Andrea Tsakanikas with Crew Logistics

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Today’s guest is a national and international leader in logistics and workforce housing, known for tackling massive operational challenges with precision and compassion. Andrea Tsakanikas is the president and CEO of Crew Logistics, an Austin based woman owned firm that become that that has become a trusted partner to agencies like the National, the National Guard, the Coast Guard, Veterans Affairs and so many more. With over 150 government contracts and a client list that spans disaster relief, emergency Response, energy and defense. Andrea’s company ensures crews and critical teams are housed, fed, tracked and cared for across the globe, whether during the pandemic or rapid response. Military mobilizations. Crew Logistics Deliver delivers 24 by seven operations field lodging and custom tech, including their proprietary Crew Fax system with over 250,000 vetted properties. I’m not done. Andrea, I know it’s so much. I’m almost there. Andrea, also a WB e NC leader, mentor to future women entrepreneurs and was named one of the Women Enterprise USA’s top CEOs in both 2020 and 2021. She’s here today to share how smart logistics saves lives, why compliance and accountability Matter and what it takes to lead with excellence and one of the toughest industries out there. Andrea, welcome to the show.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Thank you. I am so excited to be here, especially meeting you. You and I like have so much. I can’t wait to hear. I said, I want to interview you today, so thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: You’re welcome and I’m so excited to have you here. I’d really like to start with just tell us more about Andrea, who you are and why you got into this business in the first place.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Love it. Thanks. Thanks so much. I am, um, basically started out as, um, in the property management industry, so I grew up both. What’s really interesting is both sides of my family on my mother’s side, my grandmother on my dad’s side, my great grandmother. They were all in property and facility management. Um, and so I basically started out my career in that area, growing up and just hanging out with, you know, the family and the summers and weekends and all of that. And one day I just woke up and realized, like, how did I end up here? I ended up doing the same business as all of the females or the women in my family. Um, and when I was a child, I used to think I was a little bit unique. Not on the on not on the plus side, but not so great. Um, as far as my mom was always working, my grandmother was always working. My great grandmother, they were all workaholics and they were never home. And I always found myself to be different than the other kids because I never learned how to do the basics of how do you cook, how do you do all these things? And I used to not like that. But once I hit my 20s one day I kind of woke up and thought, you know what? I was really given a gift because they taught me so much about how to be an entrepreneur.

Andrea Tsakanikas: And that’s not something that just comes naturally. Um, and so from then on, in my 20s, I really embraced it and realized that I didn’t have the same fears that a lot of other people have about taking risks and having a unique idea, and then just executing on it and just diving in. And so from property management, facility management, that evolved over many years until I had sold a property management company and I started doing consulting, and that one of my projects over the years took me to the oil fields of Texas and, um, where I thought I was setting up a property management division. I was actually setting up oilfield housing, an actual management company, to manage all all things oilfield housing, remote housing, remote lodging and logistics. Um, so setting up, um, man camps and modular facilities, um, hotels, apartments, anything in remote areas, and then not only setting them up, furnishing them, hiring the teams and the staff to manage them and then just filling them. I saw a new world and realized there’s a lot more to this. This is not property management. Um, what we were doing is we were housing mobile workforce field crews from all over the world. Um, in these remote areas. And we were doing, you know, crew changes and shift changes and even these apartments had, you know, a day shift and night shift.

Andrea Tsakanikas: And as all of this was evolving for me and I was setting this division up, I saw that there was a need for a company to manage it, not from the ground, as I had always done in managing the facility, but managing the people. So managing the logistics. Um, because there were companies worldwide that whether they were in Canada or Denver or Houston that were managing all these field crews, and it was very challenging for them to track all the moving pieces and parts. Um, tracking the people, tracking the quality of where they were staying and ensuring that they were giving their work and field crews a really a good opportunity to ensure they were getting a good night’s rest and tracking their people and their personnel. A lot of pieces that were related to safety, health, safety, environmental, and just all the way down to a good bed to be able to sleep and get that next shift to ensure that they were really rested and ready to do the critical work that they were doing, no matter what industry. At that point, it was oil and gas. So that’s kind of where this whole whole idea came from. Crew logistics and managing and moving people personnel from on the ground perspective.

Trisha Stetzel: So it sounds like you were already doing the work. Where did the idea of the business crew logistics happen in this timeline?

Andrea Tsakanikas: From from that point I actually saw. Um, instead of doing the property management piece, let’s do the crew logistics piece. And so I then partnered with a company in Austin, Texas that was doing we we launched the idea of crew logistics, but specifically in the oil and gas space. Um, and really learned a whole lot about that industry. And from there. Kind of the light bulb went on and said, hey, there’s a big wide world out there. There’s companies outside of the oil field that also need this type of support, whether it’s companies doing, you know, utility repair, doing Department of transportation, repairing of roads, building bridges, um, construction companies doing emergency response. So Crew Facilities was initially born in January of 2015. Um, and then from there, several years in, it just dawned on me and the idea came to say, hey, there are so many government agencies in addition to all these commercial industries that also need the same support. So starting in in 2017, we started looking into how do we get certified? We’re women owned, we’re women operated, and we started learning about the certification process of being getting into government contracting. And that’s actually how I was introduced to you, was Curtis Mueller. He was actually with at the time the tech at UT San Antonio. And and he really taught me the beginnings of government contracting. So from 2017, we added to our portfolio, in addition to commercial clients, also doing government agencies to this. And to date, we’ve done over 150 government logistics contracts, which spans the any of the different government agencies from Air National Guard in many states, National Guard, Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Veterans Administration, etc.. So we’ve really, really, really had some really great opportunities to help serve those that have served us, for sure. So that’s why I was so excited to meet you today.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you. Andrea, you you’re an amazing woman. You’re doing so many amazing things. And I’m going to I’d like to dive into how you’re helping other women in a minute. But let’s tackle the this idea of how you started serving veterans. So you talked a little bit about it, but before we started recording today, we were riffing a little bit about this globalization of your company and being in Europe and seeing other veterans and really getting involved there. So talk a little bit more about how this veteran piece of giving back has really bubbled up for you.

Andrea Tsakanikas: It’s been an actual amazing journey because it happened organically. So being part of Women’s Business Enterprise, National Council and being on the board at one point for Women’s Business Council, southwest and the forum and all that I was doing during Covid, I was kind of like, like all of us getting a little like, antsy because I was so used to being on the road and traveling. And so I started doing a heavy, heavy mentoring that that year during Covid, I had nine different mentees as far as women that needed just a little bit of help in whether they were starting a new business, whether they wanted to move up in in their corporate job, or maybe they were retired and wanted to do something new on the side of just helping them coach them, give them the support and helping alleviate some of the fears that I’ve been blessed not to have as far as just taking that first step. And we have this story that we tell in the company, and I’ve been challenged to do this. One of the ways I explain this to women is that pretend that your life’s dream was to get out and skydive, and that’s your live stream. You you’re finally there that day. You’re up in the plane, you’re at the door, you’re ready to go, but you’re white knuckling, and you will not let go of that door to just take that leap.

Andrea Tsakanikas: I always say that’s at the point where if you don’t take that leap, just take it. Just step out of that plane. Because if not, you’re going to miss that opportunity to realize your dream. So my new challenge that I’ve been challenged by some gentlemen. Is that because I use that so often with women to help them alleviate some of the fears, to take the step, to just walk closer to the dream that I need to go and jump out of a plane myself. So I’m telling you this story so that other people can keep pushing me because. Because I’ve used that. I need to take that. I need to do it. I need to do it. So you’re all got to challenge me to take that next step and skydive. Um, but anyway, just I had to tell you this story, but organically from mentoring women about a year and a half ago, we have, um, we have technology partners that are based in Europe. And about a year and a half ago, I went to Europe and started working on upgrading and building our newest piece of technology. And while I was there, I was used to working huge 15, 16, 17 hour days.

Andrea Tsakanikas: I felt like I had so much extra time on my hands that our business development team said. Do you realize where you are? And I said, yes, I know where I am. And they said, have you looked on a map to see like what’s around you? You’re in the middle of some of the biggest U.S. military bases in Europe. And I thought, oh my gosh, well, let’s go say hi in some of these bases. And, you know, just let’s take up some time and go introduce ourselves. And I found that one by one, it was a lot easier to schedule meetings on U.S. military bases in Europe, I think in the US, because we have done so many contracts there. A lot of those different decision makers or contracting officers or end users are so busy and they’re used to getting a lot of visitors. But in Europe, I think they welcome to see a fellow American coming to visit and say hi because they’re so homesick. So little by little, I was spending more and more time on different bases and some of those that I was meeting, they were saying, hey, I’m getting ready to retire, and I’m really, really hesitating and I keep putting it off.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Can I have a job with your company? Are you guys going to be working here in, you know, staying in Europe? I may want to stay in Europe. I may want to go back to Austin or Texas or wherever. And so little by little, I found myself organically meeting with different military members that had had been ready to retire. And then I started getting introduced to some that have already retired and that were still in Europe. And organically, before I knew it, I thought, oh my gosh, like, there is so much potential. I did not understand how much of an adjustment it would be to go from serving your entire life in the military to then having to start all over from scratch and go into civilian life and working in the commercial space. So it’s organically really fallen into my lap and I’m really, really enjoying it. And it’s it’s been for crew logistics. It’s been one of our missions to hire more military members. And so part of that has really, really turned the corner for us to say, come and join us, come and join us. So it’s been a great journey and it’s really happened organically and over a very short period of time.

Trisha Stetzel: So that’s that’s amazing. And thank you for being who you are and supporting those who have served, uh, in a way that is so beneficial to them. And, you know, something as simple as, I don’t know what I’m going to wear tomorrow after I retire is a big decision for someone coming out of the military, right? It just is a big yeah, because I knew what I was going to wear every single day of my life. Right.

Speaker4: You don’t think of those.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Things unless we sat in in their shoes. And it was funny because one of the meetings we had is exactly the feedback I got. And this was like a lieutenant colonel saying this to me, saying I hadn’t asked my wife, like, what do I do? Where do I? And I’m thinking, oh my gosh, bless your heart. Like it really didn’t resonate. So that’s why I see things like that. We really, really are here to help, to just calm that. And so now I know before we have meetings to say, hey, the dress is completely casual to almost feel like, I can say, be comfortable asking me because I don’t want you to stress about something that should be simple and not as basic as what you’re going to wear. So I’m learning, I am learning, I am.

Trisha Stetzel: Well, thank you for all of the work that you’re doing in that space. So I know that people are already interested in connecting with you just based on the front half of our conversation. So what is the best way for people to find you? Andrea?

Andrea Tsakanikas: So on LinkedIn you can find my profile. And I know I’ve got such a challenging last name, but it’s Andrea Andrea. And then it’s sack and T is in Tom S is in Sam AK and is in Nancy I k s as in Sam or Andrea at crew logistics within s.com Andrea crew logistics.

Trisha Stetzel: Perfect. And you guys know I’ll have that in the show notes as well. So you can just point and click straight to her profile. For those of you who are watching or listening from your computer, not in your car. All right, Andrea, I would love to revisit this idea of mentoring women. So I think that’s a really important topic, uh, particularly coming from someone who’s who is as successful as you and willing to have these conversations and willing to be a mentor or coach to these women. So what, in the first place, made you decide to give back to these women or be a part of the WB, Inc.?

Speaker4: I think I.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Think the biggest piece was realizing, because I spent most of my childhood thinking I was unique in a not so positive way, and then realizing I had been given this gift from women on both sides of the family. That really eliminated my fears of doing, you know, making really quick changes or taking the leap to do different things in my career or my life to say, hey, how can I help pass some of that? On whether it’s just helping somebody figure out what’s going to make them feel more comfortable, like you’re saying in deciding what to wear. What are some of the things, not so much where I’m telling them, like what to actually do or where, but I’m just here for them to kind of use as a sounding board to be able to just chat and talk. Um, and letting them say and figure out a lot about how can they walk through. So what that fear may be maybe something as simple as them alleviating the fear by just talking through it to somebody and not feeling that they’re going to be judged or be uncomfortable to just kind of say it out loud. So what I found over the years and during that one, um, event during Covid, and it was actually a we Bank event and there were a few thousand of us on, we were all stuck inside. It was kind of the beginning of being hunkered down and I put in the chat. It was for a Women of Color event that we bank had sponsored, and I put in the chat and said, I have all this free time on my hands.

Andrea Tsakanikas: I’m not traveling. Anybody that really wants a mentor is just somebody to chat with. Here’s my email address. Reach out to me. And I ended up with nine women that reached out and I went, oh my gosh, I did not expect this many. But what’s amazing to me is that was in 2020. I think it was May of 2020. There is still one young entrepreneur that still has gone out of her way to be proactive, reach out, stay in touch, schedule these meetings and we still meet. And I keep telling her how proud I am of her, because most people fall back into that old mode of like, I tried this and I kind of just got out of the routine and it just kind of floats away. Um, and so I think that’s the biggest part. This isn’t like this very formal type of scenario. This is more of saying, what do you need from me and how can I help you? Um, because it’s all different age groups and different women that are in different stages of their lives and their careers. So that that’s kind of what really has motivated me. I really enjoy seeing women thrive and grow like this one young, young entrepreneur and just saying, and she and it’s all to her credit, it’s really to her credit. She did it. She did it. So it’s exciting.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. It’s not about the mentor. It’s about the person who’s actually moving through the journey. Right. And using the mentors to get where they want to go, or using them as someone that they can even vent to, right. Or just have a conversation with and get permission. They sometimes just need permission. It’s okay.

Speaker4: And I think it’s human beings.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Like none of us. We never are going to stop learning. I mean, that’s a big piece for me and how we grew. Crew logistics was, you know, in the beginning there wasn’t a lot of capital or funding. And so that’s one of the things I do to say, if you do want to open a business, you don’t have to think, you know, that. You have to go get some huge loan and get approved for half $1 million and all that. I help them kind of walk through how to build in stages and bootstrap to be able to get and grow their company. And so part of what we did Recruit Logistics did was instead of having a full blown leadership team, even at this point, I’ve always believed in hiring coaches and consultants that are experts in different areas. So I wanted to share this with you. I’ve had a leadership coach since 2017 that was an IBM, you know, executive for most of her.

Speaker4: Career.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Because I felt like I’m an entrepreneur. I learned from my great grandmother and grandmother. So I still see our company as a mom and pop company, even though we’ve grown to revenues that extend way beyond that. But I wanted to learn about what real, the real corporate IBM world looks like. So she’s been on board with us since 2017. So even I, I look to mentors and I look to coaches because again, we never stop learning and we never stop growing. And we all, no matter where you are in your career or your company, we all are going to have a lot of the same challenges and days. I just because somebody is at a certain revenue and a CEO of a company does not mean that they don’t have the same challenges that somebody in a startup that can’t, you know, pay their utility bill in their company that month. So I want to remind everybody, we’re all human, and no matter where we are in our careers or our businesses, we’re all still having days where we want to go in the shower and cry a little bit and, you know, say, this was a rough day. So that’s normal for all of us. I don’t want anybody to think it’s this perfect world, depending on where they’ve grown a business or where they are in our organization. I think that’s important for us to all realize for sure.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. And it’s true. We all have bad days and and it’s okay because it is normal. And the people that we surround ourselves with matter as well. Right. I love to go back to the five people that we spend the most time with. We we become the average of. So who are those people that we’re spending our time with? Are they bigger, better, faster, stronger than us? They should be because we want to strive to be that much better right than who we are today. All right. So I want to circle back to this standing in the airplane, white knuckling with your parachute on. So there are a lot of women or even men listening today. They know that you’ve committed to going really do that. But what would you say to that person who’s standing there white knuckling? They want to, but they’re so afraid to. What is the what’s just one small thing that they can do to make forward progress when they’re in that type of position.

Andrea Tsakanikas: I think just that step and that’s what I say removing the word. But I want to do this. But and I’m doing it to you right now. I want to skydive. But you just get it out of your vocabulary. Let go of the butt and just go. Because we’ll always, if we allow it, we’ll always have a. But I want to do this, but my kid’s not yet out of high school, or I want to do this, but who’s going to find a butt? Because that’s fear talking. So I think it’s as easy as that. Let go of that word and find a way that that will work to even do it part of the way. So if you say, well, I need to make enough money to put away in savings till I leave my job to go start this dream business, how about you spend a few hours a week that you put aside to start that business while you stay at that job, so that you don’t have to take that huge leap and then have no income and have that kind of pressure on you. So there’s always ways to work around the butt of what’s keeping you from taking the next step. It’s as simple as that. I know it’s not simple, but the explanation of what you need to do is as simple as that.

Trisha Stetzel: And connect with people who will support you to take that next step. I mean, that’s a big right. I was thinking, as you were telling that story, that if you had someone strapped to you on your first right, the first time you jump out of an airplane, we’re going to do this together. Meaning you have a mentor or coach. How good would that feel? Right? And in some cases you want to jump by yourself. And that’s fantastic. But there are people out there who may need that copilot, if you will, that person who’s going to help pull the straps and make sure that you’re headed in the right direction. Right. And that mentor is there for you. All right. As we get to the back end of our conversation today, I’d love for you to talk about what’s next for crew logistics and Andrea. Yeah.

Andrea Tsakanikas: So we have you know, there’s obviously always changes in different ways that, you know, you look at your business, whether it’s on the commercial side or government side. I think the biggest piece for me is one of my dreams I’d love to see is at least on the commercial side, for for these larger companies. A lot of times they don’t see their logistics spend as a very big piece of their G&A or their overhead. They see it as a small spend compared to their corporate travel spend. But I would love them to take a look at and say, hey, but we’re really missing the boat on a lot of the the health, safety, environmental, a lot about looking at where are our crews and teams staying. Um, so and really focusing on start looking at to the larger companies in their procurement departments of putting their crew logistics piece of their company out to bid, whether it’s annually or every so years, very similar to how the federal government puts out RFPs request for proposals, meaning if they’ve got certain agencies that need the logistics, they’ll actually put out an actual request for proposal with a scope of work for companies to come out and compete and submit proposals and talk a little bit about how they can be helpful. I don’t see a lot of that in the commercial arena with companies where I think they just think their crew housing is just booking a bunch of hotel rooms, but really diving deeper into what is the quality of that night’s rest? Health, safety, environmental and safety? And how does that all correlate? Um, and then I think on the governmental agency side, a lot of the same thing that a lot of times, um, it’s not just about booking a lot of hotel rooms, it’s diving deeper into the entire logistics process of moving people and ensuring that they’re really getting, whether it’s staying in a tent or a modular building or a hotel that they’re really getting a good night’s rest. I think that’s a big piece that sometimes we get too busy and we forget about.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Thank you so much. Like, I’m I’m sitting over here in my head just going, wow, wow, wow. This has been such an amazing conversation. You do so much in your business for the community, for veterans, for women. You’re just a powerhouse and you’re amazing. And I look forward to connecting with you again. Andrea.

Andrea Tsakanikas: I feel the same way. Thank you so much. I’m excited for our next conversation. Can’t wait to hear about you. I said I’m going to interview you next. Here you go.

Trisha Stetzel: We should do that. We should just oh, we’ll just video it and then we can do like a reverse engineered. Uh, yeah. Houston Business Radio, right?

Speaker5: Yeah. Let’s go.

Trisha Stetzel: I love.

Speaker5: It.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, if you want to connect with Andrea, you can find her on LinkedIn. It’s a n d r e a t s a k a n I t Acres and acres.

Speaker5: I say right again, thank you. I know that was good for me. Thank you so much.

Trisha Stetzel: Or you can email her at Andrea at. Com. Thank you again so much for being here. I’ve enjoyed our conversation so much and I can’t wait until next time.

Andrea Tsakanikas: Same to you. Thank you so much and thanks everybody for listening. Have a wonderful day. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or a Houston leader. Ready to grow. Be sure to follow, review, and rate the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. Your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.