Desert Roots Wellness
Tyler LaBarge
Co-Founder, Desert Roots Wellness · Leadership Coach · President & CEO, U.S. Truck Driver Training School
Who Is Tyler LaBarge?
Tyler LaBarge is Co-Founder of Desert Roots Wellness and President & CEO of U.S. Truck Driver Training School — a role he reached not through a business school credential, but through more than two decades of working his way up through every level of the organization.
He joined USTDTS in 2003 washing trucks. He later earned his CDL-A, became a certified CDL instructor, and developed experience across sales, marketing, operations, finance, human resources, compliance, workforce development, and organizational leadership. In January 2020, he became President & CEO.
That timing tested everything. The COVID-19 pandemic forced high-stakes decisions about safety, staffing, compliance, continuity, and the people depending on the organization. Tyler led through that period while keeping student achievement and workforce development at the center.
Across two decades of leadership, Tyler also began to recognize that many of the hardest business problems are not operational — they are internal. Identity, fear, over-responsibility, difficulty delegating, family expectations, burnout, or a leader who has become so indispensable that the organization stops developing capability around them.
That perspective now shapes his work at Desert Roots Wellness. Tyler helps high-achieving leaders examine the patterns underneath how they lead — and build organizations, teams, and lives that can sustain what they are trying to build.
Areas of Focus
What Tyler Is Known For
Leadership Burnout
Tyler works with leaders who are still performing at a high level but privately exhausted — not from the work itself, but from carrying more responsibility than the role requires, being the constant fixer, and struggling to let the organization develop capability around them.
The Bottleneck Leader
One of Tyler's most recognized patterns: the leader who becomes so indispensable that the organization can't function without them. It looks like strength. It often reflects a difficulty delegating, a fear of others failing, or an identity too closely tied to being needed.
Team Development
Tyler's coaching draws directly from his experience building teams across operations, sales, marketing, HR, and workforce development. His focus is on developing people's capability — not rescuing them from every problem.
Family Business Dynamics
Tyler understands the specific complexity of family businesses — where professional roles and personal relationships overlap, where expectations are inherited rather than chosen, and where the hardest conversations are rarely about strategy.
Sustainable High Performance
Tyler does not coach leaders to become less ambitious. His work helps them build stronger people, stronger systems, and a more sustainable definition of success — so leadership doesn't require chronic self-sacrifice as the price of the role.
Scope Note
Coaching is not therapy. Tyler does not diagnose or treat mental-health conditions and refers clients to licensed professionals when clinical support is appropriate.
Frameworks & Concepts
Tyler's Signature Ideas
From Washing Trucks to CEO
Tyler joined USTDTS in 2003 washing trucks. He earned his CDL-A, became a certified CDL instructor, and worked his way through the organization over two decades. That ground-up arc gives him an unusually practical perspective on what leadership actually looks like at every level.
When the Leader Becomes the Bottleneck
Being deeply capable and deeply committed can quietly become the organization's ceiling. When a leader becomes the only one who can make decisions, handle problems, or maintain momentum, it limits what the team can grow into.
Developing People Instead of Rescuing Them
Rescuing someone from a problem feels like support. It can also teach the team that they don't need to develop the capability to handle it. Tyler's coaching focuses on the difference between helping and enabling.
Over-Responsibility as a Leadership Pattern
Some leaders take on more than they should not because the organization demands it, but because releasing responsibility feels uncomfortable, risky, or like a failure. That pattern shapes culture as much as it shapes the leader.
People Before Profits Without Lowering Standards
Tyler operates from a people-first philosophy, but he is direct that people-first does not mean results-last. His work with leaders focuses on holding both: genuine care for people and clear accountability for outcomes.
Speaking & Interviews
Topics Tyler Speaks On
Media & Podcast Inquiries