Dawn Lupcke

I attribute my success to my hard work, my drive, and my mindset that no means not right now. When I set a goal for myself, in my mind, I see it, and there's no way that it's not gonna happen. It's going to happen. Sure, there's 30 seconds of self-doubt, and then I push it to the side, and then I just keep going. If a door closes, the window is open. This mindset goes all the way back to my roots and my upbringing. My dad is a farmer who also works in a machine shop full-time, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, which is literally the hardest job on the planet. Right from the beginning, my family unit just instilled nothing but put your head down, hard work, get it done. You just have to do it. There's no excuse. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Growing up, we worked on the farm, and I could hold a hoe to get weeds out of the field when the hoe was heavier and taller than my brother and I were. That's where I got my work ethic and my drive - just put your head down and get it done.

The best career advice I've ever received is to always set a goal for yourself. No goal is too big or too crazy. Just always have a goal for yourself. I really love books about positive thinking and manifesting, and setting goals for yourself. I'm a lifelong learner, and I absolutely love reading different types of business books and self-help books. I always set goals for myself all the time. Every single morning, I have a journal where I journal eight things that I'm grateful for, and these are future things that I don't have yet, but I'm writing as if I have them now, that I'm grateful for them. It's so important to start my day off with being thankful and gratitude, because your mind is so powerful, and you have to rewire your brain into all these positive thoughts. If I start my day off with gratitude and thinking positive, then I believe in God, so I always write on one side of my journal, be on the lookout for things to be grateful for throughout the day. Before my feet hit the floor, I always say the same prayer over and over, and I ask something to the effect of, God, I'm excited to see how amazing you're gonna make today for me.

I have a saying, and I've said this for years: eat that frog. Which means just do it. Just do it. The thing you're procrastinating on, don't procrastinate anymore, just do it. So whether it's diving in and making the uncomfortable phone call, just do it. And surround yourself with amazing people, because you can call it your tribe, or your network, whatever, but you have to surround yourself with really great, amazing people. My other big thing that I always say to everybody is my mindset has always been, no means not right now, because circumstances change. People change. Your gatekeeper that's blocking you might not show up to work one day, and you happen to call, and you get the answers that you need. It's not right now. No, you just have to keep going.

The biggest challenge and opportunity in my field is the same thing: being a woman in this male-dominated industry. Women represent only 20% of all employees in the industry. Being a woman in this industry is both the biggest opportunity and the biggest challenge. I hope that makes sense. I'm getting such an amazing response from all of my carriers, the truck drivers - they're all men. You can just tell, it's almost refreshing that they're talking to me. And every time when I'm done talking with them or I text them to drive safe, they giggle, because no other man is gonna tell a man to drive safe. It's a different dynamic, and I absolutely love it. It's a lot to learn, and I'm learning every day.

The most important value to me is to treat everybody with respect. I will tell this to everybody that I interview. The things that set Titan apart from other companies is one of my biggest philosophies: I will treat the janitor the same as the receptionist, the same as the CEO. There's no reason not to. And you never know when the janitor's gonna be promoted to CEO, right? Or if they're the dad, or the son of somebody in a different position. You just treat everybody the same, and you just treat them with respect.