We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mike Hedges a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mike, appreciate you joining us today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

My Hero has been my father, he was incredibly honest and ethical and taught me work ethics at a very young age. This drive he helped create in me has made me self driven and the honest ethical practices he influenced me with have help shape the business I have today.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have grew up in a family where my father worked two jobs and my mother stayed home with the kids, I had a passion for racing motorcycles at a very young age and my father told me he would match me with whatever money I could make towards my first motorcycle. One of my dads jobs was that he started a small parking lot Maintenace company where he would work after he got off his primary job in law enforcement and I would go with him to make that money he was going to match me with along with a lawn route I started, soon I had that motorcycle I always wanted and quickly learned that if I worked hard I could have whatever I wanted.
This work ethic continued on with me working as a financial advisor full time and still working with my dad on the weekends and was able to purchase my first home just prior to turning 24 years old, by the time I turned 26 my dad was retiring and I took the small business over full time with myself as the owner and only employee, over the next 36 months I grew the company over 400% and 16 years later the company was a multi million dollar company that I was finding myself not enjoying any longer and was keeping my eyes open for that next opportunity.
I was raised to respect others and I was typically the underdog so this made me someone that always tried to make time for others and try to help where I could. A man called the office one day and I happened to answer the phone when my secretary was at lunch and with his heavy Asian accent he asked me if I had any equipment for sale which my reply was, everything I have is always for sale and I got off the phone expecting to never hear from him again. The following day a thin Asian man was looking for me at the office and purchased a few old pieces of equipment I had in the back of the yard and he stated he was sending them to a buyer he represented in the Philippines. I told him to get with his buyer and create a wish list of other items they would be looking for which he did a few weeks later and that began the beginning of what was my next chapter.
Because of what my father taught me at an early age I built a strong trusting relationship with my new friends in the Philippines and because of my reputation in the construction industry I was able to source equipment which grew into sourcing commercial trucks and sending them to the Philippines which quickly grew into something where I decided to sell the construction company and grow this new business which I have enjoyed over the past 12 years and all of this I believe is due to my fathers tremendous work ethic, honesty and taking the time for others he taught me has been the foundation of my journey that has led me where i am today.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

When I first took my fathers small part time company over that consisted of one truck and bed full of equipment and a phone number, I was the only employee and was trying to find bigger jobs than what my father had established over the years being this was a part time business for him and I needed full time work in order to afford to leave my full time job. I was faxing, calling and sending emails to contractors, property management companies, ect. seeking that opportunity and I got the call I was looking for and it was to bid a project on a military base that consisted of making airport runways look like aircraft carrier decks. I requested plans for the project along with scope of work and began putting together a proposal for the job that I did not have the manpower for, the money for, the equipment for but figured when I was not awarded the project I could see how far off I was on my pricing and I could learn a few things from that.
Well, I was awarded the project and as excited as I was I was more scared than anything else and the next set of challenges immediately began.
It turned out very well and was the one project that took me to the next level. The lesson learned was to properly market within your abilities and to have a growth plan as this project I was awarded could have as easily sent me into bankruptcy.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I have always managed with the mindset of you have much better results getting people to do something because they want to do it rather than something they have to do. Being conscious of the fact that not everyone is cut out to be a business owner and most are perfectly content being good employees, that everyone has a story, has their own challenges and acknowledging these things in a professional manner in the workplace I have found provides much better results than telling people what to do and expecting them to share your same work ethic and ambition.
Share your vision and make them a part of the journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pacifictrux.com
• Instagram: Pacifictrux
• Facebook: Pacific Trux
• Linkedin: Mike Hedges
• Youtube: Pacific Trux