Marlene Garza

First and foremost, God. My parents, who were both business owners and entrepreneurs, had a huge impact on my life. My mother was a go-getter from the bottom up, and I saw that from when I was little. All her quotes and things she would tell me, like life is not easy, challenges are good, don't look at them as opportunities but look at challenges to turn them into good opportunities. Even when you have something bad happen, learn from it, turn it around, and know that you have the ability to provide solutions all the time, whether it's personal or business. You need to be the person ready to serve. When I began in the sales portion of my career, building relationships and learning that I didn't want to be behind a desk, I wanted to be out in the field talking and connecting people and providing solutions, I owe that to a gentleman named Lou Sabia, who was a mentor. He's a very successful man, actually a billionaire. Now, today, my mentor is definitely my boss, Chris Medrano. There's always going to be hiccups in life, but I am a positive person and I'll always turn a negative into a positive. And of course, my husband, Luis Garza. We've been together 30 years, and he is definitely my biggest cheerleader and my biggest fan. My kids, too. Everything I do in life has a lot to do also with my own family.

Never be in it for the money. As long as you put your heart and soul into it, the grind, and you make sure you connect with customers on a more personal level, no matter what you have going on in your life, whether it's good or bad, you've got to learn how to have self-control and put that to the side, but focus on the customer and provide that solution. Be someone they can trust, that they can rely on, and integrity stands out, so be careful in what you do and how you do it, because you build your character and your reputation. When someone's trying to sabotage your reputation, those that truly know you know that it's not true and know what kind of person you are. And last but not least, you can fail, you can fall a thousand times, but you have to keep remembering to get up, move one foot in front of the other, and get up even if it's a thousand and one times. You've got to keep going and know that God is in control.

I would tell her that, kind of like what I tell my children, you can do anything you put your mind to. You have to remember, every day is the day to get up, but have a plan. Realize exactly what you're willing to do, and you have to be willing to go above and beyond. If someone's asking you to go the mile, you need to go 2 miles. And though the oil and gas industry is dominated by men, I would tell her that she definitely needs to have thick skin, to remember her worth, and to remember that she, too, is more than able and capable of creating relationships, because I think as females, as women, we are nurturers. We know how, because it's kind of like a natural instinct.

The biggest challenge in today's trucking industry is that when COVID came about, it became a challenge on all aspects of trucking. That industry blew up so quick from COVID on, and then now, here we are 5 years later, where you're seeing a lot of mom-and-pop shops that can't afford the liability insurance. In the oil and gas industry, the requirements are usually $750,000 for liability cargo purposes, and things cost quite a bit of money, so insurance has increased. The challenge that we find is the competition, and also being able to get in, because a lot of people know people, so the challenge of getting to the top executive decision maker is one of them. And of course, the industry being saturated. There's a lot of brokers, so this industry has definitely changed the way it maneuvered from many years ago. I just got in the middle of the hardest challenge, which is definitely competing with brokers.

I would say morals, good work ethic, and for me, my faith is a very top priority. God is in pretty much everything that I do. He's the head, he's the one who goes before me, beside me, behind me, next to me. And to always have faith, no matter what the road looks like, and all the challenges and everything you run into, it's a temporary thing if it's bad, and there's always something good to look for. I always ask God, please give me the eyes to see the best in situations and in people. Please give me the ears not to listen to what I want to hear, but to listen to the truth. And give me a heart that is able and strong to be able to do actions that match the words that I say, and be as close as I can to serving others like Jesus served others. Honesty goes a long way.