May 14, 2025 • 36 mins
On The Move with Jessica Whidt
In this episode of TMSA’s On the Move, we’re joined by Jessica Whidt, Managing Director at Warner Communications (A Millwright Agency), for a powerful conversation on navigating communication during times of regulatory uncertainty. Jessica shares expert insights on how brands in transportation and logistics can lead with clarity, consistency, and credibility—even when the rules are still being written.
We dive into the critical role of thought leadership in building trust and visibility, how to prepare for and respond to crisis situations, and why strategic messaging is more vital than ever in today's shifting landscape. Jessica will also discuss what she's looking forward to in her first ELEVATE coming up in June.
Check out the Transportation Sales and Marketing Association (TMSA) website or engage with us on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello everybody and welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,executive Director of the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and sales
professionals in transportationand logistics, and today on the
show I have Jessica Witt, who isthe Managing Director at Warner
(00:46):
Communications.
Welcome to the show.
How are you doing today,jessica?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm good.
I'm good.
Jennifer, Thank you so much forhaving me on the show today.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Well, I appreciate you spending the time with me
today and so excited to hear alittle bit more about yourself
and Warner Communications.
So can you give us kind of yourhistory and how you ended up
there and what you guys do?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Sure, sure, as you said, I'm Jessica Witt, managing
Director of WarnerCommunications.
Warner is an integrated PR andmarketing firm.
We specialize in the technologyand services that power the
supply chain from end to end.
So that's everything from youknow, beginning with the raw
materials renewable energy toall the way down to last mile
(01:27):
delivery, even recycling andwaste management.
So, and everything in between,of course, I joined Warner in
2022.
Before that, I was in-house atcommercial airlines, for
commercial passenger airlines,for about 10 years.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Awesome, and I know one of the things that you guys
really kind of specialize inwith that PR is like all the
complicated stuff likeregulatory issues and how do we
talk about them and how do wepresent them, and so regulatory
shifts can feel reallyoverwhelming and figuring out
how we talk about them when wetalk about them.
(02:07):
So how do you advise yourclients to communicate
effectively when the rules arestill unclear?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, regulatory shifts, they're always
challenging.
It feels as if recently it'sbeen a bit more complicated than
we might have seen in the past,mostly from, you know, sort of
changing rapidly.
You know what's going on orwhat we should expect, and I
(02:34):
think there's often a reflex tostay quiet and just sort of see
how things shake out.
You know companies, executives,thought leaders, just like you
know.
I don't want to put anythingout there in case I'm wrong, but
we really see it as anopportunity for supply chain and
transportation organizationsbecause it's an opportunity to
(02:57):
position their executives asreal thought leaders in their
space, the key to doing it welland doing it safely.
And yeah, I hate to say right,because I don't know that
there's any necessarily rightway to do it, but what we've
seen be successful isacknowledge the known unknowns.
(03:18):
Don't try to predict the future.
Don't try to predict the future.
None of us have a magic ball wecan see into the future.
But focus on communicating yourcompany or your executives'
awareness of all the possiblescenarios your clients could
(03:40):
face and then communicating howyour company, your executives,
your thought leaders areprepared to address it, because
by exhibiting that you'vethought through, you're being
thoughtful as an organizationaround.
What are all the possibleoutcomes and then how can we
support clients in any of theseoutcomes?
(04:01):
It'll really exhibitpreparedness, agility and
ultimately lead to trust andcredibility amongst your current
clients as well as prospects.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Absolutely.
I love everything that you'retalking about, because I do
think people are inclined to bea little nervous, to not want to
say anything, but if you're notsaying anything, you can really
appear like you're notfollowing the trends and you're
not paying attention to what'sgoing on, and so you don't have
to, like you said, you don'thave to like predict the future,
(04:34):
but just have a conversationabout it.
This is what we're seeing, thisis what we think it could mean,
this is how we're responding towhat we're seeing right now.
All of those things are justbeing truthful and transparent
and building that trust, likeyou said, which I think is
incredibly important.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I agree 100%.
It's really an opportunity toexhibit thoughtfulness and that
you're keeping up with what'sgoing on and you're thinking
about it and you're prepared.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And so obviously a big mistake a company can make
is just not addressingregulatory uncertainty.
But on that, is there any othermistakes that you see companies
make that you would suggestkind of sidestepping from?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, we the biggest one, and I don't know if it's a
mistake, necessarily, but wetypically advise clients to
steer clear of definitivepredictions, and unless that is
for some reason part of yourbrand or makes sense for your
business.
But again, none of us arefortune tellers and so hard line
(05:38):
predictions can sometimes putyou in a sticky situation after
the fact.
And we also advise clients tobe really thoughtful and
deliberate before taking a hardstance in support or opposition
of any particular regulation orother issue.
If an organization or a leaderis going to do so, we really
(06:00):
encourage them to make sure itserves their business.
And you know you'll seeparticularly some of the really
big enterprise brands in thesupply chain, you know, being
vocal about their position on,for instance, tariffs.
Or, you know, in my background,in aviation, regulatory issues
regarding the FAA or airspaceand and those are, you know from
(06:25):
my observation I don't haveinside knowledge, but I can
assume that those are thingsthat deeply impact their
business, their organizationsthat have a significant voice in
DC and do have influence, andso I assume they're being quite
thoughtful about what they, youknow, take a hard line on.
And so you know that's theother thing particular leaders,
(06:50):
particularly.
You know we see this a lot withfounders, ceos.
They have personal opinionsthat they want to voice.
They have a platform to do soand if it's something they're
really passionate about, youknow by all means.
But ultimately, we advise, makesure it is right for your
business and that it's somethingthey're really passionate about
, you know by all means.
But ultimately, we advise, makesure it is right for your
business and that it's an.
It is a message that's going toresonate with your audience and
(07:12):
serve your business in the longrun.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Absolutely.
And so if someone does kind ofmake an error, maybe says
something a little too soon, canyou walk us through an example
of like a crisis communicationplan that you helped shape, what
worked and what you didn't,what did you learn?
And I think the number one stepof that, um, whenever I did
anything like marketing, pr,stuff like this is like makes
(07:38):
you have a crisis communicationplan before you need it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That's number one.
For sure, you know, and I thinkit's you know, coming from a
background in aviation, andobviously you know we're
speaking to transportationmarketers and communicators and
we have a tendency to thinkabout crisis in the most
catastrophic terms.
(08:03):
Right, and you know, atransportation accident,
something that possibly involvesloss of life.
And so we have to, ascommunicators, particularly in
transportation, also rememberthat.
You know, and I like to usereputation management a lot,
because I do think we need tomake sure we're thinking about,
(08:24):
not, of course, being preparedfor the catastrophic, but also
being prepared for the what mayseem to transportation
communicators like the not socatastrophic.
You know, everyone's spectrumis different.
If you're a consumer brand,what is catastrophic to you may
be quite different than what itis in transportation.
(08:45):
But yes, number one is having aplan in advance.
I've had the opportunity to workon a number of crisis
communication plans, many ofthem in the aviation sector.
You know mistakes I've made,one not having one.
So I've been there, learnedthat lesson real quick and
(09:09):
didn't do that again.
But sort of second time aroundwas being too high level in the
plan, so writing the plan as ifI would be the one who would be
executing it or that I wouldhave even have time to interpret
what I meant.
You know years ago when I wroteit right.
(09:29):
So you know, be as prescriptiveas possible.
That is what I learned.
Even if you are confident, youwill be the one personally.
You know you're writing it andyou're the one personally
executing it.
But the stakes are high inthose situations.
It doesn't matter if it's abrand crisis, you know, a
(09:50):
business crisis or anoperational crisis.
Minutes count, seconds count.
Sometimes Stress levels arehigh.
Stress levels are high.
You don't have the time to use,to be spending the brain power
on.
What did I mean by this?
Or let me explain this to you.
You want a document, or youknow a set of documents, that
(10:14):
you can literally just hand overto whoever is in the room that
can help you and they can followinstructions.
So just being very, verydetailed with those decision
trees, instructions you know,down to it may seem silly while
you're doing it, but down tolike, how do you log into you
(10:36):
know LinkedIn to update things,as you don't know who you're
going to have available to youin the moment to support you?
Crisis never happens at twoo'clock on a Tuesday while
you're all sitting in the officetogether.
It happens in the middle of thenight or on a weekend.
So you have to be ready to touse whoever you have to support
(10:59):
you in those moments.
And then the second lesson I'velearned the hard way and these
really go hand in hand is don'tset it on the shelf.
Practice, practice, practice.
Engage everyone in theorganization you can to practice
with you tabletop scenarios.
Work through the kinks.
Get everyone on board, yourstakeholders, even your board
(11:24):
members of.
This is what we're going to do.
This is what we're going to say.
This is what we're not going tosay in different scenarios.
Uh, again, stress levels arehigh, minutes count.
You really want it to almost beum, you know and I by no means
elevating communicationsprofessionals to first
responders, but you know, takingfrom the first responder
(11:46):
playbook when it matters.
You want it to be muscle memoryAgain, not having to use that
brain power, just really execute, execute, execute.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I think that all makes a lot of sense, and I was
thinking when you're talkingabout like logging into LinkedIn
and things like that.
In my past I worked for PRNewswire and when you send in
press releases, there arespecific people who are allowed
to approve them, and I workedthe overnight shift and so I
would have to call and confirmthese press releases and a lot
(12:21):
of times that person that wascalling was not authorized on
the account and they'd be likewell, my boss is, it's like 8 pm
on a saturday.
I'm like that, like Iunderstand how stressful that
must be for you, but I you arenot authorized on this account.
We cannot send this pressrelease unless if you have
proper authorization.
So like that kind of stuff isthe thing that I think people
(12:44):
forget about is like the peopleyeah, the people who are making
this, who are building this, whoare putting this together, are
not necessarily the people thatare executing on it.
What if somebody is?
I very specifically rememberthe one person who was like
crying because their boss waslike at a remote cabin it.
It was like that was like theirboss's like one day that they
got to like fully check out andshe's like I literally cannot
(13:07):
reach her and I'm like I'm sorry, but you're going to have to,
or I was like there's otherpeople that can do this.
You may have to try to reachthem or whatever, but like those
situations like come up and ifit is something that needs to
get sent out immediately, thosethings are really important.
(13:28):
So I love that you said that,and even just having all the
stakeholders stakeholdersunderstand and know what they're
saying and also like who shouldbe speaking and who should be
like Nope, we're deferring that,that answer to so-and-so like
those things are incrediblyimportant.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Again, you don't want to be wasting precious time
sitting in a room or on aconference call or whatever it
is debating.
Are we going to send thestatement or not?
Right, get all of thosedecisions out of the way and
there will inevitably be someonewho will magically forget that
(14:00):
they agreed to this in themoment and be mad.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
But you know, if you have, if you check that box,
you'll it'll and everything willgo much smoother and I think
too, like you were saying, likeof course there are life and
death stakes when we talk aboutcrisis and like those big things
, but it's not just those bigthings and how you respond to
that might look differently thansomething else that might be on
(14:26):
a smaller not life or deathscale, and so having an
understanding of what thosethings look like and how those
differences are will help too inthose moments when the
pressure's on.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Absolutely, and what I found is helpful is
incorporating those decisiontrees and those sort of levels
of scenarios into your crisisplan.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And when we're in these fast moving situations,
how do you balance that likespeed and accuracy in messaging?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Once again, prepare.
I mean, every situation isdifferent.
You're never going to be ableto write up, you know,
statements and press releasesfor every possible situation,
but you can certainly, you know,come up with types of
situations similar that would besimilar to each other.
Prepare things in advance thatare templates or shells that you
(15:20):
can pop information into andthen, in the moment, lots of
eyeballs.
You know, do not trust yourselfthat you typed what you thought
you typed.
Do not trust yourself thateveryone will interpret the way
you structured a sentence, theway you think you did, or what
it means to you.
So, having you know as, as,without making it, you know,
(15:46):
writing by committee, you wantto have a really good core group
of people, whether that andfrom different perspectives of
the organization.
You know, I usually like torecommend someone from legal,
someone from operations, someonefrom marketing you know
marketing sales and then youknow someone that could be
(16:08):
considered.
Maybe it's one of those people,but a senior leader that has
committed to say I will reviewthese, these pieces of
information, in minutes, nothours, and I will be available.
And here's my backup and mybackups backup if I'm not
available, and I delegate tothem the ability to review these
(16:29):
things, not necessarily forapproval, but just because you
want different perspectives.
You want, you know, you wantthat double check of did you use
the right word, is there a typo?
You know, could this beinterpreted a way that you
didn't think of?
And so just lots of eyeballs.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Absolutely, and I think that's so important.
I do that here.
Even so, we have a lot ofvolunteers that volunteer at
TMSA.
So, like our entire marketingcommittee is made up of
volunteers and I will always say, okay, like if we're doing a
social post, it doesn't have tobe my eyeballs that check it,
but somebody's does.
But if it's if we're announcinga new program, or like if there
(17:10):
are award winners, that we'retalking about anything that's
like like super high level, thenI want it to be my eyeballs,
especially if it's the firsttime we're talking about
something you know, because Iknow all of the pieces.
And so, even if it's not acrisis plan but just stuff that
we're putting out, like noperson, no matter how smart and
capable they are, is infallibleto make, not make a typo, like
(17:31):
we all are capable of makingthose types of mistakes and so
just getting a second pair ofeyeballs.
but I was like but with thatlike because when we first
started really utilizing thatcommittee, more and more, they
would send everything to me andI'm like you guys are all
marketers Like I trust otherpeople's eyeballs as much as
mine to do that grammatic check.
But here are the high levelthings that, like, I want to
(17:51):
make sure you know that we'redoing so, even taking some of
these cues in your crisis planyou can put on your regular
marketing plans or anything likethat, just to make sure that
you're having these bestpractices and processes in place
.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And we talked at the beginningabout, you know, thought
leadership with this type ofstuff is really important
because it's going to set youapart from your competitors and
(18:15):
it's going to show yourcustomers, your prospects, that
you are paying attention totrends and what's going on,
which I think is incrediblyimportant, especially in the
space right now where we have asaturated market.
People are trying to stand out.
But what makes for an effectivethought leadership strategy?
Like, we know it's important,but how do we do it?
How can companies kind of avoidsounding just like everybody
(18:37):
else when we're talking aboutthings.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Absolutely.
I mean, I think it starts withoutread, outread everyone, or
hire a PR agency that will do itfor you.
Executives, leaders inorganizations I know very busy,
hard to keep up with everything,although I've met some that are
(19:01):
just voracious readers and Idon't know where they find the
time, but it's always impressiveto me.
But that is first and foremost.
Just read everything you canget your hands on.
Be a news junkie, but in yourspace, in your vertical.
It doesn't mean you have toingest all the news that's
(19:22):
happening in the world, butreally focusing in on making
sure that you are up to speedand what the conversation is,
and for two reasons.
One is you know what are themedia interested in discussing.
You know what they'republishing is a good indication
of what they find interesting.
And you know publishing is agood indication of what they
find interesting.
(19:42):
And you know, taking that onestep further, if they're
publishing it it's because theythink their readers will find it
interesting.
And so you know that is a goodcue to say, ok, what are my
prospects, what do my clientswant or customers want to know
about right now, what are theyinterested in what?
And then you know beingthoughtful about having an
(20:05):
opinion on those topics.
So you know not just, oh, here'show my product solves for that,
but what do I, you know what,as a company, what do we want,
our leaders or what do I as anindividual executive, want to
(20:26):
exhibit to my clients that weare skilled in?
Right, because you know, whetherit's a piece of technology, a
hardware, a service, yourclients want to know in their
decision-making process, intheir consideration process.
Your prospects, your clientswant to know that you get them
right.
That's ultimately whateverybody wants from a product
(20:49):
or service is like oh, you getwhat I'm facing as an individual
in this organization or as anorganization as a whole, and
you're here to be my partner andhelp me solving my challenges
and supporting my wins andthinking about the same things
I'm thinking about.
So, really starting from aplace of thought, leadership
(21:11):
isn't about necessarilymarketing, it's about
contributing to the largerconversation.
And so if you, I, I believe, iforganizations and if
individuals come at it from thatperspective of just being
curious and wanting to engage inthe conversation, the content
(21:32):
flows through and is genuine andauthentic and feels valuable to
the reader.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Absolutely, um, to talk about is how your prospects
, your customers they don't carethat, like, how much capability
you have, they don't care thatif you can do everything, they
care about what you can do.
For that are you payingattention to what's affecting
them?
And so, when you build stufflike this and this is why, like,
(22:04):
I love talking about brand andpr and things like that, even
when, when we are talking aboutsales, because a lot of times
people are like you don't reallyneed marketing and sales to be
aligned.
But it's like you really,really do, because brand
shouldn't just be a conversationthat's being had in marketing.
It flows through everything andit's positioning your company
in a way that you're showcasingthat you understand your
(22:26):
specific customer needs and whatthey want.
And so in that thought leaderstrategy, it's like, hey, let's
make sure you know, if we arereally trying to get into the
refrigerated market, that thisis what we're talking about and
this is what our you knowleaders are talking about in the
public space.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And I, you know, thought leadership, having those
pieces published.
It's certainly not going todrive the in a, you know, a
publication that they trust andthat they read and look to for
(23:13):
guidance and information andthey say this company sounds
really smart, they're doingreally interesting things and
they come to you and those arevery, very qualified and
valuable leads.
So it's not so to your point.
It is an integral part of thesales process, I believe.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And when you're building kind of that thought
leadership strategy and you'retalking about PR crisis, all
those things, how do you kind ofbuild up somebody posting
directly to LinkedIn and beinglike this is my thought piece,
this is everything that I'msaying, versus people coming on
podcasts and being quoted inindustry publications.
How do you balance all of thosepieces out into like one full
(23:56):
scope?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Um, yeah, I mean it's , it can.
It's different for everyorganization.
Every client kind of depends onwhere they're.
You know where they're at whenthey come to us, and but it's,
it's holistic and you know it isa build and you know if, if an
(24:19):
organization comes to us andthey say, okay, we have these
four leaders, we want them to bethought leaders in the space,
we want to get them published,um, in you know xyz magazines,
and then you go to theirlinkedin profile and it's blank.
Um, well, we need to startthere.
Um, because you know, we have toremember that reporters,
(24:40):
journalists, publishers, thefirst thing they're going to do
when they get a pitch or a piecethat you want to publish with
them is Google, the name of theauthor, and so there needs to be
something out there, andLinkedIn is the best way to do
that because it is an ownedplatform and you can control it.
(25:01):
But if there's already apresence, if there's already an
awareness about an individual oran organization, if there's
already an awareness about anindividual or an organization,
then you can take more of athree prong approach where
you're just, you know, parallelpath, working to get things
published as contributedarticles, starting to pitch
podcasts such as this one to say, hey, we've got some
(25:23):
interesting, we've got aninteresting executive with some
interesting thoughts on XYZtopic, but also backing that up
with consistent posting onLinkedIn.
And you know, I think postingon LinkedIn helps sort of keep
the train running a little bit,keeps the momentum going,
(25:43):
because it shows that theindividual, the organization is
committed to thought leadershipfor the sake of kind of going
back to, for the sake ofcontributing to the conversation
and contributing to theindustry, rather than just
publicity.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Absolutely.
And then this is just such arandom tip, but as a former
journalist, if you put a mediacontact, that person better be
able to get a hold of thatperson that you're quoting in a
press release.
Because we've done like.
I've had that experience where,like I contact the media contact
and they either don't respondthat person needs to be
(26:21):
responsive and they need to beable to like if you're quoting
somebody in that press release,they have to be, because I never
wanted just to take the quotethat was in the press release.
I want to talk to the personand get my own quote because it
makes my story better, and sothat's.
You're building the pressrelease, so people are
interested in you and want tointeract with you more and put
people in articles and stufflike that, and I would always
(26:42):
laugh.
And then obviously I ended upswitching to marketing.
I do journal is among the sideand like other markets, but I
would.
They would always make me laugh, like why are you putting this
is the media contact?
I'm contacting you, I'm aperson of the media and I'm not
able to get in contact with thisexecutive, and that's.
That's the whole point of it soyeah sometimes it's the littlest
things that can make you themost successful.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yes, I'm shocked sometimes that I hear missteps
Just like oh okay.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yep, so switching gears a little bit, but you are
headed to Austin, texas, for theTMSA Elevate Conference June
8th through 10th, and this willbe your first TMSA Elevate.
So I'm curious what are youhoping to gain from the
experience to take back to yourteam?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yes, I'm excited to be there.
You know, I think I'm excitedsimply to meet other sales,
marketing, communication folksthat are working in supply chain
, that are working in supplychain.
I think that I'm excited forthe panels and discussions and
(27:52):
topics we're going to discuss.
I wouldn't say I'm new tosupply chain, especially coming
from aviation.
Obviously, transportation, eventhough it's direct to consumer
certainly a lot of overlap, butstill I'm still learning kind of
the intricacies of howtransportation, particularly in
(28:15):
freight, the area of freight,interact with the rest of the
supply chain and interact withtheir customers and their
shippers.
And so hopefully going to pickup some more insights there and
really just kind of going backto all of this right with
thought leadership and what I dosupporting clients is.
I'm a curious person and so Iwant to hear from the folks
(28:40):
working in sales and marketingand transportation.
What are their challenges, whatare they thinking about, what
is top of mind for them?
And that allows me to come backand think about how can I, how
can I support that and how canWarner?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
support that for its current clients and for future
clients.
Absolutely, I'm really proud ofthe education lineup this year.
It's like we're now in thatstage where all the pieces are
coming together and we're ableto like finally start showing
people exactly what's going tocome out.
So I'm really really excitedfor that, happy to have you
there, and I do think, like yousaid, the best way to be a
thought leader is to read, tolike absorb information, all of
(29:22):
that kind of stuff.
And so I really do think eventslike Elevate that are designed
for professional development, tolet you sit in and meet your
people and be able to absorbthat information and have real
conversations while you'relearning, is incredibly
important, and which is prettymuch what you said.
That was going to be.
My.
One of my questions was, likehow do you think that these
events kind of strengthen thatcommunication?
(29:42):
But that's what you answeredyeah, like I want to do all
those things and I want to learn.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, that's what you answered.
Yeah, like I want to do allthose things and I want to learn
.
Yeah, and I will add to that asfar as how it strengthens the
industry and strengthens eachother, is that marketing and
communications is a bit of afunny profession because all
these other professions havethese conferences where they get
to come together, information,share, learn from each other.
(30:09):
We tend to be a little bitclose to the best in marketing
and sales, especially when we'retalking about within our
vertical or within our industry,because there's a
competitiveness to it, rightit's.
You know, a little bit like youdon't want to accidentally
reveal your secret sauce to acompetitor or an adjacent
(30:31):
competitor.
So you know, unfortunately wedon't have the benefit.
There are lots of associationsand conferences that are broadly
about marketing or broadlyabout communications, pulling in
folks from different industries, different verticals, and those
are great because it is fun tosee, you know, how folks are
(30:54):
thinking about it, whatstrategies people are using
across different industries, andoftentimes there are things you
can learn from that.
But it is also great to just gettogether with folks that you
have kind of, even strangersthat you have an unspoken
camaraderie with because youknow my life, you know what I do
(31:16):
, and so I think it's reallygood that these, that GMSA
exists and that there's thisopportunity to come together
exists and that there's thisopportunity to come together
Absolutely, and that's exactlywhat we're all about.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
And when you kind of reached out, I was like, oh,
this is like everything thatyou're looking for is kind of
what we're all about, likebringing together the sales,
marketing, communications peopleinside the space having real
conversations around it.
And even I loved that.
You were like, oh, we love totalk about like crisis
management and what to talkabout.
I'm like, well, that's perfectbecause people need to know that
and the industry is changing,things are moving really fast
(31:56):
and there's misinformation allover the place, and so how do we
really dive in?
Be able to say what's going on,what we know, what we think is
going to come down All of thosethings is incredibly important.
So really excited to have WarnerCommunications as part of the
show this year and that you getto come experience it firsthand.
So super pumped about that andjust, yeah, we're in go time
here at TMSA headquarters forElevate.
(32:18):
So I'm excited for everyone tobe able to see what we're
executing on.
But last question for you andit's something I ask everybody
who comes on the show and that'sif you could go back in time
and advise a younger Jessica.
Anything, and this could bepersonally or professionally
when would you go back to andwhat would you say?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
so many to choose from, jennifer?
No, you know, I oh, that's ahard question I, I don't know, I
don't have a lot of.
(32:58):
I mean, I've had a storied life.
I've done a lot of differentthings, I've made a lot of
different twists and turns, butI don't really see any of them
as necessarily bad decisions.
They all somehow led me towhere I am today, not quite the
(33:24):
very beginning of my career, butright right after grad school,
just a couple of years into youknow, working at the airline and
like it's going to be okay,like just not everything is life
or death.
(33:44):
You know, I think I've really,I'm really passionate about my
work.
I love it.
I'm probably I've been accusedof being a workaholic many times
, but it doesn't feel that wayto me.
But I definitely think when Iwas younger I took it all really
personally and so as I'vegotten older, I've been able to
(34:06):
say, like I can care about this,I can be passionate about what
I do, but it doesn't have todefine me.
And I think that that would bewhat I would say is go back to
maybe, you know, 25 year oldJessica and say, like this
doesn't have to be everythingthat you are, it's a really of
(34:28):
this, this question?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
that's probably the most common type of answer.
It's like go back, take alittle bit more naps, drink
water, trust yourself, trust theprocess, it's gonna be okay,
just breathe.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Um, you know it's um, it's gonna.
Yeah, it's gonna be okay.
I also would have gotten a dogsooner.
It really helped with my sortof bringing down the stress
level.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I would think too.
I don't have, I'm allergic todogs but like I think about like
how many times I'm like, oh, Ishould go for a walk around the
block and I feel like thathaving a dog must be like clutch
for that, like for your own,like mental health and like
going outside more because youhave to like take care of
somebody else when we don'treally always do an awesome job
taking care of ourselves, butlike that like caretaker, like
(35:17):
oh, we have to take the dog fora walk.
So I think about that all thetime.
I know my kid wants a dog.
I'm sure I will fail at somepoint and accept that as a part
of my life.
But yeah, all great advice,excited to see you in Austin.
For people that want to checkout our show next week, we have
Christy Knitchell coming on theshow.
(35:37):
She is a powerhouse and leaderof Knitchell Logistics and she
is one of our Elevate speakersand she's going to tell us her
story and how she started outher career and how she took over
her, her dad's company, but howshe worked every place in the
company before she did that andwhat power, how she is now so
excited to kind of um, touchbase with her before the show
(35:58):
and then see her at elevate.
And jessica, thank you forcoming on the show.
It was great to have you hereand I will see you in a few
weeks and hope to see everyoneelse, thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Thank you, I'm looking forward to meeting
everyone.
Sounds good.
Have a good one.
Hello everybody and welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,executive Director of the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and sales
professionals in transportationand logistics, and today on the
show I have Jessica Witt, who isthe Managing Director at Warner
(00:46):
Communications.
Welcome to the show.
How are you doing today,jessica?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm good.
I'm good.
Jennifer, Thank you so much forhaving me on the show today.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Well, I appreciate you spending the time with me
today and so excited to hear alittle bit more about yourself
and Warner Communications.
So can you give us kind of yourhistory and how you ended up
there and what you guys do?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Sure, sure, as you said, I'm Jessica Witt, managing
Director of WarnerCommunications.
Warner is an integrated PR andmarketing firm.
We specialize in the technologyand services that power the
supply chain from end to end.
So that's everything from youknow, beginning with the raw
materials renewable energy toall the way down to last mile
(01:27):
delivery, even recycling andwaste management.
So, and everything in between,of course, I joined Warner in
2022.
Before that, I was in-house atcommercial airlines, for
commercial passenger airlines,for about 10 years.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Awesome, and I know one of the things that you guys
really kind of specialize inwith that PR is like all the
complicated stuff likeregulatory issues and how do we
talk about them and how do wepresent them, and so regulatory
shifts can feel reallyoverwhelming and figuring out
how we talk about them when wetalk about them.
(02:07):
So how do you advise yourclients to communicate
effectively when the rules arestill unclear?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, regulatory shifts, they're always
challenging.
It feels as if recently it'sbeen a bit more complicated than
we might have seen in the past,mostly from, you know, sort of
changing rapidly.
You know what's going on orwhat we should expect, and I
(02:34):
think there's often a reflex tostay quiet and just sort of see
how things shake out.
You know companies, executives,thought leaders, just like you
know.
I don't want to put anythingout there in case I'm wrong, but
we really see it as anopportunity for supply chain and
transportation organizationsbecause it's an opportunity to
(02:57):
position their executives asreal thought leaders in their
space, the key to doing it welland doing it safely.
And yeah, I hate to say right,because I don't know that
there's any necessarily rightway to do it, but what we've
seen be successful isacknowledge the known unknowns.
(03:18):
Don't try to predict the future.
Don't try to predict the future.
None of us have a magic ball wecan see into the future.
But focus on communicating yourcompany or your executives'
awareness of all the possiblescenarios your clients could
(03:40):
face and then communicating howyour company, your executives,
your thought leaders areprepared to address it, because
by exhibiting that you'vethought through, you're being
thoughtful as an organizationaround.
What are all the possibleoutcomes and then how can we
support clients in any of theseoutcomes?
(04:01):
It'll really exhibitpreparedness, agility and
ultimately lead to trust andcredibility amongst your current
clients as well as prospects.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Absolutely.
I love everything that you'retalking about, because I do
think people are inclined to bea little nervous, to not want to
say anything, but if you're notsaying anything, you can really
appear like you're notfollowing the trends and you're
not paying attention to what'sgoing on, and so you don't have
to, like you said, you don'thave to like predict the future,
(04:34):
but just have a conversationabout it.
This is what we're seeing, thisis what we think it could mean,
this is how we're responding towhat we're seeing right now.
All of those things are justbeing truthful and transparent
and building that trust, likeyou said, which I think is
incredibly important.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I agree 100%.
It's really an opportunity toexhibit thoughtfulness and that
you're keeping up with what'sgoing on and you're thinking
about it and you're prepared.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And so obviously a big mistake a company can make
is just not addressingregulatory uncertainty.
But on that, is there any othermistakes that you see companies
make that you would suggestkind of sidestepping from?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, we the biggest one, and I don't know if it's a
mistake, necessarily, but wetypically advise clients to
steer clear of definitivepredictions, and unless that is
for some reason part of yourbrand or makes sense for your
business.
But again, none of us arefortune tellers and so hard line
(05:38):
predictions can sometimes putyou in a sticky situation after
the fact.
And we also advise clients tobe really thoughtful and
deliberate before taking a hardstance in support or opposition
of any particular regulation orother issue.
If an organization or a leaderis going to do so, we really
(06:00):
encourage them to make sure itserves their business.
And you know you'll seeparticularly some of the really
big enterprise brands in thesupply chain, you know, being
vocal about their position on,for instance, tariffs.
Or, you know, in my background,in aviation, regulatory issues
regarding the FAA or airspaceand and those are, you know from
(06:25):
my observation I don't haveinside knowledge, but I can
assume that those are thingsthat deeply impact their
business, their organizationsthat have a significant voice in
DC and do have influence, andso I assume they're being quite
thoughtful about what they, youknow, take a hard line on.
And so you know that's theother thing particular leaders,
(06:50):
particularly.
You know we see this a lot withfounders, ceos.
They have personal opinionsthat they want to voice.
They have a platform to do soand if it's something they're
really passionate about, youknow by all means.
But ultimately, we advise, makesure it is right for your
business and that it's somethingthey're really passionate about
, you know by all means.
But ultimately, we advise, makesure it is right for your
business and that it's an.
It is a message that's going toresonate with your audience and
(07:12):
serve your business in the longrun.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Absolutely.
And so if someone does kind ofmake an error, maybe says
something a little too soon, canyou walk us through an example
of like a crisis communicationplan that you helped shape, what
worked and what you didn't,what did you learn?
And I think the number one stepof that, um, whenever I did
anything like marketing, pr,stuff like this is like makes
(07:38):
you have a crisis communicationplan before you need it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That's number one.
For sure, you know, and I thinkit's you know, coming from a
background in aviation, andobviously you know we're
speaking to transportationmarketers and communicators and
we have a tendency to thinkabout crisis in the most
catastrophic terms.
(08:03):
Right, and you know, atransportation accident,
something that possibly involvesloss of life.
And so we have to, ascommunicators, particularly in
transportation, also rememberthat.
You know, and I like to usereputation management a lot,
because I do think we need tomake sure we're thinking about,
(08:24):
not, of course, being preparedfor the catastrophic, but also
being prepared for the what mayseem to transportation
communicators like the not socatastrophic.
You know, everyone's spectrumis different.
If you're a consumer brand,what is catastrophic to you may
be quite different than what itis in transportation.
(08:45):
But yes, number one is having aplan in advance.
I've had the opportunity to workon a number of crisis
communication plans, many ofthem in the aviation sector.
You know mistakes I've made,one not having one.
So I've been there, learnedthat lesson real quick and
(09:09):
didn't do that again.
But sort of second time aroundwas being too high level in the
plan, so writing the plan as ifI would be the one who would be
executing it or that I wouldhave even have time to interpret
what I meant.
You know years ago when I wroteit right.
(09:29):
So you know, be as prescriptiveas possible.
That is what I learned.
Even if you are confident, youwill be the one personally.
You know you're writing it andyou're the one personally
executing it.
But the stakes are high inthose situations.
It doesn't matter if it's abrand crisis, you know, a
(09:50):
business crisis or anoperational crisis.
Minutes count, seconds count.
Sometimes Stress levels arehigh.
Stress levels are high.
You don't have the time to use,to be spending the brain power
on.
What did I mean by this?
Or let me explain this to you.
You want a document, or youknow a set of documents, that
(10:14):
you can literally just hand overto whoever is in the room that
can help you and they can followinstructions.
So just being very, verydetailed with those decision
trees, instructions you know,down to it may seem silly while
you're doing it, but down tolike, how do you log into you
(10:36):
know LinkedIn to update things,as you don't know who you're
going to have available to youin the moment to support you?
Crisis never happens at twoo'clock on a Tuesday while
you're all sitting in the officetogether.
It happens in the middle of thenight or on a weekend.
So you have to be ready to touse whoever you have to support
(10:59):
you in those moments.
And then the second lesson I'velearned the hard way and these
really go hand in hand is don'tset it on the shelf.
Practice, practice, practice.
Engage everyone in theorganization you can to practice
with you tabletop scenarios.
Work through the kinks.
Get everyone on board, yourstakeholders, even your board
(11:24):
members of.
This is what we're going to do.
This is what we're going to say.
This is what we're not going tosay in different scenarios.
Uh, again, stress levels arehigh, minutes count.
You really want it to almost beum, you know and I by no means
elevating communicationsprofessionals to first
responders, but you know, takingfrom the first responder
(11:46):
playbook when it matters.
You want it to be muscle memoryAgain, not having to use that
brain power, just really execute, execute, execute.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I think that all makes a lot of sense, and I was
thinking when you're talkingabout like logging into LinkedIn
and things like that.
In my past I worked for PRNewswire and when you send in
press releases, there arespecific people who are allowed
to approve them, and I workedthe overnight shift and so I
would have to call and confirmthese press releases and a lot
(12:21):
of times that person that wascalling was not authorized on
the account and they'd be likewell, my boss is, it's like 8 pm
on a saturday.
I'm like that, like Iunderstand how stressful that
must be for you, but I you arenot authorized on this account.
We cannot send this pressrelease unless if you have
proper authorization.
So like that kind of stuff isthe thing that I think people
(12:44):
forget about is like the peopleyeah, the people who are making
this, who are building this, whoare putting this together, are
not necessarily the people thatare executing on it.
What if somebody is?
I very specifically rememberthe one person who was like
crying because their boss waslike at a remote cabin it.
It was like that was like theirboss's like one day that they
got to like fully check out andshe's like I literally cannot
(13:07):
reach her and I'm like I'm sorry, but you're going to have to,
or I was like there's otherpeople that can do this.
You may have to try to reachthem or whatever, but like those
situations like come up and ifit is something that needs to
get sent out immediately, thosethings are really important.
(13:28):
So I love that you said that,and even just having all the
stakeholders stakeholdersunderstand and know what they're
saying and also like who shouldbe speaking and who should be
like Nope, we're deferring that,that answer to so-and-so like
those things are incrediblyimportant.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Again, you don't want to be wasting precious time
sitting in a room or on aconference call or whatever it
is debating.
Are we going to send thestatement or not?
Right, get all of thosedecisions out of the way and
there will inevitably be someonewho will magically forget that
(14:00):
they agreed to this in themoment and be mad.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
But you know, if you have, if you check that box,
you'll it'll and everything willgo much smoother and I think
too, like you were saying, likeof course there are life and
death stakes when we talk aboutcrisis and like those big things
, but it's not just those bigthings and how you respond to
that might look differently thansomething else that might be on
(14:26):
a smaller not life or deathscale, and so having an
understanding of what thosethings look like and how those
differences are will help too inthose moments when the
pressure's on.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Absolutely, and what I found is helpful is
incorporating those decisiontrees and those sort of levels
of scenarios into your crisisplan.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And when we're in these fast moving situations,
how do you balance that likespeed and accuracy in messaging?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Once again, prepare.
I mean, every situation isdifferent.
You're never going to be ableto write up, you know,
statements and press releasesfor every possible situation,
but you can certainly, you know,come up with types of
situations similar that would besimilar to each other.
Prepare things in advance thatare templates or shells that you
(15:20):
can pop information into andthen, in the moment, lots of
eyeballs.
You know, do not trust yourselfthat you typed what you thought
you typed.
Do not trust yourself thateveryone will interpret the way
you structured a sentence, theway you think you did, or what
it means to you.
So, having you know as, as,without making it, you know,
(15:46):
writing by committee, you wantto have a really good core group
of people, whether that andfrom different perspectives of
the organization.
You know, I usually like torecommend someone from legal,
someone from operations, someonefrom marketing you know
marketing sales and then youknow someone that could be
(16:08):
considered.
Maybe it's one of those people,but a senior leader that has
committed to say I will reviewthese, these pieces of
information, in minutes, nothours, and I will be available.
And here's my backup and mybackups backup if I'm not
available, and I delegate tothem the ability to review these
(16:29):
things, not necessarily forapproval, but just because you
want different perspectives.
You want, you know, you wantthat double check of did you use
the right word, is there a typo?
You know, could this beinterpreted a way that you
didn't think of?
And so just lots of eyeballs.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Absolutely, and I think that's so important.
I do that here.
Even so, we have a lot ofvolunteers that volunteer at
TMSA.
So, like our entire marketingcommittee is made up of
volunteers and I will always say, okay, like if we're doing a
social post, it doesn't have tobe my eyeballs that check it,
but somebody's does.
But if it's if we're announcinga new program, or like if there
(17:10):
are award winners, that we'retalking about anything that's
like like super high level, thenI want it to be my eyeballs,
especially if it's the firsttime we're talking about
something you know, because Iknow all of the pieces.
And so, even if it's not acrisis plan but just stuff that
we're putting out, like noperson, no matter how smart and
capable they are, is infallibleto make, not make a typo, like
(17:31):
we all are capable of makingthose types of mistakes and so
just getting a second pair ofeyeballs.
but I was like but with thatlike because when we first
started really utilizing thatcommittee, more and more, they
would send everything to me andI'm like you guys are all
marketers Like I trust otherpeople's eyeballs as much as
mine to do that grammatic check.
But here are the high levelthings that, like, I want to
(17:51):
make sure you know that we'redoing so, even taking some of
these cues in your crisis planyou can put on your regular
marketing plans or anything likethat, just to make sure that
you're having these bestpractices and processes in place
.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And we talked at the beginningabout, you know, thought
leadership with this type ofstuff is really important
because it's going to set youapart from your competitors and
(18:15):
it's going to show yourcustomers, your prospects, that
you are paying attention totrends and what's going on,
which I think is incrediblyimportant, especially in the
space right now where we have asaturated market.
People are trying to stand out.
But what makes for an effectivethought leadership strategy?
Like, we know it's important,but how do we do it?
How can companies kind of avoidsounding just like everybody
(18:37):
else when we're talking aboutthings.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Absolutely.
I mean, I think it starts withoutread, outread everyone, or
hire a PR agency that will do itfor you.
Executives, leaders inorganizations I know very busy,
hard to keep up with everything,although I've met some that are
(19:01):
just voracious readers and Idon't know where they find the
time, but it's always impressiveto me.
But that is first and foremost.
Just read everything you canget your hands on.
Be a news junkie, but in yourspace, in your vertical.
It doesn't mean you have toingest all the news that's
(19:22):
happening in the world, butreally focusing in on making
sure that you are up to speedand what the conversation is,
and for two reasons.
One is you know what are themedia interested in discussing.
You know what they'republishing is a good indication
of what they find interesting.
And you know publishing is agood indication of what they
find interesting.
(19:42):
And you know, taking that onestep further, if they're
publishing it it's because theythink their readers will find it
interesting.
And so you know that is a goodcue to say, ok, what are my
prospects, what do my clientswant or customers want to know
about right now, what are theyinterested in what?
And then you know beingthoughtful about having an
(20:05):
opinion on those topics.
So you know not just, oh, here'show my product solves for that,
but what do I, you know what,as a company, what do we want,
our leaders or what do I as anindividual executive, want to
(20:26):
exhibit to my clients that weare skilled in?
Right, because you know, whetherit's a piece of technology, a
hardware, a service, yourclients want to know in their
decision-making process, intheir consideration process.
Your prospects, your clientswant to know that you get them
right.
That's ultimately whateverybody wants from a product
(20:49):
or service is like oh, you getwhat I'm facing as an individual
in this organization or as anorganization as a whole, and
you're here to be my partner andhelp me solving my challenges
and supporting my wins andthinking about the same things
I'm thinking about.
So, really starting from aplace of thought, leadership
(21:11):
isn't about necessarilymarketing, it's about
contributing to the largerconversation.
And so if you, I, I believe, iforganizations and if
individuals come at it from thatperspective of just being
curious and wanting to engage inthe conversation, the content
(21:32):
flows through and is genuine andauthentic and feels valuable to
the reader.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Absolutely, um, to talk about is how your prospects
, your customers they don't carethat, like, how much capability
you have, they don't care thatif you can do everything, they
care about what you can do.
For that are you payingattention to what's affecting
them?
And so, when you build stufflike this and this is why, like,
(22:04):
I love talking about brand andpr and things like that, even
when, when we are talking aboutsales, because a lot of times
people are like you don't reallyneed marketing and sales to be
aligned.
But it's like you really,really do, because brand
shouldn't just be a conversationthat's being had in marketing.
It flows through everything andit's positioning your company
in a way that you're showcasingthat you understand your
(22:26):
specific customer needs and whatthey want.
And so in that thought leaderstrategy, it's like, hey, let's
make sure you know, if we arereally trying to get into the
refrigerated market, that thisis what we're talking about and
this is what our you knowleaders are talking about in the
public space.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And I, you know, thought leadership, having those
pieces published.
It's certainly not going todrive the in a, you know, a
publication that they trust andthat they read and look to for
(23:13):
guidance and information andthey say this company sounds
really smart, they're doingreally interesting things and
they come to you and those arevery, very qualified and
valuable leads.
So it's not so to your point.
It is an integral part of thesales process, I believe.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And when you're building kind of that thought
leadership strategy and you'retalking about PR crisis, all
those things, how do you kind ofbuild up somebody posting
directly to LinkedIn and beinglike this is my thought piece,
this is everything that I'msaying, versus people coming on
podcasts and being quoted inindustry publications.
How do you balance all of thosepieces out into like one full
(23:56):
scope?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Um, yeah, I mean it's , it can.
It's different for everyorganization.
Every client kind of depends onwhere they're.
You know where they're at whenthey come to us, and but it's,
it's holistic and you know it isa build and you know if, if an
(24:19):
organization comes to us andthey say, okay, we have these
four leaders, we want them to bethought leaders in the space,
we want to get them published,um, in you know xyz magazines,
and then you go to theirlinkedin profile and it's blank.
Um, well, we need to startthere.
Um, because you know, we have toremember that reporters,
(24:40):
journalists, publishers, thefirst thing they're going to do
when they get a pitch or a piecethat you want to publish with
them is Google, the name of theauthor, and so there needs to be
something out there, andLinkedIn is the best way to do
that because it is an ownedplatform and you can control it.
(25:01):
But if there's already apresence, if there's already an
awareness about an individual oran organization, if there's
already an awareness about anindividual or an organization,
then you can take more of athree prong approach where
you're just, you know, parallelpath, working to get things
published as contributedarticles, starting to pitch
podcasts such as this one to say, hey, we've got some
(25:23):
interesting, we've got aninteresting executive with some
interesting thoughts on XYZtopic, but also backing that up
with consistent posting onLinkedIn.
And you know, I think postingon LinkedIn helps sort of keep
the train running a little bit,keeps the momentum going,
(25:43):
because it shows that theindividual, the organization is
committed to thought leadershipfor the sake of kind of going
back to, for the sake ofcontributing to the conversation
and contributing to theindustry, rather than just
publicity.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Absolutely.
And then this is just such arandom tip, but as a former
journalist, if you put a mediacontact, that person better be
able to get a hold of thatperson that you're quoting in a
press release.
Because we've done like.
I've had that experience where,like I contact the media contact
and they either don't respondthat person needs to be
(26:21):
responsive and they need to beable to like if you're quoting
somebody in that press release,they have to be, because I never
wanted just to take the quotethat was in the press release.
I want to talk to the personand get my own quote because it
makes my story better, and sothat's.
You're building the pressrelease, so people are
interested in you and want tointeract with you more and put
people in articles and stufflike that, and I would always
(26:42):
laugh.
And then obviously I ended upswitching to marketing.
I do journal is among the sideand like other markets, but I
would.
They would always make me laugh, like why are you putting this
is the media contact?
I'm contacting you, I'm aperson of the media and I'm not
able to get in contact with thisexecutive, and that's.
That's the whole point of it soyeah sometimes it's the littlest
things that can make you themost successful.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yes, I'm shocked sometimes that I hear missteps
Just like oh okay.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yep, so switching gears a little bit, but you are
headed to Austin, texas, for theTMSA Elevate Conference June
8th through 10th, and this willbe your first TMSA Elevate.
So I'm curious what are youhoping to gain from the
experience to take back to yourteam?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yes, I'm excited to be there.
You know, I think I'm excitedsimply to meet other sales,
marketing, communication folksthat are working in supply chain
, that are working in supplychain.
I think that I'm excited forthe panels and discussions and
(27:52):
topics we're going to discuss.
I wouldn't say I'm new tosupply chain, especially coming
from aviation.
Obviously, transportation, eventhough it's direct to consumer
certainly a lot of overlap, butstill I'm still learning kind of
the intricacies of howtransportation, particularly in
(28:15):
freight, the area of freight,interact with the rest of the
supply chain and interact withtheir customers and their
shippers.
And so hopefully going to pickup some more insights there and
really just kind of going backto all of this right with
thought leadership and what I dosupporting clients is.
I'm a curious person and so Iwant to hear from the folks
(28:40):
working in sales and marketingand transportation.
What are their challenges, whatare they thinking about, what
is top of mind for them?
And that allows me to come backand think about how can I, how
can I support that and how canWarner?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
support that for its current clients and for future
clients.
Absolutely, I'm really proud ofthe education lineup this year.
It's like we're now in thatstage where all the pieces are
coming together and we're ableto like finally start showing
people exactly what's going tocome out.
So I'm really really excitedfor that, happy to have you
there, and I do think, like yousaid, the best way to be a
thought leader is to read, tolike absorb information, all of
(29:22):
that kind of stuff.
And so I really do think eventslike Elevate that are designed
for professional development, tolet you sit in and meet your
people and be able to absorbthat information and have real
conversations while you'relearning, is incredibly
important, and which is prettymuch what you said.
That was going to be.
My.
One of my questions was, likehow do you think that these
events kind of strengthen thatcommunication?
(29:42):
But that's what you answeredyeah, like I want to do all
those things and I want to learn.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, that's what you answered.
Yeah, like I want to do allthose things and I want to learn
.
Yeah, and I will add to that asfar as how it strengthens the
industry and strengthens eachother, is that marketing and
communications is a bit of afunny profession because all
these other professions havethese conferences where they get
to come together, information,share, learn from each other.
(30:09):
We tend to be a little bitclose to the best in marketing
and sales, especially when we'retalking about within our
vertical or within our industry,because there's a
competitiveness to it, rightit's.
You know, a little bit like youdon't want to accidentally
reveal your secret sauce to acompetitor or an adjacent
(30:31):
competitor.
So you know, unfortunately wedon't have the benefit.
There are lots of associationsand conferences that are broadly
about marketing or broadlyabout communications, pulling in
folks from different industries, different verticals, and those
are great because it is fun tosee, you know, how folks are
(30:54):
thinking about it, whatstrategies people are using
across different industries, andoftentimes there are things you
can learn from that.
But it is also great to just gettogether with folks that you
have kind of, even strangersthat you have an unspoken
camaraderie with because youknow my life, you know what I do
(31:16):
, and so I think it's reallygood that these, that GMSA
exists and that there's thisopportunity to come together
exists and that there's thisopportunity to come together
Absolutely, and that's exactlywhat we're all about.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
And when you kind of reached out, I was like, oh,
this is like everything thatyou're looking for is kind of
what we're all about, likebringing together the sales,
marketing, communications peopleinside the space having real
conversations around it.
And even I loved that.
You were like, oh, we love totalk about like crisis
management and what to talkabout.
I'm like, well, that's perfectbecause people need to know that
and the industry is changing,things are moving really fast
(31:56):
and there's misinformation allover the place, and so how do we
really dive in?
Be able to say what's going on,what we know, what we think is
going to come down All of thosethings is incredibly important.
So really excited to have WarnerCommunications as part of the
show this year and that you getto come experience it firsthand.
So super pumped about that andjust, yeah, we're in go time
here at TMSA headquarters forElevate.
(32:18):
So I'm excited for everyone tobe able to see what we're
executing on.
But last question for you andit's something I ask everybody
who comes on the show and that'sif you could go back in time
and advise a younger Jessica.
Anything, and this could bepersonally or professionally
when would you go back to andwhat would you say?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
so many to choose from, jennifer?
No, you know, I oh, that's ahard question I, I don't know, I
don't have a lot of.
(32:58):
I mean, I've had a storied life.
I've done a lot of differentthings, I've made a lot of
different twists and turns, butI don't really see any of them
as necessarily bad decisions.
They all somehow led me towhere I am today, not quite the
(33:24):
very beginning of my career, butright right after grad school,
just a couple of years into youknow, working at the airline and
like it's going to be okay,like just not everything is life
or death.
(33:44):
You know, I think I've really,I'm really passionate about my
work.
I love it.
I'm probably I've been accusedof being a workaholic many times
, but it doesn't feel that wayto me.
But I definitely think when Iwas younger I took it all really
personally and so as I'vegotten older, I've been able to
(34:06):
say, like I can care about this,I can be passionate about what
I do, but it doesn't have todefine me.
And I think that that would bewhat I would say is go back to
maybe, you know, 25 year oldJessica and say, like this
doesn't have to be everythingthat you are, it's a really of
(34:28):
this, this question?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
that's probably the most common type of answer.
It's like go back, take alittle bit more naps, drink
water, trust yourself, trust theprocess, it's gonna be okay,
just breathe.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Um, you know it's um, it's gonna.
Yeah, it's gonna be okay.
I also would have gotten a dogsooner.
It really helped with my sortof bringing down the stress
level.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I would think too.
I don't have, I'm allergic todogs but like I think about like
how many times I'm like, oh, Ishould go for a walk around the
block and I feel like thathaving a dog must be like clutch
for that, like for your own,like mental health and like
going outside more because youhave to like take care of
somebody else when we don'treally always do an awesome job
taking care of ourselves, butlike that like caretaker, like
(35:17):
oh, we have to take the dog fora walk.
So I think about that all thetime.
I know my kid wants a dog.
I'm sure I will fail at somepoint and accept that as a part
of my life.
But yeah, all great advice,excited to see you in Austin.
For people that want to checkout our show next week, we have
Christy Knitchell coming on theshow.
(35:37):
She is a powerhouse and leaderof Knitchell Logistics and she
is one of our Elevate speakersand she's going to tell us her
story and how she started outher career and how she took over
her, her dad's company, but howshe worked every place in the
company before she did that andwhat power, how she is now so
excited to kind of um, touchbase with her before the show
(35:58):
and then see her at elevate.
And jessica, thank you forcoming on the show.
It was great to have you hereand I will see you in a few
weeks and hope to see everyoneelse, thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Thank you, I'm looking forward to meeting
everyone.
Sounds good.
Have a good one.
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