Professional Development with Eileen Dabrowski

And today on the show I'm very excited to have Eileen Dabrowski , who's been in the industry for a long time but has recently started here at TMSA as the programs and membership director . So welcome to the show , eileen , welcome to TMSA .

But before we kind of dive into your role here at TMSA , let's talk about your career and what got you to logistics in the first place .

I ended up here by pure happenstance , started my career in academia , so had a dual role , did emergency response and victim advocacy and then , you know , believed in education and teaching , got a phone call in 2016 from a man named Jason Reed who owned a company called Reed TMS Logistics , and he said Eileen , we have no training .

We want you to come on site and learn our business and build the training . And I was like who are these people ? I know nothing about trucks , transportation , anything but something in my gut told me go check it out .

And joining the transportation industry was the single best decision I have made professionally , for so many reasons , which I know we're going to get into . So I started in a corporate training role .

I sat in every seat in the company , learned to do the job I believe in teaching by having that learned experience and knowledge and I built every training document we had , onboarded new employees and then also inherited , eventually , marketing as well .

So I was in charge of all learning , development and marketing for Retie MS Logistics and then , in 22 , we were acquired by Warner Enterprises .

And the beautiful thing about that acquisition was that I've now had the pleasure of working on both family and an operated private asset-based 3PL world , and then I also had the experience of working for a large publicly traded powerhouse like Warner .

So I love being able to view the transportation industry from both of those lenses , because it allows me , in my opinion , to better serve TMSA members in my new role here . So the really interesting part about the evolution is that working with humans , caring about humans , teaching humans , is the same , regardless of what you are tasked to do .

So it's wonderful for me , for my quality of life , to now get the opportunity to work with an organization that I wholeheartedly , was so incredibly passionate about growing and supporting and now it's kind of cool I get to say it's my job , so I'm grateful .

It's just really believing in the organization and what it can stand for , and I know one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you in was because of your strong suit in the programming and being able to build , and we want to provide more and more resources and better education for our members and our conference attendees , and so it's a really , really great fit

and I'm excited to have you here . So , yay , um , and you do , then have that experience in higher education , development and training and development inside the supply chain . You have a lot of firsthand experience with professional development , so why do you think it's imperative for companies to prioritize this for their teams ?

And if you address all three of those things , which largely is supported by the foundation of do you have a solid onboarding and recruitment process ? Are your marketing materials inclusive of the humans that represent your company ?

Do you have career mapping and growth plans and educational programs , not just new employee orientation , but do you offer ongoing development , ongoing opportunities to kind of help your team grow ? Most people if you show them what you care about them and they invest in you . And I believe the key lies in three things people , process and tech .

So we live in this beautiful world . 2025 is all about automation . I use AI every day . I get stuck . I need to rework . So I think it's how can we save humans clicks , how can we get programming that helps them grow as humans ?

And , at the root of it all , how can we understand their organizational culture that kind of makes that team unique and support people .

So I think it is the single most important thing , which is kind of sad because , with the freight market that we've been in the past couple of years , often the very first thing to go is employee development and investing in your team , and to me that's a huge mistake , because it should be the total opposite .

When times get tough , I believe wholeheartedly you should invest in your people more than anything , because that's who's going to drive your business .

Well , to get them to be able to hit those goals , hit those metrics that you want , you have to be training them continuously to try different things or have different avenues , or meet different people or network in a different space , or however you go about that .

But if you're not investing in that training , then they're not able to achieve where you want them to go .

We have small , we have single person operations , we have , you know , larger side , publicly traded organizations and kind of everything in between . And I think it's really important to understand that there isn't a one-size-fits-all to the programming we do .

And the beautiful thing about what we're doing especially now that I get to be a part of it , I'm really excited is we want to build kind of different levels of education and programming . So if you're an entry level , emerging professional , we want to have a spot for you to learn and grow and create mentorship and learning opportunities .

If you're kind of at that middle management level at a smaller company , we want to create the same type of programming that's going to have a profound impact on you as human , how you move through the world and how you serve your teams . And then same thing on the large director and up .

And what I like about an association like TMSA and what I loved when I was just a member and when I was on the board of directors and when I was super involved in the task force , is it is the association , in my opinion , that , no matter the size ? You know a

TMSA staff member ever been told no when I've reached out for help ? Hey , can I run a marketing image by you ? Hey , do you have a few minutes that I can pick your brain about market rates or seasonality or whatever strategy I'm working on ? And I think that that is such a rare thing .

You know , I think our industry , especially the past couple of years , has been so competitive and so driven . We're all just trying to survive . Tmsa has never lost sight of that collaborative nature and creating a safe space and a platform to share . Hey , here's what we're doing .

Well , obviously , we're not giving out trade secrets and you know the secret sauce , but we're supporting each other as humans and that is what I think makes TMS a unique . And now that we have this awesome roadmap and this foundation laid out , we have the means to just build this really member specific programming that is dictated by our members .

We ask what do you need ? How can we help , support you , and what do you want to see that we're not doing ? What do you love that we are currently doing that . You don't want to go away All of these things , so I'm really excited .

I agree , I think professional development is incredibly important at all times and it shouldn't be the budget that's cut , and maybe you have to cut the budget , but it shouldn't be wiped out . And how can you still develop your employees , still engage your employees in a way , even if you don't have the budget that you once did ?

I , as a leader , one of the things I think most about employees is they really want two things , or I strive to be able to do two things for my team . Number one what is their puzzle piece in the overall , like , what do they do ? What is their role ? How does it affect everything that's going on ?

And then , number two how does that puzzle piece fit in with the other people who have a puzzle piece ? And I think we forget those or both of those together , like , even if you remember , okay , this is what we're doing , okay , this responsibility might've shifted , but how does that correlate ?

Like I , in a little bit we have our third member of TMSA coming in , but like I remember she actually came in a couple weeks before you . And then she's like , okay , does my , do I still keep doing like A , b and C when Eileen's here , or is she taking that over ? And I'm like , oh , let's sit and talk about it .

And sometimes you don't understand how they're supposed to work together . It can cause a lot of friction , even when you're just beginning and everyone's just trying to find their footing .

That is the transportation industry in a nutshell , and that's why I love it , cause none of our days ever look the same and there's always something new to learn . I think everybody who knows me knows I'm a huge nerd , love that kind of thing .

But the thing is , I think the other organizations that in my career and then working with TMSA , the organizations that are the most successful embrace something called cross-training .

So even if you have an organization that has that specialist type role , those specialists still understand what comes before them and how their puzzle piece fits in , as you said , jen , and then , more importantly , they know what comes after them .

Transportation's like dominoes If a single human doesn't do what they're supposed to , it just makes everything that much harder . And we already battle a lot , because you hear me anybody who's heard me speak before there's only two things we can control in the entire transportation kind of life cycle of a shipment who we put behind the wheel and how we communicate .

Literally everything else is oh , please , no whammies , prayers , whatever you are into as a human , and so getting good at those two things that we can't control is everything in this industry .

So learning from each other and also embracing , hey , even if this is how we've done it forever , that doesn't mean there's not a more productive , more efficient way of doing it . So that's what I love about helping organizations understand how to develop and grow , solutions provider and in kind of various facets will only help me better serve our members .

Now that I'm part of TMSA because I get it and I've sat in their seat and I know what it is to sell in transportation . I know what it is to market transportation , so I think I'm really excited .

uh forward yay , and you did talk about your journey to coming to tmsa a little bit .

But for people who don't know , um , you came to tmsa a couple years ago , um , you came to an event and then tmsa decided to move forward with creating a dei chairperson and a task force a couple years back , and to do that because we wanted to create more inclusivity in the market , which we've talked a little bit about here and also want .

We knew that more people are talking about like recruitment , marketing and how things can align , and so how can TMSA really help sales and marketing professionals understand these pieces and how it relates to what you're putting out Like a big mistake ? That I'll see is like yes , not putting people that represent your actual company or brand . I hate stock images .

That's always the first thing , and any like new committee call like we don't do stock images here . First of all , people have way more fun at TMSA events than anywhere else , so let's not put fake people up on our site . But also , it's just more reflective of who you are .

Or if you say like , oh , these are our company values and then they start working for you and that doesn't align , that's like a big miss between HR and marketing . So we created this task force , we interviewed , we did all this stuff , and so then you actually came on to the board of directors and led the task force .

You were named the 2024 member of the year last year , which was very fun for me because you were very surprised and I was literally sitting with you the moments before I got to announce that , which was hilarious .

And then I see my face on the wall and it was one of those moments where I was like that you know it takes a while to process just sat there and my family that I was sitting with was like go , that's you . So , yeah , that was a , that was a .

Why do you think that you then came in and are so passionate about taking on the role specifically dealing with the programs and helping the membership get more value for what they're inputting ?

Even though TMSA has been around 100 years so we celebrated our 100 year birthday in 24 , which was awesome to be a part of we still the runway is just starting , in my opinion , and kind of like our transportation industry has evolved , so has TMSA and I think that I believe in looking forward , not kind of backwards .

You always honor the past , but I think our runway moving forward is what excites me the most . You always honor the past , but I think our runway moving forward is what excites me the most . And I think because I've sat on the board of directors for several years and I know what it is to lead a volunteer based chair . You know program and task force it's .

It can be a really challenging thing . I think our industry does not often set up the professionals , especially in sales and marketing , who work in it to have a ton of free time right , there's always a buyer , there's always something .

And I saw the opportunity and kind of the struggle I had to get consistent participation and drive positive change , all while people battle full-time jobs , you know , on top of just in a really difficult , dynamic industry . So you know , I told Jen I was like this was years ago .

I was like hey , someday , you know , maybe when I grow up , I can work at TMSA and help .

And you know , when they say your stars align and kind of your roadmap is laid out in and everything happened in one of those beautifully serendipitous ways that just got me to hear the opportunity presents itself and I was like wait , this would allow me to be fully remote . I'm a family girl at my heart , so my family is like the my motivating factor .

So being able to not have a crazy commute every day and getting to do what I love , which is develop people and build educational programs , I mean it's sort of like the perfect sandwich .

And I'm in between because I get to use my passion , use what I learned in academia and , you know , doing all my studies but I've never lost the sight of developing people and helping others grow is like my number one kind of passion project .

So this is kind of cool , you know , and because of that travel kind of restrictions and budget restrictions that we were talking about earlier , I always invested in myself and paid for myself to go to conference when we were under kind of budgetary restrictions and that investment in myself is , I believe , what has allowed me to get to here .

So if you're listening and you're out there and you're like , should I invest in myself to attend a conference even if we're not in budget jail , right , or travel restrictions , I wholeheartedly believe if you have the means to do , it invest in yourself , never stop growing and learning , and you never know what the future might hold stop growing and learning and you

never know what the

future might hold .

If people like , like you said and I appreciate you know you should invest in yourself regardless . But if , what advice do you have for people , because you do have this vast experience and training and development what else should they be doing besides coming to a conference like TMSA or engaging ?

What else should they be doing to kind of better their professional development ? What can they be doing besides coming to a conference like TMSA or engaging ? What else should they be doing to kind of better their professional development ? What can they be doing ?

So if you're not fangirling or guying or personing for the people who are rock stars in different aspects of what you do , missed opportunity , cause I start my day with that type of energy and I try to , if my life has not imploded , do the same thing at the end of the day , because the more I know about the market , seasonality , rates , what's going on in

the industry obviously we have tariffs looming and things like that . Understanding how that's going to impact what we do , regardless of our role , is everything . So start and end your day in some type of capacity with learning . I mentioned fangirling . If you meet somebody at a conference , see them online connect . I appreciated what I learned from you .

My community and the people that I consider mentors in my life have so profoundly impacted my life that I would be nowhere close to who I am as a human if it wasn't for them kind of pushing me and motivating me and giving me that needed nudge . I try to surround myself with humans who inspire and challenge me .

We'll call it to be better , instead of just pet me in oh , great job . And then I ask what's great about it ? And they're oh , ask , seek feedback . And the other thing you know the interesting shift from a learning and development space we've made since COVID . There's a ton of training materials online .

So if you don't have the budget to go to a scholarship , you know , to go to a trade show , a conference , formal education , because it's all very expensive . First of all , look into scholarships , because there's a lot of free money out there Grants , scholarships , emerging leader programs , grants huge for me . Get out there and apply .

And also , I believe it kind of starts with showing your organization you are worth investing in . So are you a team player ? Are you eager to help ? Are you always down to learn something new ? And , and I think , situating yourselves ? Cause there's . We can teach you transportation , we can teach you how to sell , we can teach you how to market .

We can't teach you to have a motor and to care , and we hope that integrity is sort of baked in there some somewhere , cause that's kind of important as well . But I think , invest in yourself and never stop learning .

Well , I'm like I said , I'm super excited to have you here , but we do have a third member of TMSA HQ that I'm really excited to bring into the show as well . So , similar to you and I , this person well , her name is Morgan Berner .

I don't know why I keep saying this person as if it's like a mystery , but she came to TMSA as a member as well and she's been serving on the recognition committee for the

past couple of years and she also has done a lot of stuff that people probably don't realize was her behind the scenes , and so I wanted to give her a lot of props before we zoom her in here .

But if you came to Elevate last year and you got to see me perform my opening number , there was a slideshow of all of the history of TMSA , people from the past , all of that kind of stuff that was phenomenally done , and she did the whole thing .

I didn't do any of that besides try to be like , oh , we're going to talk about this person at this time , can you match it ? And she had to hear me sing that piece repeatedly to try to match .

And do the beginning parts of trying to match the people that we were recognizing in the room to match to the track and all that stuff the location announcements that we've done for the past couple of years . She did . She had work registration last year and so I was really excited . And we talk about professional development .

I officially became her mentor earlier this year and so I was really excited when this opportunity came up to bring her in and be able to actually guide her a little bit more hands-on , whether she liked it or not . But here she is . We're going to bring in Morten Bertner , who is serving now as TMSA Marketing Coordinator and Podcast Producer .

Welcome to the show and to TMSA , morgan . So we've talked about kind of a theme here that we all came to TMSA first as members and now are serving kind of as TMSA headquarters . So what has your experience as a volunteer here been for the past couple of years ? What has your experience as a ?

And then I recently over the last six months , I'd say took over the social media side of recognition committee . And then I went to TMSA last year . I worked under Tiffany at registration , which was a lot of fun . And then you offered to be my mentor at the end of last year for 2025 .

And so when this opportunity presented itself , I knew I had to take it .

You did mention recognition , so I was going to take the time to do we have this week is crazy for TMSA because we have a lot of things going on , but if you are interested in submitting for a TMSA Trailblazer , a TMSA Rising Star or a Purpose Award , you have just two more days to do it .

When this goes live , all submissions are due at the end of this week , friday , march 28th . So please get those in . We love seeing what you guys are doing and how you're doing it and to recognize people .

And while we've spent a lot of time on this interview talking about how we can personally develop ourselves , I do want to do a shout out to the Rising Star category . That was created specifically for leaders and bosses to be able to recognize members of their team who've been in the industry five years or less but are doing outstanding work .

So , um , submit , it's free for members , it is a charge for non-members , but go in and submit and we are excited to see all the things that you guys are doing . And then , with that as well , um , I didn't even click that , it just popped up because it knew or maybe , morgan , you clicked it I don't know , but , um , it's really funny that it came up .

But elevate registration our next pricing will increase on saturday

. So if you are trying to lock in your price for elevate , to go in , scan this qr code . Those prices are locked in through Friday , march 28th . So on Saturday I have a busy morning changing all kinds of things on our website . So go in , get your registration , all that .

If you are interested in bundling your prices for Elevate and Executive Summit , you can just add your Executive Summit registration right on your Elevate registration and get a $200 discount , and then also on Friday we'll put this one up here in the corner is the last day that you can submit somebody to be part of our volunteer program , which is something that

Morgan will also be helping with and helping to coordinate . So the volunteer program is for members of TMSA and Next Generation Trucking and you're able to submit some junior team members that maybe won't get event experience otherwise or won't get to attend Elevate . So we're waiving their registration fees .

They can come work with us for a little bit , help us pack some swag bags and direct people into breakout rooms , but besides that they get to attend the rest of conference . But we want to make sure these people know that they got picked , and so we were closing submissions on Friday .

So so many things going on this week and at TMSA , holistically , but we wanted to make sure doggy wanted to make sure that you I don't know why that scared me so much , but so I am thankful for both of you coming into TMSA .

It's been so much fun working with you both in a volunteer capacity , and so I'm excited that you guys are now here , and so with that , I will let Morgan pop back out of the screen as she continues to produce this podcast and I will wrap up with Wiley . Thanks , morgan , for popping in .

So any other last thoughts , anything else that you're really looking forward to ? I , of course , have my last question . I ask anybody wanted to kind of give the space for you .

I know that those relationships are only going to help , and now I get to support our transportation community in a different way , being part of an industry association that allows me to directly serve and better the lives of our members and partners . So I'm really excited . If you're not signed up for Elevate , it is one of my favorite events of the year .

The energy , the networking , the thought leadership , the collaboration that happens is so profound , and Austin is just an amazing city , full of art , culture , people , great food . So if you're looking for a kind of check multiple boxes event , elevate is for you . So definitely sign up . Save yourself some money before the rates go up on Saturday .

I look forward to working with you and if you're a member or interested in being a member , please connect with me . I am happy to help figure out how we can make the most of your TMSA membership .

And I was fortunate in life to have lots of people believed in me and I was the last one to kind of get to that party . So I wish that I could tell younger me like you're gonna mess up , it's cool , but you should believe in yourself because you're meant to be here and lots of good things come to people who put good into the world .

So I've done lots of work to get to where I am , to love what's in here and here , and although I may not ever fully love kind of what the world sees , I am so much further along that .

So if you are out there and you think you can't do it or you shouldn't do it , go ahead and give yourself a little love , love , nope , as I call it and light that fire , because you absolutely can and I promise you , if I can learn this industry with no training . I promise you're good because there's lots of support out there for you .

So joining transportation rocks and I'd love to see more diversity kind of continue to join our industry , so yeah .

We did talk a fair amount about elevate , but if you're excited to hear about one of our speakers , you can join us on next week's show where I interview robert bain , who is the strongest man in logistics , and we will be talking all about that and what that actually means for his business and for his brand and how he merges all those things together , which

I'm excited about . And I will see everybody next week , or at elevate or in a committee call , or however . You'll see me next . So thank you so much for coming on and I'll see you guys later . Bye everyone , thank you .