Latest / Outside the Box with Asendia USA: The International e-Commerce Podcast / 35 part 2: Women in Logistics: Building Connections & Empowering Future Leaders

Transcript

35 part 2: Women in Logistics: Building Connections & Empowering Future Leaders · Outside the Box with Asendia USA: The International e-Commerce Podcast

• 0:00
  For me, I really love all of the diversification that we're seeing in the transportation industry post pandemic.
• 0:07
  You know, necessity breeds creativity and there are people who are doing really cool stuff.
• 0:14
  Step into the future with shipping.
• 0:16
  Smart.
• 0:17
  Outside the box is where the journey starts.
• 0:19
  From borders to buyers, we break it down fast.
• 0:21
  Nick and Jason deliver knowledge that lasts.
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  Insight, innovation.
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  Wherever your brand goes, we'll guide your growth so your global reach flows.
• 0:29
  Tune in, lean in, let's unlock the way.
• 0:31
  Go outside.
• 0:31
  Inside the box with the senior usa.
• 0:34
  KJ.
• 0:35
  I mean, I love to talk about the women that supported me when I first started in logistics.
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  I paused my story earlier because it's,.
• 0:43
  It's a little near and dear to the heart.
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  I get emotional.
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  But I had one of the first diverse female leaders at a national carrier.
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  So when I was, you know, found in our local mall not for acting, but for logistics, again, maybe later.
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  Future ambition.
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  Yes, we can do anything.
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  We can do.
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  Exactly.
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  She.
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  So I was off the street.
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  I don't love that.
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  I don't.
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  Do not love that.
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  When you were first discovered.
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  Yeah,.
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  It's a very internal national carrier phrase.
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  Because one of the things that I, my old employer did really, really well was promote from within and know who on their team was.
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  They called ready now and ready for the right roles.
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  And so to get someone for a more like sales, business development, whatever role off the street was really not heard.
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  Right.
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  You pull from ops, so you get someone that kind of like naturally went up progression.
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  So they were looking for someone in my part of Minnesota, which is shocking.
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  And I didn't have any of the prerequisites.
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  I didn't have the background or the education.
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  I had no idea logistics was even a thing.
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  Right.
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  So I'm like, huh.
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  I try to get to build my depth and breadth of experience and skills really just from exposing myself and experience in retail world and sales and training and marketing, whatever in my small local mall and other consultative opportunities
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  that I had.
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  I mean, I feel like you should give the mall a shout out.
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  What was the mall's name?
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  Viking Plaza.
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  Viking Plaza Mall Alexandria, Minnesota.
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  Yeah.
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  Hot spot.
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  Everybody's gonna go hit it.
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  No, everybody's gonna go shop now.
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  We have restaurants now.
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  Okay.
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  Anyway, there's restaurants there now.
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  Viking Plaza all day long.
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  So anyway, it was really nerve wracking when you're going in and taking a chance and applying for something.
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  And I actually did end up getting an interview and my first leader was the first again, like I said, diverse female leader within that district at the national carrier I worked for and had met me in the interview.
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  And I kind of did like, a letter where I was like, you know, you're buying a house.
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  Like, please sell me this house.
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  This is why I need this house.
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  I kind of did the same thing when I applied.
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  And she said that there was just something in the energy she felt in my letter and was like, we just probably need to meet this person off the street that she doesn't have the background, but let's just see.
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  So I was able to take, like, my education, skill set, all the other things that I had gained, having a bunch of different experiences and say, this is how I can apply.
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  And this is like, why you want an ex teacher.
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  And this is what we can do, right?
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  Ex teacher, mom, female.
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  These are all the skills that we bring to the table and why I know I will be good at inspiring.
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  And she went to bat for me.
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  It wasn't necessarily like a normal thing for that carrier, but she went to bat to get me hired and move me through the process.
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  And I wouldn't have known that this world existed or any of that without her.
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  So, like, shout out to Yolanda.
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  She's my girl.
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  I can't even talk about her anymore because I get all emotional.
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  She's just that amazing.
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  So women that gave the way and the men that gave the way, too.
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  But she, like, wholeheartedly and at the end of the day, is the reason why I am where I am today.
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  I would have not have gotten that chance from her.
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  I wouldn't be.
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  No, absolutely.
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  And I feel the same way again.
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  I was babysitting.
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  I love that.
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  Yes.
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  And she literally looked at my resume.
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  I was like, I feel like you would, you know, really should to try to do carrier sales.
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  And gave me a chance again.
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  I was right out of college, so that wasn't typical.
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  A lot of the national carriers were not hiring right out of college.
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  And then after I was hired, I had a female sales executive just help me.
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  I moved to rural Arkansas.
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  I love Arkansas.
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  Harrison, Arkansas.
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  Had to cover Harrison, Arkansas to do all the shop.
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  Exactly.
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  Maybe we'll get free stuff.
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  I know, I know exactly.
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  I don't know what's in Harrison right now.
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  But, yeah, maybe we'll get free stuff.
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  But no, she did.
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  And she, you know, I didn't.
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  I was remote, so I wasn't in the office.
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  You know, on sales, you go out to the territory, you're working.
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  And so I didn't have anybody again.
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  I was 22 years old, right out of college.
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  In a new town.
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  And Dina just came alongside me and helped me so much and was encouraging.
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  And, you know, I would make mistakes.
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  Like, she would say, okay, you're going to do this presentation today, and I would make mistakes.
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  And she's like, no, you have to make mistakes.
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  You know, you have to make mistakes to learn from it.
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  And.
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  Yeah.
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  And you want, you want to get comfortable.
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  You want to get comfortable in front of the customer.
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  And the only way to do that is to present and, you know, get more comfortable.
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  So it was amazing just how our industry, I really feel like women support each other.
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  Yes.
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  And, you know, even if we're competitors or in different companies, we're always helping each other out.
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  So I think that's so key.
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  Just something you need.
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  I think the other thing is that.
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  You're never gonna, when you, when you.
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  Have other women who are rooting for you, you're not gonna miss opportunities.
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  No.
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  Right.
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  I actually took a break from logistics after the pandemic because I just, you know, I was importing toilet paper from China during the pandemic.
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  There were a hundred ships that supported Los Angeles.
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  Did you get toilet paper?
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  Wow.
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  I got the toilet paper to the people.
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  All right.
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  And then I needed a break.
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  We heard it here first.
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  Yes, exactly.
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  This is who we have to pay.
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  Exactly.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you.
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  You're welcome.
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  You're welcome.
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  But you know, I negotiated two national parcel contracts back to back, and those are six month negotiations.
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  It was tough.
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  And in that environment, I needed a break.
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  And so I did.
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  I, I took one and tried out a different industry, which was absolutely not for me.
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  Yes.
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  And a of mine who's a woman in logistics brought me back and that's how I landed at Shipya, because she said, no, you've got a, you've got sales.
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  We need to utilize this.
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  So.
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  No, absolutely.
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  So today, as I kind of called out at the beginning of the podcast, we do have females that are looking at your leadership roles and like, wow, you know, as we aspire to be, the females that, you know,
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  brought us along the way, they're looking at you the same way.
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  So what advice?
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  You know, anything, anything that you can give to the next generation that, you know, it's going to be filling our ROLES when we're CEOs one day, you know, and you're acting.
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  When you're acting person.
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  Filling your role.
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  When I'm on location.
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  Yeah.
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  When you're on location with a microphone all the time.
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  No, but, you know, what are things that you could.
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  Any advice or any Tips that you can give the next generation for coming into the logistics transportation world.
• 7:06
  Sure, I'll start, if that's okay.
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  One of the pieces of advice that I learned from the Yolanda who gave me my first shot, gave me a chance, is I think as women, we tend to sometimes being our own biggest roadblock when it comes to
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  a new challenge or a new role or just something we're maybe not completely comfortable with, that we can be wholly successful.
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  We can be our own roadblock.
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  Right.
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  We want to get into something and be the expert and be masterful right away and take it from there.
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  The advice I got that I continue to pass along to people is, are you 50% of the way?
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  Are you 50% of the way there?
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  The other 50 will come.
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  And it comes with exposure, experience and education.
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  Yes, done, like.
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  And as soon as I started really living that advice, then I was able to get even more opportunities in the world of logistics in all different verticals.
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  And so that is something I love to say to people, is 50%, you got this.
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  It's not just the 50%.
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  It's showing up.
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  Oh, yes.
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  You got half of it.
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  And you show up, show up on time and you show up regularly.
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  Absolutely.
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  It's a huge part of it for me.
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  I always try to help people connect their reason why they're here.
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  Is it about the relationships or it is about.
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  Is it about some bigger picture?
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  For me, I really love all of the diversification that we're seeing in the transportation industry post pandemic.
• 8:23
  You know, necessity breeds creativity and there are people who are doing really cool stuff.
• 8:31
  And if you can see what's cool about it, if you can understand how that connects to people's daily lives and the small businesses that are trying to, you know, get their foot forward in whatever, in the retail industry
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  or whatever service is being provided.
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  How do you help that?
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  How do you be a part of.
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  It and figure out what part of logistics and supply chain connects for you and that makes it not just a job, but a purpose.
• 8:59
  No, absolutely.
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  You really connect.
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  Yeah, I love that.
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  What do you say to people?
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  Well, I say kind of like the calculated risk, you know, if you're.
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  I'm not a risk taker, so I've always been, you know, very risk adverse.
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  I like comfort.
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  And this industry is far from comfort.
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  True.
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  Like, you mean it changes and it.
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  Shifts all the time.
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  There's no comfort in this industry daily.
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  If you're comfortable, that's actually scary.
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  That's.
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  Something's wrong.
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  Yeah, something.
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  Yeah, something is Wrong.
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  And so that's one thing I encourage people kind of like what you're talking about.
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  I don't know if you're ever going to be fully qualified or potentially prepared for the next role.
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  Yeah.
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  So I think you just have to take a calculated risk and know that you're one.
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  You're going to have mentors like us.
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  We didn't know everything and we had these mentors that helped us along our journey and just to take that risk and to grow, you know, because that's the biggest thing.
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  Also, I love how small this industry is.
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  I love that we have social networks and we have people who we see at these conferences and talk to in meetings, and they change companies, but move and grow and change.
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  And you can see other people also taking those risks.
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  And it's okay because we're all here for each other.
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  Yeah.
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  And you protect your reputation.
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  You don't burn bridges.
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  Ever.
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  Not.
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  Yes, very good.
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  Very good point.
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  Because then you won't get invited to the Mimosa mix.
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  No.
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  Yes, exactly.
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  You don't want to get kicked out of the Mimosa mix.
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  Yeah.
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  No, you do not.
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  No, you don't.
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  And I love that.
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  And I love that within our industry, we have specific events, you know, for us to go and bond and collaborate and encourage one another.
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  You know, I love that.
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  I love that about the industry.
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  That just, I don't know, companies are.
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  Making that almost like an initiative or a KPI measurement internally is what are we doing to support our women, our, you know, diverse personnel.
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  And having seen companies have actually, like, women in logistics groups or business resource groups or whatever you want to call it within that company.
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  The company I was at prior to Pro Ship did such an amazing job at that and empowering women and bringing women from all over the country once a year to get in a space, in a safe space to
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  talk and do, you know, conversations like this, that is something that is also new in the last 10 years.
• 11:17
  Right.
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  So just creating these avenues and platforms and opportunities and then protecting your brand.
• 11:22
  Right.
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  The exposure, the mimosa mixers, I mean, it's.
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  It's evolved.
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  It is evolved.
• 11:27
  Absolutely.
• 11:28
  I love it.
• 11:28
  I love it.
• 11:29
  Well, this was amazing.
• 11:30
  Thank you both for joining me today.
• 11:33
  Any parting words before we close out our podcast today?
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  Any last minute thoughts we have?
• 11:40
  I know.
• 11:40
  No, it was great.
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  I feel like we've shared a lot of feedback and just how amazing the industry is and hopefully we encourage others, you know, today as they're watching this, and maybe they don't know if they want to take a leap
• 11:52
  into logistics.
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  Hopefully this encourages them to be like, oh, yeah, take that risk, come to the dark side.
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  And also it's a good strategy.
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  It's a big industry.
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  Yes.
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  You, you can reinvent, you can reinvent yourself.
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  I started out in, you know, international freight and here I am in, you know, parcel strategy.
• 12:12
  Yes.
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  And there you can live anywhere in the world.
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  You will meet people from all over the world.
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  And it's such a great opportunity, such a fantastic industry.
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  I love it.
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  I just think keep your networks open because like you said, you don't know what you don't know, especially in this space.
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  So continue to meet people, meet people from different companies, meet, work with your competitors.
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  Like, competition is the best.
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  I mean, we're all sitting here together on a podcast.
• 12:35
  I think that's wonderful.
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  You never know when your competition is.
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  Going to be your colleague.
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  Not in this industry.
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  Don't know.
• 12:41
  So just like have that network growing.
• 12:43
  Right.
• 12:43
  Maybe you don't get paid to make friends.
• 12:45
  That's fine.
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  Like, we can't, we all can't do that.
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  Our cool jobs like that.
• 12:49
  But it is cool to expand your network and expand the women and different roles.
• 12:53
  And I think that's probably my other piece of advice is me.
• 12:56
  Well, sometimes men and women, right, stick to what we're comfortable with, but go talk to operators, go talk to freight forwarders, go talk to competitors, expand your scope that way as well.
• 13:07
  I think that's been hugeeffort.
• 13:09
  Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 13:11
  Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
• 13:13
  Thank you.
• 13:14
  Asendia, thank you outside the box for having us as your, as your guest.
• 13:18
  Today and we'll see you soon.
• 13:20
  Thank you.
• 13:20
  Thank you.
• 13:21
  Share, subscribe and download our podcast to learn more about today's topic or for a free consultation, email us at ecommerce.usa@asendia.com.
• 13:33
  Come back for more insightful discussions on ecommerce shipping to Canada, Mexico and worldwide.