team member spotlight

Posted & filed under Culture.

We find beauty in honesty.

Think of it: The art that has captivated generations are those pieces that have shocked, moved, and even changed us. Such works cut through cordiality with their candor.

There are some people that live their lives in like manner. Offering a rare genuineness bred by experience, these people unite and reveal, creating art out of relationships and a legacy that surpasses them.

Having traversed her own difficulties, Micah has become such a person. Now triumphant from past challenges, she is an ambassador for optimism and inspires resilience in her peers and friends.

Beginning her career as a business development manager in June of 2020, Micah was promoted to account manager in a matter of months. Demonstrating enormous potential, Micah was again promoted to be an agent business coach in May of 2021. She continues to serve in this position.

EL: Micah, having been friends for a while, it’s so awesome to sit down with you in this setting. You’re a bit of an England Logistics staple.

Given your legacy at EL, can you tell me about your career progression?

Micah: I have been at England for just over two years. I currently work as a business development coach for our agent division, specifically working with our parcel program. I’ve been doing that for just over a year. I just hit my one-year mark in the agent division about a week or two ago.

EL: That’s great progress for a small period. Outside of those responsibilities, what do you love to do outside of work?

Micah: I would say that out of my favorite activities, playing soccer is the biggest one. I grew up playing soccer, have been since I was five! Besides that, I’ve gotten really into having a lot of plants in my house.

I really enjoy being home, but I’m also quite a social person and always up to do anything with friends. I like to go out to rivers, lakes, pools, go hiking–if I have friends that are interested in doing that, I’m there.

Other favorites are going to the movies, being downtown on the weekends, bowling… really anything that is social and outside of the house.

EL: You’ve got quite an array of interests! With so much love for life, what has been your proudest accomplishment?

Micah: I recently got to a point where I was able to live completely on my own, which was a big accomplishment for me after living with roommates for a long time. I have a very strong sense of independence and I really like to have my own space.

Getting to a point in my career that allowed me to live comfortably on my own was a really big step for me. It’s not something that’s super common these days for people to do, especially early in their career.

That’s one thing I think I’ll be forever proud to have done.

EL: That is a huge landmark in life! Now speaking to the professional experience of your life, have you had any especially defining moments?

Micah: This is something I didn’t realize mattered to me until I became in this position. When I first moved over to agents, I started working under my director, Shalyse, and this was my first time having a director that was female. I’ve always worked under men, most of my coworkers were men, and I was comfortable with it. After I started working under Shalyse, I realized how impactful it was for me to see a woman be as successful as she is.

This started accelerating my mindset toward my career in the future.

I want to be that person for other women, I want to help empower them and kind of guide them through their careers.

EL: I love that she’s provided that template for you. With all these aspirations you’ve shared, what is your ‘why’?

Micah: I would say that it really comes down to joy. I’ve always been a very outgoing, lighthearted person, but the world is not always that way. It’s very easy to fall into the negativity of the world and become very depressed. I had that happen in my first few years of college.

As I tried to find my way through the logistics of managing bills and adulthood, it was very difficult… and I realized how important it was for me to be able to provide a life for myself where I can have joy. I wanted to help offset those moments that are more difficult is really what keeps me going.

I care about being able to do the things that are fun for me on the weekends and being able to provide a stable enough life that my mental health is able to stay positive and stable. By doing that, I can also affect other people’s lives in that way and help keep them in a positive mindset.

EL: I love the idea of being able to pass on some of that joy. So, with all this talk of joy, when are you happiest? When are you finding the most joy in your life?

Micah: There are a couple of different places where I find myself feeling joy.

One of them is being outside in the warmth. I love feeling the sun on my skin, and especially being near water specifically. I love feeling like I’m a part of the world in the way that it was originally made. I love nature.

Also, with kids and babies, I find myself feeling very happy. They’re just so pure! Their unadulterated sense of joy and raw emotions–they find joy in such simple things that I find it bleeding onto me. I can’t help but feel that same way when I’m with them. I am an aunt of 14, so I get to be with little happy babies all the time!

EL: There is so much to your likes and interests—really just to the person you are! Is there something that most people don’t know about you?

Micah: There is one thing I would say that I don’t think is that surprising, but when I tell people they tend to be surprised. I did a lot of musical theater and choir growing up. Other than soccer, musical theater was one of my favorite things to do. I love performing. I wish I was more skilled in a specific way, either in dance or singing, but I do a decent job! Not enough to really make it a huge part of my life, but I really enjoy it. That was a big part of my life until late high school.

EL: I didn’t know that about you personally! That’s so awesome! So, as you’re chasing joy and doing it your way, is there a mantra or motto that you live by?

Micah: Yeah! It’s actually a quote by Robert Frost that I found years and years ago. I don’t know why at the time it really stuck with me, and I don’t fully remember when I came across it, but all it says is “It goes on.” That’s something I’ve had to learn in many aspects of my life.

Pain is temporary, even the deepest pains. Even when you’re there for a really long time, you can move past it. When I’ve put that into work, I’ve been able to see it come to light. Now it’s just a given for me. When things are hard or I don’t feel like I am especially progressing, I tell myself, “Life goes on.”

Sometimes people can see that as a negative, as in life is always moving past you; however, I take it with the meaning internally that I can always get past pain. I can always work through it and I can move on to the next thing.

There’s always room to grow and there’s always progression to be had.

The only thing really holding me back truly at the core is myself. I keep that in my mind to keep myself from holding myself back.

EL: I love that implies that all hard things in life can be temporary. So, with this attitude that life is going on, where do you go from here? What are your future plans for yourself?

Micah: I don’t know a ton about the exact details of where I go next, but my goal is to continue to just move through my career and listen to my gut.

I know it sounds cliche, but truly our intuition is more impactful than we realize. So, my goal is to continue to move up career-wise. Of course, I want to continue to make more money. I want to create a stable life for myself while also being impactful to others. I want to be able to move up so that I can impact more, whether that’s within England and moving up more in leadership here, or if life eventually takes me into a whole different pathway, I just want to be positively impactful as I can.

I really enjoy management and leadership, so that is my ultimate goal: I want to be in a position where I get to have a team that I get to influence every day.

EL: I love that, you’ve provided some seriously awesome and insightful answers here. Last question for you. How has England Logistics been able to assist you in your journey?

Micah: EL has been one of the greatest blessings I’ve had, and I honestly can get emotional talking about it because it changed my life in a lot of ways. EL really helped me in two ways.

The first is the view of myself. When I came to EL, I really had a team around me that helped me realize my potential and that I could be really successful. Before EL, I was just working whatever jobs.

EL is a place where you must show up and you have to do well, or you won’t go far. There’s no way around it. If you’re not doing well, you’re not going to be able to move up. But for the first time, I had leadership really invest in me and believe in me. They encouraged me to be successful.

Along the same subject, I would say EL was really helpful for me in finishing my degree. My old logistics coach, John, [John passed away from COVID in late 2021], who I miss dearly, pushed me to finish school. He is the reason that I went back to full-time. He really coached me through it because he had been through it before. He helped me learn about EL’s tuition program to help me pay for college.

John worked with me and our director to accommodate my school’s schedule just enough so that I could continue to make progress. That was a huge thing for me that I had never been offered from a previous company. I’m forever grateful to him for that.

EL: Even when your words are just on paper, I think they’ll still carry the same gratitude that I can feel from you now.

 

 

Ready to join an award-winning culture of thriving people? Visit our careers page to learn how you can join our team!

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/