WAMO with Oni Colston, Founder, feature # 84 of Together Talks

"Together Talks" feature # 84: WAMO presented by KLS, freight company

Some Background on WAMO

Today's edition of "Together Talks" campaign, KLS had the opportunity to interview WAMO and Founder, Oni Colston. WAMO provides the conversation game where cooperation and competition collide. The wild ride where "Truth or Dare" and "Dear Diary" collide. This game of self-discovery lets you peel back the layers and show your friends the real, uncensored you. With the option to choose your own risk and comfort level, you’ll compete and cooperate with players in a game that’s all about finding out who you are and learning from others. Get ready for a laugh-out-loud adventure like no other!

Nurse to podcast

Oni's original career was as a registered nurse prior to creating her company and debut game. She mentioned she enjoyed it because of the connection to people and being able to provide good. But she knew that in her bones she had a passion for creativity. She had always dreamed of and envisioned creating something that was her own. Her first transition into this was a YouTube channel she created. Her channel was a challenge for her to create fresh new content.

New Mother

Oni and her husband welcomed her daughter. While on maternity leave she experienced the challenges of raising a new born and the strain it can have on a relationship. Noticing that her attention was being directed towards her baby daughter she consciously made a decision. She started creating little cards with questions to start dialogue between her and her husband. Shortly after their nightly routine she felt she was on to something. Oni had found the conduit to her creativity and chasing her dream.

She set out to start her business and create her company to bring randomness to a night of fun. "The game is designed to connect with your friends. This is the friend's edition. I love being able to engage other people and that is what WAMO is all about.", Oni explained. Being home with her daughter she felt a greater purpose. The drive to create something of her own and show her daughter what she is capable of when she grows up was important to Oni. She made a commitment to herself to see it through.

She took that leap in August. She subconsciously did something that would hold herself accountable. On her YouTube page, she made it public that she was leaving nursing and making this career pivot. We asked her if putting this out there helped push her, "Oh absolutely. I had the fear of rejection initially and asking myself if this fails do I end up back in nursing. Then I remembered I just did this public statement saying I'm done with nursing and it drove me to give my all to WAMO."

Partner with KLS

KLS offers LTL and FTL for both dry and reefer transportation.

Our nationwide coverage provides companies a reliable, consistent, and dependable logistics partner to handle your trucking needs.

For more information on how we can help call our office today 708-980-0920 or reach us via our email quote request here!

Creativity

Creating her own company and product Oni said one of the challenges is not getting caught up in watching competitors. It is hard to not want similar type of success, growth, opportunities. But Oni understands this is her path, her journey and she recently found a new level of appreciation and gratefulness.

Her passion she believes is the strongest impact she brings to her company. She credited her creativity to God, "I feel like God gives me these incredible ideas and I just have to make them work.", Oni explained. Being so new to the space and her business she said she continues to remind herself of staying the course. Her goal continues to remain to move forward and don't stop progressing. This will allow her creativity to reach as many people as possible to engage as she originally set out to do.

Being not only a woman but an African-American woman in the gaming space is incredibly rare. Oni explained how special and powerful it was when she saw her initial run of product. "I dreamed of this, but never knew if I could really do it. I don't really see anyone who looks like me in the gaming industry. To create this on my own really is such an incredible achievement."

Next phase

The next product that Oni is working on is a family edition of her WAMO game. She said of the two the family version has been more difficult to create, "Trying to balance it being appropriate but also engaging is challenging. We don't want it boring, again engaging is our word. So I'm making sure it is suitable for all ages and still captivating." She plans to continue growing her business and hopes to sell out inventory.

Oni also wants to revive her YouTube but change the angle of her content. She hopes to create a network for other creators. Oni envisions creating an opportunity that wasn't present when she started her career in the space. She would love to pass it forward and increase resources, allies, connections where innovating can be supported and given an opportunity to thrive.

Having a new set of challenges being the entrepreneur keeps things unique, fresh, and interesting. Oni mentioned that is the aspect she enjoys most as each day brings something different for her to conquer. And conquering is the mindset of Oni as she hopes to build her company to eventually have a team to run and train. The plan is to create expansion packs and other editions of the game with one day getting into Target which she shared is her ultimate goal.

Piece of Advice

Our conversation with Oni ended with her sharing two pieces of advice.

1 – money

"There are videos that say you can start with nothing. I don't agree. You will need money to run your company. It is ok to start it on the side if you have to keep working during the initial process, but be aware that it will require funding."

2 – dealing with adversity

"Share your work/products/skills because there's someone who needs it. If you keep it to yourself or allow fear, self-doubt or what others think stop you, you're doing the people who need you a disservice. Don't give up. "

Buy WAMO here and receive 10% off with the code below!

KLS10 ---> 10% off

Interested in being featured with "Together Talks"?

KLS is booking our upcoming schedule now!

Contact us as we would love to learn your story and share it amongst our audience.

Weekly we provide 2 companies our platform to expand their reach courtesy of our campaign. Let's collaborate!!!

In Closing

KLS wants to thank Oni Colston, Founder, of WAMO for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for the WAMO journey with their social handles below!

Instagram / TikTok / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn

Klimson Logistics Solutions - Together Talks with WAMO feature # 84

*Klimson Logistics Solutions is an Industry Leading Customer Service 3PL. Our focus and commitment to our clients has us striving to be the BEST customer service 3PL for LTL, FTL, Reefer, and Drayage in the country. KLS, freight company, is a 3PL providing nationwide logistics solutions. KLS shipping services include: LTL freight, FTL freight, Reefer LTL freight, Reefer FTL freight, and Drayage. Klimson Logistics Solutions thanks you for viewing our marketing campaign, "Together Talks". If you have any interest in being featured or questions regarding your freight operations please contact us today!

Why KLS?

Our precise and reliable effort.

We handle every shipment with the exact same process. It does not matter if you move one shipment a year or ten per day, you will receive the same level of customer service from us. When we started this company, we had one goal in mind, treat every shipment like it was our own. With our vast knowledge of the industry, we understood what a customer would want from a communication standpoint. We applied that process to be the standard here at KLS. Our reliability and being able to depend on our consistency is why we have such long-standing relationships with our clients.

Our Process?

Every shipment in our industry starts with a quote. We are firm believers that time is money, thus we strive to have quotes back in a 5-10 minute reply time for LTL and FTL, any FCL quotes are at the mercy of the carriers getting back to us. For LTL we have the flexibility to quote both off of NMFC and also Density depending on the carrier. Utilizing our services, you’re allowing us to use our expertise to class your freight accordingly to ensure we are providing the best rate we possibly can.

Once a quote has been submitted and a client chooses to proceed with KLS handling the arrangement of the shipment our full process begins. We create the BOL that will be used for the shipment. If it is a new location for our system, we will obtain all the important/special details (reference numbers, contact details, shipping hours, closed for lunch, dock/doors, etc.). We meticulously build every detail into our software for all future shipments involving that location. After we have both locations built and necessary reference numbers have been applied we will tender the shipment to the carrier. We use this method because it provides us a real time pickup number from the carrier to obtain updates prior to pickup. Our staff will either email the BOL directly to you or to the shipper (at your request) the minute after the tender has been accepted by the carrier. LTL carriers require a 2 hour window prior to close time in order to schedule it for a same-day pickup attempt.

The following morning you’ll receive an email from us. It will either provide the reason the pickup was missed (driver’s trailer filled up, driver missed the close time, truck broke down, shipper said no freight, etc.) or if the pickup was successful you will receive the PRO (tracking) number from us, along with the eta for delivery. Our staff will track it throughout the duration of transit and advise if anything happens that will alter the estimated delivery date. The day the shipment delivers we will email you with confirmation and the POD (Proof of Delivery), should you require it.

Your shipment has been quoted, scheduled, picked up, and delivered. The next step is waiting for the carrier to invoice us and make sure the rate matches up. If it does, we close out the invoice from the carrier in our system and automatically your invoice is created and sent to the requested party at your company. In the event the carrier has an additional charge on their invoice “Variance”, we will never send you an invoice with an additional charge without first identifying you of the charge.

Let us repeat, NEVER WILL WE JUST BILL OUT AN EXTRA CHARGE WITHOUT YOU BEING NOTIFIED.

You are our customer, we represent you. Should the carrier provide an extra charge on an invoice, “Lift gate, additional weight, reclass, detention, etc.) We notify you of the charge via email first. Second, within that email we identify what is required should you choose to dispute the charge. Again our goal is to honor your request, if you want to dispute, we will dispute. During a dispute we will provide you updates every step along the way. Once a dispute is closed out, whether it is approved or rejected, then we will invoice you as the invoice has been resolved.

For reference, our company only had 6.2% of all shipments go to dispute in 2022 and we successfully won 91% of those disputes on behalf of our customers.

This is our process for every single shipment you move with us. We don’t cut corners, we don’t hide from difficult situations. We believe in being available, honest, and transparent. We don’t ever want to tell you that a shipment is lost, damaged, misrouted, but it is our duty to notify you the second we find out something has gone wrong. We hate to present bad news, but it is part of the job. What you can guarantee is that we will work a shipment all the way through and turn over every stone until we get a resolution for our clients.

Services offered?

Our core business is LTL and FTL. Within these options we have options for both dry and refrigerated/frozen. We also offer FCL/Drayage options. Our company as a 3PL has nationwide options and services clients across the US.

Let’s breakdown our services more in-depth

LTL: Standard and Guaranteed CFS (Imports & Exports) Tradeshows Hazmat Anything that is on a pallet can be moved LTL. Typically LTL is up to 10 pallets, but the sweet spot for a carrier is 6-8 pallets at most for an individual shipment. LTL quotes are good between 5-30 days depending on the carrier. LTL can be quoted either via NMFC or density to determine the class (we do this for you).

Volume: Anything over 10-12’ of space in the truck is the technical rule for a volume shipment. When we run a quote for you we will determine if it qualifies for volume and provide you a rate if available. Volume moves allow you to get a reduced rate for larger shipments. The caveat to volume shipments it the quotes are only valid for 3-7 days and they move on capacity between terminals. If a terminal is backed up they will move their LTL freight first before the volume freight, which can lead to longer transit times for volume moves.

FTL/Dedicated/Expedited: 53’ Dry and Reefer 26’ Box trucks with lift gate Sprinter Van The main difference for FTL vs LTL is space and transit time. For standard pallets you can fit either 26 or 30 pallets in a 53’ dry van. The other main difference is transit time, for FTL each day counts in the transit time, whereas LTL does not count the day of pickup, weekends, or holidays in their transit time.

Reefer/Frozen: LTL and FTL We specialize working in the CPG space with food manufacturers. We regularly deliver to the following locations: Kehe UNFI Core Mark DPI Wegmans Cugini H.T. Hackney Netrition HEB ALDI Chambers and Owens EBY Brown Nassau Candy Harris Teeter Wakefern NU INC Long Distribution

What makes KLS different?

There are thousands of freight brokers and 3PL in our industry. Barrier to entry is rather easy and agents or owners will often hire sales people without any intention of properly training them. It results in high turnover for many freight companies and a forgettable experience for the client. We choose to operate differently through our consistency. We truly care about doing right by our clients and prospects too. While we would love to help provide our services to every company we speak with, that just isn’t realistic. We won’t always be the right fit for every company that moves freight and that is ok. Our authenticity as a shipping company sets us apart from the competition and that is backed up by our testimonials. We also run a marketing campaign bi-weekly called “Together Talks”. We interview, highlight, and promote two businesses every week. Our goal is to grow our network, make new connections, and learn something new with each collaboration. Check it out on our website and if you’re interested in being featured reach out.

Our company also runs a year long charity promotion. Book your first shipment through KLS and we donate to the charity of your choice in your name. Our way of thanking you for giving us an opportunity to show you the KLS way and what makes us one of a kind. This entire package is what we offer to every prospect and every client. Our goal is to help provide answers that customers may have when it comes to shipping. We want to always be available as a resource and will always offer a lending hand whenever we can.