Life can be difficult. If there’s luck to be had, many assume theirs to be of the bad variety.
So how do people like Lisa seem to create happiness out of thin air? They’ll be the first to tell you that it’s not their situation—these go-lucky folks share the same circumstances of both the victim and the victor, finding their lucky pennies and getting rear-ended in the same weekend.
What distinguishes Lisa and her kind is not circumstance or happenstance, but perspective. Where one sees trial, Lisa sees something temporary, and where another sees a lucky break, Lisa sees a gift.
With this formula, Lisa paddles upstream through life, defying the current that drags, drowns, and with the right perspective, strengthens the voyager through the storm.
Starting as a business development manager in January, Lisa was promoted to account manager, and then account manager 2.
Lisa: My name is Lisa and I work as an account manager 2 for the tires divisional England Logistics in Salt Lake City.
EL: Awesome. Tell me a little about your current position and walk me through what progression at England Logistics has looked like for you.
Lisa: Sure! I started on January 2, 2022, so it was a brand-new start for a brand-new year. I started as a business development manager in tires. I didn’t know anything about tires when I got here, so I felt like I had a little bit of an imposter syndrome.
I got a quick crash course on tires, and I went to work. I’m a big believer in just getting the mistakes out of the way. I’m working on becoming an account manager 3 now, and I’m looking forward to becoming a senior account manager.
EL: Good for you! Tell me about what enticed you to come to England Logistics. Was there something that helped you to feel comfortable making that switch?
Lisa: I was referred by somebody in my department that already works in the tire team. This is somebody that I really look up to and really respected as far as their opinion. They have a high opinion of my hustle. I took that to heart, and they told me that I could do great things here. I wanted to check it out!
EL: Impressive for you to jump in like that! Now speaking more to outside of work, what do you like to do? What are your passions?
Lisa: I love to volunteer my time, which is something that I can freely give. I don’t necessarily have the money to donate to different things, but my time is something that I do have that I can give.
I like to volunteer for organizations that I feel strongly about. For instance, the pride festival is something I’ve helped with over the years. I’ve also worked with the suicide prevention ride that I helped organize and get moving up off the ground. Along those lines, I also sing for a lot of charity events, including the national anthem, which I am honored to do and I have a really good time doing it.
EL: What about those things has such an attractive pull for you?
Lisa: I’m really drawn to volunteer work because of what it does for me in my personal life. Sometimes we look past the blessings that we see every day because it’s just normal activity or normal blessings in our lives.
Going in and helping someone less fortunate than myself or someone struggling with issues that I don’t struggle with helps me see those things in my own life that I feel blessed for.
EL: That’s a beautiful and increasingly necessary perspective to have. With gratitude for what you’ve accomplished, what do you feel like is your proudest accomplishment?
Lisa: Something that I’ve accomplished in my life is being able to walk away from something that doesn’t serve me and being able to have that self-love to know when it’s time to make a change.
EL: That’s incredibly brave. And what was a professional experience for you that’s been defining?
Lisa: My whole career I’ve worked in finance or tax accounting, I took a leap a few years ago and decided I’m going to go into sales. A friend of mine told me, “Hey, you’d be really good at this and here’s why…” and I believed them! I took a leap, and I was successful. During my first sales job four months in, I landed this huge deal for the company not just as a new person, but as a salesperson overall for the company. That gave me the motivation and the encouragement to keep going, to know that I can do this. Once you see the fruits of your labor you want to eat more fruits.
EL: That sounds healthy in every way possible! That’s a lot of ambition, so tell me a little bit about your why. What is your motivation for doing hard things with where you’re at in your career?
Lisa: My motivation is to be better than I was yesterday. I am extremely competitive, whether that be among my peers or just my own self. I like to push myself past my comfort level and by doing so there are great risks, but there are great rewards. I’ve seen a lot of those rewards because I have this confidence–I have this manifestation that things are going to go well.
EL: You have such a unique approach to life that can be hard to come by. Is there anything that most people don’t know about you?
Lisa: I’m writing a book. I am doing it for myself sort of like a blog or a journal, but I do want to publish it. I think it’s relatable and I think that a lot of people might read it. I think a lot of people have been in my boat and come from where I came from, so I just want to get my experience out there and tell my story.
EL: And why is this pursuit so important to you?
Lisa: I’m writing the book for myself because I want to leave a bit of a legacy. I don’t have children, so when I go, I go, but if I could leave something here that people might remember me by then I think that’s an accomplishment.
EL: It feels like you live your life very deliberately. Do you have a mantra or motto that is especially important to you?
Lisa: I am big on gratitude.
I think there’s always someone or something to thank for even the smallest of things.
This is partly why I do volunteer work because I think it just sheds a little light on those things that you can be grateful for. I feel like we don’t share gratitude as a society enough. I just think it would propel more people to do more if we did.
EL: That’s a fascinating thought. It’s not easy to cultivate consistent gratitude. How did that become so significant to you?
Lisa: I find gratitude is important to me because it makes me want to do more for other people. I love to serve others. I love to cook for others. I love hospitality. I don’t want to do those things if they’re expected, but if you have this attitude of gratitude, I really feel like I would want to continue those acts of service. It just makes me want to keep going on.
EL: So you have a desire to cultivate a legacy, you’re trying to imbue it with gratitude, you’re taking risks, trying new things–Where in the world do you go from here? What would you like to accomplish in the future?
Lisa: I recently found out that there’s a location in Nashville that has a tires division. I’m huge into music. Nashville seems like the place where I want to be, a place where the world is my oyster. I’ve spoken with my manager, and we’ve put me on a trajectory to get to head up a tire team in Nashville. I would say my plan for the next 12 months is to get myself over there and pioneer a new tire team over there. Ultimately, I would like to become an investor in real estate… but that might be my 10-year plan.
EL: Your vision is admirable. It takes concerted effort to dream up a plan like that. You’re serious about your career, but have you made any humorous memories while you’ve been in sales?
Lisa: When I was in more door-to-door and business-to-business sales, it’s quite incredible how people will take it from professional to personal super quick. As a woman, I feel like we’re probably more apt to those types of approaches than men would be. Here, I give out my cell phone number, because I want my customers to be able to have a good experience and call me on the weekends if they need me. That also invites a little bit of irreverence… if you know what I’m saying. Sometimes you’ll get hit on, I just take it in stride and try to do my best with it.
EL: Wow. That would be incredibly awkward. With some of these unique challenges, what are some of the personality attributes you have that help you be successful?
Lisa: Attitude is what I would say would be absolute number one. You’ve got to be able to come in every day and not be downtrodden by what happened yesterday.
You need to move past yesterday. Today’s a brand-new day and a brand-new opportunity.
You’ve just got to come in here with that attitude like that.
EL: It sounds like you really love your job. What gives you such enthusiasm?
Lisa: My carriers are super excited to work with me. They’re excited for what I can do for them and it’s a lot easier than past experiences I had where I was hung up on, you know, 50% of my day. I’m not hung up on by my carriers. They love to talk to me. They want to save money and that’s where I help them. My carriers get me out of bed every morning.
EL: It’s such an incredible thing to have that kind of support! But, was there ever a moment where your back was up against the wall?
Lisa: Having your back up against the wall is not necessarily a no-way-out scenario. I think there’s always a way out. It just goes back to having that attitude to where everything’s going to turn out fine. Everything always does turn out fine. I’m still here. Everything I’ve been through, I’ve gotten through. I don’t think that there’s necessarily never a way out. But there are challenges and using your resources is super important, especially here at EL. Here, we’ve got so much support and so many resources, whether it be within our own department, outside of our department–whatever the case may be. There’s always somebody that’s been through what you’ve been through, and they know how to get you through it, and it’s just making sure you’ve got a good mentor or a good role model within your area to help you through it.
EL: Those are especially fantastic words of wisdom for our team. With that attitude, what do you feel EL has done for you?
Lisa: EL has benefited me in a way that I didn’t think a sales role could. I thought sales were always a dog-eat-dog kind of world. Everybody’s, you know, trampling each other to try to get ahead. What I found here is this comradery, it feels like everybody celebrates everybody’s successes, and there’s no reason why you must feel bad about being successful or being better than your peers in metrics. They’re all there rooting for you. I think EL has brought me a little bit of a different taste when it comes to what a sales role could be.
I want to leave you with the idea that there are no strings holding you down. There’s nothing holding you down. You don’t have to go off everybody else’s successes. You can be better. I think when you come into a job, you get the idea that this is the status quo.
What everybody else is doing is status quo. I don’t feel like it needs to be that way. You can create your own status quo and if that’s miles above everybody, then so be it.
We’re on the search for more senior account managers. If this interview resonated with you, apply at this link: https://www.englandlogistics.com/search-all-available-jobs/