Devin Galloway Podcast
Summary
The guest, Devin Galloway, worked his way from entry level to corporate trainer at Amazon, where he trains new managers on how to thrive in a hectic and fast-paced fulfillment center environment. He believes that standard leadership advice may not always apply in the FC world, as the application of these principles needs to be adjusted for the unique challenges of a warehouse. He also emphasizes the mindset shift required for managers to succeed, including letting go of personal productivity and focusing on the success of their team.: Also, you try so hard to help people and get emotionally invested, but when they quit or fail, it's devastating. The emotional weight of being a leader is tough- when you simply have to look out for yourself and work, it's different. When you become a leader, you are in charge of people's lives and their livelihood, and sometimes it's so hard to balance that with the chaos of working in a fulfillment center. The global workforce in fulfillment centers is extremely diverse, and He discusses the many challenges of managing employees in a fulfillment center, including the fast-paced, high-stress environment, the diverse and ever-changing team, and the emotional toll it can take on a manager. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding and adapting to the different needs and personalities of employees, as well as the value of documentation in helping managers accurately assess their team's performance. His advice for struggling managers includes taking time to reflect on daily successes and identifying reliable team members to delegate tasks to. This transcript of the podcast "The Warehouse Underground" features host Benjamin Gordon interviewing Devin Galloway, a former manager at Amazon fulfillment centers and current leadership coach. They discuss how the principles of leadership can be applied in the fast-paced, high-stress environment of an FC/DC, the importance of tracking and documenting wins for performance reviews, and the motivation behind Galloway's articles and upcoming book on leadership.
Transcription
Speaker 1
[00.00.00]
Hey, it's Ben from the Warehouse Underground podcast. Running out of space in your facility. It is one of the worst things that can happen. Completely slows down your OP, but the customer doesn't care. That's your problem, right? But it doesn't have to be. There is a solution out there that can be a shelter in the storm until it blows over, and that can come from warehouse on wheels. They deliver on demand storage trailers when you need them, that flex with your operation and with locations all across North America, there's a very good chance that they can help you to know. Long term leases for a new facility. No delays, no over Pam for space you don't need no CapEx, just simple smart storage delivered right to your door. So don't let your dog and your aisles become jam packed with pallets wrecking your operation. No, let Wow be your side storage solution while you go back to focusing on main line operation. Hey, what's up everyone! Thanks for tuning in to episode number 29, part of our Manager Method series at the Warehouse Underground podcast, Real Talk or Warehouse DC and FCK professionals of all levels around the globe. I'm Ben, the host of the show, and most of you know this about me, but I started my career in this industry inside of an Amazon fulfillment center and life inside there is exactly how you'd imagine or know if you experience that. Very fast paced, very hectic, very stressful. But it can also be very lucrative and very exhilarating to. I started at an Amazon FC, but whatever company it is, it's usually the same type of dynamic and a distribution center or a fulfillment center. But there's so much unknown with new managers about how to best navigate this career, how to navigate, and how to thrive in this career. So I'm always on the lookout for people that have that experience, but are also giving back to up and coming managers in the industry. And my guess on the show today is definitely a person who is doing that. His name is Devin Galloway. He's a operations leadership expert and corporate trainer with Amazon turning new leaders into great leaders now I follow him on LinkedIn. I hope all of you do because he is publishing some fantastic articles, insight, knowledge about how to thrive in this career. So I'm super excited to talk with him today about life in the FC, how to navigate a career as a new manager, and really how to get the most out of that. Right. So with that, I'll bring him on the stage right now. Devin, my friend, thank you very much for joining the Warehouse Underground podcast. How are you today, sir?
Speaker 2
[00.02.54]
I'm doing fantastic, man. Thank you.
Speaker 1
[00.02.57]
Yeah, you got it. So I, I, I mentioned it in the intro intro. We both, uh, there's thousands of people that have worked at Amazon and thousands of more that will in the future. I started out there. You were there now a little bit. But just tell the audience a little bit more about your background. How did you kind of arrive in your current role? What is that role and what's a day in the life like for you there and what you're doing right now?
Speaker 2
[00.03.25]
Uh, sure. So my education, my background actually was in linguistics, and I was having a tough time finding a job, uh, you know, related to that. And I had been applying it a few places and nothing was coming up. And I came to a point. I just really needed something right now. And I saw or heard, I think, on the radio Amazon was hiring. So I went in and they said, can you start in two days? And I said, sure. And I thought it was going to be for 3 or 4 months. And like you said, I've been it's been about 12 years, so it's been a long time. But I started right, you know, entry level right on the ground floor and ended up just really loving it. It was not what I expected. I had no experience really with this kind of environment. Um, but loved the work and over the last, you know, decade promoted up to running a department, became an operations manager, and I was in charge of multiple departments and then. Like I through this whole time I was really struggling like. Because I thought it was just me. My background was not in this environment and this type of business. And so I was struggling with certain parts of the job and how to do things well. And so I started taking notes and really focusing on what to do or how to improve. And eventually people started coming to me and asking for help. And so I spent a little bit doing that. And over the last year, I've been kind of in a corporate trainer position, like you mentioned, and I'm in charge now of about 80 sites across a few different countries and helping train new managers with the things I wish I had known before. Yeah. And I I've talked about that on the podcast before, how sometimes I wish I could go back in a time machine and give myself this wisdom or this knowledge back then that I now have, and that's one of the reasons why I created this website in the podcast, is because I want people to benefit from that. And so it's cool to hear that there's other people that are out there doing that, like like you. So kudos to you. And I'm sure that there's a lot of people who are benefiting from you. I know, I know, there's a lot out there that can. So let me ask you this question, kind of diving into it, because life inside of a fulfillment center or traditional leadership or management inside of a FC with that dynamic and that pressure sometimes is a little bit different than what just standard leadership may be. There's a lot of similarities, but there's some there's some things that are different. So why do you think that quote unquote, standard leadership advice that people sometimes get cannot be adequate enough or can fail inside of a warehouse or fulfillment center, fulfillment center environment? That's a great question. And I think most leadership advice, if you go out and you look at the best selling books or search online, most advice is given for a completely different environment. And a warehouse or a fulfillment center is not just an office with worst lighting, right? It's a completely, completely different animal. And I think that. The basic ideas apply to any domain, to any industry, but the way you implement them is going to be different. So if you're talking about psychological safety, for example, is something that you'll get a lot of advice on, on making people feel comfortable and included and those kind of things. And in NFC, that's hard to do when you've got, you know, deadlines and everybody's tired because you've been working 60 hour weeks and the noise levels. Um, so I don't think that it's the the advice necessarily that fails, but it's the way that it's presented so often is entirely intended for, you know, an office quiet. You can go in. Close the door, have quiet space to talk. And it's tough to do that when you're on NFC or when you've got 50 employees that report to you. Right. These advice books that are written not, you know, they expect you're going to have a team of seven, 12 people, not 50. Yeah, right. And so it's tough to have one on ones with 58 people and all of these things. The the the basis of the advice is good, but it's just the application needs to be changed.
Speaker 1
[00.08.01]
Yeah, I think I agree with you. One thing that I always felt when I was an FC manager was if somebody came with me, came at me with just anecdotes or generic information, I almost immediately wrote them off. If they were trying to give me advice because it needs to be baked into the entire cake. It has to understand the total person, the total environment that you're in. And FC life is is stressful and the expectation never changes. There's constant pressure from the moment that you come into work, because there's customer expectation on the other end, and not every environment lives under a steady drip of pressure. Right. So yeah. And so well, but for the manager out there knowing that that is the environment that they're stepping into, the, the the life inside there. What type of mindset mindset shift do you think that they need to have? I mean, how can they kind of build their armour mentally to be prepared to to thrive in a management position inside of an FC? I think there's there's two kind of shifts that have to happen. And depending on where you're coming from, some of these might be more relevant than the other. But especially for people who work there and they promote to their first leadership position, they're already used to the environment. The biggest difficulty I see, and I've trained hundreds of managers, the most common recurring problem I see is that they still think at their old level. I say I was good at this job, and so whenever there's a problem there, I'm just going to jump in and do it. And they need to keep in mind that that's not their job anymore. That your success is no longer measured by your personal productivity, but by what your team does. And that
Speaker 2
[00.09.59]
takes a little bit of a hit to your ego. You used to be the best. That's why you got promoted. And you have to let go of that and see other succeed.
Speaker 1
[00.10.09]
Yeah, I think that is huge. I, I've made a post about that on LinkedIn before about the top ten signs that you might not get promoted from an hourly into a management role or leadership role in FC, and that's one of them. If you pride yourself, I mean leading by example is good. But but that doesn't mean that you just jump in and you wrap the pallets or you handle or you or you solve the problem. Hey, I'm supposed to be the manager. I'm doing this. Ten other hourly associates are standing around watching me do it. That's not going to work. And sometimes it's hard for people because they're there. They're probably prideful of that. That's that's how they that's how they find their worth. But but you're right. You just can't do that. And it's a different dynamic. And that is a big shift for people that this is their first time a leadership role. Now. Let me ask you this question. Like one of the things that people will often say when they give advice to managers in a FC or warehouse environment is resist sort of the temptation to just put out fires all day long, but life inside of an FC sometimes, some days can be nothing but fires. That's just all you're doing all day. But some will say, well, you shouldn't just put out fires. You should think about designing and installing a sprinkler system. If you're able to do that. That's how you should be thinking as a manager, ops manager, a senior ops manager, what have you. Not putting out the fires yourself, designing the systems that make them never appear or put them out immediately without you. So first of all, do you agree with me in that weird analogy that I have with the fires and the sprinkler system there? But do you agree with me? And then how do you convey if you do, how do you convince people to think about things that way in terms of career development and promotion and what have you?
Speaker 2
[00.12.06]
Absolutely. I agree with you. And we were just talking about kind of mind chefs that or mindset shifts. And this is what I think is the other one that doesn't always happen is you have to be a lot more intentional. And when you're a manager, when you're a leader, that when you when a. When you're just a, you know, a line worker entry level you come in, you do your job, you go home. And that's really all you've got to do. As long as you did a good job, you're set. But when you become a manager and I think this goes to your question here about designing, you know, a sprinkler system preventing the fires, instead of just putting them out is it takes a lot more intention and deliberate thinking ahead. And absolutely, it can be tough. I have been through dozens, if not hundreds of shifts where my only goal is just to make it to the end of the day, like it's just so chaotic. But you need to find time. And I think most managers realize this in the back of their minds, but it's just tough to find the time. And so what I have found works best is when something comes up, either right then or once you solve it, take 15 30s not long, but just write down what happened. Had a conveyor jam. This is the location. This is the time. And then every week or two. Just go back through your notes and look for patterns. Because that 8020 rule is going to apply here. Most of your problems are going to come from the same things again and again and again. And so when these fires come up, if you pay careful attention to where they're happening and why, that gives you an idea of where to first address your your solutions, where to put the first sprinkler, to use your, your analogy there. Yeah, I think that's a good that's a good clue. And this I think this concept, particularly in Amazon FC world, may be different in a, in a slower kind of warehouse world, but particularly in a Amazon FC world is one of the things that I think causes people the most burnout and the most frustration in their career is. It's so easy to just get sucked into that black hole and you feel like you're sucked into the black hole, but you can't get out. You have to do it. And I think the difference is you, you, you you mentioned this. You have to be methodical about it. It must be a plan. It must be a decision of things that you do. My method I have I have a notebook or whatever. Because if you if you're not, it's not going to happen by happenstance. Absolutely. I was
Speaker 1
[00.14.48]
on life. I mean, the other managers in there will be perfectly happy if you just continue to solve fires. Why is this making their life easier? It's making your boss or their bosses life easier and better. But what are you doing for yourself? And in this type of game, at some point you have to be kind of I don't want to say be selfish, right? But you need to be understanding how you're being looked at, how you're kind of posturing yourself. And are you doing the strategic level things because strategic level things is what is going to get you promoted in the next level that that makes the difference? I think, oh, sorry to interrupt. No, I just I think that you've got an excellent point here that we had we put out the fires. You know, firefighters use your example because they feel urgent. We have to do it right now or something catastrophic is going to happen. But what we sometimes don't realize, there are a lot of the time, I think don't realize is that.
Speaker 2
[00.15.45]
Installing the sprinkler system is also urgent. It just doesn't feel that way because we can't see the smoke yet. But it's also urgent. The effects just aren't as immediate, the consequences aren't as visible. And that's the the thing. You were talking about strategy a second ago that that when you prevent a problem from happening, it's invisible. Nobody sees it. Yeah. You get credit. Everybody high fives you when you fix a problem. Everybody knows it. But when you prevent something from happening because it's not visible, there's no drama. But that is the next scope. The strategic work like you were talking about is how do you prevent things from ever becoming an issue. Yeah. And and like I am networked with many people in the industry. And I've talked about this before in the past in the live show, when you have my viewpoint, my vantage point, what you start to see is that everyone begins to look the same with their profiles and their resume and their thing, their 18% improvement of this, 25% improvement of that. All those things matter, right? But they are unique to just sort of your life inside your four walls of your site. And if you're not careful, that's all you you kind of do. And then at the at the year end, you just spun your wheels and you look like everybody else who's out there in the network. But what the people that differentiate themselves is those people that know I installed the sprinkler system, I took on on this, and that takes that takes work and effort to get there and a plan and people like you, honestly, a people like you that can give the guidance and the mentorship, uh, the people that are up and coming to to understand that because you're not going to know that. Up front. It takes people who kind of have scars, for lack of a better term, to sort of give that guidance of, hey, you know, you really should be thinking about this too, because this is going to give you leverage down the road, and this is going to differentiate yourself. And you got to pull yourself out of that black hole a little bit. So you know. But yeah, that's just such is life right. Like we we live and learn and and and pass it on. So let me ask you this question, Devin. Like the industry specific
Speaker 1
[00.18.03]
you we we both worked at other places before we worked at Amazon and that type of environment. So as you moved up the the ranks and your and your leadership inside the FC, what, what what's kind of surprised you about it? Because sometimes people will think that it's going to be one way, but then when they really start to peel back that curtain, they realize, man, this is actually way different than what I thought. My my preconceived notion or my preconceived opinion. So as you went along, progressing in your career were the things that just sort of surprised you and shocked you the higher up you went? Or was it pretty much how you expected it to be?
Speaker 2
[00.18.46]
I'd say, you know, really, from day one, everything was different than I expected it to be. I told you before I mentioned that this was not my industry. I had no education, no experience here. I just took it looking for a few months while I found, you know, a quote unquote real job. And, you know, I always pictured a warehouse like you see on the movies. You know, it's like dark with puddles on the ground and people tied up held for hostage. Like, that was what I thought a warehouse was. Yeah. Um, but as far as once I actually started and began, you know, learning some things and promoting and moving up and getting different experiences, it still was harder than I thought, but not for the reasons I thought it would be.
Speaker 1
[00.19.30]
I thought that especially at Amazon, where Amazon people think is like a shipping company, they ship stuff. But really Amazon is a data company, a tech company. Yeah. And the I thought that the technical side of learning all the systems and the programming and understanding metrics, I thought that would be hard. But it wasn't like it's just information. If you did, you know, past high school, you'll you'll get that part down. What really kind of blindsided me was the emotional weight of being a leader. When your job is, you know, like I started, I was a packer. I'd show up every day, pack boxes, go home, and that was it. You you really only have to worry about yourself if you have a bad day, it's just on you. But once you become a leader, if you have a bad day. Like if your influence is spreading that across 30, 40, 80 people, right? And you try so hard to help people and you put your energy and into helping people learn and do better and grow and you get emotionally invested, and then they quit or they give up or they fail. And that is devastating sometimes. Or like people will tell you things sometimes that you're just not prepared for. I had somebody who had a worker who came to me and told me that they had cancer,
Speaker 2
[00.20.52]
like terminal cancer and their their spouse, they hadn't told their spouse yet. Like, and it's things like that that I was not at all prepared for, just the, the emotional intensity of it, you know. Yeah. That's true. And. I've said this many times, if you work in a fulfillment center. I call it American because that's where that's where we work. But really, it probably applies to the globe, too. The the diversity of the labor force that you work with is probably one of the biggest of any type of industry out there. Everybody from all walks of life, all creed, all sex, all demographic, you name it works in there. And they're all on usually one team, and you're sometimes the manager of that team. And all those people have to mesh together. And under pressure, there's pressure. And it's people's livelihood because you, you know, you have to perform and people get feedback and written up and everything. And so when you take all those type things, it's so hard, it's so hard to be a leader in there. And then also do the crap that we talked about in the beginning. Right. This is designing the sprinkler system and everything. So just being a being a manager in a FC, you're right, can be emotionally taxing because everyone brings their problems to you, right? Like they're looking for a pro, they're looking for a solution from you, or they're just looking for a, a shoulder to, to lay on or an ear to talk to. So I think that's such a great, fantastic point that gets overlooked all the time, and that is the emotional toll that it can take on you. Because you're right, you spend 40, 50 hours a week with these people and say they become like your family, but you you become close with them, right? Like you, you know them at a different level. And so you really you really care about them. But at the same time, what I've always said is there's a limit to how far you go. You can't help one of them out financially, right, like you would a family member, because now you've blurred a HR line. Right now you've crossed the line and now there's favoritism and and the whole thing. So sometimes you just have to kind of like, feel for them without being able to go all the way. And, and that that can be really challenging and fantastic. Point seven that that you bring up, they're always, always overlooked. And there's really no way to know that unless you experience for yourself. Right? You can't write. You
Speaker 1
[00.23.25]
can't read that. And like you have to experience life. And if there's fulfillment center managers out there listening, they know exactly what we're talking about. If you've never worked in that environment, you don't know, you won't know what that's like. Yeah. So just the way that it is, I think. So let me ask this question. Um, you know, one thing that I always felt when I was a new manager in FC was. Okay. Like I'm learning, but I'm I'm learning just sort of how to maximize my shift. Uh, inside the four walls of my facility. But there's a whole big world of of distribution out there and a whole big, different world, even inside of the company that you worked at, as you go higher and higher and higher. So how do you help young leaders or new leaders sort of expand their breadth of knowledge and expand their sphere of influence to kind of match the type of employee that they're leading, which is everything under the sun. It would be great if we just manage people that were exactly like us, but they're not. So how do you help people grow and spread their wings and gain that knowledge and match their leadership style to the type of person that they're leading?
Speaker 2
[00.24.41]
That is a great question, and this is something else I see all the time. Um, and it makes sense, like when you're promoted, you're promoted because you were successful. And so naturally you start to think like what made me successful. And maybe it's that I was self-directed. I didn't need oversight. I figured things out on my own. And so you assume that to help everybody else be successful, that's what you need to do, is just hands off and let them do their own thing. Or maybe it's the other thing where you had, you know, like a manager, somebody who really coached you intensely and championed you. And so you become like just really intense hands on manager controlling everything. And we assume that this is, you know, I did this, this is how I operate. So it's how I'm going to help everybody. But exactly to your point, your team is diverse. So incredibly diverse. I think you nailed this. I've never seen never been in an environment with so many people from so many countries and languages and things all on one team. And you have to recognize that not everybody is like you. It would be great, like you said, if everyone was, he's real easy. But
Speaker 1
[00.25.49]
yeah. And that and that's like people come up and they think like you said. I had a manager and this is what I liked when my manager did this, and this is what irritated me. So I'm going to make that my marching orders when I become a manager. But that's what you liked, right? But now you have 100 people and they're all different and and understanding that transformational leadership. Right. Like understanding them is is is a challenge. And I think you can take classes on that, lessons on that. But as you probably understood, like the really the only way to get better at that I think is just repetition, you know, really getting yourself out there and changing it and trying it and seeing what works and, and being able to modify. Would you agree on that? I mean, you must you must do. Right. You can't you can't just, you know.
Speaker 2
[00.26.41]
Absolutely. And I think it helps like it feels kind of strange the first couple of times you have this talk. But it helps sometimes just to ask people like, what do you need? How can I best help you? You know, I was going back to my example there. I was kind of that first example where I just liked to do my own thing. My boss will just get in the way. I'm going to do my own thing. Right? And I when I became a manager, I fell into this exact trap we're talking about, where I was kind of a hands off. If somebody has a question, they come to me, I'll help them. But otherwise I just trust you to figure things out on your own. And I had somebody who just was not getting it and was really struggling. And eventually I just went to him and I said, what's going on? How can I help you? And I found out, like he told me, I just would appreciate more check ins. I want to know if I'm doing well. I get anxious. If I don't hear that I'm doing a good job, I get a little worried. And people need some people need that structure and that consistent, you know, regularly scheduled feedback. And it's not always about your preference.
Speaker 1
[00.27.49]
Yeah, and I don't think you want to like. Being a chameleon is not the word for it. But you must. You must change your leadership style to suit the the type of employee that you're that you're leading in this industry for the reasons that we already talked about, so diverse, so much different. And and the other thing too is and that sometimes doesn't get revealed until enough time has passed. You may assume that someone is a certain way when you first meet them or start managing them, but you don't really get to the the bedrock of what makes them tick until you make the effort to dig down that deep. In order to do that. So, you know, you know, they always say you have to know your people. But in this world, you really do have to have to have to know your people. And you can they can change over time. I mean, people change. So now let me ask this question, Devin. Like if we got people listening, whether they're a new manager or, or a senior manager who is guiding and developing younger managers, if they're if they're struggling with an aspect of leading their team, what can they do? What can they do today? What is one thing they can implement to begin to turn the ship around in the right direction? If you're struggling with something and that can be, you know, any anything, it could be delegation or communication or having a strategic vision or whatever that is. It usually stems. I've found probably four times out of five. The root cause is that you don't have a good clarity on what's working and what isn't, because we're so busy, like we talked about earlier, putting out fires and spinning our wheels, trying to solve the same problems. We lose sight of what's going on, kind of some big picture. And so something I have found really helpful is every day when before you go home, take 30s doesn't have to be long 30s and just write down one thing that went right that day, one thing that you did well and not vague like, oh, we had a great day. But one concrete thing that you can remember and that might be like, um, you know, I delegated this to somebody and they did an excellent job, or we hit our rates because of this new system or whatever it might be. And once you start acquiring or accruing a list of multiple things, then a couple of things happen. Number one, you can identify what you're doing well that's working. And double down on those things. You can figure out day after day. I've had success with these things. I need to focus on that. It also helps you feel a little more confident, and sometimes you really feel beat down and worn out, that it's always problems to deal with, and it's nice to have those to look back and recognize. I actually do have some wins. I can go back and I've done these things well and you've just feel a little bit better, but.
Speaker 2
[00.30.56]
The other thing is it helps your team because you start to identify. You know, I delegated this to to James. And James did a good job. And three weeks later, I have a note here that I gave this to James again. And James did a good job. And it identifies kind of those people on your team that you can count on to step up, to start helping with some of these things so you don't feel like it's all on you all the time.
Speaker 1
[00.31.19]
Yeah. And if you have that in your back pocket and you go when you hand that to your boss or your supervisor, whether it's leading up to review time or what have you. That thing is going to be gold. I mean, that kind of gets a I was going to ask you about documentation. We've kind of already talked about documentation. But documentation in a FC world is very important. So having those wins spelled out for your supervisor and they're just looking at it go, oh, this is going to be easy to write this person's review. And I don't have to guess. Here's, here's all the things that they did for the year. Here's all their impact. Here was their wins. Here was their losses. Here's how they bounce back from their losses. That shows a level of emotional intelligence and maturity. Boom, boom. I'm I'm in versus the manager who just goes I don't know. I mean we had a good year right? I put out some fires. You see the difference right. I mean the difference becomes becomes very and like your the managers who are writing reviews out there. They're under pressure and stress too. They they they they have. So if you if you make it easy for them, if you put it on a platter with that documentation, you're right. It doesn't take much to do that. It it it it goes a mile. Even if you think that it's just that's a little bit hokey. There's nothing on there. No. The fact that you're doing it shows maturity and intelligence and somebody who's thinking at a, at another level. So don't just save it for yourself. Let other people in a little bit to to what you're doing.
Speaker 2
[00.32.49]
So every week I write a long form article and post it. And you can find this on my website or on LinkedIn. But my most popular, most read article is about how to document your wins and track these things and prepare them for your performance review. I mean, and I think there's a real the fact that so many people are looking at that article and reading it and sharing it, I think, speaks to a need for how important it is to to master this, because I've been in that exact situation. You're describing both sides of it where the end of the year comes and, uh, like, I feel like I did a good job, but I don't really have anything to tell you. And I've been on the other side where my managers come to me, and I know they did something, but they don't bring me anything. And it's frustrating for both participants because, you know that it happened and you just didn't take the time to write it
Speaker 1
[00.33.39]
down. Yep. And I'm glad that you brought this up, Devin, because and I mentioned it in the intro in the show. You you have incredible content out there. So you you post on LinkedIn, you, you write articles and from somebody who puts content out online consistently, I know how much dedication at work it takes to be able to do that consistently. So first of all, just from one to another, kudos to you. I have a lot of respect for people that that do that. And then secondly, what's your what's your motivation behind that? I mean, I know you want people to benefit from it, but to to to stick to it for, for that long shows a level of motivation that I think we should, I think we should bring up for everybody to, to hear because it's, it's really it's really rare, I think, in the industry.
Speaker 2
[00.34.33]
Honestly, it just it started from frustration. I mean, I spent years learning things the hard way, making expensive mistakes and just always feeling like I was stumbling around in the dark, and every year or so, or every time I get promoted, I would look for some kind of book or something that helped me some guidelines on this environment specifically because like we've talked about, like the things I was finding didn't really translate. Yeah. And eventually I never found anything but eventually just kind of through trial and error and paying attention to the people I worked with who did well, I started to get things I don't want to say completely figured out, but at least figured out enough that other people were coming to me, you know, unsolicited, asking for my advice and asking for help. And I noticed I was getting the same questions again and again and again. And they were things I had struggled with, too. And I figured instead of just answering everybody one at a time, why don't I take a second write some of these things down? And it's taught me, really that, you know, some of these things, some of these things are obvious. Once they're said, if you've ever had like a riddle or a puzzle, you're trying to figure out, you just can't get it. And then somebody shows you the answer and you're like. How could I not see that? Right. Yeah. And but it takes somebody to point it out sometimes.
Speaker 1
[00.35.56]
Yeah. It's like. It's like what? They. Everyone knows what they need to do to be healthy and be physically fit. Right. As an example, everyone knows that you can Google it or the whole thing, but people still go to personal trainers. Why? Because they they they get them. They understand them. They understand where they're at. They're translating it into a language that hits with them and resonates with them and kind of gets them going. It's the same type thing, I think, with what you're doing. Like, yeah, a lot of these things people will know, but hey, I'm saying it for you. I'm a voice, right? Like, I hear you, I, I understand you, and maybe it is exactly in the way that somebody needs to hear it in order to really make a make a difference for them out there. So I don't I always love it when people do what you do, because I know there's somebody out there that can benefit from it. How do I know? Because that was me, right? Or that or that was you five years ago or seven years ago or 8 or 8 years ago. So
Speaker 2
[00.37.00]
that's that's a great point, Ben. That. Like people think sometimes that leadership is something that's natural. You're either a great leader or you're not. But oh yeah, it's a it's a learnable skill. It takes practice, it takes guidance, but you can learn it. I've, like you said, like I learned it. I fumbled, fumbled in the dark for years before I finally started to figure out some of these things, but I eventually did. And if I could, anybody else can. We. They just need some guidance. But this is something you can learn through practice and feedback and learning from mistakes. Anybody can do this.
Speaker 1
[00.37.36]
Yeah. All right I love it. So where can people find out more about you. You know I follow you on LinkedIn. If people want to know more about you can they contact you? How does that work and what exciting things do you have on the horizon for 2025 or Brian.
Speaker 2
[00.37.56]
Sure. So there's two places to find me. Uh, first is LinkedIn and you can find me at Devon Galloway LinkedIn. Um, or leadership lessons. Oh, um, which is kind of my blog where I post all of those long form articles and things. And, um, I also offer like resume reviews and some interview prep coaching, if you're interested in that. And I just finished writing a book called Leading from Your Core. Yeah. Um, that'll go on sale November 14th. And that's kind of a a distillation of all these things that I've learned, you know, through painful experience sometimes targeted really at like beginning managers. If you're in your first, second year of being a leader, being a manager, this is intended specifically for those early level fulfillment center managers to give them the advice I wish I had had at the time. And yeah, I find that beginning November 14th on Amazon or at Leadership lessons.co.
Speaker 1
[00.39.01]
I love that man. I can't wait for that book to come out. That sounds really cool. Really interesting. I've had a couple of people on the show that have books and publish authors, so I will add you to my add you to the list of people that that have a book out there that I can check out and read. So awesome. Well, Devin, man, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast and chatting about some of this stuff. Again, I think what you're doing is really great. I'm happy to give you this platform to kind of shine a light on you and what you're doing, and the value you bring and the resources that you're creating. I hope people will follow you and check out some of that stuff, man, because it's really good and I really appreciate it. And thank you again for coming on the show. And sure, I'll see you on the LinkedIn streets in the future.
Speaker 2
[00.39.46]
My pleasure. Ben. Thank you.
Speaker 1
[00.39.48]
Awesome. Devin. Take care of my friend. All right guys, that concludes this show. Thank you again, Devin Galloway, for coming on. Check out his book, which is coming out in the future and also all his articles on LinkedIn. They're great. I mean, they really are great if you are a new FC DC manager, you really get a lot of benefit from them. I promise you that as the Warehouse underground goes, please sign up for the community if you have not done that. We have over 220 members who have joined the community inside of it. We have message boards, networking, live shows. We've already done a couple and we have more come down the pipe. That will be pretty cool. You guys will want to be a part of. Check out the Tiger Team show with my co-host Jordan. It plays on Spotify and Apple. It is different from this show. It has some wit, humor, and sarcasm all about things that are going on inside of fulfillment centers and distribution centers. With that comedic slant, I think you guys will appreciate that and understand it right away if you check that show out. And as this podcast goes, thanks again, Devin, for coming on. I will see you next week for episode number 30. Thank you. God bless.
