{"id":30145,"date":"2017-02-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=30145"},"modified":"2019-01-21T13:45:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T18:45:20","slug":"20-million-comeback-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"player_container player-30145\" ><div class=\"spp_player_textabove\"><b>Listen to the Episode  <\/b><\/div><div id=\"sm2-30145\" class=\"sm2-30145 playercontent sm2-bar-ui compact flat full-width full-width-player\"><div class=\"bd sm2-main-controls\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/podcast_channel_artwork.jpg) repeat scroll 0% 0% \/ cover ;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"spp-player-background\"> <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#play\" class=\"sm2-inline-button play-pause\"><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"loader\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"eq\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-1\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-2\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-3\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-4\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-inline-status progressbar\">\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"display:none;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch0\" style=\"display:none;\">0.75x<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch1\">1x<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch2\" style=\"display:none;\">1.25x<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch3\" style=\"display:none;\">1.5x<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch4\" style=\"display:none;\">2x<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"display:none;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"secrewind\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-playlist\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-playlist-target\"><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-bd\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-track\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-bar1\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-bar\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-ball\"><div class=\"icon-overlay\"><\/div><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-row timestamp timetext\"><div class=\"sm2-inline-time timestamp\">0:00<\/div><div class=\"sm2-inline-duration timestamp\">12:46<\/div><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element sm2-volume\" style=\"0\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t   <div class=\"sm2-button-bd\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"sm2-inline-button sm2-volume-control volume-shade\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#volume\" class=\"sm2-inline-button sm2-volume-control\" style=\"\"><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t   <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"bd sm2-playlist-drawer sm2-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-playlist-wrapper\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"sm2-playlist-bd\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Angelica_Garcia_Dunn_Podcast_FINAL.mp3\">Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sppbuttons\" style=\"\"><a class=\"button-itunes\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-story-exchange\/id1036000689?ls=1\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-g-play\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzdG9yeWV4Y2hhbmdlLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz\">Google Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-embed\" rel=\"modal:open\"  id=\"button-embed\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#ex1\">Player Embed<\/a><a class=\"button-share\" data-target=\"btnshare\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#\">Share<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"btnshare\" class=\"webui-popover-content share-buttons\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"facebook\"><i class=\"fa fa-facebook\"><\/i><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=Ep.15%3A+A+%2420+Million+Comeback+Story -&url=https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"twitter\"><i class=\"fa fa-twitter\"><\/i><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><a class=\"button-sppreview\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/getpodcast.reviews\/id\/1036000689\">Leave a Review<\/a><a class=\"button-spplisten\" style=\"display:none !important;\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"javascript:window.open('http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Angelica_Garcia_Dunn_Podcast_FINAL.mp3','','width=500,height=250')\">Listen in a New Window<\/a><a class=\"button-download\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Angelica_Garcia_Dunn_Podcast_FINAL.mp3\">Download<\/a><a class=\"button-soundcloud\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\">SoundCloud<\/a><a class=\"button-stitcher\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/s?fid=72717&refid=stpr\">Stitcher<\/a><a class=\"button-sppandroid\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/subscribeonandroid.com\/thestoryexchange.libsyn.com\/rss\">Subscribe on Android<\/a><a class=\"button-spprss\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.libsyn.com\/rss\">Subscribe via RSS<\/a><a class=\"button-spotify\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom1\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.prx.org\/series\/34510-the-story-exchange\">PRX<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom2\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLaK2UyNCu2g2_preGI12R4z2iRXjIH3ah\">Youtube Music<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom3\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5lJgdFK8g9WWXLBYjWytyn\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom4\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/pca.st\/B094\">Pocket Casts<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom5\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom6\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30152 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner.png\" alt=\"Angelica Garcia-Dunn \" width=\"3063\" height=\"1563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner.png 3063w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-525x268.png 525w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-768x392.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-1024x523.png 1024w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-300x153.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-100x51.png 100w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-862x440.png 862w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-1200x612.png 1200w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-846x432.png 846w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-1184x604.png 1184w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-1065x543.png 1065w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231731\/TSE-Angelica-Podcast-Banner-1500x765.png 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3063px) 100vw, 3063px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A painful divorce followed by severe financial hardship left Angelica Garcia-Dunn struggling to feed her young children. Hear how she rebuilt her life and achieved financial success by starting and building her Texas-sized shipping company, <a href=\"http:\/\/aimgloballogistics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AIM Global Logistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>See related <a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/resilient-entrepreneur-built-20-million-business-painful-misfortune\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">article and video for Angelica Garcia-Dunn<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"transcript-box\" style=\"float:none !important;\">\r\n<div class=\"accordion-container\">\r\n\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"accordion-toggle\">Read Full Transcript<span class=\"toggle-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i><\/span><\/a>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"accordion-accordion_content\">\r\n\t\t\t<p><p>ANGELICA: And I just prayed and got on my knees and I said, \u201cYou know, I don\u2019t want to go through this, I don\u2019t want to. There has to be something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: (as music plays lightly in background) Welcome to The Story Exchange, featuring the stories and strategies of entrepreneurial women around the world. I\u2019m Colleen DeBaise.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And I\u2019m Sue Williams.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We have all been there -- that low moment...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: When you hit it rock bottom...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Where anything and everything has gone wrong, nothing has worked out, and the future -- if there is one -- seems grim.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: The good news is that you can find your way back.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Today, we are going to introduce you to Angelica Garcia-Dunn, a successful entrepreneur in Houston, Texas, who now runs a $20 million shipping company.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: When are those motors gonna come in?<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: At AIM Global Logistics, we actually move from a pound to over a million pounds and everything in between, whether it\u2019s via truck, ocean, air, rail. Our specialty is everything over dimensional, so the big and ugly. We love doing that.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Now, Angelica will be the first to tell you: She knows what it\u2019s like to have it all...and she knows what it\u2019s like to have nothing.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: She really prefers the \u201chave it all\u201d part.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Don\u2019t we all! But Angelica\u2019s story is particularly interesting, because some years ago -- as sometimes happens -- both her personal and professional lives were a complete mess.  She managed to find her way back, big time, thanks in large part to entrepreneurship.  <\/p>\n<p>SUE: We wanted to hear more, so we headed to the hot, humid, sprawling oil town of Houston to talk with Angelica. If you go to our website, TheStoryExchange.org, you can watch a video we produced, telling Angelica\u2019s complete story. Today, we are going to share snippets of that conversation. If you\u2019re in need of inspiration, or simply like a great comeback story, this is a podcast for you. <\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: I was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. My grandparents are from Mexico. I actually have dual citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Angelica comes from humble means.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: Growing up my first language was Spanish. I didn\u2019t learn English until probably first grade.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She learned to work hard at a young age, helping her dad, a mechanic, earn extra income for the family.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: Starting at around five years old my dad had a fruit stand, so selling fruit stand watermelons or whatever it took. And then during the school year we\u2019d actually, I\u2019d help my mom make tacos and tamales.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Perhaps because of that, Angelica has always been an \u201cachiever\u201d type.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: I was president of the Spanish Club, the Honor Society, and then all the sports. They always made fun of me, they said, \u201cYou\u2019re gonna be the you know, first woman President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She became the first in her family to graduate from college -- eventually getting her MBA from the University of Dallas in 1997. She worked at Bank of America, then Chase.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: And I started off as a teller, worked my way up to relationship banker, and ended up becoming a branch manager. I was actually selling annuities, and doing risk management, and wealth accumulation, and estate planning. <\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Angelica\u2019s career began taking off -- and so did her personal life. She got married, had two kids...But when her youngest -- her two-year-old son Mathis -- had ear infections, she decided to take a break from Corporate America.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: So in 2003 I was a stay-at-home mom. I decided not to go back to work.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: This is when life took that difficult turn we alluded to earlier...she made an unsavory discovery about her husband.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: So there was infidelity. He had another child with another woman. I didn\u2019t want to share my husband.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: The revelation was particularly upsetting because of her religious and cultural upbringing.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: In my family there\u2019s no divorce, so I never thought that it was going to be losing my husband through a divorce.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: For Angelica, though, ending the marriage was the only option. But the decision left her vulnerable financially.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: And so it was really -- sorry if I get emotional -- but, um, so I mean I, I remember my kids were young and they said, um, we went to the grocery store and we had we had a basket of groceries and I didn\u2019t walk out with them. My card didn\u2019t go through. And my daughter goes, \u201cMommy, why didn\u2019t we bring our food?\u201d Oh, I go, \u201cThe card didn\u2019t work. We just have to go home and get another card.\u201d That wasn\u2019t the case. So my kids at four and two, you know, we\u2019ve been through a lot.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We\u2019ve been sharing the story of Angelica Garcia-Dunn, a Houston entrepreneur who has displayed amazing resilience after her life seemed to collapse. Now, Sue, you\u2019re our resident filmmaker. You spent a day with Angelica in Houston for our video profile...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Yeah, we were actually in Katy, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Which is really a suburb of Houston.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Exactly. It\u2019s pretty typical Texas with strip malls, fast food joints. Kind of anonymous, although there is a cute older town center where Angelica has her office.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: So, six years after Angelica had this terrible low moment, she would be starting her own shipping and transportation company...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Which now has multiple divisions and 25 employees -- and she leases part of a huge warehouse down near the dock area in Houston. It is massive. It\u2019s really impressive what she\u2019s built.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: We\u2019re just waiting for the money to come in from that.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: But at that particular moment, at the grocery store with her kids, the future looked pretty grim.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: At first, Angelica took a 100%-commission sales job with Northwestern Mutual -- the big insurance company -- but struggled to make a decent income.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: At the time, when you\u2019re hurting, and you\u2019re in pain from a divorce, you\u2019re just not...it was just very hard.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She told me suicide wasn\u2019t an option, because she had two young children depending on her.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: You know, looking back, it was all lessons learned and it made you stronger. So it didn\u2019t kill me but it made me stronger.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: When you meet Angelica in person you can see how driven and focused she is. She\u2019s intense. But you can also see just how much she loves her work.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Yeah. And she also relies quite heavily on her Christian faith. Her work email contains a biblical verse.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: She believes, in every situation, there is a way to get out of it, and that you\u2019re not alone...even though she doesn\u2019t like to ask for help.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: My parents and people always came to me for help, so for me to go outside and get help was not -- it just was not part of my DNA.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: A lifeline during those difficult days came from one of her Northwestern Mutual clients, a fellow single mom named Sandra.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: Sometimes I\u2019d have to bring my kids to go see customers at night. She, you know, she saw right through me. She knew what I was going through, so she kind of just took me under her wing. And I remember she always said, \u201cYou\u2019re a diamond in the rough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Sandra owned a freight company, ABA, that transported goods by ocean or air to South America. She offered Angelica a part-time job. And that was Angelica\u2019s introduction to the freight industry.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: I didn\u2019t know what a container was, but it was stable income.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: She soon learned the basics of the transport industry.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: So just everything that is entailed in moving just one piece all the way to final destination.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: The part-time job quickly became full-time, and Angelica stayed for three years. The former banker took a real liking to the freight industry\u2019s logistics.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: I feel like transportation, food needs to get to people\u2019s table, we all need to wear clothes, there\u2019s all kinds of things that we all need where we need a truck, where we need ocean, where we need air, where we need rail. It just fascinates me.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: But it was trucking -- a service that her employer didn\u2019t offer -- that really caught her interest.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: As a little girl, going down, traveling from Houston, from Corpus to Mexico, I loved seeing the trucks. My uncle and my family comes from trucking as well.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Angelica left ABA Express in 2006 to open up a Houston office for System Transport, a large flatbed carrier based in Spokane, Washington. She was soon making over $200,000 a year in salary, working her connections in Mexico to bring in more business. And then, some chance advice at a conference led Angelica to take another step. A woman who worked for Exxon took her aside.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: She goes: \u201cYou\u2019re a woman, you\u2019re Latina, you know what you\u2019re doing. Why won\u2019t you open up your own company and become a certified minority woman-owned business?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SUE:  So in 2009 -- six years after she couldn\u2019t afford groceries -- Angelica launched AIM Global Logistics, specializing in oil and gas transportation. She used a $500 credit card and $50,000 in savings.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN:  AIM -- A.I.M. -- stands for her name, plus her two children, Isabelle and Mathis.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: Once I started going off in this, in what I love, in the passion of, of trucking and so forth, that\u2019s when money started coming in.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: The company made $250,000 in revenue its first year. This year, she expects $20 million in revenue.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: What are her offices like? It seems like such a different world than banking.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: It is. Well, she started out concentrating mostly in the oil-and-gas industry, so she ships things like frac sand and water rigs. At the warehouse you see these enormous crates with machines -- pumps and rigs -- they\u2019re 50,100 feet high.<br \/>\nSOT: Hey, I got another one going!<\/p>\n<p>SUE: So you see the sheer physicality of moving these massive machines, but at the same time it\u2019s all about the details. Angelica\u2019s day to day work is in the details, calculating tonnage and dimensions.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: So now you\u2019re at 9, 35, 71, divide that...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: It\u2019s a ton of paperwork.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: So we\u2019re able to be a one-stop shop to service a customer. Imagine moving a rig from Oklahoma, 70 trucks to the Port of Houston, and to move a rig you have to have the cranes, the pull trucks, the tandem trucks, the winch trucks, and then you have to order the permits and escorts. So it\u2019s A to B and everything in the middle.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: With such massive projects, cash flow is a constant challenge for Angelica\u2019s company.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: Whether you\u2019re selling a tamale for 50 cents or whether you are selling a rig for 5 million, it\u2019s all cash flow. You still have payroll, you still have rent. About two years ago we had a customer in Mexico that didn\u2019t pay and we really, really went through some hard times.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: While AIM Global grew quickly thanks to a booming fracking industry, the downturn in oil prices took its toll. 2015 was a tough year.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: I had to layoff about four of my people and it was really hard.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She knew It was a time to diversify. She\u2019s expanded to provide alternative financing and equipment leasing.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: Being a former banker, we don\u2019t like being concentrated to one customer. So we had to start diversifying not only our clients, but our industries. So we started looking at solar power. We started looking at automotive. Let\u2019s look at government projects. Let\u2019s, let\u2019s look at health care.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Angelica now projects revenue of $50 million in the next three to five years, something she could not have predicted when she couldn\u2019t afford food for her kids. <\/p>\n<p>SOT: So that\u2019s an 85% margin. Is that cool?<\/p>\n<p>SUE: A few years ago, she and her children built their dream house.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: It was my kids and I choosing the colors of the house, and the stone, and the wood floors, and the granite.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Her personal life has taken a happy turn as well: she recently remarried and, at 42, is pregnant with her third child.<\/p>\n<p>ANGELICA: Right now I\u2019m in a good place and there\u2019s a lot of amazing opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Still, scaling a company can be lonely.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Angelica practices some of the same habits that she learned when her life hit rock bottom.<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<!--\/.accordion-accordion_content-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Angelica Garcia-Dunn went from struggling to feed her kids to building\u00a0a booming Texas-sized trucking company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":30146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[19683,19627,19699],"class_list":["post-30145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-resilience","tag-women-in-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How Angelica Garcia-Dunn went from struggling to feed her kids to building\u00a0a booming Texas-sized trucking company.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How Angelica Garcia-Dunn went from struggling to feed her kids to building\u00a0a booming Texas-sized trucking company.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Story Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-13T15:30:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-21T18:45:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231750\/a-20-million-comeback-story_thumbnail.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"638\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"489\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Story Exchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Story Exchange\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story","description":"How Angelica Garcia-Dunn went from struggling to feed her kids to building\u00a0a booming Texas-sized trucking company.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story","og_description":"How Angelica Garcia-Dunn went from struggling to feed her kids to building\u00a0a booming Texas-sized trucking company.","og_url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/","og_site_name":"The Story Exchange","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange","article_published_time":"2017-02-13T15:30:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-21T18:45:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":638,"height":489,"url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231750\/a-20-million-comeback-story_thumbnail.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"The Story Exchange","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@TheStoryXchange","twitter_site":"@TheStoryXchange","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Story Exchange"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/"},"author":{"name":"The Story Exchange","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/person\/cc5cf7031d846ecfccbe8e4c026ec6f5"},"headline":"Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story","datePublished":"2017-02-13T15:30:59+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-21T18:45:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/"},"wordCount":52,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231750\/a-20-million-comeback-story_thumbnail.png","keywords":["Entrepreneurship","resilience","Women in Business"],"articleSection":["Podcast"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/","name":"Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231750\/a-20-million-comeback-story_thumbnail.png","datePublished":"2017-02-13T15:30:59+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-21T18:45:20+00:00","description":"How Angelica Garcia-Dunn went from struggling to feed her kids to building\u00a0a booming Texas-sized trucking company.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231750\/a-20-million-comeback-story_thumbnail.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/22231750\/a-20-million-comeback-story_thumbnail.png","width":638,"height":489,"caption":"Angelica Garcia-Dunn went from struggling to feed her kids to building a booming Texas-sized trucking company."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/20-million-comeback-story\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ep.15: A $20 Million Comeback Story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","name":"The Story Exchange","description":"Inspiration and information for women entrepreneurs","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization","name":"The Story Exchange","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","width":500,"height":180,"caption":"The Story Exchange"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange","https:\/\/x.com\/TheStoryXchange","https:\/\/instagram.com\/thestoryexchange\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/the-story-exchange","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/StoryExchange"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/person\/cc5cf7031d846ecfccbe8e4c026ec6f5","name":"The Story Exchange","description":"The Story Exchange is a global video project empowering women to achieve economic independence through entrepreneurship. By producing and promoting video profiles of successful entrepreneurs from all walks of life and sectors we encourage others to gain economic freedom, create the lifestyle of their choosing, and uncover their full potential.","sameAs":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/about-us\/"],"url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/author\/werock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}