Yvonne Sams is the Director of Logistics at True Organic Products, an organic fertilizer manufacturer. With over 25 years of experience in the agricultural food and beverage industry, she has worked in supply chain management for companies, including G3 Enterprises, Frito Lay, Inc., E. & J. Gallo Winery, and Tyson Foods. Yvonne is also the Regional Director of the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[4:31] How Yvonne Sams moved to Central Valley, California, to begin her career
[10:15] Yvonne’s experience in warehousing and logistics with E.&J. Gallo Winery
[15:13] Yvonne talks about developing an innovative warehouse management system
[20:40] The challenges of transitioning from warehousing to business development
[29:30] How Yvonne discovered her passion for agriculture
[31:59] Tips for navigating relationships and operational challenges in the ag industry
[42:40] Yvonne shares how she became president of the board at California Polytechnic State University
[48:10] Yvonne’s idea for a podcast
In this episode…
Leaders in the logistics industry must maintain continuous improvement, strong partnerships, and operational efficiency. Overcoming persistent challenges such as inefficient processes, seasonal staffing gaps, and customer dissatisfaction requires innovative solutions. How can you turn logistical challenges into a competitive advantage?
Through strategic leadership and community engagement, agriculture and logistics leader Yvonne Sams more than doubled a company’s market share in agricultural logistics, growing from 18% to 45%. Her efforts expanded beyond transportation to include tanker and warehousing services, driving multimillion-dollar revenue growth. By embedding her team in local farming communities and enhancing internal training, she built trust and boosted operational efficiency. A people-focused approach allowed Yvonne to transform what was once a small company into a logistics industry leader.
In this episode of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, Mark Hiddleson welcomes Yvonne Sams, the Director of Logistics at True Organic Products, to discuss her transformational leadership journey in agricultural logistics. Yvonne shares how she developed a new warehouse management system, the challenges of transitioning from warehousing logistics to business development and sales, and how she discovered her knack for agriculture.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Specialized Storage Solutions, Inc. contact phone: 707-732-3892
Mark Hiddleson's email: markhiddleson@aol.com
Quotable Moments:
"When you put good people in place and set a vision, they magically make things happen. It’s all about, ‘what if we did this?’"
"Trucking was fun and cool. We were the last to know, but grape growers are the best people to work with."
"It's about relationships. It's a service. You have to be in the industry a long time to be trusted."
"I realized that grape growing is just manufacturing in a field; winemaking is production. I understood both worlds."
"I get trucking; I get engines; I get chassis; I get maintenance shops. It feels like going back to my major."
Action Steps:
Engage in continuous learning and development: Seek opportunities for professional growth continuously, such as attending industry conferences or taking courses related to your field. This approach helps stay updated with the latest trends and practices.
Foster strong relationships in your network: Actively build and maintain relationships within your industry through networking events or alumni associations. This step is crucial for developing a support system and gaining access to mentorship opportunities, which can be pivotal in navigating career challenges.
Implement feedback and improve processes: Gather and act on feedback from colleagues, partners, and clients to identify areas for improvement. By addressing recurring issues and refining processes, you can enhance operational efficiency and foster a culture of innovation.
Embrace a holistic view of business operations: Adopt a comprehensive understanding of your business' ecosystem, integrating aspects such as supply chain, logistics, and sales. This holistic approach allows leaders to make informed decisions that benefit the entire organization.
Cultivate a visionary mindset: Develop and communicate a clear vision to inspire and guide your team toward achieving shared goals. This mindset motivates others to perform at their best and aligns organizational efforts toward common objectives.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions Inc.
Listen...
I have been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades. I know I don’t look that old, but it's true.
We provide industry-leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide.
So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs Rack, Shelving, Carts, Conveyors, or Mezzanines, we help with....design engineering, installations, inspections, and repairs to help clients optimize their logistics operations.
Sometimes people don’t even realize that we can actually help with permit acquisition services.
We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation.
To learn more, visit specialracks.com or give us a call at (707) 732-3892. One of the best ways to learn more about our products and services is to follow us on Instagram. And there’s a link on our website to do that.
I will even give you my personal email address for podcast listeners, so email me at markhiddleson@aol.com if you’re ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level.
Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:01
Welcome to The Tao of Pizza where we feature top logistics leaders, entrepreneurs and supply chain innovators and share their inspiring stories with a holistic twist.
Mark Hiddleson 0:14
Mark Hiddleson Here host of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, where I talk with top industry innovators in the warehousing, logistics and supply chain business with a holistic twist. And before I introduce today's guest, Yvonne Sams, this episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions. Look, I've been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades, and I know I don't look that old, but it's true, what we do is we provide industry leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide. So basically, if you have a warehouse and these rack shelving, carts, conveyors or mezzanines, we help with the design, engineering, installation, inspections and repairs to help our clients optimize their logistics operations. And it's funny. Yvonne, some people don't even realize we can actually help with permit acquisition services as well. So we take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation. To learn more. Visit our website at specialracks.com. Give us a call at 707-732-3892. Or send me an email. I even I give my personal email out to podcast listeners. It's Markhiddleson@AOL.com, so send me an email if you're ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level. So today, we're joined by Yvonne Sams, who has a remarkable 25 plus years experience in the agricultural, food and beverages industry. She specializes in supply chain management, and her expertise lies in various areas, including leading large teams, strategic thinking, driving sales growth, efficient operations management, optimizing warehouse operations and continuous improvement initiatives, and adeptly applying situational leadership. This extensive background makes for a seasoned supply chain executive leader with a proven track record in the field. Yvonne, welcome to The Tao of Pizza.
Yvonne Sams 2:05
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Mark,
Mark Hiddleson 2:08
yeah, this is awesome. You are an ideal guest. When I started the podcast, it's been like two years, but it's a way to meet people who are innovators, like you are and like kind of knew of you, because we have been in the same geography. I'm from Modesto rippin, and you were with g3 I think, most of your career. And so I always kind of knew it was like a name, like she would be a great, yeah,
Yvonne Sams 2:32
yeah. I'm a transplant to the Central Valley. And so I actually am a coastal girl spent grew up in the Monterey Bay. And so coming to the Central Valley was definitely a transition. And, yeah, it's, it's definitely, it's a place that I now love, but I didn't always
Mark Hiddleson 2:54
awesome, and I, I saw he lived in Oakdale. And, yeah, we, I think you said, you know, Michelle powers, yeah, she
Yvonne Sams 3:03
lives, um, yeah. She went to high school with my husband in Oakdale, yes,
Mark Hiddleson 3:10
yeah. I met Michelle, like, 20 something years ago, and she's like, she goes, I'm from Oakdale. I'm like, oh yeah. I could tell it was kind of a joke, but you kind of can, I mean, there is a central valley. I love Oakdale. I mean, I love the people from the valley. I mean it's, it's a different vibe. I mean, Monterey Bay probably has a really cool culture,
Yvonne Sams 3:29
a different culture, definitely different culture. Definitely coastal snob coming to Modesto initially, and I went to school in the Central Coast, there in San Luis, Obispo, Cal Poly, and so just really spent my whole life on, you know, near the beach. And then it came to the Central Valley with dairies and with, you know, agriculture that I hadn't seen before. And I really thought I moved to hell,
Mark Hiddleson 4:04
everybody. So I'm from the Central Valley I live in. I've lived in Napa for the last 26 years, and we will joke that we moved out of hell. But I love, I mean, I love the valley. I love the orchards. I mean, give me an almond orchard. And I'm like, yeah, like, you told me when the almond thing last week or Yes, yeah. So what was the opportunity that brought you share a little bit about how you know how to be something great I would think to to move right? Yeah.
Yvonne Sams 4:31
So I had, uh, winning school at Cal Poly, and got a job offer at Frito, lay here in Modesto, and that's how I landed here. My husband was from the area. He was my boyfriend at the time. He had a job at Frito Lay in Bakersfield, and so we were trying to figure out, like where we were going to live, what we were going to do. And I ended up in Modesto with Frito, and so spent a couple of years. Uh, with us, trying to figure out what we were going to do. And then ultimately, he made, well, we agreed that I was going to have to move multiple times for his career. Later he needed to make the first move for me, alcohol might been involved. A napkin I made him sign might have been involved. And so he, um, so he made the first move to come home, essentially to where his family was from, and that's how we ended up in Modesto. But then we spent five years in Illinois, and that, you know, after, I think it was here seven years when we moved to Illinois and then came back to Modesto, Gallo actually brought my husband back, and that was the time that I realized after day two, I love Modesto. I love the Central Valley. You know, Midwest is wonderful, and the people are amazing. I made some great friends, but the weather you cannot, absolutely not, match the weather that we have here in Cal and then I was two hours from the mountains, two hours from the beach in Illinois. I was literally in the middle of nowhere, and we lived in Chicago area for a couple of years, so we were close to some water, which also created snow, you know, weather like Lake Effect weather, yeah, day two, and I have I've been here. Gosh, I think I've been here another 1819, years, and I love every minute of it, and I love the Central Valley huge. I would definitely, I don't consider myself a central valley girl yet.
Mark Hiddleson 6:29
So, okay, so
Yvonne Sams 6:32
girl, but I do absolutely love the Central Valley. The Central Valley is a place that I call home, and Oakdale. We ended up in Oakdale. That's my husband grew up and my when my in laws have passed, we renovated their home and moved back to their house. So it's really been kind of full circle for us. And so love Oakdale, love Modesto. Love that just being up and down the valley has been so fun. So Frito Lay is what initially brought me here. I made Cheetos Sun Chips and potato chips.
Mark Hiddleson 7:03
What year? Just in mind if I ask, what? Yeah.
Yvonne Sams 7:05
So I moved, yeah, to Modesto in 1995 that was my first stint in Modesto. And so I led teams of manufacturing, of, you know, folks who were literally, we literally made chips, yeah. And the plant wasn't that old, so the plant had just opened, so I might have been five years old by the time I got there, yeah. And so it was a pretty brand new, beautiful facility that had just come into Modesto for, you know, only been there a little while. They've now, since expanded and done some great things. But I ran, I worked in a shift, essentially. So I ran a day shift and a swing shift and, yeah, super fun stuff.
Mark Hiddleson 7:58
That's a great we toured that. So I'm pretty sure I met you through a warehouse Education and Research Council meeting, but it was probably a g3 not, yeah, we've, we've toured Frito Lay that's an amazing facility. I was on that tour, on the Frito Lay tour, or the, yeah,
Yvonne Sams 8:14
well, both, both. I was definitely on the The Frito Lay tour because I went back. It was like 10 years that I hadn't been there and I could go on the work tour. And the plant is hilarious, because you have a couple people who roam. Most have to stay by their machines, but the cadence of the way the message got out to the floor that I was there literally went down the line. They're like, Yvonne's in house, and all of a sudden, all the I couldn't even finish the tour, because all my old employees were like, coming out to find me and to come see me. And so I got stuck in the packaging room, and, you know, talking to and my my team. I had a day shift team when I first started, and so they were the highest senior folks that were still there 10 years later. So got to walk by them, and then the my swing shift, when I went to swing shift and potato chips, those guys were had enough seniority now to be on day shift, so it was just a swarm of of fun. So yeah, that's
Mark Hiddleson 8:14
tours. We haven't I haven't been involved in the board I was for 10 years. You're supposed to be like, five years, and then phase out, oh yeah, you go into your startup. I was like, board member at large, and then Secretary Treasurer, just like every year you move up, and the year your past president, your president, and then past president. So really, the past president stays on the board. Oh, it was Chris Murphy and I and I think, you know Stan Jimenez. We were, yeah, I know state, yeah. So we know a lot of people, but just I stayed on the board, just because I loved helping set up tours, and that's what it's hard to find. So we're actually looking for tours, because, in person, they, they tours kind of stopped, yeah, after COVID, yep. Well, it's one of the best ways I. Interview a lot of people on the show and ask them, you know, what's the best way to learn about warehousing, logistics, to do a tour, even if it's not related, to see it. Mm hmm, do your business. Yeah. You were with Gallo g3 I would call it Gallo the people. So
Yvonne Sams 10:16
I left Frito. So I left Frito and I moved to a pre cut produce warehouse job. That was my kind of first warehouse job. Was working at a pre cut produce they were called Pacific pre cut out of Tracy, and we were doing this as dating myself. But that was all before pre bagged lettuce. And so our plant was working with Save Mart Safeway, and we were bagging lettuce for their delis, and so we were doing all the pre made produce ingredients for all their salads. So whether it was a potato salad, macaroni Sal we we were cutting everything for them and then sending it to them. So my warehouse turned over every seven days. It was very high volume, fast turn, because it was produce and it was pre cut. They sold to Taylor farms. We were just in the middle of making those pre made salads, which now are all the the rage, and those we were kidding them. And we're trying to figure out, like shelf life and what kinds of things, you know, how do you marry all the shelf lives, between the chips and the lettuce and the, you know, what? What kind of products can go in it that won't make everything go bad, tomatoes, like, things like that. Like all, I was like, how do you do it? And then, how long would it last on the shelf? And so we were doing some really cool, innovative things, as I then left there to go work at Gallo. So that was I actually spent two and a half years at Gallo, and so my my first step in warehousing was there at Pacific pre cut, yeah, so I went from Pacific pre cut to to Gallo and working in a department that sat inside their warehouse and and it was a department that essentially would fix the winery and the glass plants mistakes. So if there was a wrong label or a missing label, or glass was defective, my team was responsible for identifying what those issues were and then fixing them. And so my job was to figure out how to see myself out of a job. So what Gallo wanted was they wanted us to figure out how to reduce the people that we had in that department, and ultimately try and get rid of it. Because it was, it was, you know, not cost effective to have to reprocess,
Mark Hiddleson 12:46
yeah, what ideal to start a separate division, right? And to have its
Yvonne Sams 12:50
own department like it literally had its own department as a big department, we had about 120 people in this three shift operation, and Gallo was at a point, though, that they were transitioning their management to the professionals, and so they were just starting to, like, I get budgets in place, and like, trust people with with information about financials, all that was pretty held close to the best, rightfully so. They're privately held. And what they had done different departments had hired like three or four diff different people from Frito Lay so I had a connection with the Frito folks coming into Gallo, and Gallo had hired, they had these recruiting conferences where they hired all these I'm going to call them up and coming leaders, and I happened to be one of them, part of that team, and I was the very first person that I'm going to call it, infiltrated the warehouse. So I was part of the warehouse and, you know, trying to identify how things can be done differently than what they had always been done. Yeah. So then, then two more people came after me. So there were three of us in the warehouse. Then they hired a new warehouse manager that came in, and he quickly got promoted up to the VP of supply chain. And so he the four of us really came in to help support and move gallows warehouse kind of to that next level.
Mark Hiddleson 14:29
Who was the one that got promoted, by the way? Yeah. So
Yvonne Sams 14:32
he actually, his name is Ernie shots, right? And you want to interview him, okay? This dude is amazing, my mentor. So he, he, it came from P and G, and it P and G, what they do is they, they hire you into operations role. But everybody before you can become a plant manager has to have a stent in HR. So you have to have been an HR manager. So. They rotate you through HR, and he's just super well rounded, amazing supply chain expert. And if it wasn't for him, I would have been stuck in Illinois.
Mark Hiddleson 15:10
Oh, my, that's a great reason. Yeah,
Yvonne Sams 15:13
I definitely so, you know. So at that time, while I was at Gallo, I then got to help start up a warehouse management system. And Gallo wasn't as big as it is today, but was still big. And there was lots of departments that had to be included as part of this transformation of a new warehouse management system. So they actually pulled all these people together. There was probably 40 of us on this core team to start up this warehouse management system. We had a really antiquated system at the time, and in the middle of all this, my husband took a job in Chicago, and so he pulls out the napkin and says, Okay, it's time for us to move. And I was like, seriously, like, I'm in my dream job. I was getting ready to be promoted into a safety training manager role, like I was super excited. And we pick up, and we moved to Illinois, and so he is a plant manager. He's also in food and beverage. He is been working, you know, at the cannery since he was 16. So he is, he's a plant guy. He's an expert guru and plant food manufacturing. And so we end up in Chicago, and I get a phone call from my mentor, Ernie, and the President and CEO of g3 Bob Lubeck, another person you probably want to talk to. And I'll text you these guys names. They're amazing individuals. So I get this random like phone call from these two top executives at Gallo and g3 asking me to start up a regional distribution center in Chicago for Gallo. And it I was stay at home mom at the time, I had one kid. I might have had two. I might have had my second daughter then. And I was like, okay, like, this sounds cool. Let's go figure this out. And they're like, well, we'd love for you to run the RDC, not just start it up, but run it. Well, my husband had already taken a job in central Illinois, so I was like, Well, I can't run it. That's just not going to happen if two weeks ago you had called me, we would have made different decisions. House is on the market like he's getting ready to go, like I but I'll help you start it up. So I had two kids under the age of three, and I lived in a hotel because my house sold in two weeks and for four months, and started up this warehouse for the E and J Gallo Winery, and it was gallo's first time forward deploying product. They had lot of out of stocks, and everything was centralized in Modesto, so it would take a couple weeks via radio to get their product across the country. And so to minimize their auto out of stocks, they were piloting this regional distribution center concept and to forward deploy product. So Chicago was their first RDC that they were going to start up. And I had the opportunity to start it up. It was literally a gray box of cement. We brought in a million cases. We strip the lines, we put in the Q, the VM, you know, the comm VM used, but the vehicle interface units, where the employees needed to scan bar code, everything, all the aisles, about
Mark Hiddleson 18:33
what you mean by Vm. You like, You mean, like the bar codes themselves, or because we do, yeah, so I
Yvonne Sams 18:37
implement all the technology that was, yeah, all the systems that it took to create that. We call it Bluetooth today, but it wasn't called that back then. It was the old school. Now I can't think of the technology that it was called, but so all of the systems to be able to have scanning capability, which was fairly newer, and so it was a fairly state of the art warehouse, but I hired the folks to come in. We had to post in Chicago had just shut down, so I was super excited, because we we hired quite a few of their experienced drivers from post, but they were used to moving light products, so cereal and wine is very heavy, and you have to clamp wine, or we clamped wine. So my, one of my main jobs in starting up that warehouse was cleaning up a whole bunch of wine because we made a lot of, you know, compressions that were a little too tight, that broke wine. But hired the people strike the lines, put in all of the computer systems, the interface on all the forklifts. The forklift leases computers offices, got everything up and running, and then handed it over to the warehouse manager that was going to run the warehouse, and they worked very closely with one of gallo's oldest distributors, the Johnson brothers. So really had some great experience, and then I moved so moved to central Illinois, and Gallo actually asked if I would be willing to go out and start up the rest they were going to start up six additional warehouses. Well, at that point there, I had two kids at home and to travel like that. I just couldn't do it, so I declined the opportunity, which was super unfortunate. But three years later, they hired Ernie, hired my husband to come work at Gallo, which is what moved us home.
Mark Hiddleson 20:38
That is full circle. Yeah, yes, that's
Yvonne Sams 20:40
how we ended up back in Modesto, and it was, again, one of the best things that, you know, we could have ever done. So my husband goes to work at you probably could talk to him too, because he ended up running gallo's warehouse. So Gallo has 60 acres of warehouse space. They have nine they have four rail car lineups that come into their warehouse with nine cars per line, massive 77 million cases that they, you know, produce and then ship out of that Modesto facility. So it's a massive place, um, a few, a few months later, after coming back to Modesto, Ernie comes to me again with Bob Lubeck, and they say, okay, Yvonne, we'd like you to go work at g3 and I was like, Oh, I really don't want to work at g3 I really wanted to work at Gallo. Like, that's kind of where my heart is is at Gallo. And they're like, yeah, no, that's not going to happen. And I'm like, What do you mean? Like, how rude. And they're like, Well, no, you can't go work at Gallo because you and your husband will start to stifle each other's squares. Can't do that. You need to go to g3 and I was like, Okay, what would the job be? So I meet my boss who, who was looking to figure out how to sell logistics, because g3 is the logistics arm for Gallo. They do all their warehousing and transportation on all fronts. So the raw materials coming in and the finished goods going out, and so they're the, they're the carrier of choice, and they're the, you know, the company that does all their logistics. So my job was to figure out how to sell gallows excess capacity between warehousing and transportation. And I was like, I'm not a salesper. I'm an ops person. Like, what is how am I going to go sell? Like, I really was unsure, and that was a business development role, which I really like. The term business development, because nobody wants to talk to a sales person. I don't mean that disrespectfully to any sales people out there. But for me, I didn't want to talk to a sales person. I want to be. I want to do. So I got to choose my title. And so I chose business development and like, that's like a way better entry to talking to people. And so I went around the wine industry trying to figure out how to sell warehousing, how to sell trucking. I knew nothing about trucking, and that was what my mentor said. He's like, Look, you need to have more complete your supply chain experience with transportation. You have warehousing and manufacturing like you now have will have sales and trucking. And I was like, Okay, that sounds kind of cool, but that sounds lame, like I don't want to do
Mark Hiddleson 23:19
trucking business development and truck business
Yvonne Sams 23:21
development, maybe. So I really got the opportunity to learn about import, exports, about mineral hauling, about so because the glass plant we have, we hauled sand, limestone, soda ash, I got to learn about rail with BNSF and up, and then all of the little interchanges that are across the country, I got to learn about all the different ports that we were hauling out to and shipping out of. I got to understand all the different steamship lines. So really, really cool job to figure out. That's really why I became active in work, because it was like, Okay, there's this opportunity. And there was a training that work did around how to sell. And the thing that I realized through that training, that I still use today, is that the best people to sell are the people who've been running the operation in
Mark Hiddleson 24:18
this business. It is that's one of the thing, because a lot of my clients, and I like it too, because I've always been in sales, and I've never, like, you didn't affect me, what he said. But I remain called sell without selling. Like, I've tried not to be salesy. But one of the thing I love in this, and I feel like I'm the same way. I'm an operator, and like, my real skills, like, I know how to run a business, I know how to run a project, I know how to follow up and do, like, professional stuff, do my homework that you don't look at all that as part of sales, but I love it the clients. One of the reasons I love this industry is the sales people. They're the ops you have to be, or you don't know what you're selling, and you're like, No, we can't.
Yvonne Sams 24:55
Let's No, you can't. You can't just make stuff up, like, it's that way. Yeah. And so that was some, some of that work training was really, really instrumental in what developed, you know, me and my ability to build businesses. And I didn't realize it at the time, but I didn't realize how intricate trucking and warehousing was and how important they were to each other. And so I spent a lot of time trying. I spent four years in the role just trying to figure out, Okay, here's where we can sell. I had a lot of challenges. And my one biggest challenge is the wine industry wanted nothing to do with supporting Gallo, and there was what we termed as galophobia. And so nobody wanted to work with us, because they're going to give their competitor money, like, they don't want to do that. And so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out, like, Okay, what line of business, and nine lines of business I was selling. So I was trying to figure out what was the best areas that we could go into to truly work within the industry and sell Dallas capacity, and one of them was warehousing. We had, at the time, about a million square feet on site that we could sell that was kind of excess capacity today. They have about, well, they're probably a little bit more even now, but when, when I left a couple years ago, they were at 5 million square feet of warehouse space here, just in the Modesto area. And so, you know, there was lots of opportunity to to provide space and customized space and and really support the industry. We are really confident within the finished wine, but just as confident in storage of glass and any of the other kind of ingredients and raw materials that takes to make wine. So that was an area that I focused in and spent a lot of time with work trying to, you know, build competency, because we were good at big volume. We were not good at 5000 acre not acres. 5000 square feet, 10,000 square we were big, big volume, because that's how Gallo lived. So to try and do something a little bit smaller, kidding, things like that. We just weren't competent yet. And so we were trying to figure out, do we want to get into that business? Do we not? Who do we who are competitors? Who can we learn from? Is is it something Gallo would need? And then we can kind of branch learn with Gallo, and then branch it off, like all that kind of stuff. Yeah, so we did, we did we learned. We learned a lot. Um, my we're getting ready to sunset my job. So I found about three or four lines of business that we could actually sell and do a great job with and grow. And there was a lot of lines of business that were dedicated just to Gallo. And so the regional distribution system that I started up when I was in Chicago was off the tables. That was a Gallo competitive advantage. No way. We were not going to be able to sell that. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 27:44
you don't want to provide access to a network that you built for yourself. We
Yvonne Sams 27:47
built for Gallo to then allow somebody else to have that same network. So interesting. No way. Okay, so that was off the table. But at this as the time I was transitioning out of this role, I didn't have a job, so I was thinking, okay, like, what am I going to go do? The Ag manager, who had 40 years under his belt, was retiring, and ag for us meant wine grates moving from the vineyard to the processor. And so if we go back just a little bit, while I was at Cal Poly. I was in a major called Ag Engineering Technology, and it was a major that was all men. I was the only woman in the major. And we did things. We did things like welding, milling, lathing like we rebuilt engines. We worked on gas and and diesel, and we worked on small and large, and we all we rebuilt trailers. And the major was really for guys to go back to their family farms and ensure that they were, you know, could build a maintenance shop, that that was safe and that they had safety protocols, and that they could work on their equipment, large and small things like that. What was I going to do with this major? Like I, I wanted nothing to do with this major. I thought it was really stupid. And we built chassis, and we looked at fasteners, and I was just like, This is so dumb. But I ended up being the first woman to graduate in this major. And then they, they changed. The following year, they changed the name of the major, and I ended up being the only woman to graduate in nature. How
Mark Hiddleson 29:29
awesome is that? So full circle.
Yvonne Sams 29:30
Full circle. I come into, you know, four years into g3 and I raise my hand to be the Ag manager, and my boss looks at me, and she's like, why would you want to run? AG, I'm like, I don't know. I just feel like I've come home. Like, it feel like going back to my major. Like, I get trucking, I get engines, I get chassis, I get maintenance shops. Like, those are all things that I I studied. I had no idea why I did it, you know, way back then. But I this is where I really want. I really. To be on the Ag side. And she was like, I don't know, we gotta talk to the president, who was Bob Lubeck. And Bob said, okay, like, if she's interested, give her a try. Like, let her see what she can do. I doubled the business twice, and it was grape growers that I connected with. And I understood that grape grape growing was just manufacturing, but in a field, and I understood wine making, and wine makers because and the wineries, because it was production. I worked in operation, so I understood and I facilitated between the field and and the operation and my my, my big thing was, look, everybody needs to be efficient. The the field needs to be efficient, the winery needs to be efficient, but not at the expense of trucking. It was very easy for everyone to be efficient, but just let trucks sit and let trailers sit. So I was very big on, hey, we all gotta win. So let's look up some Win, win situations and how we can all be efficient, because I want you to be efficient, but not at my expense, like we're not gonna or I'm gonna charge you for that, because that's not okay. Yeah. So spent a lot of time just partnering with the industry and working with them and figuring out how to be efficient. And it was, it was fun, fun, fun. We went from about 18% of market share to 45% market share. Wow. Yeah, it was an example, because
Mark Hiddleson 31:19
it's interesting. All your Listen, you've answered all the questions I was going to ask you, like, who's your mentors? And all that you already answered the greatest I just keep talking. I'm sorry. No, no, this is great. But the the Win Win, certain industries are like that. And then when we choose our clients, like, how do you treat your vendors? And it's like, well, because we're big, we can treat people a certain way. But I was like, no, no, no. And I'm like, Well, I'm not going to be your vendor, if you're looking at it. So what are some of the things in that culture with trucks? What just, what are the few of the things that you were able to because the scheduling thing is, some trucks don't show up on time. That's what guys they're always like the trucking. It's the hardest part.
Yvonne Sams 31:59
Always, it's the hardest part. So what are some of the things? So when I so 4040, years, I was replacing a guy with big shoes to fill, and he literally had size 14 shoes. Like, this guy is a big dude. Like, big dude. Like, how am I going to fill those kinds of shoes? So what I did my first year was I interviewed the employees that had been with us for 20 plus years. I interviewed the carriers, because we don't own trucks. We own the trailers, so we had to have carrier partners. And so I interviewed the carrier partners to say, what's working, what's not. If you were me, what would you change? What would you focus on? I interviewed customers. Gallo was our largest customer, and, but they but we build growers. So growers were also our customers, direct customers, so some of the long standing customers, we had some really grouchy customers and, and they're farmers, so they're kind of in annoyed that every year we have the same issue with g3 and I have to use you, and I'm mad at you because I don't want to, but and you suck, but
Mark Hiddleson 33:04
things I don't want to
Yvonne Sams 33:07
do I have to and you suck, like those are, like the things that I would be told very colorfully. And so I gathered all this data and said, okay, the theme is that we've had growers the same issues occur year over year over year, because we were a seasonal business. So because four months you come in, you get out like, and the team was seasonal, so they came in a week before they did their stuff, they got out a week after like, and billing was a mess, and everything was pin to paper. And the same issues occurred over and over and over again. And the number one thing that still resonates with me is I had customer save on I used to tell you when you didn't bill me for loads I stopped. So if you can't figure it out, not my
Mark Hiddleson 33:53
problem. Yeah, because that's what happens in this kind of relationship, is not wins. Like, why am I helping you win? If, if you're you're
Yvonne Sams 33:59
not going to help me. Like, you just aren't fixing the issues, and you're a nightmare. And not that they weren't trying. It was just a seasonal business, and nobody really had the time. So when I came in, I was actually going to be year round, so I had the opportunity to focus on this business year round. So during the season, we ran operations. During the off season. We fix products that we're supposed to fix processes and sell. Those were like, so I the best of both worlds. I got to run the operation and I got to go meet customers where they were and sell. And grape growers are some of the best, like, people to work with. They work hard, play hard. And I'm all in for that, like, Let's go work hard, play hard. And so the first year, I just build for all our loads. Like it looked like I grew the business, and I actually
Mark Hiddleson 34:51
we were doing this all, like I grew the bill alone. I just build for
Yvonne Sams 34:55
all the loads. And we talked about how, you know how to keep track and what to do, and how. Important it is. And we talk to carriers you don't get paid, if we don't get paid, and, you know, and trying to get them to be to educate their drivers and things like that. That was the first year. So after that, it was just about listening from that list. It took us probably three years or four years to get through that list of what's going to, you know, satisfied and and get people's issues off the table. Like, how do we address these? And it took us some seasons, but we implemented a AG, kick off, which brought in all our seasonal people. We did training with them. We helped them understand what we wanted to do. I implemented a college internship program, which brought, which means the college kids had to take, college students had to take fall semester and fall quarter off. And that was a big sell to get them to, like, that's a big semester or quarter to have to take time off. And we went from one college, we started at Cal Poly, because that's what I knew. Then we opened it up to Fresno and Chico. And then we started getting a whole bunch of students from Cornell and Notre Dame and Purdue and Texas A and M and we end up with all these different Valley kids that had left. But then just, you know, were willing to come back, either take that first fall semester quarter off, or graduate and come work for us. And I think at our peak, we had 18 college interns out of our 50. So it was just, it, just create, you know, you create this environment of excitement and fun. And I they, I like to joke that I get told that I made trucking sexy, like trucking was fun and cool, which it, it? We were bottom of the barrel. Like we're the last to know. We're the last to get the information. We're at the field and things change, and the driver knows more than we know. Like it's, it's messy, it's and it moves fast. Harvest moves fast. Yeah, so what I did was just really listen to people and then implement things that people told me were not good. And once I started doing that, people started seeing, okay, well, she's doing some stuff like, okay. But as I started doing more, I started becoming getting asked to speak about, like, how to choose a trucking provider. And I started converting wineries to the you know, I overcame the Gallo phobia, and I kept saying, we're not Gallo, we're g3 and they're like, what's the G stand for? Like, nation, it's not a Gallo. And they're like, we know it's Gallo, Yvonne. And I'm like, I know, but and so I really got to use my business development skills and working with growers and converting growers. And we didn't even have 100% of gallows business when I first started. So we went from about 50% of gallows business to 99% of gallows business. And then Gallo growers were also growing for non Gallo. So then I had, you know, talk to them. I'm like, do you know, we haul for non Gallo? And so we were hauling into the top 100 wineries in the state, and became just this. We, you know, started investing in trailers. And so we grew this business to 45% of the market with a team of seasonals. I had a mighty team. We went from three of us to 12 full timers. There's still issues. We saw building issues. We still had all this other stuff, but we were whittling, we're whittling away. And became an industry leader. Started doing, you know, embedding people into the communities. Farmers want to they don't want to, they don't want to deal with the big box. They don't want to deal with the Home Depots. They want to go to the Ace Hardware with, you know, the local people owned a local grocery store, the farmers market. They really want to support locally. So I started embedding people, and I hire someone. I'd hire them remote. You need to go live in that community, and you need to go have they need to see you at the restaurant, see you at the grocery store, or see you at the kids, you know, whatever you know, we started buying farm animals at all the fairs. We had a kitty of money that we started buying and giving back to their communities to share, to show farmers that were invested in their interests and their communities. And it just exploded in a way that we didn't really foresee.
Mark Hiddleson 39:25
That's such a beautiful success story. And we do the in Napa, that's really, you're talking about wine, you know, I know harvest like there's friends that I don't call between September and October, or even it starts early in August, early, yeah, disappearing, and they're up until five or six in the morning. So, you know, sometimes getting up at eight, I got a friend. It's like, I got home at four o'clock in the morning and I was up at six to pick up another trailer. And it's like,
Yvonne Sams 39:50
Yep, I got the phone call. I got Yep, yeah, yes. And we had challenges and we had issues, but yeah, I mean, when you when you start to grow, you have different sets of. Issues growth. Growth actually creates more issues. Sometimes,
Mark Hiddleson 40:03
if everyone's at the livestock auction, those who so we've supported that for we were with ag for youth, which was was a nonprofit helping people who didn't have a farm or somewhere they could raise their animal. It was a nonprofit that was providing a space and a leader of kids who really couldn't get into it because didn't have the money. But we started buying for that, but we've just we're hooked on it, because this is such a great way to connect with the community, and it's an investment for our business. But that's where everybody is, and
Yvonne Sams 40:32
that's where they are, and that's you gotta go where the customers are and what means something to them, and and they'd be willing to pay a little bit more if they knew that you were giving back to their community and and that includes, you know, going to the local restaurants, going to the local diners, and shopping locally. I mean that all matter to our customers at the time. So I, my definition of success is more work. So then they said, Okay, well, you, you're doing this thing with this you're growing this, AG, business. Well, what can you do with these tanker business? So they gave me this tanker business that we doubled. We I ended up I had like 34 trailer tankers. We bought a whole bunch of tankers, and end up with like 64 tanker and we're growing the business. And we were working on the coast with a north coast and Central Coast wine companies, and then we paired it with warehousing and dry van trucking. And so we did all kinds of things on the coast. That was one of our big initiatives. We went from $0 on the Central Coast to a $5 million business in three years, and we just started seeing this machine grow when you put good people in place and you you set expectations or not expect, a vision of what we want to do. What if we did this? People just, they start to see that vision. And I call it magic. They magically make things happen. Yeah, and it was crazy. We had to dial some stuff back. We didn't get everything right. And you know, well, that's you
Mark Hiddleson 42:01
got to try stuff, right? Like, try anything, like, we just keep and I love that you changed about vision for expectations, because they could mean the same thing, but that has a different connotation vision, when vision is what's possible. Expectations is like, you're assuming you already know what's possible. But vision such a better way to put that this is awesome. We need to go another hour, but I wanted to make sure I ask you about your experience. You're just recently, I think recently, you're the president of the board at Cal Poly alone. How did that happen? And let me share about that. So
Yvonne Sams 42:40
when I first came to Modesto in 1995 I was working a ton Frito. I was working at least 12 hour days, so I didn't and I didn't have any friends. I didn't know anybody here. I wasn't from here, and so I looked up the Cal Poly Alumni Association, and they had monthly meetings. So I was like, oh, okay, well, I'm gonna make sure that I go to that. And it was just about, I don't 1015 guys that all were farmers here in the central in Modesto that would meet, really, they were all kind of newly married. So it was like to get away from the family for a little bit once a month to go hang out with their Cal Poly buddies. And so I just kind of joined, and I was like, Hey, I'm going to come to these meetings too. And they did this, this golf tournament every year. And so just started helping with the golf tournament, and then became, like their secretary and treasurer, and then became the president of the Modesto chapter, and we expanded the the group. It was not just the 1015, guys anymore. It was we started to, you know, see, my generation, older generation, started bringing all these people together to meet, and then I ended up on the Alumni Association Board. So once I rolled off as president, they put me in charge of the region of like Central Valley region, which was Fresno, Sacramento and Modesto, to kind of get, you know, people excited and doing Cal Poly stuff. But then I moved away to Illinois, so I've gone for five years, and I left that role, and when I came back, the College of Agriculture needed a representative on the Alumni Association. So I got tapped on the shoulder saying, Hey, you want to go back to the Cal Poly alumni? And I was like, Oh, I don't know. Like, I have kid. I three kids. I'm working. I was like, no, no. Not a lot of work. Not a lot of working. We just need you. And I was like, okay, so that was, I think, 2017 and here I am, you know, eight years later, the president, which I was not expecting, that was not in the car, yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 44:50
it's a great I was one of the things was a final I've wanted to have you on the interview, you know, for probably a few months, but it's like, how do I reach out? And we talked about before the call, like, LinkedIn. I'm like, LinkedIn is almost kind of, I want to, I want to tag everyone who pitched me on LinkedIn. Like, listen to my interviews. Like, this is how you really reach out to someone on LinkedIn. It's like some, you know the common because your common themes are just like, you know, the warehouse Education and Research Council. I've had Michael mcki, who was the president. I had him on the podcast because, like you they built, I built my career kind of along that and the mentors that I ran into and the things I learned and the classes I went to. So this is just so awesome.
Yvonne Sams 45:30
It's that like longevity. And the thing about warehousing and transportation people is it is about relationship. It's a service, and so you have to be in the industry for kind of a long time for people to feel like you're trusted, right? I think of Chris Murphy and yourself who have been in the industry to try and enter the industry. And the guys before me at g3 they had been doing the transformation warehousing for for decades before I got there, and it was, it's about knowing who to call, and so you can, I did. I entered the industry. I knew nothing about talking, but it was about who to call and how to get involved, and what, how to solve the problem. I don't know like what we did, and how do you do it? And but it's about that longevity and the relationship building and Cal Poly has been a huge part of my growth for the business, because Cal Poly, my boss was from Virginia, and she used to say, how do you know that person? I said, Oh, I don't. She's like, well, you acted like you were best friends. I'm like, no, no, Cal Poly, you're the Cal Poly grad, and we just like started talking, and all of a sudden, like you find connections, and who do you know, and who, what dorm did you stay in? And, um, here I am, the president of the Cal Poly Alumni Association. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 46:49
congratulations. You deserve it. They're, they're lucky that.
Yvonne Sams 46:55
Yeah, it's been so fun and and to learn about, you know, education and the hierarchy of how the they communicate, and how they work, and, but then bringing the alumni, you know, from a business perspective, and what we do from business perspective, and, and it's just, it's a fascinating we have 225,000 living alumni. Ah, what's also fascinating. And, and I keep kind of using these statistics, but post COVID, 25% of our alumni now live out of state. Wow. And it was small before, so it's significant now, big portion of our alumni living out of state. So, you know, how do we grow? How do we grow our involvement? Post COVID killed a lot of social clubs and socialize, you know, socializing and getting out and getting to see people. So how do you bring people back to the university? How do you get people back together to want to to hang out, and then ultimately, you know, give back their time, talent and treasure. Exactly.
Mark Hiddleson 47:56
How do you use your time? Talent, treasure, I love that. I love that. So I have one more question, and you would mention before we talked on the phone that you have an idea for a podcast, and I love it here, just give me a sketch or however, I
Yvonne Sams 48:10
can't share. I can't share because it's not my idea. It's my friend's idea, and I don't want to give his idea away. But yes, I think that there the cool thing that you're doing with the podcast and meeting, you know, industry folks that that support, you know, what you're doing is so cool. The thing that I think could be so fast that there's a whole bunch of podcast ideas, but the one that I think that is that my friend's idea is is is really just about being able to have a drink over, you know, like a happy hour and have a drink together and just talk about stuff,
Mark Hiddleson 48:51
yeah, yeah, that's cool, and it's relationships. So I will. So Rise25 is the the group, you know, executive coaching. I started with them five or six years ago, but they have a, it's a newsletter called profitable connections, and it's kind of about people who are doing podcasts. And it's a great it's like just a fold out I get. I read it cover to cover. It's almost, I used to read Success Magazine or stuff like that. Now I just read profitable connections. It's about the people and podcasting, because it is kind of the same the way they do it. It's almost like reading the Success Magazine. But these are people you could just pick up the phone and if you want to be a guest or like you're a great podcast, like, do shut up. Yes, they
Yvonne Sams 49:32
what'd you say? I don't shut up. I just talk. Just talk on
Mark Hiddleson 49:36
your career. It is a remarkable career of just the background in production and warehousing is kind of the last frontier. But you have that production where people invest a lot of training, like that was the thing I found, like, no one's invest now it's different. Now everybody's investing in warehousing. I mean, you know, distribution, logistics, third party that's all becoming a supply chain, up to my kids after they're like, Oh, it's a supply chain. Well, no one knew it's. Blockchain
Yvonne Sams 50:00
was nobody had any when we were starting out.
Mark Hiddleson 50:05
So no, you were a great guest. This has been awesome. I'm bummed that we're out of time because we can keep going, but you, yeah, remarkable interview. Thank you very much for Mark. Thank
Yvonne Sams 50:18
you for your time and for asking. I really appreciate it's been fun getting to know you and what you're doing, and however I can support you. Just let me know I'd love to to continue to support you, know you, and make some contacts if you want, with those two guys that I talked about. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 50:32
awesome. Ernie Bob, thank you very much. All
Yvonne Sams 50:38
right, have a good day. Thank you happy holidays. Thanks for
Outro 50:42
listening to The Tao of Pizza Podcast. We'll see you again next time, and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
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