Ever wondered what it takes to deliver three million wreaths to honor our veterans?
Courtney reveals the vast logistics network that ensures over 4,500 locations receive their wreaths just in time for Wreaths Across America Day on December 14th. From coordinating truck sizes to managing a tight delivery timeline, Courtney shares how she maintains a positive attitude amidst the challenges, offering a behind-the-scenes look at this monumental task.
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
Ever wondered what it takes to deliver three million wreaths to honor our veterans?
Courtney reveals the vast logistics network that ensures over 4,500 locations receive their wreaths just in time for Wreaths Across America Day on December 14th. From coordinating truck sizes to managing a tight delivery timeline, Courtney shares how she maintains a positive attitude amidst the challenges, offering a behind-the-scenes look at this monumental task.
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
What's up everybody and welcome back to another episode of Standing Out, a podcast about sales, marketing and leadership and happy Independence Day it is coming up this week. Hope you have some wonderful celebrations with your family as well. I'm Trey Griggs, your host, also the founder and CEO of Beta Consulting Group. Do us a favor check us out online at betaconsultinggroupcom. See how we're helping logistics companies to tell their stories and to create marketing that truly leads to more sales opportunities, which is what it's all about. Click that little button on our homepage. It says schedule a call with yours truly, tell us your story and we'll help you write yours. Look forward to hearing from you at that time. Also want to say a big thank you to our friends over at Reeds Across America Radio for putting us on their Trucker Tuesday lineup. If you're listening to us right now on Reeds Across America, thank you so much for tuning in. Appreciate that Every Tuesday night you can catch us on Reese Across America Radio and just a phenomenal partner to work with. Just absolutely love everybody over there and their organization and their mission, what they're actually doing, which we'll talk about more about that later today on the show, but again, every Tuesday, the Trucker Tuesday lineup. We're on there and just so excited to be part of Reese Across America Radio Also want to give a shout out to our sponsor, spi Logistics.
Speaker 1:Listen, if you're a freight broker and you're just tired of having to manage your MC and all the back office stuff, or maybe you're an agent, just not happy where you are right now and not getting the support that you need, give these guys a look, spi Logistics. They've got the admin, the finance, the IT, the sales, the technology, the systems, back office support everything that you need to be successful and really stay in your lane and make more money. Have a good time doing it with some really good people over there. So check them out at successspi3plcom Again, successspi3plcom and let them know that you heard about it right here on Standing Out All right, our guest today.
Speaker 1:So excited to have her on the program. I've known her for quite a while and gotten a part of the organization that she's with gotten involved with them. She's got a phenomenal story and just a ton of fun to be around. Please welcome to the show my good friend from Wreaths Across America, courtney George. We have to wait, we have to wait. Ah, it's such a good song. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 2:I am good. This is my motivation song every morning right now.
Speaker 1:Is it you wake up to this? Is this your alarm clock? Is this?
Speaker 2:saying it might be my alarm clock to be like all right, you've got how many up and loads.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be great we're gonna talk about your day-to day here just a little bit, but so excited to have you on the program, my friend, it's been I guess we've known each other for several years now. I can't remember when we met, but I mean it's been a while and I got to say every time that I talk to you.
Speaker 2:I smile bigger, I laugh harder.
Speaker 1:I'm just excited about life even more. You just have that effect on people, my friend. Well, that's a very nice compliment, thank you. It is something I try because you know those types of things Depression I actually heard this. I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard that having an attitude of gratitude, being thankful, is the opposite of depression. It's hard to be depressed when you're actually giving thanks, which you know is something interesting. So helping other people have a positive day and be thankful for something like that. You just do a great job with that and just a lot of fun. You're a bundle of fun everywhere you go. We know that we're going to talk about that today. Our whole agenda today is going to be awesome with that. You're the transportation manager for Wreaths Across America. Tell everybody just real quick about what that is and how you got that job so cool.
Speaker 2:So I mean, working for Reeds Across America is great and our biggest challenge at Reeds is to be able to make sure all of those beautiful balsam reeds get delivered to over 4,500 locations. I mean that is.
Speaker 1:How many reeds did you guys deliver? Last year Three million. Three million reeds to over 4,500 locations. That's a lot of work. How many can go on a truck? How many reeds actually make it on one truck? Ooh, with a full truckload, 53 foot.
Speaker 2:With a full truckload you're going to see around 6,000. It depends on the size of the truck. Obviously, people are like I have a van and I'm like swing door, roll door and they're like what. And I'm like swing door, roll door and they're like what. And I was like it does make a difference.
Speaker 1:That's about 500 full truck loads and obviously more if you have partials and those types of things. That's a lot of loads to get moved in really a timely manner. I mean they have to be moved at the end of the year. We'll talk about that. The next event is the annual event is in December. December 14th will be Reads Across America this year. So you have to move them all basically from like November-ish to December, right, yeah about.
Speaker 2:Thanksgiving to December. We've got a couple loads that had intermodally out west right before Thanksgiving and then we have one carrier each year that really somebody always steps up to help get those reeds that go on the ships to Guam, Hawaii and Alaska, because we have to get those on the ship so they'll sail and be there on time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's a big operation, it's a lot of work and you have to have it. I mean you spend a lot of time during the year just like revving up for those, that three week period to make sure everything gets done. And you know, our team got to be there last year we were Jefferson barracks down here in St Louis. We got to see those wreaths and the big boxes on the pallets, pulling them out, putting them in the car, you know, taking them and placing them on the tombstones. It was an incredible operation. It's just amazing. How many years have you been doing this?
Speaker 2:now I'm going to say this is about nine.
Speaker 1:Oh, you've lost track.
Speaker 2:You've done it so long I was like, I think, when I came in, I said seven, so we're going to say nine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I had snuck in with one of my drivers in about 2008 or nine, and so I've had the ability to participate, working in transportation, working for carriers, and you know. So this dream of being able to come and take the passion of really volunteering, being a location coordinator even I tell people that keeps me pretty humble, because I know what the side is of the location coordinator and so that makes me better at my job, to be able to go and help better and make sure that the communication is as clear as I can make it, because I'm probably the only location coordinator with a transportation background. So how do I make it better each year for them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's grown since you started. You just kind of progressively gotten larger and larger and just continues to scale and more people get involved and students are involved, Schools are involved. It's all about teaching the next generation the sacrifice that these soldiers made on our behalf for our freedom. So I just absolutely love that. It's kind of tickling you a little bit to be a part of this organization. How did you get this job?
Speaker 2:I would say through volunteering. I mean, that's really how it started. They needed some help with the New York City event and I said I can do that. I know how to tell a driver to come in and get into Long Island. They can take a ferry. That way they don't have to go through the city, which you know scares a lot of drivers. I've driven through the city. It's a little frightening too. So being able to help them make it a good experience and saying, hey, why don't you just let me take this off your plate? I know you have a million things going on in the last three weeks and be the point person to make sure the drivers know where to go, where to be. You know we have a dinner in Long Island, all of those things and making sure.
Speaker 2:Even during COVID everyone was coordinated for their three national cemeteries out there, and so when Don Queenie announced that he was going to retire, they called me and said, would you be interested? And I was like let's talk about it. Like this is something I'm very passionate about and at the time was a co-location coordinator. Just through talking about it and going, this is kind of taking my passion for trucking and my love of helping veterans and supporting Reeves, and I get to take these two things, put them together and I get this amazing dream job where every day, I meet the coolest people, hear the best stories and at the end of the year, I know that what I did made an impact for somebody's life that I'll never even know yeah, and for the veterans families as well, who go to, you know, the cemeteries to visit around christmas time.
Speaker 1:They see those wreaths on the headstones, on the tombstones um, it's just, it's incredibly impactful, uh, what you're doing and, again, like I said, teaching the next generation to not forget about the sacrifices that were made. It's hard to imagine, but you know the. The major world wars that we've had, um are like 80 years ago World War II happened and you know 64. You know Korean War and some of those those Wars, even 30 for um. Uh, you know warrants in, uh, saudi Arabia back in the in the 90s, um, like it's, it's's. It's been a long time, it's been generations, so you know helping their members.
Speaker 2:It has been generations and it is amazing and probably one of the coolest things to see, on, you know, national Wreaths Across America Day, how many veterans come out, even as, even as we convoy out of Maine, there is one World War II veteran who, god bless him, can barely stand, has people on both sides in his uniform. It is Maine, it is cold. I am trying not to complain because if this gentleman can stand out there in his uniform and like his dress blues every year, I need to get over being cold or my hands freezing Right, but like it's one of the coolest things to see, like how people come out and and the kids that go and talk to them. Um, you know we've hit on the teach component and that's something that we've worked so hard at Reads Across America to expand on this year Our teach section that we have. We have over 4,000 lesson plans. It is written by a retired teacher who is a gold star mother as well, and so we're even working on converting those lesson plans into Spanish. There's been that much of a demand for it, so it's really neat how that's taken off. The school districts have picked it up.
Speaker 2:The National Library of Congress. I mean it's amazing just to see how that teach component is really going.
Speaker 1:And all of that can be found online at the website at reeseacrossamericaorg. You know educators can go and find that information and truckers can also get connected with actually taking loads. So you have truckers who volunteer their time to take loads during that three-week stretch Thanksgiving to basically December 12th, 13th, somewhere right at that that timeframe in there. So they can all learn about that at reeseacrossamericaorg. What are you doing right now as a transportation coordinator coordinator, knowing that this is coming up? What's the work look like for you now getting all this stuff lined up?
Speaker 2:So right now we are doing two things. One is we are taking every driver or every company that takes a load. That's their load until you tell me you don't want it anymore. So what I do is I take it and we're sending that back out to you, basically to review sign. But also what we're doing is looking at what locations have outgrown their small pack, meaning that where I used to just UPS or FedEx, we're actually going to put them onto a truck, and so where will that location now fit in the loads that exist and making new loads. I looked at the numbers yesterday and it was 811 loads that are going to happen yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:It's a lot to get lined up and, uh, make sure that they're all uh on time. I mean that many loads in a month is a lot of work. Um, to make sure that you get those done and delivered in two weeks, uh, it's a lot of coordination. I can only imagine what that's like. You're currently working on recruiting drivers. You're making sure that the loads are. You know, know, all the information is correct. How many different drivers, how many different companies? Do you have any data around how many of those participate with this each year?
Speaker 2:Last year there were 323 companies and owner operators, drivers that participated. So, and I give there so many owner operators. There's one gentleman I spoke with and I was like you take three loads, right, he goes, takes them down into, takes two down to a cross dock and then delivers a third, and he does that. He basically does nothing but run for me for two weeks and he does that out of the goodness of his heart and his father was a World War II veteran and I'm just you know he was a Vietnam era veteran and so I sit there in awe of people that are go. You know, I know where freight rates have been. I've seen, I've heard, you know people talk about it and he's like it doesn't matter. This is what matters.
Speaker 1:Love that, Gosh, I love that. I'm sure that feeling never gets old. In fact, I think you're on a podcast appearance on Hire Truckers recently where you're kind of describing how every now and then when the wind blows, you can hear the dog tags that are all out. You know, sounding like wind chimes kind of makes your hair stand up. You know, it sounded like wind chimes kind of makes your hair stand up.
Speaker 2:I mean it's pretty crazy. Well, and I tell people, I'm like that wind blows, it's cold, it's brisk. I've got my coffee, I'm getting ready, I may be listening to Eye of the Tiger, because it's going to be a good day, everything's going to be fine, there's not going to be a problem that I can't overcome. And you know, you hear that wind will blow, because we're not very far off the coast where we are in Maine. We're really right there on the coast, and so that wind blows and you're just like. This is a reminder of why I'm out here doing what I do. Every hero in your body stands up, but you're like those people right there. Those wind chimes are why I'm here doing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, those moments don't ever get old. We go to the Indy 500 every year and they do a big celebration of veterans on Memorial Day. The race is the Sunday before Memorial Day and every time that you see soldiers in the parade, on the backs of the trucks going on the track and the F-15s fly over and all that like it does, it just makes your hair stand up, thinking about the sacrifices that so many willingly made so that we can have the freedoms that we have and what we have. It's just absolutely tremendous. And this year you have a new program. You've got something called Truckloads of Remembrance that you guys launched.
Speaker 2:Talk about what that is. Yeah, truckloads of remembrance is such a great, great program because a lot of the state associations and some other trade groups wanted to get involved. Rather, you know, whether it's the tca, um or the nmfta, everybody wants to give involved and give back and finding a way that they can. You know, we say find a way to serve right, that was one of our slogans a few years ago is, you know, find a way to serve. And we sat there. And these truckloads of remembrance is a great way. This is a way where they can work with their membership or their partners to be able to donate wreaths. So more of these truckers that are wanting to go have loads I love making loads that are more full, that have less stops, and so being able to take that and a lot of them donate to Arlington, but lots of them also donate to national cemeteries in their states, and so the state organizations and associations are going there and participating, and you know whether it's at the state house event, whether it's at, you know, whichever location is closest to their office. It's really something that's very cool that we're seeing.
Speaker 2:The trucking industry continues to grow. It continues to support us, which I am forever indebted to everyone in trucking for that and to see them wanting to give back and be able to make their donation. You know going, hey, you know what I told somebody? I told a vendor many years ago. I'm like you know, we all joke. I'm going to show my Braves cup right now. Right, because everybody loves the Atlanta Braves. I'm kidding, I know, especially us here in St Louis, because we appreciate Adam Wainwright.
Speaker 1:I'm kidding, I know Especially us here in St Louis, because we appreciate Adam Wainwright.
Speaker 2:I know right, but I used to joke. I'm like, if you send me another cup, I have to throw one out. Like you know, you got so many like cups in your house and I said, or they would send like Cheryl's cookies to my office, which is great and my recruiters would appreciate it, but I was like you know what they would appreciate more? Donate a wreath. And you know, instead of sending something to us, remember a veteran and they'll send a card over to us or send me an email, and that is a bigger impact, because that's what I want to see.
Speaker 2:You know, when I was a director of recruiting, seeing the social good, because we talked about that and lived and breathed it. And from a marketing perspective, I even have one company that I think one of the coolest things that somebody does I'm going to call it Sully Transportation is that they purchase a wreath for every veteran driver and sends them a handwritten card. Um, you know, every veterans day and I think that that says so much about them and their respect for their employees and their veterans. I'm like, how do you not love them?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's really cool. That's I love it when companies do that type of work, which is awesome, and we're excited to be partnered with reese cross america and so anybody can make a donation on behalf of Standing Out just by going to reedsacrossamericaorg forward slash standing out. We would appreciate that. We want to get as many partners as we can participating this year and making that happen. So a lot of cool stuff going on and I mentioned this earlier.
Speaker 1:We got to participate as a company last year at Jackson Barracks here in St Louis December I think it was 13th last year or something like that and it was incredible. Like I've never been a part of that experience before. It was amazing. It was one of those moments that we're not going to forget as a team and just seeing so many people participate in that. So can't wait for this year's event. So excited to be part of it and it's going to be good stuff. Let's have a little bit of fun here. I learned a little something about you. I got to share this with you A little fun. Fact I didn't know this. You're a professional sorority girl. You rise like 15 chapters nationally and like help out with like new member programs or something I mean I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2:I can't say I'm surprised but I didn't know this about you. How did you get into this? I mean, I think I grew up in a family that was always committed to service and to giving back, and I had the most amazing time when I was in college and in a sorority.
Speaker 1:What sorority were you in? Let's give a little shout out. I was in Sigma Delta.
Speaker 2:Tau, so SBT at the University of Alabama. I'm one of the few people that lived in the house for all three years, or well, freshman year I lived in a dorm and then the rest of the three years.
Speaker 2:I think my father was very grateful he did not have to move furniture multiple times, but I had such a great experience and made the most. You know my pledge sisters are still my best friends to this day and the people that I met during Rush and I talk about it and I'm like it's something that you know, if I can help make sure that somebody else has an outstanding experience, and it kind of goes back like being over onboarding and helping out with that, like when I was a director of recruiting. Like you know, that employee experience, that initial experience, was really important for me, right, because I knew how that would affect retention. It's the exact same principle. So when they said, hey, we'd love for you to help out with this, I was like yes, and they kept going let's just add some more.
Speaker 1:And I don't say Are you working with the same sorority nationwide, like SDT?
Speaker 2:I work with SDT nationwide. I've got a lot of Big Ten schools, which is they're pretty entertaining.
Speaker 1:I can imagine, I can imagine.
Speaker 2:They crack me up and it's always fun to learn and see. You know you can tell some differences, but you know as you go through everything, having that standardized process similar to what we do at Reeves too, like having that standardized process for National Reeves Across America Day, making sure that everyone has the best experience possible. And you know it's about that experience that keeps everyone coming back or talking positively and getting their friends to want to join that maybe didn't think that Rush was for them. It's the same principle, so that's cool.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. I mean, I know that you're, you know, fun girl, party girl having a good time. I know that this is. You know, we talked about that earlier. I, I had no idea. I mean, I know that you're a fun girl, party girl having a good time. I know that we talked about that earlier. I just had no idea that you were that entrenched into sorority life. That's comical. Speaking of fun, though, you were recently at TMSA's Elevate Conference back in June down in New Orleans. Tell us about that. I think Natalia saw you there. I think Natalia saw you there.
Speaker 2:Natalia saw me. We had a. You know, having it in New Orleans was great. I think that you had a lot of interaction and people really out there enjoying it. Because you know it's New Orleans, we were right off. We stayed in a hotel right off of Bourbon Street.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was right there.
Speaker 2:It was. You know you're right in the middle, so it was was it was amazing. I have a bunch of sorority sisters that live there, so it was amazing because I've been there several times and to be able to see, you know, friends at TMSA that have never been to New Orleans or never experienced it, and I'm like, please do what. You walk out of the hotel and I'm like, why are you at Cafe Beignet?
Speaker 1:absolutely not we're getting in an.
Speaker 2:Uber. We're going to Cafe Du Monde. You need to have like a real. Beignet we? We cannot. No, you're not having what you deserve yeah, we had our.
Speaker 1:We had our first trip down to New Orleans last spring, like two springs ago last year and it was great. It was so much fun. We'd never been there before and I just got to see stuff that we'd never seen before. It was cool. There's a lot of history there too. I didn't know this. Civil War battles I'm sorry, american Revolution battles, the War of 1812.
Speaker 2:Yes, I didn't plug the World War II Museum because I work for Reeves. It's just very well done that one and go to the Ogden Museum of Art Anytime. You have Morgan Freeman as your narrator as you walk through a museum, how can you not love it?
Speaker 1:That's right. And they got the battlefield there from the war of 1812. And I didn't. I didn't understand why New Orleans was such a critical battle, cause you think of the war of 1812 in Washington DC and trying to burn down the Capitol and kind of stuff. But it's because they were trying to get an entry point from the West to have them surrounded and the point from the west to have them surrounded and the fact that we're able to um, you know, resist them at new orleans change the complexion of the war. So a lot of history down there. The battlefield is awesome to see, pretty cool stuff and new orleans is just a great city. What do you think about the? Uh, the event you've been have you been to elevate before? Is your first time?
Speaker 2:this is my second time um and I thought it was great. I think that they have really good content. I also think that it is a great conference because there is a lot of collaboration. Yes, and that, to me, is really important. I know that we all work in transportation and trucking and people that are really talking about pain points, what they've seen work, and people being able to take those ideas and run and go hey, I work for a bigger company, I work for a smaller company, and this really makes a difference, and I love that they are willing to put pen and paper together and say these are our goals, this is what we're working on, and you don't always see that with organizations. And you know, I think Jennifer's just done an outstanding job. Really, she really took a bull by some horns and and moved it in a direction that's helpful for the industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's doing a great job and I was really bummed to miss it. Unfortunately, I had a family trip planned already, but I heard so many great things about it. And you know it's the party crowd, it's the sales and marketing people. You know we're the ones that have the most fun. So it's always a great conference to go to, that's for sure. All right, we got a random question of the day before we get you out of here, and again this, this could be a funny question, it could be a serious question, it could be a great question, it could be a dud, I don't know, let's see. All right, the random question today is on an average day, how many, how many pigeons do you think you could reasonably carry?
Speaker 2:zero. I'm petrified of zero, and I might see me run the other way yeah, pigeons kind of look scary.
Speaker 1:They don't look that they're not.
Speaker 2:Look, I love that people are like they're doves. No, it's a pigeon, it's the same thing yeah, yeah, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1:Now are these live? Pigeons are dead either way, I'm not touching, I might be able to carry some dead ones, but I don't think I'm not. You know, some people go up and they grab a chicken, they pick it up, whatever. They're not afraid of these kind of animals. I'm not a big fan of messing with birds.
Speaker 2:I'm not a big fan I don't and, and I will give a backstory my headmaster in high school somehow lost his vision, like had to put his books under the microfilm reading so he could be able to read, and it was due to a bird. My mom could probably tell you the story, but I have been like absolutely not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if I was even thinking about picking up pigeons before today. I'm done, I'm good.
Speaker 2:You're out.
Speaker 1:I don't, yeah, I don't, that's not. It's not that important to me. It's not not important. So that's a that's an odd question. Yeah, I'm going to go zero. We're going zero on that one today.
Speaker 2:I'm running the other way, definitely yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm with you. Yeah, we're not doing that. All right, that's the random question of the day. Now, listen, 4th of July is coming up this week at Independence Day traditions. You got any Independence Day traditions, any family things? What do you guys do?
Speaker 2:Spend the day at the pool and then go watch fireworks and my brother-in-law's in the military. So we, you know, obviously honor him. But you know, it's one of those things where I'm like it's a day we get to spend together, um, which you and I talked about before the show, how important family is and the quality time you get with them. And I tell people I don't have kids, but my sister has three, so she had one for me and so I'm pretty lucky. But I'm also really close with them and I want them. You know, they all know they all will call me and I'm like did your mom say, now I can't?
Speaker 1:give you a different answer. Oh, you're such a good sibling. That's wonderful. That's the way you do it right there. Do you guys watch fireworks or do you shoot off fireworks? You got any m80s out there, what do you guys do?
Speaker 2:no, we watch up, we watch fireworks. My sister's a little scared of them. She got hit by one when we were little, setting them off, and so she had to overcome her dislike of fireworks when she had kids. I love them, I think they're great. The bigger the better. Yeah, yeah, it is not abnormal to watch me fly in on a Friday night and get home and move my car so I can go see the Braves fireworks go off the end of the game and people will be like what are you doing? I was like just watch the fireworks.
Speaker 1:Now I'm gonna go get my bed yeah, I'm a big fan of watching fireworks. I don't shoot them off either. And now that I think about it, I had a. I had a um, um, what are those uh little bitty. Oh, how to firecracker go off in my hand?
Speaker 1:oh, when I was a kid and it didn't like I didn't bust my hand to open anything, but it hurt like crazy. I think that that kind of did it for me. I like watching fireworks. You know who has the best fireworks show of any show I've ever seen before.
Speaker 2:Tell me.
Speaker 1:Savannah Bananas.
Speaker 2:Oh, I bet they do.
Speaker 1:The best. Yeah, last year we got to go to the game in Savannah before TMSA. You know how the finale of a firework show is. The best part. It's like the 30 seconds or 60 seconds of just going crazy. They did that for 10 minutes. It was a 10 minute finale. The whole thing was a finale. I mean you know kids loved it and then you had these adults that were just smiling like with this joy. That was unbelievable. Fireworks just has that ability to do that. So I hope you guys get a good fireworks show this year. Happy 4th of July to you as well, and, Courtney, it's just so wonderful having you on the show. Tell us again real quick how can people get involved with Reeds Across America for the event coming up December 14th this year of putting reeds on tombstones at cemeteries all across the country?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. There are several ways to get involved. Start with going to wwwreesacrossamericaorg. You can volunteer just to lay a wreath. You can make a donation in honor of a veteran. If you're not able to go, you can also sign up to haul a load or support the trucking industry. You know we have three PLs who sponsor a load. We've got all types of opportunities. If you were interested in participating trucking at reeseacrossamericaorg, shoot me an email. I'll find a way for you to participate.
Speaker 1:And I got to say this is just one of those can't miss events now on our calendar. It's just so wonderful to participate in something we'll be doing for a long time moving forward. In fact, it falls on the same time that we have our company retreat every year here in St Louis, and so we make that. A part of our activities is to go and go and do that. So it's absolutely tremendous. Courtney, thanks again for being on.
Speaker 2:For sure, it was awesome I love every time I'm here.
Speaker 1:It's always fun. We always have a good time. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2:Talk to you soon.
Speaker 1:Thanks, All right everybody, make sure you come back every Tuesday for an episode of Standing Out with great guests like Courtney. And before we go today we have our tip of the week, and this one's about marketing and it's really important to think about in terms of how people consume your content. People prefer to scan more than they prefer to read. People don't like to read that much. They'll scan something like that's why headlines of a newspaper are bigger and the actual story is smaller. So simplify everything that you write in your marketing material, your website, copy the emails you send out, what you put on social media. Always remember that people prefer to scan more than they prefer to read. So find ways to communicate as quickly and as simply as possible, and pictures do speak a thousand words, and so using memes, using pictures, using images, will certainly help get your point across in a quicker way.
Speaker 1:Also, a reminder don't forget to sign up for the Broker Carrier Summit. It's going to be October 23 through 25 down in Fort Worth, texas. It's going to be an incredible event, especially if you're a broker or a carrier that's looking for a partner who's truly going to help you grow your business and take care of one another. Go to BrokerCarrierSummitcom and sign up today. Again, that's going to be in October 23rd through 25th down in Fort Worth, texas. It's going to be a phenomenal event and for those of you that are watching us on YouTube, thank you so much. If you haven't watched us on YouTube, be sure to subscribe to our channel, beta Podcast Network, to catch all of our content and every episode of every show that we put out there. And lastly, a big thank you, of course, to our sponsor, spi Logistics, for making this possible. Check them out at successspi3plcom. Again, successspi3plcom. Let them know. You heard about it right here on Standing Out. And until next time, don't forget, stop standing, still start standing out. We'll see you real.