Lacy Starling
By Anthony Wyatt
NKyTribune reporter
Florence’s Legion Logistics is a company on the move. Throughout its short seven-year history, Legion has grown its profits exponentially, expanded its network of business partners throughout North America and won numerous awards locally and nationally.
Behind Legion’s great success lies Lacy Starling, the company’s founder, President and “Fearless Leader,” and an increasingly active voice in the Northern Kentucky business community.
When Lacy was an undergraduate student at Kent State, becoming a driving force in the field of logistics was the furthest thing from her mind. As a journalism major, Lacy expected to enter into the newspaper business. However, these plans changed during her senior year when a few close friends asked for help starting their own website development company.
Although she joined the startup initially as a copywriter, with her background in communications Lacy quickly found herself blossoming as a saleswoman.
“I wasn’t a bad salesperson, so I started going on sales calls,” she said, “and it turned out I was the only one who could balance my own checkbook, so they also handed me the QuickBooks access” for accounting.
As the company took off, Lacy caught the entrepreneurial bug and decided to pursue a career in business. “I loved working in this environment,” she said, “and when I graduated from college I knew I wanted to go into business.”
She quickly enrolled in an MBA program at Malone University and entered the world of business.
Over the next few years, Lacy held a number of jobs – from selling Mary Kay products to being a Development Associate with the United Way of Greater Cincinnati – but she always dreamed of starting her own business.
Growing Legion’s success
Lacy’s former husband and current CEO of Legion, Tony Coutsoftides, had a long career in the U.S. Army and transitioned into the civilian workforce as a logistics director for a European cargo company. When he and Lacy met, they moved to Cincinnati where he began working for TQL.
In 2009, Lacy’s dream of owning her own business took a step towards becoming a reality when Tony suggested that the couple start a logistics company.
“After we got married,” Lacy said, “he came to me and told me that there were many things he would like to do differently in the logistics industry, and he asked if there was any chance I would want to go into business with him. I told him absolutely, as long as we could have the kind of company that I’ve always wanted to work for.”
Legion Logistics offices
After working for many different types of employers, from small businesses to non-profits to large corporations, Lacy wanted to be part of a company that treated its employees like people, not numbers. Propelled by the drive and commitment to achieve this goal, Lacy founded Legion Logistics in September of 2009.
Tony, however, was under a non-compete contract from his previous employer, so he had to sit out the first year of Legion’s existence. During that time, it fell to Lacy to grow the company, make those all-important initial business connections and develop the company’s image.
On her own, Lacy developed partnerships with freight companies and customers, and she quickly learned the ins and outs of the logistics industry. Nevertheless, growth was slow since Legion started out with only small-scale operations carrying less-than-truckload freight and was operating out of the basement of the family’s home in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati.
During its first year, Legion only made around $12,000 in sales, and with Lacy and Tony expecting their first child, finances were tight. Soon however, the future began to look brighter for the company as business took off and they expanded into the realm of full truckload freight. Another significant change came when Lacy decided to relocate to Northern Kentucky.
On the one hand, moving their family to Union allowed Lacy and Tony to enjoy a quieter, more spacious lifestyle than they could in the city, and they preferred the school districts for their daughter. On the other hand, by moving Legion’s offices to Florence, the company was able to save money and build important and lasting relationships with the community and local businesses.
Commitment to veterans
“Florence has been amazing to us,” Lacy said. “We have state, county and city tax incentives, and Mayor Whalen has been an advocate of ours from the very beginning. It has been so wonderful because anytime there is a question or a concern, we can reach out to city government, and we always get the answers and support we need. Rents are also lower. What we can afford here is just better than what we could afford in downtown Cincinnati. It just makes sense from a business perspective to be here.”
The move also allowed Legion to receive greater benefits and recognition as a disabled veteran-owned corporation. When Tony joined the company after his initial hiatus, he and Lacy decided that he should take the role of CEO at Legion. As a disabled veteran, Tony’s ownership of the company sets Legion apart and accentuates its commitment to helping those who have served in America’s armed forces.
From the beginning, Legion has been an advocate for veterans. According to Lacy, “25 percent of our employees are veterans or are actively serving in the military, and 40 percent of us have an immediate family member who has served.”
In addition to Tony’s service, many of Lacy’s close relatives are military veterans as well. Both know first-hand the challenges veterans face as they transition into the civilian workforce, and they wanted Legion to make that transition smoother.
One way that Legion helps veterans is by always giving them a phone interview when they apply for jobs with the company. Since veterans frequently struggle to translate their work experience from military technical codes to corporate jargon, Legion always follows up with these applicants in order to gauge the full extent of their skills. Often, veterans will have the exact qualifications needed for the job, but they are unable to express it on an application.
Legion also sponsors externships for returning service members. For three months, veterans join the company and spend time working in each of the departments. They receive assistance building resumes and developing interviewing skills as well. Not only do they earn a salary for this work, but they also gain valuable civilian work experience that can help jumpstart their post-military careers.
In the day-to-day work environment, Legion helps its veteran employees by accommodating their sometimes busy and complex schedules. Instead of treating a trip to the VA hospital like a typical doctor’s check-up as most companies would, Legion understands that the process usually takes up hours of one’s day. Moreover, when National Guard members or active duty personnel have training or service weekends, Legion accommodates those obligations without hesitation.
As a result of its dedication to veterans, Legion has won numerous awards, including the 2015 DAV Outstanding Small Employer of the Year, the 2014 Department of Defense Pro Patria Award and the 2014 Civilian Jobs award for Most Valuable Military Employer.
Beyond its commitment to veterans though, Legion values every one of its employees. When Lacy founded Legion, she wanted to foster a family environment at the company, despite the fact that logistics is often a young man’s business. Since logistics corporations coordinate partnerships with trucking companies and sell these shipping capabilities to businesses, the field primarily draws energetic college graduates and almost always employs men.
“The whole industry gets a bad reputation for being very much a young man’s game,” Lacy said. “It’s not an environment that’s friendly to women and it’s not friendly to someone with a family or who’s over the age of 30. Here, it’s completely different. We’re less a fraternity and more a family; we’re a team.”
At the top, Lacy noticeably bucks this trend herself, but throughout the company Legion proves itself to be a unique employer in its industry. Because Legion values skills and on the job quality rather than one’s personal background, it hires a wide array of employees: everyone from 40-year-olds with families to recent female college grads. And, just as with veterans, the company accommodates family responsibilities by allowing employees to shift their work schedules around obligations like taking one’s children to school.
Legion gives back to its employees as well, and its salespeople are rewarded for their hard work and recognized by the company for their outstanding quality. “We always make sure that our employees are engaged,” Lacy said. “We check-in with them regularly and we do the things that make them want to continue to drive forward and work hard for us. We set goals for them, make sure that the expectations are clear and coach and train them well.”
After a hard week of work, employees are also given the chance to unwind as a reward for the time and effort they’ve given to the company. The office tiki bar opens at three on Friday afternoons, and all employees can grab a drink, play some foosball and relax in celebration of the weekend.
“We also have fun,” said Lacy. “This is a stressful industry. There are wildfires and floods, and that’s just this week. Our salespeople handle these issues day after day, and we want to provide them some relief. We want to create an environment where they can blow off some steam and reap the rewards of what they’re doing.”
The face behind the success
As her job title denotes, Lacy Starling is truly the “Fearless Leader” behind Legion’s success. She has worked tirelessly for the company from the beginning, and her knowledge of sales has launched the company on its fast growth trajectory. Within a few years, the company’s profits have exploded, earning Legion a place on the Inc. 5000 list for three years in a row and achieving the company local recognition as a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Emerging 30 business.
The office Tiki Bar
Lacy’s personal accomplishments, however, don’t end with Legion’s success. She is a pioneering woman in the world of male-dominated business, an ardent advocate of female entrepreneurship, a promoter of Northern Kentucky job growth and a leader in the local business community.
Lacy seeks to share her passion for entrepreneurship while at the same time advocating for women in business. In addition to working at Legion, Lacy attends women’s summits and gives seminars at Bad Girl Ventures, a local non-profit organization that promotes female entrepreneurs by educating them in sales and management and enabling them to start their own businesses. With women leading less than five percent of Fortune 500 companies and being outnumbered by men in all levels of the corporate pipeline, organizations like Bad Girl Ventures and successful mentors like Lacy are instrumental in working towards making these statistics a thing of the past.
Lacy also shares her knowledge of the business world and her sales experience with students as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati. Although she only teaches one class a semester, Lacy’s work as an educator allows her to empower a variety of students and forge lasting relationships. By having real world experience, she imparts practical knowledge to her students that can help them improve their business success now and in the future.
Beyond education, Lacy is also passionate about Northern Kentucky. She plays an important role in the local business community as a member of the NKY Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Gateway Community & Technical College’s Northern Kentucky Logistics Consortium and the Campaign Cabinet for SkyWard. She additionally promotes and supports local entrepreneurial incubators like NKU’s Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and its Small Business Development Center.
When Legion, along with Lacy and Tony, relocated to Northern Kentucky, they didn’t realize just how important this shift would be. Years later, they not only love living in Union for family reasons, but there are also benefits for the local economy.
Fearless Leader Starling
For Legion’s employees, most of whom live in Cincinnati, the southern commute is favorable. Additionally, because Legion brings its workforce into Northern Kentucky, it has helped to change employees’ perceptions towards Florence, brought increased business to local stores and restaurants and prompted some employees to relocate to the area. Moreover, Legion gives back to the community in a variety of ways.
“We try to make sure that what we do focuses on this side of the river,” said Lacy. “We adopt a class in Covington at John G. Carlisle School, we work with organizations in the area that need support and we just collected school supplies as our summer community service project to help inner city students in local schools. Northern Kentucky has been very good to us, and we want to be very good to them in return.”
Additionally, the company’s great success – particularly Legion winning the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2013 Fast 55 award and Lacy winning the 2015 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Ohio Valley Region – has shined a spotlight on Northern Kentucky as a haven for small businesses and successful corporations. The attention garnered by both Legion and Lacy plays an important role in changing the perceptions of Tri-State residents and companies towards the Northern Kentucky community.
By working with Northern Kentucky business and economic development organizations, Lacy helps other companies make the move to the area. She speaks out for the excellent relocation benefits and available support networks offered throughout the region, and she advocates for the economic incentives that Kentucky offers to small businesses, growing corporations and veteran-owned companies. Lacy loves her Northern Kentucky home, and she wants other businesses and families to explore the possibility of moving south of the river as well.
As Lacy and Tony prepare to unveil Legion’s strategic growth plans for the next three years, their goal is to grow the company’s profits by 25 percent each year. As the company prospers, more jobs are created, which leads to more employees bringing business to the region. It also means more notoriety for Lacy’s success as a female entrepreneur, more awareness of the need for veteran-friendly workspaces and more recognition for the community support and economic assistance Northern Kentucky offers local businesses.
In an economy that has proven increasingly tough on logistics companies, with many seeing profits decline, Legion is one of the few that continues to see growth and prosperity. According to Lacy, the root of this success is hard work and dedication, something that she expects from every employee but also from herself.
“Every night, every weekend, Tony and I are thinking how we can make Legion better, how can we improve,” Lacy said.
“There’s no such thing as good enough for us. This is what has continued to propel us along, and it’s what makes us successful even in this market. But [our success] has also been about finding people who share that drive and that vision. We are a sales organization. It’s all about the service we provide to our customers. We make sure we have the right people in the right seats, and we always make sure that we grow and develop our folks in the best way we can.”
