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Running a warehouse or manufacturing facility isn’t easy.
Every day, you’re expected to keep product moving in, around, and out the door. Faster. Safer. With fewer problems and zero incidents.
That’s a lot to carry. It can feel like an impossible ask, but we’re here to help make it possible.
On this show, we dig into the real challenges happening on the floor and at the loading dock. Each episode, you’ll hear from industry experts, operators, and problem-solvers who share practical ways to improve quality, boost productivity, and keep facilities running smoothly.
Our goal is simple. Share new ways to tackle challenges that never seem to end so your people and your product get in, around, and out the door safely. You ready to clock in?
Jason Meyer (00:00):
Safety was not the priority. Walking through, driving through and being in our warehouse was a kamikaze mission. There was no guarantee that you would be in a safe zone at any time or others would be aware of you.
Mike Smith (00:17):
Clocking in, the podcast for people who keep products moving in and out of industrial facilities every day. I'm your host, Mike Smith, director of product here at Robert Dietrick Company. All right, we're back with another episode of the Clocking In Podcast brought to you by Robert Dietrich Company. I'm your host, Mike Smith and Jason Meyer, you are our guest today. Thank you for being with us. Glad to be here. Glad to have you with us. Jason, you are somebody that is primed to talk about our topic today, which is facility leaders tell all. You don't have to tell all, but we are hoping you bestow some wisdom on us as far as starting out what I wish I knew. We all wish we could go back in time, know then what we know now kind of thing. There's a big difference in having a job or a title and knowing a job, whether you've done it for 10, 15, 20 years, doesn't matter.
(01:17):
Standing on the other side of the timeline makes all the difference in the world, right? You're operating out of a place of experience, tenure. There's hopefully a lot of listeners listening to this who are just entering facility leadership. They're just getting into facility management, maintenance, whatever. It probably feels a bit overwhelming. I bet you wish you had something like this.
Jason Meyer (01:39):
I sure do. Yeah, I sure did. Sometimes the description or job title does not match what you do. No. So it's kind of nice to have somebody that can give insight.
Mike Smith (01:50):
How many years have we known each other?
Jason Meyer (01:51):
A few.
Mike Smith (01:53):
Okay. It's 10 or less, but I feel like I've known you for a long time. I've worked for you in the field. I've worked at Gleaners. I've watched your guys' operation evolve. We were just talking a minute ago off mic. I think I have a lot of respect for watching the set of obstacles you have in your facility that other listeners listening to this episode don't have is very impressive. You're also a non-for-profit organization. You've got probably an extra layer of budget and money to think about. You just have a lot of things, I don't want to say working against you, but a lot of other things you have to consider when you talk about running a facility. It's inspiring to watch you do it at a high level with all of those obstacles is what I'm saying. So from my perspective, from our DC standpoint, we really respect how you run your facility and how I've watched your facility evolve over the years.
(02:49):
It's very impressive.
Jason Meyer (02:50):
Oh, thank you. And you guys have been a support. Gleaners Food Bank is the largest food bank in Indiana. In fact, and I'm going to read this because in the 2025 fiscal year we had over 1,265,583 meals distributed to families. And that doesn't include the pounds that were distributed to other food banks. We have 300 partners in Indiana, but we ship food to all 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska for food banks to distribute to partners there. So it's a big operation in a little building, 332,400 square feet, but it's an old building too. So we have a lot of challenges.
Mike Smith (03:35):
20 seconds or less. Tell us what your title is. Tell us a little bit about you, what you do currently or what you have done over the years at Gleaners.
Jason Meyer (03:43):
So I started driving truck for Gleaners going directly to locations where we picked up food and then distributed it. And then I moved into the maintenance role and because I was an old farmer stuck in the city, I learned how to troubleshoot and I just fixed one problem after another and then started to plan and moved into the facilities management role.
Mike Smith (04:05):
I'm sure in a business like that, people wear multiple hats. They saw that you had a skillset that there was a hole for at Gleaners and that's how you move from just starting out at entry level position into what you're doing today. Wow. You guys have all of the same things in your building that every one of these listeners has. You've got shipping and receiving. Everybody has that. You've got dry warehouse, you've got ambient temperature, you've got chilled docks, you've got freezer, rooftop problems and units. You name it, you have all the things that everyone else has, right? But you guys have Gleaners has a couple things that a lot of facilities don't have. You've got neighbors, you've got volunteers and maybe you can even talk about some of the things going on up in the front offices, some of the additions made in the last couple years, but you've got another layer of things to consider in your facility that a lot of listeners don't.
(05:03):
What are they?
Jason Meyer (05:04):
Yeah. Besides the 120 employees and up to a hundred trucks a day that we're servicing inside and out of our 20 docks, we have neighbors who come to the pantry or to our resource room where there is now exam rooms for doctor, nurse, dental, pharmacy, and help with SNAP benefits as well as the WIC program. And so they're coming to the building with not the best circumstances, but to take care of them, 40% of the labor we do is done by volunteers. So hundreds of people come every week to assist us in providing what those neighbors need.
Mike Smith (05:48):
It's interesting. So a lot of facilities, they already have an anxiety about new employees starting. I got to safety train them. I got to onboard them. I got to show them what the dangers are. On a daily basis, you have neighbors coming in to receive donations, people coming in to get care and you have a large volunteer base who like probably most of them are going to volunteer once or twice, maybe three times. Maybe you have people that are regulars, but they're in there in an industrial environment for the first time. So you have to think about that on top of all the normal things.
Jason Meyer (06:24):
And when it comes to the neighbors for the pantry aspect, even when we make custom meals for them, they're driving into the building, but we call the chute. It's a very long hallway, 500 feet long and they're driving in amongst all of what we're doing with forklifts and volunteers.
Mike Smith (06:46):
That chute operation is impressive. When I go through the Chick-fil-A drive-through, we've talked about this. You guys have streamlined this shoot. I don't even think you realize how impressive it is because you're just there every day.You're like, "This is what we do. " You got teenagers over here inches away from moving vehicles, PIVs, all kinds of hazards, skids being thrown down, picked up. And you guys onboard all these people in a matter of minutes, train them, get them out onto the floor and you do things safely. It's impressive. I don't know who has more to learn from each other, like Gleaners or Chick-fil-A, but there's definitely a co-op thing that could happen in there. It's interesting. I think about you guys when I'm sitting in the Chick-fil-A line, so kudos
Jason Meyer (07:32):
To you guys. We've been very fortunate.
Mike Smith (07:33):
So we are here to glean from you, so to speak. We want to pick your brain, learn the theme of this podcast today is like what we wish we knew 10 years ago. So we're going to huddle up. This segment we're going to do is going to be a little different than what we've done before. I want to do a round of speed dating questions. I'm going to blast you with about 10 or so questions. Try to give me the most concise, quick answers you can, but if there's something that you really feel like you want to dial in on and hone in on, please do it. We're here to bestow wisdom. We're here to pass the torch, hopefully. So don't be afraid to focus on something if it speaks to you. So take us back 10 years. What did your role look like back then?
(08:19):
Well,
Jason Meyer (08:20):
Our warehouse was actually kind of new to us and we thought we had all kinds of room to expand our processes and we were bringing in what we thought was a lot of food. Now looking back, it was nothing compared to what we're doing today. We had a few trucks and we loaded them ourselves and unloaded them throughout the community. Now we have over two dozen trucks, semis, trailers, loads going in and out and we actually go over the road now, which is a huge change. But looking back, what we thought was efficient and what we thought was good storage use really wasn't. The other thing that concerned me, and this is what RDC kind of helped me to see is safety was not the priority. So walking through, driving through and being in our warehouse was a Kamikaze mission. There was no guarantee that you would be in a safe zone at any time or others would be aware of you.
Mike Smith (09:30):
What did you think at that time way back when, what did you think being a great facility manager or like leader meant back then versus now?
Jason Meyer (09:42):
I always appreciated a leader that would do what they asked of you. So anybody that worked with you and could be alongside you would not ask you to do something they wouldn't do themselves. And that's always been part of our relationships at Cleaners because we do take that nonprofit small business view where we're a team and we want to help each other. However, I've realized that as we've grown, we have to as leaders step back, take some time for ourselves so that we can plan the next step.
Mike Smith (10:18):
What were you focused on in the early years of your career? Like you switch into this new position, you've got the facility at your disposal, you're responsible for it. Where did you just hone in? Where did you gravitate to? What was the first thing?
Jason Meyer (10:34):
It honestly was reactive. It was take care of a problem and face the next decision that comes your way. So often what we would do is we would be tasked with something and so our goal was to just complete that or we had this amount of pounds to take in and we wanted to put it here and get it in inventory and we thought we were doing well. But now looking back, if I could have known that what we needed to do was simplify processes and make them safer and more economical, we could have probably cut out a lot of that extra manual work and time where everybody was happy doing that, but it wasn't helping us the next day.
Mike Smith (11:20):
When did you start to make that shift from thinking in like smaller moves to bigger, more strategic moves? When did that happen?
Jason Meyer (11:27):
Probably with equipment. And here's a terrible example, but right off the bat, I was faced with fluorescent lights and snowplowing with not enough equipment. So some of the very first things I did were LED lights, get rid of those ballasts that are sitting there cooking, wasting power. I
Mike Smith (11:49):
Remember that.
Jason Meyer (11:50):
Never being able to keep up with changing bulbs. And then in one year we spent 44,000 in snow removal. Now we don't have a lot of snow in Indiana, but because of our business, we have to get it out of the way and safe as quick as possible. So one of the decisions was to buy a machine that could handle things faster and handle produce and other things that we were working with every day too.
Mike Smith (12:17):
Great advice. I think a lot of people are in that boat thinking how to move less reactively, start acting more proactively, thinking in bigger steps, not smaller steps. If you could give any piece of advice to yourself on day one, what would you go back and tell yourself then?
Jason Meyer (12:35):
You can't do it all. You can't please everyone. You've got to focus on a few simple things and just do your best at that. What's
Mike Smith (12:45):
Something you used to believe that, or like what was a conviction you once held about running a facility but now has changed or shifted? Is there anything you once thought, man, this is just like hard and fast, but now you've changed your view on it?
Jason Meyer (13:01):
Because I like to work and I hate wasted time and energy. I used to compare myself to vendors or to other employees and I would think, why are they wasting time? Why are they taking that? Why did they make that mistake? But then I had to remember that we need to build relationships and often if you take an interest in a person and don't compare them to what you could do, you actually will end up needing their help in the future, will help them significantly help you and in the end that's what matters rather than accomplishing every single task as soon as you can to really listen.
Mike Smith (13:44):
I imagine that that takes a lot of patience when you could just jump in and do it. That's something I've learned too. Whether it's raising kids at work, I definitely understand the value of having the patience and stepping back and letting someone learn it for themselves versus you jumping in every time. Yep. Is there a mistake that you made early on that taught you a lot maybe the hard way?
Jason Meyer (14:05):
Yeah, taking myself too seriously. Here's an example. I'll often think of what I want to accomplish in the building and because of capital, timing, even lead times, it doesn't happen as soon as I like. So then someone else brings up something similar and I think, "I've already thought of that. I've been working on it. " Or the senior leadership team didn't agree with me yet. They'll get there and I take that personal. Rather than thinking, glad they're wanting to contribute, let's take all of our ideas and put them together because that supports the mission.
Mike Smith (14:43):
How has your approach to safety evolved over the years? At first, it wasn't really a priority, which tons of facility leaders are in that same boat. It's all about getting in there, getting efficiencies nailed down. How am I going to organize stuff? And then safety kind of becomes like, "Oh yeah, we really didn't think about that when we put this aisle here, when we put this racking over here, so on and so forth." How has safety started to influence your management and your leadership within a facility over the years?
Jason Meyer (15:11):
It's funny, often what we think is a problem never happens. What I mean by that is we don't hear about the statistics that could happen, but we avoided it because of taking safety seriously. So because it's never happened, many don't take it as they should. So early on, I took a few shortcuts. I fixed a few things the old Farm Boy way when I wasn't considering OSHA and 200 pounds of pressure against it or whatever as far as methods of wearing the rights, PPE, et cetera. Now looking back, those things are a protection for the things that could happen that may not have yet. So it's not just about liability, but as far as safety goes, I had to change trying to accomplish the problem with how do we do it safely so that we can enjoy the next day after that.
Mike Smith (16:12):
Couple more questions. Where do you see people cutting corners that come back to bite them later, specifically in facility management like, "Oh man, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I'd have spent a little more here or done this differently." Any examples of that?
Jason Meyer (16:27):
Collecting data on even PM maintenance or other things so that you can actually refer to it, not just because of an audit, even though we are checked by several agencies, we pay other agencies to make sure we're doing things right, but having some of that to base future decisions off of and to explain from a facilities management role why something could prevent a bad thing from happening because many of those that make those financial decisions don't understand the process. They haven't actually been there to run the shovel to do the scooping. And so probably taking all of those things into account, keeping that data or record has been important, but not getting buried in it.
Mike Smith (17:16):
Are you in a place now where you've collected data long enough that it can now influence decisions or is it still very much like by the gut?
Jason Meyer (17:27):
It's still a little bit of both, but a few examples are with just maintaining forklifts for that matter, keeping them safe. We've been able to track what batteries we put in, how often we water them, what kind of exposure there is of acid buildup on top. We've been able to use an app to take pictures and add them to the serial number, model number, et cetera, shows actually what amp hour charge they need because when I first started, there was often chargers plugged into forklifts that weren't even the correct voltage, let alone the right amp hours. So that has really built up the efficiency but also the longer last the durability of our fleet.
Mike Smith (18:14):
Nice.
Jason Meyer (18:15):
And we have 36 sit down lifts.
Mike Smith (18:19):
I did not know you had
Jason Meyer (18:19):
That. Yeah. Wow. Plus another dozen walkie riders and then walkies that we use constantly. So batteries is a big deal and it's more than just about saving money. You don't want that exposure in the warehouse to break downs or acid that's leaked out on the floor or whatever.
Mike Smith (18:40):
Are you using any of that data to be able to consolidate and condense cells from one battery to another? And are you doing any of that or how has it helped you save money?
Jason Meyer (18:49):
Not so much transferring cells as much as watching the life and usually you can make small changes to affect the overall life of the battery, but we can track where a lift is now instead of having to go find it when the tech shows up. We can track the life of it as well as how much energy has gone into it and that affects your power output for the whole building. We're fighting that keeping the clean power going and those usages so that we can make it more efficient. All
Mike Smith (19:19):
Right. Last question in our speed dating section, our team huddle. What risk do you wish you took earlier versus waiting? Was there something looking back, you're like, "Man, I wish I'd have betted on that, or I wish I'd have taken that chance and not waited so long?"
Jason Meyer (19:38):
For fear of going out of my place, I probably didn't take advantage of training and opportunities to get to know other facility managers the way I'd like. Even as vendors such as RDC, as they show up taking the time to talk to those technicians to get to know your consultants and to really listen, not just think about what they are there to talk about because all that information would've helped me to do things more smoothly and fast and instead of just thinking, "Oh, I need to stay in my lane. I need to stay in my place. I need to take care of this problem and that, " in the future it just grows. And so you need that knowledge later and to help you have wisdom in making decisions after that.
Mike Smith (20:27):
That's great advice. I bet a lot of people sitting in your shoes listening to this episode probably have that same insecurity or fear. They're like, "Man, I just want someone to mentor me, maybe someone who's five or 10 years ahead of me.
Jason Meyer (20:40):
" But you may not think you're worth that time. You may not think you have time to go offsite. You may not think that you have time to tour another facility, but you do. And it pays evidence. It does.
Mike Smith (20:51):
All right. So speed dating's over. We're going to go into our floor walk. This is where we get a little more granular, a little more nitty gritty, right? We've got a list of things we could talk about. Let's head out on the floor and I'm going to give you the mic first. Talk to me about some things that you either weren't considering several years ago and now you're painfully aware of, or talk to me about things like the lighting project. That would be a great one to revisit that you look back and you were like, "That really started to make a difference in our facility." Or, "This point right here, this is something I would tell a young facility leader to get on right now versus waiting."
Jason Meyer (21:32):
Well, you brought up lighting and on another podcast you did with Lisa, she mentioned how a facility with the right lighting can keep it organized, it looks cleaner, it's easier to navigate and people will care for it better. But in our case, probably storage space was a huge one. If we had seen the technologies that were coming in a few years and not invested in racking what everybody thought was going to be the right design or layout and we spend a little bit of money on that and then we're already outgrowing it and have to remove it and replace it with another design. So for example, we didn't take into consideration how many lanes there are and where people will walk compared to those racking lanes. So if we would have done a better job of use of our space and really gone up to make the best use of our space, we could have had a real advantage there.
(22:37):
So looking back, we had forklifts that didn't reach the D level. We finally kind of filtered and kind of got those out and moving in with ones that can. So taking advantage of that 240 inch height gives you more floor space to do the people stuff. So that's one example of things that I would have liked to have taken into consideration more. Of course, in our case, a lot of people are making those decisions, not necessarily the ones working in the warehouse. So that input may or may not have happened, but hindsight is if we would have really laid things out and engineered and consulted even to know how to have walkways and highways for forklifts, we would have been a lot better off.
Mike Smith (23:27):
So facility planning and layout, huge. That is a pain point for everybody. I think you move into a space and you're like, "We'll never fill this up. We'll never have that problem. We'll never have that problem." Do you find that it's good to stand back, step back, whatever, and like pause and think, how are we going to grow in the next 10 years? What lines are going to be coming in? What products are going to be coming in? What's the uptick in our neighbor situation year over year? Do you guys do that now? Do you strategize now when you're talking about facility layout and stuff?
Jason Meyer (24:00):
We do and we are. And there's a lot of tools out there that I wasn't even aware of, but it goes from you being at home cleaning out your garage thinking, "Well, this shelf is going to make the difference." But then before you know it, it's full and you can't even get to or know what you have on the shelf. And here's another factor we give tours daily. So we have new volunteers in our building daily. We have board members and other food banks and neighbors who donate who want to see what their dollar is doing. So to have them through a warehouse that is very active and be safe is a huge factor.
Mike Smith (24:42):
Tell us about some of the other things. Do you have anything else on your list like you want to share?
Jason Meyer (24:46):
Because of the age of our building, we've been facing a lot of issues with old mechanical such as fire suppression. And at the beginning, if a few changes had been made, we probably could get some more life out of it, but even the way it's installed can affect how it lasts.
Mike Smith (25:06):
Talk to me about it.
Jason Meyer (25:07):
Well, it's not really fair because I came into it. I was self-taught. No one trained me to look at fire suppression and say, "That pipe is going to allow air into it and therefore is going to rot or rust inside faster than another, such as a dead end in a dry warehouse." We have constant leaks because of that. If we had added vents or put possibly nitrogen in, we may have been able to get rid of that air that allows that rust to happen. That's just one example of many.
Mike Smith (25:41):
If someone's listening right now that suspects like, "Hey, I may have that facility pain point," what would you recommend they do? If they even have that suspicion, should they just be educating themselves on the topic, calling you or is that where partnership comes in or should they be getting with their fire suppression service provider?
Jason Meyer (25:59):
Yeah, often providers will not necessarily sell it to you but just encourage you to think about it and that's what happened in my case and it's a unique situation being in that old of a building. If you're in a newer one, it's maybe not something that people are going to jump on and say, "Let's do this, do that, do this to prevent future rot or problems." But just making them aware of the possibility because it's not your problem today, but it will be in 10 years. It will be tomorrow. And it does affect the value of the building if you were ever to sell it and go somewhere else or build a new one somewhere else.
Mike Smith (26:34):
The note about comparing yourself, you already made the comment like early on, "I wish I would have gotten with other people, looked at other facilities, made trips to see other buildings." Where's the line between that, which is very healthy and good to do and not getting caught up in comparing yourself to other facilities. How was that a distraction for you early on?
Jason Meyer (26:57):
I found a lot of my energy and wasted time I spent thinking about what I could have done more of, done better or done differently. And then I would look at other facilities and say that they've got it going. So I guess the point is instead of worrying that everyone sees what you're doing, instead of trying to establish that your new ideas really had a good effect, just focus on the overall goal. It'd be nice if everybody patted you on the back for your forward thinking ideas and solving the problem. But in reality, if you can make your job easier and have some kind of a good feeling for that, that's a good thing to accomplish and it'll make the next day and your family happier.
Mike Smith (27:45):
Yeah. Just learned to self-soothe, self-reward and like make it about team, right?
Jason Meyer (27:50):
Yeah. In the beginning, I tried to be there for every vendor that showed up. I tried to answer the phone every time someone called and it got to the point where I had to delegate some of that and it didn't mean I was being insufficient in some way. It just meant that I was recognizing my modesty, my limitations.
Mike Smith (28:09):
Talk to me about the lighting project, because I remember you doing that early on. I probably showed up for a service call or to install something for you or whatever and I remember you showing me the lighting project that you did on Waldemere. Tell me about that. What was the pain point? Why did you guys change the lighting?
Jason Meyer (28:28):
To be honest, to change a fluorescent bulb, there's a lot of risk. And so we were constantly trying to keep a full set of lights going and you had to find bulbs that were good and you can't drop them because there's risk. Now you're up in a lift when there's forklifts going by and one day I got to the ceiling and it was hot and I could hear the ballast just humming and I thought, "This is stupid. The lights are dirty. I'm covered in soot. What can we do differently?" And so actually I didn't budget for it. I didn't get capital money. I just changed a few lights and all of a sudden they saw at the other end of that hallway or in that corner of the building, there's light at the end of the tunnel. How'd that happen? Whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
(29:16):
So then it went to 12 lights at a time and finally all of them.
Mike Smith (29:20):
Did you like that approach or do you wish you would have just made it a capital expenditure?
Jason Meyer (29:25):
I think for us it had to be a slow start method and sometimes it's good for them to have a pinch point or a little bit of pain so that others recognize what's happening on the building front.
Mike Smith (29:39):
Talk to me about preventative maintenance and being proactive versus firefighting and being reactive.
Jason Meyer (29:47):
It has been a sore subject for me because from the beginning I didn't understand how preventative maintenance ... They were selling it to me. "You need this program. You need that kind of preventative maintenance and I I thought I can grease a zerk. I can oil a chain. I can look at the cables and say it's okay. You're charging me an amazing amount. What I found was a lot of vendors were wasting time and they were using inexperienced people to do that work. So it was frustrating. So what I did do is clean up the amount of time that vendors look for a lift, for example. Or if they're going to be on site working on these docks, I'll make sure to plan that they're open or ready or have them communicate with me so that we go looking for those things and are there to support them the whole time there, which doesn't make them feel like they're being watched but keeps them somewhat accountable for their time.
(30:45):
As well as preventative maintenance, we can't do it all in our facility. We have such a small team. There's no way we could keep up with it. So rather than just signing a document saying quarterly, I would look at how many hours of use something had or how many cycles something had and we would focus on it rather than one that was a low use item.
Mike Smith (31:07):
Early on, you probably did a lot on your own. I would imagine as you progressed in your career, you probably started to see the value in partnering with the right people, taking load off yourself, which frees you up to focus on gleaners. Talk to me about the importance of vendor relationships and partnerships that help make you a better person for gleaners, freed you up more. How important was that?
Jason Meyer (31:33):
That's a fine balance. Being able to do what you can to save a little bit, but then not taking risks or doing things that we shouldn't be involved. We're not trained to do such as electrical or dock shelters, for example. Finding the balance of when to call a vendor is important, but it also has a lot to do with the relationship with that vendor because if you feel comfortable just talking to them about a problem, not suspecting that they're going to sell you or show up the next day with a dollar figure in mind, but know that they're interested in helping you get a solution. And that often helps me to say, "Hey, I'm going to leave this on their shoulders. We don't need this risk or this item on our list."
Mike Smith (32:22):
I love, I want to say customers, contacts like you, because I love having that relationship with vendors. We've got certain customers who are very capable electrically and we really here at RDC like to educate and be a true partner with someone. Every moment is not a moment to sell something or push something. I think that's where relationship comes in. This is a question I'm dying to ask because I don't know how you're going to answer this, but they call this the silver tsunami. There's this exodus of people in the workforce who, I don't know, like maybe even our generation, it's becoming less and less, but that just have that baby boomer, like go get it done mentality, roll up your sleeves, figure it out. I don't need to be led. Let me handle it. There's a gap there and there's a term for it. Like I said, they call it the silver tsunami, but have you experienced that in your time as a facility leader?
(33:25):
The exodus of people, you're one of those people where if they left, what are we going to do? Have you had that pain point and over your time in leadership have you done anything to address it?
Jason Meyer (33:38):
It comes back to your own philosophy in that in the past individuals who were hard workers, baby boomers to speak, were interested in keeping their role and not training, but there is so much work out there. There's such a need. There is no reason why anybody shouldn't be willing to train someone else to do what they do. And there's not a risk there because anytime you help someone, you're going to help yourself. In the sense of maybe the younger ones that are coming, you think they're motivated. I find the opposite. We'll train them and get them ready and then they don't even let you know they're not coming. In order to get young ones, especially interested in the trades, the buildings, the warehousing, all that's going on out there, I think we need to take an interest in them. If they can find themselves meeting challenges and seeing more potential in themselves than they thought they had, I think they'll be more interested.
(34:39):
And so I'm all about training and teaching, even telling ones what I learned the hard way so that they don't have to go through that themselves.
Mike Smith (34:50):
Are you finding ways to practically pass the torch? Are you guys documenting how to do things? I guess what I'm asking is, how do you get it out of your head to where it's not tribal knowledge anymore? And if you go take a job somewhere else or you and Amber leave and go live somewhere else in the world, which I find that very possible. You two are like world travelers. How are you actually getting that knowledge out of here and instilling it into others so they can step behind you and not have to play all the catch up? Are there ways you're doing that or is that still like a gap?
Jason Meyer (35:26):
To say it as concisely as I can, I work with my employees. So I work alongside them. We partner up on projects and then eventually I have them take the lead and then I just comment on things that they might do different after or I commend them for what they did that was good. So more than just the review process of setting goals, I'm hoping that they can communicate where they feel insufficient, but also reward them for the potential they've shown.
Mike Smith (35:58):
Great conversation. We've gotten through a lot that I hope is useful to people that may be sitting in your shoes or where you were several years ago. It's time for us to clock out, right? In the spirit of that answer, we now need to pass it to someone else. So we're going to clock out. We're going to help our listeners clock in, but I want to do that by asking you a couple more questions. If someone was stepping into your role or if someone is stepping into your role right now for the first time, what is the most practical advice you would give them?
Jason Meyer (36:32):
Making good use of a schedule so that you can stay balanced as a person, but also as an employee, but even more so as a leader. Not getting caught up in the details of your title and trying to establish what or who you are in that role, but just do the work and enjoy it. And if you're interested in it, if you like the challenge, then it'll help you with all those other worries or concerns you may have.
Mike Smith (37:00):
Seven or eight years ago when you would've stepped into your new role, if your younger self could see you now, what would surprise him the most about who you are today?
Jason Meyer (37:11):
Well, I never imagined that I'd be working in a warehouse for one and sure not meeting with RDC up in Fishers, Indiana. I'm probably most surprised by what we've accomplished, the growth that we've had, both as an individual and as a company, Gleaners Food Bank.
Mike Smith (37:34):
You guys have changed a lot. I got so much respect for Gleaners and you. And I mean, right when I walk through the front door, just
(37:43):
The branding, the organization, you really ... Sometimes I think y'all are running a business, but it's really a ministry. It's very impressive to see the high standard at which you do things because a lot of non-for-profits, unfortunately, they just think, "Oh, we're just that, and that's how we need to look and that's how we need to function," and so on and so forth. But gleaners, in my opinion, from where I sit as a vendor, they really have high standards. You have and are responsible, I think for a lot of the reason they are the way they are, which is a credit to you. Let's close by doing this. I would love to leave people with whoever's listening, I'd love to leave people with a way to get ahold of Gleaners. If someone's listening and they want to donate their time personally, or if they're a business and they want to get ahold of Gleaners to either be a partner or partner, come see the facility, which if you're listening and you've never had a facility tour of Gleaners from Jason Meyer, you should do it.
(38:46):
How can they get ahold of Gleaners to either become a partner or become a neighbor
Jason Meyer (38:50):
Or
Mike Smith (38:50):
Really a volunteer?
Jason Meyer (38:51):
Well, we're not just a box of canned goods food bank. We're much more and so I encourage anyone who would love to see the process, see the building, or even has something to share with me as far as their experience goes, to come for a tour, just see the building. We'll make it as easy as possible, but to volunteer or to be a part of that process is go to gleaners.org and there's an option on there to do that and you can reach out to their facilities manager, Jason Meyer, and just come by for a visit, 3737 Waldemere Avenue. It's on the southwest side just across from the airport in between 70 and 67 in that loop. And come by for a visit, see the building and be glad to share our time with you.
Mike Smith (39:42):
Excellent. We will put a link to that in the show notes. Jason, thank you for being here. Thank you. It was awesome to conversate with you. It was good to be with you.
Jason Meyer (39:49):
Appreciate it.
Mike Smith (39:50):
All right. Thank you for listening to Clocking In, brought to you by RDC. If this was helpful to you, share this episode with someone else you think might benefit from it. Don't forget to follow the show and if you want more insights like this via email, go to rd-co.com.