Harshida Acharya:
0:43
One of the things that I really admire about certain companies and certain individuals in times of crisis or in times of volatility is when they lean in rather than lean back. So when you're seeing that there's volatility and there's all of these disruptions, rather than saying I'm just going to hold off on doing anything because I just don't know what's going to happen, I think that would be the wrong approach. I think the best way to tackle this is rather than, you know, being scared or being fearful of not knowing and not being able to predict, try and think of what would be the best possible outcome, what could be the worst possible outcome. And how do you kind of, you know, find your reality in between those two.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:25
Welcome into another episode of Everything is Logistics, a podcast for the thinkers and afraid. We are proudly presented by SPI logistics, and I am your host, Blythe Milligan, and on this episode, I'm so pumped to finally be able to have a conversation with her. We have Harshida Acharya, and she is eCOM logistics podcast host and Chief Strategy Officer at fulfillment IQ, and we're going to be talking about the big T word tariffs and how it's shifting and rewriting e commerce logistics playbook for 2025 and probably beyond. So harshita, welcome to the show. I wish it was under friendlier circumstances.
Unknown:
2:01
I wish that as well. Blythe, but this is where we are. We were just chatting right before this, that unless you're literally keeping on top of how the situation is evolving on an hour by hour basis, you just cannot stay on top of it. So keeping that in mind, excited to get into this, I think you've been talking about having this podcast episode for the longest time, so I'm really glad that we're making it happen. It's been amazing to run into you at industry events, and I've been following you on LinkedIn and been watching your podcasts and videos for a really long time as well. So happy to be with you today. And yeah, let's get into it. Likewise, I've been following your show for a while. Can't wait to have this conversation. Think we wanted to try to make something happen around, you know, the holidays with E commerce, but I'm kind of glad that it didn't work out around the holidays, because then now you can, you can help us and help me, and maybe we can share some ideas on what the hell is going on with tariffs and all of that shifting in global trade. But first, before we get into that, I do want to give the audience a little bit of a background on who you are, how you came to work in logistics, how you started the podcast, you know, all that good stuff. So, so how did you get here today? Yeah, I'll keep it brief for for the audience's sake, it's funny. I actually, I grew up in logistics. So I, I remember, you know, as a kid, my dad had a logistics company back when I was growing up. So he literally founded it the year that I was born. So I remember being a five year old running around in like, sort centers. And, you know, being, you know, in the the mix of the action that happens on on the the real floor of where, you know, ops are done. So was kind of got to learn and realize just how much complexity there is, how much human involvement and how many little pieces have to align for logistics to truly work. I decided as a kid that I want to stay as far away from it as possible. So of course, I decided after school I was going to do something totally different. I majored in business and strategy was my minor. So right out of school, I went into management consulting, enjoyed that for a little bit, also worked throughout with various different types of organizations. So starting with like manufacturing to telecommunications as well as financial industry, and it it's interesting when you when you get to see that kind of breadth of problems and the way they're tackled, and how cultural nuances as well as practices of specific leaders, and also what happens at strategic level, how that influences what actually ends up being built. I think it gives you a very good context on how do you align your strategy with execution, and think about results first, as you are trying to navigate the complexities of our world, and I feel like that set me up really well for the world of logistics. And yeah, so I've been with IQ for about five and a half years now, and we're a supply chain consultancy, very niche. So even though we could, you know, potentially solve all sorts of problems, because we have specialists in Operations and Technology, we choose to be an inch wide and mile deep operation. So what that means is we just focus on warehousing and distribution and all of the challenges that and there are tons just in our space, right? So we always have tons of challenging and interesting work to. Focus on, but any anything that is within the four walls of a warehouse. So this could be, you know, a tech problem, or, you know, need to figure out what kind of technology or tech stack Should we buy, customizations, implementations, advisory work, etc. That's kind of what fulfillment IQ specializes in, and so I imagine, for this week, for the audience sake, we were recording this on April 9, at 12:17pm, just in case, you know news, further news drops. So you know, with tariff drama going on for, I mean, really over the last few months, since, you know, Trump won the presidency, but then really, in the last week with, you know, the Liberation Day that happened on April 2. And then now we're, we're kind of in the throes of it. And, you know, kind of what you alluded to. There's been a lot of late nights for a lot of folks in supply chain and logistics, and feels a little, you know, overwhelming. So I imagine for a lot of your customers and clients, I imagine they're probably feeling the the same thing too, or are they? What's the mood like with your client base, with fulfillment? IQ, yeah, absolutely. I mean, again, to the point that you were making earlier, Blythe, you know, having having podcasts as a platform and having a channel to interact with individuals in addition to all of the clients that we have at fulfillment. IQ, I think gives us a really good perspective and pulse on what's happening in the market, and get to kind of empathize with all the different perspectives. And I think right now, the volatility is it's real. I mean, people are concerned. You see the market drop over the last, you know, 48 hours. It's really, really concerning. I think for us, you know, one of the common themes that we tend to see again and again with this as well. As, you know, we've seen a lot of disruptions in the last five years as as logistics industry in general. So I think it the, you know, the philosophy around how the only constant is change is kind of what we are embracing at this point, because we don't know for sure exactly where that tariff number is going to land. We don't know, you know, how much of it is negotiation tactic versus not. What matters is that we're seeing a lot of brands and a lot of businesses that are struggling around Hey, we don't have options. We don't have the ability to, you know, take this near shore or onshore, just because that's not like the the capabilities don't exist. So that's that's more of a challenging problem to kind of tackle, and hopefully, you know, by the time the dust settles, some of these things will will get sorted out. But I think a lot of brands are figuring out that it's not just it's not just about faster, it's about making sure that you're truly designing your fulfillment and your strategies in a way that you're, you know, not beholden, or you don't have single points of failure throughout that that journey. But again, you can't really do anything overnight. This is going to take and we're going to see the impact of this, not just in the market, but even in our industry. We'll see over the next, you know, 12 to 24 months, there are going to be some big disruptions, unfortunately, but hopefully that's going to, you know, frame itself and from the perspective of a correction, and get us closer to where we want to, where we want to go, be more resilient. I think the way technology is evolving, I think this is a really good time for us to go through this unfortunate disruption, just because I think technology can really expedite and can help alleviate a lot of challenges that organizations have, and rather than just trying to, you know, place all your bets in one bucket, which is, if I get this product for super cheap, Then I can meet a certain unit economics goal. I think you can really spread that out across and have, you know, your your tech as well as your ops support, you know, the mathematics that goes into your unit economics at the end of the day. So it doesn't just become, you know, heavy on one end. So I think it's again, you know, just taking a macro look at exactly what the business does, what those points of vulnerability are, and truly, you know, trying to look under the hood and say, Okay, how can we truly think through a better way of moving forward? And keeping in mind that it's not going to be overnight, but let's make sure that this is, this is a way that we can evolve and get better, and not, you know, it doesn't make us obsolete, or we don't get into a situation where this, you know, causes the end of the business as well, which unfortunately will happen for a lot of them, I think, too. And just to echo your statements, I got an email this morning from Sammy amons, who is she works over at vision, and they do a lot of visibility and a lot of tracking and with their offering. And so she's sent over these numbers because they worked with done and Bradstreet, and they said that in January, the year over year change for us import bookings from China was plus 72% in January, probably a little bit to do with, you know, two. Chinese New Year and things like then trying to get ahead of the any kind of tariff announcements. In February it dropped to minus 30% and then March is minus 8% so if I'm reading between the lines here, it kind of looks like a lot of businesses were planning for this ahead of time, which is, is smart. And so I think for a lot of those companies, if you planned ahead of time, and you load it up on a lot of your merchandise and a lot of your inputs, store them in a warehouse so you can kind of wait out this, this drama, you're in a much better position versus the businesses that kind of maybe put their head in the sand and tried to ignore a lot what was going on. And I imagine that those businesses are probably feeling a little bit more calmer this week after post Liberation Day. But to your point, I would imagine that some of the people that didn't plan properly are experiencing a lot of stress, probably as much as we all are, yeah, and it's a constant state of evolution as well, right? So to your point, though, I think I was reading on a news story about how Apple was actually trying to fly three or four planes overnight before that midnight deadline to make sure that they can get in as many of their iPhones into United States as possible, to, kind of, you know, go around this, the loophole. But, I mean, that's apple. They have all of the resources they have, you know, the best of the best advisors. They have an incredible team that is supporting them from, you know, logistics and fulfillment and strategies perspective, and if they are still scrambling, I think, you know, one word that I would say to brands that are smaller and probably don't have the the kind of means that Apple does is, you're okay, you're, you're doing the best you can, and again, just, you know, pivot and keep, keep evolving, because these times are extremely unpredictable, and things are probably not going to work out the way you hoped or imagined. But, yeah, that's, that's basically what Logistics is many ways, right? It's kind of a whack a mole like, you think you've solved one problem, and a few other problems are going to show up, ones that you you never expected, and you just have to. It's like, what Mark Watney, from the scientist from the movie, where he's planting the potatoes on Mars, like, you know the movie name, but he talks about solving problems. He's like, you solve one problem. You solve one problem, and then you solve the next, and you solve the next, and then you get to come home. So I'm I'm gonna blank on that movie name. It's gonna hit me later on during the conversation. So I've read the book as well, but I can't remember. We have our brains are maximum right now of just drama, so forgive us if we can't remember a specific movie name, but I do want to kind of stay on this for a minute, because with these, I guess all of this as much planning as you could possibly do to prep for an event like this. Is the normal flow of goods still happening if you have those goods in the United States or in North America. Is that normal flow still happening? Or is trade kind of halted for until, you know, some of this, you know, kind of evens out. I mean, just because of the way our industry works and the way logistics works, I don't think there's a way for us to just stop the flow unless, you know, we have a situation like we've had where, you know, there's, you know, the canal is blocked, or something like that. I think the the flow is probably going to continue, but there are going to be players that have to pay the price, have to suffer the consequences of what that because if you think about it, like a lot of these traits that are happening, they've been committed a long time ago, right? So it's not like they can change their mind or stop overnight. In cases where they can, I'm sure they'll try, but in a lot of cases, that's just not possible. So it's going to be more of, you know, feeling the financial impact and hopefully adjusting and making sure that there are some countermeasures that are being put in place. There was also some news that was coming out with the removal of the de minimis. And correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm very, again, very, I guess, quote, unquote, new to all of this information. But the de minimis rule was a rule that really benefited companies like Shein and temu, where they could ship in packages to the United States, and as long as it was, it was under $800 then they wouldn't have to pay any taxes on that. That effectively has been removed. And Ryan Peterson from Flexport was saying that he's hearing that de minimis is going to be gone for good, that it's, it's one of those things that's not going to be coming back. So between that and, you know, some of these other issues that are going on. What kind of ripple effects do you see it happening in the E commerce world, where this is the new reality, and you're not going to essentially be able to go back to the way it was? What kind of, I guess, ripple effects are you seeing? Yeah, I mean, personally, I wouldn't be too mad about that. I. You know, loop being permanently closed, because, in reality, we just, we just saw a flood of really cheaply made goods flooding into our, you know, our countries. And, you know, we also work really closely with a number of different organizations on returns management, and we see the impact of it on the other end as well, right? So if you think about the sustainability and the impact that these cheaply made goods, and specifically, if you talk about clothing that has on our environment, it is, it is catastrophic. So hopefully this is going to move us more towards, you know, the being more in style with, you know, investing in pieces of clothing, maybe, you know, thrifting more, upcycling, etc, etc. I think that would be good for the general economy. So that's just one personal call out, because I think this is it in general. I don't think it did us any favors. And I think, you know, as I think about the the kind of purchases like my my niece would literally order, you know, 20 different outfits for one prom dress that she wanted, and then she would send all the rest of them back. And, you know, the dresses were probably like she purchased this total, you know. Qual, sorry, the total amount would be like, $100 right? But just think about how much went into making that happen, and what is going to take for it to get back to where it needs to go, right? So the freight, the cost of, like, someone manually packaging, sending it out, and then also, I don't know if they it gets back on shelf, if it gets re sent to someone else, or if it's just going in some sort of a, you know, a dump, because, again, that's causing a huge problem for us. So I think in from that perspective, it is a really good move. It's going to be really difficult, though. So again, you know, bringing it back to the reality for us, I think a lot a lot of folks have become very used to expecting, you know, the timos and she ins, type of, you know, I'll spend$10 and I'll have, like, a huge bag of, you know, goods that arrive at my home. So I think there's going to be, from customer experience perspective, there's going to be an adjustment needed, and it will have to happen over time, because companies are just not going to be able to, you know, operate as as usual. Yeah, I mean, the net positive. And me and my husband were talking about this earlier in the week, where it was like, we kind of need to be broken of this habit of buying these cheap goods and buying things like, you know, more buy it for life, and, you know, these things that putting value in. You know, what I think the phrase is, is, cry once, instead of, you know, crying a bunch of times, spend the money once, spend a little bit extra, but it's going to last you so much longer. And I think that's, that's where, you know, a lot of folks, including myself, we need to be broken of this habit. But I have noticed that, I think it was about a month ago I was inside the the the temu app, and it was, it was right around the time that Tiktok was, you know, quote, unquote, going to be banned or not going to be banned, but inside of the temu app, because I figured that temu and she and we're going to be next, if the reasonings for banning Tiktok were one, then that could probably apply to a few other different Chinese companies. And so inside of the app, it would tell you that this ships locally. And so I to your point, I think that that's right, that these companies have been knowing that these kinds of things are going to be coming for a while, and they're setting up residual plans. I'm curious if you've been paying attention or watching maybe Amazon, and how they're reacting to this news, because to do or to combat, what the dominance that she and and Timu have had, you know, over the last couple of years, Amazon started setting up similar factories over in East Asia, and I'm curious if there's going to still be doing that, or if they're maybe doubling down on their US carrier obligations or carrier offerings. Yeah, I think Amazon is such a fascinating case study of our times. I mean, what they've been able to accomplish within their logistics practice alone? I mean, let's not even talk about AWS and all of the work that they've done there, but just in terms of logistics, I think they they truly think about customer first. So you know, even as I think back to the days of when they launched prime that was way ahead of even where customer expectations were at that point. You subscribe for, I don't know what it was like, $79 or something, and then you can order as much as you want, free shipping. I mean, that was totally unheard of. But what was super interesting about this, and I think this was probably in my last year of university, is when this was all kind of unfolding. And I remember the numbers around why it made so much sense were incredible. So it was, you know, if you compare someone who was not subscribed to prime versus someone who was subscribed to prime, the amount of spending that they did per year, just. Because they have this program that they paid $79 for. It was 1000s of dollars. So you were literally converting people's mindsets on, you know, shopping behaviors, from one channel to another by subscribing them to this loyalty program, basically, which, you know, takes care of the shipping, absorbs that cost, but gets you into the habit of shopping at Amazon. One thing that I've seen, seen them do over time is get really, really good at the actual act of fulfillment. So again, if you think of the, you know, the most painful jobs in our industry are probably the ones where you have to be on a warehouse floor, or you're, you know, you're actually doing the pick, pack and ship and all of the, you know, painful walking that needs to happen, exception handling, the you know, everything that goes into it, I think, is, is what makes it super challenging. But what Amazon has been able to do is take technology, take processes, marry them together in a way where you are making your operations run super smoothly, and you know, align that back to now. Make sure that every customer who orders something, you know, gets it in time, because you never know what it is. The philosophy that they kind of follow is it could be a life saving medication that they might not receive. So it every order matters, and customer comes first, right? So I think grounding in that philosophy, what I saw earlier this week, I believe, was Amazon is now using AI, and, you know, some of the agentic capabilities of AI, and tapping into, again, doubling down on this right? And I don't know exactly how this is going to fit into their long term strategy, but basically, it allows customers to go through Amazon on their app and go in and purchase something from an external site. So let's say, for instance, Blythe wants to get, you know, a studio light, a key light. I think both of us should get a key light. But, you know, you go and search for a key light, Amazon doesn't have the one that you're looking for. It can actually search and give you options for purchasing something that is available on an external website. And in the back end, they would take care of all of the payment processing and, you know, filling out the the information, etc. And as a customer, it's a very seamless experience for you to be able to just receive that. You might not get the Amazon experience in terms of, you know, the fast delivery, etc, but it saves you that step of having to go somewhere else. Be like, oh, Amazon doesn't have it. So now let me see who else can, you know, fulfill this need for me. So it feels like you know they are going to continue to dominate in this space, and they will, you know, try and find ways that they are putting customers at the center of their focus on, okay, what exactly do they need? Are we giving them what they need? And if not, how can we enable that? So from my perspective, Amazon is, you know, it already is, but it will continue to be the destination that customers will go to for research as well as purchase for any goods that they need. So with all of that said, Walmart, too is becoming a major player in offering marketplace solutions for third party sellers. Think they just kind of secretly announced that they're going to start providing or becoming a broker and offering their transportation and fulfillment services to other other businesses. And I'm curious between the moves that Amazon and Walmart and then you know, some of the offshore players, she and temu is a couple of the ones that we've talked about already, what can sort of the average e commerce business learn from those, the big players. Yeah, I mean, diversify. Don't. Don't just rely on one channel as your end all and be all if you're not already on Amazon, if you're not already on, you know, Walmart, make sure that you're finding all of these different avenues of distribution, because at the end of the day, with all of the volatility in the market, it is critical that you get your products to as many customers as you can. I think the other thing that is super critical for these brands to you know, truly reflect on, and I think like you do a really good job of this, which is just marketing yourself really well, right? So it's with the the amount of AI generated content and blogs and stuff that we see out there, it's becoming really difficult for people to make decisions just based on content. So people are going to rely more and more on human interaction. And, you know, rely on humans as the anchor for a brand and purchase based on make their purchase decisions based on that. So I think, you know, you might not have the scale that Amazon and Walmart has, but you have the ability to build that brand narrative, be in front of your end customers, engage, have authentic. Conversations. You know, AI can do its job in terms of scaling you, in terms of how often you are getting your content out, but you truly do need to take it down to that level of, how do I make sure that I have a business that's sustainable, and that can only happen if you actually have customers. And how do you grow those customers? Make them loyal, make them, you know, repeat buyers, and you know people that maybe bring additional customers to your to your store, you know, give your products as gifts, etc. So I think all of that really requires that human human touch, for sure. And you said in one of our pre show documents, you said, tech without a strategy, is just expensive noise. And as we're talking about some of these big retailers, obviously they have or big fulfillment centers. We they have access to the best technology in the world. So I'm curious, with your expertise in technology and helping e commerce companies, how, what is, I guess, the tech that is a must have right now and then, what's something that's maybe a little over hyped? Yeah, definitely. I mean, you and I were at manifest together, and I was at Promat just a few weeks ago. And just the amount of AI and agentic AI that you get to come across in every single booth, in every single conversation. I mean, there's a huge hype around that, and I don't think anyone's going to deny that. However, it's really, really important for businesses to truly understand what the impact of that AI can be. Don't just buy it because it's AI. This is something that, you know, we we talk about on a daily basis. You know, start with your problem. What exactly are you trying to solve? Because there are things that you can do really well as a human, like we talked about, you know, previously on, you know, your personality and who you are as a person, and, you know, connecting with other individuals AI is not going to be able to do a good job at that you can, but there are things that you probably are not that great at. And I don't mean you personally, but just humans in general, being able to, you know, do detailed work or admin stuff, things that require a lot of data processing and being quick and scaling. I think those are the things that you should be giving to your agents or your AI capabilities. And in my mind, that's truly what makes sense, and to maybe add a little bit more context around that comment around if you have tech without some sort of grounding in strategy, then you're just wasting your money. I've seen so many businesses get influenced by, or, you know, get inspired by some sort of interesting tech pitch that they heard, or, you know, a hype, and they're just throwing money down the drain, because they have not thought about the basics of why. What would this tech do for me? Yes, it's great that it can drive all of these results, and it sounds super impressive, but it doesn't work that way, right? Like, just because you have this amazing WMS, for instance, it's not going to fix your problems overnight. You need to have a clear understanding of what exactly as as a three PL or as a brand, what are the things that I need to do to make my customer successful? Or, you know, to to achieve the kind of KPIs and metrics that I need to achieve? And where do I want to be five years from now? Right? So all of these three, pls, and brands are constantly growing, and they're trying to figure out, okay, which, what is my ideal positioning in the market as well. So, you know, do you want to stay in the same market? Do you want to have, you know, customers that are a little bit above market? So maybe you want to go to mid market and enterprise, that's going to require completely different tech stack, right? So thinking through stuff like that, the capabilities as well, as you know, who do you have operationally available to you on the floor? What about your your capabilities, as you take a look at your physical space, right? So is it, is it, are you going to have, you know, new facilities that you're opening? So the green field facility conversation versus brownfield retrofitting, certain, you know, automations, for instance, is a completely different ballgame. So how do you make sure that you align on that strategy and have clarity? And trust me, that that clarity is gold for any organization, right? And being able to have that clarity across the organization on this is this is where we're at. This is what we need, and here's where we are trying to go, and then use technology to kind of backfill off the holes that you've identified. I think that would be the right approach. But in a lot of cases, that clarity piece doesn't happen, the alignment and strategy doesn't happen. And you go straight to, I need to solve this problem. I have, you know, inventory accuracy issues. Let me just have the best, you know, whatever system and it's going to solve it. And unfortunately, that just doesn't happen. Yeah, I think it's a lot of tech debt with what you're talking with it. They fall for the fancy sales pitch, and they haven't done the boring but necessary work to optimize your own internal processes and then see where technology fits into place. Just want the magic bullet, and it's not gonna it's not gonna solve, you know, much. It'll probably create more problems, a whack a mole issue, if you will. Now in one of the other quotes that you had said you talked about great. Being essential in logistics. How do you see that showing up with founders and other e commerce businesses? Because you have, as a podcast host, you have access to these people who are, you know, elbows deep in in the hard work of of building up these different companies and trying to compete with the Amazons and the Walmarts of the world. So, so what are those, I guess, personality traits that you see in successful founders? Yeah, I mean, grit is table stakes at this point, right? Like, just take a look at where we are in terms of the market. I you know the the amount of the amount of uncertainty that entrepreneurs are having to deal with, and have had to deal with over the last five years, like there's just no comparison to anything previously. At the same time, there are a lot of opportunities as well, right? So I think grit is a table stakes ingredient in the makeup of an entrepreneur, but I think it's also just having the ability to be persistent, and, you know, don't leave things at the idea stage, because everybody has, you know, those wonderful ideas. I mean, how many times have you, you know, sat with a friend in a restaurant be like, Oh, wouldn't be cool if you had a restaurant or a bed and breakfast? And, you know, we all kind of have these ideas on wouldn't be cool if this existed. But the ability to take that idea, you know, either get it funded, or bootstrap it and actually build it out has it's a path that is super complicated, full of pivots, full of challenges. So you truly need to have that, that grit and perseverance, but also just the the student mindset, right? So the ability to take feedback and truly listen, because it's you have to have a thick skin, there is, you're going to hear things, and if you're not, then you're not asking the right questions, because you should be hearing about how something doesn't make sense, or something should be done in a different way, because that's how you're going to make your solution service, whatever it is, as robust as it can be, right? So it's it's not glamorous, but if you truly are invested in it, from the perspective of, I want to make this the best possible product, or put something that is the best possible, you know, legacy that I can leave behind in the world, I think that's such a such a good way to kind of tackle real problems in our world. They're messy. It's going to be challenging. It's completely, you know, it's going to go off whatever plan you had. But it's kind of shifting to, how do you make sure that you still continue to, you know, keep marching forward. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses have kind of, you know, kind of shut down over the last couple of years, and it's, it's really unfortunate, because I know how much innovation there is needed in our space, and how much we need fresh blood and, you know, new ideas and for things to just keep evolving. But at the same time, it is a really tough market, and it is a really tough industry. You need to kind of Master the basics. I think Logistics is one of those industries where we have so much rich foundation of operational practices, so things like Lean Six Six, Lean Six Sigma, and you know, other practices that truly make it clear for any operator how you should be running The real operations on on grounds, and then adding AI, automation, robotics technology, layer them in as they make sense. I think that is truly the only way to win in this space. Yeah. I mean, you really hit the nail on the head with saying all that entrepreneurship is already just in and of itself, hard. But then, if you're doing entrepreneurship inside of logistics, especially with, you know, everything that we've been talking about in this episode and everything that's been going on with global trade, it's not for the week, and you gotta be able to your point, grit is the most essential tool that you can have in your tool belt. And with, you know, sort of slightly switching gears a little bit to the podcast that you're a producer and a host of E comm logistics Podcast. I'm curious as to what was the initial reason to get that show started. I think I heard you say it was being able to talk to customers directly. Is that kind of still the goal? Is it spreading education awareness? Maybe a combination of the two. Yeah, the podcast was honestly, I started it because it just seemed like such a great idea. I mean, we were having all these interesting conversations. Anyways, we got, got asked all the time by folks that we were talking to, like, you should make a podcast. Like, I would listen to what you're saying. So, you know, at one point I was like, okay, dinad Dan, are we doing this? Like, does it make sense for us to have our own podcast? They were like, yes, let's do it. You know, couple minutes later, I was like, Okay, guys, where are we at on that podcast thing? They were like, Yeah, we should totally do it. It's like, you know what? I'm going to do it, because I'd rather do a podcast rather than, you know, write blogs or articles anyway. So it just seemed like such a good fit because. So we love having conversations. We love sharing knowledge. We love learning from other leaders in the industry. So beyond just customers, you know, we we decided to just talk to individuals in the in the industry that were truly, you know, making things happen from tech and ops perspective. And again, we stay kind of inch wide and mile deep, even in the podcast itself, because we know what we specialize in and what where we bring the value, and it's truly been a labor of love for us. I think, you know, just being able to have conversations with different, you know, leaders and get their perspective and get their insights on, you know, not necessarily looking for like the secret sauce or the magic bullet, because, to be honest, that never works. Like, even if you if I tell you exactly what my secret sauce is, it would never work, because it has to, you know, all of the context around that magic sauce also has to align. So it's more around the playbooks. It's more around, you know, what is your philosophy? How do you what's your vision? How do you actually make this happen? And you know, when you have all of these obstacles, what is a good way for me to position it, reframe it, and think about it? I think that's kind of what we we set out to build in the world. And it's, it's been a very enriching experience. I mean, as I'm sure you might attest to it as a podcast host and podcast creator. You know, it's, it's such a joy to be able to learn from various individuals in the industry, sharpen the acts, so to speak, and also, just, you know, be involved in, in in the conversations that are happening in the industry as well, right? I think it, it really gives you that stage and the ability to shape the narrative which is, which is really, really cool. I think one of the things that makes me super proud is, you know, when, when I meet individuals, or I get comments about how they're using, you know, certain episodes of our podcast as training material for onboarding new staff that joins their organization and stuff like that. And I think that's really cool. I mean, we, we didn't set out to, you know, create any sort of like learning curriculum to start with, but I think, you know, a lot of the episodes kind of stand on their own and have enough depth of expertise that folks that are, you know, trying to level up within our industry can truly use it as a learning resource. Which makes me really happy, and I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, how we can evolve the podcast and, you know, kind of keep it going. And, yeah, it's really inspiring to see, you know, yourself and Sarah and all the other podcasters in the industry that are also, you know, sharing some really good conversations and making sure that the importance of logistics and the importance of supply chain is felt heard, and there's education around it, and I think that's something we need to keep pushing for and keep driving forward. Do you have a favorite, like guest quote or insight or nugget of information from a previous guest? Can't think of a specific quote, but I would say one of the guests that has left me forever, inspired and changed me, in a way, is Sandra McKellen. She was the CS CEO at Mondelez, and just a phenomenal leader in the space. I think every interaction with her would just left me kind of speechless. And, you know, I took tons of notes. She unfortunately passed away a couple years ago. She, I think what she kind of the, the biggest impact that she had on me was around just having the confidence in being able to state, you know, what you bring to the table, and just going through with it, you know, hold people accountable. Just because, you know, something has been said doesn't mean it's actually going to get done. Take the initiative to actually hold people accountable and make sure that the results actually follow. I mean, she, she had this ability to kind of take the human perspective and marry it with the results that needed to be achieved from, you know, logistics and supply chain perspective, and she did such a good job of marrying the two, which is really, really difficult. But yeah, that that would be for anyone that wants to check out that episode. Maybe we can link that in the the show notes, because I think she's, she was an incredible human Yes, absolutely. I'll get that link from you, or I'll just probably search for it on your YouTube channel and make sure I put it in the show notes for the folks that are curious. But on a similar note, you also started up another group called ladies who logistic tell me what brought that idea to light and to fruition. Yeah, absolutely. Again, it was another one of those conversations where it was myself and the two other co founders of ladies who logistic, you know, we were at a conference together, and we're like, Would it be cool if there was, you know, a group where you could just meet other women in logistics and just have friendships, you know, no, no other agenda. I think there's a an. Instagram poster on, you know how women should just show up for each other and, you know, be a part of your tribe. No jealousy, no, you know, nothing backhanded. Just Just be there and support each other. Like, yeah, that would be very cool. So what would it take for us to do this? We're like, you know what? Let's just test it out. Is there, is there a need for something like this to exist in the world, and we just took a chance. We posted on LinkedIn. We're like, we're going to start this group, and we're just going to see if anybody's interested in joining. And we saw a really big turnout of women that wanted to join. We still have monthly conversations and a couple of different programs that have evolved out of it as well. It's a free group. And again, it was another labor of love, type of an initiative. And what we try to do is just get get women together and have them kind of find each other in this world of logistics. And hopefully, you know, find some similarities, find some friendships, and be able to rely on each other. I think one of the key learnings that we've had in that group as well is just how isolated women feel at certain industry conferences, and especially if you are newer in the industry, and you're kind of trying to find your place, and you go to a conference that has where you're just underrepresented. And then you go to, you know, a networking event that has a huge room with, I don't know, 500 men. You just, you naturally feel a little bit, you know, taken aback by, how do I, how do I do this? I got I, personally, I'm not a very outgoing person. I can do one on one, but when it's a huge crowd, I immediately get overwhelmed. I just, you know, walk backwards out in the room. But you know, having a friend with you just makes it so much easier, because then you can have someone you know who can get you out of the conversation if needed, or introduce you to interesting people and help you expand your network, etc. So it was kind of born out of that. And what we've been doing is, in addition to those monthly meetups, we we try and organize, you know, pre meetups at conferences, where we just, you know, grab a coffee or grab a meal and get to know each other. So again, it can be like, hey, when we go to that, you know, big networking thing that's coming. You can look out for me, I can look out for you. We can, you know, find each other kind of thing. So it's, it's been, it's been really rewarding for me, being a woman, minority woman in STEM in Technology and Logistics. You know, I've always found myself in as a minority, in on most, you know, stages, most tables. So it's been, you know, really important for me to kind of pass the ladder back down and try to teach whatever I can, as well as give that platform to other individuals in the industry. So this has kind of helped enable that. And I have two other amazing co founders with me, and they bring their own perspective from, you know, ventures in logistics, space, sustainability and logistics space, like, it's just a really well rounded group. And, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a great one. Yeah. I mean, between that group, Legacy logistic and your podcast, like it's a beautiful thing when you can set up a resource, not only for yourself but for others within the industry, to be able to learn through that education of what you're sharing within those meetups and within those conversations. So So kudos to you for having I was going to say, having the balls to do it, but that's obviously lack of a better phrase, having the guts to do it, the grit to do it, is what I should say. So last couple, last couple questions here, you know, as we kind of, you know, round out this discussion. What advice would you give to the folks who are kind of in our similar shoes, where they're feeling just overwhelmed with a lot of the tariff conversation and what they should do with their business planning and just kind of like, which direction should I go? How should I even be thinking about planning for the rest of 2025 what advice would you give to e commerce companies out there who are listening? Yeah, that's a really great question. I mean, I wish we had some way of predicting how the rest of the year is going to unfold, but unfortunately, we don't. So based on where we're at, I think the best thing we can do as experts and operators in the industry, as well as brands three PLS, and retailers is truly get that clarity, right? So again, going back to that strategy, as as as the edge that you can truly have as an organization, is probably what I would suggest they start with. And it's, it's a really good exercise to go through and think about, you know, what impact are you having on your customers? Where do you drive the most value? Where do they? Where do they feel they get the most value? And then what also contributes value? As in the bottom line to your organization, try to marry the two, and then figure out, are you positioned in a way that you can truly protect that and if not, what are some of those practices or measures, or what can. You do to make sure that you are prepared, because things are going to continue to be rocky. I think you know, one of the things that I really admire about certain companies and certain individuals in times of crisis or in times of volatility is when they lean in rather than lean back. So when you're seeing that there's volatility and there's all of these disruptions, rather than saying, I'm just going to hold off on doing anything, because I just don't know what's going to happen, I think that would be the wrong approach. I think the best way to tackle this is rather than, you know, being scared or being fearful of not knowing and not being able to predict, try and think of what would be the best possible outcome. What could be the worst possible outcome? And how do you kind of, you know, find your reality in between those two and keep it, keep it as realistic as possible. Bring in an outside expert, if you need to, or friend, or someone who can just call you out in case you are, you know, lying to yourself. And truly, you know, listen to those, those difficult conversations, or, you know, that reflection that you need to have to truly make yourself future proof, because otherwise, we're going to come out of this disruptive time, and then you'll find that because you've been holding back, you've already lost out, you know, because the competitors that did not hold back and invested in the right things and made the moves that they needed to make, Very well said, and an incredible mic drop moment. So where you know harshita, where can I be sure to add links to fulfillment IQ and ladies who logistics, but where can I send other people to find you, connect with you and possibly work with you? Yeah, absolutely. LinkedIn. I post semi regularly on LinkedIn. I think the last couple of months have been a bit crazy, so I haven't been as regular as I used to, though I do try to post at least a couple of times. So you can always reach me on LinkedIn. You can DM me, connect with me there, follow me. Fulfillment IQ is, you know, as you'd spell it, fulfillment iq.com you can check out our website or follow us on LinkedIn as well. Super interested in talking to anyone that is, you know, trying to figure out how they are going to navigate the future, as well as folks that are truly interested in, you know, taking a look at how the disruptions might might be the best time for them to actually invest in their technology, invest in their operations, and truly make themselves a leader. So again, open to anyone that wants to have a chat. I love having these kind of conversations as well. So happy to meet for virtual coffee and anyone, any women in the industry you know, if you're interested, I would welcome you to join ladies who logistic as well. There are a lot of different ladies organizations. We have a ladies conference as well. So lots of amazing tools that are available out there, and maybe we can link them in the show notes as well. So, you know, we can kind of pass that ladder back down and help more women, you know, feel like they have place in our industry. 100% arjita, this was a great conversation. Thank you so much for your time. Absolutely thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode of everything is logistics, a podcast for the thinkers in freight, telling the stories behind how your favorite stuff and people get from point A to B. Subscribe to the show, sign up for our newsletter and follow our socials. Over at everything is logistics.com and in addition to the podcast, I also wanted to let you all know about another company I operate, and that's digital dispatch, where we help you build a better website. Now, a lot of the times we hand this task of building a new website or refreshing a current one off to a co worker's child, a neighbor down the street or stranger around the world, where you probably spend more time explaining the freight industry than it takes to actually build the dang website. Well, that doesn't happen at Digital dispatch. We've been building online since 2009 but we're also early adopters of AI automation and other website tactics that help your company to be a central place, to pull in all of your social media posts, recruit new employees and give potential customers a glimpse into how you operate your business. Our new website builds start as low as$1,500 along with ongoing website management, maintenance and updates starting at $90 a month, plus some bonus freight, marketing and sales content similar to what you hear on the podcast. You can watch a quick explainer video over on digitaldispatch.io, just check out the pricing page once you arrive, and you can see how we can build your digital ecosystem on a strong foundation. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'll see you all real soon and go jags.
