[ICPA] From Corn Dogs To Compliance: The Heart Behind ICPA (Podcast)

From Corn Dogs to Compliance: The People Behind ICPA

Nobody grows up dreaming of a career in trade compliance. Ask almost anyone how they got there, and you’ll get a detour story in Lynda Thomas’s case, it involves a corn dog company. In this episode, host Victoria Schneider sits down with Elisabeth Sherrell and ICPA co-founder Lynda Thomas for a conversation about the people behind the profession, not just the policy.

An Unlikely Path Into Trade

Before logistics and compliance, Lynda was on track to manage customer service for a corn dog company. Her accidental path into trade is more common than not — most professionals arrive by chance, then stay because the work matters. That matters more now than ever, as tariffs, supply chains, and sourcing decisions move from back-office conversations into mainstream news.

Knowledge Shouldn’t Be a Competitive Advantage

ICPA started as a simple idea: professionals were independently searching for the same answers, often in isolation. Lynda recalls how ICPA’s original Q&A network was built to close that gap, treating shared knowledge as the whole point rather than something to protect.

Carrying the Legacy Forward

Elisabeth reflects on building on the foundation ICPA’s founders laid — balancing rigorous education with a genuinely welcoming community. That balance is part of what’s kept ICPA feeling like family rather than just an association.

Transcript

Lalo (00:05)
Okay, everyone. So you just heard last week the episode with ICPA’s team regarding the upcoming conference But once we stopped recording, we just got to chatting and everything. We turned on the camera again and the recording and we caught a really cool

conversation with the with the ladies. And so that’s what this is. it may not sound like a formal episode, but it’s a lot of fun. We we hear a lot about the origins of ICPA and Linda and different aspects of ICPA

So enjoy and we’ll hopefully catch you and everyone else at the next ICPA episode or any of the other episodes that we have here on Simply Trade. Thank you.

Elisabeth Sherrell (00:48)
you know, these last 25 years as I’ve grown up with them, they all kind of fell into trade. I know a lot of people, like I know Stacey Krause.

it was a stop on the elevator on the way up to her job, and then when her job was dissolved, she just got off on that floor. I know Liva Landis spoke Spanish, and so she translated, I believe, a bill of lading, and that’s how she got into trade. I don’t know that I know your story, Lynda, and I’d be interested. Like how where did how did you get into this?

Lynda Thomas (01:13)
I used to teach an import export class at a university and I always told my students, know, you never meet anyone that said from the time they were a small child, they said they wanted to be a trade compliance professional. just doesn’t happen like that. But I had lived in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years and so I was very interested in all things international. But I’m horrible at languages. my brain is not wired like that. like, yeah.

I’ve taken countless years of Spanish and I can maybe ask where the bathroom is. So yeah, no, so it wasn’t my thing. But I had a high school friend of mine that did work in the export side of things. And so I went on an informational interview and I was really interested and very excited about it. And then never heard anything back. And that’s just way it goes sometimes. So I had graduated from college and I was older, older adult, and it was a horrible economy.

just my luck, and I couldn’t get a job. And so I finally landed a job as a manager of a customer service department for a company that made corn dogs. Was not what I aspired to, but I was happy to have it, you know, and then I had accepted that. Well, then the vice president that I did the informational interview with calls me.

and tells me they have a job opening. And I’m like, well, I’ve already accepted another job. He’s like, no, come in and talk to us. And so long story short, I do. And I end up accepting the logistics trade job. And I had gone through a headhunter for the corndog job. And so I had to tell her that I was switching. And she said, you’re gonna hate that. It’s just trucking and it’s horrible and it’s boring. And I’m like, no.

It seems interesting to me. And anyway, so that was my path and yeah, the rest is history

Elisabeth Sherrell (03:07)
Yeah, that’s I’m only thing I’m I’m gonna remember from that entire story is corn dogs. I just want you to know. Like that mostly because

Lynda Thomas (03:13)
Right? Yeah. I mean, so.

Elisabeth Sherrell (03:16)
you and mom wanted to go around i in a in an ICPA version of the Weenie Mobile from Oscar Bayer. That was a dream of theirs. I just want everybody to know that.

Lynda Thomas (03:21)
Yes, that was our retirement dream.

Elisabeth Sherrell (03:25)
That was their retirement dream. So you know, that just shows you how crazy they were.

Lynda Thomas (03:27)
Yeah, so here’s

what I’ll say to trade compliance professionals today. If you think you’re having a bad day, you could have been the manager of a corn dog place. But I would say, you got the better side of the deal.

Elisabeth Sherrell (03:41)
that’s gone that that’s goal right there. I I’m just telling you. And I and I and it’s is funny that everybody kind of fell into trade, but I think for better or worse, one of the things that will never be the same, because of the Trump tariffs and the I mean, I try to stay as apolitical as possible. This is not me expressing an opinion on either things, but but just to say that what has taken place,

With with trade and the changes, it it won’t, it will, it will I I mean there’s been seasons where trade compliance has come on the map. And I think it was we were starting to see the growth of it during COVID, right? And even right before COVID when we started having really conscientious mothers. That’s what when I was in college right before COVID oddly enough, I was in some textile classes. It’s a whole I can’t it’s just what it was at the time. There wasn’t an event planning degree, so they mixed in some other things.

And so supply chain was part of that because supply chain was how the fabrics got to make the clothing, right? And so what

Lynda Thomas (04:42)
Right.

Elisabeth Sherrell (04:42)
ended up happening is you had consumers that wanted to make sure that the wool diapers or the cloth diapers that they’re putting on their babies were sourced from happy sheep. Okay. Literally. Like shoppers began to be more

Eco-friendly. They w they knew about forced labor. They wanted to make sure that, you know, and and even before

Lynda Thomas (05:01)
Yeah.

Elisabeth Sherrell (05:01)
that, there was a certain shoe brand that will remain anonymous because ICPA doesn’t say brand names in our QA’s or anywhere, right? Team, we don’t say what company we’re talking about, but there was a shoe company that had some forced labor issues back in the day, right? And so the this is this is really top of mind for consumers, especially in America. So we started to see it then.

Supply chain became a common word. But you can talk to anybody now. Everybody asks me what I do. And I’m like, you know, I I’m the executive director for a global nonprofit that helps educate importers and exporters. And I’m like, have you do you know what tariffs are? my god, yes. Everybody knows the word now, right?

Lynda Thomas (05:38)
Yeah.

Elisabeth Sherrell (05:39)
Like everybody so it’s becoming this household thing. So there’s not it’s like the the pump is primed, right? For us, people like us and and and you too, Lalo, because it’s so important. Like

have to be able to trust that when somebody comes up to Lynda and I or even Victoria and says, Hey, we want the certification, where can we go to get the education we need? It needs to be somebody that we trust, right? And I know that Lalo is on the cutting edge of education. He’s not putting out boring educational content. You don’t just read a bunch of books. Like you’re actually you’re you’re engaged with the content that’s gonna make it easier for you to to be able to achieve the goal of passing the test for the certification. So

for me, it it’s just more important than ever. Trade compliance people are in demand and they’re gonna continue to be is the point. Like w I don’t think we’re going back from here. You know, like even with even when our administration changes the the bilateral trade agreements that other countries have made, without the US as a part of it, I think they’ll stay. And so trade has forever been changed, for better or worse, that remains to be seen. but for trade compliance professionals, it’s a great time.

you know, because it’s it’s a job worth having for sure. And and all of you have known that all along, right? For twenty years you’ve known that. But now we’re gonna teach the rest of the world.

Victoria Schneider (06:54)
me and mom is like we’re not trade compliance professionals. So we rely heavily on our committee and the people around us to help inform us of what is best for everybody.

Like I I can I also do the Q and A for ICPA. We offer that and all the questions I get in there, I’m like, I feel like I could answer this at this point because I feel like

Lynda Thomas (07:13)
.

Victoria Schneider (07:14)
I’ve talked about it that’s someone that’s talked about it so much. so

Elisabeth Sherrell (07:17)
that’s

an excellent point. The Q and A is I know that there’s AI now and the Q and A might not be it might not be as relevant for future trade compliance professionals. but two things. number one, you know, you y y you’re not gonna get

A response from any AI bot that you would get from Lynda Thomas with her decades of experience. Like she’s gonna tell you the real, real. And that’s where the QA is a really important feature. But also, if you’re a service provider, man, I’d be trolling those QA so hard because, like Victoria said, just by doing it, she’s learning a lot about trade by proxy. If you’re trolling those QAs, you’re learning everything you need to know about your client by proxy, right? Especially our AI companies. Why I would be a member.

and I would be using the feedback from those Q and A’s to be building a better process. That’s what I would do. And so I think the Q and A was the smartest thing these two ladies ever came up with. And I believe the first thing, right, Lynda? Because Lynda was the

Lynda Thomas (08:13)
Yeah, it was really our first idea

of how to connect people in the industry because we were all out there scratching for information and back in the day it was hard to get information from customs and you know, so we’re all out there independently doing research and you know, we said, well, what if we could just connect people? Because we all know things, you know, like if we could just connect and share. And it was interesting because, you know, we got some initial pushback because some people were like, yeah, but my competitors.

will be in the group. And we’re like, yeah, but this is not giving any company a competitive advantage at the end of the day. It’s making you a better trade compliance professional and making your job easier. But you know, at the end of the day, this isn’t going to help your company succeed, you know. So it really doesn’t matter that competitors are in there. And then the other thing that we got from the Q &A was sometimes people would say, you know, there’s

There’s some wrong answers in there. And I would always say, right, but you recognized it. So you kind of know what you know, and you can learn from some wrong stuff too, right? Like what not to do. So I said, yes, we don’t monitor the answers for accuracy. We put them all out there and savvy of you to be able to say, well, that isn’t necessarily what I would do. But it’s out there and you know what.

Some people are thinking and then sometimes people will follow up and say, actually, I just want to clarify something or correct something or whatever. So, you know, it’s the process, it’s all the learning experience.

Victoria Schneider (09:45)
I think it offers, as Lynda said, different perspectives.

I’ve seen that’s a common theme, is that there’ll be one question and there’ll be seven different answers to it and they’re all completely different ways to do it. And no one’s really in there harping on the other.

I think that’s the core of ICPA you know, as the tagline goes, A world of knowledge and a network of people.

know, people

Elisabeth Sherrell (10:04)
Amen. Amen.

Lynda Thomas (10:05)
Yes.

Elisabeth Sherrell (10:05)
second that.

Victoria Schneider (10:05)
and then there’s some really amazing speakers, you know, like Brenda Cordova. I walked in on one of hers and she had her Mezcal she gives giving away and I was like, what a great session to be a part of

and then Michelle Schultz, you know, she’s does the fun little games and everything. So it’s just it’s just a matter of how people communicate how they work in this field. I think that’s the thing ICPA offers at every conference is

You may have one problem and you’re gonna have 16 solutions, 16 different ways. And somewhere in there, maybe you’ll create a 17 solution from all of the collaborative that you’ve got. but it’s it’s just a big it’s just a big family of people wanting to help other people. And I love what this conference has going for it. there’s so many new things. we’re bringing, as my mom mentioned, you know, younger faces into the profession.

And I think that is so important, to let people know how amazing a group of people, trade compliance professionals are, how amazing and how important your job is, and just getting people amped up about it and making other people realize, you know, how important your job is. You know, like when I explain it to people, you know, and they’re like, import exports, and I’m like, No, that’s literally how you get your stuff. Like

Like it’s not just, you know, import, export, like no, like they helped you get your you know, Louis Vuitton purse in your hand right now. Like those are the th like those are the things those are the things that go on, you know. So it’s like

Elisabeth Sherrell (11:28)
Yeah.

Victoria Schneider (11:29)
it’s stuff like that. Like these people are really important and it’s just it’s so fun. Like to me, I feel like I’m you know, I I feel like ICPA is at the you know, highest peak of trade compliance people. Maybe that’s bias of me, but I think we’re pretty up there in the field of

knowledge, people knowing us, and you know, being a good, you know, resource for them, educational resource for them. And I love like ha our niche group of people. Like I just think it’s so like I feel like, you know, the the Disney of trade compliance. I’m like, wow, this is so like I just feel like we help so many people and we make it so fun. So yeah, I’m really excited for everything we have for the Global Trade Pathways Conference. There’s definitely still time to sign up for it. We’re less than six weeks out.

And every day growing more ideas. So God help us when we get there of all the fun things that we will have for you, to make this one different, make it

Elisabeth Sherrell (12:20)
no. Yes.

and and what I love, I think what I love most about our partnership with Lalo. So for me, what what what is so important for me after taking over, and it’s funny, right? Because my mom was the type of person who, if she was gonna teach you how to swim, she was gonna

shove you into the ocean, not not the deep end of the pool. I’m talking like, you know, sharks and waves and like this was her this is the way that she was raised. This is her naval training. This is like you’re just gonna do it. You’re gonna learn or you’re not. And so when like Victoria said, she passed away very unexpectedly. And and the hardest thing for me, is not being able to call her and just being completely freaked out and her saying, Okay, take a dip deep breath.

Everything’s gonna be fine. And Lynda can attest to this because they’re they’re you know soulmate best friends for over 20 years. she just had a unique way. Lynda and I are more alike. We we can take an emotion and make an entire day out of it, really. And so and

Lynda Thomas (13:18)
Thank

Elisabeth Sherrell (13:21)
we’re really good at that. And she was just really good at being, you know, non emotional in these situations. And so for 10 years, I have been training for the role that I’m in right now.

Probably longer than that, just just like I said, watching the two of them and knowing what sets ICPA apart. So when I did my executive director retreat like thing that I did for myself right here in my office and I was running through some questions, it says, you know, if one of the questions that hit me the most is, you know, why does ICPA exist? And it was it just rolled right off my tongue, you know, to meet the professional development needs of importers and exporters.

Period. Like that was and and and I knew it because it’s in my heart, right? It’s in my DNA because I was there the day that Lynda and my mom, we were probably, if I had to guess, at the Applebee’s in Lake Worth, right, Lynda.

Lynda Thomas (14:07)
Yes.

Elisabeth Sherrell (14:07)
and and they were like this like little kids. We’re gonna start an association. And they were so excited. I’m just like, okay. You know? And look what happened. Like I get super emotional and super proud of what these two goofballs created, right? Because if you know them.

They were just the most loving, welcoming people on the planet and and they were just as crazy as could be. You know, they they’ve been everything. They’ve been ketchup and mustard, they’ve dressed up as nuns, they’ve dressed up as Southern Bells. And the whole point is that they created this environment where you could feel totally relaxed in a very serious subject matter. And

It it takes down that layer of introverted type anus that a lot of importers exporters have, and they can then connect with people on a real level. And so for me, the next question was like if ICK didn’t exist, what would the trade industry lose? And that one also just rolled right off my tongue. they would lose their heart, their their family, right? Like we love and appreciate what AAI does. There’s no question. They are lobbying for the better.

for the future of international trade. And that is not something we ever want to get in, right? Lynda. Like you ain’t gonna see me and Lynda on Capitol Hill. Okay.

Lynda Thomas (15:10)
Right. Now.

Elisabeth Sherrell (15:12)
don’t I don’t don’t want any part of that. But there’s a yeah, that would be fun. Yeah,

Lynda Thomas (15:14)
We might be at the Smithsonian, but no, that’s about it.

Elisabeth Sherrell (15:19)
we could do that. Yeah. Like, yeah, we’re we’re waiting for the night at the museum, right? For them to come alive.

Lynda Thomas (15:22)
Yeah.

Elisabeth Sherrell (15:23)
I mean, that’s more our speed. And so but what mom and Lynda created was a family, you know, a family reunion that you want to go to. That’s what my mom used to say. And I didn’t understand that.

As much for the last 20 years as I did driving to San Antonio after she passed, because that was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life was to go and carry on this legacy. But I knew when I got there that Lynda was gonna be there and Jamie Adams was gonna be there and la and and and and Bonnie Kirsch was gonna be there and and all these people were gonna be there that I’ve grown up with.

that were my family that that support me and have supported me through this what I thought was an impossible transition, right? And so that for me, this is the that is the that is what I have to protect, right? And so that is a huge responsibility. but that’s why there is this drive to do these other things, right?

And one of the things that several European attendees have come up to me afterwards and said is they just appreciate the

the the humor that I brought to it, not even meaning to, because it helped them relax and then they were able to connect with other people. And that just goes right back to the origin, the heart of what mom and Lynda built is it’s as much about the network as it is the education. because I’ll go back to what I first said, because when you hit a personal low, you will have no doubt made friends in this association.

That will be there for you. I mean, I could think Blaine Carroll and Tina Fanfera. I think they owe their lifelong friendship and relationship to ICPA. I think they would tell you that, I believe. That’s what we’d tell me on our cruise, but you know.

Lynda Thomas (17:08)
Well, and look at

your mom and me, two introverts

Elisabeth Sherrell (17:11)
Yeah.

Lynda Thomas (17:13)
with a capital I. I mean, if you ever watched us at the reception, we were good for maybe an hour. And then one of us would say to the other, hey, you’re ready to go, right? But together, together, we could overcome that. And we were, I think, together, both of us a little less introverted because we had each other. And so.

That also too, I feel like, you you make your friends, you have your network and your ICPA people and you lift each other up and you make each other better because, you know, together you can be a great team. Whereas individually, you know, maybe you’re little lacking in some things. And I think that’s why it works so well with your mom and me is because, yeah, we just like made each other better. Although we were very much, you know, we’re very similar in a lot of ways.

Elisabeth Sherrell (18:03)
Yeah, no, I agree. And I think that that is I I see more introverts in this field, successful in this field, than I do extroverts. And so I think that ICP Yeah. Yeah, there’s

Lynda Thomas (18:15)
We’re going to have a session on that.

Elisabeth Sherrell (18:17)
actually a third one, right, Lynda?

Lynda Thomas (18:20)
Well, I’m doing one on networking for introverts, but I’m going to talk about introverts and extroverts and how do you work in each other’s worlds.

Elisabeth Sherrell (18:30)
Y yeah, and and she found a third like a what’s it called? An ambivert or something? Yeah, yeah.

Lynda Thomas (18:33)
and ambivert, yeah, ambivert. Because

everything’s like on a spectrum, right? But yeah, I’m going to talk about, you know, in the professional development track, I’m going to talk about, yeah, you know, introverts are the minority, right? But then so how do you function in an extroverted world? And from an extrovert standpoint, you know, how can you value the introverts in your world, right? You know, because we need each other.

Elisabeth Sherrell (18:56)
Agree, agree. All right. Well what is that the new stuff that we were gonna share with everybody?

Victoria Schneider (19:01)
Yeah, I think that’s it.

Elisabeth Sherrell (19:04)
We got our 25th anniversary coming up next year. I know that that that there was some confusion about that. I’m trying to pull this up because I know it’s

Victoria Schneider (19:13)
Twenty five years

of being founded.

Elisabeth Sherrell (19:16)
Yes, it’s

Victoria Schneider (19:16)
Not of not twenty

five years of events.

Elisabeth Sherrell (19:19)
Yeah, that’s what I was trying to right. There that’s right. There it was.

Victoria Schneider (19:21)
But when the paper was signed, the ICPA

Elisabeth Sherrell (19:24)
on this day, August nineteenth of two thousand and two, Ann Lister, Lynda Thomas, and Robert J. Pisani signed the papers to officially incorporate ICPA. So her birthday, her incorporation birthday is twenty-five years is next year, and we are gonna go big and we’re gonna I just need you to know that Disney is our inspiration. And so if we need to celebrate the first meeting at

you know, the first official meeting at the Lake Worth Applebees the following year. I just need everybody to know that we are gonna celebrate this, until I’m gone. So

Lynda Thomas (19:57)
Maybe we need a Facebook Live at the Applebee’s to commemorate.

Elisabeth Sherrell (20:01)
that sounds great. I d Applebee’s is just why y’all love it

Lynda Thomas (20:05)
it was kind of central

between where where your mom lived and where I lived. So it was a good meeting point.

Victoria Schneider (20:12)
No,

Elisabeth Sherrell (20:12)
Yeah.

Victoria Schneider (20:13)
and by the way, not central at all.

Elisabeth Sherrell (20:16)
No. Not

Lynda Thomas (20:16)
Well, yeah.

Elisabeth Sherrell (20:17)
for

Victoria Schneider (20:17)
was

she just I think she very much enjoyed getting off of the farm. So she did not mind driving, which I understand, but

Lynda Thomas (20:23)
Yes. Yes.

Victoria Schneider (20:25)
I tell people I’m gonna go into Lake Worth and they’re like, that’s not far. No, it is. It’s like forty

Lynda Thomas (20:30)
It is.

Victoria Schneider (20:30)
minutes.

Lynda Thomas (20:30)
Yeah, it wasn’t bad for me. You’re right.

Victoria Schneider (20:33)
No, no, no.

yeah.

Okay, so that is a wrap for us. we are super excited to see you at the Global Trade Pathways Conference this September. whether you’re going to attend in person or virtually, it is all the same experience. we’d love to see you in person.

We got the boot scootin’ boogie theme of the western grapevine, Texas. So we’re super excited for that and all of the amazing things that offers.

Okay, so make sure to check the show notes if you have any questions. If you want to contact us, we would love to hear from you.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.