Strength You Don’t Know You Have with Danielle Carter and Andy Shaughnessy

What do you do when life hands you something completely unexpected, and there is no roadmap forward? In this powerful episode of the Shine On Success podcast, host Dionne Malush sits down with sisters Danielle Carter and Andy Shaughnessy, the women behind Express It Delivery. After losing their father, they stepped into his delivery business with no experience, no plan, and no safety net. What started with thirteen drivers has grown into a thriving company serving the entire Northeast with over two hundred drivers, built on grit, faith, and a people-first philosophy.

This conversation goes far beyond business. Danielle and Andy share the raw realities of grief, resilience, leadership without ego, and what it truly means to show up anyway when the odds are stacked against you. Their story is a reminder that success does not always begin with skill or certainty. Sometimes it begins with heart, courage, and the decision to keep going.

Connect with Andi and Danielle here:

Website: https://expressitdelivery.com/

LinkedIn
Danielle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-carter-600b95158/
Andi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andi-shaughnessy/

Instagram
Daniel:https://www.instagram.com/daniellecarter74/#
Andi: https://www.instagram.com/andishaughnessy/#

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Danielle And Andy
• 0:49 Beyond The Bio: Strength And Empathy
• 2:03 Showing Up Without A Playbook
• 3:18 Losing Dad And Facing Grief
• 6:31 Deciding To Take Over The Business
• 8:42 Year One: Setbacks And Survival
• 11:33 From 13 Drivers To 200 Plus
• 14:05 Leadership Lessons Without Ego
• 15:19 Redefining Success And Inner Peace
• 17:07 People First Culture In Practice
• 18:28 Motherhood, Mindset, And Balance
• 19:33 Building Unlikely Bosses
• 20:22 Closing Reflections And How To Connect

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

My guests today, sisters Danielle Carter and Andy Shaughnessy, did exactly that. After losing their father, they stepped into his delivery business with zero experience, just grit faith and a commitment to people first. What started with 13 drivers has grown into express it delivery, now serving the entire Northeast with over 200 drivers and a powerhouse leadership team. Their story isn't just about business, it's about resilience, family, and the courage to keep showing up when the odds say you shouldn't. Welcome, Danielle and Andy. I'm so excited to have you both on the Shine Unsuccess podcast. How are you doing today? Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so excited. We share parallels in our story. And I'm really when I read your information, I thought, oh, these girls picked up the pieces in this in a time when most people couldn't. So I always like to start with this one question. What's one thing you like people to know about you that doesn't show up in your bio?

SPEAKER_03: 0:53

Ooh, that's a good one. I think for different, you mean for each of us separately. Yeah. Okay. Andy, you want to go first?

SPEAKER_02: 1:01

That is a hard question. No, you go first. Because I'm here.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06

I think what probably doesn't show up for me is this inner strength that I think I always knew I had at some point, but I don't think it I really until I, you know, had to go through the hardest things in life. And still to this day, in those moments, I think my strength is really what gets me over like the finish line sometimes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:27

It's just it's amazing, right? It's something I mean, I didn't even know you have. And then when you do have it, it's incredible. How about you?

SPEAKER_02: 1:34

I don't know. I think probably that I'm an empath, maybe to a fault at times. I don't know if that comes off, but it like runs deep with with anyone I meet, with strangers I see.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

It's hard, it's hard to be that some days, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:47

Yeah. I feel like it's like a superpower some days, and other days I I I I really do struggle. So I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53

So you both talk about showing up anyway. What does that mean to you personally and professionally?

SPEAKER_03: 1:58

I mean for me, just like anyway, meaning like not having the answers. I there wasn't a playbook for how we were going to do this. And even in life, there's no playbook. Like no one tells you how to. I used to say there's no right way to grieve. There's just the only way you know how. And it's just anyway. Like you show up anyway, you grieve anyway, you go to work anyway. Like it's just, I think if you just put the foot in front of the door, you know, one foot in front of the other, and you get out the door, it kind of falls into place somehow.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30

Yeah, I feel that. And you know, my dad, it's been two years since he passed. I I loved him so much, and I'm sure he felt the same. And like we watched him die. We watched him starve to death. You know, it was horrifying. And I know that what you experienced was the same. We didn't know he was sick. I mean, we he was sick, we knew it in our heads, but he never had a formal diagnosis. For three years, he went without going to the doctors. So the day before he died, he finally said, Hey, I'm he said, I'm ready to go to the ER. He was in so much pain. And we were like, so we jump up, we take him, we have this moment of hope that, oh, he's going to the doctors, right? They tell us that he was probably had about two weeks, and that what he had was a big lump in his lung, and he had an aortic aneurysm that he'd never seen that big in anyone alive. And we knew he had one, but we didn't know all of this because three years we had no information. And then the next day he died. So he found out and he died the next day. It was like that. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03: 3:25

So sorry.

SPEAKER_00: 3:28

We we knew, but that hope of the moment of him saying, I'm gonna go, I'll go to the I'll go now was just too late. It had been too late. We knew it. But it's I I feel like so much. What do you say, Andy? Like, I feel so many people's pain. And then I had my own, which was like so devastating to me. Like, so I decide the next my I decide the next day after a friend shared with me about the military and honoring and not that I was gonna spend the rest of my life honoring him. And so I'm doing that. And I feel like you, Dan, like you don't grieve comes anyway. Like you don't know when it's gonna come, you don't know how it's gonna come. In a moment, you're just sitting there and it just hits you. Now, you guys have been a little bit longer, but I'm sure you still have those days after all this. Your whole life changed. You had two different paths that you were on. Like, so when I read that, I felt I feel like it's just amazing what you're doing, how impressive. And you did it anyway. So that needs to be your catch like your slogan, you know? Yeah. I think we're gonna change it actually after this. I mean, I think you should. I mean, that's just incredible. But I mean, really, so Andy, you had two different lives, and you didn't really have a business background per se, right? So let's let's go back to the moment when you your dad became ill. He what kind of conversations led you to the decision to take over the business? Like, how did you go from your two different lives to this?

SPEAKER_02: 4:51

Yeah, well, he was diagnosed in 2011, and not that we were living in denial, but right, but like you said, like you're just really hopeful. You know, you you have a diagnosis, you know there's a there's an amount of time, but he was fighting it and and we were very hopeful. So it was never what's the plan then, because the plan was for him to live. And so then, you know, towards the spring of of 2012, then it was okay, this is probably real, even even though we didn't want to accept it. And it was what are what are we gonna do? And we have different answers for this. And didn't have to speak to hers too. And but for for me, it was it was hard. I would come home on the weekends, we would have like family meetings, you know, he would be there and we would have a lot of laughs. And you know, he he said, I if you guys do this, I can't wait to see what you do in 10 years. Like it was, but even at that point, I wasn't fully committed. I I I I weigh everything, I overthink everything. Like what what what's the right answer? What should I do? It wasn't until right before he passed. I think maybe I said, Oh, give it a try. But then once he passed, then there was more conversation of okay, I'll I'll do it. Sorry, I got lost in the answer there.

SPEAKER_00: 6:01

I don't even that's okay. What kind of conversations led you to the decision to take over? You kind of said that. I mean, you kind of just you weren't sure, right? You didn't believe it, I didn't believe it. I get it. I never believed that they was gonna be here.

SPEAKER_03: 6:14

Like yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:15

But Danielle, anything different for you?

SPEAKER_03: 6:18

No, I just think the what were the options? It's just there was just Andy and I. And so there wasn't, you know, a brother that worked in the business. There wasn't the options, there really wasn't a lot of options except to go for it. And, you know, it really became a fight or flight situation where we couldn't let it die with him. To let the family business die with him would have been far worse than anything. I think it would have compounded the grief even more by far, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 6:46

So what was the first year like after that? Emotionally, practically like how did you get through the emotions of grief, which we all have, but I stifled mine a little bit. And I feel I think I am still to this day. I fill my calendar with so many things that I don't have time to think. I don't have time to sit there and cry because I'm going from the time I wake up till I finally fall asleep. So, what was that first year look like for the both of you? I mean, you're going through this the one of the worst things that happens in your life, right? And then you're taking on this new business that you really didn't know anything about. How did you do it?

SPEAKER_03: 7:19

It was hell on earth, to be honest, because what happened was we had a longtime employee about a month after about, you know, two, three weeks after our dad died, take the top three clients. So at the same time, the business was failing. And so every month we would meet with the accountant and it would say, All right, we'll give it 30 more days. So combine that with simultaneously waves of enormous grief. It is a wonder that we are here today. Like honestly, that this company is still here. And, you know, I was laughing when you said, How did you each grieve? And the answer to that is like very differently. You know, we dug Andy sort of dug in a little bit more with like trying to work through the grief. And I was like fighting everybody. And like I was saying, I was great. I was like, I'm fine, it's fine. And you know, it didn't really hit me till eight years later. And Andy's like, you know, uh, I don't think you're okay. I don't think you actually ever grieved, Dad. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's fine. But I just went into like, I'm just gonna go to war with with everybody, right?

SPEAKER_02: 8:23

We joke, and it was like a fine, but I there were times I was going to therapy like twice a week. I was like, and one time I said to my therapist, Danielle is lying to her therapist, and like she is not okay, and she's not being truthful. And my therapist said, You can't judge your sister's progress. And I was like, okay, fine. She was like, but but there isn't any. I'm trying to tell you any progress. Right. And I'm I'm with her every day, all day. But yeah, no, it it was horrific. It was horrific. It was horrific. But but you but you show up anyways, and you you do get through it, and it does get easier, but there are still moments of true pain and sadness.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

So I have two sisters that and I don't have and you know, we didn't have that boy, but we had a baby brother, but he died when he was like three days old. So we never had that, you know. So it's just the three of us. And I can I know they're grieving in ways that they didn't even expect, you know. And so we're it's all different though, different kinds of grief, different things you think about. Some of it's guilt, some of it like I feel like there's things that I should have did at the end, even though I did so much, but I should have did this or I should have did that. But you know, we I I got up anyways. But while I'm going through it, like my dad's laying there dying, one of our top agents is planning to leave our company and take my longest employee with her. So I feel what you're going through. Yeah, it's like we're having the same thing, just different industries, different, you know, yeah. But yeah, so it was it was kind of crappy because when I'm going through this, I'm going through this hard time, and I'm like, this person I would meet with once a week, and then my my longest staff, at the end of it all, it's been a blessing that they're not here. And I'm sure the same for you, right? You know, because you when people were doing that to you right right in front of your face, right? Yeah, he was gonna do it, he was gonna keep doing it if he stayed, right? Your employee would have just kept doing it and kept getting the the toxic toxicity of it is just unbelievable. So let's talk about 13 drivers to over 200. What key turning points made that growth possible? How did you get there and how long did it take?

SPEAKER_02: 10:26

Yeah, so for the first probably two and a half years, it was, you know, sweating out, making payroll. And then just we didn't know what we were doing, obviously. Like we didn't know what PL was, we didn't know anything, but we knew how to get lean, we knew how to not spend money, and we knew how to treat people. And so we were just very authentic in our approach, whether it was for the to the employees. We had to be, right? We couldn't BS anyone, and also then with our customers. And so if we treated the employees well and they were happy, then the service would just the successful service would be the result of that. And that was sort of our formula. And then it just slowly started to turn around. And then we got to a point where, okay, we figured everything out that we could, which wasn't much, but we did. And it was let's let's bring someone, let's go find an advisor. We needed help, like someone to the at the next level. And so we did find someone, and that was a miracle. He is a blessing. He's still part of our he's still with us today. So that was like probably year three. And then combine him and what he was teaching us and and business and strategy and stuff with opportunities that came. You know, in the early days, there were opportunities that came that we had to turn down. We just we didn't have the capacity, we didn't have the resources, couldn't do it, we didn't know how to do it. And then it was like, Well, have you guys thought about going into another state? And it was no way. And then the invite our Brendan is his name would be like, Well, why not? Like, let's talk about it. And then we did. And and that was a major turning point. We opened up in a new state. We were only in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire since 1981 to that point. And then it was, could you ever go to New Jersey? It was a customer, and so we did. And then it was like, Well, I guess we can. Like it works, and then from there it it it changed. How many other groups are you in now? Are you in more states than yeah? We're in all of the northeast, uh, down to to Delaware, and we just opened up in Colorado in September.

SPEAKER_00: 12:21

That's totally the opposite way.

SPEAKER_02: 12:24

Yeah, I know, I know. So we're more confident, right? Because that we I think we got we built confidence in ourselves and our ability, and obviously we have a an amazing team. And yeah, it's calculated risk, but it worked.

SPEAKER_00: 12:37

Yeah, I feel the same. I had an amazing team. My husband had a transplant on March 27th, and I didn't go to work for over four and a half months. I worked at home as much as I could while I was caretaking him. So having a an amazing staff in place made the biggest difference of all because years ago, when that all happened with my dad, and you know, two years ago, if that staff had still been here, we would have been in trouble. We would have we would have never made it through. It would have been a chaos and mass, I can't even imagine what was going on. Right. So yeah, so it's it does make a difference to have that foundation. It helps you, you know, helps you to know that you can take some time for yourself and and not have to work seven days a week 24-7 to make it work anymore. Hey, so what lessons about leadership had did you learn during this, especially managing some of the people who'd been with your dad for years? Because they were probably, you know, we've been here for a long time. You guys just you don't know what you're doing. Uh they were right.

SPEAKER_03: 13:33

Uh they were right. And so I think in the beginning we really had to come in and we were the student, you know. We like that. There was no um ego, there was only gratitude. Thank you for staying. Uh, we don't know what the holy hell is gonna happen here. So, you know, we became the student and we had to learn and and we made mistakes. We went again, you know, we we did a couple doozies that they said that's not gonna work out, and we were like, well, we're gonna do it anyways, and it did not work out. Um but I think in terms of like what did we have to change? We had to listen, you know, we had to learn. It was a basically a startup for Andy and I, but yet it had been in business for since 1981. Um, so it really was there was no ego. There was we were sponges, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:22

And then it's a good thing you were, because if the ego would have destroyed the whole thing. Forget. Yeah, my dad and this company would do it my way. And yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So was there ever a moment or 10 that you wanted to walk away and what kept you going?

SPEAKER_02: 14:39

Well, I think Danielle did Danielle might have more moments than me. I mean, I what kept me going was I didn't want to fail. I was afraid to fail. That's as simple as that.

SPEAKER_03: 14:48

Yeah, I I mean, I would uh up until recently, I would say jokingly, I'd quit tomorrow. Like I can't explain it. I this company is so like enmeshed in my entire life. There's just I'm so proud of what we've done. But like for me, there there is a point, you know, somewhere down the road, the short road that it's I'm okay now to go. Like I feel like he is so proud of us. We did more than we ever thought we could. And you know, there's still room to do more for sure. Like, but you know, I if if everything ended today, I would be so proud of what we did, personally and professionally.

SPEAKER_00: 15:26

So, in that same thing, how has your definition of success evolved since those early days?

SPEAKER_03: 15:32

Yeah, there's so many levels to that. We probably have different answers. And they do.

SPEAKER_02: 15:36

Yeah, I mean, it's hard because I think in the early days when I didn't want to fail, success was just staying in business and being profitable. And now, 13 years later, success is way more on a personal level, emotional, spiritual, mental. And I'm more proud of my success in those categories. And I don't know if the the business the business is a teacher too. And it showed me where I really needed to work on myself, what my triggers are, what my fears are, all of that stuff. And so success to me is like, and I'm not trying to be cliche, it's true. It's inner peace and being able to be the best version of myself with whoever I'm with at that time, whether it's my children, my husband, Danielle, my family, that's what I want. And so no matter what goes on, whatever success or no or or slow success, whatever it is, that I'm the same positive person.

SPEAKER_03: 16:28

That's amazing. I it's funny when you were saying that, Andy, I was thinking like ExpressIt in some ways like continue to parent us. Oh yeah. So like it's really funny. Like, even though he was gone, like Express It still was our parent. Like it still taught us so many lessons through him. But success for me, I think, is with regards to business is the opportunity to have an option, like what happens at the end. Like everything was so out of our control how it was going to end with the company in those early days, and certainly how it was gonna end with our dad. Like everything was out of our control. But I think success now is like we actually can have a conversation about options, like it might end on our terms, and that is like really successful.

SPEAKER_00: 17:13

100%. And yeah, you guys are touching me a lot today and hearing you talk and what you said about the business being your parent. I just thought of that.

SPEAKER_03: 17:22

Like she I've never said that, I've never even thought that. But when she said it, it's our teacher, and I was like, No, it's still dad. Like it's still freaking dad. Like he's still, yeah. So yeah. Which he was love, by the way. And he's still like here and controlling and figuring it all out for us. So he's probably like, They yeah, hello.

SPEAKER_00: 17:43

I think what you're saying, you know, I thought I was so close to my dad, he's gonna give me all these signs from above, you know. And they didn't. And then I was like, Man, dad, where are you? Like, I thought you were gonna, I thought I would hear from you. I thought and it and it didn't happen. So last week we were going my husband two weeks ago, he had to have some stents taken out. And we were walking through the hallway of the um or the hospital, and they were playing music. And he said, There's that song, and I'm like, What is it? And I listened for a second. It was my dad's CB handle song that every time we go to the airport now, every time we went to the hospital, it's come on the radio. Well, this time it's actually in the hallways of the hospital playing on our walk-in to him to have more surgery. So then I think, okay, so he's not talking to me, but there's little things reminding me, reminding me, right? And so it's wild how it happens. Like I want to have a conversation with him, like I want to fall asleep and dream about him and talk to him. But it's no, but I'm getting at it many other ways, you know. And he is so proud of me. I know that. Me not laying around crying my eyes out every day. Because that could that's the way I could go, and anyone could go. Anyone that's going through grief, that is a way that you can go. But when my friend told me about honoring him versus grieving, it just m changed my whole perspective of of death and what I could do. Like I could grieve every day and I could let it destroy me. But I I'm not. I'm gonna keep going. And watching and listening to you both, it's it's so heartwarming what you're doing. And I know you feel this too. I know you all we we all we all feel the same thing. And if you have a love with your parents, like obviously we do, it hurts. And people are like, you know, he's he was 74, but I had him every single day of my entire life. Right. I was 55. I was 55, I had him, you know. So, anyways, I'm sorry to go off on that tangent. But oh no. How much of your success today would you attribute to mindset versus skill?

SPEAKER_02: 19:37

All of it. 100%. And we have no skill.

SPEAKER_03: 19:47

No, I'm glad you didn't say what's your skill. Because it might be mindset. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 19:56

Good. Well, I'm I believe in the power of mindset and positive things. And I opt every day to get up in a positive mood no matter what's going on. And you know, to be able to push through all of this in two years and do all of it for myself, if it wasn't for my knowledge of how I can control my own mind, I you know that is the biggest skill of all. If you can do that, because it's a blessing that we have as human beings to have that opportunity. Right. So that's pretty cool. So and there I was reading about something you were you called People First Philosophy. What does that look like on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_02: 20:28

Danielle, I think, mentioned it. It's creating a culture of gratitude. It was the only thing we knew how to do, but it it came naturally to us. And that that's what it is. It's making sure the drivers feel appreciated. They're out there on the road by themselves, that they're part of something. It's making sure our ops team, you know, like when you ask about our leadership, I don't feel like a leader. We are uh like a collaborative team and everyone's on the same page. Although ultimately Danielle and I have to make the decision, and there are risk factors that, you know, because the things as owners you have to, you you're in charge of, but it's about the people. If they're happy, then the results are there. If they're not happy and they're miserable, then that energy that that affects everyone around them. So that's just for us, it's just that's like humanity one-on-one, and that's all that we knew how to do.

SPEAKER_00: 21:18

Yeah, that's amazing. I love that, and I believe the same as you. And I try so hard to treat people with the most utmost respect and kindness. And it does work, even though some days it people stab you in the back, it's gonna happen. It's just life. Some people aren't like us, right? It's they're different. And so we have to know that we're gonna have those roller coaster rides in as an entrepreneur forever. It's part of it, but know that we're going in, doing the right thing, being good people, treating people with kindness, and then people don't ever want to leave, right? They want to be a part of something instead of apart from it. And I think that's what you're doing. You're keeping them a part of it, which is people first, right? And our our philosophy is agent first, so it's the same. Yes, so for women that are balancing motherhood, business, and grief, what message do you hope your story sends? Danielle, you go, you were a mother during the early days of the girl.

SPEAKER_03: 22:09

That it's gonna be okay. Like that I really do sort of think it's gonna be okay. I know it's gonna be okay. And I think if you just have that as a mom, whether it's you're grieving or you're going through something, or your jaw, or you're balancing every single plate in that house, it really is gonna work out. It's gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_00: 22:30

Yeah. It always is.

SPEAKER_03: 22:31

It really, it really is.

SPEAKER_00: 22:33

So tell me a little bit about unlikely bosses. We talked a little bit about Express It, but talk to me about unlikely bosses.

SPEAKER_02: 22:40

Yeah, it started. We had, I say we've been hiding under a rock for 12 years. But whenever we told our story to people, whether it was the bang, anyone related, or and they're introducing us, they would say, you gotta hear their story, much like what we're talking about here. And so it was like, okay, well, maybe we should start sharing it and maybe it will inspire people to keep going when it gets really, really hard and you don't want to do it anymore. But also in the early days, we were craving to know that there were other people out there that didn't know what they were doing. And it was, it was okay and it was working because at that point it seemed like everyone was an expert and a professional and successful, and we were like, we're not, and this is terrible. So it was a combination of all of that. And it's like, let's just get out there, maybe we create like a community of the unlikeliness of everyone's story and share it and talk about it and celebrate the unlikeliness of it all and hear other people's unlikely stories. And that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_00: 23:38

I love that. It's kind of what we're I'm about here too. And you know, I grew up in a in a park and we had three little girls in a bedroom until we were 18. The same bedroom, one closet, one dresser. And I didn't know that was a bad thing until they called me trailer trash. And then you're like, why would you call me that? Like, I'm not a bad person. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I'm unlikely to be a boss, right? I don't care. Right. My growing up, and people say, you know, I didn't know though. I never believed that we didn't have things because we had so much love that the truth didn't matter. But today, the things are all the people to think about, right? The things. Yes. But if you had a growing up like I did with the parents that loved each other so much, and you know, we we couldn't even cross the hallway without touching, right? It was so small you touched in the hallway, you know. So I wouldn't change none of it. None of it. No, you know, so was I the unlikely person? 100%. But I did I did it anyway. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02: 24:33

I I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 24:34

Yeah, yeah. So, what is the biggest takeaway you want our listeners to walk away with and how can they connect with you and follow your journey?

SPEAKER_03: 24:41

I think, well, you know, just come along for the ride, right? We're in the car, we're telling our day-to-day what is happening, whether the bank's got us at some crazy, you know, event or we're going into somewhere where we feel completely unqualified, but we're gonna get out of the car and and go do it anyways. But I think follow us at Unlikely Bosses and just there's something that will resonate, whether it's the sisters, you know, the family business, the moms, the the grief, whatever it might be. Just, you know, we are just on there trying to have a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00: 25:12

Awesome. I love that. And so, you know, what I love about your story is that it reminded me that leadership doesn't always start with a plan, it starts with part, right? Yeah. And a choice to want to do it no matter what. And so the fact that you you did it not knowing anything just proves that anybody can do whatever they want to do if they put their mind to it. You have to choose what you get your life in the path you go down. You both could have chosen not to do that, and that your life would be different today. Would it be better? I don't know. But right now that it kept the two of you together, it kept you learning from your father, which you didn't even say until today, which I'm so glad you said here on this show. And uh it's just a beautiful story. So if if you're out there and their conversation inspired you, please, please reach out and try to you know hook up and find them because their story is one story that I can say that I am so proud to be a part of, even a little bit. Thank you both so much.