In Episode 6 of Launching Logistics, Jim Becker welcomes Jessica Windham, Founder and CEO of Solving Work, for an inspiring conversation on leadership, workplace culture, and sustainable change in the logistics industry. With extensive experience across the logistics ecosystem—from carriers to 3PLs and technology providers—Jessica shares her unique insights into balancing people and processes for long-term success.
Jessica discusses her philosophy of heart-centered leadership, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, care, and accountability in creating more engaged, motivated teams.
Guest Info
Jessica Windham
Today, as CEO of Solving Work, Jessica helps logistics leaders overcome their own obstacles. She has worked with managers everywhere, and seen that most of them are struggling to stay afloat. The shipping industry presents constant challenges, both time sensitive and cross-functional. Through Solving Work, Jessica’s three-step consulting engagement helps those managers:
✔Discover their Pain Points
✔Reveal the Root Cause
✔Implement Solutions
Please reach out to me at jess@solvingwork.com to talk more!
Also, Check out Jessica on LinkedIn Here.
Lean more about Solving Work on their website.
Interview Transcript
Jessica Windham |
When we say think outside the box, sometimes it means stop thinking and do something and let your subconscious take over. And do the work. Just like the great ideas come to you in the shower. It’s like sometimes if you give yourself a break, you come through for you. |
Jim Becker |
Absolutely. And it’s so important to really just be with ourselves. It’s that being state. You know, I, I read an article, I think you posted it something about being, that you that that you’ve always wanted to be or. |
Jessica Windham |
Oh, yes. Or or maybe this is probably a recent one. I, I kind of had a, a post recently about like, kind of like practicing to be older or like or like stop pushing everything off to this future state in time and just be the you that you want to be today, even if you aren’t good at it or even if you suck or, you know, whatever, just be who you are right now instead of always pushing this to a future thing. |
Jessica Windham |
And it’s it’s interesting because that was at the end of August and I asked my dad actually passed away on September 1st, and, you know, just kind of like putting these things together. It’s like it is so incredibly important to be who you are right now in this moment, and to bring your whole self into the picture, the joy and the grief and the all of the things like that. |
Jessica Windham |
That’s the person that that we need in this moment. |
Jim Becker |
Absolutely. It’s a celebration is what I’m getting from you, is that there is no yesterday. There is no tomorrow. There’s only today. There’s only right now, like you and I are having here. |
Jessica Windham |
Jessica, stop the rumination. Do the thing that enables you to stop the rumination and let that be anything like for me. I know, you know, as I’ve done my entrepreneurial journey over these last 18 months, there are highs and there are loads. And in the low moments I have a discouragement sop that I follow. I’m just a process person. |
Jessica Windham |
That’s who I am. So it’s like, hey, if if everything seems bleak, you have to go do these seven things. Like you have to go take a walk. You have to try to get in nature for an hour, like you have to watch something funny. You need to read something like, here are all the things that can take you out of rumination and put you into into action. |
Jessica Windham |
Sometimes that action is about like just get something done. But sometimes that action is about reconnecting to self. And what drives you and what your why is and who you really are. And I just, you know, I always circle back to those things because they enable me to, to keep going, to go further, to accomplish more. |
Jim Becker |
That’s beautiful. I love how you just put all that together. And it sounds like you’re you are someone that has a lot of knowledge. You have like a really good plethora of situations. And who you’re being just really shows out for me. What’s what’s one of the best pieces of advice that you’ve ever received and who gave it and who who gave it to you? |
Jessica Windham |
So I had a boss, pretty early in my career, and he came from the military, and he wanted to be a fighter pilot. That was sort of the direction he was going in. But, you know, he was in the military during some of the years where we actually had active combat and things like that. And when we’re just talking and I am I am passionate, I like to get things done. |
Jessica Windham |
I like to be successful. I’m looking for those things in my professional life. And, you know, he’s just like, look, nobody shooting at us, like, it’s going to be okay. Like, we don’t need to add to the stress and pressure of the moment. That doesn’t actually exist. And in logistics, there were a lot of times where we can just proceed with urgency, you know, we we we, we only do the urgent, so we can’t do maintenance. |
Jessica Windham |
We repair just to the point of not broken anymore. We don’t train anybody. Everybody’s burned out, you know, like, this is the this is the environment. And I do go back to this. Nobody’s shooting at us kind of a lot to say, hey, like we are doing some of this to ourselves. So let’s calm down. Let’s take a break. |
Jessica Windham |
It’s time sensitive, but it’s not milliseconds here. We’re not flying an F-14, you know, like this. The boats, they go fast, but they don’t go that fast. Like we can calm down. And it’s just a reminder to not get caught up in it. Similar to what we were talking about. Let’s let’s find our present. Let’s find that, that calmness with which we, the people we really are, the knowledgeable, experienced professionals can solve the problems instead of to just be the pinball in the pinball machine. |
Jim Becker |
Absolutely. You know, far too often I, I feel that we all are equal. We all have the same thing. We’re born in the into the same world. And yet some of us aren’t aware of the ohm of everything, like just being connected to nature. You know, I’m writing a book, and a lot of my chapters are all about me hiking and different in different states and different ways, and how we’re all really part of nature. |
Jim Becker |
Right. And, you know, I’d like to really dive into and if you could share with our listeners, is the journey that you created solving work and how your experiences really shaped your approach to, logistics leadership? |
Jessica Windham |
Yeah, I would love to talk about that. So solving work is a independent logistics consultancy. That’s what I that’s what I’ve set out to do. But I’m wanting to approach things in a different way. You you can put the consulting band aid on or we can dig deeper and solve bigger problems, and problems that keep us in a problems that keep us from showing up our best every day. |
Jessica Windham |
I talk a lot about the logistics doom loop. So this is that, you know, that moment where you’re like all right, I’m going to get everything back on track. This is either pre peak or or just at the beginning of the year. And you’re like I’m going to do it. You make your plan and then the next supply chain disruption hits and we go into all hands on deck mode. |
Jessica Windham |
And we solve the problem because that’s what we do. And then you circle back to that plan to that to do list, to that thing that you were going to do this year. And you realize you’re even further behind than you were when you started. And how am I ever going to achieve this? And you get into the panic and then you’re like, okay, I’m going to make a plan. |
Jessica Windham |
I’m going to do the thing. And then the next supply chain disruption hurts and on and on and on and on until eventually you’re in this place of overwhelm and hopelessness. And then that’s where the burnout kind of settles in, and that’s keeps us from being engaged at work. It keeps us from solving problems. It keeps us from moving forward. |
Jessica Windham |
You know, I want people to to go to work and, and do well and go home and feel good. And that is not what we get most of the time in this space. So I created this to say, hey, you as a leader, you’re doing things, you’re contributing to the problem. So you have to make some strategic changes and how you approach leadership, organization, prioritization. |
Jessica Windham |
You have to get it together because if you don’t have it together, no one on your team can have it together and certainly not your department and your company. Right. It all compounds, so we have to get this together. And then we have to give those same skills to your team, and then you have to hold them accountable. |
Jessica Windham |
Like, I hold you accountable. And and then we are engaged, and now we can solve problems. Now we can look at the processes and the partners and the technology we have in place and make long term, sustainable solutions. Instead of saying, hey, help me run this RFP, it’s like, hey, let’s go upstream and say, why can’t you run the RFP? |
Jessica Windham |
Because I know how knowledgeable you are. I know, all the skills you have. I know you guys, if you had the right technology, you could do this. Well, the problem. But I can’t just give you the technology. We have to change the way we do things. We have to change the way we approach problems, or else, you know, you’re just going to be back in the loop before too long and, you know, on and on we go. |
Jessica Windham |
So that’s really what brought me to solving this is because I’ve been there, I have been a carrier, I’ve been a shipper, I been a freight forwarder. Private fleet, three PL consultant, technology provider. I have sat in all of the seats. I’ve been on all sides of the table. This pattern of burnout and disengagement, it happens everywhere. And it it consistently happens. |
Jessica Windham |
And it’s consistently happened to me before I was able to gain enough experience to recognize the pattern and take myself out of it. So I just am so passionate about making the lives of the people that do the work easier, better, more fulfilled. I feel like joy and contentment is something that we can, in fact, have, you know, so one of my of my tagline is managing your logistics doesn’t have to suck this. |
Jessica Windham |
This could be as fun as it is. And those moments of joy, we can have that all the time. That maybe not 100% of time, but we could have a lot more of it. And that’s really what I think we need to, to, to approach and to seek. |
Jim Becker |
Yeah, absolutely. I love how you’re talking about, like, the world that I call it heaven on earth. Right. And we have it right here for us right now. And it seems like you on your journey, not only you didn’t even mention that being on the customer side of things. And as you’re in this whole world and you have all this plethora of knowledge and what you have to really give to someone in your consulting and coaching, that you’ve created a process. |
Jim Becker |
I’d love for you to walk us through your your three step engagement process process of discovering pain points, the root cause analysis, and implementing solutions in the workplace. I’d love to hear more about that. |
Jessica Windham |
Yeah. So after we sort of set the stage, of course, with you as the leader and engage your team, then that’s when we need to to to really dig deep what is at the heart, what is at the root of what is causing us pain? It’s all about the pain. And, you know, a lot of, of the trouble we get into is as humans, if the option is pay now versus pay later, man, do people choose pain later almost every time. |
Jessica Windham |
And and what I’m asking is we’re going to dig deeper. We’re going to look a little harder and we’re going to we’re going to do the pain. We’re going to do the hard work upfront so we can stop experiencing it down the line. Same thing for going to the gym and exercising, running, all of that. We’re just going to get the pain part over at the beginning. |
Jessica Windham |
So we’re going to discover what’s really hurting us. Ask enough questions to figure out what is at the heart of that. And sometimes that’s a difficult conversation. Sometimes I have to ask myself, especially as a leader, have I invested in my department? Have I invested in the people? Have I given them a budget to implement technology that’s going to help them do their job? |
Jessica Windham |
Have I provided the resources for them to be successful? And if the answer is no and you want another solution, I might not be the right consultant for you. I want if we if the answer is no and you’re going to make a business decision, that’s fine. But when we make business decisions, we need to understand the cost. |
Jessica Windham |
And when we don’t do that, that’s sort of what leads to those more toxic work environments, right? Like, I know that I should invest in this technology. I’m not going to do it, and I’m going to ask the people to do more with less. And but I’m not going to acknowledge the difficulty in that. That’s a problem. When we are comfortable with the business decisions that we make, and we are willing to stand behind them and have conversations about the consequences of that decision. |
Jessica Windham |
Now, that’s a transparent workplace. You don’t always have to give everything. You don’t always have to say yes to every request. You don’t have to remove every obstacle. But we need to be able to speak clearly on it. And that’s one of the things that I challenge people to do. And the work I do. And then, of course, let’s implement the solutions that we can. |
Jessica Windham |
I want the simplest, easiest, least expensive solution that actually solves the problem. And, and that’s really that final step of getting things over the line. And here’s the thing about implementation. If your team is not engaged, it’s not going to go well. People will revert back to what they’ve always done. If you haven’t sort of done that upfront work on getting organized, reengaging your team, and then discovering the pain points, figuring out those root causes and implementing solutions that actually address them. |
Jim Becker |
Absolutely. You know, it brings up a really good point, really getting our people to create who they are. And then staying who we say we are going to be, because far too many times we lie to ourselves or we misplace it ourselves, and especially as the managers or the people that you are saying that are going to be accountable to whatever team that they’re going to be accountable to for their responsibilities and making sure that they do it. |
Jim Becker |
The moment you take your eye off the ball, people usually resort right back to their old ways that you just mentioned. And it’s nice that that you’re going in and giving a fresh look at things where they can actually be engaged with someone that has such great knowledge to really help them, guide them. |
Jessica Windham |
Yeah. And I think, you know, you mentioned that people will revert again pain now versus pain later. It’s it’s it’s uncanny. But accountability is the is the piece you as the leader are accountable to your team and they are accountable to you. But that goes both ways. And and when you have accountable, sorry, a culture of accountability, you’re going to have transparency. |
Jessica Windham |
You’re going to have engagement. You’re going to have a lot of really good stuff. But the problem or the challenge with, with culture is that it’s an every single day activity. You can’t do it once a week. It’s you have to maintain this commitment to your to yourself and to your people and to this idea, this, this, this way of being. |
Jessica Windham |
It’s an everyday thing. You can’t put it on the shelf. You can’t pause it for peak. If you want to be successful in culture, you have to do it day in and day out. And that consistency is what builds the culture. |
Jim Becker |
Yeah, Jessica, I mean, what you’re talking about is really just living life as a human being when we really look at it, what I’m hearing is, you know, I get up every morning and I work out. I’m either in the gym at 6 a.m. and then stretching a half hour after, maybe even stretching a half hour before. I’m also on those off days. |
Jim Becker |
I’m running. So I’m running, you know, a nine minute mile for two miles or more and really getting my body going. And then once again, I’m stretching and then I’m, I’m then I’m going to a place to stretch and having people stretch me right. And and then I’m eating right. I’m getting, you know, six cups of vegetables a day. |
Jim Becker |
I’m getting, you know, I’m eating three meals. I’m getting the right about the amount of food in me, burning calories. I’m keeping track of how many calories I’m taking in. I’m not drinking alcohol, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs. All of these things I’m making sure that I’m doing for myself. It almost sounds like. Like we’re learning how to run, get ready for a marathon, a race, even, or playing pickleball, right? |
Jim Becker |
And getting on the courts or going golfing. I just played, three days of golf out in Plymouth, Indiana at Swan Lake. Two 236 holes or two 1836 total on Friday, 36 holes on Saturday and then 18 holes on Sunday. Thank God that you know my vehicle. My body is in good shape. I wasn’t hurting at all. Plus I wasn’t drinking with all the other 30 guys there. |
Jim Becker |
And what ends up happening, they’re like, oh, I’m sor oh I’m getting I’m having a hard time getting out. I’m like, I just ran two miles. What about you? And it sounds like that really, what you’re getting them together for is how to create a plan, how to attack that plan and win and then stay on top of it. |
Jessica Windham |
I mean, it’s about what what do you truly want? And here are the things that you have to do to get it. And and that that applies in our personal lives. That takes us to the golf course. That’s a wild weekend, you know, but I like to be able to get into the gym every week. I like to play pickleball. |
Jessica Windham |
I like to to move my body. I like to have the opportunity where I can take this podcast standing up, like without stressing the system, you know, like, that’s that’s what I want. And I want things professionally too. So. So I maintain my discouragement stop, as well as my daily activities where if I want to achieve my goals, then these are the things that I have to do. |
Jessica Windham |
Because there is so much in logistics and supply chain that is completely outside of our control. So all we can do is consistently do the things that are within our control. And there are so many things in life and with our health that that will fall completely outside of our abilities. To have an impact. Some of it’s genetics or bad luck that happens. |
Jessica Windham |
But why don’t I do what I can do? And that’s what I’m asking people to do, is to show up and do what you can do to get what you want, and to be an active participant. When we do that, then we see progress. We see success. It’s not passion that creates motivation, it’s action that creates motivation. |
Jessica Windham |
All the fitness influencers that I like say that repeatedly. And it’s true and it’s true in business too. So come to work, do the process, do some of the things that you can control to to to influence the outcome and then deal with the stuff that is going to come out of left field because it is, and just know that you are taking action, you are taking steps. |
Jessica Windham |
You are still moving towards your goal. And we just have to approach these things professionally the same way we do in our personal lives. And if we’re not doing it there, then vice versa. |
Jim Becker |
That’s a lutely I mean, that’s what I’m hearing from this whole podcast, is if we’re taking care of ourselves, if we’re if we really want to play pickleball, right, if we really want to transform our own business, you know, we’re going to have challenges that are out there and who are being matters so much. And what do you see right now out there on the landscape? |
Jim Becker |
Some of the biggest challenges that logistics leaders are facing today, and how do you help them overcome these obstacles? |
Jessica Windham |
I mean, I think I think we’ve sort of touched on it already, but it’s the biggest issue is that we only maintain the bandwidth to do the urgent. So again, we’re not taking time to pre-trip the vehicle. We’re not taking time to do the, maintenance. And I’m not just talking about trucks. Right. Like this is a metaphor for, for for your operation, for your personal self, like, you know, fix to the point of not broken, burning out your your folks like, not being able to have the bandwidth to train the new people. |
Jessica Windham |
So things get progressively worse and worse and they get progressively more and more broken, which means that you spend more time in urgency than you were before. So it’s that ability to take that step back to say, no one’s shooting at us. We are going to take a minute and make a plan before we act to to really dive into those strategies. |
Jessica Windham |
And I think that’s just it, it permeates the entire industry. And that’s a, a mindset shift that we’re going to have to change in order to sort of change that experience of working in this industry. And I think Gen Z, Gen Alpha, as they come up, they’re going to push us in that direction. You know, if you’re a millennial and you’ve gone from one financial crisis to the next, your entire adult professional career, maybe you’re less willing to, put that stake in the ground and say, this is the boundary for me. |
Jessica Windham |
But as we get some more generations in, and I’m not saying this as a negative thing, we are going to have to do this mindset shift so we can get ahead of the game. If we can choose pay now instead of paying later, you are going to be primed for more success down the road. |
Jim Becker |
And, you know, leadership. You know, you talk about leadership. It’s so important. You know, I I’ve always said that I’m I’m a servant leader. As I’m going through things. I’m also a transformational leader. And, you know, you talk about that. It’s heart first leadership. And I love I love you saying that. And what is heartfelt leadership really. You know for our listeners I have a good idea what it is. |
Jim Becker |
But how do you apply this type of principle in leadership when helping people in logistics and especially in the logistics leaders, improving their teams? |
Jessica Windham |
So I think when we talk about quality, so when I talk about heart centered leadership or heart forward leadership, I’m talking about actually caring about the people that are on your team, caring about them as full, whole humans, not as economic units, that that you care about them genuinely as a person. So and I think most people know how to care about other people, like the percentages of sociopaths are pretty low. |
Jessica Windham |
So if this is not the leadership that you see demonstrated in your organization, I think sort of two things. Maybe one, you have a single path to make more money in your organization, and that is leadership and management. And so we have some folks there that aren’t passionate about serving others in those roles. And so maybe that’s a root cause thing that we could that we could fix. |
Jessica Windham |
Let’s have a technical track. Let’s give folks that are incredibly talented and skilled an opportunity to make more money at the things that they are really, really good at. But for the leaders that want to be in that space that still aren’t able to show up as the leaders they really and truly are, I think we have to think about removing obstacles to that leadership. |
Jessica Windham |
You know, are they fully staffed? Do they have the tools to do their job? Well? Can they invest in their department and, and their team? Have we given them the training to be organized? If you do not have the bandwidth to, let’s say, keep up with your inbox, which is a, a sore subject, but this is a hell I’m willing to die on. |
Jessica Windham |
If you do not have the bandwidth to manage your emails, then you don’t have the mental and emotional clarity to show up for your team, and you probably don’t have the mental clarity to creatively problem solve when it’s necessary. And in logistics that’s necessary just about every single day. So if we have not cleared that mental and digital clutter for you as a leader, then you are not. |
Jessica Windham |
You’re going to have a very difficult time showing up for your people. You’ll be inconsistent. One day you’ll be at the one on ones, and you’ll care, and you’ll be able to dive in. And then the next day it’s going to be business, business, business task test tasks. And your employees are going to wonder, do they really care? |
Jessica Windham |
Who am I getting today? You know, those are the conversations that are taking place on the private slack channel about you, you know, and and that’s a conversation you need to be willing to have if you want to get better as a leader is where are you failing and and why? But but that’s what I think about when I think about leadership, is, you know, be that heartfelt leader. |
Jessica Windham |
So you have to care once you have to care and you really and truly do deeply inside care about those people, then it’s just about removing the obstacles and listening. |
Jim Becker |
You know, when when we listen more and we have the love for people, you know, if we don’t love ourselves, if we don’t take care of ourselves, if we can, like you mentioned about, if you can’t take care of your own email box and you can’t lead yourself, how can you lead others? You know, and I see that so often that some people can’t take care of themselves. |
Jim Becker |
And here they are having kids. It’s like, alright, so you know, I could I hope you’re living at home with Mom and Dad so that they can help it, because that’s what communities all about. We get together, rally for people and really lift them up, especially for the people that can help themselves. And here in business, people that are getting paid to be leaders, to be managers, you know, I always say, look at yourself first. |
Jim Becker |
Do your own inventory on yourself. Where are you lacking? And be open about that. Let me know that you need help. I’m not going to put you down because you don’t. You know, you got 74,000 emails in your inbox, right? And once I clear all those out for you, let’s come up with a plan that you can actually manage it. |
Jim Becker |
So, you know, you talk about a, your business, you co-founded a networking group, which I thought was just so great about women in logistics. We have thousands of listeners that are women, and I know so many women in logistics. Can you talk about the importance of supporting a woman group in this industry, and what more is needed to be done with this type of movement about women in logistics, and what can we do here? |
Jessica Windham |
Okay, so I have co-founded, like a women’s networking group in the past, but what I’m involved in, right now, I’m just an ambassador. There are three other co-founders, Amy, dietary DBMs, and Harshita. They have really, brought this, LinkedIn group ladies who logistic, to the forefront. And they brought it to me and they brought it to me in the in a moment in my business where I was like, you know what? |
Jessica Windham |
I need? I said it out loud. I said it to my business coach, I said it to my friends. And then days later, it appeared on LinkedIn, ladies who logistic. And so I immediately got involved as an ambassador and and I am so overjoyed for this group. It is there is what everybody needs community. I am a woman, so I have this community for me. |
Jessica Windham |
We rally around each other. We provide insight and mentorship and opportunities and conference buddies, you know, like, let’s make some of the harder things we do in this industry that is, you know, doesn’t always look like us easier. Let’s make it easier to be in the room and to take up space. Let’s make it easier to, get those informal networking opportunities that seem to lead to success, that seem to lead to progress. |
Jessica Windham |
Let’s not learn every single lesson from scratch. A couple of them we can get. Maybe not the hard way. And that’s what this group is about. And I think it’s important. And no matter what you do, whether you join a formal group or not, getting people around you who want you to be successful, getting people around you who are willing to tell you hard truths, getting people around you who have experienced similar experience to you, but maybe more depth and then also varied experience, right? |
Jessica Windham |
Like if you understand what’s going on in sales and you understand what’s going on in purchasing, in logistics and supply chain, you’re going to be more successful. So having that breadth and depth of connection is incredibly important. And, and a safe space to, to try it on to, to work on your leadership, to work on your skills, to present a strategy and have somebody tell you what they think of it. |
Jessica Windham |
But to be authentic in that moment, I think that’s what community brings us in this particular community in this point in time, is it’s doing that for me now and and leveraging technology and LinkedIn and the different ways that we can connect now, because post-Covid there is less traditional networking and there’s more of this other stuff happening. |
Jessica Windham |
And and I think we all need to learn how to, get value in the online interaction. |
Jim Becker |
Yeah. The, you know, the old way of doing business. I can remember being in a car and I I’d get out my little blue map and it was all the little towns around Chicago and I would plan Preplan. Okay, I got to get on this highway, and now I got to go to this road, this exit, like it was crazy back then, and I’d only be able to see 8 to 10 people. |
Jim Becker |
And every time I’d go see a customer, I’d always hit like 4 or 5 other people that were cold calls just to find out information where today all that information is online. And I can jump into those meetings on zoom. And you’re so right. There’s so many different networking agencies now that were able to go ahead and do so much more online that, if I didn’t change with the times, you know, being, I’m turning 55 in October, if I didn’t change with the times, I’d be left behind. |
Jim Becker |
And some of the people that are coming in, this is all they know now. They don’t know. And you talk about, you know, the Alpha generation, they don’t know what we did in the past. So as we bridge that, it’s it’s really important. You know, you said something earlier about really doing it all like on your email and stuff. |
Jim Becker |
I’d love to hear for our all of our listeners and share examples of how you’ve successfully really balanced people and processes in your work. |
Jessica Windham |
For me, the base of everything I do, that foundation is having it together in terms of managing the universe of inputs. For us, for the majority of us, that means, that means email. So, like, the reason I talk about this so much is because I have to know, I have to manage my universe of inputs. I have to know all of the balls that are in the air in order to make a strategic decision about which ones we keep up there and which ones we set down. |
Jessica Windham |
Otherwise we’re dropping balls. Doesn’t feel good. Instead of setting them down, instead of making business decisions when you ask your team to do something for you, and then you don’t talk about it ever again, you don’t recognize it. You don’t. You are like, oh, wait, I think I saw that email. Can you send it again? Each one of those requests is, is, is, it’s a debit from your relationship account because they’re like, they don’t care. |
Jessica Windham |
They don’t care if I get the work done. They don’t care that I put my hard work and effort into this. They’re they don’t care. Each time you miss an email, you’re you’re hurting your relationships. And I believe that wholeheartedly. And then even just to be successful in sales, sales is a follow up game like and and that hasn’t changed. |
Jessica Windham |
So if you aren’t able to keep up with you don’t have a process to manage that. And I just I think about authentic human relationship. That’s the basis of being successful as a leader. That’s the basis of being successful in sales, honestly and process, because it’s really how you get people to do the thing you want them to do. |
Jessica Windham |
So if we have a process for maintaining a relationship and we need it because we don’t see a customer today, we see 24 and you have to follow up and you need to know and you need to transfer your notes, and then you need to transfer that knowledge to other people so that they can do the next step. |
Jessica Windham |
It’s complicated now and the volume has increased. So if you don’t have a process to handle that, you’re going to struggle. Balls will drop. And you know, like I’m just it’s it’s for me, it’s about setting them down. So I take a people focused approach and then layer process all over that so I can meet my commitments. |
Jessica Windham |
It doesn’t make me inauthentic. It makes me it it it holds me accountable to what I say is important. And if I say you as my team are important, that I need to not miss your messages. If I say you as a prospective customer is important to me and and my business, that I need to make sure that I treat you with that, with the respect, and if I can’t do it offhand, which most people can’t, but I need a process to help me achieve that. |
Jessica Windham |
I need a process to let me be me. And, and that’s really, you know, how process shows up in my life that I have this, this, this way of handling the inbox and the way of handling my cell phone and the way of handling my tasks. And they all go in one place so I can see in one space what what I need to do, what the business decisions are. |
Jessica Windham |
You know, when when the disruption comes, you can’t deal with the disruption and everything else. So something is going to be deprioritized if you don’t know all of the things, then you may not prioritize the right thing. You create more urgency, doom loop enter. |
Jim Becker |
Absolutely. You know, back to back to the whole email thing. You know, you’re you’re talking about managers and executives holding their people accountable, right? It’s all going back to ourselves. What are we holding ourselves accountable to? And if we’re not holding our account, our accountable to ourselves and we’re dropping the ball like crazy, guess what our people are going to be doing. |
Jim Becker |
They’re going to be dropping the ball. So, you know, and it kind of like goes to that point with and that one thing that you posted about the importance of carving out time to stay, the person that you really want to be in life and, and, and how you how do you maintain this balance, and what tips do you have for others that are listening to this? |
Jessica Windham |
I do it with checklists like the the, the real thing is I get up every day and I have a daily checklist and I just go to town on that. And that is that’s how I stay sane. You know, I don’t reinvent the wheel day in and day out. I consistently show up for myself in the same way. |
Jessica Windham |
And and this is, this is this is kind of a human thing, right? We’re always wanting a new way to handle things because the new way is better. But really experience and consistency over time, I think is what gets you that 1% better every day when you are in the gym and you’re like, oh, I’m going to try a new exercise today. |
Jessica Windham |
Okay. That’s interesting. And it might provide some sort of value, but you know, you might you might get more if you just stuck to some squats and some bench presses and, you know, like some pull ups, you know, if you just did those three exercises consistently, you know, whatever I did, the other ones, I’m not a personal trainer, but maybe five exercises if you did those consistently week in and week out, your strength would improve. |
Jessica Windham |
Instead of starting a new program and stopping at every 2 to 4 weeks where you’re not able to get that long term gain. So it’s it’s unsexy, it’s boring, and it’s the same every single day. And it allows me to create the bandwidth to have the mental and emotional clarity to be there for the people in my life, to be there for my teams that I support for my customers, and to solve problems creatively. |
Jessica Windham |
When the time comes and that’s all I’m trying to do, is create the space to deal with the with, with life so that I’m not overwhelmed by the day to day. |
Jim Becker |
Yeah, so many of us, including myself, take on things that overwhelm us, that we can’t really see what’s right in front of us and be present to what’s going on, you know? And as a CEO, a lot of CEOs are solving work right for customers. That’s why we’re CEOs. Our companies are solving work for other companies and other people. |
Jim Becker |
What advice would you give an aspiring entrepreneur or a manager or a leader? As we move forward in our everyday lives. |
Jessica Windham |
What is important to you? What are your values? I talk about having the universe of inputs that allows you to sort of prioritize and make your business decisions. But even more foundational than that is knowing what your values are, what is important to you. Because if you don’t really know that, then you are going to have a difficult time prioritizing anything. |
Jessica Windham |
And and I think it’s foundational before you can prioritize professionally, you better know what’s important to you personally. You need to know that it’s more important to you today to to get home for the baseball game, for maybe one of your children, than it is to make one more sales call. You need to be able to say which one of these things has more value in this moment, and you’re only going to be able to do that. |
Jessica Windham |
It is if you have done the exercise. You know, for me personally, I have a, you know, a, a, a list of words. They’re like eight words. These are the things that are important to me, straight up and down. I could I could recite them off the top of my head. I know for a fact what is important to me in my life, and that might change. |
Jessica Windham |
It’s been about a decade and it hasn’t, but it could change and I reinvest and I, I look at it periodically, especially at the beginning of the year, creating vision boards or whatever. Is this thing that I want, and does it make sense in the context of the things that are truly important to me as a person? And you have to answer that question. |
Jessica Windham |
And, and, and reconcile the, the deltas, because they’re going to be there and you’re going to have to sometimes make decisions that put one thing over another. But you should be intentional about that, because who you are at work is who you are at home, and vice versa. There’s only one you there’s not to use. There’s no work life balance. |
Jessica Windham |
There’s just there’s just balance. And and if you don’t know what’s truly important to you, you’re not going to be able to to to get there. |
Jim Becker |
I love how you just put the delta in there as well. A good, you know, astrophysics term of delta, really measuring that delta. And it really doesn’t take a physics degree to really find out that delta, you know, when you can really identify what’s important to you. Like, next weekend, I’m flying out to South Carolina for a convention, and I looked at my calendar one week in advance. |
Jim Becker |
And I do that every Friday around 330 in the afternoon. I look at my next seven days and I’m like, wait a minute. My daughter’s a freshman in high school. She walked on to the varsity cross-country team. She just ran Detwiler last weekend, got 69th out of 480 girls. Right. And she. Yeah, right. She’s running a 20 minute, five K, 3.1 miles. |
Jim Becker |
Right. And my flight was flying out and in in the afternoon or early afternoon. And I have on there leave for the airport and it kind of overlapped. My daughter Sydney cross-country event. And I said, this isn’t going to work. I go, my value is family first, right? And I’m taking care of that and I, I went ahead and change that flight to later on in the afternoon, maybe 2 or 3 more hours. |
Jim Becker |
So that no way am I going to miss my daughter running that cross-country event, right? So when we have those values, it’s so important to prioritize. And I like how you really put that together. For entrepreneurs and CEOs to really talk about that, because that really gives us an, a window to see who you are as a human being and who you’re being each and every day, who you show up as. |
Jim Becker |
You know, you talk about those eight words and one of my words is integrity. And if I’m not using integrity, things are falling apart. You know, I’m building my my house on sand, if you will, very close to this, to the shoreline where I really need a concrete integrity foundation. And that foundation will really get me going wherever I need to go. |
Jim Becker |
And I it allows me to stretch further. So I really love this whole conversation that we’ve had here. Are there any final things that you want to share with me or our listeners? |
Jessica Windham |
You know, I, you know, I’m, I you can find me on LinkedIn and I will be speaking at a few conferences coming up. I’ll be at Inland Joke in Chicago, I’ll be at Deliver America’s, and then I’m doing a local Denver transportation club, sort of supply chain night, in October. So those are all the places you can find me, and I’d love to hear from you and I’d love to connect. |
Jim Becker |
How can we get in contact with you? Email, phone number. |
Jessica Windham |
Yeah, well, my LinkedIn just Wyndham. Just find me there or Jess. That’s solving work. |