Meet Steven Davis | Business owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Steven Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steven, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
Risk. In shaping my background, Its all about risk. First is that when starting a business, in some way I believe caution is thrown to the wind. There is something in you that says “I don’t care what people say, Ima try it anyway”… and in that moment you jump out on tight rope of uncertainty thinking you can make it to the other side where reward is waiting. In taking that risk though it must be calculated, so that in theory there is very little risk if any risk at all.  I think that’s what makes a good business thrive. In starting Turn n Burn one of the things we considered was what impact this tool will have on the industry, good or bad and then weighing those risks against what we already knew intuitively about the tool itself; saves time, efficiency, health and safety. The old cliche “no risk no reward” I believe applies across the board in business. In order for our world to be the world we live and enjoy there were those who took the risk. I grew up on the Eastside of Atlanta GA in a community called Ellenwood in South DeKalb County. Though it was the suburbs we struggled a lot when I was young. Hey, (small chuckle) It was tough growing up mane. My parents divorced when I was 6 so my mom had to make it off a single income to raise 3 boys. She received child support but still found it hard to make ends meet. I remember times when we had to eat grits for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for 3 – 4 days straight. I remember saving old glass cleaner bottles with the spray top and filling those with water and at night we would use them to mist ourselves. Along with a ceiling fan or a fan in the window, these were our only remedy from the extreme humid heat of the South eastern US. My mom would save money but not running the A/C. Remember, this is hotlanta, so those summers were brutal. I won’t even talk about Winter. It gets hot in Atlanta but it gets cold too. Don’t get me wrong it’s not Buffalo, NY with feet of snow everywhere but it definitely gets colder and stays colder for longer than here in Southern California. In mentioning those things, I will say, all those uncomfortable experiences made me tougher in life. Going through tough times makes one appreciate when its good and it can give you character and helps define who you if harnessed in the right way.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
It’s funny because I have tried many, many, many, many times to walk away from trucking (my job professionally at the moment), but I was always pulled back into driving. Mainly because, it was the skill I possessed that paid the most money. The last time I attempted to walk away from the industry, was a little over a decade ago when I went back to school to be an engineer. School was great! The teachers were fun and informative, the classes were always intriguing. I enjoyed every minute. Everything was going well until I got into my major in my third year and started to fail the harder classes. I decided to stop so that I wouldn’t tank my GPA. I postponed school but I didn’t go back to trucking. I started a job working for the airport at Hartsfield putting meals onto airplanes. That was fun too, so much so that we referred to the airport as a club because it was BIG a meeting place where people made money, made a lot friends, and had a lot of fun. Still, despite all its social perks it was a dead-end job, and I felt there was no opportunity here for me to grow. I did that for almost a year. I left that job and went to work for Target. From bad to worse. This was 2012. I did that for almost another year making 7.50 an hour. I was fired from this job because I was tardy too many times. I was commuting by MARTA at the time and the bus was notorious for being late, at least a few times a month. I stress to you how late this route would be, I’m talking hours late some days. To add insult to the story, initially when I got the job, I had a small truck I used to get back and forth to work. One morning while heading to Target I was rear ended and the truck was totaled while I sat at a red light. I mention that because I went back to work that very next day. Even though I was in pain for the next few weeks I needed the money so I pushed through it. The higher ups knew my situation and a month or so after the accident let me go, when the bus had me late for work again. Hey, its business. When this happened, I called one of my previous employers who ran a dump truck company who I always kept a good relationship with. I told him the situation and I was back working that next Monday – making the money I made at Target in a month, taking only a week to accomplish driving trucks. That was the start of me getting back into trucking but… I left trucking again after driving for Mr. Jack for 6 months I went to work for Tyler Perry Studios being a set decorator. I knew a guy who knew a guy and it paid super well with a bunch of perks. I joined the union and soon after my guy put me on his crew working shows. One of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve had. Food was everywhere all day, every day. My co-workers were some of the best people I’ve ever met from all walks of life, from all over the country, people of all nationalities and races. Great job, still, it didn’t last long either, only 4 months. Before our show ended, I applied to another union, IBEW, for electricians and set the ground work to become an apprentice. When we were laid off from the studio I didn’t have to wait to try to get onto another show. I went into whole ‘nother direction and joined a crew working on The Atlanta Falcons new stadium and working on one of the major hospitals in the region, Emory Medical, their new state of the art cancer research facility in downtown Atlanta. 2 big name projects in our area. Only thing is, it paid nothing. 10 bucks an hour with a 4-year program. Now, if you made it to the end of this program, that $10 turned into almost $40 so it was worth it to keep going but, on its face, it just too hard for me, making that little of money and trying to survive. After 4 months of this I just couldn’t do it anymore. I called my cousin and he connected me one of his previous employers from the trucking industry. This time I stayed. His connect owned an intermodal trucking company. Intermodal in a nutshell is Rail, Roads, and Ports. The system of moving goods through a combination of these three transportation modes. You can see one part of it every day on the road. They are the colorful semi-trucks and trailers you see on the highway. These trailers or ‘boxes’ are interchangeable when you reach certain destinations whether it be rail yards or port. Being in Atlanta there are no major bodies of water and closest port is Savanah. Everything there is by train. In having this job is where I got the idea for the Turn n Burn. With trailer container boxes being interchangeable, the name of the game is drop and hook. Drop and hook is when you’re picking up trailers, taking them to a location, the driver DROPS that trailer and HOOKS up to another to take it back to the rail yard to DROP and HOOK to another container box and do it all over again. It’s a great way to move materials and products throughout the supply chain. It allows the goods we get from all around the globe to reach us so easily. The catch to this is on the driver because this process of Dropping and hooking can be taxing when you have many many boxes throughout the day. One of these fretful days I had 11 – 12 moves. By the time I got to the 7th move I was thinking “there has to be a better way to do this” … and the seed was planted for the idea to be born.

In that brief snap shot of a few years of my life I learned a lot and about how things can shape up for you if you do two things…

– you listen to life and what it’s trying to tell you and…

– you keep going.

You keep going because simply put, it will get better. There’s this saying from the city I was born in Atlanta. The unofficial slogan –

“Decatur, where it gets greater, later” …

…and I think this is true in life. Keep going because you will gain knowledge and get better at what you do. When you don’t quit it turns you from novice into master. Whether it be a skill you learn, or a job you do, even walking through life itself, most situations get better as they go through it. You want to be successful? Keep going and don’t give up.

The other important thing is listening to life and what it’s suggesting to you. I talked about waking away from the trucking industry how I eventually came back to it. In trying all those different jobs and occupations, attempting to try something else just to come back to that line of work I didn’t want do… to now being on the brink of doing something really major for the entire industry. Wow! I believe there are things we do in our day to day to survive that suits our needs. For some, it’s what they dreamed of doing and can’t imagine doing anything else, but for most I would argue it’s the opposite. I think that if you slow down and pay attention, life is whispering a golden idea that will unbuckle you from the rat race and start you on the path to financial freedom and a more rewarding life. To turn that job you hate into a launchpad for success by improving on an existing and overlooked facet of your job or industry. It’s what I figured out. Listen, I will cherish the day when the glitch in the Matrix that I found, the Turn n Burn adapter, allows me to go on to the next phase of my life – being a happier, healthier, and a more wealthier person.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

The Wineries down in Temecula. Some are better than others but for someone visiting I don’t think you can go wrong with the experience.

Get some Mexican food. Doesn’t taste like this back home.

Get a nice car drive around. SoCal is huge with so much to do. Rent a nice car and just ride.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The MVP’s in my life… who if not for them I would not be here today. Shout out to Linsey Jack of Jack’s Trucking in Atlanta GA. Whenever I moved into another job and that job didn’t pan out, there was always a truck waiting for me to drive and get back on my feet.

Young Norris Kates, one of my high school buddies who got me my first fuel hauling job. That job was the start of me coming to California and every good thing that’s happened to me after that.

My Cousin Derrick Justice. Same as Linsey Jack but a little different. He had connections in trucking that allowed me to make more money and go on to the next level in my life. I was able to buy a car, get my health in order and start saving money because of the people he connected me with.

William Perry, for joining the Marines out of high school and inviting me to come kick it in California 15 years later, just for me to realize this is the place I wanted to be.

Ms. Delicia Gardner, who believed in me when times got tough after 9/11 and gave me a job with the City of Atlanta using my CDL license. I didn’t make a lot of money but I gained invaluable experience that I would use on jobs later in my life.

Finally, my wife Ranesha Davis. Her willingness to jump out on faith and start her business gave me the spark to do the same. I WOULD NOT BE WHO I AM TODAY WITHOUT THESE KEY PEOPLE! Thank you.

Website: turnnburnnow.com

Instagram: @turnnburnnow

Twitter: @turnnburnow

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Image Credits
Steven Davis