Judy Jardine is a Sales Consultant at Sierra Pacific Warehouse Group, a BRC Certified Central California warehousing and logistics company. With over 30 years of experience in the warehousing, logistics, and packaging business, Judy assists her clients with getting their products to market. She continues discovering new ways to serve her clients and is a resource for many supply chain services. She has experience in consulting, third-party warehousing, custom packaging solutions, and full-service locations for cloud and retail packaging. Judy is the author of The Truth About Logistics.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Judy Jardine's experience working with Mark Hiddleson's team
How Judy entered the warehousing industry
Judy’s experience working for and relocating a third-party warehouse
Judy’s experience providing custom packaging for a small company
The warehousing and logistics services Judy provides
Judy talks about her book and what inspired her to write it
The value of partnerships and relationships within the industry
Tips for pursuing a career in the warehousing and logistics industry
Judy’s favorite podcast
The challenge of finding warehouses
In this episode…
What does it take to thrive in the warehousing and logistics industry? What can businesses do to provide better services for their clients?
Business partnerships and networks are essential in building a thriving company. Judy Jardine leverages the power of networking to provide better services for her clients. She has mastered the art of finding partners and clients who are a good fit for her services and building great relationships with them for long-term business growth.
In this episode of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, Mark Hiddleson is joined by Judy Jardine, a Sales Consultant at Sierra Pacific Warehouse Group, to talk about third-party warehousing fulfillment and the value of business partnerships. Judy explains how she helps clients fulfill their warehousing and logistics needs, shares details about her book, and her advice to young people interested in the industry. Thanks for listening!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Specialized Storage Solutions, Inc. contact phone: 707-732-3892
Mark Hiddleson's email: markhiddleson@aol.com
Judy Jardine's email: truthaboutlogistics@gmail.com
Judy Jardine's phone number: 209-679-4975
Sponsor for this episode...
This episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions Inc.
Listen...
I have been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades. I know I don’t look that old, but it's true.
We provide industry-leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide.
So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs Rack, Shelving, Carts, Conveyors, or Mezzanines, we help with....design engineering, installations, inspections, and repairs to help clients optimize their logistics operations.
Sometimes people don’t even realize that we can actually help with permit acquisition services.
We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation.
To learn more, visit specialracks.com or give us a call at (707) 732-3892. One of the best ways to learn more about our products and services is to follow us on Instagram. And there’s a link on our website to do that.
I will even give you my personal email address for podcast listeners, so email me at markhiddleson@aol.com if you’re ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level.
Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:01
Welcome to The Tao of Pizza where we feature top logistics leaders, entrepreneurs and supply chain innovators and share their inspiring stories with a holistic twist.
Mark Hiddleson 0:17
Mark Hiddleson here, host of The Tao of Pizza Podcast where I talk with top industry innovators in the warehousing, logistics, and supply chain business with a holistic twist. Before I introduce Judy Jardine, this episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions. We've been in the logistics and storage equipment industry for several decades providing innovative industry-leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide. So if you have a warehouse that needs racks, shelving, carts, conveyors, or mezzanines, we help with the design engineering, installations, inspections, and repairs to help you optimize your warehouse and logistics operations. And sometimes people don't even realize we can actually help with permit acquisition services. We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation. To learn more, visit specialracks.com or give us a call at 707-732-3892. And I'll even give my personal email address to podcast listeners. So email me at markhiddleson@aol.com if you're ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level.
Before introducing Judy, I want to give a big thank you to our mutual friend and colleague Chris Murphy, and go check out their website at www.spwg.com. They specialize in third-party warehousing certified food grade dry and cold storage, custom packaging and direct to consumer fulfillment solutions. And we'll talk more about that in our conversation with Judy. Today I'm joined by Judy Jardine. She has been in the warehousing logistics and packaging business for over 30 years. Using her experience with the hundreds of companies and multiple industries that she's helped get their products to market. She has continually invented ways to serve her clients and be a resource for many supply chain services, including consulting, finding third party warehousing, as well as custom packaging solutions, and a full service location for cloud and retail packaging. Her book, The Truth About Logistics, is either just about to come out or it's been out for a while. Judy, thank you for joining us.
Judy Jardine 2:30
Mark, thank you so much. I call you Mr. Wonderful because you are. I've known you. I've known you for a long time. And you do incredible work. I mean, I remember when I first met you were putting up the racking at the first location that was out here in the in the valley. And you were like a precision NASA team that came in your workers. They didn't talk much. They just went straight to the to the site where they put up the racking and they went to work and it was like these little I want to say like munchkins, but not munchkins. But these little workers that does incredible job. I mean, you don't talk to these people. They're on a mission.
Mark Hiddleson 3:21
Yeah, that was a fun project. i It's one of the biggest projects we've ever done. I don't know if you remember those racks were stored in a field out it's actually so that was in man Tikka. And my Tiki game is further waterslides when they toured the water slides down, there was this big storage field in the racks that we put that was the Spreckels building was like a 600,000 square foot facility and we installed like 30,000 Power positions will all that rock had been stored in a field for years. And Ray Wilkinson, which you remember Ray, right?
Judy Jardine 4:02
Yes. Oh, yes, I remember Ray,
Mark Hiddleson 4:05
The Naval Academy guy and he was one of my mentors in the business. And he and I, we drew up the plans. We turn we got all that racking, approved, permitted and installed and that was a fun project. We actually there was so big we had to start on one side of the warehouse and start on the other and then two crews work and met each other in the middle
Judy Jardine 4:26
to me by mine. Yes, it was it was a wonderful project job well done. Like I said it was like precision. I mean, you had everything mapped out you had the plumb lines. Then the workers came in had all their safety gear on you you crossed every T and dotted every I mean you are bar none. I quizzically the best racking or we call it we call the Wrecking Crew that comes in.
Mark Hiddleson 4:59
Appreciate that. And we duty laughter I appreciate all that. I mean, you guys, it's we've been a great client over the years, that project, we consolidated like three warehouses. I mean, that's a big job on your part. So I want to talk more about that project, actually, because it has a lot to do with your expertise. But first, share a little bit about how you got in the warehousing industry. And then if you could even go into a little bit about what I don't think a lot of our listeners know what third party warehousing is, I mean, I think some of them do, but some of them might be new to the industry. So how did you get started? And what's a little bit about? What is third party
Judy Jardine 5:41
warehousing? Okay, well, I actually got started in the Bay Area, and the early 1990s, and company that I was working for, was bought out by another company back East. So Friday, I was given my final paycheck. And I was told you do not have a job anyone. Now, realize this, that I had a young son that I was raising on my own, I was divorced, just recently went through a divorce. And I, there was no time to waste. I was food, put food on the table. You know, I, I was the main person that was taking care of him. And he took care of me too. I mean, we were a great team. We're still a great team today. My son, his name is David. I love him with all my heart. And he's always supported me. So I went out, I got up early Monday morning, I took my resume. And I just went to company, company after company. I just kept driving around. And then I drove up to this warehouse logistics company distribution. And I walked in, and they said, you're hired, but you have to go take a blood test, and a urine test. I said, Okay, so I went over to the hospital, I took the urine and blood tests, and the doctor called them back and said, she's good to go. And they said, Get back in your car and get over here right now. So I walked in, I went to work immediately. And I've never looked back. I mean, I was new to this. And I remember, the first day I walked in there, I was a customer service rep. They were training me to be a customer service rep. And also answer the phones. And that that was easy. Okay. So they said we need to do orientation and take you out to the warehouse. And I'm like, okay, warehouse, no big deal, right? So they open up the door, and my eyes got this, like this big. I was like, Oh my God, I've never seen so much food in my life, all these racks and and forklifts and holy moly. I said, Oh, I was hooked. I said, I gotta learn about this. I need to know, you know, what comes in what goes out? What am I processing? What are the orders? I mean, I from there, it just took off. And then two months later, they promoted me to value added services. And I had five people working for me and I was doing the packaging for Costco. At the time. Actually, it was Costco Price Club before it became Costco now. And we were doing all the pasta we were doing all the SC Johnson, we we were doing all the packaging for them. Not only that, we would unload the inbounds, we would package it and then make all the deliveries to all the cost goes and price clubs from that one location. So you can imagine the cost savings because they didn't have to send it to an outside source to get it packaged. We did everything in house right there. Turnkey, and it just grew, the business just grew and grew. And then we started having issues with the union. Now the union wanted a piece of that. And the owner said, No, I don't think so. So what happened was the we we actually got rid of the union and we picked everything up and we moved out to the valley to Stockton, and the contract read if you were 56 miles or more, that Union did not have jurisdiction. And we were not obligated to rehire those people. Right. So we opened up a new warehouse, like 58 miles
Mark Hiddleson 9:48
57.2
Judy Jardine 9:52
Yeah, I'm trying to and they're like you can't and I was the one that they gave all that they gave me all the checks and they said you You have to go in there and give all the checks to the workers who fired. I'm like, Oh my god. Oh yeah, this this was I like this was not a good day. And I had a couple of supervisors as backup and they helped me. I passed out the checks. Mind you was only a month before Christmas. Oh this Yeah, it was. It was really a tough deal. And we That's why an alder was there. Alder God bless him he he is no longer with us. But although kept paging me, Jardine, when are you going to get done passing out the checks? I said, I'm almost done. He kept. Then he kept calling Jardine. What are you going to get done? I need to move this equipment. I need to move it now. And I'm like, Hold on. Okay, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get a bullet for this.
Mark Hiddleson 10:58
So they gave you they said they looked at all the toughest jobs. And they figured they're like, look, give it to Judy show. She's gonna get it done.
Judy Jardine 11:06
And I did, I got it done. I passed out the last check. And as soon as everybody left, we had to walk them out to the car, because we didn't want them to walk into their locker and then walk them out to the car because we didn't want them on the property as we were taking all the equipment and moving it across over the hill over the mountain to this new location in Stockton. And so that happened. And and this is remarkable story. This is absolutely remarkable. If we look a man with a mechanic's took every all the equipment, put it on flatbed and took it to the note new location, which was a PDS right. And they worked through the entire weekend. Plus, we had to move the loads of freight over to the new building. So long story short, Monday morning, we opened up business as usual. The machines were up and running. We had already secured new employees to run the equipment. And most of the product was in the new warehouse. We did this from Friday afternoon to probably about maybe six o'clock Monday morning. Wow. Yeah.
Mark Hiddleson 12:36
So G clarified, when you're, you're doing all of these pallets, I mean that we did. The number I remember there were 30,000 racks position, but basically what you're doing for you have clients and they're either manufacturers or distributors. But you warehouse their product. It's not your product. And then these places like Costco everybody's a little bit different. Walmart wants things a certain way if you're selling to Amazon, so there's custom packaging, that instead of people having to do it themselves, they outsource it to a company like you and then you do a turnkey service where they have an end. I guess it doesn't matter. Like what's some of the smallest because a lot of the clients are big food manufacturers. Right? There's the big ones but what are some of the smaller clients that you've seen grow? Where did they start out with like, oh my goodness truckloads or pallets, or what was
Judy Jardine 13:35
years ago, we started out with Berto water filter, you know, the system, right? Put the water in, it cleans the water. Yeah, well, yeah, they only had 10 pallets. And we took we took a chance on them, they came in, but I have to tell you, the gentleman that came in, we're still friends today. He came in and he said, we got the backing, we've got the money, we've got the support, we got the investors, this, trust me is gonna take off, this is going to blow the top off of cleaning clean water. And I'm like, Okay, let's do it. So then it came in, in part on containers. And we what we did was we assembled all the parts, put it in the boxes, made the display pallets, put the peels on there, made the the custom pallets after we assembled all the components, and we put it on a truck and made the appointments for Costco and delivered it now. By the end of the year. Let's go fast forward. We were doing probably about 200 to 300 pallets a month. Wow.
Mark Hiddleson 14:49
So project is started out with a 10 palette, new client new new line of distribution you were able to help them. That's one of the things that people don't realize I think about Third Party warehousing, public warehousing, you've got that ability to expand. I mean, if a company had to go out and get their own warehouse and their own form loops and their own warehouse people, it's a huge barrier to get into it. But a third party warehouse is, is a great solution for startups or, or big companies. So that's one of the things I've been lucky in you and I, we've seen each other on a few of these Warehousing Education and Research Council tours, I was on the board of work, it's called work, we call them work tours. And for those of us I'm another one like us, JD, once I saw what warehouse look like on the inside, and then we'd be building the racking and everything like that, I was hooked. And I still love it, I love to go in a warehouse. And it's funny how much you'll know. Like, I can just smell if I go in the world, I can smell what it is. And then you can tell products, or what's in there, right? I mean,
Judy Jardine 16:03
yes. Or you can tell if there's the case leaking by just the odor, just by walking down the aisles, you're gone. Wait a minute, there's a case broken here somewhere, you know, and it's just like your five senses. I mean, you can see you look at the building, you see if there's any openings, or you just you just look for any kind of bugs that are flying in the air, which is rare. But these are things that it's just in your DNA. I mean, you just soon as you walk in the warehouse, that's what you look for. I can't help it. You know, and I, I work with some of the best and top people in industry. Like I said, I've been very grateful, very blessed to have been in this industry. And I have so much to offer. As far as knowledge and I've met people like you, Mark, you're still Mr. Wonderful. Okay, you made a wonderful,
Mark Hiddleson 17:01
your best, your best. I have to know I have to live up to that reputation. I appreciate that. So I wanted to ask you because now you're in a unique opportunity with where you are in your career, and you're helping people who want to look for warehouse because there's a lot of options when it comes to warehousing and not everything is a good fit. It's you're great at matching clients up with the right services they need. So share a little bit about what what are some of the major challenges, or you know, what are some of the major ways you help people solve their logistics warehouse? Okay,
Judy Jardine 17:42
I'm gonna I'm gonna back up here because I have been talking to Chris Murphy, Sierra Pacific Warehouse Group for a while now. And when I shared with him my vision, and what I thought would be a good fit, there's a niche, because a lot of the clients aren't huge. They don't have like 10 15,000 pallets there. I deal with people that are like maybe 100 pallets up to up to 10,000 pallets. Okay. And again, that's a niche you. You have to have the network and I have a network built across the nation, USA, Florida, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Oregon, Washington, LA, I have like, three major contacts Threepio POS in the LA area. And then of course, there's Chris Murphy, Sierra Pacific Warehouse Group, and he said, Judy, that's a great idea. Whatever you need, I'll support you. And he was him and he just jumped right in. He says, No, you got to do this. You have to do this. This is this is what companies need to get their product because they're their manufacturing. They're making the product. They don't know where to start to get a three PL some of these people I'm working with have no clue. What what to look for in a warehouse. Do they have all their certificates? Do are they AIB are the SQF or the CCO F are? Do they have a good track record? Do they take care of the customers? How's their customer service? Do they stay in communication? Do they return the calls like in 1520 minutes to their customers? Do they take care of the customers? I don't work with anybody unless they have filled out all this criteria and they meet my standards. My standards are high. Okay,
Mark Hiddleson 19:53
yeah. And just for clarification, Chris Murphy's the real Mr. Wonderful He's been
Judy Jardine 20:02
the assay house.
Mark Hiddleson 20:03
I've learned a lot for Chris about business. I hosted him on a podcast a few weeks ago. That's another good one to check out. So you have a list, you have a blueprint, where you can go through and you can help the clients determine what they need. And then you also you work with people so that they can get the right fit because different warehouses they serve as different clients and some specialize in and most of is most of what you work with is food grade. Or their their mother. I mean, the Britta is water. But I think that is more like manufacturing, or,
Judy Jardine 20:38
Yeah, the only thing I don't deal with is chemical. I won't touch that. But mostly food, toothpaste, canned goods, I have an entire list. If you send me an email at truthaboutlogistics@gmail.com, you can reach me there, or you can reach me on my telephone number 209-679-4975. But basically, I have a profile that you need to fill out first, and then I go to work to find you the perfect warehouse, where do you need to be? First of all, I need to find out where your products being manufactured out. That is key right there. What location Do you want to be in? Do you want to be in on the West Coast? Or do you want to be on the East Coast? Or do you want to be somewhere in the middle, maybe you need a location on the west coast and the East Coast. And that's where I go to work with my expertise with all my partnerships at the PLS, and I introduce you and I get the cost thing I do all that for you for a fee. This is not free. Okay, just so you know, there's no, I mean, for for the knowledge that I have, and all the people that I've worked with, and, and for my networking group, the customer needs to realize that this is not free, I need to be paid for my services. Because this is this is not something that you just find every day.
Mark Hiddleson 22:17
And like you said, if you know the difference in having the right distribution channels and the right partner and the right network and the right warehousing if your business and like the example of the Britta you had to be small enough to take the 10 pallets, and then large enough to expand with them as it got to two or 300 pallets a month. And that's a special, special service. And when you're when you're matching clients with service, like that's a huge value add for, you're basically taking the warehousing component that someone would have to manage themselves. And outsourcing and working with somebody like you who's got, you know, the value is in the network and the contacts and even in when there is a problem. I know we've shared horror stories over the past when there is a problem. If you can pick up the phone. I mean, there's 1,020 people you can call, right? Yes,
Judy Jardine 23:09
absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And and and you're absolutely right, Mark. That's, that's the key. That's the whole how this mechanism works, this networking partnerships that I have with my partners across the whole United States, this if without them, this would not work. I am absolutely nothing without them. And also, they're nothing without me because I support them. I support their warehouse, their expertise. And then we we talk and we say Would this be a good fit? Here's the profile, would this be a good fit for your warehouse? And a lot of times I will disqualify a customer because I really don't think they have a good it's not a good fit. Okay, I don't be upfront with them. And then most of the time, I find a good fit, I find a good warehouse for them a three PL. And that's what this is all about is finding the right fit. I would like to say, I'm a dating service. And then I get and then we are after a day, then we get engaged and then we put a ring on it.
Mark Hiddleson 24:26
Yeah. That's a great, that's a great segue into asking about your book because I'm super. I mean, the books out it's going to be dynamite. I know the truth about warehousing and logistics. It's going to be a great story. But he shared he started to give me a sneak preview that lines up with what he said about the first few chapters. So do you mind giving us a just an overview of of the first or the Yeah, the The love the lust, the lies. Like he said, So, okay.
Judy Jardine 25:07
I'll give you a little sneak, but I'm not mentioning any names or anything like that. I gotta be very careful about that. You know what I mean? Okay? So the book is called The Truth About Logistics. Okay? Now my first chapter and my second and third, fourth chapter, the first chapter is called love. In other words, the love for the business, the love for the warehousing, then the lust, oh, that's going to be good about different people that try to bribe you to do something. It's all about the lust, okay, and I'm a woman do I need to say anymore, okay. And then the lies that they tell you, in the warehousing business, oh, my goodness. And then the fourth chapters is going it is called, put a ring on it, it's put a ring on it. In other words, I, I, you have to get into the finish line, you have to have good clothes. And if you want to get a ring on it, that you have to be masterful of what you do and how you write your contracts. And how you approach a customer. I've told some customers, you're not a good fit, not for what we do. You know, and I think
Mark Hiddleson 26:22
And I know, it's almost more important than the than getting the yeses is saying no one is not a fit, because you're saving everybody, a lot of time and heartache and money. I mean, it's if it's not a good fit, he tried to make it work, it's worse than if you just would have said. And then I've got a few of those. And I think that's sort of the last in the lies. Like we want to get every client and do whatever it takes and like we can make it work we can make it work. Well that's that's the lust in the lies talking. Put a ring on there has to be a commitment, right a commitment like a partner. And really, these warehousing it's unique, it's one of the things I love, and I love that you put I love that love is the first one because there are, you know, some people do things for a living. And and some people are gifted or they love what they're doing. And I've always tried to search out the ones that that they love it. And you can tell Chris Murphy is one of those guys, a lot of my clients are that we you're the same way your site is passion. Yeah, it's the passion. But the then it's a commitment, because it's all about relationships, right? Like what makes us work.
Judy Jardine 27:37
Absolutely. I have customers that I have done business with for over 20 years. And they have followed me. And they go God, don't ever leave me. Just whatever you do. If you ever leave call me I'm gonna follow you and I go, don't worry. I'm always here, my phone number. I've had it for over 20 years. Same number, you know, call me anytime text me call me. I'm here for you. I will support you in any way I can. And that is what it's all about it. It's like I said, it's the partnerships that I I never knew it was like that until I got in this business. And I went, Oh my gosh, this this is a community this is I want to call it the sisterhood but it's the logistics hood of being in business. I mean, I worked with so many men and women. And when I first started there was hardly any women in the industry. Oh, I gotta tell you this story. I gotta tell you this story. All right, you ready for this? Yeah, we're ready. All right. Okay. So when I first started out in the bay area, this gentleman, and this is my first big sale. Okay, this was my PDF. This was my PowerPoint. I put it all together. I did all nighter to get this set up because I really wanted to make sure that I gave 150%. So I go home I change I put on my Donna Carrington suit and my pencil skirt and my high heels. By the way, I don't leave home with high heels. I got I got my high heels, baby. Okay, and my pearls, I always have my pearls on. Look. I love it. And I was again, I'm single parent. I gotta make my boss look good. I gotta make the warehouse look good. So this gentleman walks in three piece suit with his accountant. They sit down, I do the PowerPoint. He did. He didn't even smart practice map. He was just all straight laced. And I'm like, okay, so what did you think? And I said, here's the presentation and here's the contract. So how are we going to move forward? Do like the pricing? And he said, Is there something that we need to do differently? Are you happy? And I also told him the warehouse to he did say the warehouse looks really nice. And he was very impressed with that. But then he says to me, uses your pricing is too high. And I said, compared to what?
And my boss is looking at me like, Judy, don't get upset, just equal. Yes, because Don't get upset. Now. Put your little duty back in your body, okay. Unlike the pricing, and not only am I taking in your containers, but I'm doing the packaging, and I'm making the deliveries to Costco for you. Turnkey, everything's right here for you. And he said, This is what he said, By the looks of your suit. The suit, you said, you're charging way too much money. I said, my suit, my suit, this suit that I'm wearing right now? He says yes. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, what he didn't know. Because I'm poor. And I'm raising a son by myself. I got that suit at the Goodwill for $32.50. And I, I still have the ticket. The receipt in my pocket. I still have that suit today. And oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I'm thinking great story. And I'm eating spaghetti and tacos. And you tell me, of course, if you had to buy that. Retail that suit would have been well over $300. Okay. Right. But I only paid $32.50. And I'm thinking you don't know how poor I am.
And I I have to give up some gas money and some food money to look good for you. Yeah. And I'm thinking, and then again, my boss, boss is going, Judy, calm down, calm down. Don't get upset. Don't get upset. You know, don't be fully yourself. Now. Be be calm. And then this is the last thing he said to me. He says, Well, I'm looking at other warehouses. In fact, when I leave here, I'm going to another warehouse down the street. And then he said to me, God is my witness. He says, you know, you need to go home and have babies. That's what you're probably good at. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He told me yeah. Go have babies. I said. I wanted to say I already did. I tried that. It didn't work.
Mark Hiddleson 32:58
Oh, man. So how did you handle
Judy Jardine 33:00
that? Oh, it gets better. Honey, it go. Yes.
Mark Hiddleson 33:06
Just water me. No.
Judy Jardine 33:09
It's all in the book. Okay. So this is I be cooking manufacture. So two weeks go by, I totally forget about this guy. You know, I just wrote him off. I in fact, I took all of his his contract and everything, all of his specs, because I had a spec out. Not only that, the trucking, the warehousing and the packaging that I gave him, I think a very good package, all inclusive. All right. So two weeks later, he calls my boss. And he says, You know, I did shop around and you know, your, your pricing is right in there. And go ahead and send me the contract over and I'll sign it. And my boss said, No, you're talking to the wrong person. You need to be talking to June. And he he sent the transfer the call to my office. And I'm like, what's going on? He goes, he's on hold, keep him on hold, make him wait. I know. And he says, You know that I can't use the language but he says you know that guy, blah, blah, blah, couple of weeks ago is here told you should go home and have babies. And that and that is suit your awareness was too expensive. You know, that's why I was charging him so much money. He goes, he's on the phone. I said, oh, oh yeah. I'm jumping up and down. Let's go for this baby's and he says now again, calm down. So I made him wait until probably a good three minutes in the phone is blink and blink and blink. Get any sir. Okay, okay, you better pick it up, give me my hang up. I said, Okay, so I picked up the phone. And I go, Hello, this is Judy was someone so? And he's in his voice was trembling, I could tell if his he could have a hard time talking to him, right? Yeah. And he said, you know, this is so and so and you know, can you send over the contract and I need to sign it. And I said you need to sign it. I go wait a minute, you just told me. He goes, he actually said he was sorry. He apologized. And he goes, Oh, by the way, I got two containers on the water. And they're going to be there next week. And I went, oh, ooh, baby. He's nice. And I really, I saw I said, Listen, I have to put you on hold. So I put them on hold. And I went back and got his contract. That's a lie. Because I had the contract right in front of me right?
Mark Hiddleson 36:03
On Hold so you could get your composure, right.
Judy Jardine 36:05
Yeah. Right. Because I was jumping up and down. I was like, given high fives. Everybody was like, You got this duty. You got this. So I thought about it. And I said, you know, when I gave him those rates, that was last month. This is a new month. Should I increase the rate? How should I handle this? And my boss is gone, Judy. Just give him the contract. Okay, don't make it work. Don't make the poor guy sweat. And I'm like, No, you know, inside. I was thinking one thing, but I couldn't say it on the outside. You know what I mean? So I picked up the phone. I said, Absolutely. I'm gonna take care of this. I'm gonna fax it over to you right now. And I need you to sign it today. By the end of day, because if you don't, the offers off the table. I'm telling you. It was the five minutes later Matthew signed in. Baxter right back.
Mark Hiddleson 37:09
That's awesome. And you got he ended up being a client for
Judy Jardine 37:13
Oh my God. He was like a client for like five years. And we got to be good friends. And I finally told him one day, this was months later, I said, Do you know that that suit that I had on? I got it at the Goodwill? He goes, Oh my gosh, God, I'm so sorry. I'm a single parent. I have a son that I'm raising by myself. How could you? He said, Well, you taught me a valuable lesson. If you ever meet my wife don't tell my wife.
Mark Hiddleson 37:51
Yeah, that was no he's trying to protect his rear end. Yeah, that's a great story. God that is
Judy Jardine 37:58
awesome. True. I was gonna be in my book.
Mark Hiddleson 38:01
And that's gonna be in the book. Yeah, I can't wait for that. And we are we're gonna have a link to the
Judy Jardine 38:08
Truth About Logistics. Yes, no logistics truth. Truth About Logistics.
Mark Hiddleson 38:15
Truth About Logistics. Yeah, I keep saying warehousing because that's about logistics. We'll and we'll have a link, we'll have your phone number we'll have on the show notes. I'll make sure people have access to that. I wanted to ask you a few questions about we talked about the tours. And one of the tours I remember most recently we did was at the Patterson high school here has a word. Oh, and I wanted you to share a little bit about your experience there. You asked some of the best toughest question and those kids were pretty sharp. I was impressed with the kids at Patterson High School. They're training for two they run an actual warehouse there on campus. And Knology there WMS system inventory control. So what kind of what advice would you give for somebody who's looking to start a career in warehousing or logistics other than to buy your book? I would say listen to this. Let's get the book.
Judy Jardine 39:21
Um, first of all, our, our young our generation that's coming up right now has no clue about logistics or warehousing most of them have never been in a warehouse. And I think before they graduate from high school, there needs to be at least two or three days a bootcamp where someone comes into the school and teach them about where your food comes from, and distribution and three PL and packaging, and a lecture or a speaker, a guest speaker I would do That hurt. Okay. Okay, and come with me, please. And then take them to an actual warehouse. Once they saw that, they would say, Sign me up. And then you would get some that saying no, I'm not really into this, but for the majority of the people, and then the school in Paterson, that's why I went there with you. And I believe Chris was there and a couple of other people, we went there. And we're like, this is what we're talking about. This is what needs to happen. These these young students, these are adults, I should say, adults are very, very savvy. They're getting trained on our after getting trained on what code best by date. And I start asking a lot of questions. Let's see what they know. Okay. Okay. Let's see if the school is any good. Okay. And so we started firing questions at them. And they gave great answers, that tells me the school is not only training them properly, but it's giving them an education Plus, they have the equipment there, they have the scanners there. They have everything there. And when I went there I went. This is what we needed. For a long time, I just wish we had more schools that would invest in the warehousing distribution, three PL to train our young children, adults, how to operate the equipment, at least at least get a toe dip into it, because once they find out how it works, and where their food comes from, you will be able to groom these young adults. So as soon as they graduate, they can go right into the Threepio warehousing business. And you don't have to train them plus they get a certificate. That's the beauty about that school is phenomenal. Phenomenal. Yeah. And I still have pictures. I even wrote a letter to Larry telling him what a great job they're doing. You know, I want to come back and visit again, I want to be a guest speaker, please, you know, reach out to me at the time, I was super busy because we were working on another project. So my time was very limited. But he he did email me back and he said, Judy, you have no idea these kids, these young adults appreciated you and all the whole team that came out you and everybody else that came out they, they it just gave them more drive and passion to do what they do. And to learn these skills is phenomenal. I mean, in their like and they share it with their family, I mean graduation, their parents come there, they get a certificate, and they go right in, they graduate. It's for us not every child is meant to go to college. Okay. Not every child or adult young adult that graduates needs to trade but they want to be they want to do something where they're appreciated, and they have a skill set. And as long as they have the passion that dry these young adults will be and do phenomenal work in the three PL business and if you start out like myself poor and but have the drive and the passion, you can work your way up the system. And and you have to learn everything that means inventory control. That means I even when we were doing the packaging on Saturdays, everybody get out of the way, but I would actually move a pallet I got up on the forklift, we wouldn't I wouldn't do that today. Okay. And I would do the pallet and everybody's again out of the way Judy's driving the forklift. Gamers resumes, you know, all you got to do is just lean up, put the forks in it, make sure you took probably twice as long. And then bring the pallet over to the production line. Because the last thing you want to do is have the production line go down. Because you don't have the material there on product. Right. But getting back to these high school adults. I mean, I had them I was just I told them I said any encouragement that you need, I'm here for you. And they asked, they asked me a lot of questions how I got started in the business. And it was a win win for everybody.
Mark Hiddleson 44:39
Yeah, so I love that advice. It's it's to or warehouse which that's something that that's one of the best things I've seen for I hosted Michael Mikitka who's the president of the Warehousing Education Research Council. In the tours, the tours of a warehouse, it's so much value. And and you're right not everybody needs to go right to college, but there's also I'm hearing that now a lot of companies are hiring people for frontline warehouse jobs. And after a few years, they're paying for the ones that Excel to pay for him to go to college because they want managers they want to hire within. So, and this, this industry is a great place for people starting and supply chain wasn't always on the front page. And it's not now that there's a problem everywhere. There's been problems, everybody's talking about it. But for years, you just see these big boxes, and you really have no idea what's going on inside of them or anything like that. So that's great. And I have you had time for one more question. And I wanted to ask you what your favorite podcast is. Besides this? Oh,
Judy Jardine 45:47
Oh, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh, I have to tell you right now. It's Mark Hiddleson. You're my favorite. You're my hero. You're Mr. Wonderful. Okay, loving kisses Moon, I think you're the best mark. I mean, I see us working together for at least another 20 years. This podcast business is phenomenal. Phenomenal. Okay. And I see down the road. And this is my vision, I will share my vision in my book. So you have to buy my book, but the vision of warehousing and packaging, robotics, all that's going to be in my book, it's all going to be laid out there. What I see where the future is going with warehousing business. And the development. The three PL is is just phenomenal. It's it's going to blow up not only in blowing up, but you can't even find a warehouse to put your product in. Try looking for a warehouse, which brought everybody school.
Mark Hiddleson 46:55
Yeah, my dad sent me an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that said there, you know that there's a real like everything, there's hardly any warehouse space to be found. And it's true. I was driving down the road on my way back from San Jose. And a lot of the buildings that I saw that were vacant, in, you know, 2005 to 2000. You know, a long time these buildings were vacant, they all have signs on them. And all parking lots are all full. I mean, I was blown away. Yes, you know, because we're driving around a lot of times in industrial areas. And you notice if some if the buildings are full, or they're not full, deserve these huge buildings, and I don't know what the percentages are. And the reason I'll share, thank you for your compliments about the podcast, what I found. And the reason I'm doing that is that I've learned so much if there's something that I'm passionate, I've been passionate about how companies are developing their direct to consumer business models. So lots of podcasts on that. I'm interested in how people are dealing with data, because data is such a big thing. A lot of people know what they're doing so that there's podcasts you can watch. And really, you know, compared to reading books, I've always been a reader. I've always gone to conferences. But when you can get to know somebody really specific, if you want to answer to a specific questions, you can look at it, watch a podcast, and then a lot of times you can call the person that who's doing it. I saw you talking about this on a podcast, I'm interested in learning more, you know, what are the resources and that's what, that's what people are doing with us. It's one of the reasons you know, I know people are going to be calling you asking you, Chris Murphy now we got a lot of good feedback. But it's a great way. It's a connection for all of us that we know each other we're part of the network. And yeah, sharing information and the stories in a way that's meaningful for everybody. That it's not just theory, and we've applied the theory. Oh, we love.
Judy Jardine 48:52
Right? Yeah. Yeah. In life. Now I have to tell you one other thing I can't leave without mentioning Abigail. Abigail, which is Chris Murphy's daughter at Sierra Pacific, Abigail. She is amazing. Not only is she amazing, she's phenomenal. She's a woman from head to toe. And she dresses to the nines. Abigail and I are now working together on a project for Chris Murphy Sierra Pacific Warehouse Group. Abigail, I love you. All my hugs and kisses. And let me watch out for girl power. That's all I gotta say. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 49:31
Abigail, very wonderful, talented person. I've been friends with her for probably 10 years and I'm definitely she's going to be another guest on here because her. She graduated from college. She has always been super smart top of her class, but you're right. She's motivated. She's smart. She asked the right questions. Yeah, and super professional, super resourceful, and really intelligent. She's gonna be a dynamo. All in. Luck out. Yeah. Well, that is great. Those are some great stories. And we've been visiting here with Judy Jardine, veteran warehousing supply chain professional. And, Judy, what what's the best way for people to learn more about your services?
Judy Jardine 50:20
You can email me at truthaboutlogistics@gmail.com, or you can call me at 209-679-4975. Again, truthaboutlogistics@gmail.com, phone number 209-679-4975. Awesome.
Mark Hiddleson 50:49
And we will have it in the show notes as well. I want to be the first to say thank you, Judy, so much for joining.
Judy Jardine 50:57
Thank you, Mr. Wonderful.
Outro 51:02
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