Operator · Speaker · Mentor · Host · Calgary, Alberta
27 years making businesses run on structure instead of on the owner.
01 · The turnaround
The work people ask about. Willy's Trucking was growing fast and bleeding money. Hector came in as an operator, not a consultant.
2018
−$1.3M
Annual loss
A 100-plus-person carrier that had outgrown the way it was run, and was still running on one person's memory.
ONE YEAR LATER
+$1.4M
Profit
Same trucks, same market. What changed was who owned what, which numbers got watched and what happened every week.
2022
$25M+
Sale
The company sold for well over $25 million, three years after the rebuild began.
LEVER 1
Every outcome has one name next to it. Titles matter less than who owns the result.
LEVER 2
A scorecard the whole team can read, reviewed early enough to act on.
LEVER 3
How the work gets done is written down, so it doesn't leave when people do.
LEVER 4
The same meeting, every week, whether anyone feels like it or not.
Does your business look like Willy's did in 2018?
FIGURES AS PUBLISHED BY HECTOR AND WILLY SCHMIDT ON OPTIMIZEBUSINESSSYSTEMS.COM AND THE INNER CIRCLE PODCAST
02 · In his words
I walk into companies that aren't working and find the actual problem, not the loudest one.
I've spent more than 27 years in operations, logistics and transportation, mostly inside businesses that needed fixing. I've been a VP of Operations, a Continuous Improvement Master Trainer and a Lean Black Belt. The titles matter less than what they taught me.
I'm still an operator. I run operations for the largest NGL and butane hauler in Western Canada. I own businesses through Family Legacy Industries. I mentor owners from inside the work, not from a distance. The frameworks stay honest when you're still using them yourself.
What I want for the owners I work with is simple: a business that runs on structure instead of on you.
I was born in El Salvador and call Vancouver home. Everything I build, I build for the same reason: a legacy my kids and grandkids will enjoy.
03 · Today
He mentors from inside the work, so he still runs a fleet himself.
VP, Operations
Runs operations for the largest NGL and butane hauler in Western Canada. The company has hauled bulk liquids for pulp and paper, mining, chemical and energy customers across Western Canada and the U.S. Northwest since 1955.
Co-founder & business mentor
With Willy Schmidt, he mentors founder-led companies in trades, logistics, construction and transportation as they install the OBS Compass. It has five connected gears: North Star, Team, Performance, Growth and Execution.
Visit OBS ↗Owner
The holding company for a privately owned real estate portfolio worth more than $12 million, with no outside investors. It holds multi-family properties across Alberta and investment properties in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. In Canada, it also owns Gold Rush Cleaners.
Founder
A vehicle to raise capital and buy companies in Latin America, primarily in El Salvador, with an eye on Colombia and Argentina. Acquisitions so far include Surf City Laundromat, a Hercules Supplements and a La Nevería franchise.
"We fixed a business before we built a framework."Hector Alvarado & Willy Schmidt · Co-founders, OBS
04 · How he works
Rule 01
Not the loudest one. Most performance problems are clarity problems: nobody has written down what "good" looks like.
Rule 02
If every decision runs through the owner, the business is an expensive job. Systems make it something you can step away from, or sell.
Rule 03
Plenty of people will draw the org chart and hand it over. The real work happens after that, in the room, week after week.
Rule 04
In hazmat and bulk-liquid transport, a load that isn't moved safely isn't on time.
Want these rules working in your business?Talk to Hector ↗
05 · Speaking
Speaking is where Hector is strongest. He brings the real numbers from a real turnaround, and frameworks the audience can use on Monday morning.
Keynote
The Willy's Trucking turnaround: what changed in the first year, and the four levers that took a money-losing carrier to a sale.
Workshop
For owners who are the bottleneck. Ownership, a scorecard, documented standards and a weekly rhythm, built in the room.
Leadership
Expectations, coaching conversations and hard conversations that make accountability normal instead of personal.
Strategy
How leaders stop carrying unresolved decisions, and how to match the process to the stakes.
Culture
The four workplace cultures, why the "family feel" stops scaling, and how to get intentional before it breaks.
Story
An immigrant operator's path from logistics to trucking leadership, real estate and Latin American acquisitions, and building a family legacy.
Planning an event for owners, operators or leaders?
06 · The podcast
Hector hosts a weekly live call for owners working through the same problems. The recordings become The Inner Circle Podcast.
Live · Thu 5–6 PM MT
▶53 min
Start here · The turnaround
Don’t Just Survive—THRIVE!
2025-09-16
▶36 min
Leverage System · Pt 2
The Handoff Conversation
2026-10-02
▶33 min
Leverage System · Pt 1
The Leverage Audit
2026-09-25
▶45 min
Guest
Chris Lewis on Leadership & Accountability
2026-09-18
▶34 min
Performance Leader · Pt 4
The Performance System
2026-09-11
▶40 min
Performance Leader · Pt 3
The Hard Conversations Framework
2026-09-04
▶33 min
Performance Leader · Pt 2
Coaching Conversations
2026-08-28
▶35 min
Performance Leader · Pt 1
Expectations Blueprint
2026-08-21
▶39 min
Guest
Alfonso "The Godfather" Cuadra
2026-08-14
▶35 min
Decision-Maker's Playbook · Pt 4
The Decision Operating System
2026-08-07
▶40 min
Decision Makers Playbook · Pt 3
The Bias Blockers
2026-07-31
▶28 min
Decision-Maker's Playbook · Pt 2
The Decision Framework
2026-07-24
▶41 min
Guest
Leadership, Culture and Coaching With Special Guest Nigel Brooke
2026-07-17
▶57 min
Solo · Money
Cost Visibility and Control
2025-10-10
07 · The route so far
NOW
Northwest Tank Lines · Calgary
Operations leadership for Western Canada's largest NGL and butane hauler.
2025 – NOW
Optimize Business Systems · Alberta
Mentorship for founder-led companies across North America, plus The Inner Circle weekly call and podcast.
FRACTIONAL
Landscapers by Nature
Part-time second-in-command to the owner of a landscape and snow company: leadership team, priorities and operating rhythm.
2018 – 2023
Willy's Trucking Service · Alberta & Northern B.C.
Led the rebuild of an LTL and mid/last-mile carrier with terminals from Calgary to Fort St. John, through its 2022 sale.
EARLIER
Where the career started
He started in logistics and distribution, which opened a passion for operations and production. Then he moved into trucking to deepen his logistics background, becoming a Continuous Improvement Master Trainer and Lean Black Belt along the way.
EDUCATION
University of Phoenix
08 · Off the clock
Where he comes from, who he builds for and what he reads.
Roots
Born in El Salvador, Hector calls Vancouver, B.C. home. He found operations through logistics and distribution, then went into trucking to learn the business from the road up.
Why
"I named my holding company Family Legacy Industries because, for me, it's about building a legacy that my kids and grandkids will enjoy."
Sideline
He coached a men's football team in Grande Prairie, Alberta, and today he coaches his son's team of 11- and 12-year-olds. The lessons he teaches owners show up on the field too: clear expectations, accountability, and everyone knowing the play.
Reading
The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni, and Traction by Gino Wickman.
09 · Contact
For owners whose business grew faster than the way they run it, and for anyone who wants an operator on stage, on a podcast or on their board.
Building a legacy my kids and grandkids will enjoy.