Dynamic duos! Alysse Bryson and Libby Sundgren sit down with Richard Miller and Maria Gausepohl, the brains behind Point to Point Transportation’s most complex event logistics. With decades of experience in domestic trucking and international air freight, Richard and Maria pull back the curtain on what it really takes to deliver show-stopping events on time and intact — whether facing international customs nightmares, last-minute charter flights, or missing wedding dresses. Their stories and actionable tips will have you thinking differently about the crucial role of freight and logistics in event planning.
Resources Mentioned:
- LinkedIn: Richard Miller and Maria Gausepohl
- WORKP2P & Point to Point Transportation
- The Intentional Course (Think, Plan, Act)
- Alysse & Libby: Bios & LinkedIn
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- Website: www.beatsworkingpodcast.com
- LinkedIn: @BEATS WORKING Show
- Instagram: @beatsworkingshow
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- YouTube: @BEATSWORKINGPODCAST
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Beats Working winning the game of events. Today’s guests are the powerhouse pair behind some of the most complex event and trade show logistics happening around the globe. And we are so lucky because we also work with them so we get to see them, I mean, almost on a weekly basis when they’re not traveling the globe. Richard Miller started his career as a truck driver in 1978 and worked his way up to Vice President by 32. He now leads as the director of logistics and transportation at Point to Point Transportation. With decades of experience in live event execution, I mean, this man’s on the road all year long. I never know where he’s going to be. Germany, Singapore, other countries.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:45]:
Those are the only ones coming to mind right now. Brazil, Texas, the great state of Texas.
Richard Miller [00:00:50]:
Texas is our own country.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:53]:
Oh, right.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:54]:
It truly is.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:55]:
It is its own country.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:56]:
Yes, yes. And joining him today is Maria Gospel, our director of international and air freight operations, also at Point to Point Transportation. She has over 25 years of freight forwarding expertise and specializes in moving high stakes air freight where timing is everything and failure isn’t an option, folks. Not when you’re flying merchandise across the country or to the country of Texas. She’s known for her freight finding superpowers, truly. She found a lost semi truck in Washington from Texas and her ability to get things done when everyone else is still arguing over who’s in charge. And actually, correction, it wasn’t a truck, it was a trailer. That’s just transportation talk for you folks.
Libby Sundgren [00:01:42]:
Together, they are here to share what it takes to keep the freight moving. Shows on schedule and clients calm even when the wheels look like they’re coming off. Pun intended. Maria and Richard, welcome.
Richard Miller [00:01:55]:
Thank you for having us.
Alysse Bryson [00:01:56]:
The crowd goes wild.
Richard Miller [00:01:59]:
A little unknown fact that may not have been shared is that Maria and I have been working together since at least 2008. Y with three different organizations.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:13]:
Us and me and Libby too.
Libby Sundgren [00:02:15]:
You guys are freight war buddies?
Maria Gausepohl [00:02:18]:
We are.
Richard Miller [00:02:21]:
We have been. Let me see. We have been partners. She has been a vendor of mine. I have worked under her guidance. She has worked under my guidance. So yeah, we have a long history.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:36]:
Isn’t that nice though? Like, there’s something really comforting about working with someone for, you know, over a decade, almost two decades. Like, like you just, you know each other, you know how to make things work. It just, it compresses so much time. I think.
Richard Miller [00:02:52]:
It does.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:53]:
Yeah.
Maria Gausepohl [00:02:54]:
Plus you have each other’s back.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:56]:
Yeah.
Richard Miller [00:02:57]:
And there’s.
Libby Sundgren [00:02:58]:
You got those trench stories. So you guys know. Okay, so between international air Freight, which I think a lot of people don’t understand the complications of it. I still don’t fully understand the complications of it. By choice, I mean, because it feels very complicated. Just kidding. I would love to learn about it. Between international air freight and domestic trucking, what is something that most planners forget to factor in during the planning stage that can derail everything? You know, like, what questions should they be asking their shipping and logistics partners from day one? Because if I called you guys to ship something for me to Germany or Texas, I wouldn’t.
Libby Sundgren [00:03:46]:
I don’t know the first thing about the details. All I would know is these are my things and I need them to get there by this date. That’s the only thing I would really think of as a planner.
Richard Miller [00:03:56]:
Yeah. The most important question that they should be asking of their provider. How much time do you need to make it happen?
Alysse Bryson [00:04:06]:
Okay. Is that because things get stuck places.
Richard Miller [00:04:10]:
The potential of things being stuck is. Is very high. International, what country is it going to?
Maria Gausepohl [00:04:19]:
Yeah.
Richard Miller [00:04:20]:
And when is it going there?
Alysse Bryson [00:04:21]:
And that’s. That’s specific to internationally, not if you’re shipping to Texas.
Maria Gausepohl [00:04:25]:
Correct. Yeah. I would say the most important thing, like Richard was saying, is time. But also it details on what you are shipping, especially international. You have to have documentation to make sure that it matches what you’re shipping. If not, you’re afraid it’s going to end up locked up with customs for a while.
Libby Sundgren [00:04:49]:
Because you have to be very specific when you’re, you know, this isn’t just like going to the post office, saying post office, and like it’s under five pounds or whatever, just, you know, drop it. The box in the mail and it’s like a flat fee. There are specific rules and very. And they vary country to country. How do you guys remember that? Kind of like, how do you remember all of those things? Do you have your own manuals?
Maria Gausepohl [00:05:13]:
Around the world, the agents around the world remind you of things. Our brokers remind us of things. And yes, and there’s some things that we just know firsthand from the experience.
Alysse Bryson [00:05:26]:
From the lived experience. Are there things you can’t ship?
Maria Gausepohl [00:05:29]:
It all depends. Hazmat. We don’t ship hazmat. You can’t really ship batteries that are not connected to the equipment, things like that. Food is not something that we like to ship, either food or wine.
Alysse Bryson [00:05:44]:
Food, wine, weapons. Got it.
Maria Gausepohl [00:05:47]:
Firearms.
Libby Sundgren [00:05:47]:
Why can’t you ship food and wine? Because, you know, snacks are very important to me, and snacks are something that I would want to ship because I’m always trying to give snacks away to other people, mostly, so I can also eat them. But why can’t you ship food?
Maria Gausepohl [00:06:04]:
Well, we, we haven’t. I haven’t shipped food. I. I kind of keep. It’s just live.
Libby Sundgren [00:06:09]:
I guess they would probably just get it over there. What’s the point of shipping it? You could just.
Maria Gausepohl [00:06:13]:
Yeah. I mean, there’s people that want chocolate from switzerland. And I’m like, bad idea.
Libby Sundgren [00:06:18]:
Yeah, that’s true. I mean, and probably the snacks in other countries, you, know, have less preservatives and like chemicals in them. So they’re probably better for you anyway. They’re probably not even allowed. You’re probably not allowed to bring them in some places.
Alysse Bryson [00:06:29]:
But Richard and Maria, I’d like to know what’s the biggest shipping project you’ve worked on? I don’t know if that means it’s the number of pieces, if it’s the number of pounds, but like the largest amount of shipping you’ve plan the logistics for. For one project.
Richard Miller [00:06:49]:
I will let Maria go first with hers. But I. I have a. I have a story around that.
Alysse Bryson [00:06:55]:
Oh, okay. Because pens and needles.
Maria Gausepohl [00:07:00]:
Well, it’s the same one that you.
Richard Miller [00:07:02]:
Were gonna just talk about.
Maria Gausepohl [00:07:05]:
Because we work together on it, so it’s the same one.
Libby Sundgren [00:07:08]:
I know. Sorry. You guys are probably just. All this shared history.
Maria Gausepohl [00:07:12]:
Yeah, all the shared history. And I will just say a truckload full of gaming equipment Went to the wrong location and dropped the trailer to a rail yard. So what happens is they put the trailer on the rail and it goes bye bye. But it wasn’t supposed to do that. It was supposed to go to an event. So the driver, cuckoo did that to us. So we had to replace all the equipment Practically overnight from. Let’s just say we had to fly 23,000 pounds of freight overnight to southwest.
Maria Gausepohl [00:07:54]:
But they were amazing.
Libby Sundgren [00:07:56]:
My gosh.
Maria Gausepohl [00:07:57]:
Yeah. So that entailed many, many flights. And Richard actually was.
Alysse Bryson [00:08:05]:
You couldn’t get the other one back.
Libby Sundgren [00:08:08]:
Did the trailer go onto a train?
Maria Gausepohl [00:08:11]:
It takes 30 days. Yeah, 30 days.
Libby Sundgren [00:08:14]:
He put the trailer on the train but did not bring it to the. Instead of taking it to the event.
Maria Gausepohl [00:08:19]:
In his defense, he put the trailer in a yard that was a railed yard that they take the trailers and.
Libby Sundgren [00:08:26]:
Then they just took the. The trailer. Can you guys just give our listeners a quick. A quick like breakdown of the truck and trailer? Because a lot of people when they say truck, they just think of the whole semi truck.
Richard Miller [00:08:42]:
Most of what we are using are 53 foot vans. That’s the trailer. The over the road tractor is typically a sleeper tractor that can be 20 to 30ft in length on top of the 53 foot trailer. So they’re quite large. We have to, we have to be knowledgeable enough or our operations team has to be knowledgeable enough to know where we can get those trucks, what locations we can get those large trucks into. So that when we’re deciding what carriers to use, we’re selecting the right ones.
Alysse Bryson [00:09:21]:
Because isn’t there. I remember when you guys were working on ignite at the, was it the Washington State Convention center? And there’s. You could only have so many trucks in the loading dock at a time. So you have to, sometimes you have to coordinate at another location for all the trucks to gather and then, and then coordinate them coming in in different shifts to a loading dock. When a loading dock cannot handle the ball. Right. Like people don’t think about all the logistics that goes into something like that. I don’t think.
Richard Miller [00:09:51]:
Correct. Yeah, that’s. You’re, you’re referencing a marshalling yard.
Alysse Bryson [00:09:55]:
A marshalling yard.
Richard Miller [00:09:56]:
The, the key to the marshalling yard is you’ve got to keep the flow of trucks moving so that the labor on the docks, which, the labor on the docks is typically more expensive than all of the trucking that’s going on. So you’ve got to keep that steady flow where labor is not waiting on trucks. Not to mention that there’s a production schedule that they meet that freight in at certain times so that they can build the events properly.
Alysse Bryson [00:10:26]:
Right. Because things have to be sequenced in an order.
Richard Miller [00:10:28]:
Exactly.
Alysse Bryson [00:10:29]:
That makes sense. So Richard, Richard, what was your story? Did you want to elaborate on your story?
Richard Miller [00:10:34]:
So I thought Maria would go a different direction. Yeah, we were both involved, we were both involved with the, the missing truck going to the gaming event. But we also had another, another opportunity to work together where weather came into Play. We had two 53 foot trailer loads moving to an event in Vegas. Both trucks loaded out. If I remember right, they loaded on December 31st in the afternoon and they had 2am delivery appointments in Las Vegas for the largest consumer electronics show in the world. And the show opens on Monday. The trucks made it.
Richard Miller [00:11:19]:
I think one truck made it 50 miles. One truck made it about 100 miles from the shipper and got shut down due to an ice storm. So between Maria and I and one other person, we came up with a solution to get the trucks back to Dallas. I met the trucks at the airport. Maria and her team arranged for a charter aircraft to come in and we loaded two 53 foot trailer loads of freight onto. I believe it was an MD80 charter.
Maria Gausepohl [00:11:55]:
Yep.
Richard Miller [00:11:56]:
And flew all of that freight to Vegas. I think it finally, I think when we finished loading, we didn’t even have landing rights yet at Vegas. And then the plane arrived. Memory serves me around 8 o’clock Saturday night. Remember the show’s supposed to open Monday morning at 8:00. They worked all night Saturday night, all night Sunday night. And I think got the venue ready to open by 9am on Monday morning.
Libby Sundgren [00:12:28]:
Oh, my gosh. How do you guys manage that kind of stress other than really good deodorant?
Alysse Bryson [00:12:36]:
How do you sleep during all of that? Do you sleep? Yeah. I was gonna say you don’t sleep well.
Richard Miller [00:12:42]:
Look at me, I’m 25 years old.
Libby Sundgren [00:12:47]:
So youthful.
Richard Miller [00:12:50]:
Yeah. Well, the other, the other real tricky part is when you’re loading a trailer, you’re loading a rectangle. When you’re loading a plane, you’re loading a straw. Very different.
Alysse Bryson [00:13:05]:
Yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it.
Maria Gausepohl [00:13:08]:
And playing Tetris at the same time.
Richard Miller [00:13:10]:
And playing Tetris and. Oh yeah, you don’t want the plane doing a wheelie. So you, you can’t overload it.
Alysse Bryson [00:13:16]:
Weight and Val, everything has to be balanced. Yeah, yeah.
Richard Miller [00:13:21]:
Did.
Alysse Bryson [00:13:22]:
Are you guys Tetris players? Were you ever a Tetris player?
Richard Miller [00:13:26]:
I am. I am really good at loading trucks. I hate that game though.
Maria Gausepohl [00:13:29]:
Yeah, that’s right.
Libby Sundgren [00:13:30]:
He does it for worse. He hasn’t.
Maria Gausepohl [00:13:32]:
He isn’t.
Libby Sundgren [00:13:33]:
You know, he does it all the time. He doesn’t need to play the game. He is playing the game in real life every day.
Richard Miller [00:13:41]:
Back to your original question, Libby. The largest single piece we’ve ever moved, I’ve ever been involved with. We just did. And that was a 7 ton jet engine that we moved from Berlin to Hanover, Germany. Oversized truck with an escort with permits through every county in Germany to make it.
Libby Sundgren [00:14:06]:
Oh, my gosh. How, like what weighs. What else weighs seven tons in this?
Alysse Bryson [00:14:12]:
An elephant. I just looked it up.
Libby Sundgren [00:14:14]:
An elephant weighs seven tons. Like a giant African elephant.
Alysse Bryson [00:14:17]:
Maybe four to. Elephants are four to seven tons.
Libby Sundgren [00:14:21]:
Wow, that’s big.
Alysse Bryson [00:14:25]:
Yeah.
Libby Sundgren [00:14:25]:
Were you there, Richard? Were you driving with it?
Richard Miller [00:14:28]:
I wasn’t in the truck. No, I was there when we came in.
Maria Gausepohl [00:14:33]:
He was holding the engine.
Libby Sundgren [00:14:37]:
He’s holding the straps on the back of the.
Alysse Bryson [00:14:39]:
Taking selfies. Taking selfies.
Libby Sundgren [00:14:41]:
I would.
Alysse Bryson [00:14:43]:
So a lot of times these events, what fascinates me when I got to know all the stuff you guys work on is like the amount of stuff and time it Takes for like a two day event. You could be building out an event for weeks, just for two days, three days. And it could take, I mean not only does it take a year to plan, but I mean we’re talking, I mean it’s kind of wild when you think about the behind the scenes of something for a day or two.
Maria Gausepohl [00:15:11]:
All the moving parts that go with it.
Richard Miller [00:15:13]:
Yeah, it truly is organized chaos. The end is, is certainly a little calmer because you typically, typically have more time. And as you mentioned earlier, we’re bringing things in in sequence where let’s say we have a three or four day event, we have a 10 day move in and set up when the show ends. We may have a day and a half to get it out so that.
Alysse Bryson [00:15:38]:
But it’s a lot faster to tear down than to set up usually, right?
Richard Miller [00:15:41]:
Tremendously faster. Absolutely. But it’s still very hectic, very nerve wracking. And if you have one or two trucks that don’t show up when they’re supposed to, then you’ve really got a challenge on your hands because you’ve got to get out at a certain time or there’s penalties for from the venue or there may be another show moving right in, right, right behind you.
Alysse Bryson [00:16:09]:
How do you guys stay organized and not losing anybody’s stuff? Because I know that’s a big question. The you know like event planners will come up to you and be like where’s my stuff? So what, what’s the secret sauce of keeping the stuff organized?
Richard Miller [00:16:22]:
People like Maria truly snaps for Maria.
Alysse Bryson [00:16:29]:
Are you out there with your label gun just labeling away?
Maria Gausepohl [00:16:33]:
No, I like do the triple check system. That’s, that’s how I work triple check.
Richard Miller [00:16:38]:
There, there is a, certainly a very, a very good process in place. Bill of ladings, labels, pictures, just basic knowledge of the freight that we’re moving. You know many of the shippers we work with, we’re very familiar with. We know what their freight looks like, we know what to expect.
Maria Gausepohl [00:16:58]:
And kudos to the OPS team because it’s a constant checking, constant. The drivers on site, drivers loaded, drivers leaving. Where’s the driver now four hours later? So it’s a constant checking system for every single load. We don’t do it alone. We do it with a team of people. And that team is what provides us success.
Libby Sundgren [00:17:24]:
Do give you peace of mind. You guys have a really good team.
Alysse Bryson [00:17:27]:
From what I know about your. The industry is. The people in it have been in it forever. So if there are people that are interested in getting into it where what is the starting point for someone to enter into this type of industry.
Maria Gausepohl [00:17:44]:
I would say for the trade show industry, for sure. Start with field services and then move on to, you know, if you want to be in operations, move on to operations. But you learn the most being hands on. I started as not field services, but I went to, I traveled a lot and I went to many events and that’s how I got a lot of the trade show knowledge. The airfit knowledge came after. So, yeah, it’s.
Alysse Bryson [00:18:12]:
Do you each have like a most memorable event that you’ve done, Like a real standout?
Richard Miller [00:18:17]:
I, I think we, we all have very memorable events and I’m not talking about the show itself, just things that happened over the course of our careers. We’ve talked about a couple of them. One of my favorites is I was in San Francisco, first time I’m managing an event by myself. I’m expecting a prototype computer to be delivered to me that’s going to be used during the keynote. The shipment arrives, which we had nothing to do with arranging it. I’ll make that clear. The shipment arrived, I looked at it, I thought to myself, this doesn’t look like a typical computer box. So I opened it and lo and behold, my computer was not in the box.
Richard Miller [00:19:08]:
So I called our shipping company and asked them where my computer was. Sent him a picture of what I got, was told, let me check. They called me back in about an hour and they said, what you have there are sailboat parts destined for a broken down sailboat in Taiwan.
Alysse Bryson [00:19:30]:
Does that mean that’s where the computer went?
Richard Miller [00:19:32]:
Well, that was my next question. Where is my computer? They said, well, the best we can tell, it’s arrived in Hong Kong and is now in customs control with the Chinese government. You’re not going to get your computer back for a while.
Maria Gausepohl [00:19:48]:
Yeah. Because the paperwork doesn’t match the freight.
Richard Miller [00:19:52]:
Yep.
Libby Sundgren [00:19:53]:
Was that an accident or was someone trying to ship it to somebody else?
Richard Miller [00:19:59]:
Well, no, it was, it truly was a driver not doing, not doing the steps in the proper sequence. He didn’t apply his shipping labels till he got back to the airport. And he did this. And one went one direction, one went the other direction. So you can.
Alysse Bryson [00:20:18]:
What do you do in that case?
Richard Miller [00:20:20]:
Perfectly. But you’re still so reliant on the truck driver to do their job.
Libby Sundgren [00:20:27]:
So what you do.
Alysse Bryson [00:20:28]:
Yeah.
Richard Miller [00:20:30]:
To the green room and talked to the guy that was getting ready to do his rehearsal for keynote to let him know, dude, you’re gonna have to wing it. There is no computer coming.
Libby Sundgren [00:20:42]:
How did how was the news received, Richard?
Richard Miller [00:20:45]:
It was. He was. He was. He was act. He didn’t beat me up, but no, he. He was pretty cool about it.
Alysse Bryson [00:20:53]:
Yeah.
Richard Miller [00:20:55]:
But it changed everything about his presentation.
Libby Sundgren [00:20:58]:
Oh, my God, of course it did.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:02]:
Anybody get fired from that situation, I.
Richard Miller [00:21:05]:
Would hope so, but I don’t know.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:07]:
Ah, yeah.
Richard Miller [00:21:07]:
I mean, the driver doesn’t work directly for us, so we’re not.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:12]:
So it’s not. I see. Yeah.
Richard Miller [00:21:13]:
Yeah.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:14]:
Maria, what about you?
Maria Gausepohl [00:21:15]:
I. I would say, I’ll tell you this from his story, from Richer’s story, is that a game changer in our industry has been camera phones. Because I come from the beginning where freight would always get swapped and all that. And I’ll tell you, camera phones have made one of the biggest differences in our industry, because now we could just see it. They could even FaceTime you and tell you, yeah, hey, we’re here. Look, it’s locked. The building’s locked. We can’t deliver or something like that.
Maria Gausepohl [00:21:50]:
So it’s made a huge difference. In the beginning, I thought we were all crazy asking for pictures of freight, but now it’s like, I have. I live by it. We all live by it, you know, making sure.
Alysse Bryson [00:22:02]:
Do airtags ever come into play? To play?
Maria Gausepohl [00:22:05]:
Yeah, a lot of clients use air tags, and I support it 100% because I think that, you know. Yeah. Is there moments where, you know, you might get a nervous person that would say, oh, my freight hasn’t moved. It’s still sitting here. We’re like, explaining. Yeah, the flight is, you know, not until this day. And then, you know, when it gets there, then it’ll get cleared by customs, and then, you know, we’ll deliver it to you. But yes, the airtags are wonderful.
Maria Gausepohl [00:22:32]:
We have a. We have some. We just recently had some freight that was, like, moved by a contractor out of a show by accident. And the customers sent us an email. She’s like, I don’t think it’s supposed to be here. And my airtag showing that. And sure enough, it was because the contractor gave our driver the wrong freight. Our driver’s on his way back to his loading dock.
Maria Gausepohl [00:22:59]:
The freight is back to where their location was. So, yeah, so we knew right away because the client had air tags. So air tags are amazing.
Alysse Bryson [00:23:09]:
Okay.
Richard Miller [00:23:11]:
Air tags even come into play at show site. So during the event, empties, empty crates, empty skids are removed from the exhibit and are returned at the end of the show. Many times those empties don’t quite make it all the way back so if there are air tags in it, it’s very beneficial to be able to locate them at show site.
Alysse Bryson [00:23:34]:
Love that. And Maria, I’m sorry I interrupted you. What is your story of note?
Maria Gausepohl [00:23:39]:
Oh, my story? Okay, well, out of nowhere, like 9pm at night, I get a call saying I’m getting married and my wedding dress is in LA and I’m getting married in Charlotte. And I was told that you guys ship and I literally, I, I’ve never done this before. And I said I, I can’t just ship your freight. I go, you’re not a client of ours. You’re not, you know, you’re not like cleared with tsa. I can’t just put your stuff on a plane. I can’t. I go, but I can help you.
Maria Gausepohl [00:24:15]:
I go get it to where you need to get it. What day you know is your wedding? And she goes, Sunday. And it was a Friday night. Somehow, some way, mom forgot her dress and her dress was back home. So I had to work with the charter company again to put somebody on a flight with her dress to the destination that was, oh my God, wildest thing I’ve ever done.
Libby Sundgren [00:24:44]:
The most expensive wedding dress of all time had its own charter flight to the, to the show.
Richard Miller [00:24:51]:
I suspect mom didn’t forget dress. I think dad had something to do.
Maria Gausepohl [00:24:56]:
I would think so. You know, that is napping mom. But yes, that’s the wildest story I’ve had. And I so happy that the dress made it for her big day. And she like sent me a picture on email.
Libby Sundgren [00:25:11]:
Oh, that’s cute.
Maria Gausepohl [00:25:12]:
I’m like sorry for the 35000 flight.
Libby Sundgren [00:25:17]:
Oh my God. Oh my God. I’d have to just go pick one up at the JCPenney or something. Okay, so when you bull are, I mean clearly very used to getting things done under pressure, missing computers, like overnight gaming systems, like moving, you know, hand moving items from trailers into planes. What is your mindset during those kinds of situations when it feels like everything is on the line for this event? You know, she’s not going to have her dress or they’re not going to have their, what they need to have their show start on time. What is going through your minds at those moments and how do you stay calm and, and keep your cool with the people in your team?
Richard Miller [00:26:11]:
It’s really not at those moments because if you, if you’re, if you’re waiting for those moments then you’re already in trouble. If you think about what we do, we handle several thousand shipments a year. We get 99% of them. Right. So 1% of a thousand. It’s a hundred shipments. My math is right. That’s what we’re trying to be.
Richard Miller [00:26:39]:
Perfect. Because we can’t have a hundred shipments go wrong. We just can’t. Now when I say they go wrong in our world, they go wrong. Of Those hundred, probably 95 of them made it to the location when they were supposed to. Didn’t impact the show, but somebody screwed up. So it’s an error in our tracking, but it really is. We are absolutely trying to treat every shipment exactly the same way, and we’re striving for perfection so that the customer has a good experience.
Maria Gausepohl [00:27:20]:
I think also when situations like that arise, it’s. It’s like a challenge. It’s. For me, it’s kind of fun. You know, as crazy as it sounds, that I. Yeah, there’s some I’m going to, like, bark at, but there’s some I’m going to go, okay, let’s go. It’s like you just envision a target. That’s your target and you have to hit it.
Maria Gausepohl [00:27:41]:
And that’s. That’s the way I think about it, you know? And of course, in my head, unlike Libby, I am not a duck.
Alysse Bryson [00:27:53]:
Yes. Maria is listening to the show, folks. That’s right.
Maria Gausepohl [00:27:58]:
So I. I am not. I’m literally like the hammer where everybody’s holding nails and I’m like, okay, let’s go. So I.
Libby Sundgren [00:28:07]:
That’s me, the hammer.
Alysse Bryson [00:28:11]:
I want to be a hammer. I want to be a hammer. I like that.
Richard Miller [00:28:15]:
Maria does not accept no for an answer. I’ve witnessed it. If she gets no from one level, she keeps moving right up the ladder until she hears what she needs to hear.
Alysse Bryson [00:28:28]:
I love that. I love that, Maria. When. When I was in advertising sales, I also didn’t take no’s. I was like, I keep going until I get a yes or restraining order. Like, I just go, I don’t think.
Maria Gausepohl [00:28:39]:
I’ve gone that far. But I have. Not literally.
Alysse Bryson [00:28:44]:
Yeah, not literally, but you know what I’m saying? Like, it’s. You have to be super persistent.
Maria Gausepohl [00:28:49]:
No, like I say, make them an offer they can’t refuse without the horsehead.
Alysse Bryson [00:28:55]:
So it ain’t bragging if it’s true. As a segment we like to do here, you guys have been in the industry forever. You obviously have pride in what you do. You are fulfilled with what you do, or you wouldn’t have stayed with it this long. So you know what? When you look back over the course of your career, like, what do You. What makes you, like, just feel really good about what you’ve done? What’s in it for you?
Richard Miller [00:29:18]:
Everything. Everything about what we do is a challenge. Even. Even though I. I had never done a. Well, that’s not true. I had done very few international events. I had done one in Shanghai was my first one.
Richard Miller [00:29:33]:
But then I’ve done several events now in Europe. And the difference between working events in Europe versus working events in the US Is extreme. I mean, it’s truly wild, wild west in some. Some of the European venues. So learning the new things and learning how to navigate the challenges at those European venues was. Was really quite fulfilling for me. So many domestic events, they’re different, but they’re the same. This was a new challenge.
Alysse Bryson [00:30:11]:
Richard, when you travel abroad, are there. What are some things that you have to make sure is packed in your bag? Like, what are things that you don’t leave home without?
Richard Miller [00:30:19]:
Well, number one is the right chargers so that you’re able to operate. Scrambling to find those in Europe is a bit of a challenge, as funny as that may sound. But no, I. I basically bring a small office with me. You know, all my office supplies. Labels, blank labels.
Alysse Bryson [00:30:42]:
A printer. Do you bring a printer?
Richard Miller [00:30:44]:
I do bring a printer. I bring a roll of stretch wrap. I bring tape. I bring everything that I know I will need. Bring a few tools and your water bottle. Yeah, not really, because you’re not really using tap water over there.
Maria Gausepohl [00:31:01]:
Okay. Oh, Internationally, you don’t. Domestically, you do.
Richard Miller [00:31:04]:
Yeah.
Libby Sundgren [00:31:05]:
Richard, the MacGyver. The MacGyver Packer.
Richard Miller [00:31:08]:
Yep.
Maria Gausepohl [00:31:09]:
Yeah, he has duct tape in there, too.
Alysse Bryson [00:31:12]:
What about snacks? Richard, Libby wants to know about yourself.
Maria Gausepohl [00:31:15]:
Yeah.
Libby Sundgren [00:31:15]:
What’s your favorite snack that you travel with or that you buy at the airport?
Richard Miller [00:31:19]:
I don’t typically travel with snacks, or I tend to avoid them until I’m at the warehouse.
Alysse Bryson [00:31:28]:
Yep.
Libby Sundgren [00:31:28]:
I like to keep this warehouse stocked with candy for those that don’t know.
Alysse Bryson [00:31:33]:
And when the candy runs low, Richard definitely puts up the red flag. The bucket is low, Libby.
Libby Sundgren [00:31:39]:
But here’s the thing. Richard also knows where I keep the candy stash before it goes into the bucket. So he has the inside knowledge he can refill it. He know. I told. Tried to tell him one time. I was like, oh, Richard, well, you know where you could get. He’s like, I know, Libby.
Libby Sundgren [00:31:57]:
I’ve already been there. It’s empty, too. That’s how I knew I was failing. Failing. Richard, my snack, my snack mission. Richard, when you’re on show site in another country, how do you make sure. Sure that you can communicate with people and really jump over the language barrier.
Richard Miller [00:32:19]:
Well, just. Just like Maria said earlier, the smartphone has been a game changer, and the Translate app on it is awesome, but there’s an awful lot of talking into phones and showing drivers what you’re saying so that they can shaking your phone. No, I’m not Polish and Ukrainian.
Libby Sundgren [00:32:41]:
See, that’d be kind of interesting because you have to show them your phone, and then you have to make your face reflect your. What you’re trying to say, so you got to look stern or like, smiling.
Richard Miller [00:32:51]:
They read my body.
Alysse Bryson [00:32:54]:
I’m sure they do. Do you find yourself. Richard? My. My neighbors do not speak English. And so the way that we communicate with each other is through a translator. Their translator, not mine. And I. I find myself talking slower and louder, and it’s like, I don’t need to, but I.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:13]:
I just. I’m always doing that and I’m. So.
Libby Sundgren [00:33:16]:
If you talk slowly and loudly enough that they’ll just all of a sudden be English speaking as a first language.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:23]:
And then. And then I’m like this, like, you.
Richard Miller [00:33:26]:
Know, you have to enunciate well, too.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:29]:
That’s true.
Richard Miller [00:33:30]:
Slower, louder, enunciate, and then give them the.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:35]:
Maria, what about you? What. What do you. Like, what do you feel the best about when you look back at your career?
Maria Gausepohl [00:33:40]:
I would say I, you know, I feel the best about the help part of things, you know, like helping with. I thrive when there’s chaos. So I love. I love that. I love the busier the better for me. I love that time goes and flies by, and I feel good at the end of the day that I’ve completed service to all. Every single client that was, you know, that needed it that day. And yeah, it.
Maria Gausepohl [00:34:08]:
For me, that’s the best part is just giving my time for that.
Alysse Bryson [00:34:13]:
Well, and it feels good when. When you crush something. Right? And I think that’s what that I love about the events industry is everything is always different, even though it’s always kind of the same. Yeah, that makes sense, right? Like, it’s just. It doesn’t ever get boring. It doesn’t ever get stale. It can get tiring. It can get exhausting.
Alysse Bryson [00:34:31]:
There can even be moments of frustration. But, you know, when you. When you crush the end result, like, there’s. It just feels so good.
Maria Gausepohl [00:34:40]:
It does, it does. It really does. And that’s crushing the day, I guess that you would call it. Right? So that’s the way.
Alysse Bryson [00:34:47]:
Before I take us out, I would love to know, you know, work P.2P, the parent company of Point To Point Transportation and Beats Working and several other brands. We operate very differently than other companies and it can sometimes take a little getting used to. But what is something that you’ve learned or grown in or developed a skill you’ve developed by doing the things that we do on our source code?
Richard Miller [00:35:14]:
Well, I think the way we think about things is very different. I really have embraced the think plan, act cycle and I think Maria’s team also embraces that. So that that’s a big part, I don’t think. I think many of the companies I’ve been with in the past focused more on bottom line performance than actual operations performance where Point to point is very different than that. We’re really focused on providing excellent service, customer satisfaction. The rest will come just because we’re performing well.
Alysse Bryson [00:35:58]:
Well. And I think in part it’s also because there’s a real intention around making sure the staff is feeling really good about themselves, their life, both in inside the warehouse and outside the warehouse, professionally and personally. Yeah, we have a lot of tools. Maria, what about you? You haven’t. You’ve been with Richard forever, but you’ve, you have, you’ve been with our team now for is it almost two years?
Maria Gausepohl [00:36:24]:
Well, I’ve known Dan as long as I’ve known Richard.
Alysse Bryson [00:36:28]:
Oh, you have? Okay.
Maria Gausepohl [00:36:29]:
Yeah. So I said being in the industry that long, you know, you get to know everybody. The biggest change was know I in a.
Richard Miller [00:36:38]:
It.
Maria Gausepohl [00:36:38]:
It’s my environment before was more of your like you, you don’t have time to complain, breathe or do much, you know, so putting things in sequence, being intentional about your actions, those things didn’t come into play. You’re just reacting mostly most of the time. And I think that getting to that, to that point now where I’m intentional about my actions and my process and now that I’m putting things in sequence, I’m using my top six to my advantage. So I, I love it. I mean it’s changed my life literally because I before, if you were to talk to me, you know, five years ago, I’m still the hard working person, but I wasn’t as happy or smiley or more content in my mind or in my heart, I would tell you that would be the truth.
Alysse Bryson [00:37:36]:
And top six is our internal productivity time management tool. We are actually working on an app that will at some point be available to the general public to use. But I am also a very pro top six user. I had resistance at first, right. Because I don’t like discipline. I don’t like doing the same thing over and over again. And I going back to what you said, Richard, but think, plan, act, like people often mix, don’t realize that those are separate things. They think thinking and planning is the same thing, and they’re very much not.
Alysse Bryson [00:38:11]:
And so I love, I also really love the think, plan, act mentality and all the tools that we have at work, P2P which I think really does make us winning the game of work and winning the game of events and winning life. You know, I’ve accomplished more things that I wanted to accomplish in the last two and a half years because of the tools we have inside of the company. So it’s just a very, it’s a very different, it’s a very different environment than what I think how a lot of other companies run. And I would, I would guess it’s wildly different from how other shipping and logistics companies run. Like, wildly different.
Maria Gausepohl [00:38:49]:
100%?
Richard Miller [00:38:50]:
Very much.
Alysse Bryson [00:38:52]:
Yeah.
Maria Gausepohl [00:38:52]:
Yeah. I would say 100.
Alysse Bryson [00:38:54]:
Well, that is all the time we have today, but we hope you guys will come back and if, if our listeners want to find you, they can find you on LinkedIn. Is that correct? Are you both on LinkedIn? I know.
Richard Miller [00:39:05]:
Yes, I am on LinkedIn, yes.
Alysse Bryson [00:39:06]:
Perfect. We’ll put your LinkedIn links in the show notes. And that is a wrap for this episode of Beats Working. If you have an idea or you want to reach out, please email us at infoatsworking show. And remember, every detail matters, every moment counts, and no matter what, the show must go on.
