35 part 1: Women in Logistics: Building Connections & Empowering Future Leaders

KJ Swaggert: 00:00:00

They named a national carrier and I go, what do you mean?

Like, you think I should drive a truck?

I'm so confused.

What does that mean?

And it was no.

Do you know that these carriers actually have sales and marketing and business development parts of their company and teams and sections of their company?

And I had no idea.

Intro: 00:00:17

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Amanda Meadows: 00:00:36

Well, welcome to the first female panel.

Yes.

On Outside the Box with Asendia USA.

I'm Amanda Meadows.

I'm director of Carrier partnerships at Redo and so I'm so excited to be here.

And this podcast is for all our female entrepreneurs, young women wanting to come into the logistics industry.

So this message today is for you and we're super excited to support those ambitions.

And today I have some very dear friends with me and colleagues, two females that have just had different paths in the industry that are going to share with you today.

So, KJ and Tamson, we'll just jump right in.

KJ, I'll start with you.

I would love to learn more and hear about your journey into logistics industry.

You know, did you pick this industry out of college or how did you get into the industry and talk about your role?

KJ Swaggert: 00:01:30

For sure.

Let's start what I'm doing now.

So K.J. Swaggert is my whole name.

It is a real name.

A lot of people are like, that seems like a name.

You, are you an actor?

What's going on?

You know, maybe someday.

Maybe someday, maybe someday.

My first name is actually Katie Jo, but everything in logistics is an acronym, right?

So I'm, I figured why not?

Tamsen Fricke: 00:01:48

Why not my name jump on the bandwagon.

KJ Swaggert: 00:01:50

Yeah, yeah, like that, right?

It's my only.

It's my only joke.

It's my only logistics joke that I have.

So I'm currently with ProShip.

So we're a multi carrier shipping software execution company.

I am the head of enterprise alliances.

So that's like a really fancy way of saying I get paid to make friends.

So I'm in charge of all the ecosystem, all the partners that we have, the tech partners, some of the high level carrier programs that we have.

I've been there about seven months, so been in the space for quite a while though.

So that's what I do.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:02:19

Now.

KJ Swaggert: 00:02:20

To answer your first question, did I pick this or did it pick me?

I absolutely did not pick this.

I had no idea this existed.

Yes, I, I went to school for education, so my background is actually education.

I was an elementary and science teacher and kind of was realizing this might not be my jam for the rest of my life.

I liked my kids, but I realized I had some other skill sets I wasn't necessarily utilizing in the classroom setting.

And I will say I'm married to an educator.

I think educators one of the most important jobs like ever.

It is so undervalued.

And I will just say like I'm not strong enough to do the education piece.

So I definitely appreciate educators.

I was actually.

I did a bunch of roles when I left education.

I live in a small town in Minnesota and had young boys.

So it wasn't necessarily something that I could do where I could move and try a bunch of things.

Right.

We're kind of landlocked a little bit where I lived and I was doing some stints in retail and I wanted to expand my skill set in business and I wanted to do that through experience and exposure.

I had somebody actually stop me.

I was doing some retail management and they watched me do a sales class at our local one level mall.

To give you kind of a picture.

Amanda Meadows: 00:03:28

Do those still exist?

KJ Swaggert: 00:03:30

Yes, it does.

So the one level malls, let's just say it's like less stores to shop at.

Amanda Meadows: 00:03:35

Right.

KJ Swaggert: 00:03:36

So they saw me doing a class and pulled me aside and said, have you ever considered working for.

And they named a national carrier.

And I go, what do you mean like you think I should drive a truck?

I'm so confused.

What does that mean?

And it was no.

Do you know that these carriers actually have sales and marketing and business development parts of their company teams and sections of their company?

And I had no idea.

So that's how I got pulled into the space.

And you know, great story later in terms of people that supported me.

But that's how I got started.

I had no idea it existed and somebody kind of found me off the street, which was very interesting.

Amanda Meadows: 00:04:09

That's awesome.

Hey Tamsen, what about you?

What's your journey?

Tamsen Fricke: 00:04:12

I feel like I am one of the very few people who actually chose logistics.

Yes.

I graduated from college right after 9/11 and the job market was super bleak.

I, you know, you know, went to a small liberal arts college and my friends were all selling shoes and I had the opportunity to move to Ecuador and become a fresh cut flower exporter.

Amanda Meadows: 00:04:36

And oh my goodness, that is fascinating.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:04:40

I love it.

Well, it was a great time you know, right after college to go on an adventure.

And I was a Latin American political economy major.

So I was like, this is my jam.

Yes, I'm going to do that.

And I have so many questions for.

Amanda Meadows: 00:04:54

You after this podcast.

KJ Swaggert: 00:04:56

Yes, a lot of questions.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:04:59

So I was coordinating flower sales from the farms to the United States and Europe and I was speaking with an American female plantation owner and she said that if she had to do it all over again, she would have gone into logistics.

Amanda Meadows: 00:05:17

Oh, wow.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:05:18

Because you can live anywhere in the world and do this job.

Amanda Meadows: 00:05:22

Oh my goodness.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:05:23

Logistics is everything.

And so for me, it really started out from a, you know, supply chain.

Where is the value added?

I worked with an NGO in the jungle that did vertically integrated chocolate sales.

So if you can't tell, I am a bleeding heart.

Amanda Meadows: 00:05:48

Best podcast is now over.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:05:51

Tamsen's already closed it down.

KJ Swaggert: 00:05:55

So many things I didn't know existed.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:05:57

Exactly.

KJ Swaggert: 00:05:57

All about education, Right?

Tamsen Fricke: 00:05:59

Education, like absolutely, yeah.

And so I went from doing fresh cut flowers to freight forwarding.

So I did only fresh cut flower transportation while I was living in Ecuador, which I do not recommend.

I mean, it's, the window is so short and if you're, if you get a flat tire on a tarmac in the tropics, your whole cargo is just toast.

So don't do that.

If you can avoid it, do not recommend.

But that's how I got into it and realizing where things come from and how it influences people's lives and how, you know, how everything that we have here today came from somewhere else.

Amanda Meadows: 00:06:43

No, absolutely.

So tell us a little bit about what you're doing today.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:06:46

So what I'm doing today is very similar to kj.

I work for Shipium, which is also a multi carrier platform and I do carrier portfolio strategy and operations.

I manage carrier relationships and I also help our customers understand where they could add a new carrier in their portfolio.

You know, what the analytics look like, what the performance looks like, and where they might be able to add a niche carrier to build out their portfolio.

Amanda Meadows: 00:07:17

Oh yeah, because the carrier landscape has drastically changed and the business models are.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:07:22

All different and you might not need a national for everything.

You might be able to save some money in one spot with a regional or you might get a cold chain partner to handle your medical supply or what have you.

So that's the kind of research that I do.

Amanda Meadows: 00:07:39

No, that's so cool.

That's awesome.

So one thing I kind of, I didn't go into logistics, you know, at all.

I was selected for logistics.

I didn't even know it existed.

Kind of like you.

I was living in Memphis, Tennessee and ironically, and went to college at University of Memphis and had no idea that people actually worked for, you know, the national carriers and sold services.

So the same thing happened.

I was, I was babysitting for an executive of the national carrier in Memphis and, you know, all the rage was pharmaceutical sales.

And I was like, oh, I've got to be in pharmaceutical sales.

I got to be in medical device sales.

And she was like, why?

I was like, I don't know.

I mean, what else is there to do, you know, I don't know anything else.

Yeah, this is the option.

And she was like, what about, you know, coming over to the carrier world and the same thing.

I was like, like to sell boxes, like, what do I sell?

I mean, I didn't know anybody actually, like, you know, was selling to different brands and distribution centers, actual carrier services.

So it was really, you know, it just opened my eyes to a whole new world and kind of the same thing.

I was like, wow, I just didn't even know all this existed.

And just the value of helping customers, you know, from start to finish with their products.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:08:54

So it's really cool.

Amanda Meadows: 00:08:55

And the industry has changed so much.

into leadership positions in: 2015

Megan Brennan was the first PMG, first female PMG.

So that is really cool.

Carol Tomé was the first CEO at UPS.

Yeah.

KJ Swaggert: 00:09:17

And I got to live and really.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:09:19

See that leadership change and all of the strategy and all of the celebration.

KJ Swaggert: 00:09:23

And all of the just like internal shifts that went along with it.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:09:26

A lot of mindset shifts, a lot.

KJ Swaggert: 00:09:27

Of opportunities that opened up.

So it was so fun to be beat on the street at that national.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:09:31

Barrier and see that happen.

KJ Swaggert: 00:09:33

It was amazing time.

Amanda Meadows: 00:09:34

Yes.

And so what are your thoughts about that?

Like, why do you think, you know, how has that changed?

How's the industry changed to embrace women more?

What's your perspective on, you know, kind of how, how we've been able to pave the way in the logistics industry over the last 10 years?

What are your thoughts on that?

Tamsen Fricke: 00:09:52

back to the United States in: 2008

And I helped stand up their government services industry vertical.

And it was four of us in a conference room at all times.

I was the youngest person, the only female Hess.

And I just, I kept looking around the room and going, how do these people have home lives?

They.

And the reality was that their spouses were holding down the fort.

Yes.

And there was just never going to be somebody who's going to do that for me.

That wasn't my reality.

And it was really tough.

And since I, you know, moving on from government contracting, I joined intentionally, primarily female teams.

It made such a huge difference in my life just to be around other women in the industry and to be on female teams.

And in some ways it's, you know, less ego driven.

I'm not gonna say it's softer.

It's not.

Amanda Meadows: 00:11:03

Oh yeah.

But it is more direct.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:11:07

It's actually more direct.

Amanda Meadows: 00:11:10

Exact hit bullets.

You don't got time for it.

Yeah, people are really going to call.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:11:15

You on your stuff.

There are no excuses.

KJ Swaggert: 00:11:19

Right.

Tamsen Fricke: 00:11:21

I do think that it's more collaborative and I also think that there's a certain amount of flexibility.

And you see, you know, I, I was on a predominantly female transportation team at Starbucks and it was, our leader was out of the door by 4pm but back on at 9 because she had her family life to take care of.

She'd had her kids, her kids went to bed and she was back on.

And so there was, you know, always the ethic of get it done, but it doesn't, you know, also we understand that you have a mom life.

I know that that sounds cliche, but it's true.

KJ Swaggert: 00:11:58

Oh, absolutely.

Amanda Meadows: 00:11:59

So did you have a mentor or a female that helped, you know, help you pave the way?

Tamsen Fricke: 00:12:04

Just being honest.

On that Starbucks team, specifically Laura Adi and Trish Biggs were amazing on that team and really very no nonsense, data driven relationship managers and really great at what they do.

So those two women were real role models for me.

Amanda Meadows: 00:12:29

Awesome.

KJ Swaggert: 00:12:29

Yes, awesome.

Outro: 00:12:31

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