Designing Role-Based Learning For Transportation Sales And Marketing with Don Friddell

Want professional growth that actually sticks? We walk through how TMSA is replacing generic programming with focused tracks for company leaders, sales leaders, marketing leaders, sales practitioners, and marketing practitioners, so every session maps to real work and real outcomes. Don Friddell, TMSA’s president-elect, joins Jennifer Karpus-Romain to unpack why agility beats tradition in a market shaped by AI, rate swings, nearshoring, and lean teams.

You’ll hear how we’re turning long, hard-to-rewatch recordings into crisp, role-specific takeaways with optional full sessions, plus how cohort-based conference paths make it easier to meet peers who solve the same problems you do. We dig into practical examples, like turning freight fraud from a headline into sales conversations, marketing content, and differentiation. We also address search fatigue head-on with curated learning paths, so a junior marketer can see the steps to director, and a sales VP can zero in on enablement, forecasting, and social selling that moves the number.

Cross-functional networking remains a core strength. Tracks give you a home base, while mainstage content and open mixers keep the sales-marketing feedback loop strong. Volunteering takes it further, offering hands-on leadership experience you can’t always get in a one-person team. Expect more measurable value, clearer outcomes, and smart use of AI and digital tools to make TMSA a daily habit—not just a conference you forget by Monday.

Ready to see the new tracks in action and plan your next career step? Subscribe, share this episode with your team, and register for ELEVATE in Denver at events.tmsatoday.org. 

Check out the Transportation Sales and Marketing Association (TMSA) website or engage with us on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Setting The Stage At TMSA

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 0:23

Hello, everyone, and welcome to On the Move, a show where we share transportation sales and marketing success stories. I'm Jennifer Karpus Romain, Executive Director of TMSA, a trade nonprofit educating and connecting marketing and sales professionals in transportation and logistics. And today on the show, we have Don Fridell, who is our TMSA president-elect. And I'm so excited to have you come on the show. TMSA has been going through a lot of changes and growth and really pumped to talk about that with you, get your perspective on it. So, Don, as we kick off another year here at TMSA, what feels important to the association right now from a leadership standpoint?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Um, yeah, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. This is my second time on the show and uh always like being

Agility Over Tradition

SPEAKER_01 1:13

here. So um I think what's most important to us today is um is really it's about agility over tradition. Uh the industry's shifting, uh, not just transportation, also marketing at like breakneck speeds um with artificial intelligence, which everyone's tired of hearing about, but they also love it, and uh near shoring and rate volatility and a market that is um probably in recession and has been, and we don't know when we're gonna be out of it. Um that's that's what we have to help our membership to overcome. And we must prioritize being that uh agile resource and not just a networking club.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 2:00

I agree. And so you've been in the industry um for a long part of your career. You were in it and then you kind of left and then you came back. But in that intra-middle part, you actually were part of the TMSA headquarter team in the past, which I was excited when you know you were named president-elect because I think you bring a perspective that not everybody has because you've been on all sides. You've been a member, you've been a board member, you've been in leadership here, you've been in headquarters. How does seeing all of those different sides really help you shape TMSA's role today for our members in the industry?

From Member To Leader Perspective

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Well, I've been a longtime member of TMSA, and I've told people many times I've back in the early 2000s, came to my first one, and I've only missed a few over the last um nearly 20 years. But um it's uh it's really it was a reality check. Uh, I had been on the education committee, I chaired it, I was secretary for a minute, and then I joined staff. And having been on the HQ team, I know the effort it takes to produce every single webinar, conference, and it takes a village. Uh it takes all of our volunteers, it takes uh the staff, the team, and uh it's it is no easy task. And then um having been in the industry, I know that uh content doesn't solve a problem. Um you know, you've got to you got to know what to do with it, and I think that's what TMSA does. Um we bridge the gap. And my goal is to ensure that the executive side of my brain is constantly checking in with the previous association side of my brain. And uh we aren't just selling memberships here, we're providing business intelligence and networking uh that helps companies like West Logistics and professionals like me.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 4:04

I agree.

Why Tracks Replace One-Size Learning

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 4:05

Um, so the big changes that are happening right now is that we've evolved our programming to be track-based education. So now every conference attendee, every member can select a track between company leader, sales leader, marketing leader, marketing practitioner, and sales practitioner so they can really better create the scope of the information and the work that they want to do inside of TMSA. They'll be able to travel with their cohort at conference, they'll be able to get targeted emails geared towards them. And we're really building that. And it's something I'm really proud of. After coming out of Elevate last year, I thought the show was amazing. We finally are hitting really great marks. I mean, I thought the content was always great, but we're really thinking through like, how do we take these big things that are happening in the industry, like freight fraud, but how do we make it applicable specifically for sales and marketing people? So we had a session at Elevate last year that was a case study on what on circle logistics and what they were doing, but like, how are the salespeople talking about it? How can marketers use it? How do you turn this topic that everyone's talking about and make it a differentiator for how you're doing business at your company and really evolving that? But then we were still getting comments of people who wanted more information, more hands-on information of what they can do day-to-day, and then other people that were asking for more like high-level information. I'm like, okay, we're not breaking things down enough just between sales or marketing. We got to hit those actual like job specifics. So for me, that was why this is the right time. But then, of course, I bring it to the board and say, like, hey, like, let me evolve and bring you guys on this journey as we all pivot and do all these crazy things to execute this. So, from your perspective and that like board leaders see, why was now the right time to really think through how we deliver learning to our members and conference attendees?

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Well, we're all getting just hammered with information about our jobs, how to do it better. Um, some of it's written by humans, and a lot of it's now written by AI, but the days of that broad and general

Making Content Useful, Not Just Available

SPEAKER_01 6:15

information and conference is gone. It's dead. Um, you can't have all that broad catch-all session, or it's not going to be useful. So our members are diverse and they're also specialized. Therefore, a VP of sales needs a different tool set than a content manager who just moved into our industry. And our industry as a whole, everybody knows logistics is about being lean. And in no department is that more true than probably marketing, and sometimes sales. Um, we run lean operations and lean budgets, and our members' time is their most precious commodity. Um, so we had to rethink our learning to ensure every minute spent with TMSA delivers a direct ROI for participants.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 7:08

Absolutely. And then, like thinking through, we like looked at the back end of the website and are people accessing the information inside the member portal. And when we saw all of the Greek content that was in there that wasn't being accessed, then we had to think about, well, why? So, like I was a marketer for a long time before taking this role. To me, you always say like content is king, but distribution is queen, right? Because you can have all the best content in the world, but if no one's looking at it because you're not presenting the information in the way they want to receive it, well, then it really doesn't mean anything. And so that's kind of you know what what we talked about too. Like people told us, hey, we want the recordings from Elevate. Well, you don't, not in the full form because that's what we were giving you and you weren't watching them. But then we sat and talked about it. Well, why? Well, because that's an hour, an hour of their day that they have to sit and rewatch something and be able to absorb all the information and get what they want. And instead, now we want to like be like, hey, these are the things that you should take away from this session in your role. And if you want to watch the whole thing, knock yourself out, here it is. But like, really, this is how you take it, and this is how you take your information and run with it. And I think it'll provide a better experience.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Absolutely.

Reflecting Real Sales And Marketing Work

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 8:25

And part of that too is like you said, um, we run lean in sales and marketing in this industry, but we have more and more going on that we need to do every single day. So, how do you feel like these role-based tracks are going to better reflect how sales and marketing and leadership roles actually function inside of organizations today?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, well, today's organizations, uh, sales marketing and our leadership aren't really silos anymore. They're more of a feedback loop. And um the tracks really reflect reality. You know, marketing just isn't about brochures and making slides look pretty anymore. It's about lead gen and data. And then sales isn't about cold calls, it's about social selling and knowing how to use sales tech to make you um more efficient and most importantly, more effective and more successful. And then leadership is in our space, is all about trying to figure out how to achieve operational excellence in the companies. Same thing that we're doing at Brown.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 9:35

And so you touched on this a little bit before, but I do want your perspective, especially because you did work at headquarters before. What problems or or complexities do you think the tracks will solve that our old approach just didn't do?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah, I think it's gonna be

Solving Search Fatigue And Career Paths

SPEAKER_01 9:53

focus and it's gonna get rid of that search fatigue. Um, members used to have to hunt through a library of content to find what was relevant to them. Now there's a path paved just for them and their role. And then I think problem two is kind of career pathing. Um, you know, we're gonna provide a roadmap for a junior marketing person to see what they need to do to become a director or VP. Um, it's not just education, it's professional development. We're here to get our members promoted and help them get the next customer or the next job.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 10:31

Absolutely. And um, that was something I remember when we first were talking about this, talking through what does the track really look like or what those roles should be, or how do we maneuver that? And there was a couple of points that came up, and so we decided to do a primary track and a parallel track. So everyone can select their primary track, kind of where you are right now, and then you can select a parallel track that would be like the leadership track if you are that junior team member that wants to expand. And then a lot of you guys, including yourself, you're like VP of sales and marketing, and we're like, we oversee both things. What does that mean for us? Where are we supposed to go? And so that's really why that primary and parallel work really well, because then you can select both and still get both information or be able to be part of both groups, which I think will really help how our members actually function inside of our space. And yeah, and then um one of the pieces that was really important

Primary And Parallel Tracks Explained

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 11:32

to me too is that I love the track concept and super pumped about it. So many of our members talk about how they want to be able to travel in their cohort of people that are in similar roles, but I didn't want to take away what the best part of TMSA was to me is the openness and transparency of people that are in those roles collectively at TMSA. So I do want to touch base on like we still plan to have full networking sessions with everybody involved. You will still have mainstage sessions that's going to appeal to every role. And that's still that core function of TMSA, that cross like functional training and education and networking, that still exists because for me, when I was going up in my career in marketing, I didn't want to talk to the other marketing people. Well, not that I didn't want to talk to them, but like I want to talk to the sales people. Like, how do I sound smart to my sales team? I would love to do that. How do I build collateral that you will actually use? And so, like, that's that's what I wanted. So I always, when I talk about the tracks, I don't want people to think that they're just never going to be able to talk to other people because that's such like a core everything about TMSA was wonderful. Just we're trying to grow it and advance it, not take away like the best parts of what people found before. Would love your thoughts and perspective on that, especially you know, with your experience building programming in the past.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah, I would agree. I mean, we're adding to it, not taking away um your example kind of speaks to me because I started out, I'm a I was a marketing major, got my MBA, uh, but I was uh a director of marketing for a Big Through BL for 16 years. And I could

Keeping Cross-Functional Networking Alive

SPEAKER_01 13:16

see that in our world, I needed to figure out how to transition to sales. And, you know, that opportunity to network is that opportunity for me to go talk to a VP of sales and be like, hey, how did you get from marketing to sales? Or how did you get from sales to marketing? And those kind of conversations are helpful in career development. I wanted that sales experience and I wanted those sales connections and even the leadership connections because that's what was going to make me more marketable in the space. And as we said, a lot of sales and marketing roll up to the same person. Um, so always looking to take that next step in my career growth and uh be successful. That's all we want. That's all anybody wants.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 14:03

And I think one of the biggest pieces, too, is when I look at our most successful members, and I would include you in that. The way that you are able to navigate through TMSA and get those advancements, move in those careers are part of volunteering and engaging and really being a part of the association. Um, I know that like the first time I ever led a team was at TMSA. It was taking over the marketing committee and taking over, oh, the whoo, the webinars during COVID. That was my, I stepped into that right before COVID started. And I was like, what did I just? But I remember being like, Don, I'm gonna make this super organized because I'm gonna go crazy. Um, but like taking those projects on and getting to flex muscles that you might not be able to in in your job, especially on the marketing side. So many of our members are one-person marketing teams. How are you gonna get leadership experience or being able to coach a team or have like subordinates and like go through that without that type? And so that's why

Volunteer Leadership As A Career Accelerator

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 15:05

we encourage people. Of course, it benefits us when we have volunteers here at TMSA, but it benefits their career, that experience, being able to step outside of the box and grow skills and then be able to say that you have them with that experience. And I really like looked at our website and I'm like, we aren't telling that story at all. So let's help them understand that growth. How do you feel like that helped shape your career growing through the ranks at TMSA too?

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah, oh, it was uh very instrumental. Uh, if I recall, when I uh raised my hand to join the board and sit on the education committee, I um I was a team of one and I had a director title. Uh so obviously VP would have been the next step, but I wasn't managing anybody. Uh so at that time when I was asked to take on the chair role of the education committee um, you know, overnight, and I spent several years in that role. I went from not having management experience to managing 10 volunteers. And everyone knows uh, you know, you can't fire a volunteer and you can't not pay them, they're already not paid. So I think it's even a more unique level of leadership you have to have to motivate a team of volunteers to give their time and their passion uh for free. So uh like you, that went on my resume. And um now, fortunately, I started building a team at um at that position and ended up having three or four people under me, but still it was the ability to say, I've met I've led a team of 10 and was successful because here's the results we achieved with this organization because we were having great growth. And um, so it it is probably the most one of the most important reasons that I was able to step over from uh director of marketing who was one to um you know eventually becoming a VP that had multiple people reporting to them.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 17:07

And there's there are just so many of those stories,

Monday Morning Value And Collaboration

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 17:10

and we wanted to be able to make it more intentional so there's even more of these success stories in our in our community. And then, yes, like people like you that then rise through the ranks, they start getting team members, then you can start sending your team to get this experience, to get this knowledge. There's a ton of people who have like interns that come in the summer and they have no idea anything about the industry. It's like, hey, those people can be a part of your membership too. You can get them involved, you can at the very least show them the Transportation 101 webinar that sits on the member portal and learn the industry that way. So there's so many resources that are available, and then we're just with these tracks, we're making it easier for you to find the content that's gonna be relevant to you at this stage of your career. And also know you can change your track at any time. So I don't want people to feel like they're gonna, oh, I sign up for this. This is I'm stuck in this forever. No, and we're not gonna block people at the door. Like at Elevate, we do plan to have different um like color codes on your badge based on your track. So it's just easier for you to find your cohort, but you you can go to a session that's not on your track if you so wish. We're not gonna kick you out of the door or anything like that. Um, so in your perspective, if a member is listening right now and is like, okay, like you've talked about the power of it, yada yada, but how does this really help me on a Monday morning? What would you advise them about?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah, I mean, if I just came back from a marketing conference and um I had a problem I couldn't solve on Friday, or as we all know, uh you come into the office, you read an email, and like there's a problem. Um on a Monday that I just came back from the conference, I would have multiple options. One, I might have learned a strategy or technique to help me do that problem, fix that problem better. But if not, I've probably met three to five people that I hit it off with, and um I can pick up the phone or text or email and say, you know, if you were handling something like this, how would you do it? Um that's exactly what I've done most of my career, even with direct competitors. And that's one of the great things about TMSA is we're very collaborative.

Elevate Details And AI-Driven Future

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Uh, we don't, we're not territorial. Um, so just don't take our customers and uh we'll all get along. And that's what we do.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 19:30

Absolutely. Um, and we believe in that so strongly, that like use case of why you're at TMSA and why, like, what to actually be having elevate be a really functional part, um, and not just like, oh, you go there and then you go back to work on Monday and you don't remember anything. But that's that's how we end our show now. Like the last bit of that is like write down what you've learned. Who are the people you've connected with? Have you connected with them on LinkedIn? And like, I won't even keep that a secret. Like, if other event planners want to steal that, they can because people are gonna talk about it anyways. But like, I did that a couple years ago, and I think it's so impactful that we make sure that that's how we end every show because we want people to be taking away the very um best of what they learned and put it into practice right away. So very important for us here at TMSA. And then speaking of upcoming Elevate, so that's June 7th through 9th in Denver, Colorado this year. Um, you'll be stepping into your presidency, which is very exciting. What are you most looking forward to to build on or lean into as TMSA moves into the future?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah, it's really building on momentum and the legacy that we have for being a hundred-year-old association uh serving this industry and uh our members. But Beth has done an incredible job stabilizing and growing our

Building Tailored Professional Journeys

SPEAKER_01 21:00

reach. And I just want to lean into the integration of technology and specifically how we're gonna use AI and digital tools to make TMSA a daily habit for our members and also to help them know what to do with those tools by us leveraging them ourselves. Um, also focusing on measurable value and clear outcomes for every member company. Uh, it's always created value for me, but I just uh that's what we've got to continue to build on, continue to do is value for our members.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 21:33

Absolutely. And when you look at where the industry is headed and where TMSA is going, what kind of gives you that confidence that we're building something that then truly serves our members?

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Yeah, I just um I think that laser focus we're going to have now, and that it's just like, you know, if you're in a job, your first question, if you want to be promoted, is what's my career path? Where do I go from here? What do I need? To know what do I not need to know? What can I forget? And um, I just think we're going to be giving people that map or the guidebook. Um, and it's just going to be tailored to them. Almost like you know, in marketing, we talk about the buyer's journey. Well, this is gonna be your professional journey of how you go from this level of your position to this level, and um, like I said, ultimately how you are able to uh survive and thrive in our industry because it's not always easy.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 22:33

It is not always easy. Um, and I did want to. We talked a lot about Elevate and how the tracks and everything

Registration Info And Leadership Transition

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 22:40

are gonna fit together. So I did want to let people know there is a course still time to register for Elevate. You can get to it at events.tmsa today.org. Um, we if you want to see Don get his presidency, it would be sworn in. We just say everyone votes and says yes. So it's not that super serious, but um, it's always great to see. I love um when I started at TMSA a couple years ago, so you will be then my fourth president that I worked with, which is kind of crazy. So it I feel like I've been here forever, but I came in right at the tail end of Tom Collins, then worked with Mark Dirks, and then Beth Malik, and then Don. So um excited for the evolution and continue moving forward. I um agree with everything that you said. So I'm looking forward to that. Last question for you today. If you could relive any day of your life, you don't get to make changes, you just relive the day. What day would it be? And why is that what you picked?

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Wow. Um that's tough.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 23:48

I know it's a tough one. This is the this the you've already been on the show once, so you've answered that question. So then I had to have like a second question that I asked for people returning. We talking professionally or personally, you

Personal Reflection And Closing Thanks

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 24:00

can pick anything you want, professionally, personally, what you got.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Well, probably one of the biggest changes of my life was um having children. Uh, so uh the day my first child was born definitely changed my life, it gave me purpose. Um, and that's why I do what I do.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 24:20

I love that answer. I was waiting for somebody to I haven't been able to, not a lot of people return. And then I think about that as well because I agree having a child changed my life for the better. But I, as the woman, would not at all relive the actual day because that day is terrible. Um, I probably shouldn't say that publicly, but it just is that it does things to you. Um, so I would relive like maybe like six weeks later when you understand what's going on, when you have maybe gotten a little bit of sleep, but they're still so snuggly and they don't do anything. And then we just have those like sweet, sweet moments. I think I think about that a lot because I I ask these questions, but I never have to answer them. Um, but I was waiting, no one has said that yet, and I and I think about that, but I'm like, I couldn't, I don't think I want to relive the actual.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

I think babies do a lot, they sleep a lot and they do something else a lot. Yes, they're supposed to or wake you up a lot, depending on your sleep cycle.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 25:20

They do, they do. It's uh yeah, it changes you. I don't think I've slept normally for about nine years now. That's why I always have coffee on hand. But one day they tell me everyone's like, oh, they grew out of that. I'm like, he's almost nine, so I really don't know. Maybe when they move out, yeah, when they're no longer waking me up, regardless. But we'll see. But uh, but yeah, so thank you for that answer and um just being uh a part of TMSA and your transparency and your leadership. We appreciate it, and for having um, you know, faith in the new programming and being excited to take that on in your presidency. It's a it's a big shift and a lot of work, but I do think it's going to make such an impact for our members and our conference attendees. So really excited about it. So uh thank you for popping on the pod and for being a part of TMSA and looking forward to your presidency.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Thank you. Thank you for having me and looking forward to continuing uh working together and uh building a great association for our members.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 26:31

Absolutely. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

You too.