Shawn McLeod, President of Axle Logistics, joins us to share how the Knoxville-based 3PL scaled from $17M to over $1B in revenue. We explore Axle’s “build your empire” culture, their six-week LaunchPad training program, and where they automate without losing the human relationships that drive freight. From hiring and retention to thriving in soft markets, Shawn delivers a playbook any brokerage or ops-heavy business can use.Chapters: 00:00 — The hard lessons of first-time leadership 03:30 — Axle’s trajectory: from ~$17M to $1B+ 07:30 — Culture as strategy: “Build your empire” and loud sales floors 12:00 — Avoiding micro-cultures when scaling offices 16:30 — Hiring at pace: signals that actually matter 22:00 — Training at scale: LaunchPad’s six-week ramp 27:30 — Retention: base vs. commission, fairness, and grind 34:00 — Where to automate first (repeat touches, doc QA, quoting) 41:30 — Keeping the human: when relationships beat automation 47:00 — Surviving soft markets: travel > excuses 52:30 — Leadership evolution and feedback loopsKey Takeaways:Culture is Axle’s #1 growth strategy — lose that, and you lose everything.LaunchPad’s six-week program speeds ramp time and improves throughput.Automate repetitive touches (document checks, quoting) but never the relationship.In down markets, Axle increases customer travel rather than cutting it.Hiring focuses on energy, work history, and coachability — not just interview polish.Memorable Quotes:“Culture is number one in the strategy for growth.”“Automate the repetitive; never automate the relationship.”“Travel is the last thing you cut in a soft market.”Links & Resources:Shawn McLeod — LinkedInAxle Logistics — WebsiteSponsor: This episode is brought to you by Vooma — AI that unlocks revenue in your team’s inbox with automated quoting, order entry, tracking, and more. Learn more at Vooma.com.

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