When Devyn Cretz finished grad school in the middle of a pandemic, she wasn't exactly dreaming of direct mail. She'd spent years as a college softball player in Utah, earned her MBA, and was eyeing the tech world — until the jobs dried up and her dad's Orange County company started looking like a pretty good next step. Four-plus years later, she's the operations manager at Orange County Direct Mail, a PRINTING United Alliance member, learning something new almost every day, and championing the case that physical mail — postcards, self-mailers, envelopes — is not only alive, it's essential. In this episode, Devyn talks about what competitive athletics taught her that business school didn't, why direct mail is actually more relevant in a world of spam and phishing, and what she's still figuring out as a young woman navigating a deeply experienced industry.

The conversation gets real fast. Devyn opens up about the double standards women still face in professional spaces, the women leaders at her own company who have changed how she sees the industry, and the question she wishes more young women would feel comfortable asking — any question, without apology. She and Denise get into the nuances of work-life balance, maternity leave gaps, the generational shift in workplace expectations, and what it means to be one of the younger voices pushing for flexibility in an industry where the press operator literally cannot work from home. If you've ever felt like you were learning on the fly and weren't sure that was okay — this episode is for you.

01:00 - Welcome and Meet Devyn Cretz
01:54 - What Orange County Direct Mail Actually Does
02:40 - How Devyn Got Into the Family Business (Post-COVID)
03:30 - What Softball Taught Her About Business
04:45 - "It's a Dying Industry" — Why Devyn Disagrees
06:00 - Growing Up Digital, Choosing Physical
08:00 - Print and Life's Most Important Moments
10:00 - The Real Environmental Cost of Going Paperless
11:00 - Navigating the Working World After a Pandemic Graduation
13:30 - What She's Still Learning on the Operations Floor
15:00 - Women in Leadership at OCDM
16:30 - Why Female Mentors Matter — Especially Early On
19:00 - Pay Equity, Double Standards, and Professional Perception
21:00 - Career Decisions, Maternity Leave, and the Balance Conversation
25:00 - Women at Industry Conferences — Progress and the Gap That Remains
27:00 - Why the Print Industry Rallies Around Younger Talent
29:00 - Flexibility, Work-From-Home, and the Generational Shift
33:00 - Devyn's Advice: Ask Every Question. There Are No Dumb Ones.