December 12, 2024 • 33 mins
Job career paths don’t necessarily look the way they used to. The days of spending years at the same corporate job aren’t as common. For Marianna, she spent 22 years at the same company. But what makes her story unique is the way she navigated through different areas and jobs at that company, learning new things. When she was ready for a new challenge, she took all her experience and join a new startup company.
Hear from her how that that transition went, what she learned, and the support she had to make it all happen!
In this episode we discuss
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How Marianna navigated the male-dominated field of supply chain and trucking logistics
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The strategies she used to build respect and effective communication within her corporate teams
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The thought process behind her decision to leave the stability of a Fortune 50 company for a tech startup
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Tips for balancing family life and career in the fast-paced startup environment
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Marianna’s advice for overcoming the fear of making a career change, no matter your age
Want to skip ahead?
[12:24] Chaos is a constant. You can’t let it deter your choices in life.
[27:22] Be kind to yourself and talk to yourself in a kind way.
[29:48] Challenge yourself and figure out what motivates you so you can do tough things.
[31:46] In new positions or challenges, communicate and share. See how you can immediately add value to the team.
Marianna Kinee
https://mightinmotion.com/
https://www.withvector.com/
https://www.facebook.com/103085776024415
https://www.instagram.com/marianna_mightinmotion
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariannakinnee/
Grab more resources at https://easystylewithsami.com
Follow us on Facebook at https://facebook.com/ssmulhern
Follow us on Instagram at https://instagram.com/ssmulhern
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:00):
Welcome to Easy Style with Sami. I'm your
(00:02):
host. Sami Bedell-Mulhern, eachepisode, I invite a friend,
family member, colleague or justsomeone I've met on this journey
called life, to come and sharetheir personal style and
approach to business, parenting,life and everything in between.
You'll hear motivational andinspirational stories that will
help you refine and build yourown personal style. Remember,
(00:25):
style is easy when it comes fromwithin.
Hey friends, welcome to anotherepisode of Easy Style with Sami
and I am here today with guestMarianna Kinee. Thank you so
much for being here.
Marianna Kinee (00:37):
Thanks so much for having me, Sami. I'm so
excited to be here.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:39):
So I don't remember exactly who connected
us. I feel like it was SteveRamona. Is that correct?
Probably yes. Probably there'slike, so many amazing people in
my network that like connect meto all these other amazing
people, and I don't alwaysremember where they came from,
but we met, had a greatconversation, and I just love
kind of the intro to your storythat you shared with me, so I'm
(01:01):
really excited to talk with youtoday and hear a little bit more
about kind of your career pathand some of the big changes that
you've made. But before we kindof jump into that, why don't you
tell everybody just a little bitabout who you are and your
story?
Marianna Kinee (01:14):
Well, thanks so much. First of all, for having
me. My story is, I think, alittle bit unique and that I
used to call myself a corporateAmerica junkie. I was in the
corporate America space forabout 25 ish years, maybe a
little bit more, and with onecompany for 22 of those years.
(01:36):
So that made me the unicornslash dinosaur. And, you know,
but it was, it was awesome,awesome to to experience so much
growth within one organization.I think it's kind of unique
these days. My background hasbeen always in supply chain,
which includes everything fromdistribution to trucking to
(01:58):
inventory planning, so a littlebit of everything on the supply
chain front. A few years ago, Idecided that, you know what, I
wanted to create my own stageand share information with more
people than just the folks thatI met every day in the office.
Started my own podcast, andwhich has been really, really
great. We're actually recordingseason five right now, on a four
(02:21):
right now, which will launch in2025 so very excited about that.
And and then a few months ago, Iactually made the big jump from
the big corporate ship to a techstartup, so going from a fortune
50 company to a company of lessthan 50. Over the past four
(02:42):
months, there's been aninteresting transition for me,
and been a lot of fun, and Ican't wait to share more about
that as well. Yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (02:50):
I love that, and so I have so many
questions, because that is notan easy the startup world takes
a certain personality type, andso I'm really interested to hear
kind of how you made that shift.But I want to start with because
you mentioned you do supplychain stuff, and I believe
correct me, if I'm wrong, youtold me that a lot of what you
did was in trucking logistics,correct? That is okay, which is
(03:12):
a very male dominated field. Sowhat was like? What was that
like? Was it helpful to be kindof, you know, a female amongst
all these men, or was it, youknow, tricky, like, how did you
kind of work through that inorder to be able to have that
longevity?
Marianna Kinee (03:28):
Yeah, that's a great question. And I think a
lot of women and females aresometimes just afraid to even
think about supply chain as acareer, because they have this
conception of maybe what a truckdriver is, or what it's like to
work at a distribution center,or, you know, what it might be
like to work with a lot of menfrom even a manufacturing
(03:51):
perspective, which, you know, iskind of where I started. So I
had the privilege, when I was inschool, in college, where I
actually worked in two very maledominated, you know, industries.
One was at a paper mill, right,which is hugely male dominated,
right? Bunch of engineers. And Ilearned a lot, very early on, on
how to maybe interact withpeople, but also like how to
(04:13):
make sure I was protectingmyself, if that makes sense. And
then I had another job incollege, which was one of my
favorite phone calls to make tomy dad, who is Italian, he's a
he is an immigrant, came over ona boat, got to call my dad and
say, Hey, Dad, I got this greatsummer job. He's like, Great
making money, awesome. What areyou gonna do? I'm moving to
Oklahoma for the summer, and I'mgonna ride around with truck
(04:37):
drivers. What, you know, like,he was not happy, but it was day
free drivers, not like I wasspending the night in the cab,
and it was my first real kind ofeye opening experience on
multiple fronts. One, I had adifferent uniform that I had to
wear than my male counterparts,right? So you think about
Oklahoma, Summer, hot, they hadto wear shorts I could not,
(04:59):
right? I understood. Theyunderstood why, right? It was
just one of those where it'slike, all right. They wanted to
make sure I was kind of, maybemore modest and protected. But
it also changed my what Ithought a truck driver was,
right? Like I thought a truckdriver was everything in the
movies, you know, uneducated,maybe a little redneck, you
(05:21):
know, Roadhouse, they're alwaysfighting, you know, like,
whatever. And I get there and,you know, some of these guys had
their doctorates. Some of themhad been driving their whole
career, and some maybe only fora few months. They came from all
different backgrounds. I mean,when we talk about just a
diversity of, you know, how theywere raised, what parts of the
country they came from. It wasreally cool to see this and have
(05:45):
my mindset shattered at a youngage of, you know, kind of who
they are and what motivates anddrives them not to attempt so I
think that's where, you know, asa female, go and go in with an
open mind to supply chain,because the conceptions you
have, the thoughts you have, ifyou're open minded, they will be
(06:07):
completely blown away. And now,you know, fast forward. Yes, I'm
in the tech industry, but it'ssupply chain tech. So when I'm,
you know, out in the field, I'mon the road, most of my time is
spent talking to truck drivers.And you know, to be to be able
to say, you know, excuse me,Sir, Ma'am, can I climb up on
the side of your cap, right?Like, that's their, that's
(06:29):
their, their office, right? Youcan't. It's
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:32):
like asking permission to come aboard a
boat, right? Like, that's right.
Marianna Kinee (06:36):
And you know, to hear their stories and get their
feedback is absolutely amazing,and it gives you an appreciation
of how much you know the UnitedStates, if you think about how
much is actually moved viatruck, they are the back row of
this this country. And you know,you go in with that kind of
respect and that, thatwillingness to learn from their
(06:59):
experience. It's amazing. Ihighly recommend supply chain as
a career. It's just fun. Itchanges every day. It's a people
business, and it's a it's abusiness where you you get to be
creative. Women, I think, havethis innate skill of seeing
patterns and how things connectdifferently than men do, right?
(07:21):
And so when you apply that to usfrom a supply chain spin, it's
really cool to be able to comeup with creative solutions,
because you're you're asking whyin a different way.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (07:31):
I love that. I want to back up because
you said, you know, when youapproach the conversation from a
respect like, this is yourspace. I'm here to learn from
you, because I worked in themusic industry for a hot minute,
also very male dominated. Andwhat I found was the
communication and the respectwas very different in for
(07:53):
example, like I would get phonecalls from management teams and,
you know, I don't people atlabels and whatnot, and they
would be, well, can I talk toyour supervisor? I'm like, No, I
am the person making thisdecision. Like, this, like, but
no, who else can I tell? Like?So there was a lot of things
like that, or they would assumethat I was a runner, or that I
(08:14):
was, you know, the assistant.And so, you know, it's really
interesting in that world. So Ilove your approach, but I'm just
curious, you know, what was thatlike, even not talking to the
truck drivers, but once you werereally at corporate for a long
time and you had a team aroundyou, like, how was that
communication style? How did youwork through that and kind of
(08:35):
continue to build the respectamongst your team as you kind of
grew in your career?
Marianna Kinee (08:40):
Yeah, it's, it's a lot of it is about listening
first, right? And when you dothat, you can start to better
understand how different peoplelike to be communicated with,
right? And so when you're in thecorporate space, that could
mean, you know, I had one bosswanted everything in email, and
(09:01):
they wanted a dissertation,right? Which, today sounds
crazy, right, but 20 years agomade a lot of sense. Now fast
forward. The I will, I actuallycan read people's emails and
make them make edits. Sosometimes it's, it's, Hey, no,
don't send that to this personthis way, because they're only
going to look on it on theirphone, yeah, it's got to have a
(09:22):
certain amount of bullets, andthey won't read beyond that. And
so being able to understand thatcommunication style that that
person wants to receive, not howI like to do it. How do they
like to receive it? And that'sthat I think really helps you
navigate either, you know,laterally and up and down, yep,
(09:45):
right? When you talk about, howdo you get respect from your
team, there have been manyinstances where I was the new
kid on the block. That's kind ofwhere I am now, right? You know,
you get put in a position thepeople that are on your team
didn't choose to work for you,right? You know, all of a
sudden, now they got a new boss.And, you know, there's, there's
chaos that comes along withthat. So I like to think about,
(10:07):
how do I take my team from chaosto community and move that cycle
as quickly as possible? Right?Because chaos doesn't just
happen and then go away and itnever comes back. You add a new
person to a team, somebody getspromoted and leaves, somebody
might have an illness, somebodymight have a baby, and they go
away for a few months and thenthey come back, right? You know,
(10:30):
there is always some level ofchaos. It does not necessarily
mean a huge reorg. It doesn'tmean all of a sudden you have
new projects or a change indirection, but you, as a leader,
have an opportunity to create anenvironment where the whole team
feels like they're part of acommunity. Right? Community is
the neighbor that's willing topick up your mail when you're
(10:51):
out of town. They're the onesthat you know that you can go,
you'll go, move their theirtrash up their driveway. Right?
Community is a very differentexperience than family. Family
can be dysfunctional, right? Sowhen people say, Oh, I got my
work family, I don't really wantto work family. Yeah, right. And
so being able to create anenvironment where you have those
(11:14):
that type of mutual respect, ifI'm new, I don't necessarily
know all the systems andprocesses cool I'm gonna, I want
to sit down and learn, or I'mgoing to have a level of trust
with the people on my team thatknow how to do it, and when they
know that, oh, she trusts me,she's actually executes on that
trust, there's respect, maybeshe'll go to bat for me, that
(11:38):
that's huge. Or if there'sconsistency, right? Like, I have
two kids, kids thrive onconsistency. Yeah, it's the same
thing when it's a 25-35 45-65year old person for you, they
thrive on consistency too. Itwas entertaining this week. I
was traveling this week withsome parts of my team, and, you
(12:00):
know, one young lady was like,man, we've had the system. We've
never consistently used it, andyou come in and you religiously
use it every single week for ourone on ones, and she's like,
that's been really kind of cool,because now I have a record of
my conversation. There's astructure. I feel like I know
what's going to happen in theconversation. And I think that
(12:20):
when you can create that magicstarts to happen.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (12:24):
I love that well, and we could talk about
this. I feel like this topic allday long, because it's so good
and how and I love thatcommunity. I think is a great
way to frame that, because itjust implies so much about how
we treat each other and how wekind of show up. But I really am
excited to hear like yourmindset around, okay, I've got
(12:47):
this great sort of, I saystable, stable and air quotes,
because who knows with corporateAmerica these days, but you, but
you had longevity at thiscareer. You have full benefits.
You have, you know, all perksthat come with corporate
America, you have somestability. You know, your
paycheck is going to be comingon a regular basis. So kind of
(13:07):
walk me through where you wereat and how this startup
opportunity came to you, andkind of your process for making
that leap, because that's a bigdeal. Yeah,
Marianna Kinee (13:16):
yeah. So, you know, anybody can go look at my
LinkedIn and figure out my workhistory. So that's pretty easy
to do, but you know, if earlierof 2024, I started having these
thoughts of, okay, I have movedaround a lot like that's the one
great thing about being with alarge organization. You can
recreate your career over andover and over again. And I did
(13:39):
just that, everything from storeoperations, inventory,
merchandising, domestictransportation, international
transportation, distribution,like, literally the gamut. So I
was at this point where I'mlike, I'm kind of bored.
Boredom, for me, is dangerous,yeah. And I loved my team. I
(14:03):
loved what I was doing, butthere wasn't. I'd already been
doing this particular role forabout five years, so it was just
one of those where I'm like,There's and I just felt like I
need to try something different.And this is, this is the time,
right? Like, I'm 47 this is thetime recreate myself. And this
opportunity came about to go toa tech startup, and I say
(14:26):
startup, but it's been aroundfor 10 years, so that's a pretty
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (14:31):
so it had some stability. Yeah,
Marianna Kinee (14:35):
yep. And I had actually worked with them
implementing their software thethree years prior. So I already
had exposure to the company,knew their culture, knew how
their team dynamics were, and,you know, I fell in love with
what they're doing. And so thecompany's called vector, and we
(14:56):
are reimagining how supplychain. Mean, EBO works, which is
allowing us to digitize thewhole process from a pickup at a
shipper all the way to the dockdoor at a receiver. And so when
you think of shipping, eversince the beginning of time,
(15:17):
people have written down on abill of lading what's on that
shipment? Like you can go andfind a bill of ladings from
hundreds of years ago becausewe're shipping spices or we're
shipping whatever we want toknow what's on that ship. It's
the same thing today, but nowyou if you want to have an Uber,
you can see where that Uber iscoming to pick you up, right?
(15:39):
You can see it move all the wayuntil your doorstep. Of now it's
here, or your pizza tracker. Of,I've ordered my pizza, and I can
see that you put the pepperonion it right. It's now in the
oven. Well, that that's notsomething that is typical in
transportation yet. So we're onthe forefront of that, meaning
we can digitize from thebeginning, just from a
(16:00):
photograph of that bill oflading to a full digital taking
in the metadata, all the thingsallowing a driver to, you know,
get into a yard without aperson, if need be, like
scanning a QR code, or puttingin a special pin and giving them
direction all the way to adoctor. That's That's huge,
especially as you start thinkingabout security of freight,
(16:22):
right? You know, people,there's, there's different parts
of the country with high ratesof theft, and so you could let
people literally will steal anentire truck. And you and I
might be like, that's crazy.Well, you know, guess what it
happens? Yeah. And so it'sreally exciting to be on the
forefront. I just had, I'd fallin love with the concept. I know
it's going to change theindustry, and I wanted to be
(16:43):
part of it. That's amazing.Yeah, was
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (16:47):
there any like, hesitation, because I feel
like, because, you know, when Istarted my business and left my
job, I couldn't have done itwithout the support of, like, my
family. So, like, Was yourfamily, like, on board, or were
they like, holy cow, like, youknow, because also with the
startup, like, the schedule isdifferent, like, it's not as
regular or consistent. That'sjust not the nature of that
(17:09):
space. And so how was that foryour family to transition?
Marianna Kinee (17:13):
Yeah, you know, thankfully, my husband was very
supportive. But we spentprobably two months debating it,
praying about it, thinking overit, you know, all the things
until we knew we were bothaligned, yeah, because it was
going to be a shift, right forour family. And, you know, it
has been interesting. I thinkthe biggest change is the time
zone shift, because tech, mostpeople in tech are on the West
(17:37):
Coast, I am on the east coast.So it's been a very different,
you know, oh, my meetings maynot start until 9am whereas
before it was eight or 730 Yeah.And then they could, in theory,
go very late at night, whichthen goes to boundaries, right?
So we present our relationships,that includes work, yep. And so
(17:57):
as an example, you know, lastnight people are, hey, we can
meet. We'll meet at like, 630and we'll have this
conversation. And I said, Well,my kids have a piano recital,
yep. So if that's the time youwant to do it, I won't be on it.
I'm happy to go listen to thereplay. I can give you my
feedback in advance, but I'm notgoing to be on the call and to
(18:18):
be part of a team where they'relike, oh, yeah, totally. Go do
what you need to do. Familyfirst. Family First is not
common in tech startups.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:27):
Well, it's a hustle. It's a hustle and a
grind, right? Because if you'renot moving faster than somebody
else might catch up to you. And
Marianna Kinee (18:33):
Right, right? That's, you know, really, really
cool to see that there is stilla that, once again, I knew the
culture coming in, yeah, and itwas one that I could say, okay,
that that aligns with myculture. Because I want to be
able to tell my team, hey, ifyou have a family emergency,
yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:50):
we'll take care of it. Yep, family first. I
love that well, and I wanted totouch on too, um, kind of for
you personally, the corporatestructure is very different. I
mean, you know, if you're at alarge corporate company, in
theory, there are a lot ofsystems in place. There's a lot
of processes, some that areefficient, some that aren't,
(19:11):
some that are great, some thatare frustrating, but they exist.
And you kind of work in thatstructure, and now in your new
role, you're kind of buildingsome of those for yourself and
your team, and kind of just likeyou said earlier, like, maybe
it's just being consistent withthe systems that exist, because
you've got people coming andgoing, how has that been for you
from a work standpoint, of,like, Okay, you're you said
(19:35):
chaos happens all the time, butnow it's a different kind of
chaos. So how do you kind oftransition? And also, you know,
being later in your careersometimes it is harder to kind
of change your ways,
Marianna Kinee (19:47):
if you will. Yeah, yeah. You know, that's a
great, great question, becausethere are times when people say,
Oh, well, if you've been in acompany over 20 years, which I
was in, that that bucket, othercompanies will look at you and
say, mm. Maybe I shouldn't hireher because she obviously can't
change, which I think is, is acrock, because, like I said, I
(20:07):
had probably five to sevendifferent careers within the 20
years, right? But coming over toyour question, it was
interesting, because I was usedto, here's how you do things.
Here's how you request time off,or, you know, whatever. And for
the first time in the company'shistory, we they were getting
(20:27):
ready to do annual reviews, andI come in, I'm like, that sounds
great. Okay, I can add valueright away. I can't code because
I'm not, I'm not a coder. That'snot why I was brought in, right?
I'm an operator. Is brought inhave that, that perspective, and
to lead a team. I was like, Iknow how to do reviews. So it
was, it was really interestingto come to the table and say,
(20:49):
Well, hey, we some parts of theorganization. It's not a
somebody who has 10 people or 20people to report to them. They
may have none, right? It's veryflat, right? And so my I have a
team, so my area is not flat. SoI said, Okay, I want to do a
nine block. What's a nine block?Okay, well, this is how you map
people out, you know, are theyyour high potential? Meaning
(21:10):
they're promotable within acertain period of time, their
runway is really long. We cansee them, you know, in the
company, very long. Then you'vegot your stable, right? Like,
everybody needs a good fry cook,you know? Like, you know, yeah,
if you want to get the reallygood Friday, you get the guy or
the gal, who's that? They areconsistent. They may not be the
CEO in three years or fiveyears, but they are just like,
(21:31):
you need that. You need thosepeople. And so being able to go
in and say, Okay, I don't knowany of these people, so let's
talk collectively where, yeah,right. Like, let's have this
conversation. Let's build a gameplan. Let's have a review where
it's almost 360 we interviewedtheir customers, we interviewed
their peers, we interviewedother leaders. Combined all that
(21:52):
together and said, Okay, here's,here's feedback. We created, we
created quarterly metrics, andsome of those were things that
were based off what thecustomers needed. So my team
supports directly facilitycustomers. So you think of, you
know, companies like the HomeDepot or ConAgra or sprouts and
(22:14):
things like that, right where wehave to provide value to them
what's what's value to them?Yeah, so understanding their
metrics and then holding theteam accountable to help them
get to those metrics, along withthings that they could just do
on their own. Right? You have aprocess improvement project. You
get to present, you get allthese things. And so really, in
the first few months, being ableto put structure around from a
(22:37):
leadership and developmentstandpoint, was really cool to
be able to bring to the table,yeah, on the flip side, it's a
hey, I don't, I don't know,like, I don't know the answer.
So you have to be able to say Idon't know the answer and and
maybe put that out publicly in aSlack channel of, hey, how do I
(23:01):
do X, Y, Z, or does the systemdo this? It's been that's it's
really important, because forme, like I mentioned earlier, I
was getting bored. Bored, toomuch comfort. I love every so
often, being thrown intosomething that's completely
uncomfortable. So that'ssomething that I know that that
I thrive in. That doesn'ttranslate to everybody, but it's
(23:24):
worked out really well. Youknow, for me and my career,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (23:28):
I love that well. I think the hardest part
about being in a smallerorganization, because most of my
career has been working forsmaller businesses, is the not
and you'll love this as a supplychain person, but the not
thinking about when I make thisdecision, who else does it
affect down the line? And how amI like, Oh, I think I'm in the
(23:49):
silo. And if I implement thisnew process, it's not going to
do anything. And then, like,three weeks later, you know,
Susie down the road is, like,all of my data screwed up.
Everything's messed up. What'sgoing you know? So I think,
that's really cool, that you cantake all of that experience and
like you said earlier, kind ofthat puzzle mapping that's
unique to you and your skillset, and kind of bring that in,
(24:10):
because you're right. Not a lotof people can transition into a
startup, because it's just it'sa different kind of breed. But
what I really want to kind ofmaybe leave everyone with, what
I would love for you to share,because you mentioned you were
47 when you made this leap. Forpeople that say, Well, I'm too
old, or, like, you know, I'm not20 anymore. I can't do I can't
(24:33):
make a career change or a shift,and it wasn't a, really a career
change. You're still doing a lotof this, of similar work, but I
can't do this. I'm too old.Nobody's, you know, whatever.
What would you say to peoplethat are not taking that risk or
chance or shift into somethingthat they would love because
they think that they're in 47 isnot old. But no,
Marianna Kinee (24:54):
no, I'm halfway through life, hopefully less
than halfway through life. We'llsee, right? Right? Um, you know,
I would say you've got to askyourself, why are you telling
yourself that story? And youknow, it's the same thing I tell
my kids, you know, oh, I can'tdo that, Mom, I don't hear I
can't Right, right? If youaren't talking to yourself in a
(25:19):
positive manner, not positivethings will happen. So it's, you
know, oh, I'm not going to dowell at this test. Or I'm not
gonna, I can't make that leapbecause it's too big of a
change. You just, you justtalked yourself into that
reality, right? And it's not, Imean, some people, oh, that's
woo, woo mumbo jumbo. It'sactually not just try it. I do
(25:43):
it sometimes when, when I knowI'm going into a situation or a
meeting that might bechallenging, and I would times
find myself going, I don't wantto have that meeting. It's gonna
be so hard, it's gonna be sodifficult, it's gonna be a
fight. And I've started saying,No, it's gonna be an interesting
conversation. It's going to be ait's going to be a conversation
(26:06):
full of curiosity. It's going toend up being a positive
experience. We will come to somesort of alignment, and I would
have these conversations withmyself the night before or the
morning of or whatever, and whatI found was that the experience
ended up being better. Yeah,it's that self fulfilling
prophecy. Does it mean that Ialways get my way? No, does it
(26:28):
mean it was always like a greatmeeting or whatever? Maybe not,
but it was better than what itwould have been if I went in
with that negative mindset. Andso I think that that is
something that everybody can do,regardless, if it's a career
decision, it's a, oh, I want to,you know, I will never be able
to run a marathon. Well, if youdon't run a 1k you're right,
(26:51):
you're never going to get to amarathon. You know? You got to
start somewhere. And so startingat those baby steps, and
starting with some of thatpositive conversations in your
head is going to allow you toto, I think, achieve more than
what you think you can achieve.I used to be starting the
podcast right way, like, ormaybe even you starting your
podcast, yeah, probably, like,why are you doing it? How do you
join the time? You've got allthis other stuff that's just
(27:13):
something that I wanted to seeif I can do. Yeah, well, I'm
never going to do it. Yeah, Ilove
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:22):
that, and I feel like, for you also, maybe
it's because this has been thecase for me, a journey that I've
learned as I've had my ownbusiness is finding the success
factors that you actually careabout, and not the success
factors that other people mightthink are success, you know? So
it's like, then you, when you gointo those tougher things, it's
like, well, that's great. I feellike I did great, even though
(27:46):
other people might be like, Thatwas terrible, or okay. So, for
example, I was on a call theother day, and they were
talking, it was with someauthors, and they were talking
about how their goal is not whenthey release their book, to be a
New York Times bestseller,because you can't control the
other factors of who else isreleasing a book when you are
what is the landscape, right?Instead, it's, I want to sell X
(28:07):
amount of books in the first sixweeks, because that's what I
think is going to help me bemost successful. And so I think
for you, that sounds similar, inthat you have set your own goals
for what success looks for youand maneuver through it so that
you can feel comfortable withthe choices you're making. Yeah,
Marianna Kinee (28:24):
I mean, you know, I used to speak about an
author, but being, you know,speaking with authors, one of
the things I wanted to do, too,was I wanted to write a book.
And so I started asking peoplewho I knew had written books,
what was the process? How longdid it take you? And, you know,
oh, it's gonna cost you 20grand, and it's gonna take you a
year and a half. And I was like,Well, no, I don't want to spend
(28:47):
that. I don't want to spend thatmuch time. I want to do it now.
It's like, my, my goal for thisyear is to do this so, like, set
audacious goals, right? Onceyou're in six months, and I'm
only going to spend, you know,$1,000 and that was my, like,
whatever. And so I had to figureout, how do I do that? Okay,
well, I have to Self Publish.Okay, I can. I want to do that.
(29:07):
I don't want to be a bestseller. I mean, I forgot best
seller was great, but to yourpoint, can't control all those
factors. I wanted to be one ofthe 1% that have actually said
they wrote a book, yeah, youknow. And so went through that
whole process and just did it,right? And so if people are
like, Well, what do you mean?Use? I just did it. I wrote it.
I had, you know, like, I hadfriends who are willing to do
(29:29):
kind of revisions and edits.They were willing to donate
their time, you know, all thethings. And then now I look and
I see my two girls, and they aregoing, Oh, we want to write a
book. That's amazing. We'relike, you know, at seven at the
time, seven and 10 at the time,you're like, I never had that
thought, but now they
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (29:48):
do, because you modeled that for them.
Marianna Kinee (29:50):
They modeled it right? You just did it. And now
I see what they're creating withI unfortunately introduced them
to the crazy, wacky world ofchat. GPT. To an image of Van
Gogh with a pizza on his head.And they're like, how did you do
this? It's like, I did it withchat GPT. But now they're
becoming, like, these masterchat GPT prompt writers, which
(30:10):
I'm like, Well, that could be abig win for them in their
future. You never know, right?Like, and it's been really fun
to see what they're they aredoing just in their own Hey, how
can I be creative in how I askthis? How can I be creative in
how I rewrite this? If I putwhat I wrote in, what does it do
if I say this? That's reallyinteresting. I think to see what
(30:32):
they're doing creatively withtechnology, once again, I would
never even have thought of attheir age. Yeah.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (30:38):
So it's really fun. I love that. Well,
Marianna, I think your story isso inspiring, and I know that
you know you have so much thatyou're going to accomplish. I'm
excited to hear and learn moreabout how the company continues
to grow and evolve, and how youcontinue to grow and evolve with
it. But if people want toconnect with you, how can they
(30:59):
do that?
Marianna Kinee (31:00):
Yeah, so the easiest way, if you just go to
might in motion.com that's gotall my my connection points,
different podcasts. I've been onlinks to my podcast, all the fun
things. I'm very much involvedon LinkedIn. So you know, DMing
me on LinkedIn, you get me, youdon't get somebody else. It's
me. And I love connecting withpeople that way, happy to answer
(31:21):
questions about what vector doesas well, you know, plus, you
know, my my book, my podcast,that sort of thing. So we'd love
to connect with people aboutleadership, supply chain,
innovation and all the things.Yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:33):
if you have any interest, if in supply
chain, or if you've thoughtabout that as a career,
definitely check out thepodcast. What's the name? Might
in motion. Might in motion.Well, Mariana, thank you so much
for being here. I reallyappreciate your time.
Marianna Kinee (31:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:47):
I want to say a big thank you to Marianna
again for joining me today. Ithere's so many things that I
love about her story, but one ofthe things that I think is super
relatable is in the switchingcareers, even with your own
business or within your owncompany. It doesn't have to be
like a huge shift, but somethingas simple as saying to your
(32:11):
supervisor or to your executivedirector or whomever you know,
like, I'm really interested inlearning about this, or I really
like to grow my skills here,really advocating for yourself
in that way, because a lot oftimes we don't think about doing
that. We don't think aboutputting ourselves out there. Or
we assume that people know kindof what our goals are and what
we want to do. And you might besurprised by what comes out and
what they share with you. Oh,yeah, we have this opportunity,
(32:33):
or we're thinking about doingthis. You never know, but if you
don't communicate that or go forit, then you you're not going to
be able to make anything happenthere. So I just wanted to share
that because I think, yes, sheworked for a large corporate job
company where there's probablyjob postings all the time that
she can maneuver through. Buteven if you're with a smaller
company, sharing kind of some ofthe things you're interested in
(32:55):
and some ideas you have canreally go a long way. So I hope
that you'll do that if that'ssomething you've been thinking
about. Otherwise, if you want tograb the show notes, watch the
video version of this episode,or just get some additional
resources, you can do that ateasystylewithsami.com/33 I
really hope that you'll hitsubscribe wherever you listen,
or if you watch them on YouTube,we are wherever you stream your
(33:17):
podcast, and again on YouTube.At Easy Style with Sami. Thank
you so much for listening andtaking time out of your day. I'm
always looking for more guests,so if you have the perfect
person, or if you're that personand want to be interviewed on
Easy Style with Sami, shoot me amessage at hello@easystyle.com
that's S A M I anyway, thank youso much for listening and taking
(33:38):
the time to be here. I hopeyou're inspired as much as I
was, and I will see you in thenext one.
Welcome to Easy Style with Sami. I'm your
(00:02):
host. Sami Bedell-Mulhern, eachepisode, I invite a friend,
family member, colleague or justsomeone I've met on this journey
called life, to come and sharetheir personal style and
approach to business, parenting,life and everything in between.
You'll hear motivational andinspirational stories that will
help you refine and build yourown personal style. Remember,
(00:25):
style is easy when it comes fromwithin.
Hey friends, welcome to anotherepisode of Easy Style with Sami
and I am here today with guestMarianna Kinee. Thank you so
much for being here.
Marianna Kinee (00:37):
Thanks so much for having me, Sami. I'm so
excited to be here.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:39):
So I don't remember exactly who connected
us. I feel like it was SteveRamona. Is that correct?
Probably yes. Probably there'slike, so many amazing people in
my network that like connect meto all these other amazing
people, and I don't alwaysremember where they came from,
but we met, had a greatconversation, and I just love
kind of the intro to your storythat you shared with me, so I'm
(01:01):
really excited to talk with youtoday and hear a little bit more
about kind of your career pathand some of the big changes that
you've made. But before we kindof jump into that, why don't you
tell everybody just a little bitabout who you are and your
story?
Marianna Kinee (01:14):
Well, thanks so much. First of all, for having
me. My story is, I think, alittle bit unique and that I
used to call myself a corporateAmerica junkie. I was in the
corporate America space forabout 25 ish years, maybe a
little bit more, and with onecompany for 22 of those years.
(01:36):
So that made me the unicornslash dinosaur. And, you know,
but it was, it was awesome,awesome to to experience so much
growth within one organization.I think it's kind of unique
these days. My background hasbeen always in supply chain,
which includes everything fromdistribution to trucking to
(01:58):
inventory planning, so a littlebit of everything on the supply
chain front. A few years ago, Idecided that, you know what, I
wanted to create my own stageand share information with more
people than just the folks thatI met every day in the office.
Started my own podcast, andwhich has been really, really
great. We're actually recordingseason five right now, on a four
(02:21):
right now, which will launch in2025 so very excited about that.
And and then a few months ago, Iactually made the big jump from
the big corporate ship to a techstartup, so going from a fortune
50 company to a company of lessthan 50. Over the past four
(02:42):
months, there's been aninteresting transition for me,
and been a lot of fun, and Ican't wait to share more about
that as well. Yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (02:50):
I love that, and so I have so many
questions, because that is notan easy the startup world takes
a certain personality type, andso I'm really interested to hear
kind of how you made that shift.But I want to start with because
you mentioned you do supplychain stuff, and I believe
correct me, if I'm wrong, youtold me that a lot of what you
did was in trucking logistics,correct? That is okay, which is
(03:12):
a very male dominated field. Sowhat was like? What was that
like? Was it helpful to be kindof, you know, a female amongst
all these men, or was it, youknow, tricky, like, how did you
kind of work through that inorder to be able to have that
longevity?
Marianna Kinee (03:28):
Yeah, that's a great question. And I think a
lot of women and females aresometimes just afraid to even
think about supply chain as acareer, because they have this
conception of maybe what a truckdriver is, or what it's like to
work at a distribution center,or, you know, what it might be
like to work with a lot of menfrom even a manufacturing
(03:51):
perspective, which, you know, iskind of where I started. So I
had the privilege, when I was inschool, in college, where I
actually worked in two very maledominated, you know, industries.
One was at a paper mill, right,which is hugely male dominated,
right? Bunch of engineers. And Ilearned a lot, very early on, on
how to maybe interact withpeople, but also like how to
(04:13):
make sure I was protectingmyself, if that makes sense. And
then I had another job incollege, which was one of my
favorite phone calls to make tomy dad, who is Italian, he's a
he is an immigrant, came over ona boat, got to call my dad and
say, Hey, Dad, I got this greatsummer job. He's like, Great
making money, awesome. What areyou gonna do? I'm moving to
Oklahoma for the summer, and I'mgonna ride around with truck
(04:37):
drivers. What, you know, like,he was not happy, but it was day
free drivers, not like I wasspending the night in the cab,
and it was my first real kind ofeye opening experience on
multiple fronts. One, I had adifferent uniform that I had to
wear than my male counterparts,right? So you think about
Oklahoma, Summer, hot, they hadto wear shorts I could not,
(04:59):
right? I understood. Theyunderstood why, right? It was
just one of those where it'slike, all right. They wanted to
make sure I was kind of, maybemore modest and protected. But
it also changed my what Ithought a truck driver was,
right? Like I thought a truckdriver was everything in the
movies, you know, uneducated,maybe a little redneck, you
(05:21):
know, Roadhouse, they're alwaysfighting, you know, like,
whatever. And I get there and,you know, some of these guys had
their doctorates. Some of themhad been driving their whole
career, and some maybe only fora few months. They came from all
different backgrounds. I mean,when we talk about just a
diversity of, you know, how theywere raised, what parts of the
country they came from. It wasreally cool to see this and have
(05:45):
my mindset shattered at a youngage of, you know, kind of who
they are and what motivates anddrives them not to attempt so I
think that's where, you know, asa female, go and go in with an
open mind to supply chain,because the conceptions you
have, the thoughts you have, ifyou're open minded, they will be
(06:07):
completely blown away. And now,you know, fast forward. Yes, I'm
in the tech industry, but it'ssupply chain tech. So when I'm,
you know, out in the field, I'mon the road, most of my time is
spent talking to truck drivers.And you know, to be to be able
to say, you know, excuse me,Sir, Ma'am, can I climb up on
the side of your cap, right?Like, that's their, that's
(06:29):
their, their office, right? Youcan't. It's
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:32):
like asking permission to come aboard a
boat, right? Like, that's right.
Marianna Kinee (06:36):
And you know, to hear their stories and get their
feedback is absolutely amazing,and it gives you an appreciation
of how much you know the UnitedStates, if you think about how
much is actually moved viatruck, they are the back row of
this this country. And you know,you go in with that kind of
respect and that, thatwillingness to learn from their
(06:59):
experience. It's amazing. Ihighly recommend supply chain as
a career. It's just fun. Itchanges every day. It's a people
business, and it's a it's abusiness where you you get to be
creative. Women, I think, havethis innate skill of seeing
patterns and how things connectdifferently than men do, right?
(07:21):
And so when you apply that to usfrom a supply chain spin, it's
really cool to be able to comeup with creative solutions,
because you're you're asking whyin a different way.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (07:31):
I love that. I want to back up because
you said, you know, when youapproach the conversation from a
respect like, this is yourspace. I'm here to learn from
you, because I worked in themusic industry for a hot minute,
also very male dominated. Andwhat I found was the
communication and the respectwas very different in for
(07:53):
example, like I would get phonecalls from management teams and,
you know, I don't people atlabels and whatnot, and they
would be, well, can I talk toyour supervisor? I'm like, No, I
am the person making thisdecision. Like, this, like, but
no, who else can I tell? Like?So there was a lot of things
like that, or they would assumethat I was a runner, or that I
(08:14):
was, you know, the assistant.And so, you know, it's really
interesting in that world. So Ilove your approach, but I'm just
curious, you know, what was thatlike, even not talking to the
truck drivers, but once you werereally at corporate for a long
time and you had a team aroundyou, like, how was that
communication style? How did youwork through that and kind of
(08:35):
continue to build the respectamongst your team as you kind of
grew in your career?
Marianna Kinee (08:40):
Yeah, it's, it's a lot of it is about listening
first, right? And when you dothat, you can start to better
understand how different peoplelike to be communicated with,
right? And so when you're in thecorporate space, that could
mean, you know, I had one bosswanted everything in email, and
(09:01):
they wanted a dissertation,right? Which, today sounds
crazy, right, but 20 years agomade a lot of sense. Now fast
forward. The I will, I actuallycan read people's emails and
make them make edits. Sosometimes it's, it's, Hey, no,
don't send that to this personthis way, because they're only
going to look on it on theirphone, yeah, it's got to have a
(09:22):
certain amount of bullets, andthey won't read beyond that. And
so being able to understand thatcommunication style that that
person wants to receive, not howI like to do it. How do they
like to receive it? And that'sthat I think really helps you
navigate either, you know,laterally and up and down, yep,
(09:45):
right? When you talk about, howdo you get respect from your
team, there have been manyinstances where I was the new
kid on the block. That's kind ofwhere I am now, right? You know,
you get put in a position thepeople that are on your team
didn't choose to work for you,right? You know, all of a
sudden, now they got a new boss.And, you know, there's, there's
chaos that comes along withthat. So I like to think about,
(10:07):
how do I take my team from chaosto community and move that cycle
as quickly as possible? Right?Because chaos doesn't just
happen and then go away and itnever comes back. You add a new
person to a team, somebody getspromoted and leaves, somebody
might have an illness, somebodymight have a baby, and they go
away for a few months and thenthey come back, right? You know,
(10:30):
there is always some level ofchaos. It does not necessarily
mean a huge reorg. It doesn'tmean all of a sudden you have
new projects or a change indirection, but you, as a leader,
have an opportunity to create anenvironment where the whole team
feels like they're part of acommunity. Right? Community is
the neighbor that's willing topick up your mail when you're
(10:51):
out of town. They're the onesthat you know that you can go,
you'll go, move their theirtrash up their driveway. Right?
Community is a very differentexperience than family. Family
can be dysfunctional, right? Sowhen people say, Oh, I got my
work family, I don't really wantto work family. Yeah, right. And
so being able to create anenvironment where you have those
(11:14):
that type of mutual respect, ifI'm new, I don't necessarily
know all the systems andprocesses cool I'm gonna, I want
to sit down and learn, or I'mgoing to have a level of trust
with the people on my team thatknow how to do it, and when they
know that, oh, she trusts me,she's actually executes on that
trust, there's respect, maybeshe'll go to bat for me, that
(11:38):
that's huge. Or if there'sconsistency, right? Like, I have
two kids, kids thrive onconsistency. Yeah, it's the same
thing when it's a 25-35 45-65year old person for you, they
thrive on consistency too. Itwas entertaining this week. I
was traveling this week withsome parts of my team, and, you
(12:00):
know, one young lady was like,man, we've had the system. We've
never consistently used it, andyou come in and you religiously
use it every single week for ourone on ones, and she's like,
that's been really kind of cool,because now I have a record of
my conversation. There's astructure. I feel like I know
what's going to happen in theconversation. And I think that
(12:20):
when you can create that magicstarts to happen.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (12:24):
I love that well, and we could talk about
this. I feel like this topic allday long, because it's so good
and how and I love thatcommunity. I think is a great
way to frame that, because itjust implies so much about how
we treat each other and how wekind of show up. But I really am
excited to hear like yourmindset around, okay, I've got
(12:47):
this great sort of, I saystable, stable and air quotes,
because who knows with corporateAmerica these days, but you, but
you had longevity at thiscareer. You have full benefits.
You have, you know, all perksthat come with corporate
America, you have somestability. You know, your
paycheck is going to be comingon a regular basis. So kind of
(13:07):
walk me through where you wereat and how this startup
opportunity came to you, andkind of your process for making
that leap, because that's a bigdeal. Yeah,
Marianna Kinee (13:16):
yeah. So, you know, anybody can go look at my
LinkedIn and figure out my workhistory. So that's pretty easy
to do, but you know, if earlierof 2024, I started having these
thoughts of, okay, I have movedaround a lot like that's the one
great thing about being with alarge organization. You can
recreate your career over andover and over again. And I did
(13:39):
just that, everything from storeoperations, inventory,
merchandising, domestictransportation, international
transportation, distribution,like, literally the gamut. So I
was at this point where I'mlike, I'm kind of bored.
Boredom, for me, is dangerous,yeah. And I loved my team. I
(14:03):
loved what I was doing, butthere wasn't. I'd already been
doing this particular role forabout five years, so it was just
one of those where I'm like,There's and I just felt like I
need to try something different.And this is, this is the time,
right? Like, I'm 47 this is thetime recreate myself. And this
opportunity came about to go toa tech startup, and I say
(14:26):
startup, but it's been aroundfor 10 years, so that's a pretty
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (14:31):
so it had some stability. Yeah,
Marianna Kinee (14:35):
yep. And I had actually worked with them
implementing their software thethree years prior. So I already
had exposure to the company,knew their culture, knew how
their team dynamics were, and,you know, I fell in love with
what they're doing. And so thecompany's called vector, and we
(14:56):
are reimagining how supplychain. Mean, EBO works, which is
allowing us to digitize thewhole process from a pickup at a
shipper all the way to the dockdoor at a receiver. And so when
you think of shipping, eversince the beginning of time,
(15:17):
people have written down on abill of lading what's on that
shipment? Like you can go andfind a bill of ladings from
hundreds of years ago becausewe're shipping spices or we're
shipping whatever we want toknow what's on that ship. It's
the same thing today, but nowyou if you want to have an Uber,
you can see where that Uber iscoming to pick you up, right?
(15:39):
You can see it move all the wayuntil your doorstep. Of now it's
here, or your pizza tracker. Of,I've ordered my pizza, and I can
see that you put the pepperonion it right. It's now in the
oven. Well, that that's notsomething that is typical in
transportation yet. So we're onthe forefront of that, meaning
we can digitize from thebeginning, just from a
(16:00):
photograph of that bill oflading to a full digital taking
in the metadata, all the thingsallowing a driver to, you know,
get into a yard without aperson, if need be, like
scanning a QR code, or puttingin a special pin and giving them
direction all the way to adoctor. That's That's huge,
especially as you start thinkingabout security of freight,
(16:22):
right? You know, people,there's, there's different parts
of the country with high ratesof theft, and so you could let
people literally will steal anentire truck. And you and I
might be like, that's crazy.Well, you know, guess what it
happens? Yeah. And so it'sreally exciting to be on the
forefront. I just had, I'd fallin love with the concept. I know
it's going to change theindustry, and I wanted to be
(16:43):
part of it. That's amazing.Yeah, was
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (16:47):
there any like, hesitation, because I feel
like, because, you know, when Istarted my business and left my
job, I couldn't have done itwithout the support of, like, my
family. So, like, Was yourfamily, like, on board, or were
they like, holy cow, like, youknow, because also with the
startup, like, the schedule isdifferent, like, it's not as
regular or consistent. That'sjust not the nature of that
(17:09):
space. And so how was that foryour family to transition?
Marianna Kinee (17:13):
Yeah, you know, thankfully, my husband was very
supportive. But we spentprobably two months debating it,
praying about it, thinking overit, you know, all the things
until we knew we were bothaligned, yeah, because it was
going to be a shift, right forour family. And, you know, it
has been interesting. I thinkthe biggest change is the time
zone shift, because tech, mostpeople in tech are on the West
(17:37):
Coast, I am on the east coast.So it's been a very different,
you know, oh, my meetings maynot start until 9am whereas
before it was eight or 730 Yeah.And then they could, in theory,
go very late at night, whichthen goes to boundaries, right?
So we present our relationships,that includes work, yep. And so
(17:57):
as an example, you know, lastnight people are, hey, we can
meet. We'll meet at like, 630and we'll have this
conversation. And I said, Well,my kids have a piano recital,
yep. So if that's the time youwant to do it, I won't be on it.
I'm happy to go listen to thereplay. I can give you my
feedback in advance, but I'm notgoing to be on the call and to
(18:18):
be part of a team where they'relike, oh, yeah, totally. Go do
what you need to do. Familyfirst. Family First is not
common in tech startups.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:27):
Well, it's a hustle. It's a hustle and a
grind, right? Because if you'renot moving faster than somebody
else might catch up to you. And
Marianna Kinee (18:33):
Right, right? That's, you know, really, really
cool to see that there is stilla that, once again, I knew the
culture coming in, yeah, and itwas one that I could say, okay,
that that aligns with myculture. Because I want to be
able to tell my team, hey, ifyou have a family emergency,
yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:50):
we'll take care of it. Yep, family first. I
love that well, and I wanted totouch on too, um, kind of for
you personally, the corporatestructure is very different. I
mean, you know, if you're at alarge corporate company, in
theory, there are a lot ofsystems in place. There's a lot
of processes, some that areefficient, some that aren't,
(19:11):
some that are great, some thatare frustrating, but they exist.
And you kind of work in thatstructure, and now in your new
role, you're kind of buildingsome of those for yourself and
your team, and kind of just likeyou said earlier, like, maybe
it's just being consistent withthe systems that exist, because
you've got people coming andgoing, how has that been for you
from a work standpoint, of,like, Okay, you're you said
(19:35):
chaos happens all the time, butnow it's a different kind of
chaos. So how do you kind oftransition? And also, you know,
being later in your careersometimes it is harder to kind
of change your ways,
Marianna Kinee (19:47):
if you will. Yeah, yeah. You know, that's a
great, great question, becausethere are times when people say,
Oh, well, if you've been in acompany over 20 years, which I
was in, that that bucket, othercompanies will look at you and
say, mm. Maybe I shouldn't hireher because she obviously can't
change, which I think is, is acrock, because, like I said, I
(20:07):
had probably five to sevendifferent careers within the 20
years, right? But coming over toyour question, it was
interesting, because I was usedto, here's how you do things.
Here's how you request time off,or, you know, whatever. And for
the first time in the company'shistory, we they were getting
(20:27):
ready to do annual reviews, andI come in, I'm like, that sounds
great. Okay, I can add valueright away. I can't code because
I'm not, I'm not a coder. That'snot why I was brought in, right?
I'm an operator. Is brought inhave that, that perspective, and
to lead a team. I was like, Iknow how to do reviews. So it
was, it was really interestingto come to the table and say,
(20:49):
Well, hey, we some parts of theorganization. It's not a
somebody who has 10 people or 20people to report to them. They
may have none, right? It's veryflat, right? And so my I have a
team, so my area is not flat. SoI said, Okay, I want to do a
nine block. What's a nine block?Okay, well, this is how you map
people out, you know, are theyyour high potential? Meaning
(21:10):
they're promotable within acertain period of time, their
runway is really long. We cansee them, you know, in the
company, very long. Then you'vegot your stable, right? Like,
everybody needs a good fry cook,you know? Like, you know, yeah,
if you want to get the reallygood Friday, you get the guy or
the gal, who's that? They areconsistent. They may not be the
CEO in three years or fiveyears, but they are just like,
(21:31):
you need that. You need thosepeople. And so being able to go
in and say, Okay, I don't knowany of these people, so let's
talk collectively where, yeah,right. Like, let's have this
conversation. Let's build a gameplan. Let's have a review where
it's almost 360 we interviewedtheir customers, we interviewed
their peers, we interviewedother leaders. Combined all that
(21:52):
together and said, Okay, here's,here's feedback. We created, we
created quarterly metrics, andsome of those were things that
were based off what thecustomers needed. So my team
supports directly facilitycustomers. So you think of, you
know, companies like the HomeDepot or ConAgra or sprouts and
(22:14):
things like that, right where wehave to provide value to them
what's what's value to them?Yeah, so understanding their
metrics and then holding theteam accountable to help them
get to those metrics, along withthings that they could just do
on their own. Right? You have aprocess improvement project. You
get to present, you get allthese things. And so really, in
the first few months, being ableto put structure around from a
(22:37):
leadership and developmentstandpoint, was really cool to
be able to bring to the table,yeah, on the flip side, it's a
hey, I don't, I don't know,like, I don't know the answer.
So you have to be able to say Idon't know the answer and and
maybe put that out publicly in aSlack channel of, hey, how do I
(23:01):
do X, Y, Z, or does the systemdo this? It's been that's it's
really important, because forme, like I mentioned earlier, I
was getting bored. Bored, toomuch comfort. I love every so
often, being thrown intosomething that's completely
uncomfortable. So that'ssomething that I know that that
I thrive in. That doesn'ttranslate to everybody, but it's
(23:24):
worked out really well. Youknow, for me and my career,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (23:28):
I love that well. I think the hardest part
about being in a smallerorganization, because most of my
career has been working forsmaller businesses, is the not
and you'll love this as a supplychain person, but the not
thinking about when I make thisdecision, who else does it
affect down the line? And how amI like, Oh, I think I'm in the
(23:49):
silo. And if I implement thisnew process, it's not going to
do anything. And then, like,three weeks later, you know,
Susie down the road is, like,all of my data screwed up.
Everything's messed up. What'sgoing you know? So I think,
that's really cool, that you cantake all of that experience and
like you said earlier, kind ofthat puzzle mapping that's
unique to you and your skillset, and kind of bring that in,
(24:10):
because you're right. Not a lotof people can transition into a
startup, because it's just it'sa different kind of breed. But
what I really want to kind ofmaybe leave everyone with, what
I would love for you to share,because you mentioned you were
47 when you made this leap. Forpeople that say, Well, I'm too
old, or, like, you know, I'm not20 anymore. I can't do I can't
(24:33):
make a career change or a shift,and it wasn't a, really a career
change. You're still doing a lotof this, of similar work, but I
can't do this. I'm too old.Nobody's, you know, whatever.
What would you say to peoplethat are not taking that risk or
chance or shift into somethingthat they would love because
they think that they're in 47 isnot old. But no,
Marianna Kinee (24:54):
no, I'm halfway through life, hopefully less
than halfway through life. We'llsee, right? Right? Um, you know,
I would say you've got to askyourself, why are you telling
yourself that story? And youknow, it's the same thing I tell
my kids, you know, oh, I can'tdo that, Mom, I don't hear I
can't Right, right? If youaren't talking to yourself in a
(25:19):
positive manner, not positivethings will happen. So it's, you
know, oh, I'm not going to dowell at this test. Or I'm not
gonna, I can't make that leapbecause it's too big of a
change. You just, you justtalked yourself into that
reality, right? And it's not, Imean, some people, oh, that's
woo, woo mumbo jumbo. It'sactually not just try it. I do
(25:43):
it sometimes when, when I knowI'm going into a situation or a
meeting that might bechallenging, and I would times
find myself going, I don't wantto have that meeting. It's gonna
be so hard, it's gonna be sodifficult, it's gonna be a
fight. And I've started saying,No, it's gonna be an interesting
conversation. It's going to be ait's going to be a conversation
(26:06):
full of curiosity. It's going toend up being a positive
experience. We will come to somesort of alignment, and I would
have these conversations withmyself the night before or the
morning of or whatever, and whatI found was that the experience
ended up being better. Yeah,it's that self fulfilling
prophecy. Does it mean that Ialways get my way? No, does it
(26:28):
mean it was always like a greatmeeting or whatever? Maybe not,
but it was better than what itwould have been if I went in
with that negative mindset. Andso I think that that is
something that everybody can do,regardless, if it's a career
decision, it's a, oh, I want to,you know, I will never be able
to run a marathon. Well, if youdon't run a 1k you're right,
(26:51):
you're never going to get to amarathon. You know? You got to
start somewhere. And so startingat those baby steps, and
starting with some of thatpositive conversations in your
head is going to allow you toto, I think, achieve more than
what you think you can achieve.I used to be starting the
podcast right way, like, ormaybe even you starting your
podcast, yeah, probably, like,why are you doing it? How do you
join the time? You've got allthis other stuff that's just
(27:13):
something that I wanted to seeif I can do. Yeah, well, I'm
never going to do it. Yeah, Ilove
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:22):
that, and I feel like, for you also, maybe
it's because this has been thecase for me, a journey that I've
learned as I've had my ownbusiness is finding the success
factors that you actually careabout, and not the success
factors that other people mightthink are success, you know? So
it's like, then you, when you gointo those tougher things, it's
like, well, that's great. I feellike I did great, even though
(27:46):
other people might be like, Thatwas terrible, or okay. So, for
example, I was on a call theother day, and they were
talking, it was with someauthors, and they were talking
about how their goal is not whenthey release their book, to be a
New York Times bestseller,because you can't control the
other factors of who else isreleasing a book when you are
what is the landscape, right?Instead, it's, I want to sell X
(28:07):
amount of books in the first sixweeks, because that's what I
think is going to help me bemost successful. And so I think
for you, that sounds similar, inthat you have set your own goals
for what success looks for youand maneuver through it so that
you can feel comfortable withthe choices you're making. Yeah,
Marianna Kinee (28:24):
I mean, you know, I used to speak about an
author, but being, you know,speaking with authors, one of
the things I wanted to do, too,was I wanted to write a book.
And so I started asking peoplewho I knew had written books,
what was the process? How longdid it take you? And, you know,
oh, it's gonna cost you 20grand, and it's gonna take you a
year and a half. And I was like,Well, no, I don't want to spend
(28:47):
that. I don't want to spend thatmuch time. I want to do it now.
It's like, my, my goal for thisyear is to do this so, like, set
audacious goals, right? Onceyou're in six months, and I'm
only going to spend, you know,$1,000 and that was my, like,
whatever. And so I had to figureout, how do I do that? Okay,
well, I have to Self Publish.Okay, I can. I want to do that.
(29:07):
I don't want to be a bestseller. I mean, I forgot best
seller was great, but to yourpoint, can't control all those
factors. I wanted to be one ofthe 1% that have actually said
they wrote a book, yeah, youknow. And so went through that
whole process and just did it,right? And so if people are
like, Well, what do you mean?Use? I just did it. I wrote it.
I had, you know, like, I hadfriends who are willing to do
(29:29):
kind of revisions and edits.They were willing to donate
their time, you know, all thethings. And then now I look and
I see my two girls, and they aregoing, Oh, we want to write a
book. That's amazing. We'relike, you know, at seven at the
time, seven and 10 at the time,you're like, I never had that
thought, but now they
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (29:48):
do, because you modeled that for them.
Marianna Kinee (29:50):
They modeled it right? You just did it. And now
I see what they're creating withI unfortunately introduced them
to the crazy, wacky world ofchat. GPT. To an image of Van
Gogh with a pizza on his head.And they're like, how did you do
this? It's like, I did it withchat GPT. But now they're
becoming, like, these masterchat GPT prompt writers, which
(30:10):
I'm like, Well, that could be abig win for them in their
future. You never know, right?Like, and it's been really fun
to see what they're they aredoing just in their own Hey, how
can I be creative in how I askthis? How can I be creative in
how I rewrite this? If I putwhat I wrote in, what does it do
if I say this? That's reallyinteresting. I think to see what
(30:32):
they're doing creatively withtechnology, once again, I would
never even have thought of attheir age. Yeah.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (30:38):
So it's really fun. I love that. Well,
Marianna, I think your story isso inspiring, and I know that
you know you have so much thatyou're going to accomplish. I'm
excited to hear and learn moreabout how the company continues
to grow and evolve, and how youcontinue to grow and evolve with
it. But if people want toconnect with you, how can they
(30:59):
do that?
Marianna Kinee (31:00):
Yeah, so the easiest way, if you just go to
might in motion.com that's gotall my my connection points,
different podcasts. I've been onlinks to my podcast, all the fun
things. I'm very much involvedon LinkedIn. So you know, DMing
me on LinkedIn, you get me, youdon't get somebody else. It's
me. And I love connecting withpeople that way, happy to answer
(31:21):
questions about what vector doesas well, you know, plus, you
know, my my book, my podcast,that sort of thing. So we'd love
to connect with people aboutleadership, supply chain,
innovation and all the things.Yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:33):
if you have any interest, if in supply
chain, or if you've thoughtabout that as a career,
definitely check out thepodcast. What's the name? Might
in motion. Might in motion.Well, Mariana, thank you so much
for being here. I reallyappreciate your time.
Marianna Kinee (31:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:47):
I want to say a big thank you to Marianna
again for joining me today. Ithere's so many things that I
love about her story, but one ofthe things that I think is super
relatable is in the switchingcareers, even with your own
business or within your owncompany. It doesn't have to be
like a huge shift, but somethingas simple as saying to your
(32:11):
supervisor or to your executivedirector or whomever you know,
like, I'm really interested inlearning about this, or I really
like to grow my skills here,really advocating for yourself
in that way, because a lot oftimes we don't think about doing
that. We don't think aboutputting ourselves out there. Or
we assume that people know kindof what our goals are and what
we want to do. And you might besurprised by what comes out and
what they share with you. Oh,yeah, we have this opportunity,
(32:33):
or we're thinking about doingthis. You never know, but if you
don't communicate that or go forit, then you you're not going to
be able to make anything happenthere. So I just wanted to share
that because I think, yes, sheworked for a large corporate job
company where there's probablyjob postings all the time that
she can maneuver through. Buteven if you're with a smaller
company, sharing kind of some ofthe things you're interested in
(32:55):
and some ideas you have canreally go a long way. So I hope
that you'll do that if that'ssomething you've been thinking
about. Otherwise, if you want tograb the show notes, watch the
video version of this episode,or just get some additional
resources, you can do that ateasystylewithsami.com/33 I
really hope that you'll hitsubscribe wherever you listen,
or if you watch them on YouTube,we are wherever you stream your
(33:17):
podcast, and again on YouTube.At Easy Style with Sami. Thank
you so much for listening andtaking time out of your day. I'm
always looking for more guests,so if you have the perfect
person, or if you're that personand want to be interviewed on
Easy Style with Sami, shoot me amessage at hello@easystyle.com
that's S A M I anyway, thank youso much for listening and taking
(33:38):
the time to be here. I hopeyou're inspired as much as I
was, and I will see you in thenext one.
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