when you're in a country where there's nothing, you
literally have to be ingenius.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You have to build infrastructure from scratch.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So I started my journey in the Service and I
was a go to guy that tried to develop strategies
to be able to build things out of nothing. And
that's complex operations where there was setting up warehousing, wells,
school systems, etc. I was involved in a lot of
those things. When I got onto the private sector. In
my mind, I always had this idea that a CEO
of a company had to be the most brilliant person
(05:41):
on the planet, and that's not true. So if you
want Spared to be a CEO, what you have to
have is determination, grit, and you have to have vision.
But at that time, as I was trying to find
my way, I joined the company called Rider. And the
reason I bring them up is because they did teach
me a lot when I joined Writer. The reason I
joined those guys is because they had to in every
type of industry within the service sector, so warehousing, cold storage, manufacturing,
(06:06):
third part logistics. And I knew that I could learn
a lot working for those guys, but I didn't know
where it stack up. So first job I took was
with Writer. They were managing home depot distribution. The second
largest DC in their network was in Dallas, and I
was selected to work there. I came on as a
logistics manager and within ninety days I was promoted. Ninety
(06:28):
days after that, I was promoted again, and ninety days
after that I was promoted a third time, which meant
that my estimation of where I would stack in the
civilians sector with my military experience was not a good forecast.
I didn't know what i'd be, so I started off
as manager and it turns out that in less than
a year I became a senior manager and within a
(06:49):
couple of years I was running different enterprises.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So I did learn from the bottom up.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah, So was it something? Was it your ambition?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Because that's a lot of movement over a month and
a half each time, and some people would be overwhelmed
by that, but maybe somebody with military experience and not
making any assumptions about how you roll. Was that your
ambition or did it was it? Did it take you
off guard a little bit? How was the transition after
you moved up?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Each time, I'd say that it's not necessarily my personal
ambition that did it. I give them before the God been,
But it was my experience in the military that propelled
me that way. When you're in the service and everybody
depends on you, there's no excuse.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You have to deliver results and people depend on you.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So that service style leader that was instilled in me
from the noncommission Officer Corps, and that service style leader
that was instilled in me by being follow up Christ
it propelled me to always just want to solve a problem.
And by trying to solve problems, the natural revolution was
that people saw that in you and they wanted to
put you on their team.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So I was able to grow quickly.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And most of the problems that you'd see, it's not
that they were super complex. I think that they were
just not tackled because people didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Really answer the question right.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Couldn't stand to have an efficiency in any system. So
when I'd see a problem, I wouldn't just walk past
it and then collect the paycheck. I'd see it and
I have to fix it, so I'd fix it. And
that's what led me down that evolution. It was never
about trying to gain glorification. It was more about I
got to solve this problem. And then you put a
lot of problems in front of me and I got
to solve them quickly. So that ended up as a
(08:23):
byproduct me being promoted.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Yeah, I'm going to go what you said.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I think you're just a problem solver and you like
that and that's how your role so I appreciate you
sharing that. So Carlos, obviously, with all that experience, you know,
starting your own company is a real big deal and
I think a lot of people in this series when
we talked to future entrepreneurs, current entrepreneurs, CEOs and presidents,
starting a company is epic and even though you had
all this experience, it's really a herculean task to start
(08:49):
a company.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Tell me why you wanted to start and smartan carrier group.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's fantastic and probably the million dollar question. So the
truth is this, we alluded to problem solving. I became
frustrated in the corporate sector, specifically because I realized the
political barriers that didn't allow you to achieve the success
that you were seeking. Right for example, if you solved
one problem but it caused the financial burden on another vertical,
(09:15):
then it was usually pushed back.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Bottom line is I got tired of.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Having twelve hour days of nothing but PowerPoint presentations, everybody
beating their chest about what they're going to do and
actually not doing it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
The pandemic hit.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
When the pandemic hit, it exposed these weaknesses within a
complex supply chain, and I thought that by now I
had enough experience to be able to penetrate those weaknesses
and create change instantly. My frustration was not being able
to solve problems because I was always met with resistance.
The things that were supposed to be done were sometimes
not done. And I think you could see that even
(09:49):
in a political environment today, there's things that seem obvious
to the laymen, and we get frustrated when Congress can't
fix it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
You're like, why do you guys do that?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That's because politics, they have alternative motives.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So I decided after the pandemic.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
When I saw this kink in the supply chain, right,
the complex supply chain, and I saw in the evolution
of geopolitics.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I said, if I start something now, I can.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Interrupt the system, and I can penetrate a market that
otherwise would never have been open for me. Case in point,
I jumped ship while I was at Dizenith for my
career in Corporate America, I was making a significant amount
of money at the time. I was operating all North
American operations, had all the terminals supporting Toyota, North America
and Tesla, so I was in the automotive sector. I said,
(10:33):
you know what, I've made millions of dollars for these
guys help launch all of this stuff, and at the
end I can't actually operate it because I'm met with resistance.
So I said, you know what, you can't do it
within the system, then just do it on your own.
So I talked to my wife and said, sweeart, I'm
going to do something crazy. I'm going to leave Corporate America.
(10:53):
And I did so on the fourth of July. Because
I'm patriotic and if you get to know me, you
understand I got a wicked sense of humor. So July
I had declared my independence. I said, guys, here's my resignation.
I love y'all, but I'm going to go build something.
And they said, what are you going to build? I says,
none of your business. You'll find out soon enough. So
about a year later, i'd set up a couple of farms.
I actually built twelve companies within a two year period,
(11:17):
and all of those companies were which you would consider
a vertical within a corporation. So, for example, if you
need drivers, I created CDL school. If you need to
lease drivers, I created a leasing company for drivers. If
you needed to buy equipment, I created a procurement company.
If you needed a house, the equipment and equipment company,
and anything that you would need in the corporation. I
just segregated them into separate verticals, and each one of
(11:40):
them was a different business. Now I had to launch
them all simultaneously, and that was extremely complex.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Most people would not do that.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
If I could do it all over again, I'd probably
do it with somebody else's money.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I did a bootstrap with zero dollars, no VC funding,
just faith in God. I prayed with my wife.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
She said, call those if you feel a God's calling
you to that fun fact I have to digress. I
met my wife in Afghanistan and she was also a
military officer, so she already had lived that life. She
knew what it was like to live life with nothing,
so having something was just a plus. So she stepped
down of faith. We mean I jump ship started these companies.
(12:17):
Fast forward four years later, with the Lord's blessing, I
am now one of twelve carriers to support Toyota more
to North America and all of their manufacturing enterprise. We
have a significant piece of the business. To Toyota's credit,
they gave me an opportunity to actually service them, and
we've done so with excellence. So we've expanded in a
down market. Last year, we grossed almost sixty million dollars,
(12:39):
all from zero, like we built it from zero. We
own all of our own equipment and we're one hundred
percent owners. Matter of fact, out of seven hundred and
fifty thousand carriers in North America, Toyota only does a
business with twelve. We're one of twelve, and of those twelve,
all of these other companies are either publicly traded institutions
or hedge fund of VC owned, meaning Penske. It's worth
(13:01):
about ten billion dollars. Writer, I think they were navigating
somewhere around six a billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And then there's us.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I call us the David of the story, where this
little runt that nobody saw coming, but we're dominating and
taking down giants. Toy it's the largest automobile manufacturer in
the world. They're in one hundred and seventy one hundred
and seventy nine countries. So it really is a God story.
I wish I could take all the credit. He did
give me a lot of vision. He gave me the
(13:28):
forceight to see that instead of taking money and running
away with it, that what I should do is reinvest
that and buy all the talent.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And like minded individuals.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So the true secret to my story is I submitted
before God. I said, Lord, I need you to drop
shift talent that's aligned with your vision for my life
and to give us a platform to be able to
share his.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Glory through all business.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And he's done that, and this meeting with you, Dennis,
is a by product in that it's a platform that
he's instilled for us to be able to share his name.
So that's the reason that we've been able to do
what we do.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Janny Carl, thanks for sharing all of that. I do
want to back up a little bit and give some
people some context to spartan carrier group. Why don't we
do this first? What's the mission and vision of the company.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's a fantastic question.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
So we are a problem solving company or solutions company.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We happen to run logistics, a supply chain.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
We do cross stocking, warehousing, we have transportation, and we
have assets. We have a broker GYMC, so we dive
a lot in the supply chain and logistics room.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
However, the true.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Mission is to use the talents that God has given
us for his glory. So we're not in the pursuit
of money. We are in the pursuit of using our
talents to best serve the kingdom.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So our business has a dual mission. One of them's
ministry and the other ones a for profit business.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So we're called to be good stewards of what we do,
and therefore we hold each other to a high level of.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Accuracy or high level of execution.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And then we were very shrewd with how we develop
our businesses to be able to use that money to
then build the kingdom.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So we do a lot of philanthropy.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
We set up and feed the Home List, we feed
kids that don't have parents, We fight against child trafficking.
We're involved in a lot of things that most people
would never consider. But part of that is what God
designed me to be. He made me a warrior, he
brought me out of the dirt, and now He's given
me these blessings. I had to give back, and he
continues to bless me because I always give back.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I do want to talk about leadership because it's people
love it when we talk about that in the series.
But before I do that, I want to talk about
your military service and then being in the private sector sector.
And I imagine for you there are a lot of
similarities and maybe there's some that are completely different. But
with that said, I always see having some structure and
then you lead a company in the private structure from
(15:53):
the military to what you're doing now as leadership and
how to lead people you know you have over too
and people that are in your arsenal that are part
of your staff and your team. Carlos, can you tell
about the similarities about being in the military to now
running your own company.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
That's a fantastic question also, sir, if you think about it,
when you join a service and people are depending on you, you're met.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
With people from all walks of life.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It's not like they have a draft pick that you
could pick the top performers.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right, most people that join the service.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
You either got people that come in because they're fourth
and fifth generation military service members.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
They are deeply patriotic.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
You've got others that go there to escape the life
that they have, maybe they're in extreme poverty. You've got
others that are doing it because they need to pay
for their education and there's no other way around that.
You've got other guys that are doing it just because
they want the citizenship within our country. So you've got
a plethora of people and the challenges and no commissioned
officers that you're supposed to be a leader of soldiers
and you're supposed to lead them to do things, and in.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Order to do that, you have to be very open.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Your empathy needs to be extreme, your vision needs to
be crystal clear, and your communication skills need to be
harnessed to be able to motivate every type of person.
There's no one tool in your arsenal that you can
paint with a broadbrush.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Everybody is motivated differently.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Let's say you come from a household where you're used
to being yelled at all the time, and that's the
only way that you're motivated.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I have to be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
But let's say that you come from a family where
nobody's ever said a bad word in front of you,
and they're deeply reserved and yelling at you. It's not
going to get the desired outcome. So you've got people
that lead in order to make themselves glorified, and you
have people that are Southern leaders who understand that the
greatest mission is to motivate that person to do that
(17:43):
which you know needs to be done. And if you
can move the masses, then you could do anything. And
that was really like the evolution of leadership for me.
I understood the empathy of people because I come from nothing.
I was raised in the inner city. I didn't have much.
I had a hard life. I was raised around a
lot of crazy stuff, drugs, gangs, whatever you would see
(18:06):
in a big city right, no different.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
There's many people that are like that. I just chose.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I chose to change the trajectory of my life. But
I never forgot that, and therefore, when I came across
all these people with different walks of life, I realized
that if I could motivate them and get them to
do that which I knew had to be done, then
I would be successful. And that's why I was deeply
successful in the service, and that carried me throughout the
rest of the time. Last, but not least, in order
(18:31):
to be of effective, you need to be able to
scale it, and to scale it, you need to be
able to measure a desired outcome. So I was blessed
with an engineering type mind where I can actually have
a plan and execute a plan and reverse engineer that
plan time and time again to improve upon my failures.
So I consistently would look back at what I didn't do.
If I didn't achieve the desired outcome, then I set
(18:52):
out to why and then do a root cause analysis
on my approach. And I was consistently self reflecting instead
of giving everybody else like, instead of thinking that everybody
else was a problem, I always assumed that I was
the problem, and I had to correct myself and fix
myself before I can drive change in somebody else, So
that really was a.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Secret, Carlos. I want to talk about some challenges in
the industry. I know things are going well, you're working
your tail off, you and your team, but I know
we're post COVID now, and you talked about that as
you started this company just about four years ago. What
kind of challenges are presented in the industry today for
you and your team.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's a highly complex question, so I'll do my best
to try to mitigate it or make it more concise. Geopolitics,
most people look at the world through the lens of trade,
and bankers look at trade and trade.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Deficiencies, etc.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And they assume the economy is going to flex or shrink,
et cetera, based on just trade.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I think the broader way to see this, the macro.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Level is to look at the geopolitical implications of nations
right right now. If I were to simplify jail politics
and thirty seconds, I tell you there's three major economies
in the world. You've got the Asian economy, You've got
the European economy, and the American economy. But the American
economy accounts to one fourth of the GDP on the world.
If you think about that, right, we consume more goods
(20:14):
and services per capita than any other country in the world.
The other two economies, the Asian economy and the European economy,
they have two very big problems. One of them is
that they don't have natural resources like oil to be
able to produce. And the second most important is that
their production based industries, meaning they manufacture more than they consume.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So if the US.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Doesn't buy their products, they have a problem. The economy
starts to collapse. So when you look at the problems
that are happening right now, the trade impact is what
I've just described, but there's a higher level, and the higher.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Level is national security. Right.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
If you really think about this, there's two super economies.
There's the US economy and there's the Chinese economy. In China,
at this very moment, what I'm going to say may
sound political, but it's not just it's truth. Right now,
China is a communist regime and the US is for democracy.
Those are two clashing ideologies, and they have their pros
and cons Within their economy. They're able to produce things
(21:14):
faster than anybody else because they have an autocracy.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
They have a king per se right, you.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Will do this or else, and therefore everybody has to
produce I think produce faster.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
In the US.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
We have to lobby, we have to negotiate, we have
to talk to people. There's different stakeholders, so things move
a lot slower. That's a win. But on the flip
side of that, if you take the other policy and
that policy tends to want to dominate a broader scoop,
then what you're in essence doing is bringing Communism to
the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And that really is the root of all of these problems.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
If you look at all the American companies that we've had,
anytime they've invested in foreign territories, particularly China, all of
their intellectual property has been stolen and a copy has
been copycatted.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
I mean a company's been copycat and sold again.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
If you look at Amazon, well, what's Amazon at China?
Which team more sali baba. If you look at Tesla,
what's Tesla at China? It's bid. If you look at
a lot of the intellectual properties that we create, like
in video with their ghost chips, all of a sudden there's.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Deep seak out of China.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And it's not just an American and Chinese problem. It's
the most prevalent one because we consume most of the
goods of services in live in the world. So if
you look at it from a military lens, you realize
that if your enemy is growing in power and they
continue to permeate territories around you, then they are strategically
at war with you. It's just a financial one, and
(22:39):
most people don't see that, so whenever you start talking
about it, it becomes a deeply political thanking. And that's
because people if you're looking at it in terms of
what's better for the greater good or what's better for
a few select people.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
They're going to have two diconomous ideologies. Right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
If I'm not the guy they're receiving an end of
a lot of money, then I'm going to want.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
To do what's best for me family.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
But if I'm representing my nation, I want to do
what's best for the people of my nation, and therefore
my idea might be very different. And that's what's causing
all of these turmoils and challenges.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
When it comes to my specific industry.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I'm in the logistics industry, and I chose particularly to
chase Toyota for one key reason.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
It's a very strategic decision.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
See, Japan had realized after the tsunami and a couple
of other issues that they needed to create a regionalized
supply chain. So Toyota pushed most of all of its
manufacturing for vehicles that they sell in America to America,
and not just.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
America, to Canada and Mexico.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So within the North American continent, you've got probably ninety
to ninety five percent of all their vehicle bases that
are sold here in this country.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Right, I think you have.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Like the Toyota four Runners still built in Japan, but
most of all the other vehicles are built here, and therefore,
if they're built here and sold here, you have a
competitive advantage in terms of maintaining cost controls, and that's
what they've developed. In contrast to that, if she vehicles
like in the European sector, they u still have to
(24:10):
import components.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And when there's political tensions.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It creates a significant struggle with power struggle as everybody
saw with these tariffs. When the tariffs came on board,
if you were already housed in America, not a big deal,
and we were shielded and sheltered.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
From all of those costs.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
But if you were importing a lot of goods from
other countries and they were affected by teriffs, well, now
that was a significant hit to your business.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Retailers felt it.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
One of our customers is WSS, which is subsidiary for
fort Locker, and they felt it the impact immediately, Like
all of their shoes come from the Asian markets, and
if the Asian markets were hit with tariffs were created.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Struggles for them. Now, my job is to stay ahead
of all those things.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And I could bore you for hours and hours of
all the deep research that I have to do. My
job is to stay ahead of those things and to
think five, ten, fifteen years out and diverse what we
do every day to ensure that we're relevant, and then
even when I die, that this company continues to grow.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Well, I really appreciate that. To answer just fascinating stuff.
I did want to circle back one more time because
you've been talking a lot about it, and it obviously
makes sense to talk about leadership with you two hundred
people in the arsenal of staff and your team members.
I know your journey is very specific to you, Carlos,
but when I bring up the word leadership, What does
it mean to you?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Leadership means to humble yourself before man and to provide
a good work in such a way that they'll glorify
he who gave you that skill and talent. Leadership to
me is to put yourself second and to put the
mission before you right. Leadership to me also means to
be the first one to listen and the last one
(25:51):
to speak, so that you can fully understand what it
is that you need to do. And last, but not least,
and probably the most important, should have let off with
this of embarrassed. Leadership to me is to follow Jesus.
He was the greatest leader of all time, and I
can articulate that and quantify it. He lived in the
most obscure place on Earth at the most irrelevant time
(26:11):
on earth, never traveled more than a few miles from
his home, and yet still today, in the year twenty
twenty five, we still know who Jesus Christ is.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Never fought a war.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
He was in Alexander the Great or Ganghis Khan, never
conquered the territory, was in Napoleon, and there weren't scriptures
of him like all over the place.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
When he was.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Alive so when he's raided from the dead, change and
transformed all human history, and what did he do before
he left but wash the feet of people that were
way beneath him, So he humbled himself. And therefore, leadership
to me is humility, and if you can do that,
you'll motivate people because they'll see the love in you.
(26:49):
I can entice you with money, but that's short lived.
At some point in time, you're always going to need more,
and you're going to need more. But if I do
you a great work where you see that I do
for you that which needs to be done, I lead
you with love and humility and grace, and you're going
to feel indebted to providing the best of what you
have for me.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
That's why it's very clear there's no greater.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Love than this than I mainlyaid down his life for another,
and that principle is what makes people strong leaders. Every
person I've ever emulated or chosen to see was in
some way, shape or form at the rid of following
the risen Lord.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
They were acting in the same way.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Carlos, Yeah, it is no thank you for sharing. I
appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
I do want to wrap up our conversation with kind
of some final thoughts from you. And I've really enjoyed it.
It's been fascinating stuff and so thrilled about your success
and what you're doing and how you live your life.
We're going to get the website and if you're hiring,
I know people want to know about that, but when
it comes to Spartan Carrier Group. But just some final
thoughts recapping what we talked about, Sir, the floor is yours.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Fantastic. Well, I'm very blessed and thankful that you had
this time for me. Www. Dot Spartan Caregroup dot com
is our website and we are a Christian organization. If
you want to join our team, we are always hiring
and we're looking for problem solved people that want to
do God's work, that want to use their.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Skills, their talents.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
If you're a software engineer, a computer designer, if you're
a transportation provider, if you're a trucking company, if you're
a driver that wants to come work with us, we're
always open. We're at ninety eight hundred Hillwood Parkway, Sweet
one hundred for with Texas seventy six one seventy seven.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
And we are in the alliance area. Last, but not least,
I'll leave you with this everything.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That we have and everything that we are. At some
point in time, it's not going to belong to us.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
We have a short amount of time on this earth
and we need to use that wisely. So you could
either build for your own riches, who you could build
for the kingdom. And therefore do everything that you do
in life as if it was for the Lord. And
I promise you he'll bless you. If you acknowledge him
and put him first in your life, you'll change your life.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
He has mine. I am nobody. I'm just another guy.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I swear if you read my background and what schools
I went to and everything, you would be impressed. So
I'm glad that God gets to shine through me and
he uses the least of us to.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Provide his greatest work. So I'm honored that I had
this time with you.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Thank you so much, and I hope that somebody calls
us and tries to join our organization.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
We're all over North America, by the way.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You're welcome, Carlos. So thank you so much for your
valuable time continued success, and I'm glad we had a
chance to feature you on CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Thank you, Thank you, A bless
I was born and raised in Miami, Florida, coming from
a very humble upbringing in the metroplex in Miami. It's
a melting pot culture melting pot.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Uh. I was raised by a single mother.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
My father left when I was about six years old
and left there pregnant with five kids. We were brought
up in the metroplex, a musing Section eight housing and welfare,
et cetera. My mom instilled this disciplined in me at
a very early age.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It was just me and her.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I was the oldest of all those kids, so I
had to help raise them, and that brought the maturity
in me early in life, and I went to school
high uh at Dupuis Elementary, then Palm Springs Middle School,
where I was exposed to music. It became professional musician
early on in life. By the age of sixteen, I
was playing with all the famous guys like Marc Anthony,
Elia Cruz, a lot of salsa bands. I was exposed
(00:49):
to all of that at a young age. Helped pay
the bills. Then I went to highly my Miliksina High
and had a fantastic music program. So I harnessed my
skills dead and eventually a at a about the age
of nineteen, I was working in restaurants and playing music,
doing both collectively. I became the youngest general manager for
a couple of called Miami Subs, and.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
That's what started me down the journey.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
After a few years of doing that, I realized I
don't want to go see the world, and that's why
I joined the US.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
All, well, we're going to talk a lot about that
because I think there's a lot of correlations and I'm
sure you would agree, Carlos, when it comes to serving
and then also running a company. So from the private
sector and the military, there's a lot of things that
we could talk about there. But I did want to
talk to you about music because you brought it up.
I hope music is still in your life. Is it
a part of your life still?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
It still is, just different change paths. When I was younger,
it was all about my self glorification. I enjoyed being
on stage and playing for people and entertaining them, and
it was a talent given to me by God himself.
So today, fast forward, I'm a believer. Now I use
those talents to glorify Him. So instead of going out
there and making money for those things, I actually go
(01:56):
out there and worship and teach people, entertain them in.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
That way outstanding.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I used it as the industry.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So it's a big step to go to the military.
Why did you choose the US Army and how long
did you serve?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So I served thirteen years, and I chose the US
Army because they had the most abundant opportunities. There are
five forces now right, and all those forces have different
jobs and things that you could transition out of after
you get out.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The US Army just had the most robust package.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I joined and, as any military person would attest to,
my recruiter lied to me it's a story that I
was here. Told me, hey, we haven't been at war
since Vietnam, and the golf for was very short. There's
almost zero change that we're going to go anywhere. And
I joined a year before September eleventh, and that changed everything.
Then I joined, I wanted to be an infantryman. I
(02:46):
chose to be a logistics guy. They still sent me
to infantry school, so I was in four Banning, Georgia.
I was exposed to the infantry because I was a
male and it was in great shape. Sent me to
one hundred first air Born Division, and I spent my
entire career in the US. I saw me at the
Hunter and first Airboat Division, had four combat tours to
Againistan in Iraq, and I retired with a bronze star.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well outstanding and listen, first of all, thank you for
your service. And somebody that lives in the DMV here
and working with so many different military people in this series,
I'm just always very appreciative somebody that makes a commitment
like that. So obviously you got out after that great
years that you put together. When it came to that,
did you know exactly what you wanted to do coming out?
(03:28):
Did you have a plan?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
See? I did, and I didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I knew that I needed to be impactful and I
couldn't do it in the military. I had already served
four combat tours. I'm raising up the ranks. I was
senior and no commissioned officer. But in my journey of
being in the services, I became very very good at
building enterprises within the military. So in these combat centers,
you were exposed to contracting, you were exposed to villagers
(03:57):
in foreign territories, and I was deeply involved in operations
and setting up I mean that your cities, moving things,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I realized that I could use that.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Skill set in the civilian sect and build something big.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I just didn't know how right right now, I see
that when we'll spend a lot of time on it.
But you know, you've been a manager, and you've been
in charge of other companies before in the service industry,
and I think that pertains to you obviously getting all
the credit now and being with the Spartan Carrier group
of all that experience. I'd love for you to talk
about that, and then we don't necessarily have to talk
(04:29):
about the other companies, but I'd like you to talk about.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Working your way up through a company.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And as I talk in this series to leaders, there's
obviously a lot of people that just started as a
president and CEO because of their experience, and we get that,
but in other companies, you've worked your way up the system.
And what I get back in the feedback from talking
to leaders is knowing that the company, intimately, because they
did all these different jobs as they worked the way up,
the ladder was just paramount to be for them to
(04:55):
be a leader.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Someday. Can you talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So while being in the Service and deployed to all
these different locations, people take for granted what we have
here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
We have access to anything, right.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's why a lot of all mechanics don't necessarily know
how to refurbish engines. They know how to swap parts, right,
But when you're in a country where there's nothing, you
literally have to be ingenius.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You have to build infrastructure from scratch.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So I started my journey in the Service and I
was a go to guy that tried to develop strategies
to be able to build things out of nothing. And
that's complex operations where there was setting up warehousing, wells,
school systems, etc. I was involved in a lot of
those things. When I got onto the private sector. In
my mind, I always had this idea that a CEO
of a company had to be the most brilliant person
(05:41):
on the planet, and that's not true. So if you
want Spared to be a CEO, what you have to
have is determination, grit, and you have to have vision.
But at that time, as I was trying to find
my way, I joined the company called Rider. And the
reason I bring them up is because they did teach
me a lot when I joined Writer. The reason I
joined those guys is because they had to in every
type of industry within the service sector, so warehousing, cold storage, manufacturing,
(06:06):
third part logistics. And I knew that I could learn
a lot working for those guys, but I didn't know
where it stack up. So first job I took was
with Writer. They were managing home depot distribution. The second
largest DC in their network was in Dallas, and I
was selected to work there. I came on as a
logistics manager and within ninety days I was promoted. Ninety
(06:28):
days after that, I was promoted again, and ninety days
after that I was promoted a third time, which meant
that my estimation of where I would stack in the
civilians sector with my military experience was not a good forecast.
I didn't know what i'd be, so I started off
as manager and it turns out that in less than
a year I became a senior manager and within a
(06:49):
couple of years I was running different enterprises.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So I did learn from the bottom up.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah, So was it something? Was it your ambition?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Because that's a lot of movement over a month and
a half each time, and some people would be overwhelmed
by that, but maybe somebody with military experience and not
making any assumptions about how you roll. Was that your
ambition or did it was it? Did it take you
off guard a little bit? How was the transition after
you moved up?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Each time, I'd say that it's not necessarily my personal
ambition that did it. I give them before the God been,
But it was my experience in the military that propelled
me that way. When you're in the service and everybody
depends on you, there's no excuse.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You have to deliver results and people depend on you.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So that service style leader that was instilled in me
from the noncommission Officer Corps, and that service style leader
that was instilled in me by being follow up Christ
it propelled me to always just want to solve a problem.
And by trying to solve problems, the natural revolution was
that people saw that in you and they wanted to
put you on their team.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So I was able to grow quickly.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And most of the problems that you'd see, it's not
that they were super complex. I think that they were
just not tackled because people didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Really answer the question right.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Couldn't stand to have an efficiency in any system. So
when I'd see a problem, I wouldn't just walk past
it and then collect the paycheck. I'd see it and
I have to fix it, so I'd fix it. And
that's what led me down that evolution. It was never
about trying to gain glorification. It was more about I
got to solve this problem. And then you put a
lot of problems in front of me and I got
to solve them quickly. So that ended up as a
(08:23):
byproduct me being promoted.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Yeah, I'm going to go what you said.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I think you're just a problem solver and you like
that and that's how your role so I appreciate you
sharing that. So Carlos, obviously, with all that experience, you know,
starting your own company is a real big deal and
I think a lot of people in this series when
we talked to future entrepreneurs, current entrepreneurs, CEOs and presidents,
starting a company is epic and even though you had
all this experience, it's really a herculean task to start
(08:49):
a company.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Tell me why you wanted to start and smartan carrier group.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's fantastic and probably the million dollar question. So the
truth is this, we alluded to problem solving. I became
frustrated in the corporate sector, specifically because I realized the
political barriers that didn't allow you to achieve the success
that you were seeking. Right for example, if you solved
one problem but it caused the financial burden on another vertical,
(09:15):
then it was usually pushed back.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Bottom line is I got tired of.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Having twelve hour days of nothing but PowerPoint presentations, everybody
beating their chest about what they're going to do and
actually not doing it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
The pandemic hit.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
When the pandemic hit, it exposed these weaknesses within a
complex supply chain, and I thought that by now I
had enough experience to be able to penetrate those weaknesses
and create change instantly. My frustration was not being able
to solve problems because I was always met with resistance.
The things that were supposed to be done were sometimes
not done. And I think you could see that even
(09:49):
in a political environment today, there's things that seem obvious
to the laymen, and we get frustrated when Congress can't
fix it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
You're like, why do you guys do that?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That's because politics, they have alternative motives.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So I decided after the pandemic.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
When I saw this kink in the supply chain, right,
the complex supply chain, and I saw in the evolution
of geopolitics.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I said, if I start something now, I can.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Interrupt the system, and I can penetrate a market that
otherwise would never have been open for me. Case in point,
I jumped ship while I was at Dizenith for my
career in Corporate America, I was making a significant amount
of money at the time. I was operating all North
American operations, had all the terminals supporting Toyota, North America
and Tesla, so I was in the automotive sector. I said,
(10:33):
you know what, I've made millions of dollars for these
guys help launch all of this stuff, and at the
end I can't actually operate it because I'm met with resistance.
So I said, you know what, you can't do it
within the system, then just do it on your own.
So I talked to my wife and said, sweeart, I'm
going to do something crazy. I'm going to leave Corporate America.
(10:53):
And I did so on the fourth of July. Because
I'm patriotic and if you get to know me, you
understand I got a wicked sense of humor. So July
I had declared my independence. I said, guys, here's my resignation.
I love y'all, but I'm going to go build something.
And they said, what are you going to build? I says,
none of your business. You'll find out soon enough. So
about a year later, i'd set up a couple of farms.
I actually built twelve companies within a two year period,
(11:17):
and all of those companies were which you would consider
a vertical within a corporation. So, for example, if you
need drivers, I created CDL school. If you need to
lease drivers, I created a leasing company for drivers. If
you needed to buy equipment, I created a procurement company.
If you needed a house, the equipment and equipment company,
and anything that you would need in the corporation. I
just segregated them into separate verticals, and each one of
(11:40):
them was a different business. Now I had to launch
them all simultaneously, and that was extremely complex.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Most people would not do that.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
If I could do it all over again, I'd probably
do it with somebody else's money.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I did a bootstrap with zero dollars, no VC funding,
just faith in God. I prayed with my wife.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
She said, call those if you feel a God's calling
you to that fun fact I have to digress. I
met my wife in Afghanistan and she was also a
military officer, so she already had lived that life. She
knew what it was like to live life with nothing,
so having something was just a plus. So she stepped
down of faith. We mean I jump ship started these companies.
(12:17):
Fast forward four years later, with the Lord's blessing, I
am now one of twelve carriers to support Toyota more
to North America and all of their manufacturing enterprise. We
have a significant piece of the business. To Toyota's credit,
they gave me an opportunity to actually service them, and
we've done so with excellence. So we've expanded in a
down market. Last year, we grossed almost sixty million dollars,
(12:39):
all from zero, like we built it from zero. We
own all of our own equipment and we're one hundred
percent owners. Matter of fact, out of seven hundred and
fifty thousand carriers in North America, Toyota only does a
business with twelve. We're one of twelve, and of those twelve,
all of these other companies are either publicly traded institutions
or hedge fund of VC owned, meaning Penske. It's worth
(13:01):
about ten billion dollars. Writer, I think they were navigating
somewhere around six a billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And then there's us.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I call us the David of the story, where this
little runt that nobody saw coming, but we're dominating and
taking down giants. Toy it's the largest automobile manufacturer in
the world. They're in one hundred and seventy one hundred
and seventy nine countries. So it really is a God story.
I wish I could take all the credit. He did
give me a lot of vision. He gave me the
(13:28):
forceight to see that instead of taking money and running
away with it, that what I should do is reinvest
that and buy all the talent.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And like minded individuals.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So the true secret to my story is I submitted
before God. I said, Lord, I need you to drop
shift talent that's aligned with your vision for my life
and to give us a platform to be able to
share his.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Glory through all business.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And he's done that, and this meeting with you, Dennis,
is a by product in that it's a platform that
he's instilled for us to be able to share his name.
So that's the reason that we've been able to do
what we do.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Janny Carl, thanks for sharing all of that. I do
want to back up a little bit and give some
people some context to spartan carrier group. Why don't we
do this first? What's the mission and vision of the company.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's a fantastic question.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
So we are a problem solving company or solutions company.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We happen to run logistics, a supply chain.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
We do cross stocking, warehousing, we have transportation, and we
have assets. We have a broker GYMC, so we dive
a lot in the supply chain and logistics room.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
However, the true.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Mission is to use the talents that God has given
us for his glory. So we're not in the pursuit
of money. We are in the pursuit of using our
talents to best serve the kingdom.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So our business has a dual mission. One of them's
ministry and the other ones a for profit business.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So we're called to be good stewards of what we do,
and therefore we hold each other to a high level of.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Accuracy or high level of execution.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And then we were very shrewd with how we develop
our businesses to be able to use that money to
then build the kingdom.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So we do a lot of philanthropy.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
We set up and feed the Home List, we feed
kids that don't have parents, We fight against child trafficking.
We're involved in a lot of things that most people
would never consider. But part of that is what God
designed me to be. He made me a warrior, he
brought me out of the dirt, and now He's given
me these blessings. I had to give back, and he
continues to bless me because I always give back.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I do want to talk about leadership because it's people
love it when we talk about that in the series.
But before I do that, I want to talk about
your military service and then being in the private sector sector.
And I imagine for you there are a lot of
similarities and maybe there's some that are completely different. But
with that said, I always see having some structure and
then you lead a company in the private structure from
(15:53):
the military to what you're doing now as leadership and
how to lead people you know you have over too
and people that are in your arsenal that are part
of your staff and your team. Carlos, can you tell
about the similarities about being in the military to now
running your own company.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
That's a fantastic question also, sir, if you think about it,
when you join a service and people are depending on you, you're met.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
With people from all walks of life.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It's not like they have a draft pick that you
could pick the top performers.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right, most people that join the service.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
You either got people that come in because they're fourth
and fifth generation military service members.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
They are deeply patriotic.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
You've got others that go there to escape the life
that they have, maybe they're in extreme poverty. You've got
others that are doing it because they need to pay
for their education and there's no other way around that.
You've got other guys that are doing it just because
they want the citizenship within our country. So you've got
a plethora of people and the challenges and no commissioned
officers that you're supposed to be a leader of soldiers
and you're supposed to lead them to do things, and in.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Order to do that, you have to be very open.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Your empathy needs to be extreme, your vision needs to
be crystal clear, and your communication skills need to be
harnessed to be able to motivate every type of person.
There's no one tool in your arsenal that you can
paint with a broadbrush.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Everybody is motivated differently.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Let's say you come from a household where you're used
to being yelled at all the time, and that's the
only way that you're motivated.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I have to be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
But let's say that you come from a family where
nobody's ever said a bad word in front of you,
and they're deeply reserved and yelling at you. It's not
going to get the desired outcome. So you've got people
that lead in order to make themselves glorified, and you
have people that are Southern leaders who understand that the
greatest mission is to motivate that person to do that
(17:43):
which you know needs to be done. And if you
can move the masses, then you could do anything. And
that was really like the evolution of leadership for me.
I understood the empathy of people because I come from nothing.
I was raised in the inner city. I didn't have much.
I had a hard life. I was raised around a
lot of crazy stuff, drugs, gangs, whatever you would see
(18:06):
in a big city right, no different.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
There's many people that are like that. I just chose.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I chose to change the trajectory of my life. But
I never forgot that, and therefore, when I came across
all these people with different walks of life, I realized
that if I could motivate them and get them to
do that which I knew had to be done, then
I would be successful. And that's why I was deeply
successful in the service, and that carried me throughout the
rest of the time. Last, but not least, in order
(18:31):
to be of effective, you need to be able to
scale it, and to scale it, you need to be
able to measure a desired outcome. So I was blessed
with an engineering type mind where I can actually have
a plan and execute a plan and reverse engineer that
plan time and time again to improve upon my failures.
So I consistently would look back at what I didn't do.
If I didn't achieve the desired outcome, then I set
(18:52):
out to why and then do a root cause analysis
on my approach. And I was consistently self reflecting instead
of giving everybody else like, instead of thinking that everybody
else was a problem, I always assumed that I was
the problem, and I had to correct myself and fix
myself before I can drive change in somebody else, So
that really was a.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Secret, Carlos. I want to talk about some challenges in
the industry. I know things are going well, you're working
your tail off, you and your team, but I know
we're post COVID now, and you talked about that as
you started this company just about four years ago. What
kind of challenges are presented in the industry today for
you and your team.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's a highly complex question, so I'll do my best
to try to mitigate it or make it more concise. Geopolitics,
most people look at the world through the lens of trade,
and bankers look at trade and trade.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Deficiencies, etc.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And they assume the economy is going to flex or shrink,
et cetera, based on just trade.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I think the broader way to see this, the macro.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Level is to look at the geopolitical implications of nations
right right now. If I were to simplify jail politics
and thirty seconds, I tell you there's three major economies
in the world. You've got the Asian economy, You've got
the European economy, and the American economy. But the American
economy accounts to one fourth of the GDP on the world.
If you think about that, right, we consume more goods
(20:14):
and services per capita than any other country in the world.
The other two economies, the Asian economy and the European economy,
they have two very big problems. One of them is
that they don't have natural resources like oil to be
able to produce. And the second most important is that
their production based industries, meaning they manufacture more than they consume.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So if the US.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Doesn't buy their products, they have a problem. The economy
starts to collapse. So when you look at the problems
that are happening right now, the trade impact is what
I've just described, but there's a higher level, and the higher.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Level is national security. Right.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
If you really think about this, there's two super economies.
There's the US economy and there's the Chinese economy. In China,
at this very moment, what I'm going to say may
sound political, but it's not just it's truth. Right now,
China is a communist regime and the US is for democracy.
Those are two clashing ideologies, and they have their pros
and cons Within their economy. They're able to produce things
(21:14):
faster than anybody else because they have an autocracy.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
They have a king per se right, you.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Will do this or else, and therefore everybody has to
produce I think produce faster.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
In the US.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
We have to lobby, we have to negotiate, we have
to talk to people. There's different stakeholders, so things move
a lot slower. That's a win. But on the flip
side of that, if you take the other policy and
that policy tends to want to dominate a broader scoop,
then what you're in essence doing is bringing Communism to
the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And that really is the root of all of these problems.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
If you look at all the American companies that we've had,
anytime they've invested in foreign territories, particularly China, all of
their intellectual property has been stolen and a copy has
been copycatted.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
I mean a company's been copycat and sold again.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
If you look at Amazon, well, what's Amazon at China?
Which team more sali baba. If you look at Tesla,
what's Tesla at China? It's bid. If you look at
a lot of the intellectual properties that we create, like
in video with their ghost chips, all of a sudden there's.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Deep seak out of China.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And it's not just an American and Chinese problem. It's
the most prevalent one because we consume most of the
goods of services in live in the world. So if
you look at it from a military lens, you realize
that if your enemy is growing in power and they
continue to permeate territories around you, then they are strategically
at war with you. It's just a financial one, and
(22:39):
most people don't see that, so whenever you start talking
about it, it becomes a deeply political thanking. And that's
because people if you're looking at it in terms of
what's better for the greater good or what's better for
a few select people.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
They're going to have two diconomous ideologies. Right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
If I'm not the guy they're receiving an end of
a lot of money, then I'm going to want.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
To do what's best for me family.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
But if I'm representing my nation, I want to do
what's best for the people of my nation, and therefore
my idea might be very different. And that's what's causing
all of these turmoils and challenges.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
When it comes to my specific industry.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I'm in the logistics industry, and I chose particularly to
chase Toyota for one key reason.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
It's a very strategic decision.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
See, Japan had realized after the tsunami and a couple
of other issues that they needed to create a regionalized
supply chain. So Toyota pushed most of all of its
manufacturing for vehicles that they sell in America to America,
and not just.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
America, to Canada and Mexico.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So within the North American continent, you've got probably ninety
to ninety five percent of all their vehicle bases that
are sold here in this country.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Right, I think you have.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Like the Toyota four Runners still built in Japan, but
most of all the other vehicles are built here, and therefore,
if they're built here and sold here, you have a
competitive advantage in terms of maintaining cost controls, and that's
what they've developed. In contrast to that, if she vehicles
like in the European sector, they u still have to
(24:10):
import components.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And when there's political tensions.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It creates a significant struggle with power struggle as everybody
saw with these tariffs. When the tariffs came on board,
if you were already housed in America, not a big deal,
and we were shielded and sheltered.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
From all of those costs.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
But if you were importing a lot of goods from
other countries and they were affected by teriffs, well, now
that was a significant hit to your business.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Retailers felt it.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
One of our customers is WSS, which is subsidiary for
fort Locker, and they felt it the impact immediately, Like
all of their shoes come from the Asian markets, and
if the Asian markets were hit with tariffs were created.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Struggles for them. Now, my job is to stay ahead
of all those things.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And I could bore you for hours and hours of
all the deep research that I have to do. My
job is to stay ahead of those things and to
think five, ten, fifteen years out and diverse what we
do every day to ensure that we're relevant, and then
even when I die, that this company continues to grow.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Well, I really appreciate that. To answer just fascinating stuff.
I did want to circle back one more time because
you've been talking a lot about it, and it obviously
makes sense to talk about leadership with you two hundred
people in the arsenal of staff and your team members.
I know your journey is very specific to you, Carlos,
but when I bring up the word leadership, What does
it mean to you?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Leadership means to humble yourself before man and to provide
a good work in such a way that they'll glorify
he who gave you that skill and talent. Leadership to
me is to put yourself second and to put the
mission before you right. Leadership to me also means to
be the first one to listen and the last one
(25:51):
to speak, so that you can fully understand what it
is that you need to do. And last, but not least,
and probably the most important, should have let off with
this of embarrassed. Leadership to me is to follow Jesus.
He was the greatest leader of all time, and I
can articulate that and quantify it. He lived in the
most obscure place on Earth at the most irrelevant time
(26:11):
on earth, never traveled more than a few miles from
his home, and yet still today, in the year twenty
twenty five, we still know who Jesus Christ is.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Never fought a war.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
He was in Alexander the Great or Ganghis Khan, never
conquered the territory, was in Napoleon, and there weren't scriptures
of him like all over the place.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
When he was.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Alive so when he's raided from the dead, change and
transformed all human history, and what did he do before
he left but wash the feet of people that were
way beneath him, So he humbled himself. And therefore, leadership
to me is humility, and if you can do that,
you'll motivate people because they'll see the love in you.
(26:49):
I can entice you with money, but that's short lived.
At some point in time, you're always going to need more,
and you're going to need more. But if I do
you a great work where you see that I do
for you that which needs to be done, I lead
you with love and humility and grace, and you're going
to feel indebted to providing the best of what you
have for me.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
That's why it's very clear there's no greater.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Love than this than I mainlyaid down his life for another,
and that principle is what makes people strong leaders. Every
person I've ever emulated or chosen to see was in
some way, shape or form at the rid of following
the risen Lord.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
They were acting in the same way.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Carlos, Yeah, it is no thank you for sharing. I
appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
I do want to wrap up our conversation with kind
of some final thoughts from you. And I've really enjoyed it.
It's been fascinating stuff and so thrilled about your success
and what you're doing and how you live your life.
We're going to get the website and if you're hiring,
I know people want to know about that, but when
it comes to Spartan Carrier Group. But just some final
thoughts recapping what we talked about, Sir, the floor is yours.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Fantastic. Well, I'm very blessed and thankful that you had
this time for me. Www. Dot Spartan Caregroup dot com
is our website and we are a Christian organization. If
you want to join our team, we are always hiring
and we're looking for problem solved people that want to
do God's work, that want to use their.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Skills, their talents.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
If you're a software engineer, a computer designer, if you're
a transportation provider, if you're a trucking company, if you're
a driver that wants to come work with us, we're
always open. We're at ninety eight hundred Hillwood Parkway, Sweet
one hundred for with Texas seventy six one seventy seven.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
And we are in the alliance area. Last, but not least,
I'll leave you with this everything.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That we have and everything that we are. At some
point in time, it's not going to belong to us.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
We have a short amount of time on this earth
and we need to use that wisely. So you could
either build for your own riches, who you could build
for the kingdom. And therefore do everything that you do
in life as if it was for the Lord. And
I promise you he'll bless you. If you acknowledge him
and put him first in your life, you'll change your life.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
He has mine. I am nobody. I'm just another guy.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I swear if you read my background and what schools
I went to and everything, you would be impressed. So
I'm glad that God gets to shine through me and
he uses the least of us to.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Provide his greatest work. So I'm honored that I had
this time with you.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Thank you so much, and I hope that somebody calls
us and tries to join our organization.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
We're all over North America, by the way.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You're welcome, Carlos. So thank you so much for your
valuable time continued success, and I'm glad we had a
chance to feature you on CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Thank you, Thank you, A bless
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