¶ Transportation Sales and Marketing Success Stories
Hello everyone , welcome to On the Move , a show where we share transportation , sales and marketing success stories .
I'm Jennifer Karps-Romain , the Executive Director at the Transportation Marketing and Sales Association , which is a trade nonprofit educating and connecting marketing and sales professionals in transportation and logistics , and today on the show , I'm very excited to have Kara Brown , who is CEO of Lead Coverage , and she wrote a book and we're really excited to talk about it
because I feel like we were just talking about before . Like I feel like I've been on this journey , hearing about the process and how long it's coming , so it's so exciting that it's finally here . Welcome to the show , kara .
Thank you so much for having me . It's a pleasure .
Of course , and you have such a vast experience in the logistics industry , and you , of course , then became the founder and CEO of Lead Coverage for the past eight years . But for people who don't know your journey , kind of what brought you to the industry and what keeps you here- oh man , what brought me to the industry ?
Accidents , maybe accidents , accidents , maybe accidents . No , I'm so happy to be here and I'm really glad supply chain has become such a central part of my life and I have found so much value in the community .
I was actually at the Ernst Young Strategic Growth Forum this last week and there were four whole transportation companies there and so I was in a mix with other people and I was like these are not my people . I left early , I did . I came home early because I was like these are not my people , I need to get back to my transportation people .
So I was very young when I got into this industry . I actually loaded trucks in college , which is hilarious and kind of random . I went on my way to Germany for a semester abroad and I needed a lot of . I needed money and it was the best paying job I could get . And then that parlayed me into my first real job at Echo Global Logistics .
So I was number 12 on the floor of Echo and three years later Doug Wagner , the CEO still the CEO of Echo came over and said hey , we're going to go public . You want to write an S1 ? And I said yes , I will Google that and I will tell you how long it will take .
And he was like OK , well , we have bankers , but thank you for your enthusiasm and being willing to help . So after the Echo IPO , I got picked up by Seco and then I was at OHL , which became Geotis IPO .
I got picked up by Seco and then I was at OHL , which became Geotis , and then I decided to start my own shop when I learned that less than 2% of female founders will break $1 million in revenue . That's not a supply chain number , that's a US number , it's an American Express number . It's actually 1.7% of female founders .
And I thought you know , I think I can do that Hold my beer . So we did that about eight months and the next statistic I learned was that the number of women who break 10 million in revenue is statistically irrelevant . It's so small .
It's just a list of people women specifically and so you know we're on the path to being on that list , and I'm super proud of the team we built .
That is very exciting and also very sad . There's just like a list , like oh , here are just the names , you can just read them .
Yeah , it's really small . The number of men that do that is big , so there's no list . It's a really long list .
The percentages for them , but yeah .
So it's been really special to be a part of that community and to be in supply team , which is obviously a really male dominated space , and have to , and have been able to , create a business as successful as the coverage is Right . We're super proud of what we've done . I haven't done it alone . I have a partner , will Harroway .
We have an incredible team of humans that help us do this every day , all day , and we wouldn't be here without them help us do this every day , all day , and we wouldn't be here without them , and so obviously , hitting some of those numbers is a pretty big milestone as a female founder , which is awesome .
What do you consider some of the other big milestones of your career ?
Yeah , so I was really fortunate in my corporate career to have been in the room or in the room next to where big things were happening , so being in the room where it happens , if you will . So I got to do an IPO in my 20s with the Echo team . I was not in the room where it happened .
I was next to the room where it happened , but really proud of being just even tangentially part of that experience . And then I worked for private equity and then I also got to be a part of a team that did a $95 million capital raise , which was also I was tangentially related .
I wasn't in the room where it happened , and so I feel like , as I became a CEO , I got to be in the room where it happened , which has been really fun , and I get to make my own deals now , but those are really kind of important moments in my career that have led me to being able to be a CEO , and a successful one .
Right , I think we're almost at 10 years and most businesses don't make it this long , so I'm super proud of that too . And I think the other pieces of the entrepreneurial journey that are super important are probably my first . My first , my first million dollar customer . That was . That was a really big deal .
I think hitting the million dollar mark was a big deal , like when you hit my million dollars top line . That was a big moment for us . But then hitting our first million dollar customer was also a pretty cool moment and we have clients that have been with us since the day we started .
So just knowing that we've made it this long and we have staying power and we continue to learn and grow and add new things like the book right , I think obviously writing a book is a really big career move , a really big moment , and I'm super proud of it and I'm really glad it's getting into everyone's hands .
We're recording this on the 18th , so it'll be in everyone's hands tomorrow , tomorrow's the day .
Yes , yes , we're recording this on the 18th . It'll go live on the 20th , so it's kind of funny because we're recording like a day before the day after , which is so exciting and I think it also so one . We have this QR code up here if you guys are interested in getting your copy or we can pop it out and make it bigger , and I love that .
It's funny because when I asked you your milestones , it was all attached to revenue , which really makes sense because you wrote a book on the revenue engine and I've known you for many years and you're always like I'm not like the creative side of marketing , I'm the numbers Gail .
So it all makes sense and I love watching it come together , and all of this experience that you've had in the industry gave you the opportunity to write this . So tell us about that process and why you decided to write the book .
Yeah , so I actually say this in the book . The book is written for two people . The book is written for Kara Brown at 24 . I didn't . I was Kara Smith at the time . Obviously I didn't have a playbook right .
Everyone around me had teams , they had KPIs , they had very clear goals that they needed to achieve to have success in their career or just , to , you know , keep the company happy in terms of what they were doing . And I didn't . I was on an island . I had a really good time , actually .
I was on the FreightPod podcast with Andrew Silver and he commented that he just always kind of had his marketing girls do culture . And I did a lot of the same right , a lot of culture early in my career .
But I didn't have a plan , I didn't have a playbook that I could turn to my boss and say , hey , we're going to follow this methodology , I'm going to measure these things and this is how I'm going to know that I'm successful . And so we wrote the book for her .
We also wrote the book for him , for her boss , right , for the leader of the brokerage , the leader of the freight tech company , who has a marketing girl or a marketing department and doesn't really know what they should be asking for . How do I measure this person ? How do I know they're being successful ?
They usually have a really great attitude and they're doing a lot of cool things and the sell sheets look great and our website looks nice , but how am I proving that they're contributing to the bottom line ? Where is the ROI coming from in my spend on marketing ?
¶ Marketing Success and Shared Language
And so the book goes through in detail how to measure your marketing department . There's actually a whole third on it the measurement third , how we measure volume , velocity and value inside of the marketing engine . And I think if anyone takes anything away from this book , I really do hope it's kind of . The end of the book pulls everything together .
It's a nine-step process . It pulls everything together and it shares what you should be measuring . And if you can measure like 25% of what we sort of say is the best practice at the back of this book , you'll be in really good shape , like you'll be moving towards proving ROI and having your marketing team have a seat at the table .
And that's really the goal .
Really , the goal is to have marketers who , in my professional opinion , can be in charge of more than just sell sheets , right , but the actual market itself , and have them have a seat at the table .
I love this whole concept because obviously , I'm in charge of TMSA , where we sit and talk to marketing salespeople all day , and it can be such an isolating experience as a marketing person and I think that's what I did before this and you don't have anyone to talk to , no one is speaking your language , no one in your company understands what you really do or
the potential of what you can do , and so I love that the concept of this is breaking down those barriers so more people understand what you can do , and I feel like our software is kind of starting to do that , because now things are more integrated so people can see , oh , look at all these emails that they're doing and look at all these things , but they
still don't know the power of that or what it really means . So I love that you're kind of creating that playbook for both the leader and the marketing person to be able to speak a language together that they haven't been able to do .
It's interesting you say that a shared language . I like that a lot . We haven't talked about that as we've been promoting the book , but I like the idea of creating a shared language .
Again , on the FreightPod podcast with Andrew Silver we talked about I think there is an inverse relationship , or I should say a direct correlation actually , between the rise of the marketing department or I like to call it go-to-market , because I think it includes more than just the marketing team but the rise of the go-to-market department and the democratization of
tech tools . So with HubSpot , activecampaign , salesforce , all of the tools that we can use today , even the smallest companies I mean HubSpot is meant for small businesses even the smallest businesses can at least see who is entering their ecosystem and who is aware of them . And we couldn't do that when I was in my 20s .
There was no chance right , it wasn't even an option . And I've been talking a lot about intent tools as I've been on the road and talking about this book . Those are like 301 tools , Like intent is really intense . It takes a whole separate team to kind of run it .
It takes a really sophisticated marketing team to make it work well and we do that very , very well for our clients . But I think the book is really more a primer .
It's the ability to have what I like to say a shared language between marketing and sales and leadership , to get everyone on the same page about what expectations are realistic and what expectations are unrealistic . And then how do you really measure what's been going on and what the team is executing inside of the marketing function ?
Absolutely , because there's so many things that we can see but there's also things that we can't Like . I remember one of my members is like my boss is asking me to give all of the details of like another , like a competitor , social media , like to be able to see their engagements , and she's like I can't like go into their stuff and steal it .
I mean I can look to see okay , yeah , they have this many likes and this many comments , but like I can't track them the same way we track ourselves . That's our analytics and what we get , and it's something so simple that if you work in marketing , you understand what you can and what you can't do . But then how do you explain that to your higher up ?
But then still explain the value of what you have and what you can do and that , that , yeah , it can be really hard to have that vision or that language . So I like that you're kind of writing to both of those players so they can understand the other side .
It's really good . I'm excited about leaders getting their hands on this and hopefully reading it Like maybe they'll skim it . I did record the audio book so hopefully someone will listen to six hours of me sounding like a Midwestern frog . There's nothing worse than recording your own audio book in case , like you're interested one day .
It's pretty terrible recording your own audio book , but I hope that a leader takes something away from this . I think , if anything I'd like them to take away , that there can be expectations set on your marketing team . They just need to be the right expectation . And there are pieces of the marketing funnel that truly are magic .
And there are pieces of the marketing funnel that are just science and as long as we're using the same math and we're speaking the same language , we can all get on the same page .
Absolutely , and I love that you did an audio book version . I actually just spoke at Women in Trucking last week and I talked about how we should think about how people are absorbing information and their learning styles , and that we should be presenting our content and our marketing in different ways .
So you're really doing that by obviously having that hard copy of the book , but also doing the audio book and I hate listening to like this podcast because I can't stand listening to my voice over again , so I could only imagine what it would be like to record an entire audio book .
Yeah , I think it's actually psychological that we don't like listening to ourselves . It drives me bananas , yeah , recording an audio book listening to ourselves it drives me bananas . Yeah , recording an audio book was pretty terrible . It was pretty bad . I'm really glad it's done and I'm glad I did it myself .
There are three really funny stories in the book and it would be really sad if I didn't get to tell the funny stories myself , although it is funny , because when you're telling a story it's different than when you're reading the book . And that was probably the biggest challenge for me was like this is the way I tell this funny joke .
And the woman in my ear was like you missed a thought . I'm like who cares ?
This is it . This is how I tell this . I told this story before .
So that was a challenge , but I , you know , I've I've learned so much , I think , in writing . I've learned that we needed a framework .
I mean , the business has always had a framework Share good news , track , interest , follow up has always been the basis of everything that lead coverage has done , and we use commercial PR as the tip of the spear for most of all of the work that we do . But it was such an interesting journey .
I went to Harvard for a Harvard executive MBA thing and everything I learned there was about frameworks and that all of the best authors , all of the best thought leaders all have frameworks that they follow . And so we put together the framework for us . So it's share good news , track , interest , follow up .
We believe there are three funnels the prospect funnel , the nurture funnel and the customer funnel . And then everything needs to be measured in volume , velocity and value . And so after we had the framework sort of laid out and then Forbes said , hey , hey , you need to have a chapter on AI .
So there's a chapter on AI , and after we put the framework together , it was pretty easy to fill it all in . The hardest part , actually , was getting folks to approve the many case studies that are in the book . So we have a bunch of clients that let us use their case studies in the book .
Gartner approved our chapter on using Gartner from an analyst relations perspective , so that was a long and arduous but also really gratifying process that Gartner would let us use this in this book that's printed .
So you know , getting an opportunity to work with clients and and put their our good work with them in writing in the book was also really , really special , and I'm really proud of that awesome .
And so with this , then you have your business and then you also are promoting this book . And so , since a lot of people that listen to this podcast are going to be those marketing and sales people , how did you decide how to promote and like ? What breakdown of time did you have between then your business and then your book ?
Like , how did you decide your PR marketing strategy for bringing this forward ?
If I'm super honest , the book was a Cara Brown labor of love . My partner , will Haraway , wrote a chapter on AR and PR Super grateful for him . My VP of marketing , crawford McCarty , wrote a chapter on ABM . My head of paid media , courtney Herta , wrote a chapter on paid . So we had a lot of folks help .
I didn't do it 100% on my own , but it was every Tuesday morning from 5 am to 8 30 am . I would get up every Tuesday and work on the book , so that was like the writing of the book piece .
I spent an entire Christmas last Christmas , an entire Christmas break making sure that it was correct , right , like kind of every extra minute that I had I was editing and reading
¶ Navigating Business Book Writing and Launch
. I think the other piece that people don't consider so much when you write a business book is the other business books you have to read . I mean I must have read 25 books getting ready to write mine .
Taking that source material and finding places for it in the book was really important to me to know that this wasn't just like a Cara Brown idea thought bubble , but that it was really carefully researched and then the promotion of it is really been .
It's been combined with lead coverage , right , like I kind of can't separate myself from the business at this point , and in full transparency we are using this book to get business right . This is not a . It's not a memoir . This is not my life story . Right , there are pieces of my life in it .
But this is definitely a 250 page business card and I hope that if people don't become a customer , that's totally fine , like someone will be in the book , will pay for itself , because of it .
More importantly , I would really really love it if someone were to say to me maybe a TMSA in Austin in June like , hey , I read the book and I started doing what you said I should do and I got a promotion for me .
Being able to get more marketers , a seat at the table , a material seat at the table within freight brokers , carriers and freight tech companies would be the real win . That would really be the win .
I would love it if someone were to say to me like hey , we used what you said we should use and we saw a material difference and now I really can prove my value to the leadership team or to the board and I've been given a seat , and I think that would be the most impactful thing that this book could deliver to the marketplace .
I love that so much because obviously , yes , I talked to a lot of marketing people and really that is such a plight for them to get that real seat and then to keep it once they have it and to keep . I have a quote . It sits on my desk and it says , like what got you to where you are isn't going to keep you there .
You have to continue to strive and to do better and to learn new things , and so I think that's really powerful of a goal . Like I want to help people be able to get that seat and to continue to grow and to be able to lead so fantastic .
I also think it'd be great if , I don't know , a year or two years from now , someone came to me and said , hey , let's write it again and do it better . Right or like someone made took my work and did a better job , like in four or five years , when the tech all changes . I think that's the other piece about this .
There's a piece of this book that we'll continue to live on . I think the framework is really solid . I think that we've done a really good job building this framework .
I think the technology is going to change tomorrow and my AI chapter will probably be out of date before the end of the year , but I think if we can change a couple of those pieces the technology , maybe the AI piece , I think that having a point of view and delivering it to the leadership team in the language of leadership , which is the language of finance
and I think so many marketers miss the opportunity to have a seat at the table because they don't share their return on investment in the language that the leadership team needs them to share it in .
And so if I can inspire someone to say , hey , I took your framework and I made it better , that would be like such a win right , because I took so many other people's frameworks Sangravadre and Latin Econet , like I took all these people's usually in the SaaS world , people that folks in supply chain don't know as well and I built our framework based on what
they had already done . And I think that's that would be really cool if someone said , hey , I used your book as source material and I did an even better job in five years .
Yes , I mean , I think it's so hard . That was actually part of what I'm going to ask you is , like , was that surprising , when you were writing the book , that you were like oh no , this is changing . Like how did you be able to close it and feel good about those pieces that may then change so quickly ?
And then I mean , you've been writing this you said last Christmas is when you really were , so this was over a year . So how did you keep up with those pieces and feel good about like okay , this is where it is today and I'm closing the door on it At some point you just have to stop right Like At some point you just have to stop right Like .
at some point you just have to stop writing . I think one of the coaches that I worked on with the book said to me like marketers are the worst book writers because they just want to keep changing everything . We have a saying at Leap Coverage , my company that digital can be changed . So perfection is the enemy of progress . Just get it done right .
Finished is better than perfect . We're always changing things websites and emails and landing pages . A written piece of content that's published is like really different and it's terrifying . If I'm super honest , I am terrified . Someone's going to find a typo . Someone's going to find something they hate . Someone is you know what I mean ?
Like I'm super honest , I am terrified . Someone's going to find a typo . Someone's going to find something they hate . Someone is you know what I mean ? Like I'm ready . I'm kind of like stealing myself because tomorrow it goes out .
You know , no one said anything ugly yet , but I know it's coming and it probably won't be from the supply chain space , because most of my friends in supply chain are so kind and I think people are just really excited to have something new to read that is really specific to our space .
That you know no offense to our friends that deliver the daily news to our LinkedIn feeds , but like a real , you know , material change in the way we think about things .
But my focus in SaaS , which is I live in this very interesting world where I live both in the MarTech or SaaS , so FinTech , edtech , martech space , which is where I get all of the best stuff , and then I bring it over to the supply chain world , and so I live kind of in between the two .
And I am a thousand percent sure that someone in the FinTech , martech , saas world is going to read this book and like throw it out the window and be like this is garbage , right and um , and so I'm kind of ready for it . I'm kind of prepared uh at least I think I am for like the inevitable criticism that will happen . Uh . So it's a little scary .
I mean , anytime you put anything out there , whether it's's , you know , getting on stage or um , or even putting a podcast out or putting a webinar out , I think the written word cause you're really saying like this is my best work , like it doesn't get any better than this . So if you don't like this , then you probably don't like me .
Right .
And everyone wants to be liked , as many people who probably don't think that about me like I really do want to be liked , and so , um , I think it's .
You know , it's going to be hard when people start to start to give feedback that is negative , which I'm sure is inevitable well , I'm sure it is inevitable , but I'm also sure there's going to be so much positive feedback and just the lessons . When you said to find a typo like yeah , we're marketing people are terrible like that .
Oh , like you can stare at it . That's also why you have like editors and people on your team that look , because you can get really hung up on things like that . But I'm sure there's so much value in it .
Um , I'm excited to read it myself , um , and I think it's gonna be great and so and it's just I I applaud anyone who does put themselves out there because it is scary and especially as like a perfectionist and a marketing person and how fast things can change .
But , um , there's going to be value and it's going so many people are gonna , um , have great life lessons in it and be able to to get their seat at their table . So congratulations on that and for being done . I mean now like a different part of the work comes , but like you're done with that part of the process .
It's it's been so long , so , um , so excited that this week is finally here for you and be able to launch the book thank you .
It's uh , it's kind of a crazy week . We're super fortunate freight waves is letting us launch it at freight waves , which is super exciting , so we'll have an actual book signing on the show floor at f3 . It's a little much . I'm not exactly sure how people are going to take it . It's either going to be a line for it or no one is going to care .
So either way , I'm kind of going to be okay with it and I'm just I'm looking forward to sort of celebrating this week .
I feel like so many times you accomplish a goal I mean , I'm an iron man , I've , you know , accomplished a lot of things in my life and you don't really take the time to take a break and appreciate it and say , you know , okay , this is it , like , this is the moment Launching a book like this is it .
This , is it Like this is the moment there's a deadline right Like it's tomorrow morning , and so yeah , I'm gonna try to enjoy it as much as I can .
I appreciate that . Yes , pour yourself some coffee , soak all the goodness in , enjoy your book . Signing Like that sounds so fun and it is . I mean it's just , it is a big accomplishment and it's a lot . It's like you said , this was like a labor of love for yourself . I would I mean , and it's a lot , it's a lot .
Like you said , this was like a labor of love for yourself . I would I mean the concept of going up at five in the morning any day and starting to write in a like I don't have a brain . I mean , I'm up . My son wakes up at 530 every day , so I'm up , but I'm not like functional . Those are two very different things .
And it was a whole second job . Jennifer , Like I run a business , like I'm on the road . I'm doing stuff , I'm closing deals , I'm running a 45 person company and did this in addition to that . Right Like it's , it was a lot of work .
So if I'm super , if I'm , if I really think about it , I'm kind of ready for the second job to be over , although my husband says I'll find something else .
He's like you're going to find something else to do .
This is just kind of who I am , so we'll see what the next thing ?
is what is relaxing . I don't know , but I think it's great . I , yes , and I think you should sit in the accomplishment of finishing it , but and everyone like I said , you can scan this QR code up here If you're interested in getting your copy .
And I just have one more question for you , which is my favorite question to ask everyone who comes on the show , and that's if you could go back in time and advise a younger Kara anything , and this could be personally or professionally . When would you go back to and what would you say to her ?
oh , that's such a good question . I wouldn't change anything that I've done in my career . I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out . I think if I were to go back and tell early Cara Brown anything , I think I would tell her that the kids are going to be fine , Right Like young Cara Brown , mom Cara Brown . There was a lot of energy .
I'm a lot of energy . You and I know each other . I have a lot of energy , and when ?
this ? I'm not sure that . I don't think I've ever mentioned this before in any podcast , but I was a stay at home mom for 18 months , yes , and all of this energy was poured into a poor infant that did not know what was coming for her , and so I think I'd probably tell her to chill out .
And the kids are going to be fine , and you just need to probably find something else to do with your time which I
¶ Career and Personal Growth Journey
did .
I went back to school , but yeah , it's , it's not .
I don't think it's . I don't think it's career related . I'm really happy with the way things have ended up in my career so far . I'm only 42 , so I've got plenty of time to go . But yeah , so far so good on the on the career front , I could have been a little more chill with the kids early on .
That's why I like to ask personally or professionally , because everyone has something that they could go back to . But it's going to be different and sometimes it's on the professional front and sometimes it's on the personal front .
And but yeah , I did not know that and I love like you go on all kinds of podcasts and you talk in all places , so I love that I got something that you've never shared .
Yeah , stay at home , mom . You would not have expected it from me , and so I think you know , going from I mean , I was , like you know , super career driven and then I took some time off to have babies and figured out a way to make it work and then come back even bigger than I was before .
So I think there's maybe there might be a second book in me about like sort of being a woman in supply chain and bringing the 2% club etc . But for now we're going to stick with the revenue engine and get this in as many marketers hands as possible and as many leaders hands as possible in supply chain and start getting some people seated at the table .
Yes , take your moment , let it shine . Don't think about book two yet . So congratulations again . Thank you for coming on the show and if you're interested in your company of the revenue engine , you can scan either one of these QR codes . So thank you for coming in and thank you .