Freight Friends: Holiday Retail Trends, Nike Marketing Struggles, and Temu Imports

On this podcast, we're used to hearing the broker's or the carrier's point of view. But in this episode, we're showcasing a conversation held at the ECC Conference with two shippers, one in restaurant equipment and the other in electrical systems, who share their experience in trying to solve their supply chain challenges since 2020. The ECC Conference was held in Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor and I was honored to participate in the panel alongside Phil Stephenson of Avail Infrastructure Solutions and Fred Mudge of Powell Electrical Systems.LINKS:ECC Association WebsitePhil's LinkedInFred's LinkedInWATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

Ever wonder how cargo ships navigate through the Arctic ice or why some companies keep losing their best customers? Grace Sharkey is back with her monthly appearance on EiL, and in this episode, she and Blythe tackle everything from nuclear-powered icebreaker ships breaking through the Arctic to why freight companies might be totally missing the mark on keeping their best customers happy. The pair discuss fresh marketing data that shows how the industry is evolving and wrap things up with a story about how mules - yes, actual mules - are helping deliver supplies to hurricane victims in North Carolina's mountains.LINKS:Grace’s LinktreeAutomating Annoying Phone Calls in FreightDirect Mail Statistics that Marketers Need to Know2025 TMSA ELEVATE ConferenceDisaster Logistics and Hurricane Helene Relief EffortsF3: Future of Freight Festival 2024WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

Your expertise in a field is often earned through years of trial and error. But for Jennifer Lynn Harris, she has used this experience to take her career from answering phones at a freight forwarding company to managing her team of drivers and becoming a freight agent for SPI Logistics. In this episode, Jennifer shares her journey in hopes it can help others realize the value of experience, pushing through tough times, and ultimately finding success in your work.LINKS:Jennifer's LinkedInFreight Coordinate WebsiteFreight Coordinate LinkedInFreight Coordinate InstagramSPI’s Secrets to Building a Successful Freight Agent CareerWATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

Companies waste a staggering $37 billion every year on pointless meetings. In this episode of Everything is Logistics, Blythe tackles why this happens and shares how companies like Shopify are fighting back. She breaks down the science behind why we waste so much time in meetings and offers practical tips for declining invites without burning bridges. Based on her own experience, she shares her no-meetings-Monday rule and other strategies to take back control of your calendar.LINKS:Meetings Are Wasting Your Time: Here's How To Get It BackWATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

More than 90 percent of US warehouses use no form of robotics technology and with that, a lot of manual labor is dependent on a workforce and roles that are tough to consistently fill… But GatherAI and their CEO Sankalp Arora hope to change that with his software approach to combining drones to help as a companion to the warehouse worker. In this episode, we chat with Sankalp on how he and his team developed this software to use alongside drones to help warehouse managers, and its workers accurately count inventory to save time and money.LINKS:Sankalp's LinkedInGather AI websiteWATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

Ever wonder why your favorite snacks are getting harder to find? In this episode, we explore the movie theater popcorn buckets hype and the global chocolate crisis that's shaking up your candy aisle. From Dune-inspired containers that went viral to skyrocketing cocoa prices, we discuss the surprising logistics behind your snacks and how they're adapting to a changing market.LINKS:ERP Failure Case Study – Hershey’sWATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

Ever wonder what happens to cargo lost at sea? In this episode, we discuss the wild world of floating freight, from 28,000 rubber duckies teaching us about ocean currents to Garfield phones mysteriously washing up on French beaches for decades. Blythe and Grace explore bizarre incidents like Lego pieces still appearing on English coasts and a British pilot's emergency landing on a Spanish cargo ship, touching on salvage rights and environmental impacts. WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

Ever wondered about the journey your favorite makeup product takes before it lands in your makeup bag?In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on the global and complex supply chain of makeup. From overseas manufacturing to the challenges of quality assurance, customs clearance, and the race against expiration dates, we'll explore how your beauty essentials make it from the factory to your front door.In our first segment, we'll navigate the world of makeup production and distribution, uncovering the hidden hurdles that impact product quality and availability. Then, in the second half, we'll get into the often-overlooked issue of makeup returns—revealing how retailers manage them... or sometimes, how they don't manage them at all.Whether you're a beauty enthusiast or just curious about where your products come from, this "source to porch" story will enlighten and inform.WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

In this episode of Everything is Logistics, we're discussing an innovative new startup that wants to turn space into the next big shipping lane. Grace Sharkey and Blythe explore Inversion Space, a company planning to drop packages from orbit in under an hour - yeah, you heard that right! They talk about their plans for space warehouses, debate the challenges of space logistics, and wonder if one-hour delivery from orbit could actually become a thing.LINKS:Grace’s LinktreeSpace Logistics EpisodesRay from Inversion Video on XJustin Fiaschetti – Inversion SpaceWATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.

In this episode of Everything is Logistics, discuss one of the biggest decisions a freight broker can make: becoming a freight agent. But hold on, the next crucial choice? Figuring out which company to join. We’re bringing you a special compilation of conversations with the leadership team at SPI Logistics, our long-time sponsor, covering everything a potential freight agent needs to know—from accounts payable to marketing and tech support.TIME STAMPS:01:29 - Mike Mikulik, VP, Marketing and Sales45:29 - Taryn Reeves, Head of the AP department01:28:50 - Eze Peralta, VP of Technology  02:28:30 - Anita Bassi, Vice President of People and OperationsLINKS:Mike's LinkedInEmail MikeSPI Freight Agent ProgramFrom Intern to Freight Agent: Tynan Guthrie's Journey to Building His Book of BusinessTaryn's LinkedInSPI WebsiteEmail EzeFreight Agent GuideAnita’s LinkedInWATCH THE FULL EPISODE HEREFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.---------------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interview series powered by SPI Logistics to hear directly from the company's agents on how they took the leap and found a home with SPI freight agent program. Tai TMS is designed to streamline your brokerage operations and propel growth for both FTL and LTL shipment cycles. Book a demo with the Tai team today and tell them Everything is Logistics sent you. Trimble is transforming the way the world works through industry leading solutions that reduce cost and maximize productivity. Learn more about Trimble Technology here.Digital Dispatch maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. Check out our website services here.