We were lucky to catch up with Monique Lott recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Monique, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
We have found that developing confidence and self-esteem, is gained in the doing of hard things and proving to yourself over and over again that you can do something. We have grown as I have had to push through immense challenges and not given up.
When we first started our transportation company in 2012. I had just given birth to our third child, and I was helping take care of my mom with cancer. We had also just started an excavation company a couple months before. My husband, Byron would drive the airport shuttle from Wenatchee, Washington, to Seattle airport every morning and back. I would drive every afternoon. The other one of us would take care of the kids, home, phone calls while the other one was driving. During these challenging years I found, growing requires growing pains. No one grows in the comfort zone. You become strong, because you chose to press through the hard. I am so grateful now, for the challenges back then that have taught me resilience, confidence and anything is possible, if you’re willing to do the work. I am also grateful for a husband who is my partner and teammate through and through. We make all of this work together!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
We run and operate several different companies. My favorite thing about all of the time and work between it all, are the people. People are the best and most challenging parts of business. We are truly blessed to work with our favorite people in town! In our transportation company, there are so many moving parts. We transport several trips daily as a scheduled airport shuttle, hundreds of weddings a year, Gorge concerts, city, community and business events, and more! Everyone is needed, from our amazing mechanics, safe and friendly drivers, well organized and cheerful managers and incredible bookkeeper. Each is critical. Here people matter first and last.
We started a branch of transportation called Chelan Trolley CO. last summer, which is a wine trolley circuit in the famous wine country of Lake Chelan Washington. It is a hop on, hop off circuit around the entire area for tourists all over the northwest to visit. It is a flare of fun for the many thousands of tourists visiting each summer!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three most important qualities were:
Positivity, grit and seeing people as people.
We are people who look at the bright side, see the challenges and expect miracles as we work hard to make our goals realities. Grit is where work really gets hard. Most people think all of work is hard work, they are wrong. Let me share a story where my oldest son at the time, was 8. I had just given birth to our fifth and last child. We were getting a fence installed around our pool a few days after giving birth. My husband told me we could save a lot of money if I had time to go dig the fence hole posts. I took our eight year old son with me and told him what we needed to do that day. We got to work digging. By the time we made it down one side of the pool, he said, “okay mom, I think I’m done working, this isn’t fun anymore.” I said, “Great! This is where work begins! You thought it started half an hour ago, back there, but when you want to stop, is really the beginning.” This is why most people aren’t successful. They had almost broke through their own mental block of what they thought was hard and their limit of what they could do…they missed the whole point! It is the last half where we are made. Where we grow beyond the limits we thought entangled us. We are capable of so much more than we think we are!
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I am one of six children. My father was an entrepreneur, and my parents gave us many opportunities to learn, work and grow. They did not give us money or ease.
My dad purchased an asphalt tank and we went around to businesses like McDonalds and gave bids to asphalt their parking lots in the hot summer-as we saved all the money for college. We did asphalt many parking lots together in the hot sun. Another thing we did every year was winterize people’s irrigation systems. We rode our bikes all over town, putting fliers on doors about blowing out people’s irrigation lines with our dad who had many years of experience. On the flier we shared that this money was saved for college and church missions. We laid out our pricing per station and gave our contact information. I had worked up a sign-up sheet to keep certain neighborhoods at certain times so we didn’t have to waste time driving back and forth. On a Friday afternoon and Saturday, 25 years ago, I would make almost $3,000 as I went and worked with my dad to blow out the systems as well. My parents gave us opportunities, showed us expectations, integrity and hard work and watched us rise in that growth. I am so grateful I had seen this way of thinking and knowing I could do whatever I put my mind to. I am grateful that my husband also feels the same and we raise our children with many diverse opportunities to work hard and learn with us as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Wenatcheevalleyshuttle.com
- Instagram: Wenatcheevalleyshuttle.com and ChelanTrolley
- Facebook: Wenatcheevalleyshuttle and ChelanTrolley
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