Supply Chain
Technology Podcast

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Supply chain, personal branding, SaaS marketing, diversity and inclusion, podcast, brand values, sustainability, actionable steps, influencer community, transparency, consistency, networking, industry stages, customer engagement, brand storytelling.

SPEAKERS

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, Scott Mears

Scott Mears  00:00

Do you feel positive about the future of supply chain?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  00:02

Yeah.

Scott Mears  00:03

Do you have a controversial episode you wish you could forget about?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  00:07

No.

Scott Mears  00:07

SaaS companies should only talk about solution, features and stats in their marketing.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  00:12

The answer is like, I don’t know. Yes, not, no.

Scott Mears  00:15

Oh, I think we have our first middle thumb.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  00:17

There you go. Middle thumb. Okay, I’m an optimist at heart.

Scott Mears  00:32

Welcome to the Supply Chain Tech Podcast with Roambee. Scott Mears here, Senior Marketing Manager at Roambee and host of the Supply Chain Tech Podcast with Roambee.We thank you for joining us today. In this episode, we speak with Sarah Barnes Humphrey. Sarah is the founder and host of Let’s Talk supply chain and blended podcasts. We first dive into Sarah’s supply chain journey. We then let actual branding hacks for SaaS companies looking to break through the noise. We also identify how personal branding can skyrocket your startup, whether you’re a startup or a multinational enterprise, this episode is your go to guy for bringing your brand up to speed with the times. Welcome Sarah to the episode.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  01:11

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Scott Mears  01:15

Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, it’s such a joy to you know, to be able to interview today because, you know, I’ve listened to your podcast for so long, you know, being the premier, you know, supply chain podcast, we really look up to your podcast, so I feel very honored to be, you know, interviewing you. I feel, yes, very honored today.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  01:34

Well, you and you were like, it’s been so long, and I’m like, yeah, it’s kind of been a long time

Scott Mears  01:42

You’ve got, yeah, you’ve got a lot of episodes. And I must, you know, over 400 episodes, it’s, it’s amazing.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  01:48

We just celebrated 400 episodes. I mean, yeah, crazy, and that’s the podcast only. That’s not the second podcast, that’s not the live shows. Crazy.

Scott Mears  01:58

Wow. Yeah, that’s, that’s a lot of content. It’s a lot of content you got then. And you know, you, because you’ve done, you carry out so many interviews, you know, over 400 and all the other, all the other channels you mentioned there. I must ask, you know, we like to do a bit of an ice break. Question is, which, guess, really stands out in your mind, and why?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  02:20

So I get this question a lot, and I don’t really answer it, I’ll be honest, because I feel like each one of them brings some sort of magic, and I wouldn’t want to pit one against another. That’s not who I am. It’s not who I put myself out to be. So I think what I’ll do is say that the blended podcast, which is my second podcast about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, I love doing all of the different interviews because they’re all very different, but blended really brings the magic, because I bring five people from different walks of life together that sometimes don’t know me and don’t know each other, and we talk for an hour and a half about very, very difficult topics. And I might be a little bit biased, but when I say magic happens on those episodes, magic happens on those episodes like so I would say that if you had to ask me that question, blended, you know, is a really big passion of mine.

Scott Mears  03:30

Interesting, yeah, I like the very respectable question. I totally understand, you know, not wanting to answer that. And, yeah, it makes sense. You know, having going into that deep of a conversation with five, you know, people that don’t know each other. That must be a really interesting bonding experience over the hour and a half.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  03:48

Oh, it totally is like when we when I stopped the record button, I’ve heard people say, thank you so much, I felt heard today. I’ve had people who might never have interacted thank each other, even though they were on opposing sides throughout the conversation, thank each other for showing up that day. Like it’s just, I just can’t, you know, talk about it enough.

Scott Mears  04:15

That’s amazing. So people, you know, our listeners, should be hearing this. You know, if you’ve not already gone to Let’s Talk Supply Chain or the Blended podcasts, definitely get over there, because there’s some real deep, great conversations.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  04:27

Yeah, and we’re actually moving the podcast from let’s talk supply chain the blended podcast from let’s talk supply chain to blendedpledge.org,

Scott Mears  04:35

Okay, interesting.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  04:37

So everybody knows, because we’re separating the two now.

Scott Mears  04:39

Okay, I think that’ll come out in some of the answers to questions today as well. We dive into personal branding and everything, so I look forward to hearing more on your strategy behind this as well. Yeah, so before we do dive into that, I want to dive into you know, your story first, you know, I really want to go right to the beginning. You know, all the way back to where you weren’t even in supply chain. And I must ask you, is.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  05:07

Has there ever been a time?

Scott Mears  05:10

Yeah, and I must ask what inspired you to explore supply chain as a career path?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  05:18

So I’ve been talking about supply chain, or listening to conversations about supply chain at the dinner table. Since I was like six, you know, nine, sometimes I use nine because I can’t really remember six, so I use nine. Um, my dad owned a three PL and so, and he owned that from 1989 and my mom joined him in the business as well. And so you can imagine, at the dinner table, we were talking a lot of logistics, ocean freight, air freight, trucking, you know, building a business, right as entrepreneurs in the 90s. And so that was I, that’s why I say I don’t really remember a time not talking about logistics and supply chain in my life.

Scott Mears  06:07

Wow, see, really did start young on the journey there at six years old. Wow, at six or even eight years old, you found these sort of conversations interesting.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  06:17

I mean, I don’t know if I would go there, and I don’t know if I completely understood the total totality of the conversation, um, but I by the age of 16, I knew that I wanted to take over my dad’s business.

Scott Mears  06:34

Okay, yeah, wow.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  06:40

But it didn’t happen.

Scott Mears  06:42

You carved your own path, you know, and an amazing one at that. And that’s really interesting. It does seem like, you know, some people say they’re born, you know, for things, for things in life. Did you feel like you maybe goes far saying that you’re born for maybe supply chain. On the website, it says, “you were born for supply chain”. And that could be, because I feel like I might be. There we go. That’s insight into the branding. That’s that’s really interesting, and sort of shifting gears to, you know, maybe a bit more of a serious question. And I think this blended, you know, the conversations you you have on the blended podcast is, you know, be be good for this answer as well as you know, it’s very, you know, the ratio of male to female within the supply chain industry is, you know, very heavily weighted to male. You know, when I go to, you know, I attend a lot of events, and you know the agendas, you know, they’ve definitely tried, you know, they do put, you know, a lot more women driven panels, but it’s still very, you know, male driven on the speaking panels, and, you know, just generally in the event. So I do want to ask is, how, how have you navigated this, and did it deter or motivate you to join the industry of supply chain?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  07:59

I honestly never really thought about it until I got into sales, because I feel like in the office, there was a really good mix of men and women at the at my family’s three PL, so it was never really anything that I thought about it until I got into sales and I started going to conferences, and I started going to a variety of different conferences and a variety of different industries, and I think I was one of three females at a conference, and that was, that was probably the first time I was like, Ooh, like, we need more women in here. We need more women at these events. We need more women talking about it. And when I started the woman in supply chain series in january 2018 it wasn’t necessarily because I wanted, you know, sort of this female empowerment movement in supply chain. It was really from a desire to want to learn more about the women who were in the industry and understand their journey to where they were going. Because I was like, if I’m wondering what that could look like, then I’m sure there’s other women who are wondering what their path could potentially look like, and what the opportunities could be, and what they could ask for or not ask for, so that we could highlight the women who were in the industry and then hopefully encourage others to join us.

Scott Mears  09:36

Interesting so you’re more coming at it is, I want to support the women that are currently here, and I want to drive you know what they’re looking for, and that, you know, in turn will attract, maybe, you know, more more females to the to the industry. So that’s great.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  09:53

And also have their voices heard, right? Because, like you were saying on industry stages, we didn’t necessarily hear from women in the industry. Three for quite a while, and so I found that the podcast and the blog was a way to elevate those voices in a different way, so that we could start seeing them and spotlighting them.

Scott Mears  10:12

That’s fantastic, and that there really is. And you know, whenever I speak to people, you know, because we got into this podcast gave ourselves about three, about three plus years ago. And whenever I speak to people about, you know, what’s the podcast? You know, it’s always, you know, let’s talk supply chain.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  10:31

That is awesome to hear. Might be doing a good job.

Scott Mears  10:35

Yeah, it’s the one that always comes up. So you definitely, you know, an amazing spotlight for women and, you know, the amazing talent within supply chain. So, yeah, you’re definitely doing a wonderful job there. Thank you. And with, let’s talk supply chain is, what was your goal initially? I guess you may have answered it. There actually was. It’s spotlighting people, right? You know, I was just wondering, has that evolved over time, or has it always been that.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  11:02

So I started this podcast back in 2016 and I was Director of Sales and Marketing at the family three PL, and I needed to be able to tell our brand story, and I wanted to do it in a different way, because marketing in supply chain back in 2016 I mean, it was okay, um, and so I was listening to a lot of podcasts at the time, and I was like, well, if Lewis Howes can have a podcast, why can’t Sarah Barnes Humphrey? And I asked a guy from my customs department to join me, and tongue in cheek, my marketing team was like, let’s call it two babe stock supply chain, just to see how far we could push the industry. And so that’s what we did. And I didn’t really know what it was going to be about. I just knew all these interesting people in the industry, and so I started reaching out to them, and I was like, Hey, want to be our guest on the podcast. I think you can still see our first YouTube video on YouTube, and it’s awful, like, it’s absolutely awful, but it shows how far I’ve come, yeah, and so that’s why we started. I mean, we got 1000 downloads overnight one night, and I knew I was kind of onto something. And then when my dad closed his doors in 2017 I was out on my butt with no co host, no team, so I had to learn everything. And that’s when I was like, well, let’s really start focusing in on the organizations in supply chain and what they’re doing, the tech companies, the services companies, the three PL companies, because I was talking to a lot of supply chain professionals, they’re like, we have all these challenges, but I really don’t know how to find anybody, I don’t know who’s good to solve this challenge. And so really that’s when I started focusing on the organizations within supply chain and the solutions that they provide to the market. And that was, that was about January 2018 when I started the woman in supply chain series as well, and really started focusing on it as a potential business. Because for the last 18 months prior to that, it was really to promote, you know, the family’s three PL business. So, I mean, did it evolve? Yes, but originally it started to promote a brand, yeah. And I just, I just evolved it from there.

Scott Mears  13:20

Yeah, it is more of a, you know, transition to a new position, and that evolved the podcast in itself, and that you started early then 2016 that that’s, you know, that’s amazing. You got it that early with, with the podcast game. That’s really great to see.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  13:35

I bought a podcast kit off of Amazon. Oh, yeah.

Scott Mears  13:42

All right. And do you still own this podcast kit, or is it..

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  13:45

I have it somewhere? I don’t think it works anymore, like I use that thing until the day it could not be used anymore.

Scott Mears  13:54

Yes, I know you know you find yourself going through YouTube and trying to find the best mics, the best lighting and everything, and it’s just there are so many mics out there. I just the amount of videos I have bookmarked. It’s just so confusing. So I can imagine that journey of figuring all that out. It was quite a challenge, yeah,

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  14:15

And then you get into webcams, and I’ve been down so many rabbit holes, yeah?

Scott Mears  14:22

Well, we’ll, we’ll bring it back to supply chain branding, and I want to now dive into your personal branding. So we’ve learned, you know, a lot more about your story, and I now want to dive a bit more into your brand itself. So you know, a big challenge I see, of a lot of SaaS companies, and I know you will too, is, that struggle to build a brand in today’s, today’s age, that really connects with their customers. You know, they’re you know, they’re really trying, and they’re doing a lot out there, but they’re not always really connecting with their customers. So what I want to do now is to understand how you’ve crafted your brand, so then we can start understanding. Earnings for SaaS companies out there. So I want to first understand is, how does your personal brand support you?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  15:09

You know, it’s really kind of evolved organically, like I didn’t set out and I was like, I am going to build a personal brand. Yeah, I really didn’t. I think it’s just sort of evolved in how I show up on the podcast or for other people, or empower other voices. And I think the one, the two things that I would say are really important is consistency and being yourself and being able to share the parts of yourself that you want to share. Not everybody wants to share everything. I don’t share everything. It might look like I share everything, but I don’t. I have certain boundaries. And also, I think picking the social media platforms that work for you instead of I have to be everywhere, and I have to be all the things I think the stories really need to come out, like the founder story. What does that mean? Why did you pick the company name? These are the things that folks want to know. These are the background stories that people want to know about. Who are the people that are working for you? Why does it matter? Why does it matter to the audience that you’re talking to as to why they should listen to you? Right? And so I think you really need to craft that journey, craft that story, and let the audience in to what you’re trying to build, the impact that you’re trying to make, but keeping it authentically you, and picking a schedule that you can keep consistent over 18 months.

Scott Mears  16:48

Interesting.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  16:49

Because if you decide, let’s say you decide to do your own podcast, and you’re like, I’m gonna do it every day, you need to make sure you can do it every day for the next 18 months. And if you can’t, you need to dial it back, because people are going to get used to you showing up, and if you stop showing up, they’re going to stop showing up for you.

Scott Mears  17:13

That, yeah, that would be the number one I always say, you know, any market consistency, you’re so right there. You know that consistency. And I think people get so excited initially when they think, Ah, this is going to be it. Maybe it’s podcast as a webinar series. You know? Maybe we’re going to post a bit more often, and it’s just everyone goes all in initially, all, let’s do it. And then after, after five weeks, I like, I don’t know what to post about anymore. I don’t know what’s talking at the time. And it’s just yeah, it all crashes down. So no, that is a fantastic piece of advice that we should all be listening to. And what do you feel is the problem you’re solving for your followers and customers, and why do you feel they really resonate with you?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  17:56

I’m not sure. I love that they do. Um, but I’m, I’m, I’m not entirely sure. I think maybe the consistency, I think that I do show up for a lot of people in a variety of different ways. You know, we have we feature women on our women in supply chain series. We feature guests on the blended podcast. We make an impact in a variety of different ways. I now have the blended pledge, so we’re now giving away grants so that diverse voices can say yes to speaking engagements. So I pour as much as I can into the community as they pour into me. So going back to what I said, it’s very much, you know that give and take with your audience. If I was taking all the time and asking them to buy all my things, I probably wouldn’t have a brand right now. And so you have to create trust. You have to create value, I think, and you have to show that you have integrity. So for me, one of the ways to do that is if somebody is going to take time out of their day to comment on a post. I am going to make sure that we are going to reply. Either I’m going to reply or whoever’s doing, let’s talk supply chain is going to reply, but we are going to reply to that person because they’ve taken the time out of their day to show some love to us. We want to show some love back when people message me on LinkedIn, I don’t have any unread messages, I get back to everybody for the most part, if you’re trying to sell me something, I can let those ones go. But I try to answer as many people as I possibly can. If they need some answers to some questions for like, a school project or something like that, and they want to have a call, and I can’t have a call. I’m like, send me the questions, and I’ll get back to you. What is the due date, that kind of thing. And so you’re going to get as much from your audience back as you pour into them, and you pour into the content, and you let them in as to who you are and what you stand for. And. And what your journey has looked like, because every lesson that you’ve had on your journey is going to help and impact somebody. Might just be one person. Might not be a ton of people, but it’ll be one person, um, and that’s kind of how I think about it. I hope I answered your question.

Scott Mears  20:17

You did, and I must say, very well, you know, the sort of the cliff notes, I would say is, you know, authenticity, transparency and consistency. And I think you know everything from what you’re saying is you’re doing every one of those. And it seems like those blended together is, pardon the pun, but those two, three together is that they’re bringing the success, and I and it seems also that your authenticity is comes from a place of care. And you’re, you know, you’re giving just as much as you’re you’re receiving. And I think that you know from all the extra things, you know, even just replying to messages that can seem so small, and someone could maybe just, you know, not keep that in their mind if they’re hearing it right now on the episode. But that is much more impactful than you realize. You know, replying to those social messages that maybe you don’t think may mean much, but you know, it’s, it’s quite a big feeling. You know, when someone you know that you’ve been you know, of course, if someone’s been listening to you, watching you, you know to get their reply back, almost all of a sudden, it’s like, oh, wow, they’ve replied to me. It’s a really nice feeling, you know. It’s kind of like, you know, you become a celebrity to them, so that, yeah, please, do listeners? Do listen up to these, you know, they may seem like things. You may, may, you’ve heard of them before, but it’s, you know, it’s remember that these are key things. And you know, these, even though they can be little at times, it can, it can have a big impact.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  21:46

Yeah, and you can’t just do it once, right? Like I said, you have to be consistent and make sure you get these things for months, not just six months. Yeah, it’s gotta be part of your brand equity I think.

Scott Mears  21:59

Consistency. Yeah, absolutely. And that consistency is so, so key. And really, where, you know I’ve, I’ve fallen over in my marketing journey, definitely, you know, many a times where you know I’ve, you’ve been understanding how to market and, you know, building out different campaigns. And, yeah, I’ve fallen to that. So I can definitely, you know, resonate with that myself as well. I’m sure our listeners can as well. I want to now move on to more focus, onto the SaaS company branding. You know, now we understand your personal branding, and we’ve already got some really good insights into, you know, how SaaS companies can, can really improve their brand. But now I want to get a bit more specific. So really, I’m going to start off right from the start. So what I want to do is give you a little bit of a situation, and then you can sort of give me some insight on what what you would recommend to this SaaS company.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  22:55

So I’m going to try.

Scott Mears  22:57

Yeah, don’t worry. It’s all going to be fun. So it’s, I’m a SaaS startup with a solution for the supply chain industry, with no defined brand. Where do I start?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  23:11

What do they mean by no defined brand? Like, do they have a company name?

Scott Mears  23:15

They have company name, they they have a solution, but they’re within their first year. So how do I build my, where do I even start? You know, because a lot of SUS companies, you know, they, you know, we go, I see a lot of these events. There’s a lot of startup incubators. You know, there’s always a stage for those, these really innovative technologies that are going to rock the industry, but maybe they just don’t have the message out there. They’re just not being seen. So, like, what are maybe some, maybe just those baby steps? You know, it doesn’t have to be these big steps, so you’ve got to go and, you know, do big things. You know, maybe it’s just some baby initial steps, just to really define the brand. Maybe there’s some notes that you can give us on this. Yeah,

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  23:55

I think they need to define their brand values. What is it that you’re going to stand up for and stand and be in this, in the social world as the brand. What does that mean? Is that integrity, do you want to build trust? Do you want to be the, you know, maybe the go to solution in that particular niche? I don’t know what that niche is, but I think you need to really define what those brand values are, so that you can then communicate to whoever’s going to do your marketing that that is what they need to adhere to with every decision that they’re going to make. I think that is really important, because that lays the foundation. I think you got to make sure that you have a brand that resonates, whether it’s the symbol in the logo, you know the name. I was just recently listening to the CMO of MasterCard, and they’re looking at symbols and sounds for branding. And so, you know, I would sort of try to figure out what that is for you. What do you what do you want to be known for? What’s the longevity of your brand? You don’t necessarily want to be rebranding. So you want to make sure that it resonates with people, and you might want to ask some people about it before you go all into the market. Um, and then I would say that the founder really needs to get busy. I know they’re busy already with all sorts of other things that they need to do to build the business and get new business and all that kind of stuff. But I think they need to get busy on LinkedIn. It starts with the founding team getting out there and making connections in a variety of different ways on LinkedIn and being seen on LinkedIn through reacting to posts, through commenting, through sharing a post with some thoughts, because at the end of the day, the brand that you’re building is only as good as the people that you have, and most of the people who are going to be sticking around is that founding team. And so who are they? How are they getting out there? How are they being seen, getting on industry stages to be able to, you know, just get your brand seen. That’s what I did. I got on to industry stages, to moderate panels, and my brand was seen everywhere, because my brand was on the screen for the for the panel. And sometimes you might have to do a few things for free, or whatever. Maybe it’s smaller events, making sure that people are seeing you at these events. So taking behind the scene pictures, posting those on LinkedIn or the other social media platforms that you’re going to be on. And so it really just takes a little bit every single day. So a little bit of time on LinkedIn, a little bit of time taking pictures of what you’re working on, sharing it with, you know, the community and realizing that it’s going to take time, like you’re gonna have to build those bricks every single day. And it’s not gonna happen necessarily overnight, but the more bricks you lay, the more times people see your brand, the the faster it’ll build. I guess.

Scott Mears  26:59

I think there was, I feel there was a lot of really good nuggets there. And, you know, I just want to pull out a few for the listeners, just in case they miss them. Is, you know, even just the first one that the really basic one is just, just doing customer research before you do your brand. I feel like too many SaaS companies just jump into, you know, let’s just all talk on the table here, you know, we’re running the startup. We we can figure out what the logo should look like. We can figure out what the slogan, but they don’t actually speak to who they’re going to and I think that so often can be missed and it, you know, and sometimes it doesn’t even become a thought. So I think that again, is so crucial in and also not to be scared to do that again. You know, further down the line with other projects, I think is so crucial. And I really like what you said then giving you as real life examples of you going to moderate events. You know that that’s great. You know, is getting busy, getting busy and being comfortable to network. So, I mean, for those you know, if you’re an entrepreneur, you you’ve got to be out there, haven’t you, and I’m sure you’re going to, you know, maybe, if you are a bit introverted, I guess you can have to get a bit more comfortable with getting your voice out there. From what you’re saying, is getting your face out there. And be comfortable. You were saying is be comfortable with being transparent with your journey. I think that’s another thing you were saying with people can be a bit scared to do that. They can be like, well, I can’t show them that it isn’t working at the moment, it’d be a bit embarrassing. But are you saying that they should show them this? You know, we’ve got a device. It’s, you know, it’s a draft device. You know, it’s gonna do what, you know what we say, but at the moment, you know this is falling off, and this is where we’re at, but this is where you know, this is what we’re currently doing. He’s saying go that far transparency.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  28:49

I think you can have boundaries with social media. I mean, there are certain things that I share and there’s certain things that I don’t share. So you got to figure out what that boundary is for you. But I mean, at the end of the day for entrepreneurship and for companies, it’s not all roses. You also have to be aware that everybody who you are talking to, from investors to whatever, are also watching you. And so you could probably tell the story in a way that you know, maybe doesn’t divulge all the the nasty secrets, but I think you know, but it’s not just the journey of the company, either. It’s like, what did you do before this to get here? You know, like, how many businesses did you start? Did you start nine fail, learn from them. And then this one was the one that sort of everything is falling into place and is happening for you, that you were like, I’m all in on this one, because the universe is kind of telling me this is where I need to be, because that’s what happened to me. I mean, I had so many side hustles. I tried so many things, you know. And let’s talk supply chain. Ended up being the one that the universe was like, Okay, this is the one that we need to move forward with. You know, what did you do before? What did that look like? You know, what does your career journey look like? What school did you go to? Did you go to school for supply chain you might not have and that’s okay.

Scott Mears  30:20

That’s, yeah, that’s, I think this is really great. This is really great for our listeners to hear, you know, to be comfortable, to be open, and you know, but at the same time, be you know, only do what is comfortable. At the same time you know that you’re not, you don’t have to go too far. But at the same time, you know it’s okay to share these sort of insights. And people want to know you as a person, and want to know what drives you, and want to know, hey, I’ve been faith. You know, the person on the other side go, I’m still failing. I’ve tried 100 times, and you’re just saying now it worked for me first time. You know, it’s gonna be hard to resonate. But if you say, Yeah, I failed a bunch too. So I get, you know, that’s starting to make a lot more sense when you really think about this well,

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  31:02

And one thing that you said earlier about being comfortable, I just want to go back to that, because you’re never going to be comfortable. Do not ever get comfortable. So when you’re when you’re thinking about getting out of your comfort zone and reacting to a post, commenting on a post, sharing your thoughts on a post that may never come to you naturally, but it’s just something that you need to do. So I just want to go back on that, because if you don’t feel comfortable, it’s okay just make sure you’re still moving forward.

Scott Mears  31:38

That’s a great yeah, thank you for that. On that. That’s a really great comment. It’s I can definitely resonate. I’m sure you can as well. When you went on the podcast for the first time and started talking into a mic that you were a bit nervous on the first episode. So there we go, guys, you know, Sarah, the leading supply chain podcast, and she still gets nervous. So don’t be worried when you get nervous doing these things. So now we’ve understood, you know, for a startup, I want to now give support to those SaaS companies that maybe have been around for much longer. You know, maybe they’ve been around for 10 years plus. So they’ve got a more well known, well defined brand. What do you feel? Maybe some, just some actionable steps that they can take to make their brand and marketing resonate more of their customers. Maybe it’s something they can do. Maybe even going to say, Hey, start a podcast. You know? What’s something that you feel they can start doing today to really get up to speed with today’s technology and today’s market.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  32:43

I am going to give a plug to the influencer community in supply chain, because it has grown, and there’s a lot of amazing people who are doing incredible things in this industry. And I think you want to get plugged into the influencer community in supply chain, and I think you want to work with them. You need some you want to build out credibility. You want to do some co branding campaigns, you know. You want to be able to get different perspectives from other people in the industry of what’s happening as well, and create conversation around what you’re doing, and not just within your company internally, you want to be able to have external conversations with other people that are going to resonate. And so that’s one of the things that I would say. I mean, I might be a little bit biased, but I would get, I would definitely do that. And then as far as I guess, you know, branding and different things like that. Again, I go back to this conversation that I just heard with MasterCard, and they just rebranded, and they took MasterCard out of their logo, and they’re just going with symbols. They’re going with symbols and they’re going with sounds. So what is the newest marketing trend? What are some of the things that are working in other industries that you can bring to your brand in supply chain? You know, if you are known in the industry, maybe take a look at your logo. Maybe you try a symbol, maybe you try a song. Maybe you do want to start a podcast, and if you do, there’s people like us that can help you do that.

Scott Mears  34:24

That’d be wonderful. You know, I always love finding a new supply chain podcast, so I hope if one comes out of this, that’d be wonderful to say. I really would. And I sort of want to shift to an interesting question that I feel, you know, can be quite challenging for companies. Now, this maybe is little less focus on SAS companies as a whole, but I feel it is really a key question that we need to answer. Maybe we don’t have the answer today, but we have some thoughts on it, and that’s really, I mean, we all know that everyone’s changed. Increasing their 2030 their 2050 a, you know, carbon neutral goals. And you know, there are some industries out there that it’s very challenging with today’s technology to get, you know, 100% green, or even close to 100% green. So for those industries, you know, maybe like a chemical industry or a mining industry. How do you advise these companies in a world where consumers and companies are much more conscious of the sustainability and ethics of companies, how do you advise these companies to evolve their story, to consider their where they are with sustainability, without greenwashing, because, again, consumers and companies, they’re seeing through it. You know, if you’re just going to keep pushing the same message, no, we’ve got this certificate, certification. We we do this. We plant all these trees. I’m not saying they’re not good, you know, these are, but I feel people are just seeing through it so much now, and it’s becoming, you know, I’ve definitely experienced that is now a metric of whether we can do business anymore. Do you would you hit these quotas in sustainability?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  36:07

So I think the action is good. I think we have to be careful in judging people for taking action. I think any and all action being taken is a good thing, as long as it’s moving us forward. But I also feel like it’s up to the individuals. So what I do in January usually is, instead of asking people to do a New Year’s resolution, which kind of focuses on lack in yourself, I ask them to pick a sustainable development goal for the year and do something either daily or weekly towards that, whatever that looks like, because every small action that we take as an individual is going to make an impact. So the reason why I bring that up because you talk about organizations, organizations need to start internally and so, yes, I do think tree planting is important, but it’s only one aspect. And so what are you doing to potentially get the individuals within your organization thinking about what they can do on an individual level, and how are you supporting them to do that? Are you giving them some time off so that they can go and spend time on that sustainability, sustainable development goal, and if they don’t know what to do, are you giving them resources so that they can figure out what it is that resonates with them, so that they can go and support that sustainable development goal? Maybe that’s for a couple of hours, half a day, whatever that looks like. So I think there is responsibility from an organization as a whole. And I think, I mean, I don’t think tree planting is greenwashing. I think tree planting is action being taken. I don’t think it should be the only action being taken, and I think that it can be part of a strategy. And so I think we have to be a little bit careful of how much we are asking for, as you know, consumers, etc, etc, of an organization, and being like, Oh, you’re doing that. That’s not good enough, which is fine, but we need to acknowledge that people are taking action and doing something and then saying that needs to be part of the strategy. What are you going to do next? What action are you going to take next? Because I, you know, that’s just sort of, we have to be a little bit careful of poo pooing on people that are taking some action, maybe not as much as we want them to, but pushing them to take more and acknowledging what they are doing.

Scott Mears  38:41

That is, you know, it’s so important, what you’ve said there, you know, because I think it is so easy, you know, to jump to, you know, that isn’t enough. That isn’t enough, you know. But you know, you’re so right. The action is happening. And you know, again, to me, to whoever, it may not be enough, but they’re taking action, and they’re moving towards, you know, a greener future, and that’s what’s most important, and what’s interesting, like, an interesting example, is, you know, consumers who maybe want, you know, next day delivery, but at the same time, They don’t want that impact on the environment.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  39:24

I ask, right? What are you doing as an individual? Yeah, and through your buying habits, that does make a huge difference. But if you’re asking a company to do one thing and then do more, what is it that you’re doing? So you’re changing your buying habits to help with that. But what are you doing towards an actual sustainable development goal on a regular basis, to move things forward? Because if we all did something we’d be moving way faster.

Scott Mears  39:57

That’s yeah, if anyone’s going to take anything from stay, I feel like that’s, that’s the nugget, you know, you know, just take, make, taking action. And I feel, you know, with podcasts exploding at the moment, a lot of people you know Can, can just be talking on podcasts, and can say a lot and can comment a lot on things. But are they, you know, taking action in their life and taking action on those things, maybe they don’t believe in, or may you know. So I think this is a really key thing, and you’re totally right. Imagine if everyone you know tomorrow started taking action on some sustainability goals. What an impact that would make, on impact? And I’m going to jump to a question, because I know it’s come up a couple times now, and I really, I find it interesting it’s coming up. Because what I’ve noticed in, you know, startups and, you know, even medium sized companies, you know, a lot of the brand can be the individuals within the company. You know, on the board members, the VPs, the directors. A lot of time, they can be a big percentage of the brand, because they have a lot of notoriety, maybe from last past endeavors. So how, how integral would you say is the individual, personal brands of the people within a company, versus brand of the company itself?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  41:19

Huge. I was having a conversation with a CEO the other day, and he was like, you know, I get all these speaking opportunities, and my last post got like, four to 500 reactions, and I’m good, I’m like, okay, but your company just got bought out, and you have a contract left, let’s say, 18 months. What are you going to do after that? I’m going to do consulting. Okay, okay, well, all of that’s going to go away if you don’t take advantage of it right now. All of that’s going to go away because you’re now on the sales side. You’re no longer a CEO of a big brand, of an established brand. So everybody’s personal brand is important to establish whatever that looks like to you. You don’t have to say yes to speaking engagements, but whatever that personal brand looks like to you, because you don’t know what’s going to come around the corner. So what you’re saying no to right now might disappear later on if you don’t take advantage of it and don’t establish those relationships. And so I would say everybody’s personal brand matters, but it’s like I said, you have to define what that success looks like to you.

Scott Mears  42:33

Understood, and that’s, I feel, that’s another integral one, is that, you know, building the personal brands and and, of course, you know, people are growing their careers in the company. So it’s got a huge residual value as well, for for future proofing, everyone as well. So that’s a really interesting

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  42:49

Don’t think about today. This is what I keep saying, right? Think about 18 months from now. Yeah, what do you want that to look like? What is it? What? How much work do you want to put in? What’s the effort that you want to put in? Maybe it’s not work. Maybe work. Maybe you love it. Maybe you start it, and you absolutely love connecting with people, cheering people on in comments, sharing your perspective on on an article, and somebody comes back and says, oh my goodness, I have never thought about it that way. Thank you.

Scott Mears  43:22

And And with that, an interesting sort of an adult question to what you were saying there, if you are, you know, a CEO that maybe doesn’t operate always within the same industry. Maybe they move between industries. What? How should they be communicating their personal brand? Should it always be industry focused, or should they now approach it differently and actually approach it more from, you know, as a CEO and running businesses, versus industry focus? How would you?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  43:52

What’s their passion? What’s their passion like? What are you passionate about? Talking about? How do you want to help people? What’s the stuff inside that you can share that’s going to help other people, and maybe that’s in the industry right now, but you also want to maintain contact that are in other industries, because again, you never know what’s around the corner. You could be the CEO of a supply chain company or a VP of a supply chain company today, and then potentially the VP of a retailer tomorrow. So what do you want that to look like for you? What do you want to talk about? What’s important to you? What is something that you can talk about for the long term that’s going to keep you excited and motivate to talk about

Scott Mears  44:36

Interesting so I guess what you’re saying, I could go, I don’t know if you mean it, as far as you know, going down, you know, are you meaning keeping it work related what we’re talking about, or you’re saying, Hey, I love football, so I’m going to talk about football.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  44:52

I mean, if you want to do a post today about football, and then you want to do a post tomorrow about supply chain. Do it. Well, you’re gonna find your people in different ways, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Resonating with somebody about football does not take away from a professional relationship. It’s all a human experience, whether we’re, you know, in professional mode or personal mode. It’s a human experience, and relationships matter, right? Representation matters in a variety of different ways. So for me, you know, I’m in supply chain, but I’ve also been a big advocate of diversity in supply chain, and now diversity and inclusion in the workplace. So it’s evolved for me, right? The different impacts, the different conversations that I’m having, and I just sort of go with it wherever I want it to go.

Scott Mears  45:51

I mean, that sounds like the dream job, you know, to be able to go wherever you want to go, that. I feel like that’s what everyone aspires to.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  46:00

On social media, you can do that. There aren’t. There’s no rules, I guess, no like, why are we imposing rules on ourselves? If you post about football and it bombs and nobody resonates with you about it, nobody cares. Nobody’s gonna remember it tomorrow. Right?

Scott Mears  46:24

Yeah, absolutely. And I think people do put those rules on a lot you know how they can communicate. But what’s coming out of this podcast is that, again, being don’t be scared to be authentic.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  46:38

You put out a podcast episode about a particular topic, and it bombs. Oh, you’re gonna know about it. Nobody is paying that much attention to you.

Scott Mears  46:54

People need to be listening to this, you know. And I’m so excited

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  46:59

I hope that I’m not ruffling too many feathers with this one. You can’t.

Scott Mears  47:06

No, I think it. I think it’s something that really people need to hear. You know, I think I feel like people do have that thought in the back of their mind, but it gets shut down immediately once they actually get down to, you know, creating their personal brand story and their branding of the company. All of a sudden it goes into professional mode, and it must be within these very stringent rules that them about. They’ve just gone, oh, no, we have to keep it in the this lane, you know. So it’s.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  47:34

It’s like we talked about before we jumped on. You were like, I’m going to send this to you. You can watch it, let me know. I was like, No, it’s done. It’s out there. Just do it. You have. You can’t get so caught up in how everything needs to be like this, nobody’s going to resonate with it. People have flaws. People want to resonate with you know, the other day, I was doing my live show, and we were talking about a story about chit I’m gonna Okay. I can’t even say the word chicken filler, chick, chick, Fil A, whatever that is. Okay. I have a really hard time with that brand and saying the name. I had everybody in fits and fits of giggles, because I could not say this name. And I had to say it over and over and over and over again. It took me five times. Every single time it is what it is.

Scott Mears  48:26

Yeah, I know Chick fil A is quite a popular see, you can do it, yeah, I enjoyed a few Chick fil A takeout. Yeah, it’s so it seems like, did you ruffle a few feathers, though, and you couldn’t say it, no,

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  48:41

No, I think everybody was laughing at me.

Scott Mears  48:43

Oh, but you were willing to be like you. You’re willing to be authentic, you’re willing to be vulnerable and just be you. And that’s why people endear to you, and that’s, that’s what I feel is really coming out of this episode, is, is just, I guess, be comfortable, to be uncomfortable, and that is, you know, being yourself, you know online, you know you don’t have to be a different persona online. And that is a really great takeaway for not just personal brand, but as a brand, as a company as well, to really share the transparency and honesty of the journey. So I want to, before we do a little thumbs up, thumbs down segment, which I always love to do of our guests, I just want to ask one final question. Is, I just see this, a lot this confusion a lot of SaaS companies, is that they don’t know the balance between, you know, what should I share? Should I only share facts and figures and stats, or, you know, sense, you know, features. Or should I be sharing more the people behind building it and the people that it’s impacting? You know, where do you lean on that? Because I feel like SaaS companies either go all in to one or all into the other. They don’t blend it well. Cool, and I feel they can get a bit lost in this. And, you know, no.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  50:04

Yeah, I think you can do both, but I think you need to tell the story of it. So we’re going to talk about a feature. Talk about the story behind the feature. Why did you design decide to design this feature? Why is it important? Why should anybody care? Were you? Did you write it all out on out on a napkin? You have a picture of that napkin. Was it a client that called you and was like, I love your system, but I hate when it does this. And so you created a feature to fix that. So I think it is less about focusing on the particular we need to share this and we need to share that, and more about the stories that you are telling behind what you are sharing. I’ll leave you with that.

Scott Mears  50:56

interesting. Thank you very much. Wise words. I’m note taking here as well. These are some really great learnings for everyone. And I want to finish off with a fun thumbs up thumbs down segment. It’s a fun segment we do. It’s just yes or no answers, so all you need to do is give me a big thumbs up or a thumbs down, and if you could also say yes or no. So for the audio listeners, they know what you said as well. Okay, great. So with 400 conversations recording recorded on Let’s Talk supply chain. Do you feel positive about the future of supply chain?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  51:33

Yes.

Scott Mears  51:36

Do you have a controversial episode you wish you could forget about?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  51:41

No,

Scott Mears  51:43

Marketing departments should never seek feedback from other departments on how to market the products services, because they know best?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  51:52

Absolutely, 100% no, I’m not very good at that. I am an optimist.

Scott Mears  52:08

Every SaaS company should have a podcast help them connect with their customers?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  52:14

Yes, and they should call me.

Scott Mears  52:18

SaaS companies should only talk about solution, features and stats in their marketing.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  52:25

No. I mean, it depends how they talk about it, like we just talked about.

Scott Mears  52:28

Yeah, exactly. The answer is, rewind a little.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  52:28

The answer is, like, I don’t, not yes, not no, kind of like, anyway,

Scott Mears  52:36

Oh, I think we have our first middle thumb.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  52:38

There you go. Middle thumb, okay, I didn’t know how to do that. Obviously, I’m not very good at this thumbs up, thumbs down.

Scott Mears  52:46

And the final one, every SaaS company needs a mascot to improve their brand?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  52:52

A mascot?

Scott Mears  52:54

Like a football mascot, or like Terry the tiger.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  52:57

I mean, if they want it, sure that was the middle one too. Wow. Two middle ones a

Scott Mears  53:05

Oh, breaking the rules today.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  53:08

Rule Breaker.

Scott Mears  53:09

Yeah, I can see. Well, thank you so much, Sarah. I really enjoyed this podcast. And again, thank you for coming on. It’s you know, wonderful to be able to get the opportunity to interview you. It’s been a pleasure of mine.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  53:23

Thank you so much for having me. Can I just let everybody know to go to letstalksupplychain.com. Yes, please do and connect with me on LinkedIn. Sarah Barnes-Humphrey,

Scott Mears  53:32

Absolutely. Thank you very much, Sarah, and please do go over to your podcast and to your socials as well.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  53:39

Awesome. Thanks for having me.

Scott Mears  53:41

Thanks. We’ll give the way everyone a little wave together.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey  53:45

I do peace signs. I totally don’t go by the rules.

Scott Mears  53:49

You’re breaking the rules today. Peace signs. Bye everyone. Hi. My name is Scott Mears, and I’m one of the hosts of the Supply Chain Tech Podcast with Roambee. On this podcast, we talk to supply chain heroes from around the world about everything, ranging from the disruptions related to supply chains, their personal experiences with tracking technologies, strategies to build resilience, and much, much more. We already have some recommended videos for you to the side of me, and if any of this sounds interesting to you, do subscribe to our Youtube channel and hit the bell icon so you don’t miss another Roambee video. I’ll see you next time you.