Darie Achstein - Trade compliance in technology
Darie Achstein has many years of experience in industries such as textile, wine, and medical devices but her primary focus has been in the technology field. She describes compliance as an “insurance plan” to help goods get to where they need to go. In this episode, she shares her insight about building a trade compliance career, why it is such a dynamic career path, and how it has changed in the last 5 years. Listen in to hear some great stories and lessons she has learned along the way.
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Twitter: @Tradepodcast
Full episode transcript:
Introduction (00:01):
Welcome to Women in Trade, a podcast for up and coming professionals like you in the field of international trade. Kellie Kemock is your guide on this journey, an accomplished lawyer and trade compliance consultant who's passionate about helping young women navigate this complex field, equipping you with the tools and resources you'll need to pursue an exciting and meaningful career. You'll hear candid interviews with other successful female leaders and benefit from their experience. It's time to build the career of your dreams. Here's your host, Kellie Kemock.
Kellie Kemock (00:40):
On today's podcast we have Dairy Achstein who has many years of experience in the industry and has grace us with her time today. So thank you. If we could just start with your background and your history and how you got these years of experience that you've had.
Darie Achstein (00:59):
It definitely wasn't something that I thought about or ever chose to do. It was more of one of those I was, happened to be in the right place at the right time, I guess is the best way to say it. It started out for me more as an internship, and I am not going to tell you what year that was, cuz that was a really long time ago. <laugh>? No, all joking aside, it was probably early nineties and where I was interning at it at that time, they needed I guess what you would call a specialist within some sort of supply chain function, operations function. And not having any background in that really. Cuz I had never done that. I mean, I was very young, probably around 19, 20 years old. And so I got put into a spot that I had never even heard of.
(01:50):
All of a sudden people, I started hearing the term iar and I was like, I don't know what that means, <laugh>. And it was the cool buzzword that everybody had used around the office there. Oh, we do I T A R. And I was like, Okay, what does that mean? And so having it explained to me in that long acronym, the International Trade Arms, et cetera. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> regulations, I basically started asking, well where can I get some education on this? And ironically, I think it's even applicable to today, it's not a place that you can just go and study. I have yet to find an institution where I can say, Yeah, I've got a global trade and compliance degree. There's lots of places to get education for supply chain management, operations, logistics, even transportation. But I have yet to find a core place where there is just the core study of global trade.
(02:51):
And so interestingly enough, I would say truly my background has been trying to find places where I could learn. And that's from mentors. It's from people within the IAR industry at that time who had been doing it for so many years who were willing to take their time and explain to me what the heck I was supposed to be learning <laugh> and doing. So with that, I started learning the rules and regulations, if you would. And thankfully while learning that I was also in a role supporting or reporting into supply chain management. So I was very much exposed to the logistics and transportation end of things too, which has certainly helped in more ways than I could have had imagined. And so from there, I promise I'm not gonna give you all of my employment history cuz we could sit on this call for hours <laugh>, but coming from technology and almost 30 years worth of it.
(03:49):
Now, I can't believe I'm saying that out loud. I've seen lots of changes within technology. I've been through probably more mergers and acquisitions than anybody cares to admit to. And I've had a lot of first days. But I'd like to premise that by saying it's, hopefully it's not because I'm a bad employee <laugh>, but because I've worked for companies that have been bought and sold, they've spun off companies. And so with that, there was a time for probably a good five to six years when I had really stepped out of that ITAR role and not doing so much of global trade, but more supply chain management, which was fantastic. So I worked as a buyer for a number of years. I worked as a planner and the great part about that was it's all come full circle if you would. So being in this role now, which I really enjoy, it's been good because of the past experience that I had.
(04:44):
I even worked as paralegal for a while and reporting into taxation and finance and so forth. Going through all those changes in technology, it has its ups and downs. Gotta be very thick skinned to be able to handle it. Always keep up your network, always keep up your resume for sure. But full circle, it's been very beneficial in the aspect that if I'm working with a buyer, I can understand what they're saying. I can understand from a planning standpoint where you have to look at all the inventory and where it's going and so forth. But what actually ended up bringing me back into global trade was, sadly we know what happened after nine 11 a mentor that I had respected for a vast number of years, he had contacted me because all of a sudden the products that they were trying to get into the country, they couldn't get in.
(05:31):
And so he called me out of the blue and I hadn't spoken to him in some time and he said, Hey, we're having some problems trying to get goods into the country. Now, this was probably about three weeks after nine 11. And at that time, if anybody remembers, everything kind of came to a screeching halt because technology wasn't being accepted in here, sadly because of, again, what happened, everything was being scrutinized from an encryption standpoint, et cetera. So he asked me if I could possibly help and maybe look at some paperwork and see what customs was asking for. So I said, sure, I'd be happy to. And with that, he gave me an nda, made sure signed off on it, right. Again, it had been a few years since I had been back in the business, but once the goods got cleared, I was very fortunate.
(06:19):
He said, Would you consider coming to work for me? Fine. I said, Yeah, it would be an honor. But again, I was looking for a college program, something that had a center on global trade and I couldn't find anything <affirmative>. So what I ended up doing was I did a program, it was called the Global Logistics Specialist Program. I think it was about an 18 month, 20 month course. It was fantastic. And it was through Cal State Long Beach in California and it's still in existence today. I highly recommend it for even folks that have been in the industry for a long time, their curriculum and their schooling and the program that they put out. It's really quality stuff. I've been very impressed with it over the years.
Kellie Kemock (07:02):
I've been realizing a little bit more now that I'm in a consulting role, how much we need as trade professionals need to know so much about other aspects. Like we need to know supply chain and we need to know transportation. I mean, that's what you're touching on is that you have gleaned all of this experience from all of your roles and now you use it every day in a trade compliance fashion.
Darie Achstein (07:29):
Absolutely. But I think one of the things that folks need to remember, especially if you're a novice to this industry, and even if you've got just a couple years under your belt, this is really a function that touches truly every aspect of the company. And so depending on where you're shipping to in the world, you're gonna be dealing with the logistics team in your warehouse potentially. If you need to get an import or an export license, the first people I'm gonna go to is my engineering team, because they're the folks who develop the product. They're the ones who know all the ip. I would never come across and pretend like I am an engineer or a technology person, but certainly I need to go to those folks who understand it. So now I'm gonna work with the shipping team because they're the ones that is gonna get the product out.
(08:17):
I need to work with the engineering team cuz I need to understand what the functionality is of the product, potentially if it's gonna need an import or an export license, or if we're gonna, how are we gonna classify it, et cetera. You know, go to legal because you know, may need somebody to do a sign off on some sort of questionnaire that you're going to be filling out for potentially a foreign government. So now you've got legal and then of course, you know, work with your finance teams on taxation, internal audit, the tax people may have to give you information on what the latest GST is or what the latest rules are, say in China for example. So it's interesting to me because it really is one of these functions that at some point or another touch every facet of your company. Kelly, I have found, at the end of the day, if you don't have that senior management support and that help to push the rules and regulations, it's very tough to change a climate.
(09:13):
So I think it's vitally important to touch every single facet within the company <affirmative> and talk to everybody. I, I've jokingly told the story that there was one engineer who I really needed to get some information from, and candidly, he just went talk to me. He had his day to day work. So I actually called the gal that was his assistant and I said, Look, I need help from your boss. She goes, Oh, the weight of this man's heart is literally through his stomach. So I asked what his favorite food was and he loved homemade chocolate chip cookies. So I went and I don't tell anybody, but they were already the premade do kind, but they looked real, they homemade. And I brought him in two days later and I went to his office and I said, Can you help me? I took the foil off or whatever it was and said, I made cookies cuz I understand this is how I can get your help.
(10:05):
And he goes, sit down. I admit it took a little bit of bribery, but after that there was a great comradery and admittedly so. I still had to bring in chocolate chip cookies every couple months to get his help. But without him, the company certainly couldn't get the product to where it needed to go. I didn't understand the functionality. He was the brilliant one. I was just putting my, I call it my dairy fairy dust on top of it and hoping the box got there. Okay. When you talk about logistics outside, of course, like the embargo countries, which we're not supposed to ship to. You can ship anything all over the world, but if you don't have the rules and regulations in place, if you don't have that importer of record in place, if you don't have that global trade, pre diligence if you would in place. Good luck.
Kellie Kemock (10:48):
You touched on a couple things that I wanted to talk about. One was, well, basically just clarifying, your career has been primarily focused on technology that has been the industry that you've been focused on.
Darie Achstein (11:01):
Oh, absolutely, 100%. And when I say I worked in technology, that's a big umbrella. I mean, I've worked with telecom, semiconductor manufacturing, Manufacturing has been probably my cornerstone of the last 30 years. I've been very blessed though, to do some project work for different industries from folks that have approached me just because either A, they couldn't afford to bring a full-time trading compliance person in, or there was some overlay work that you know, already had a company that was potentially looking to do a merger or a purchase, and so they needed maybe another set of eyes to look at some documentation and so forth. So I have been blessed to be able to do some work in different industries on a much smaller degree obviously. But I've worked in textile, I did some time in the wine industry, which I really enjoyed that project. I've done some work in medical device, et cetera. The beauty of this role is when you learn the foundation, you can walk into an industry at least knowing what is required. Because every product needs an HTS code. Every product, I don't care if you're selling pencils with no erasers and pencils with erasers, they need to be classified. And so if you've got that experience on how to do classification, that's vital. And then also from the export standpoint, I mean you also have to do your classification potentially, depending on if you're gonna be working in telecom or semiconductor.
Kellie Kemock (12:42):
What would you consider under the technology umbrella? You said semiconductor what else?
Darie Achstein (12:47):
I don't know if we have all day, I mean there's so many facets to technology, right? Especially you've got ai, you've got cybersecurity, you've got internet securities, you've got lasers that, depending on the type of product that you're dealing with, I mean, it's so vast. I <affirmative> could literally sit here and bore people to death <laugh> with all the different facets of it. But that's what I think is so fascinating about the technology standpoint is that there are so many avenues to it. And to say that you can keep up with all of it, no, I mean used before I would go to a BIS update, I would think, Oh yeah, I got this, I'm good. I feel good about what I'm bringing back to the company. And then I would go to one of those seminars for two to three days and I'm like, Oh lord, it's all changed again, just when I think I got
Kellie Kemock (13:36):
It. It's an overarching theme where everyone is just so excited about their role because there is so much to learn.
Darie Achstein (13:42):
I never like the adage of you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but in this case you could throw that cliche right out the window because you have to be able to move and be flexible and understand what's going on with the federal trade regulations, et cetera. I really believe that this role is purely about transparency and it's about sharing knowledge. And I get it, it's compliance, it's rules and regulations, but you better listen to what's going on around you. You can't just walk in and pretend that you're the police <laugh> of every shipment that's going out or every license that's going to be applied to. Because let's face it, people don't react to that very well. That's why I've, over the years, I've tried to really think of how can I explain my role but not intimidate because you hear compliance or I do, I don't wanna speak in generalities, but I hear the word compliance or regulation and all of a sudden my red flag goes up literally, and it's like, oh no, this person's gonna come in and try and change everything.
(14:47):
I never wanted my role to come across like that. And the gentleman I mentioned earlier that brought me really back into this industry, which I'm grateful for, he was the one who really taught me that he was the general counsel of very, of a fairly large company who said, I've always wanted the methodologies in which I work to be open door. I mean, obviously there's things that you can and you can't share. I got it. But he goes, it's, it's always been about transparency with him. And he goes, If there's nothing else I can teach you, take that with you. And it has stuck with me to no degree because I think you can still be approachable and you can still be a good person and help <laugh> be in this role and do your rules and regulations. But I, there's a classy way of doing it too. And I don't believe in teaching by fear or speaking by fear. It doesn't help anybody. That's why I jokingly always tell the story about the cookies because I don't know if this gentleman saw me as just more of an imposition, but it was like, I can be real man. And again, don't tell I didn't make 'em all from scratch, but it was more of my peace offering. I just wanna work with you because I can't work with you and your team if we don't have a standing bond and relationship.
Kellie Kemock (16:07):
What is your snippet? What do you tell people what your job
Darie Achstein (16:11):
Is? I'm an insurance plan. I'm an insurance plan to help you get your goods from A to B. You're not supposed to drive a car in California without auto insurance. So why would you wanna ship goods globally without having some sort of insurance plan to help those goods get there, at least somebody to help support you. And I always tell people, look, I'm in an advisory role at the end of the day, the business decisions have to come from the business and those well above me that own that. But here's what I see. So if you wanna give me a scenario and you want my thoughts, that's what I'm here for.
Kellie Kemock (16:47):
And I think trade compliance is changing because especially now with the Trump administration tariff, they're getting a seat at the table.
Darie Achstein (16:56):
Yeah, the emphasis, I couldn't concur with you more. The emphasis is much more vast than I've seen it in years. I say this out loud, yes, it's, I said 30 years almost. But I would say, gosh, the past really five to seven years is, in my humble opinion, this position, this type of knowledge, this niche if you wanna call it that. It's very much been in the forefront even more so than it has been ever. And it's interesting too because I've also seen from the buyer's standpoint that there's been more emphasis put onto the seller to understand what their product is. For example, if you're shipping something in the Hong Kong, do you have all of the backup paperwork from the Department of Commerce? Do you have your c a s in place? Can you validate your HTS for me? Et cetera. I've seen much more of an emphasis coming through where if you are the seller, it's a good thing to have everything in place because buyers are getting much more savvy to put that back on to the seller <affirmative>, you own the ip, you own that product, you're the one who should be telling me about it.
(18:02):
I'm buying it from you. But you developed this.
Kellie Kemock (18:05):
My question was going to be, how have you seen trade evolve? And it seems like we have a consensus about the fact that it's evolved from mostly policing to now advisory and even making, helping make business decisions in advance, rather than saying, No, you can't ship that there. No, they ask you in advance now because they know what value you bring.
Darie Achstein (18:30):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna speak from the shipping standpoint. Okay. Every, everybody's had that shipment at the 11th hour. Okay? It's it's year end and everybody's trying to get the holy revenue in. And you potentially have a product that has some sort of encryption base in it. Let's say hypothetically, even though you may have your documentation in place here on the US side, and you don't need, let's say an export license to get it, depending on the eccn going into a country like Hong Kong, well, you better have done some pre diligence before you can arbitrarily just ship that product. But again, it's that 11th hour shipment that comes in and the books are gonna be closing at five o'clock local Friday time and it's 4 0 2. And you put somebody, and I'm saying the shipping department logistics teams in a position and somebody from above is telling them, Ship it, ship it, ship it, ship it.
(19:23):
Well, depending on how you recognize your revenue, et cetera, depending on what's in your contracts whatnot, that poor person may be put into a position to say, Well, I've been told that I can't do anything unless we run this by global trade because this particular product has some sort of specialty item in it that it has to be vetted or it's gotta get a license or whatnot. So it's always interesting to come up on those kinds of scenarios because sometimes it ends up being you're, you look like the bad person. And that's why I want to advocate that. Let's not put ourselves in that position. We don't wanna run our business where we're shoving stuff out the door at the 11th hour. Let's get all of our ducks in a row. And this is where, again, going back to your comment that you touch every facet of the business.
(20:13):
So I always tell people, and I do give instruction part-time on global trade, I always tell people, remember your transaction from an importer export standpoint didn't start when you just arbitrarily put that stuff in a box. It started when your, say your person in sales got that sales order <affirmative>, that sales order turned into a purchase order. It may not be shipping for six months, but let's prep if we know that it's gonna have some sort of license or something connected to it. Let's do our pre diligence. And this is where it's so vital to have global trade in the forefront with your people in sales, your people in planning, your supply chain management teams. There you go. There's your perfect example of how you're touching every facet of the business. Because sometimes, sadly, you know, become your own advertising firm. I jokingly say I'm a whopping four 10, but sometimes I get on my soapbox to be five foot and I'm waving my arms, I'm trying to lay on a plane, I'm like, Hey, I'm over here. Let me help. I don't wanna intrude, make this bad. But if we need to do something, let's do it now. Versus that 11th hour,
Kellie Kemock (21:25):
You do you have an opinion about whether trade compliance should be a part of legal team or supply chain or a different aspect of the company? Is there, do you have a suggestion on how to structure trade compliance?
Darie Achstein (21:41):
You know what I have to go back to, it's the decision of the business. Because again, doing this for as long as I have been, I've reported into supply chain management, I've reported into international tax, I've reported into, which ultimately is under finance. I've reported into legal. But interestingly enough, all of the companies that I had reported into, it made sense to me why I was at where I was because of the business climate and the structure of the company. I don't believe there's one answer. If you're a company of say, 50 people, really, if you're a small company, you're wearing probably a hundred hats anyway. So you're dealing with, it doesn't matter where you really put me. I think it's really up to the business itself to make that decision.
Kellie Kemock (22:30):
If someone is starting their career, they're in an interview, how can they gauge whether that company has its proper priority on trade compliance? How can someone looking at prospective employment know whether they they're walking into a good climate or not? If you asked straight out, do you have any investigations under customs, is that something you can ask in an interview? Because I would wanna know that.
Darie Achstein (23:02):
I don't know if I would approach it with So have you gotten in trouble? I'm just curious. Cause my name might go on <laugh>. I think you can be classy about it and ask questions. So how robust is your department? How many people do you have in that department? Has this department been around since the inception of the company? I think that there's classy ways that you can get your point across without being so blatant. So how many times have you been audited? Because I know if I'm the interviewer and the interviewees asking me questions like that, I'm thinking, I don't know if that's a person I want in my compliance position anyway, because I can only imagine the questions that they go around asking and talking to people very sternly and so forth. That's the way I would personally approach it.
Kellie Kemock (23:49):
I was in that position where I took a role and then I walked in and I'm like, everything is messed up. This is the worst system. <laugh> doing everything wrong. And I left in two weeks cuz I was like, I cannot fix this <affirmative>. I was brand new. It was like my first roll outta law school. If I had had some experience on how to structure it properly, maybe I could have stuck around and fixed it, but brand new.
Darie Achstein (24:14):
Well, and I think that that's relevant to, and I don't care how long you've been doing global trade, I think that this is just relevant to any job. This is why you network heavily. This is why you get onto great sites like LinkedIn. You reach out and you find people within your community that perhaps can walk you through a process or you can find somebody that can mentor you. I just had a fantastic call at the end of last week. A gal reached out to me and she's a novice to this industry and she said, Look, I saw your profile on LinkedIn and I, I'm at a loss. I don't know where to go. I need education. And I ended up spending, gosh, we were on the phone for over an hour and it was a fantastic conversation just from the aspect that she knew so much more than what she realized.
(25:04):
I think it was just more of validation to that she needed a backboard and by pointing her into different thought processes and giving her some examples online of where to look, that can be true for any industry or for any interview that you go into that that's definitely the way I handle it. And if I go interview with a new company, I'll use my LinkedIn network heavily and I have no problem sending a message and saying, Hi, I'm going in for this interview. Gosh, if you have any thoughts or whatnot, anything you can give me would be fantastic. I think you should always be that open.
Kellie Kemock (25:46):
Everyone hears how networking is super important, but in an industry like ours, the fact that there's so many different aspects of it, building that network, who's gonna answer all those questions for you? Cuz you can't find it in a book.
Darie Achstein (26:01):
Absolutely. And especially with this industry, you have to be a self learner. You have to learn how to be a self starter. I'm not saying you have to know everything under the moon. If you claim to know everything under the moon, then let me tell you, you don't know this business that well because it changes rapidly. But you have to be able to figure out how to get answers. Now, whether that's going into your LinkedIn network, there's obviously some great fantastic organizations out there that you can tap into professional affiliations. Being that I don't live that far from one of the largest ports in the world, There's always something going on for a very minimal cost. And there's been several times over the years where I've spent my own money just to attend. You have to be willing to be a self starter <affirmative> and a self learner and a great listener.
Kellie Kemock (26:55):
Absolutely. That was one of my questions I wanted to ask is have you hired people? And if you have, what do you look for? And you said be a self-starter, always willing to learn all of that. Any other things that you look for when you're hiring somebody?
Darie Achstein (27:10):
I will tell you in my personal roles, I really haven't had I have not ever really been in the role where I've had direct staff. My role has mainly been where I have third party relationships, et cetera, that help and do some of the offsite stuff. And then I've had folks that have more dotted lines to me. So with that being said, have I sat in on interviews to help find somebody? Absolutely. Have I given questions? Yes. But I don't want it to come across. I've had this huge <laugh>, sure, this huge staff that I've overseen. But to go back to your question, I always wanna see a self starter. I always wanna see somebody. And as corny as this may sound, who's incredibly humble and incredibly grateful. I don't want somebody that comes in and says that they know it all. I want somebody that comes in and has a fantastic foundation and we're gonna help build that house of knowledge together.
(28:07):
I would prefer, always prefer to have somebody that says, You know what? I really wanna be a part of whatever that project is. But candidly, I don't know how to do that. I've heard of it. I I've heard of that. Of those 15 acronyms you just threw in my face. But I don't have any idea what any of them mean. And if I can give you a little side story, fresh outta college, I mean fresh outta college, <laugh> green behind the ears. This is probably one of my biggest faults that I ever made professionally, is I wanted a job so bad and to impress people so much that I said I could do things that I couldn't. And within six to nine months it was pretty apparent that what I said I could do. I mean, that experience really humbled me because it was really embarrassing to say I didn't know what I was doing when the guy that I was reporting to said, Well, point blank in the interview.
(28:57):
You told me you could do this. And I was like was young and dumb and needed a job really bad. Not one of my greatest moves professionally, <laugh>, I admit it, we all have our faults at some point. But the thing that he said to me is, he goes, I would've had more respect for you. This was the day I left cuz I knew I had to give my notice cuz it was apparent I was not made for this job. He said, I would've had more respect for you if you had just told me that you couldn't do three or four things that were on this list of 10. He goes, I probably still would've hired you, but I would have mentored you better so that you knew how to do them when it came time to ask.
Kellie Kemock (29:34):
In the same vein of what you were talking about, you can't undersell yourself either. You can't oversell yourself, but you can't undersell yourself. So do you have any advice on how someone fresh out of college trying to say, I have these skills and they apply, but I don't have them in practice?
Darie Achstein (29:54):
Well, so I think that there's a two way answer to that. First of all, from somebody that's doing the hiring of somebody who is very new and very much a novice at some point we all needed somebody to give us an opportunity. We all started somewhere. I just, I'm my hope is that as these kids are coming outta college fresh, coming outta college, I'm hoping that somebody is telling them, You know what, it's okay to not know. You don't have to come across pretending everything. Don't be something you're not. Be who you are. But be humble and grateful about it, but be strong about what. But there was a gal at one time when I interviewed for a job on paper, it sounded great. I got to the interview and clearly the interviewer wasn't looking for me and I wasn't looking for them. But I said, I know somebody and I think this person would be great.
(30:52):
It turned out it was match.com for job hunting. But that's what I'm talking about, the humble part. It's okay. And it's interesting because that interviewed me originally. She ended up calling me, I don't know, a couple years later and said, I didn't forget about you and I've got this project. Would you mind working on it with me? Absolutely. I started working for this company, fantastic company. And they sent me to one of their small satellite offices. So I come walking in and nobody would talk to me and I couldn't figure out, I know I showered that morning, Well, only to find out when I got back to the corporate office that everybody thought that I was there to assess for layoffs. I had every rumor in the world like, oh, this lady with black hair. She came in and she was going through our files and she was looking all through the office.
(31:47):
Well, really what I was doing was I was doing my own internal audit. I was looking at shipping documentation and just watching and observing what was coming in out the door. So again, just like the cookie story, I told you the second time I went to that office a month later because nobody would even talk to me. I stopped and I got three or four dozen donuts after I got off the plane and I put 'em out and I put a note on there and said, This is from the lady walking around. I'm not with hr, I'm not with finance. I report to legal, but I'm here just to make sure that the shipping is being done correctly. And it was after that, it was like, Ah, you're the lady that brought the donuts. Food has been the greatest thing in the world for breaking barriers. That's all I have to say. <laugh> tree
Kellie Kemock (32:30):
Compliance 1 0 1, bring donuts. Yeah,
Darie Achstein (32:33):
There you go. Always bring some form of food.
Kellie Kemock (32:36):
I wanted to ask you about your teaching. You mentioned that you teach, so who do you teach with? Who are your students? What is your topic?
Darie Achstein (32:43):
So there's some, in our classes, I try and do it as often as I can and when they need me. But it's such a kick to do it. I absolutely enjoy the day and it can be a very long day. And let's face it, eight hours of export compliance is not the sexiest subject to talk about. People come in, oh gosh, already yawning. And so you hope to do your best with a little entertainment and with some comedy to get 'em through the day. But I figure by the time they get to lunch, if they're still with me, those last couple hours of the day aren't gonna be too bad. But it's fun. It, it's a lot of fun to share the knowledge. It's a lot of fun to hear all the different industries that people come from.
Kellie Kemock (33:25):
The only other thing that I had written down was to ask you what advice you have for me as a mid career professional wanting to mentor younger professionals. And I've had a couple phone calls like you were saying, you had, and they would ask me how to build their career, what jobs should they get? And I don't really know how to answer these questions, this is why I'm asking all of my guests because you know, have a lot more experience than I do. But what value do you think that I can bring to a mentor relationship as a mid-career professional?
Darie Achstein (33:58):
Oh, first of all, the fact that you're willing to talk to somebody that doesn't know where to go, that's a big deal. Because whoever you're talking to, I would bet at some point they're going to remember that somebody was willing to talk to them. You know what? And don't feel like you have to have all the knowledge to give to them at a hundred percent. I mean, I think it's pure validation if they're willing to call you, because whatever you're doing, you must be doing something right. So give yourself the kudos for that. And again, it goes back to if you don't know how to direct somebody into potentially an area, say in textile or a medical device, if you're not working in that field, how can you point to somebody and tell them where to go? But you know, can come across and say, Look, I don't have an answer, but I do have a network of people and what I can do is I can tap into that network on your behalf and see if I can find somebody that you can talk to.
(34:58):
Yeah. So I think the bottom line is be willing to listen and just be willing to give a helping hand. But I don't know all the answers, no way. But I think if a young person, not even a young person, let's just say somebody who's been working for 15 or 20 years, all of a sudden they came from a logistics background and they wanna enhance that and they want to get into global trade and they're tapping into the best resources that they can find and they tap into you as an individual. First of all, I take that as a huge honor, but you may not know. And so I guess my advice back to you, back to your original question was listen to what they have to say. If you can give them some great advice. Great. I always say speak in generalities. I don't like to pinpoint to one Pacific.
(35:46):
Oh yeah. You know, sound like you would be great on the import side. Well, I don't know. Cause I may not even know that person. So I always say speak in generalities. Yeah. And if there's something, what industry are you looking at? Are you looking at medical device? Are you looking at pharmaceutical? Where are you looking? Okay, I don't know. I've never dealt in maybe that industry, but perhaps I can find somebody in my network that has or gets you in contact with somebody who's been doing this for a long time who might know somebody and
Kellie Kemock (36:15):
That it goes back to how important your network is, right?
Darie Achstein (36:18):
Oh, absolutely. And I know this is a cliche, but never burn bridges. I always jokingly say, I've had more first days than most people will in a lifetime. And being in the industry that we are, you run into the same people for many, many years over and you don't want somebody to go, Oh yeah, I remember her. She's the one who picked up her box and her purse and said, I'm done. I'm outta here. You wanna be more. So the person was, I remember interviewing her and it didn't work out with us, but she was great to help me find somebody or refer somebody to me.
Kellie Kemock (36:54):
Was there any other topics or advice that you have or anything you wanna review or touch on?
Darie Achstein (37:02):
You know what, No. I think what we've talked about is relevant, regardless if it's global trade or not. Yeah, I think it, it's about simplicity and learning your craft. And if it's not for you, then find something that is, Yeah.
Kellie Kemock (37:16):
Well, thank you so much.
Darie Achstein (37:19):
Oh, my pleasure. Yeah, it was a kick. I really enjoyed it.