April 30, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode of TMSA’s On the Move, we sit down with Jason Green, President at Faye, to explore how transportation and logistics companies can strategically identify and prioritize AI projects for both quick wins and long-term success. Jason breaks down how AI-driven insights can enhance customer satisfaction by predicting and addressing potential challenges before they arise, ultimately improving efficiency and strengthening customer relationships. Additionally, TMSA’s Jennifer Karpus-Romain reflects on her time at Faye and how Jason’s leadership profoundly shaped her career.
Check out the Transportation Sales and Marketing Association (TMSA) website or engage with us on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hello everyone, welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,executive Director at the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and sales
professionals in transportationand logistics.
Today on the show I have JasonGreen, who is president at Faye.
(00:45):
How are you doing, jason?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm doing great.
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm doing very well.
Happy to have you on the show.
It has been a few years sinceFaye has been engaged in TMSA,
so for those who are unfamiliarwith the company, can you give
us a quick overview of what thecompany does and how it supports
the industry?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
company does and how it supports the industry.
Yeah, totally.
We help mid-marketorganizations wrangle technology
for their sales service andmarketing departments and we
have a deep expertise across CRMand CX technologies and
software that allows us to dothat, and we're one of the top
systems integrator and resellerpartners for a variety of
(01:27):
different vendors in the spaceawesome.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And what about?
Transportation excites you guysthe most as a industry?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I think transportation for me uh,
excites me a lot because it'snot something people think about
a lot in their day-to-day.
They don't think about thegoods moving around on the roads
and the rail and in boats andthey're just happy that their
Amazon package shows up on time.
And I think it's a huge part ofthe economy and there's a lot
of unsung heroes workingtirelessly day in and day out to
(02:00):
ensure the economy moves.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Absolutely, that's how we feel in our space as well
, and I love talking about howto do that more successfully.
And one of the tech pieces thatis such a hot topic right now
is the topic of AI andimplementation of AI, or really
any type of tech, can feelreally overwhelming.
So how do you guys advisecompanies to identify and
(02:26):
priorities and prioritize AIprojects that offer quick wins
to get things really moving?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, it's a great question.
We tend to view AI as a bitmore profound of a change on
society as a whole.
We view it as a change to thevery nature of work, versus
looking at it as a tool ortechnology.
I mean, there's definitely AItools, there's definitely
technology that is underpinningand associated with AI, but we
(02:59):
find it very useful to look atthis more broadly and from there
it's easy to start identifyinglow-hanging things that you can
do to get some quick wins.
So just an example would berewriting emails, having an AI
(03:20):
agent for tone and voice of yourbrand that you can run content
and marketing and sales content,but also replies for support
through it, and even emails andcommunication from the finance
department.
So these are like quick typesof things you can do with AI
that just kind of scratch thesurface and then we'll get into
(03:41):
it more.
But just having like an AIposture around how you approach
it strategically in theorganization as well.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I know one of the things that we've seen.
We do a benchmarking studyevery other year and when we got
that result in at the end oflast year, we saw that there's
still a lot of companies thatare really hesitant to embrace
AI of any kind.
And how do you advise them toreally embrace the power of it,
create proper protocols,parameters for safety and
(04:10):
security purposes, but stillutilize the technology that's
available for them?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah.
So it's interesting becausethis is coming up with a lot of
organizations and owners ofbusinesses that I speak to on a
daily basis, and my answer tothem is you don't really have a
choice.
You don't get to choose toignore electricity or
refrigeration or antibiotics.
(04:35):
Ai is here and it's making aprofound change.
It's it's possibly part of aindustrial revolution 4.0, which
is something that has come upand kind of similar to when you
really had smartphones come intothe picture and people are like
(04:56):
, oh, you can't use yourpersonal device.
Well, people were using theirpersonal devices.
They're bringing them inanyways, and so I think one of
the best things you can do as anorganization is make sure you
deploy a tool that aggregatesthe various LLMs available so
that, instead of individualsusing their own individual
(05:18):
subscriptions to ChatGPT or Clodor Gemini, you're controlling
it in one central portal.
Gpt or Claude or Gemini, you'recontrolling it in one central
portal, and there's multipletools on the market for this
that you can deploy, and that atleast you have some modicum of
control over where people aregoing to use AI.
I think that's one part of it.
(05:39):
The second part is alsodeveloping a strategy for
training your entire staff onhow to use AI effectively, and
then also how to use it in asafe way.
And then your IT department hasto develop a posture around
security and compliance, justlike they do for any other piece
of software or database or anyother piece of IT infrastructure
(06:03):
.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Absolutely.
That's also.
I remember we with ourbenchmarking study, we talked
about it at one of our eventsand I said like okay, who's in
the room knows how their team isactually using AI?
And if you don't have theanswer to that, that's really
scary because you don't knowwhat they're putting in, and
especially if you aren't settingthose security protocols.
I'm sure your team is probablyusing TreadGPT just a little bit
(06:27):
, and if you're not paying forit, it means you're using the
free version that is, putting inthe information anywhere it
wants to.
So like having those properparameters and accepting the
reality of it, I think is reallygood advice.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And so, if a company is starting out in this AI
journey, what's the first stepthat they should take?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It's a great, great question.
So the first thing a leadershipteam or owners of a business
need to decide is they have todecide what they believe about
AI, and what I mean by that isdo they feel it's hype and it's
overblown and it's eh, whatever,a nothing burger?
Do they believe it's somethingsimilar to when on-premise
(07:08):
computing went to the cloud andso you had all these SaaS
applications and cloud computingand this type of infrastructure
?
Do they believe it's moreprofound?
Do they think it's 1994?
It's right before the internetand it's a massive, profound
change that's coming.
You're going to start seeingnew business models, similar to
how we saw Uber, not taxi, so on, netflix, not blockbuster,
(07:32):
right, and these things thatjust simply weren't possible
without the internet.
Or do you believe it's even moreprofound?
Do you believe this is 1882 andthe first homes in the United
States are being wired forelectricity?
And so, depending on what youbelieve and you need to have
some alignment on what youbelieve is going to direct how
you develop a strategy andapproach AI.
(07:54):
So step one is alignment at theleadership level about what you
believe.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I think that's really good advice.
I think that alignment isalways important.
That's a soap up.
I get on all the time here, soreally great.
And for the transportationindustry specifically, what are
some examples of, then?
Ai driven initiatives that havebeen delivered?
Some immediate value to them?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, I think.
I mean there's a lot ofdifferent examples, I think in
the sales arena.
You know, logistics companiesare, you know sometimes they
struggle.
How do we prioritize, whichleads to focus on?
Which accounts do we spend timecalling into?
Which RFPs do we respond to?
And, I think, implementing AIin an iterative way that can
(08:45):
help analyze the historic winpatterns, customer behavior
signals, any type of currentengagement data and score
opportunities based on thelikelihood of close things, like
that you can see a lot ofimprovements in win rate
increases, win rate reducing thelength of the sales cycle, and
so that's one example in thesales arena.
(09:07):
I think for customer service,an example could be like a
freight forwarding companyexperiencing a high call volume
that's having a lot ofrepetitive like where's my
package, what's the status ofthis, what's going on?
And so having automation thatroutes these, you know, using
augmenting the routing to bemore intelligent with AI to
(09:31):
route it across differentchannels, and then, even farther
than that, taking the type ofcommon things that are coming up
and then just trying to improvethe service process before you
even get to that point.
That's also.
You's also an example ofspecific for transportation,
logistics, and then on themarketing side, if you're
(09:53):
struggling with your messaging,you might have generic messaging
.
We've seen that where a companyhas generic messaging, their
brand is kind of generic.
It's not really resonatingacross their customer segments,
which happen to be quite diverse.
Using AI as your thoughtassistant, as a thought helper,
to develop more tuned contentfor your different segments, a
(10:18):
more cohesive and resonatingoverall brand voice and tone and
story, and then personalizedcontent for, like, different
accounts you might have in thatare in different industries that
you're servicing.
So those are.
Those are three of you knowmany different examples.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I think that third one really resonates with
me, because I think a commonmistake I see with people in
their sales and marketing isthey want to say, oh, we can do
everything, we can do it all,but people don't really care if
you can do it all.
They care what you can dospecifically for them.
They want to know that you arepaying attention to their
business and their needs.
So if you need to do multiplecampaigns, multiple initiatives
(11:05):
across different segments, oneeasy way to kind of get at least
the thought starting is to usethose AI platforms and be able
to diversify that a little bit,because you do want to
personalize it.
You want them to know no, wecan do it all, but we really can
do this and we do this reallywell and this is how we can do
it for you.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, totally can do it all, but we really can do
this, and we do this really well, and this is how we can do it
for you.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, totally.
What are some of the long termstrategies that companies can be
utilizing, or what are youseeing that people are starting
to implement that are more thankind of those quick wins, little
things that they could do?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, so I'm going to go back to what I was saying.
How.
It depends what you believe andif you believe it's profound,
it's changing the nature of work, and so a place to start is
with your org chart oraccountability chart or both,
depending on what you're lookingat and start thinking about how
your org chart is going tochange.
(12:02):
What are the boxes that you'regoing to have on your org chart
that are agents?
Because that's the world Ibelieve we're going into.
We're going to a place whereyour org chart is going to have
humans filling roles and thenit's going to have AI and an
agentic layer filling differentspots on the org chart, filling
(12:26):
different spots on the org chart, and so starting to think about
how you can augment differentpeople in different roles is one
thing.
Starting to think about howyour business model could
potentially change is anotherthing.
And the topic of the businessmodel it's really interesting
because a lot of transportationlogistics companies have a lot
(12:46):
of data, a lot of data that theydon't necessarily know how to
unlock and maybe they haven'tunlocked it because it hasn't
been useful to their particularbusiness of products and
services.
But with AI, there'sinteresting things they could be
doing that may be cut across,other industries that they're
(13:06):
not, they're not even thinkingabout.
So, exploring and thinkingthrough things that are really
kind of far out there today butabout to be very possible
tomorrow, which would be likekind of when you had the
internet with blockbuster videoand then all of a sudden you've
got Netflix, and just trying tothink through, you know, create,
you know what that means in thefuture, thinking about also the
(13:30):
future, how you're going tohave these different agents
potentially talking to eachother, communicating with each
other.
You could have entire functionsin the business filled by nine
out of 10 are agents speakingwith each other and producing
generative results.
Nine out of 10 are agentsspeaking with each other and
producing generative results.
(13:53):
And then I would say the otherthing that's really important to
be thinking about is to beprepared for massive model leaps
, and what I mean by that is youhave the LLMs, you have the GPT
, you have Claude, you haveGemini, you have Llama, you have
Moore, and every month, everyfew weeks, a new model seems to
be coming out.
And every month, every fewweeks, a new model seems to be
coming out.
And you have to be in a placewhere, across the organization
across all the roles and all thefunctions.
You're using AI and it mightnot work right now.
(14:15):
It might work okay, it mightwork less good or as good as a
human, but you have to havethese motions happening because
July 15th, a new model might bereleased that suddenly is
completely transformative for aparticular function.
That today is like, well, Ican't really do it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
But then suddenly July 15th, it's like oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, that's true, and I think you know early
adopters of new types of tech.
You're then able to move andscale differently and you don't
want to be behind.
So, even if you can'tphysically in the ground or in
the air and wires for any of itto be used and um, now with this
is moving so quickly that theinfrastructure is kind of there
already to be able to startusing it, and so as an
organization you got to beprepared for fast, moving
(15:29):
changes here.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Absolutely, and you talked a little bit about how
there's different ways that AIcan be utilized.
We have sales and marketing,but also that you know customer
support, customer satisfaction.
How can AI driven insights?
How can companies be using AItechnology to really predict and
address potential challenges?
Because I think that's a hugearea where AI can help.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah.
So I think in customer serviceor customer satisfaction, it can
both help on the predictiveside so, like you were saying,
predicting issues and it canalso help on the generative side
by generating strategy andpotential things to execute on
to just become more competitiveand compete better.
On the service side, tickets,messages to and from clients,
(16:22):
text messages, emails, routingdata, load data All this type of
stuff can be fed in andanalyzed to produce insights
that could be interesting, couldbe not, but they could be very
interesting, which is why youshould try to do that Tone and
(16:42):
voice.
So, for example, having thecustomer success, having
customer service group, makesure all the emails that they're
emailing back they're reallydoing it in a way that's uniform
for the company, analyzing themessages from clients to
understand what, how they'refeeling, and the tone and the
words that they're using, and soI think I think that's just a
(17:06):
couple of the ways that youcould use it to predict and
address challenges.
I like the idea of puttingtogether some sort of a digital
board of advisors in the contextof customer service to help you
with strategy and as a soundingboard for things that you're
thinking about trying.
So you might want to implementsomething new in customer
(17:28):
service and if you have, like,an AI board set up, you could
ask that question and see whatthey say, which in some ways,
seems completely crazy thatwe're talking about this, but
this is the world we live in.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So I think it would be incredibly helpful, for I
mean, you talked about a littlebit looking at the overall data,
but like sentiment analysis ona call, like I was just on a
customer service call where Ihad to talk to the
representative for 30 minutesbut I was put on hold like seven
times and then they forwardedme to the manager and he asked
me how he could help me and Ialmost lost my mind.
(18:03):
I'm like I've literally satwith your representative for 30
minutes and you don't even knowwhat is wrong with why I'm on
this call, and he's like, well,we have to ask these questions.
I'm like, okay, well then, belike hey, let me verify, this is
you or something.
But like I feel like on thosecalls it's like if a load is
missing or if there's some typeof issue with a truck or things
(18:24):
like that, I feel like ourcustomer service reps being able
to know exactly the sentimentof the person they're about to
handle before that comes inwould be incredibly valuable for
our teams.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, and I think your competitors are going to
figure this AI stuff out fortheir business, are going to
figure this AI stuff out fortheir business, and it's not a
matter of they're going toimplement a CRM or some
marketing campaign or CX toolthat helps them iterate a slight
bit better as a company.
They're going to figure thisout in a way that makes them
(18:58):
competitive a hundredfold, andso you, as an organization, you
have to be working in AI, youhave to be figuring out how this
makes you Uber competitive,because a your competitors will
and, b your clients are going toexpect a level of service that
(19:21):
is really really high goingforward, because they're going
to be getting it from everywhereelse.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, yeah, and we're constantly talking about how
it's a saturated market andeveryone's selling and trying to
figure out what thedifferentiators are and how can
we better target our customersand better support our customers
, and there's a whole bunch ofsolutions that are out there if
we embrace them.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Do you see any misconceptions about AI in
logistics that you think need tobe addressed today to make for
like a better tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, I think there's definitely some misconceptions,
one of them being this ideait's got to be kind of this all
or nothing transformation.
You know, most things we'veseen are start small, they start
targeted and they iterate andexpand.
Um, you know, theirmisconception is around it being
(20:16):
a tool or a technology versusan actual change in the nature
of work that you can just do anAI project.
But it's really about gettingyour staff AI certified, ai
proficient and embracing it on aminute, an hour-to-hour basis
in their day-to-day.
(20:37):
Another misconception is aroundAI being this massive cost
cutting and headcount reductionthing.
But it's actually really aboutaugmenting your staff to make
them superheroes.
(20:57):
We're not seeing headcountreduction with clients.
We're seeing them make theirexisting staff do more and do it
in such a way that each personon the staff who really embraces
AI really knows how to use itbecomes this almost superhero in
the organization.
And so really kind ofinteresting what we're seeing in
(21:21):
that regard and it's importantyou know that you're that the
staff, that the workforce,really understands that you're
embracing AI to help them andnot eliminate their job, because
they're not going to want touse AI if they think it's going
to eliminate their job, and sothis is part of really making
sure, at a cultural and valueslevel, that organizationally
(21:41):
you're embracing it and being AIfirst and the company
understands what's going on.
Sometimes, I think companiesthink you need a lot of data
scientists or massiveinvestments to do this type of
AI work and you don't.
The barriers to entry and dowork in AI are much lower than
(22:03):
that and the notion that AI isonly for big companies.
In fact, I think AI offers realinteresting value proposition
for the smaller and mid-marketorganizations, allowing smaller
(22:23):
organizations to do way morethan they could normally do,
which allows them to competewith larger companies, which is
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Absolutely, and Faye will actually be coming to TMSA
Elevate this year to talk moreabout this topic, to actually do
a demo presentation talkingabout how you can future proof
your transportation andlogistics company by upskilling
your workforce with AI for thatimmediate ROI, which I think is
(22:55):
incredibly important All thethings that we're talking about
today.
It's been a few years sinceFaye has come spoken at a TMSA
event.
What can attendees expect fromthat session?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, I mean one of the things we typically are
doing in those types of sessionsis getting in the weeds.
It's not just fluffy stuff orhigh level or 30,000 feet.
We get in the weeds, we go oversome technical things, we show
some tools.
Probably it'll be interactive,giving you an opportunity to do
some experiments and try somedifferent things out.
(23:27):
I mean, our goal is to make itreally useful to the audience so
they walk away having learnedsomething and not being sorry
that they came.
So that's what we're looking todo in these type of sessions.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, we're really excited for it.
This will be part of the demotrack that TMSA is doing this
year.
This is our first ever demotrack that we've done and part
of it is because we know thatthere's a lot of technology out
there on the market and ourmembers, our attendees, need to
see how to actually use it.
So we're really excited to haveyou guys back doing that
(24:03):
session.
You guys back doing thatsession.
Elevate this year is June 8ththrough 10th in Austin, texas,
and you can register, as you cansee down here at
eventstmsatodayorg.
So really excited about thatsession and for our demo track
and debuting it this year.
I did want to pivot a little bit, to have a different kind of
conversation with you now andbecause I feel like as humans,
(24:28):
as business professionals, wedon't always get an opportunity
to like publicly recognizepeople who have changed your
professional life and thetrajectory of your life, and so
I feel like anyone who'slistened to this podcast or who
has met me through TMSA over thepast three and a half years
have heard the very engaging,wonderful story of.
(24:50):
I came to TMSA as a member andI then felt the call to lead
when I knew that the previousleadership was leaving and I
left my company that I wasworking for and it's this great
story, super motivational forTMSA.
But I don't always talk aboutlike how hard it was to leave
that company and specifically,the boss behind that believed in
(25:10):
me in a way that no one elsehad and gave me the space to
learn and grow and tackle theworld in a way that no one else
had.
And that person was you and wemet eight years ago when I had
just had a baby and I wanted towork, but I didn't want to work
full time.
(25:31):
And you found me on Upwork andyou were looking for a full time
digital marketing specialistand I was like, yeah, no, I'm
not going to do that.
I'm not going to work full timeand I want to work from home,
but I want to tackle this role.
And I think we talk a lot aboutemployee engagement and how to
get the most from our employeesand at the very base of that, I
(25:53):
think believing in people andallowing them to meet you where
they are in the moment is reallyimportant.
And I look back on my careerover the past eight years and
what I've been able toaccomplish, and I don't think I
would be able to lead in the waythat I do, or lead at all, if
it wasn't for you taking achance on me back then.
(26:14):
So I wanted to publicly thankyou for that and acknowledge
that here on the podcast today.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Well, thanks, that was really kind words and nice
of you to nice of you to say Imean, you had the time, you had
a lot of energy and, um, you'reready to go.
And uh, I'm glad we we broughtyou on.
And uh, you know, I think a lotof it is about showing up and
(26:42):
uh, I think too much people justkind of give up or don't show
up and people don't necessarilytake the agency they have and
that, you know, is just reallyreally important.
So, yeah, glad I was able tohelp you early on.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, and I think part of that, especially looking
back then, is we look at workin a certain way, and a lot of
times it has to be one way, andeverywhere I'd worked previously
was very like a nine to five.
You have to come to the officeevery day environment and I
don't thrive in thoseenvironments.
I need to come downstairs andhave my coffee and just work and
(27:22):
not talk to people for a couplehours, and I thrive there, and
so I always really appreciatedthat you yes, I mean, obviously
I just had a baby too, so Ididn't want to work full time
and then eventually I got tofull time but, like you met me
where I was at the time andhelped me grow up, and I feel
like that isn't talked aboutenough in our professional
(27:43):
environments either.
Like, sometimes people can't doexactly what you're looking for
in the moment, but they havethe qualities or skillsets you
could be looking for if you justopen your eyes a little bit
more, and so I think that'sreally important to discuss and
talk through too, because, yes,people like look at me now as
the leader of TMSA, but had Inot had that opportunity to grow
(28:05):
up my pace at that time, Iwouldn't have gotten here yeah,
you know there's a lot of partsof society that are kind of
outmoded.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
In an office, monday to Friday is really it's
outmoded.
I'm not saying in an absolutesense that it should never be
that, or sometimes it doesn'thave to be that or some roles it
shouldn't.
But when you're running acompany and when you need to
have people in the right seatsand the right roles, and you're
(28:49):
running a company, and when youneed to have people in the right
seats and the right roles andyou're putting a team together,
if it makes sense you shouldconsider trying to make it work,
especially, especially forwomen who have just had children
(29:13):
or child and um it.
That whole situation doesn'tnecessarily lend itself very
easily to nine to five in anoffice Monday to Friday.
And I think that to me madesense, because I had a small kid
at the time and so I was seeingthat in real time and at the
(29:34):
time we were about to have oursecond kid and so I was just
like you know.
It made sense to me.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Mm-hmm, yeah, and I was really appreciative of that.
And then just allowing, I'm aperson who knows what I know
what I want to learn more andthere I think as leaders it can
be hard to let people growwithout like micromanaging them
or figuring it out.
So I always appreciated that aswell.
(30:04):
And then I, when people ask menow, like what do you think is
the superpower of a leader?
I think that listening is thebiggest thing that we can do,
because too often the leader isthe one that's talking all the
time.
And if we take a step back andlisten to our team and I was
thinking of that answer when Igave it I actually was in this
(30:26):
conversation last week at anindustry event and I think part
of that goes to I had a boss along time ago that would ask me
how I was when he would likewalk by every day and he would
never actually listen to theanswer.
And with you, I worked virtuallyfor you for the four or five
years where we worked togetherand you can always tell when I
was mad, because when I talk alot, but when I'm mad I go
(30:51):
quieter and I think through myanswers, but you could tell that
over the phone and I thoughtthat was really impressive and I
think through that now as aleader myself like how my
employees respond to questionsor like if I ask them how they
are, is there a pause or a huffor whatever that was.
But I could out like and youwould so, like we would talk
very fast all the time, but likeit would always be in those
(31:13):
moments that you would pause andbe like okay, no, like what's
really going on, like and Ialways thought that was really
cool because, yeah, I hadmanagers that I saw every day
and could never pick that up,but like you could tell that
when I'm mad, I am morethoughtful.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Well, I think, yeah, that's really interesting
observation and I think part ofthat, I think it's part of it's
because when you have peopleworking distributed, you need to
be able to understand cues thatyou don't get because you're
not in person and so you have topay attention to how they're
saying things, what they'resaying, what time of day are you
(31:49):
know?
Are they at home about to havedinner and you're starting to
have a debate about some worktopic?
Is their spouse like saying,hey, get off the phone.
Like you need to rethink what'sgoing on if you want to have a
conversation about whateveryou're having at that moment.
So, um, yeah, look, I mean,when you lead, you have to
really give your, your teamspace.
(32:12):
They have to be able to growyou.
You can't just you're not goingto grow very much of just
ordering everybody around.
People have to think forthemselves.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Absolutely.
And uh, yeah, I just wanted totake some time here in the
interview, since I had you onthe show, to like go down memory
lane and really walk throughthat and um, because I have told
those stories privately and um,people listening, this is
probably like oh, this is thatguy that she talked so highly of
.
so now they can have a name anda face to you.
(32:41):
Um, and so appreciative of ofour time and excited that you
guys have come back into TMSAand coming to talk things.
I'm excited too because peoplehave been asking me CRM CX
questions for the past threeyears.
They still think it's importantand talk about so excited to
have you guys back.
(33:01):
And that takes us to the lastquestion of the show that I ask
everybody who comes on, and ifyou could go back in time and
advise a younger Jason anything,and that's personally or
professionally when would you goback to and what would you tell
them?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
So I think there's a few things I would tell my
younger self.
Let's say I go back to myselfwhen I'm like 20 or 21 or
something.
I would first tell them toremind myself that time is your
most valuable asset, like whenyou're young.
You're a time billionaire.
You're like the richest personon earth when you're young,
(33:38):
because you have so many minutesahead of you and I think to
just think through how you'respending your time and how
you're moving the ball forwardon various dreams that you have,
and things take time and youshould try not to expect
everything to happen within avery short time.
(33:58):
You should try to plan out forlonger periods of time for
things to happen that you wantto have happen.
I think another thing that Ireally would have pushed my
younger self is to find a, findand maintain a formal mentor
relationship with someone whocan mentor you.
I mean, I've had people that Iconsider have mentored me per se
(34:21):
, but not in a formal way, and Ithink one of the greatest
things you could do for yourselfreally at any age, but
especially we're talking to myyounger self find a mentor or
multiple mentors to advise youand help you understand the
different arenas of your lifeand then, in terms of business,
your career just in business.
(34:41):
Then, in terms of business,your career just in business.
Focus on providing value,whether that's to the client, to
your boss, to your company, toyour colleagues.
Just provide value, really goodvalue, and everything else will
(35:06):
follow.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Provide value and always show up.
I think that's all really goodadvice.
I even like when you talk aboutthe mentorship and the
different facets of life,because that's something that
I've come to terms with is thatyou can have a mentor for like
six different things that aregoing on and perspectives Like
you don't have to just have oneguide that gets you through
everything, so I think that'sreally good advice.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I think people only I mean at least I was only
thinking about mentorshipusually in the context of like
business, but there's multipleareas of your life and having
someone who can help you is whynot?
Why not do it that way versushaving to spend a lot of time
learning it for yourself?
Accelerate that timeline.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show today and all that you
have done for me.
Anyone watching the show thatwants to catch.
Next week we will beinterviewing Tammy Richter, who
is the vice president of eventoperations at South by Southwest
, who will also be taking thestage at TMSA Elevate.
So we are excited to have hercome on the show and excited to
(36:12):
have Faye back into TMSA.
Thank you for joining us.
Have a good one.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Thank you.
Hello everyone, welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,executive Director at the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and sales
professionals in transportationand logistics.
Today on the show I have JasonGreen, who is president at Faye.
(00:45):
How are you doing, jason?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm doing great.
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm doing very well.
Happy to have you on the show.
It has been a few years sinceFaye has been engaged in TMSA,
so for those who are unfamiliarwith the company, can you give
us a quick overview of what thecompany does and how it supports
the industry?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
company does and how it supports the industry.
Yeah, totally.
We help mid-marketorganizations wrangle technology
for their sales service andmarketing departments and we
have a deep expertise across CRMand CX technologies and
software that allows us to dothat, and we're one of the top
systems integrator and resellerpartners for a variety of
(01:27):
different vendors in the spaceawesome.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And what about?
Transportation excites you guysthe most as a industry?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I think transportation for me uh,
excites me a lot because it'snot something people think about
a lot in their day-to-day.
They don't think about thegoods moving around on the roads
and the rail and in boats andthey're just happy that their
Amazon package shows up on time.
And I think it's a huge part ofthe economy and there's a lot
of unsung heroes workingtirelessly day in and day out to
(02:00):
ensure the economy moves.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Absolutely, that's how we feel in our space as well
, and I love talking about howto do that more successfully.
And one of the tech pieces thatis such a hot topic right now
is the topic of AI andimplementation of AI, or really
any type of tech, can feelreally overwhelming.
So how do you guys advisecompanies to identify and
(02:26):
priorities and prioritize AIprojects that offer quick wins
to get things really moving?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, it's a great question.
We tend to view AI as a bitmore profound of a change on
society as a whole.
We view it as a change to thevery nature of work, versus
looking at it as a tool ortechnology.
I mean, there's definitely AItools, there's definitely
technology that is underpinningand associated with AI, but we
(02:59):
find it very useful to look atthis more broadly and from there
it's easy to start identifyinglow-hanging things that you can
do to get some quick wins.
So just an example would berewriting emails, having an AI
(03:20):
agent for tone and voice of yourbrand that you can run content
and marketing and sales content,but also replies for support
through it, and even emails andcommunication from the finance
department.
So these are like quick typesof things you can do with AI
that just kind of scratch thesurface and then we'll get into
(03:41):
it more.
But just having like an AIposture around how you approach
it strategically in theorganization as well.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I know one of the things that we've seen.
We do a benchmarking studyevery other year and when we got
that result in at the end oflast year, we saw that there's
still a lot of companies thatare really hesitant to embrace
AI of any kind.
And how do you advise them toreally embrace the power of it,
create proper protocols,parameters for safety and
(04:10):
security purposes, but stillutilize the technology that's
available for them?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah.
So it's interesting becausethis is coming up with a lot of
organizations and owners ofbusinesses that I speak to on a
daily basis, and my answer tothem is you don't really have a
choice.
You don't get to choose toignore electricity or
refrigeration or antibiotics.
(04:35):
Ai is here and it's making aprofound change.
It's it's possibly part of aindustrial revolution 4.0, which
is something that has come upand kind of similar to when you
really had smartphones come intothe picture and people are like
(04:56):
, oh, you can't use yourpersonal device.
Well, people were using theirpersonal devices.
They're bringing them inanyways, and so I think one of
the best things you can do as anorganization is make sure you
deploy a tool that aggregatesthe various LLMs available so
that, instead of individualsusing their own individual
(05:18):
subscriptions to ChatGPT or Clodor Gemini, you're controlling
it in one central portal.
Gpt or Claude or Gemini, you'recontrolling it in one central
portal, and there's multipletools on the market for this
that you can deploy, and that atleast you have some modicum of
control over where people aregoing to use AI.
I think that's one part of it.
(05:39):
The second part is alsodeveloping a strategy for
training your entire staff onhow to use AI effectively, and
then also how to use it in asafe way.
And then your IT department hasto develop a posture around
security and compliance, justlike they do for any other piece
of software or database or anyother piece of IT infrastructure
(06:03):
.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Absolutely.
That's also.
I remember we with ourbenchmarking study, we talked
about it at one of our eventsand I said like okay, who's in
the room knows how their team isactually using AI?
And if you don't have theanswer to that, that's really
scary because you don't knowwhat they're putting in, and
especially if you aren't settingthose security protocols.
I'm sure your team is probablyusing TreadGPT just a little bit
(06:27):
, and if you're not paying forit, it means you're using the
free version that is, putting inthe information anywhere it
wants to.
So like having those properparameters and accepting the
reality of it, I think is reallygood advice.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And so, if a company is starting out in this AI
journey, what's the first stepthat they should take?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It's a great, great question.
So the first thing a leadershipteam or owners of a business
need to decide is they have todecide what they believe about
AI, and what I mean by that isdo they feel it's hype and it's
overblown and it's eh, whatever,a nothing burger?
Do they believe it's somethingsimilar to when on-premise
(07:08):
computing went to the cloud andso you had all these SaaS
applications and cloud computingand this type of infrastructure
?
Do they believe it's moreprofound?
Do they think it's 1994?
It's right before the internetand it's a massive, profound
change that's coming.
You're going to start seeingnew business models, similar to
how we saw Uber, not taxi, so on, netflix, not blockbuster,
(07:32):
right, and these things thatjust simply weren't possible
without the internet.
Or do you believe it's even moreprofound?
Do you believe this is 1882 andthe first homes in the United
States are being wired forelectricity?
And so, depending on what youbelieve and you need to have
some alignment on what youbelieve is going to direct how
you develop a strategy andapproach AI.
(07:54):
So step one is alignment at theleadership level about what you
believe.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I think that's really good advice.
I think that alignment isalways important.
That's a soap up.
I get on all the time here, soreally great.
And for the transportationindustry specifically, what are
some examples of, then?
Ai driven initiatives that havebeen delivered?
Some immediate value to them?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, I think.
I mean there's a lot ofdifferent examples, I think in
the sales arena.
You know, logistics companiesare, you know sometimes they
struggle.
How do we prioritize, whichleads to focus on?
Which accounts do we spend timecalling into?
Which RFPs do we respond to?
And, I think, implementing AIin an iterative way that can
(08:45):
help analyze the historic winpatterns, customer behavior
signals, any type of currentengagement data and score
opportunities based on thelikelihood of close things, like
that you can see a lot ofimprovements in win rate
increases, win rate reducing thelength of the sales cycle, and
so that's one example in thesales arena.
(09:07):
I think for customer service,an example could be like a
freight forwarding companyexperiencing a high call volume
that's having a lot ofrepetitive like where's my
package, what's the status ofthis, what's going on?
And so having automation thatroutes these, you know, using
augmenting the routing to bemore intelligent with AI to
(09:31):
route it across differentchannels, and then, even farther
than that, taking the type ofcommon things that are coming up
and then just trying to improvethe service process before you
even get to that point.
That's also.
You's also an example ofspecific for transportation,
logistics, and then on themarketing side, if you're
(09:53):
struggling with your messaging,you might have generic messaging
.
We've seen that where a companyhas generic messaging, their
brand is kind of generic.
It's not really resonatingacross their customer segments,
which happen to be quite diverse.
Using AI as your thoughtassistant, as a thought helper,
to develop more tuned contentfor your different segments, a
(10:18):
more cohesive and resonatingoverall brand voice and tone and
story, and then personalizedcontent for, like, different
accounts you might have in thatare in different industries that
you're servicing.
So those are.
Those are three of you knowmany different examples.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I think that third one really resonates with
me, because I think a commonmistake I see with people in
their sales and marketing isthey want to say, oh, we can do
everything, we can do it all,but people don't really care if
you can do it all.
They care what you can dospecifically for them.
They want to know that you arepaying attention to their
business and their needs.
So if you need to do multiplecampaigns, multiple initiatives
(11:05):
across different segments, oneeasy way to kind of get at least
the thought starting is to usethose AI platforms and be able
to diversify that a little bit,because you do want to
personalize it.
You want them to know no, wecan do it all, but we really can
do this and we do this reallywell and this is how we can do
it for you.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, totally can do it all, but we really can do
this, and we do this really well, and this is how we can do it
for you.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, totally.
What are some of the long termstrategies that companies can be
utilizing, or what are youseeing that people are starting
to implement that are more thankind of those quick wins, little
things that they could do?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, so I'm going to go back to what I was saying.
How.
It depends what you believe andif you believe it's profound,
it's changing the nature of work, and so a place to start is
with your org chart oraccountability chart or both,
depending on what you're lookingat and start thinking about how
your org chart is going tochange.
(12:02):
What are the boxes that you'regoing to have on your org chart
that are agents?
Because that's the world Ibelieve we're going into.
We're going to a place whereyour org chart is going to have
humans filling roles and thenit's going to have AI and an
agentic layer filling differentspots on the org chart, filling
(12:26):
different spots on the org chart, and so starting to think about
how you can augment differentpeople in different roles is one
thing.
Starting to think about howyour business model could
potentially change is anotherthing.
And the topic of the businessmodel it's really interesting
because a lot of transportationlogistics companies have a lot
(12:46):
of data, a lot of data that theydon't necessarily know how to
unlock and maybe they haven'tunlocked it because it hasn't
been useful to their particularbusiness of products and
services.
But with AI, there'sinteresting things they could be
doing that may be cut across,other industries that they're
(13:06):
not, they're not even thinkingabout.
So, exploring and thinkingthrough things that are really
kind of far out there today butabout to be very possible
tomorrow, which would be likekind of when you had the
internet with blockbuster videoand then all of a sudden you've
got Netflix, and just trying tothink through, you know, create,
you know what that means in thefuture, thinking about also the
(13:30):
future, how you're going tohave these different agents
potentially talking to eachother, communicating with each
other.
You could have entire functionsin the business filled by nine
out of 10 are agents speakingwith each other and producing
generative results.
Nine out of 10 are agentsspeaking with each other and
producing generative results.
(13:53):
And then I would say the otherthing that's really important to
be thinking about is to beprepared for massive model leaps
, and what I mean by that is youhave the LLMs, you have the GPT
, you have Claude, you haveGemini, you have Llama, you have
Moore, and every month, everyfew weeks, a new model seems to
be coming out.
And every month, every fewweeks, a new model seems to be
coming out.
And you have to be in a placewhere, across the organization
across all the roles and all thefunctions.
You're using AI and it mightnot work right now.
(14:15):
It might work okay, it mightwork less good or as good as a
human, but you have to havethese motions happening because
July 15th, a new model might bereleased that suddenly is
completely transformative for aparticular function.
That today is like, well, Ican't really do it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
But then suddenly July 15th, it's like oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, that's true, and I think you know early
adopters of new types of tech.
You're then able to move andscale differently and you don't
want to be behind.
So, even if you can'tphysically in the ground or in
the air and wires for any of itto be used and um, now with this
is moving so quickly that theinfrastructure is kind of there
already to be able to startusing it, and so as an
organization you got to beprepared for fast, moving
(15:29):
changes here.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Absolutely, and you talked a little bit about how
there's different ways that AIcan be utilized.
We have sales and marketing,but also that you know customer
support, customer satisfaction.
How can AI driven insights?
How can companies be using AItechnology to really predict and
address potential challenges?
Because I think that's a hugearea where AI can help.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah.
So I think in customer serviceor customer satisfaction, it can
both help on the predictiveside so, like you were saying,
predicting issues and it canalso help on the generative side
by generating strategy andpotential things to execute on
to just become more competitiveand compete better.
On the service side, tickets,messages to and from clients,
(16:22):
text messages, emails, routingdata, load data All this type of
stuff can be fed in andanalyzed to produce insights
that could be interesting, couldbe not, but they could be very
interesting, which is why youshould try to do that Tone and
(16:42):
voice.
So, for example, having thecustomer success, having
customer service group, makesure all the emails that they're
emailing back they're reallydoing it in a way that's uniform
for the company, analyzing themessages from clients to
understand what, how they'refeeling, and the tone and the
words that they're using, and soI think I think that's just a
(17:06):
couple of the ways that youcould use it to predict and
address challenges.
I like the idea of puttingtogether some sort of a digital
board of advisors in the contextof customer service to help you
with strategy and as a soundingboard for things that you're
thinking about trying.
So you might want to implementsomething new in customer
(17:28):
service and if you have, like,an AI board set up, you could
ask that question and see whatthey say, which in some ways,
seems completely crazy thatwe're talking about this, but
this is the world we live in.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So I think it would be incredibly helpful, for I
mean, you talked about a littlebit looking at the overall data,
but like sentiment analysis ona call, like I was just on a
customer service call where Ihad to talk to the
representative for 30 minutesbut I was put on hold like seven
times and then they forwardedme to the manager and he asked
me how he could help me and Ialmost lost my mind.
(18:03):
I'm like I've literally satwith your representative for 30
minutes and you don't even knowwhat is wrong with why I'm on
this call, and he's like, well,we have to ask these questions.
I'm like, okay, well then, belike hey, let me verify, this is
you or something.
But like I feel like on thosecalls it's like if a load is
missing or if there's some typeof issue with a truck or things
(18:24):
like that, I feel like ourcustomer service reps being able
to know exactly the sentimentof the person they're about to
handle before that comes inwould be incredibly valuable for
our teams.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, and I think your competitors are going to
figure this AI stuff out fortheir business, are going to
figure this AI stuff out fortheir business, and it's not a
matter of they're going toimplement a CRM or some
marketing campaign or CX toolthat helps them iterate a slight
bit better as a company.
They're going to figure thisout in a way that makes them
(18:58):
competitive a hundredfold, andso you, as an organization, you
have to be working in AI, youhave to be figuring out how this
makes you Uber competitive,because a your competitors will
and, b your clients are going toexpect a level of service that
(19:21):
is really really high goingforward, because they're going
to be getting it from everywhereelse.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, yeah, and we're constantly talking about how
it's a saturated market andeveryone's selling and trying to
figure out what thedifferentiators are and how can
we better target our customersand better support our customers
, and there's a whole bunch ofsolutions that are out there if
we embrace them.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Do you see any misconceptions about AI in
logistics that you think need tobe addressed today to make for
like a better tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, I think there's definitely some misconceptions,
one of them being this ideait's got to be kind of this all
or nothing transformation.
You know, most things we'veseen are start small, they start
targeted and they iterate andexpand.
Um, you know, theirmisconception is around it being
(20:16):
a tool or a technology versusan actual change in the nature
of work that you can just do anAI project.
But it's really about gettingyour staff AI certified, ai
proficient and embracing it on aminute, an hour-to-hour basis
in their day-to-day.
(20:37):
Another misconception is aroundAI being this massive cost
cutting and headcount reductionthing.
But it's actually really aboutaugmenting your staff to make
them superheroes.
(20:57):
We're not seeing headcountreduction with clients.
We're seeing them make theirexisting staff do more and do it
in such a way that each personon the staff who really embraces
AI really knows how to use itbecomes this almost superhero in
the organization.
And so really kind ofinteresting what we're seeing in
(21:21):
that regard and it's importantyou know that you're that the
staff, that the workforce,really understands that you're
embracing AI to help them andnot eliminate their job, because
they're not going to want touse AI if they think it's going
to eliminate their job, and sothis is part of really making
sure, at a cultural and valueslevel, that organizationally
(21:41):
you're embracing it and being AIfirst and the company
understands what's going on.
Sometimes, I think companiesthink you need a lot of data
scientists or massiveinvestments to do this type of
AI work and you don't.
The barriers to entry and dowork in AI are much lower than
(22:03):
that and the notion that AI isonly for big companies.
In fact, I think AI offers realinteresting value proposition
for the smaller and mid-marketorganizations, allowing smaller
(22:23):
organizations to do way morethan they could normally do,
which allows them to competewith larger companies, which is
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Absolutely, and Faye will actually be coming to TMSA
Elevate this year to talk moreabout this topic, to actually do
a demo presentation talkingabout how you can future proof
your transportation andlogistics company by upskilling
your workforce with AI for thatimmediate ROI, which I think is
(22:55):
incredibly important All thethings that we're talking about
today.
It's been a few years sinceFaye has come spoken at a TMSA
event.
What can attendees expect fromthat session?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, I mean one of the things we typically are
doing in those types of sessionsis getting in the weeds.
It's not just fluffy stuff orhigh level or 30,000 feet.
We get in the weeds, we go oversome technical things, we show
some tools.
Probably it'll be interactive,giving you an opportunity to do
some experiments and try somedifferent things out.
(23:27):
I mean, our goal is to make itreally useful to the audience so
they walk away having learnedsomething and not being sorry
that they came.
So that's what we're looking todo in these type of sessions.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, we're really excited for it.
This will be part of the demotrack that TMSA is doing this
year.
This is our first ever demotrack that we've done and part
of it is because we know thatthere's a lot of technology out
there on the market and ourmembers, our attendees, need to
see how to actually use it.
So we're really excited to haveyou guys back doing that
(24:03):
session.
You guys back doing thatsession.
Elevate this year is June 8ththrough 10th in Austin, texas,
and you can register, as you cansee down here at
eventstmsatodayorg.
So really excited about thatsession and for our demo track
and debuting it this year.
I did want to pivot a little bit, to have a different kind of
conversation with you now andbecause I feel like as humans,
(24:28):
as business professionals, wedon't always get an opportunity
to like publicly recognizepeople who have changed your
professional life and thetrajectory of your life, and so
I feel like anyone who'slistened to this podcast or who
has met me through TMSA over thepast three and a half years
have heard the very engaging,wonderful story of.
(24:50):
I came to TMSA as a member andI then felt the call to lead
when I knew that the previousleadership was leaving and I
left my company that I wasworking for and it's this great
story, super motivational forTMSA.
But I don't always talk aboutlike how hard it was to leave
that company and specifically,the boss behind that believed in
(25:10):
me in a way that no one elsehad and gave me the space to
learn and grow and tackle theworld in a way that no one else
had.
And that person was you and wemet eight years ago when I had
just had a baby and I wanted towork, but I didn't want to work
full time.
(25:31):
And you found me on Upwork andyou were looking for a full time
digital marketing specialistand I was like, yeah, no, I'm
not going to do that.
I'm not going to work full timeand I want to work from home,
but I want to tackle this role.
And I think we talk a lot aboutemployee engagement and how to
get the most from our employeesand at the very base of that, I
(25:53):
think believing in people andallowing them to meet you where
they are in the moment is reallyimportant.
And I look back on my careerover the past eight years and
what I've been able toaccomplish, and I don't think I
would be able to lead in the waythat I do, or lead at all, if
it wasn't for you taking achance on me back then.
(26:14):
So I wanted to publicly thankyou for that and acknowledge
that here on the podcast today.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Well, thanks, that was really kind words and nice
of you to nice of you to say Imean, you had the time, you had
a lot of energy and, um, you'reready to go.
And uh, I'm glad we we broughtyou on.
And uh, you know, I think a lotof it is about showing up and
(26:42):
uh, I think too much people justkind of give up or don't show
up and people don't necessarilytake the agency they have and
that, you know, is just reallyreally important.
So, yeah, glad I was able tohelp you early on.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, and I think part of that, especially looking
back then, is we look at workin a certain way, and a lot of
times it has to be one way, andeverywhere I'd worked previously
was very like a nine to five.
You have to come to the officeevery day environment and I
don't thrive in thoseenvironments.
I need to come downstairs andhave my coffee and just work and
(27:22):
not talk to people for a couplehours, and I thrive there, and
so I always really appreciatedthat you yes, I mean, obviously
I just had a baby too, so Ididn't want to work full time
and then eventually I got tofull time but, like you met me
where I was at the time andhelped me grow up, and I feel
like that isn't talked aboutenough in our professional
(27:43):
environments either.
Like, sometimes people can't doexactly what you're looking for
in the moment, but they havethe qualities or skillsets you
could be looking for if you justopen your eyes a little bit
more, and so I think that'sreally important to discuss and
talk through too, because, yes,people like look at me now as
the leader of TMSA, but had Inot had that opportunity to grow
(28:05):
up my pace at that time, Iwouldn't have gotten here yeah,
you know there's a lot of partsof society that are kind of
outmoded.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
In an office, monday to Friday is really it's
outmoded.
I'm not saying in an absolutesense that it should never be
that, or sometimes it doesn'thave to be that or some roles it
shouldn't.
But when you're running acompany and when you need to
have people in the right seatsand the right roles, and you're
(28:49):
running a company, and when youneed to have people in the right
seats and the right roles andyou're putting a team together,
if it makes sense you shouldconsider trying to make it work,
especially, especially forwomen who have just had children
(29:13):
or child and um it.
That whole situation doesn'tnecessarily lend itself very
easily to nine to five in anoffice Monday to Friday.
And I think that to me madesense, because I had a small kid
at the time and so I was seeingthat in real time and at the
(29:34):
time we were about to have oursecond kid and so I was just
like you know.
It made sense to me.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Mm-hmm, yeah, and I was really appreciative of that.
And then just allowing, I'm aperson who knows what I know
what I want to learn more andthere I think as leaders it can
be hard to let people growwithout like micromanaging them
or figuring it out.
So I always appreciated that aswell.
(30:04):
And then I, when people ask menow, like what do you think is
the superpower of a leader?
I think that listening is thebiggest thing that we can do,
because too often the leader isthe one that's talking all the
time.
And if we take a step back andlisten to our team and I was
thinking of that answer when Igave it I actually was in this
(30:26):
conversation last week at anindustry event and I think part
of that goes to I had a boss along time ago that would ask me
how I was when he would likewalk by every day and he would
never actually listen to theanswer.
And with you, I worked virtuallyfor you for the four or five
years where we worked togetherand you can always tell when I
was mad, because when I talk alot, but when I'm mad I go
(30:51):
quieter and I think through myanswers, but you could tell that
over the phone and I thoughtthat was really impressive and I
think through that now as aleader myself like how my
employees respond to questionsor like if I ask them how they
are, is there a pause or a huffor whatever that was.
But I could out like and youwould so, like we would talk
very fast all the time, but likeit would always be in those
(31:13):
moments that you would pause andbe like okay, no, like what's
really going on, like and Ialways thought that was really
cool because, yeah, I hadmanagers that I saw every day
and could never pick that up,but like you could tell that
when I'm mad, I am morethoughtful.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Well, I think, yeah, that's really interesting
observation and I think part ofthat, I think it's part of it's
because when you have peopleworking distributed, you need to
be able to understand cues thatyou don't get because you're
not in person and so you have topay attention to how they're
saying things, what they'resaying, what time of day are you
(31:49):
know?
Are they at home about to havedinner and you're starting to
have a debate about some worktopic?
Is their spouse like saying,hey, get off the phone.
Like you need to rethink what'sgoing on if you want to have a
conversation about whateveryou're having at that moment.
So, um, yeah, look, I mean,when you lead, you have to
really give your, your teamspace.
(32:12):
They have to be able to growyou.
You can't just you're not goingto grow very much of just
ordering everybody around.
People have to think forthemselves.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Absolutely.
And uh, yeah, I just wanted totake some time here in the
interview, since I had you onthe show, to like go down memory
lane and really walk throughthat and um, because I have told
those stories privately and um,people listening, this is
probably like oh, this is thatguy that she talked so highly of
.
so now they can have a name anda face to you.
(32:41):
Um, and so appreciative of ofour time and excited that you
guys have come back into TMSAand coming to talk things.
I'm excited too because peoplehave been asking me CRM CX
questions for the past threeyears.
They still think it's importantand talk about so excited to
have you guys back.
(33:01):
And that takes us to the lastquestion of the show that I ask
everybody who comes on, and ifyou could go back in time and
advise a younger Jason anything,and that's personally or
professionally when would you goback to and what would you tell
them?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
So I think there's a few things I would tell my
younger self.
Let's say I go back to myselfwhen I'm like 20 or 21 or
something.
I would first tell them toremind myself that time is your
most valuable asset, like whenyou're young.
You're a time billionaire.
You're like the richest personon earth when you're young,
(33:38):
because you have so many minutesahead of you and I think to
just think through how you'respending your time and how
you're moving the ball forwardon various dreams that you have,
and things take time and youshould try not to expect
everything to happen within avery short time.
(33:58):
You should try to plan out forlonger periods of time for
things to happen that you wantto have happen.
I think another thing that Ireally would have pushed my
younger self is to find a, findand maintain a formal mentor
relationship with someone whocan mentor you.
I mean, I've had people that Iconsider have mentored me per se
(34:21):
, but not in a formal way, and Ithink one of the greatest
things you could do for yourselfreally at any age, but
especially we're talking to myyounger self find a mentor or
multiple mentors to advise youand help you understand the
different arenas of your lifeand then, in terms of business,
your career just in business.
(34:41):
Then, in terms of business,your career just in business.
Focus on providing value,whether that's to the client, to
your boss, to your company, toyour colleagues.
Just provide value, really goodvalue, and everything else will
(35:06):
follow.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Provide value and always show up.
I think that's all really goodadvice.
I even like when you talk aboutthe mentorship and the
different facets of life,because that's something that
I've come to terms with is thatyou can have a mentor for like
six different things that aregoing on and perspectives Like
you don't have to just have oneguide that gets you through
everything, so I think that'sreally good advice.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I think people only I mean at least I was only
thinking about mentorshipusually in the context of like
business, but there's multipleareas of your life and having
someone who can help you is whynot?
Why not do it that way versushaving to spend a lot of time
learning it for yourself?
Accelerate that timeline.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show today and all that you
have done for me.
Anyone watching the show thatwants to catch.
Next week we will beinterviewing Tammy Richter, who
is the vice president of eventoperations at South by Southwest
, who will also be taking thestage at TMSA Elevate.
So we are excited to have hercome on the show and excited to
(36:12):
have Faye back into TMSA.
Thank you for joining us.
Have a good one.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Thank you.
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