Talking to Truckers

Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to the Transacting Value Podcast. This is Jonesy.

 

Usually, I'm hosting walkabout, but I got a call from Porter. Said I could take the interview. Not a problem. If you haven't watched any of my videos, this is not the opportunity for me to talk about it. It's he told me explicitly.

 

However, he's not here. Check me out on YouTube. Look at Walkabout. I've got a few videos on TikTok as well. If you've got anything you wanna suggest for content, send an email. I just use survival dad y t at gmail dot com.

 

That's fine. And I'll be able to get your messages there. You can also direct message on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or wherever else he's got your region, and he can forward it to me from there as well.

 

Now saying that, we're closing out the month of July. We're covering, what did he say, honor, initiative, and freedom for the month. I think there's a lot of things we can do with that. We've got an interesting guest today.

 

We actually have quite a bit in common. So we'll see where this goes. He also told me to say if you're a new listener, welcome. If you've made it through this name change from SDYT the podcast to now transacting value podcast, welcome.

 

And if you've been a continuing listener as well, well then welcome back. Now saying those things, Let's get right down to it. So for that, folks, I'm Josie. I'm your host, and this is the transacting value podcast.

 

Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to the Transacting Value Podcast. My name's Josie. I'm here covering in, feeling for Porter. However, this particular guest actually works out quite well.

 

We have a bit in common from what I understand. This man was in the military. I've got friends who were. K? He's a truck driver in the States. Currently I am as well, which helps.

 

He says he's got family who's been driving trucks for whatever long he can remember as well. Well, I do as well which helps. I lived on an island and he drives alone. There's a lot of similarities here I think we're gonna discuss.

 

This will be good. Our guest today, his name is Austin Ada. Did I say that right, Austin? You did. You said it right. Right. Perfect. Austin Ada? If you're familiar with him, feel free to listen.

 

If you're not familiar with him, please listen still. Right. Now at Aussie, can I can I call you Aussie? Yep. By all means, Right. Just long as you don't call me a dirty rotten motherfucker.

 

Right. All it is. I'll see it is. You know, I got a story about that actually. So a friend of mine, he's got basically 3 kids. K? 2 of them are his. And 1 of them, he said, is a sock. Like you put it on your foot. Right? A sock? Yep.

 

Yeah. I said, alright, I get 2 of them at yours, but what is a sock exactly? He said, oh, it's some other kids. Right? Like if you spell out sock. That's the c. I thought it was pretty funny. But we'll keep a lot of that off the air.

 

Right? I I don't know entirely who's listening. This is a worldwide distribution. So in spirit of fairness that's how we'll have to go. However -- Yes. -- I guess first of all before we get too carried away, I like you already, mate.

 

How are you doing? What are you doing? Great. How's life? Oh, doing great. I'm just traveling down the road trying to get back to Albany. Are you driving right now? I'm driving right now. Oh, wow. This sounds great then. That's good.

 

I I'm at a I'm at a stop right now. I got a hotel room for the day. So Not bad. No. All things going pretty well. It's a motel 6. I don't know if you're familiar with the chain. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Spend a good many nights in 1 of those.

 

I'm not entirely sure what the 6 is for. I'll tell you once I came here from Australia, everything was a bit different to get used to for the most part was similar though. Right? And then I saw stores like like Bioles.

 

Have you seen this place? BEALLS, Beioles? I have not seen that place. Yeah. Will, I asked to learn about it. He said it's called bells. Belle? Yes. I said it can't be. There's an a in the middle. He said, no.

 

No. That's a bell. Right. So I figured alright, I gotta relearn to read English. That's great. And then I find out you guys put numbers in your names like Motel 6 for example, There is not 6 of anything in this entire place.

 

Yeah. No. No. It's not because it's a 6 star hotel either. No. It's definitely not. I couldn't even get more than 1 towel. And 3 ice cubes. Yeah. Total rip off, right? But A little bit. You know, on Yelp, it is what it is, I guess.

 

So you said you're driving back to Albany mate. Where are you coming from? Oh, coming back from Niagara Falls. Oh, it's a north to south trip. Yeah. Okay. Right. Oh, more east to west and then heading back east.

 

Yeah. Alright. Well, I don't drive up there normally. I'm down in the southeast, actually mostly local. Right? Smaller rigs. So for example, I've got f 03:50, dually, and I pull a gooseneck trailer behind the back.

 

Ah, so you're pulling hotshots. Right. I don't actually go through with I assume what you're driving is like a 18 wheeler or something. Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's an 18 wheeler. Got AW9 Kenworth.

 

Just just pulling a 48 foot trailer today. Just the long No craziness. Yeah. Just the 1. Alright. Just the 1 today. You know, we've got road trains back in Australia. They're pulling like anywhere pulling anything for that matter.

 

But anywhere from like 3 dog trailers maybe even more. In a string, we're talking like a hundred times, mate. I would love to try that sometime. You say that. But then I always wanted to.

 

Well, driving long haul in Australia, like in a road train like that. You've got a plan days, maybe even weeks in advance because there's nowhere to stop. Right? So you've got obviously your entire load that you're bringing with you.

 

But then all your fuel, your water, In case anything breaks down all your tools, which I assume you've got something similar, probably a smaller kit, but you've got it. Gary all that stuff.

 

Yep. Inverter, right, in the truck is important, something to cook your food maybe, but we're talking it gets hard mate. And so if you drive and don't forget wildfires and animals or whatever. Right? There's like driving down the road.

 

I remember a story when I was a little boy. My uncle told me, He was a long haul driver in Shray and he said, as he was driving down the road, most of the time with that much weight behind you, you're not stopping fast.

 

You're not stopping in a short distance It's not gonna happen.

 

Yeah. No. Right. And so 1 wallaby not a problem. Right? He's greasing the skids at that point. But 1 kangaroo is a bit different for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. The truck can take it.

 

Right? The driver may not. Because you see that thing explode over the windows. 1 kangaroo head into the windshield. That might set you back a few days. You know, it sounds like our wife till deer we have -- What do you mean?

 

-- same same same issue. They run right out in front of you, and then they stare at you as you run into them. Even with your big trucks. Yes. Yes. My grandfather, this was years ago.

 

He was coming down the road. He had a goose fly right through the windshield and into the sleeper. It completely gutted the goose, so that thing was dead. Oh, I bet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A few more inches to the left, Yeah.

 

Yeah. He would have been a goner. Yep. From a goose mate. From a goose. That's insane. They got wild turkeys. They'll bounce off the windshield. I imagine they will, but they've got a lot more fat. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That might help.

 

They'll they'll also wipe the windshield out too if they hit it just right though. Oh, sure. Yeah. I was driving down the road the other day just within the last week. Matter of fact, was moving from it was short. Right?

 

If you're familiar with Florida, which I assume you might be, from Central Florida, South Florida maybe, Tampa, driving up towards like the Dothan Alabama up towards the panhandle of Florida. Okay? Anyways, I was driving up there.

 

There was a buzzard on the side of the road. Eaten doing whatever buzzards do. K? And as I'm driving down the road, he decides that's the perfect time to take off. Because aerodynamically he's got lift. Right? Yep. They're not true.

 

With a lot of these bigger beds, especially, they've got to hop a little bit maybe you've seen it in the Lion King to Mon and Pumba. Right? They hop a little bit before they take off. Yeah. Well, that's what he was doing.

 

And as he decided to take off, That blokes got a flap hard and he's working and he's working hard to just get some lift off the ground. But in the 5 seconds it takes him to just get his feet up and tuck him up under his belly?

 

I've gone a hundred feet by this point and I'm not stopping. Yep. Yeah. So he flew into my right passenger quarter panel, bounced into my side view mirror on the passenger side and rolled the length of my car.

 

Oh, no. Yeah. Took out my side view mirror. Took out my blind spot mirror, broke the door handle on the passenger side.

 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. They'll do a lot of damage, Brent. A lot of damage. Yeah. You would think by now, especially the animals that are near populated areas, they'd know better, but they don't seem to.

 

Well, hell, I was coming up through Ohio. Oh, god. This is what? 6 7 months ago. And the speed limit on Ohio 70, but Yeah. Of course. I'm cranking right along a little bit faster than that. And I'm trying to pass a FedEx truck.

 

And both all of a sudden, he hits brakes, and this deer comes out in front of me. I catch him with my left front bumper there. He's not just a hamburger. He was just a sack of meat when I flung him off into the median.

 

Alright. Yeah. Oh, man. What happened what happened to the truck? Actually, it's really not too bad. It just took a chunk out of the fender there a little bit, which it sucks, but it's better than destroying it, I guess.

 

Right. And then the bumper and knocked off a rookie stick. Well, I guess that happens sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah. That's kind of the point of the bumper anyway, so it makes sense.

 

Yeah. You know, it's just another expense, 600 dollar bumper. Sure. Yeah. But when you're pulling 4 or 5 digits off a load, you'd be alright. Yep. It'll balance itself out in the long run. Sure. Oh, yeah.

 

And 1 of the things I wanted to make sure to ask you about is any tips and tricks you've got driving along the road. Now 1 of the things as I understand it, you're not going like Atlantic to Pacific type drives, are you? No. No.

 

No. The furthest west I usually go is probably been go to -- Alright. So -- that's where this past I'll go. So what is that then, like, at Atlantic to what? The Mississippi? Yeah. Yeah. About that. Alright. See and then how far south?

 

Oh, jeez. I've gone all the way down to Panama City, Florida. From where are you based out of? Let me ask you that, Albany? Yeah. Just South of Albany Cellkirk. Oh. Yep. Right. Okay. Okay. So you've got a a pretty wide range.

 

What about north? You go up into Maine or or Canada or anything? Love Maine. Love Maine. Yeah. Okay. But in Canada right now with the vaccination requirements and all that, it's it's a nightmare to get across the border.

 

Nightmare. Oh, is that right? Even still. Even still, I Wow. I've I've taken The amount of paperwork you have to show them is ridiculous.

 

You know, it was the same kind of thing over the last few decades, maybe 4 or 5 now. We're trying to get into Canada. The mountains wouldn't let you go. Years ago, it used to be the other way. I take my wife to Niagara Falls.

 

You could walk right into Canada. Not a problem. Walk right in. Have fun. Do what you wanna do. It was coming back to America where they would give you the hard time. Is that right? Why why would that be? I have no idea.

 

No idea, but I tell you what. None of those customs agents had a good sense of humor. They all seemed to be in a bad mood. I bet they were. I mean you stay that long in the cold or getting wet or just dealing with people trying crawls.

 

After a while, it's gonna wear on you on shore. Oh, I wouldn't say too much cold and wet. They were all in office buildings. But Oh, I thought you meant like out of gate.

 

No. No. You No. You cross. You're actually in America when you go into the customs building to come back. Oh, is it right? I've never been before. If you're going to Niagara Falls. Yeah. Canadian sides where it's at.

 

That's where all the fun stuff is. Why is that? Do you think? Why? Oh, they they just got all the the touristy stuff over there. I've heard there's a lot of things that get imported into the states like for example.

 

There's a guy. He's a client of 1 of my deliveries. Okay? He gets hay like for horses imported in from Canada because it's better quality, it's I don't know anything about hey, but this is what he says.

 

He's a farmer. I've got to pick up from a stop. They bring it down from Canada, down into Georgia, and I pick it up there and bring it down into Florida. Have no idea about, hey, going that far.

 

Jesus. Well, it it may not even be, hey. Right? Like, in this in this point, it is definitely for this guy. But maybe, you know, anybody else on the Canadian side, it's just cheaper to be up there.

 

And, yeah, I have not the foggiest idea on the Canadian side. No. Well It's just there to have a good time. Oh, I don't blame you, mate. Sometimes you gotta take a break for sure. Yeah. Speaking of -- Oh, good.

 

-- there's there's some spots along the road. You know, like, Have you ever gone down I 95 in between what is it? North and South Carolina there on the border in I think it's Bill in South Carolina, actually, at south of the border.

 

That's what it's old. Oh, yeah. Yep. I've been to south of the border a few times. Yep. I've been there. Yeah. I've been there twice now. I've been through there, times, but I've stopped there twice.

 

It once was a few years back and well the other time was just about last year's I was driving but It's a nice I guess, relatively recession proof opportunity, driving things back and forth, especially not working for somebody like you do.

 

I definitely Well, it is nice. They always need trucks on the road. There's always stuff that needs to be delivered.

 

You can't beat the job security of that. 0II agree. Yeah. And what's nice too? I don't know about how it is for you guys, but like for me I can take enough initiative to try to find things.

 

Right? If people need I can get on Craigslist and say, oh, these, you know, whatever people are selling these vehicles or whatever.

 

I'll get in touch with the sale and say, ever sell that to anybody and you need it shipped, here's my information. And then I'll drive to them and relay it back to wherever a buyer is, and that helps too.

 

What about you? How do you get your jobs? Me, I used get dispatched, my my dispatcher will set me up with a load coming from who we primarily haul for, and that'll that'll get me out west.

 

And then once I'm out west, I'll be looking on the load boards trying to find a load to get back home.

 

And usually you run across some pretty good numbers out there. Like last week, I got a load for 3 grand going out. But on my way home, I picked up a load for 4100 dollars coming back.

 

Oh, is that right? 4 days 7100 dollars to the truck. And then once I delivered that in Holy Oak Mass, I picked up another load for a thousand going up to Plattsburg So Right.

 

Yeah. There you go, mate. Good for you. I consider that a pretty decent week in a truck. In anything, you just pulled 8 k in a week mate. Yeah. And 30 percent of that is mine.

 

I see. And that's that's how they pay me on loads like that. If I'm doing local work like what I'm doing right now, yeah, I get paid hourly. But when I'm going out on longer runs? Yeah. I get the percentage. Sure. But that's still what?

 

2 and a half k in a week? Yeah. I mean, half the people now aren't even making that in Bitcoin. In fact, they're losing 7 times as much per day. And and it's beautiful thing about it is I'm the boss of my own paycheck.

 

Yeah. Well, until I assume your wife comes into play. Right? Yeah. I mean, I could sit out there and whine cry and be like, oh, well, you you gotta find me the load back.

 

And they're gonna take the first load they can find. And I get it. I get it. Our dispatcher, he's busy. He's got a lot of stuff he's gotta do. He's gonna find the first thing that gets us back home.

 

Where if I'm doing it, Yeah. I can be I can discriminate a little bit. Be like, that's not a good enough rate. I want more. Oh, especially now, mate. What are you what are you paying in diesel?

 

Oh, jeez. Oh, what the hell was it this morning? Oh, god. I think it was, like, 06:40? It was up there. It's wild, man. It See, that's the only thing. Like, if I'm on the road, yeah, I'll I'll pay attention to the fuel prices.

 

But when I'm back to our shop every night, we have a company come in and fuel us. I don't see the prices. Oh, is that right? That's nice. Yeah. They just come in fuel the tank, and boom, the company writes the check and it's done.

 

So, okay. So when you're paid hourly doing these local, I guess, smaller trips, shorter trips, you don't cover your guess. I don't pay for I don't pay for the fuel at all.

 

Yeah. It all goes back to the company. That goes right on the company fuel card. So you don't have to factor that India hourly right. But if you drive in father, you need to factor that into your percentage cost, I assume.

 

Nope. Not at all. Really was it? Oh, it's on the card. Yeah. That comes out of the company's card. Not the money. Yeah. Okay. Well, that is nice thing. Yeah. I have 0 0 financial liability to this truck.

 

Yeah. 0. That is nice. I blow a tire that's on them. Fuel is on them. See, that's a big difference. I don't have anybody to work for, so all of those costs are mine. But Then again okay. So let's say you made that 8 grand -- Sure.

 

-- for 8100 in a week. Sure. That that that 8100 goes right directly into your pocket. Right. It does. But I gotta bounce that off for whatever liabilities and costs I do have. That's wear and tear on the truck.

 

K? It's any new bearings or whatever I've got to set aside. So me here's how I break it down. I take a percentage off of every load that I deliver, off of every check, I guess, we'll call it, that comes in.

 

I have a percentage, to go to wear and tear on the vehicle, and it just goes and gets set aside. But it's a percentage pulled out of each check.

 

A percentage pulled out of each check for my spending money groceries, devolving debt, whatever percentage obviously for fuel as well. And then my extra incidentals and then lastly, my savings.

 

Not in any particular order, but each of those gets a percentage of the check coming in. So by the time I actually get my cut for spending in incidentals, it's probably around 25 30 percent, give or take?

 

Yeah. Oh, just like I told port house there. It it's like being an owner operator, but you don't own the truck. Out here. Right. Which I assume is is nice for a bit of your mental health as well.

 

A little bit less stress on you. Oh, exactly. Yeah. Well, I I don't know. It it could be pretty stressful when you're out there and the freight rates are down and you're like, oh, god. I gotta go do that for that rate, really. Oh, sure.

 

There's that. Right? But, like, you're still playing the stock game. And, obviously, on the fly, you've got to cover some costs. And whatever you need in the cab there, you're gonna cover those costs, food, whatever, incidentals.

 

But Oh, yeah. But, you know, it's like you're driving a rental. And I stress a lot more driving what I paid for or what I have to cover is a liability if there's any damage or whatever.

 

Right? But if it's a rental, I'll like I pay a flat fee and I say alright, this insurance is gonna cover everything but I still have to pay for the insurance, you know, know?

 

Yes. Yeah. And not to mention, I've still got a note to pay on the truck to begin with and on the trailer.

 

So you know, it gets eaten up quite a bit and I think if you think about it like I guess like a graph in terms of expenses, I'm gonna ride What's the horizontal?

 

I'm gonna ride the x axis pretty far before I start climbing up the y and and it's a profit, you know. But but that's just the cost of doing business. It is. The first year is your toughest, man, especially the first month.

 

Right. Got all those expenses going out. Right? With no money coming in. Well, there there is that. Yeah. So I got all my equipment used. I didn't buy anything new which in hindsight was financially smart, and logistically detrimental.

 

Yes. You know, III bought this truck, had some What I thought at the time was just surface rust, but I got maybe 3 weeks out of the purchase.

 

Break lines went out. Brakes seized up. My shocks would not decompress. They just rostered shut, basically. I I didn't even know it was a thing. I I had run through 2 inner tires on the dually's, both, 1 on each side.

 

Yep. In the first, like, 3 weeks. So by the time I got everything done and then replaced the bearings on the front. There was nothing I could do. You know, I didn't have a choice in a matter.

 

Ah. So then, you know, I had to work basically the next 30 days straight trying to pick up jobs and make up the difference before I could even attempt to say, I'll get Roman today, you know? Yes. Yeah. Jesus. It was it was a lean month.

 

Yeah, for sure. But 1 of the things that does teach you, I don't have a mechanical background aside from what I've had to teach myself, is how to work on your vehicle, what's where, how it works, how it operates, and why.

 

So if you do need to fix it when you're stranded, you're able to. It is so beneficial to be able to do that. You don't know how many guys sit on the side of the road or in the yard.

 

I don't know how to change a light. Yep. I they they just not being able to do the simplest, easiest things, and they'll just sit there. Yeah. It's like, come on, man, pick yourself out and let's get going.

 

That's it. You can't wait well to help you necessarily all the time. Right? Take a little bit of guided initiative. Right? At least understand the basics or preventative maintenance at least. But Yes.

 

Yes. I talked to a guy the other day. I was out at a diner trying to get some food a few days back. And we were sitting there talking. He was at the bar drinking coffee. I was sitting there of. It just sort of happened to come up.

 

He told me that the BMW in the lot was his. And so we got to talking about I don't know many foreign made vehicles as far as that's concerned, more luxury vehicles, I guess. But so we got to talking about it.

 

He said it was AV8, and that he paid near 300 dollars in fuel per week. I said that's quite substantial if you're gonna drive around local. Why don't you just sell the vehicle? He said I just bought it 2 weeks I said, alright.

 

What have you had to do for it so far? He said, Will? I had to do an oil change 3 days ago. Now, this is days prior to this conversation, not now. K? He said, I had to do an oil change 3 days ago. So I had to import is what it says.

 

I had to import the oil from I don't know, somewhere in Europe because that's what it required in the manual. K? Which is is a big oversight in my opinion. You could probably go with 05:30 and be fine but whatever.

 

Yeah. Yep, oils, oil. Right. But but whatever. And so he imported it, paid the cost, everything. And then drained everything, swapped out the filter, and refilled it, started the car, and he said, alright, well, he put it in reverse.

 

And that's when he saw in his rearview mirror all of the oil behind him in the driveway rolling down the hill.

 

He says he he says he got out and realized he forgot to put in the drain plug. Oh, god. Okay. I'll be a hundred percent honest here. Alright. I'm gonna run myself through the mud here for a minute.

 

If I get the same exact thing when I was a kid. I shit. Well, when I when I started working on tractor trailers, I I started off in a shop working on these things before I started driving them, which I recommend that to anybody.

 

So they have some kind of an idea how these things work. Oh, I agree. Or maybe you'll pick up something on how to fix it.

 

Yeah. But so I'm in there. I'm doing some preventative maintenance. Just grease job and oil change. So I drain the oil, change all the filters, and 1 of the boss's buddies comes in. And he starts talking. So I get talking to him.

 

The boss comes in. We're all talking together, and I'm like, oh, hey, boss is here. I better be putting oil in the truck. I'm working while I'm talking. So I just start putting oil in. Well, guess what? I didn't put the drain plug in.

 

So yes. Yes. I have done that too. We're not talking like, you know, 4. 85 courts at that point, I assume. Oh, no. No. No. I got about halfway into it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's about maybe 2 or 3 gallons I ran through her.

 

Jeez. Yes. Yeah. I got coughed in the back of the head for that 1. That was a that was a learning experience. But those are good ones to have. Right? Because then, you know. Oh, exactly.

 

You know, I am so glad that I got most of my screw ups out of the way when I was a young kid Now I can look at other guys or guys older than me making these same screw ups going, yeah, you know, I did that when I was like 16.

 

And I learned I learned. Well, so here's -- Not to do that. -- here here's the thing about that, mate.

 

Making them majority of your mistakes when you're younger is only a hindsight reference. You have no idea what the next 70 years is gonna hold. Maybe the majority of your mistakes in front of you still.

 

Oh, that's true. That is very true. I still screw up every day. Right. But but hopefully, they're similar where you can at least attempt to take a proactive approach and and address it, you know.

 

Reactive. Yes. And that's the thing. Every day is a learning experience. The day you stop learning something out here, It's the day you might as well just go park the truck. Because something really bad's about to happen to you.

 

Yeah. Yeah. That's what we get I'm wondering it's something new. Sure. Right? Just like you said, because the the first day that you start getting complacent, it's 1 thing on the road.

 

It happens. It's a long drive. It's a hot day. You're tired. Whatever. You know, you can push through that hopefully, safely enough. But -- Yes. -- but it's different when it comes to the maintenance. If here's here's an example.

 

I had a body. He worked for a time in the first almond regiment at a Darwin. Okay? He was initially he started out as in M113, you familiar with this vehicle in M113 driver. K? So for any listeners, It's a tracked vehicle.

 

It basically sits on a chassis similar to a tank, and then it carries people in the back. It's like the soccer mom van with up armor. K? Now k. Anyway, so he's driving in the front. That's where he started.

 

And just like in any other military, I assume, you've gotta have regularly scheduled maintenance, preventative or otherwise. Well, as he went through part of his job, his responsibility was to take care of that vehicle.

 

He learned how to do it because that was part of the schooling before he got in there. But then when it came down to do it, he just made easy mistakes.

 

Right? Did you grease these bearings? Well, no, because they were greasy already. Right? But it gets used. It gets burned. It gets dried up. Shorn off, 1 seizure later, they seize this rank in some pay. And that's how it goes sometimes.

 

But Oh, yes, does. But, you know, that then you learn. Whether or not you're in a military, it doesn't matter. A little preventative maintenance goes a long way, and I was always told this Greece is the cheapest mechanic you can afford.

 

Put some grease in there. Yeah. It's it almost everywhere except for, like, the belt. Yeah. Yeah. Don't do that. No. Don't. Don't do that. That's not that's not a good idea. Or the brakes. Yes. Avoid that. Well, the rotors at least.

 

Yeah. Oh, god. Yeah. Well, yeah. Then you got like the s cam bush on the old style brakes there. Because most of these new trucks are switching over to the disc brakes. Yep. The old style drum brakes, you have an s cam in there. Yeah.

 

Well, some people can pump a little too much grease. Then you got problems. Well, you did. That gets up on your your brake drum and yeah. Yeah. Have fun stopping. Have fun. But again, that's how you learn. Hopefully, it's safely enough.

 

Yes. Folks, I'm Porter, host of the transacting value podcast. You're being personally invited to increase empathy worldwide through shared values. Hey, but why do you say it like that? That's not what we talked about.

 

No, it's not. Why do you call it an invitation? Look, guys, there are people around the world who have listened to our conversations with guests. And they've trusted us to build perspective over different topics through shared values.

 

The least we can do is invite them out to hear more of the content that they enjoy still reminding them that season 1 and season 2 of the podcast are still listed under the old name as DYT the podcast.

 

Right. That makes sense, Porter. Just tell them that if they go to YouTube and search survival dead y t, they can find all the old videos and playlists.

 

Along with season 1 and season 2 8, Or if they want to hear some of the other interviews from those seasons that they can still find them everywhere their favorite podcasts are streamed. I'll just do it.

 

No. I got it. I'll let them know to stay in touch through the Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter pages by searching at the transacting value podcast. For comments, critiques, topic ideas, or to become guests themselves.

 

I'll make a note to say thank you to all of our show sponsors and partners, and just say that I appreciate of our new and continue listeners, and then I'll close out by saying I'm Porter, I'm your host, and this is the transacting value podcast.

 

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So speaking of mechanic stories, I got a friend. He was motorcycle rider. And he he would take his bike all around the US for for years, this is decades ago. He's older. K? But he he would take his bike all around the US coast to coast.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure border to border as well, north south east west. Anyway, He says he put over 2000000 miles on his bike. In that amount of time, you can imagine it's gonna require a fair amount of maintenance.

 

A little bit. At least a little. Yeah. Well, so his bike of preference actually was a BMW model. K? He said it hit the most comfortable ride for longer distance, comfy seats, whatever.

 

He said as he was driving through, I don't know where exactly. New Mexico, maybe somewhere southwest. Mhmm. He said, birds have always been his downfall.

 

Yep. Because especially on 2 wheels, it's basically a physics lesson right happen. Mhmm. And says, he's going down the road. You shift your weight a little bit. Are you familiar with with bikes?

 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got 1 myself. Oh, Right. Okay. Well, so as you shift your weight even a little bit because the 1 side of your ass cheeks falls asleep or whatever or you or like a rock bounces up and hits you in the knee?

 

Whatever. Yep. It's enough to swerve you. K? It was. Watch in birds, distracting you off the road is a big problem.

 

Not to mention potholes or anything else. So anyway, he would watch birds. And he said he's driving in the southwest. Everything was fine and there was this bird just riding farmed cruising across the the road, the highway there.

 

Yep. And before he knew it, his natural liner drift just carried him off the side of the road. But in that area, I don't know if you're familiar or not, but in that area, it's gravel.

 

It's kinda like a giant telescope Right? So like fist sized rocks, a bit smaller, whatever. It's not paved, it's not dirt. But there's a definite lip of the asphalt from the road.

 

Maybe an inch or 2 in some place. Like our county roads. Anyway, so he went off the shoulder, into the shoulder rather, lost control. So he's pulling 60, 70 miles an hour. No. Yeah. He lost control and he's on a cruiser.

 

So this isn't like super unwieldy on like a a sport bike or something. He still had a low center of gravity, but still. Right? It was enough weight that it was difficult to manage. And he's not a big guy.

 

Maybe like, would you call him maybe like 1 75, but he's over 6 too easy. Anyway, yes, he went down hard from what he says. Broke a few bones, sprained his wrist, bruised up a whole bunch of stuff, less some skin on the road.

 

Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because of this 1 bird, anyway, so he had to figure out. It was just him the bike and he had to figure out how to fix it. Right? So he called a few places.

 

They came out, picked up his bike. I've picked him up on occasion now twice as a matter of fact. But anyway, so his friends come out. They pick him up, pick up his bike, dust him off a little bit, put him back in the truck.

 

Take him to the motel, whatever, let him soak in some ice. They get him patched up, and he says, alright, well, now I need to fix the bike so I can get back on the road.

 

Doesn't have enough money to pay for the pot. So instead, what they had him do is exactly like what you would do on like I don't know, 19 eighties high school summer vacation kind of thing, go wash dishes.

 

Yep. He was old enough though where he did it in the local bar. So He went and washed dishes. He spent 3 weeks there, healing, recovering, and washing dishes till he hit enough money to buy the pots and then swap it out.

 

Yeah. I see. That that's what's awesome. Yeah. He had a shitty situation. But now he's got a cool story to go along with it. Oh, sure.

 

And I'm sure a a fair amount of scars as well. That's true too. That's true too. That's kind of like 1 of my rules. Like, don't lay the bike down. It will chime down. It won't be 1 of my rules. Yeah. Well, rules always get broken.

 

That that is true too. That is true. Yeah. It's like it's like you can plan for everything except how gravity is gonna affect you that day. Oh. Yeah. Oh. I was cruising up the road speaking of birds. Yeah. I was cruising up the road.

 

Oh, this was a while ago. This was my first bike I had. I got it out for the summer. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go for just a little ride up the road. A cruising up the road. Yeah. Yeah. Here comes a duck, flush right into my knee.

 

45 miles an hour. Oh, gosh. I'm like, you have got to be kidding me. Yeah. Just shatter your kneecap. Yep. It's like, jeez. That that figures. I go to go for a ride, a little a little short 1, less than a mile, and that's what happens.

 

I hit a duck with my knee at 45 miles an hour. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Of all the animals too. Jesus. Yeah. Flowermate. And how are you walking then getting on now?

 

Oh, how am I oh, shit. Yeah. Still hobbled and hunched over as always. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I meant because of the accident, though. Yeah. Luckily yeah. Didn't lay the bike down, just kept going. Oh, well. Well, less lucky then.

 

What was this some kind of cruiser? Yeah. No. This was yeah. Like I said, my first bike was was a Honda Shadow. It was just a little tiny 600 small bike. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Now I got the Harley Davidson there, the Heritage Softtail.

 

Oh, yes. Step up the game a little bit. Yeah. A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. What are you what are you what are you pulling in? What is that? 1600 cc's? This one's a 04:15 50, if I do believe.

 

Oh, okay. Right. Yeah. Yep. You know, it's got the springer front end. Love this bike. Yeah. Nice mate. How long you had it? Oh, jeez. Going out 2 years now. I ride this thing everywhere. Did you buy it local? Yes.

 

Yes. It did. At at a dealership then? Yeah. It was at a dealership. I picked it up. Yep. Awesome. And that's the thing I my wife found it on the Internet. She showed me a picture. I'm like, yeah, that's a nice bike. Cool. Right. No.

 

She's like, you wanna go look at it? I'm like, yeah, I'd love to look at it, but I'm not buying it. Yeah. Well, I wound up buying it. That's that's how it goes sometimes. Right? Like, I've had impulse buys but they're not like 30 40 k.

 

My impulse buys are like, I'll drop a dollar on that is by. Yeah. Every time I say I'm not gonna buy something, yeah, that's what I wind up doing is buying it. Jeez. That may not be the best financial strategy for you, mate.

 

No. No. No. Not at all. Not at all. Yeah. No. Not at all. Yeah. Yeah. They never bodes well. Yeah. You know, That's why I love where I'm at in life right now. Knock on wood. Thank Jesus.

 

I'm where I'm at right now. Financially stable, run through the budget. Every every week, we do a budget. And it's awesome. It works out perfect. I try to do everything on a cash basis. If I can't afford it, I'm not buying it.

 

Yeah. That's a small way to go. Yeah. You know what's interesting in in Florida, the governor down here? He talks about that there's got to be an increase in financial literacy in the high schools, in the secondary schools down here.

 

Most definitely. Yeah. Most definitely, there should be. Yeah. I'm sorry. Most people do not know how to manage their money at all.

 

I agree. It it is absolutely crazy. Yeah. And like for you now, to be able to cover expenses and cash or whatever is your liabilities arise. And I'm sure there's some bigger ones that just happen, right, things happen.

 

But Things do happen. Yes. Yeah. Sure. But overall, to be able to do that, is 1 thing, but to be able to do that after you've paid off all your consumer debt, you revolving debt, your credit cards from your twenties, whatever.

 

That takes a lot more time to undo than it does to just maintain not having done it to begin with. Yeah. Oh, believe me. Oh, I was a dumb dumb. Very much so.

 

Yeah. In my twenties, oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. We me and my wife, we had to fight. We fought our way out of debt. Big time. Mhmm. And that that was 1 of my biggest problems going on the road. For a while there, I didn't have a wife.

 

I had a secretary. Oh, sure. That's what I had. I'd call her up and be like, hey, are all the bills paid? Everything good? How much money we got? Awesome. Thanks. And that was the end of the conversation. Yeah.

 

And she was always concerned about, like, oh, wow. He's working this hard. I should always tell him that we have money. Yeah. No. That's not not a good plan. Not a good plan. That yeah. Yeah. We yeah. We screwed ourselves big time.

 

Once we got it all figured out, we had a little come to Jesus meeting. And we were both wrong. Honestly, both wrong. And I I will accept most of the blame on this. I should not have dumped it all on her at all.

 

No. Guess what? I'm a part of this marriage too, and it's part of my responsibility. Right, mate. But taking ownership like that, you gotta start with just identifying what the problems are, let alone who maybe contributed more or less.

 

Right? Yeah. So like being able to do that but when you've got so much distance between you, I think it's easy to grow apart because you're just geographically distant as it stands most of the time anyway.

 

And that that a hundred percent correct. It is. How do you overcome that?

 

Because, like, I've had friends in the past especially who just are not able to to make it last to make it with myself included to make it work because of distance whether it's geographic or physical or mental or emotional or whatever distance.

 

Like, me and my wife, we've been together. We're gonna be married for 15 years. Oh, boy. Good fan of mine. Through all we've been through a lot together.

 

When we first got married or well, first got together, my boss's wife actually pulled her aside and said, you know, It's gonna get to the point when you're gonna love him more when he's away.

 

When he's home, it's like, you gotta go find something to do. You're really getting in my space right now.

 

Oh, right. And I told my wife that I'm like, babe, I'm gonna be a truck driver. It's gonna happen. And I'm gonna be gone. This is something you have to accept now before we go any further and she did.

 

And it She's got her moment. She misses me and I I miss her too. You kind of accept it and push forward with it. I suppose you're doing much of a choice. No. Not really. It's good you tried to manage the expectations upfront though.

 

I mean, even that even that level of initiatives is a lot. Right? You know, because because a lot of people jump into things blind. And they they think it's all roses and flowers.

 

It's not. Yeah. It's not. Yeah. Having that kind of freedom after the fact. Right? The honest conversation upfront, Well, I guess trying to foresee what issues there might be and then having the honest conversation.

 

And then the amount of freedom that that creates in a relationship, not to run around. Right? It's still trust based, but to be able to run around, yeah, it makes a huge difference, doesn't it? It really does.

 

It really does. You got you got you gotta be upfront. You gotta be you gotta be honest. You gotta sit down, you gotta talk about your decisions. Like any big decision in your marriage, you gotta sit down and talk about this shit.

 

Yeah. It just can't be yeah. Okay. Do whatever you want. No. No. No. Because somebody's gonna hold resentment in that. And if 1 person details it, Okay. Why are you vetoing this? Why?

 

And then discuss it and figure it out. Yeah. You gotta be able to. I agree. That was an issue that that we had run into. Right? Like I said, I'm not immune to the ways women. I'm certainly not immune to the problems that that can cause.

 

Right? I'm long distance from my son. So I don't see him that often who lives with his mother. But in saying that, A lot of the issues that we had was very similar to those reasons right there.

 

You know, we didn't communicate. More importantly though, when we did, we didn't trust each other to be honest enough with each other. Yeah. Yeah. And it it caused some problems.

 

And that and that's the thing. A lot of the times, like, the other person or yourself is too scared to bring up a subject to be, like, and talk about it. It's you gotta get past that point and be like, alright.

 

This is what it is. What's your take on it? Right. What's your feelings on And I think that's the strange thing. Maybe it's just as as men like ourselves, maybe it's people in general, I'm not sure.

 

Understand in that For any number of reasons, it's okay to be afraid not to bring up topics because sometimes it's just not the right time, but but you gotta be able to talk.

 

You gotta be able to have an honest conversation. I think when it comes to men talking about things as it applies to emotions or to like empathy maybe?

 

It's not -- Okay. -- there. And if it is there, it's not often. And you know, that's the biggest problem that's going on in this country right now.

 

Right there. Nobody is willing to sit down and have a conversation. And here, give their point, have a point shot back at them. And then realize that they're an asshole. They're not gonna accept it.

 

Right. It's like, come on. Right. It's okay to be a douche bag in public. It's fine. Yeah. But you're not gonna have many friends. It's another thing to be a douche bag in private and you're not gonna have any relationships.

 

Yeah. I think encouraging that level of humanity and communication plays a big role in in any sort of successful relationship, whatever capacity.

 

Right? Whether it's you and a client, you and a boss, you and a spouse, you and a significant other, you and a child, you and a grandparent, whatever.

 

Mhmm. In any kind of relationship, that level of humanity and honest communication makes all the difference. Right? But Do you see this? Do do you see that traveling around, like being taught, being practiced, being put into play?

 

Yeah. Not really. Nobody talked man. And if you do, everybody's shooting off with an attitude. I mean, I try to treat people how they treat me. If I walk up to somebody and say, hey, good morning. How are you?

 

And they give me the cold dead stare in an attitude. Well, guess what? Now you're gonna meet asshole loss. Now I'm not gonna be so friendly to you. Alright. I got 1 for you, Ozi. I got 1 for you real quick. I saw a video -- Mhmm.

 

-- I think it was I think it was Mike Tyson. He was talking to some guy some, I don't know, some hip hop guy or whatever in an interview and the guy he was talking to said exactly what she just said in his many words, anyways.

 

He said if somebody is going to be mean or aggressive or abrasive with me, Well then, I'll be the same back.

 

And Mike Tyson said -- Yes. -- right, but then the devil wins. Not to get religious on you mate, but He said then the devil wins and the hip hop guy, whoever he was, said why? What does that even mean?

 

He said because you let the devil change you then. As opposed to you don't have to be nice with everybody, but you don't have to reciprocate that level of communication or that connotation back at somebody either.

 

Yeah. You know you're right. You're right. You are right. Yeah. I will admit that. You know, I talked to a guy the other day, matter of fact.

 

He told me that there's only a few things in life that you actually have control over because like we talked about with gravity before, you can anticipate what's gonna happen when you introduce it into an equation.

 

But maybe not the level of damage, which means you can't control it.

 

K? Now what you can control though is how you respond to those things. Right? If you fall down, did you cry about it? You know, what did you do? Did you call for help? Did you any number of things? You can control your reactions. Yep.

 

And I think in having honest conversations with other people, we'd be remiss if we don't talk about having honest conversations with yourself. And I imagine your case is as much mine as you're driving down the road. You have some of is?

 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. T ton tons of free time to talk to yourself. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I I totally get that having and and that's the funny thing. Don't have to have a unilateral conversation that only goes 1 way.

 

Sometimes you can have conversations by yourself with yourself, multiple different points of view, you know. And sometimes being able to do that helps you sort things out.

 

And and there's a lot of power net. There's a lot of crazy in that, but there's a lot of power in that. No. No. That's true. True. You know, it is nice. Like, how I'm talking to you right now on my headset, Sure.

 

I got friends I got friends right now and they'll do the same to me. They'll call me up or I'll call them up and tell them the situation and be like, Was I being an asshole? Was I? Was that my fault?

 

Was I? And sometimes they'll be like, yes. Yes. That was on you, buddy. That that's on you. Yep. That that's your fault. But that's how you know you've got the right quality group of friends too. Oh, yeah. I did I'm sorry.

 

The only friends you really need to have in life are the ones that'll call you out on your nonsense. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I don't I don't need yes people around me, not at all. Maybe maybe 1, makes you feel good on a bad day, but It's true.

 

True. Yeah. Oh, god. Do you do you have kids also? Oh, yep. 2 boys. Oh, right. 2 boys. Right on. Yeah. The brother the brothers of instruction, smash and crash. There you go. What was that WCWI think?

 

No. WWF. That was the undertaker in Cane, and they treat my house. The exact same way. Yeah. There you go. Yes. They do. Nice. Yep. I had a youngest one's bedroom. When I go in there, I'm like, what was I'm like, oh, that's what it was.

 

Why is there a giant hole in the wall? They're like, oh, we were just hugging. Yeah. Oh. 0, you hug your brother through a wall. Yeah. I really I love them that much. No. Yeah. Yeah. No. Just some brotherly love going on there.

 

Yeah. Oh, no. They're gonna learn how to do some drywall. Oh, yeah. Sure. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. You you you break it. You're gonna help me fix it there, buddy. Well, and that's the thing too.

 

Right? A lot of that Princ, I think a lot of that concept seems like it's lost. At least if it's not in mass media that's not what's portrayed. Right? You know what you see and what you hear, here's a better example.

 

What you hear on the radio. I listen to AM a lot or XM in some cases. I assume you're the same. Yep. Yeah. So have you listened to well, here's 1 for you. Have you listened to the John boy and Billy show? I have not.

 

No. Alright. So 2 guys on this radio, so they've been around and I assume they're still making the show. I don't really know, but they went to satellite some time back. I was listening to them for the last few years at least.

 

Anyway, they do all sorts of comedy skits on their show as well. K? Okay. And that's why people tune in, I assume. Howard Stone show, people don't tune into him for his religious fervor. Right? They tune into him -- No.

 

-- for entertainment value. Let's call it. But There's millions of people listening. You look at the Joe Rowgan podcast as well. Right? People aren't tuning in to him to to figure out how to join voice gets of America.

 

Yeah. You know, they're turning endless and him talk about crazy shit and things that he wants to understand and sex to understand through whatever means.

 

K? That's what gets pushed out. That's what millions of people are listening to you look at social media. That's what people are pushing back out into society.

 

Right? But it's not so much it's not so much about we just had Father's Day last month. It's not just about for example, how do you mow a yard? How do you take care of a vehicle, preventative maintenance, whatever?

 

There's nothing out there about how do you talk to people, how do you treat people, own and up to your own mistakes, right fixing the drywall, even as a task, let alone as a responsible obligation for the damage you cause?

 

No. That those lessons aren't out there, and I think that's the value that I don't wanna say we as men, but we as father figures should be bringing to the table for sure.

 

Oh, exactly. I'm sorry. Social media is not a babysitter. And that's what a lot of people are doing between all these electronics, your playstations, your Facebooks, whatever.

 

Right. These kids are just sucked right into their phones or the games that them. And it's like, goddamn. And you know what? I I'm not a hundred percent clean of this because I've got a PlayStation too. And, yes, my kids play it.

 

So, yeah, I'm guilty of it too. Mhmm. But you gotta put a limit on this nonsense. It's like, hey, you know what? It's a beautiful day. Get outside. Yeah. Go break a window. Go do go be a boy. You'll do some fun stuff.

 

I think that might be part of the problem that's coming about. Right? Because -- Mhmm. -- the only reason and it's sort of like you mentioned earlier, being able a budget, your money gives you the freedom to make mistakes.

 

Not that you go out of your way to, but if they happen, there's a lot less stress in in taking care of them.

 

Yes. I think it's the same thing with Hey, son, go out. Just be a boy, go out and do things. Go go walk about, go do whatever. But in doing that -- Yes. You gotta understand how to fix whatever might happen.

 

And so then what happens if you don't know how to deal with a snake bite broken arm who to call how to treat choking, how to do whatever if there's a fire, how do you you know all of these thing had to stop a fire in some cases.

 

To to do these things, what happens if you get caught by a neighbor, climbing onto his roof because he jumped into his yard got scared so you went up instead of out, you know, whatever.

 

Yeah. Yeah. But like if you don't know how to remedy those situations, you're gonna be a lot more risk averse because you're tolerance for risk is a lot lower.

 

And, obviously, your threshold by that proxy is further down. You know, so how do you encourage that?

 

Like you said for your boys, Cain and Undertaker will call them. How do you how do you encourage that kind of resilience? How do you teach them these things and then be willing to absorb the risk of whatever may happen?

 

You know, a lot of it is just kicking them outside and making them go out, and play, and actually use their imaginations, come up with things, put the electronics away, and go outside.

 

Like I said, be a boy. Break a window. Because guess what?

 

You break a window. Now you and I are gonna fix it, and you're gonna learn how to fix a window. Sure. Well, and in that though making sure you've got the money to replace the window before you say, hey, go outside and break a window.

 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that's and to that earlier point, that's the smarter financial decision as well. Right? Make sure you sit beside a percentage of your income for all the fuck ups.

 

Yeah. And I'm not I'm not just telling them outside and just search smashing windows in the house. No. No. No. I'm just saying, be a boy. Sure. Be a boy. Go out, have fun, make mistakes, and then figure out how to get out of it.

 

How to fix it. Yep. Do what you gotta do. Yep. Or at least make the attempt at trying to fix it. Oh, exactly. Yeah. Like, don't get me wrong. You're not going to slash my tire and then put a band aid on it and blow into the air valve.

 

It's not gonna happen. That Shrader valve takes a little more weight but, you know, but I'm glad you tried. I'll give you points there, you know. Mhmm.

 

I'm still gonna be dressed -- I just thought about it. -- slashing my tire, but because you gotta learn the boundaries too. Yeah. I'm sorry. I think that's another thing that's lacking how some of these kids act is just amazing to me.

 

I'm like, have I ever said that to my father? Oh, boy. That would have been game on time. Yeah. For sure. Wow. You see this on social media a lot and in varying platforms, but there's a little girl I saw in a video.

 

Can't remember on which platform or why I was watching it. Just scrolling through as people do now. You know, it's the only thumb exercise I get, I guess.

 

So there's a benefit there. Anyway, watching this little this video, this girl and she's got to be maybe 5. Anyway, she's sitting there and she's like, you know, snapping her fingers and getting an attitude on the stage.

 

And everybody's laughing, oh, it's so cute, oh, it's so funny, it's whatever whatever whatever. Okay. Great. But as I understand it, that's the behavior she'll continue to exhibit.

 

Exactly. Like that's that's what you're encouraging. It might be cute. It might be funny, but unless you temper that with Hey, this is cute. This is funny. This is a character, but this isn't how you're gonna behave.

 

Well, then there there might be a problem down the road. Oh, boy. If I ever snap my fingers at my father, I think even to this day if I snap my fingers at my dad to have him get me something.

 

Yeah. I think I'd be missing some fingers. Yeah. Yeah, mate, for sure. And I mean that's the thing. First of all, I shouldn't have to snap at anybody because I know how to communicate.

 

I'm a human being. Yes. Yes. You know, unless I'm using it to make We have words. Right. Right. But you know, that's that's what's out there. It's the crazy thing.

 

You know, I remember playing video games as a kid, me, a fact, There was 1, you said you mentioned you had a playstation. Have did you ever play on the original playstation? Right? The gray box pop up circle cover on the top?

 

Tony Hox pro skater? The good stuff. Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so I remember playing Tony Hox pro skater. And in the warehouse as you start in the top, you go down the ramp at the bottom.

 

I don't know the technical terms for skateboard and ramps, but you come off the end of a ramp and you if you jump it in time it right, you can end up over top of the warehouse and get bonus points or whatever it was.

 

K? Oh, in that little that yeah. That little office space up above it. Yeah. Right. Yes. I remember this. Me and my friend spent hours doing that. Or trying to. And so I remember You're not the only ones. Oh, definitely not. No, mate.

 

And so as as we get off the bottom of the ramp and you jump up and you land in the top, Everything's good the first time, but the thing about these games is if you leave that level or you shut the game off and you come back in, all those windows are fixed for you?

 

I guess if you don't take it too seriously, it's not really a false sense of reality, but it is. For the same reason, there was this huge problem I hear about in the States with grand theft auto some years back.

 

Right? It encouraged stealing cars and killing hookers or whatever. It it can't be that their services, then running them over and getting your money Right.

 

Yeah. It can't be that serious. There's I mean, if it was there's a bigger problem but I wouldn't blame the video game for it. No. No no more than I would blame like, I don't know, what's a good example?

 

Jack in a bean stock for me buying beans at a farm. Yeah. You know, I didn't get inspiration because of people selling cows for beans, but I heard that it happened in their book.

 

I don't know. I don't play golf anymore because the last guy I saw playing golf got sucked into playing basketball with bugs bunny against his will.

 

Yeah. Exactly. There there's a certain threshold of balance and reality with what you're seeing as entertainment.

 

But, realistically, now You have to explain those things because the games are so much more accurate. They look legitimate. Yeah. Yeah. You really do. And I'm sorry.

 

It kinda desensitizes people and especially children. Yeah. It's that you have to be really careful what they see. You're like, whoa. Wait. Wait a minute. Why are you what is this called a duty crap? What is this? Yeah. No. No. I agree.

 

And and to a certain point, it's all still cartoons. Right? But then, I'm not saying I go around talking to kids all the time, but if you were to talk to kids all the time, you know, and they say, oh, well, I watch YouTube -- Yep.

 

-- and then these ads come up. Well, alright. It's the same I think conceptual balance between maybe when we were younger and we were watching, I don't know, MTV or VH1 or whatever you watched. And your parents are like, oh, hold on.

 

What are you watching? What is this? What's this commercial? Where the most of it was like, it wasn't a Matthew on hey, buy in a Lincoln but, you know, it it was a random commercial ad. The same thing happens on YouTube.

 

It's a random commercial ad. The problem is I think and not nothing against YouTube. A lot of these commercial ads though are random things that, you know, 6 year olds don't need to be watching. Exactly.

 

It just for what? Now don't get me wrong. If you have 6 year olds watching these things, you at least need to be aware that's what they're seeing so you can explain the difference. Yes. Yes. But then we're back to honest communication.

 

And I think more important than that is understanding how to explain these things. I mean, you you have to catch that commercial and you have to explain it to your kid because your kid's not gonna run up to you.

 

Well, for the most part, they're most part, they're just gonna watch watch the commercial going out great. Here it is. Mhmm. Awesome. Wasting my YouTube time on the commercial. Yeah. Sure. But they're not gonna come up to you.

 

Maybe they will. Maybe they'll ask a question. Maybe they won't. But if you can catch it and you go, oh, hey. Wait a minute. Yeah. Let's talk about that and how that's not right. Right. Well, so here here's an example.

 

Right? I saw an episode of power rangers a while back -- Yep. -- which I'm sure you're familiar with the show. It's been around for a while. Oh, yeah. Well, anyways in that episode, pretty much all the time.

 

There's 1 of the Rangers who gets bullied. Right? And then he becomes a power ranger. This kid who gets bullied, obviously, they show him in school being bullied or by somebody being bullied.

 

And then you see other shows which groups of kids that are treating each other similarly, but they're all laughing about it and it's just a big joke in the group and everybody's okay.

 

Right? So understanding example, how to explain the difference between joking with your mates and bullying each other? Yes. It's a subjective threshold. Right?

 

But if you don't know the words the vocabulary, Myvey, if you don't know how to bring up those points or how to differentiate between those points or maybe you've never been bullied and had to explain the emotional attachment to that moment.

 

Then then how do you describe it to your kids? It's difficult. But but I think that's why to your point earlier, that's why you need to encourage kids to it out and be kids.

 

It's not socializing for the sake of exposure and communication all the time. I think it's socializing for the sake of experience when you're older. Yeah. Like you said, Lennon had to fix your vehicle before you get out on the road.

 

Medaphorically, Lennon had to fix your life before you started on your own, you know? Exactly. Alrighty, folks. This is Porter with the Transacting Value Podcast.

 

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So what about, I guess, since you're not watching YouTube, you're not doing that kind of stuff while you're driving, what kinds of things do you like to listen to on the road? Oh, I like listening.

 

I listen to a lot of podcasts there. I've listened to just regular music channels that you got on SiriusXM, a lot of talk radio, listen to that quite a bit. A lot of the comedy channel love that. Coleman's pretty weird.

 

To fall asleep when you're laughing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. You got any favorite comedians. Oh, boy. Dave Chapel, but then then you gotta get into the old ones like Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy. Delirious and raw.

 

Yeah. Perfect. I was just gonna say Awesome. Yep. Awesome. That that red jumpsuit was was the way to go for sure. Dude, if I could pull it off, I'd be wearing that right now. Maybe not right not right now, but III can't pull it off.

 

Not at all. Not at all. No. You you never know until you try or is he? Yeah. That's true. That's good. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Oh, Jesus. But but you probably shouldn't try it.

 

Mm-mm. Mm-mm. No. No. No. No. No. I like to act like a badass, but I am pretty self conscious, especially like that. Like, no. No. Yeah. Yeah. Under understanding your own boundaries goes a long way in life too.

 

Yeah. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. It dude, it's really hard to be billy, bad ass when you're walking around in a red jumpsuit. That's true. 1 glove on. That's true, but I will tell you, mate.

 

Sometimes the people who work the hardest and give the most to the quietest. You know, you can just you can show off in that red jumpsuit or whatever leather, and everybody knows that level of on Right?

 

Like you don't have to tell me what you've done. I can see you've made it. And that's, you know, that's a crazy thing. I was talking to my son the other day.

 

Matter of fact, we were playing video games. Are you familiar with Roblox? No. I've heard the name, but no, I'm not really familiar with that. No. So it's a gaming platform. K of sorts and more like a hub, I guess.

 

And so gaming developers use I don't want to say kids, but whoever these people are play in these games as a sample group before they take their simple concept from this fielding development phase, and maybe make a computer game or something else out of it.

 

So you can go in and they've got hundreds of thousands of games that developers can submit to the Roblox company and they approve or not and if they approve it, it gets stocked into their repository of games and people search for it and find it and whatever based on the theme in different filters and then play the game and that they're dumb.

 

They're stupid games. Yeah. Right? Things like like there's 1. All you do is climb a thousand steps. That's it. That's the premise of the game. In fact, it's called clim a thousand steps.

 

Yep. Alright. But every step that it's attached to an island at the bottom and attached to an island top. And for every step that you climb, you get, I don't know, like 1 gold star or something.

 

And so by the time you get to the top, you've got a thousand. And every time you reach a certain benchmark of gold stars, you can buy a double jump, you can buy a cartwheel, you can buy a grappling hook, whatever.

 

And then you just go around and play the game. Up or down, you get points in gold stars. Right?

 

And that's it. But it's entertaining enough because you can see the numbers grow it's incentivized because you get more stars, it's entertaining because it's a online role playing game of sorts and it caps it I think at 10 or 12 people.

 

And there's a text feature between the people, and you can control a lot of these parameters with parental controls as well.

 

As far as roadblocks is concerned, that's what's nice. But the point being, I was playing 1 of these games, not that 1, but I was playing 1 of these games with my son the other day.

 

And as we were talking, he said something about farming and he said, I don't wanna be a farmer because they're some of the poorest people I've ever known.

 

Oh. Now for 1. Right. Now for 1, he's young. K? He's a -- Yep. -- he he doesn't know. And for 2, I really don't know how many farmers he knows.

 

It can't be that money. Yep. However, I said actually, Son, that's where you're wrong. Farmers overall. There's some downtrends. Right? But farmers overall are some of the richest people I've ever known. Yes. Right?

 

And so, you know, for for any number of reasons not to get into all that now, but what I thought was interesting about their point, about their conversation, is how you see things, how things are perceived, or how society pushes them to look in front of you, social media, I think, over doesn't disservice to this category, but that's what you tend to believe.

 

And you're like, well this person, I've worked in my yard. I've dug calls, I've break leaves, I've whatever planted a little flower or something.

 

So I'm a farmer my own right. Yeah. Sure, maybe. But it doesn't change the fact that financially you own that 30000 dollar piece of land or whatever it is.

 

You paid for that shitty look in 6000 dollar car in the driveway but it's paid for your house that's a single wide or maybe a double wide trailer manufactured or whatever you paid off with the crops that you grew that you sold, that then you paid off everything that you now actually own.

 

Right? There's There's a difference to that, but talking about the red jumpsuit made me realize what you see or what you think you see how it's publicized to look is what you're gonna believe. And so look at what's online now.

 

Here's an example. Of all the people 20 years ago that had to get a college degree to be successful at work, to a degree there was some truth to that. And then over the last 20 years, it's not as necessary. It changed.

 

It went to a master's degree. And then now, it's more of a trade school, vocation kind consideration or certification -- Yes. -- to be successful. Right? I was gonna say right now, go into a vocational school, that's where it's at.

 

The world needs its carpenters, needs its electricians, its plumbers. All the jobs that you think you don't wanna do or don't wanna do, that's what the world needs right now. Yeah. We're running out of those people.

 

Yeah. And I'm sorry, we have lost a lot of knowledge, a lot of old school knowledge just because people don't wanna do those jobs or they don't wanna sit down and talk to an old timer and listen and learn.

 

Yeah. I mean, most of the stuff I've ever learned in my life was just sitting down and talking to an old timer. You mean you actually have them listen to somebody talk?

 

Yeah. Yeah. Imagine that. Wow. Imagine that. Wow. Yeah. I know. Totally new concepts. Sure. I saw this video the other day. Elon Musk, I believe it was. And they were asking him this was online.

 

Right? I think it was Instagram. You can find these or video clips. And anyway, somebody was interviewing him at some point in the past, and they were talking about SpaceX maybe or Norlink or 1 of these Elon muskisms and -- Okay.

 

-- he said, look, here's the thing. Over the last 40 years, Yep. Americans forgot how to get to the moon. Yeah. Since hundreds of years ago thousands of years ago, Romans forgot how to build the coliseum.

 

Egyptians forgot how to build the pyramids. Yes. Right? You look at in the Middle East, they forgot how to build these giant cave things like Palmyra and wherever else.

 

May made that building rest in peace. The aqueducts. Right? Like all of these things that tourists go to see now could people recreate and build architecture, infrastructure -- Yep.

 

-- whatever. And then obviously space travel and and so on. And so Eillon's principle, the premise that he was trying to address, as I understand it was, it takes a conscious effort to maintain these things.

 

It's not just as a society and civil we've done it once to that standard and that level of greatness so we can continue to do it.

 

You've got to be able to pass it on to other people and teach it. The other half of that equation is they've got to be interested enough to at least be willing to learn it.

 

And, you know, that is 1 of my biggest regrets right there. What's this? I was I I was blessed to be around a a lot a lot of Alzheimer's that knew a lot of knowledge and I was I was blessed to be able to work alongside them.

 

But as a kid, I was like, oh, God. Here we go. Another shit job that I gotta I'm gonna be out here all day just in the hot sun sweating all day long -- Sure.

 

-- picking up heavy things. And the whole time, they're talking to me. They're trying to teach me things. And I in my head, I'm like, oh, let's just hurry up and get this done. I wanna go play. I wanna go do hang out with my friends.

 

I wish that I had just known at that time like, hey, just stop being a dummy and listen to these people. They're trying to teach you things. If I could remember half the stuff that they were trying to talk to me, I I'd be a happy man.

 

I really would. Because I work on things nowadays, and I'm like, you know, wait a second. Elmer told me how to do this. He had done this before. He told me and he showed me how to do this, and I can't remember it.

 

And now he's gone. And I can't ask him. Right? Well, here's the funny thing about that, mate. Everybody says that. Right? The wisdom of the old is wasted on the youth so to speak. It is. And so How do you how do you bridge that?

 

If you've got billions of people saying the same thing, generationally, I wish I listened more. I wish I knew more. I wish I asked better questions. And generations of people after saying, I really don't care, mate.

 

I've got better things I'd rather focus on right now that's more entertaining or whatever. How do we bridge that? How do we speak that language? So they're willing to learn.

 

How do we meet them where they're at and still convey the same principles? Yeah. I know. And here's something else I'm guilty of. I'm out here. Sometimes all week long, sometimes I get home 2 or 3 nights a week.

 

Sure. But when I do get home and I've got something I need to get done, around the house or I need to fix something or work on something, I'm still in that mentality of, like, okay. I only have a certain amount of time here.

 

I need to get this done. I don't have time to be teaching this. I just need to do it and get it done. And that that that's a failure on my part as a father for not going alright, slow down, bring the kids in, and have them help you.

 

Have them look at it, explain it to them. Right. Sometimes Have them do it and and help them get through it. Yeah. Yeah, mate. Sometimes there is a rush. Right? If the wash is leaking, maybe not a good time to pull in the kids.

 

Yeah. No. No. Not at all. Not at all. You know, or like on those days where you skip breakfast lunch and you haven't had dinner yet, probably not the best time to bring in the kids. Because No. No. No.

 

Yeah. You know No. But but overall, yeah, I'd agree with you then. Yeah. That that's another 1 of my failures. That I that I can admit admit, and I have to work on it. I really do. Yeah. I I will catch myself doing it. Be like, alright.

 

Alright. It's really not that important. Slow down and have them come out and help. I know they're gonna sit there and say it sucks. Or they're not gonna say it out loud. They're at least gonna be thinking it in their head.

 

I kinda hope they do. Yeah. That's the experience of it, you know? When they get older and then they're on their own, they have their own houses, their own families will be like, oh, wait a minute.

 

I did this with dad. He showed me how to do this. Yeah. I can do this. Yeah. And there's little things too. Right? Like how do you put 2 pieces of PVC together so they don't leak?

 

It it's simple enough in concept. Right? But if if you don't ever see it, if you don't ever know or notice, well then you just don't know. Exactly. Mhmm. I like doing wiring in a house. Sure.

 

I have held that I have held that lead light for my father or flashlight. For my father, for hours, hours. Well, I did spend hours getting yelled at to stop shining it in his eyes. Yeah. There we go. I should have been paying attention.

 

Should have been. So I had to go and try and remember what he showed me. Mhmm. And then I had to go figure it out. Right. And, yeah, you get shocked a few times. And then you remember, like, oh, don't touch that.

 

That's not good. Yeah. Sure. Or had a test and use a voltimeter for that matter. I agree. Understanding that you messed up that outlet and that's why that next light switch isn't working mate. Yes. Yeah. That's a good 1 too.

 

Like, oh, you know, because there's nothing worse than putting together the outlet and saying, alright, I finally got power here and the light switch doesn't work. And you're like, man, if it's not 1 thing, it's another.

 

Really, it's not. It's just a loose connection and it's in series and you just fucked it up. Yeah. Oh, that that's the wonderful thing about owning a home. Yeah. If it's not 1 thing, it's another.

 

As soon as you finish 1 project, 5 more pop up. And you're like, okay, awesome. That's true. But then you have no excuse, but to teach, you know, Kain and I to take a. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. That's how it goes.

 

You know? There's there's plenty opportunities to teach. There's not always opportunities to learn. I was thinking about this the other day. I think about things that I might want teach or tell my son and then I forget him.

 

And he may never ever think about asking me about him, and so then they lost the time. Yes. You know? So thinking about ways to do it. 1 of the things for me as I'm driving around, I got a tape recorder.

 

And so if I just start talking to myself, I just and at the end of the day, if I listen to it on a regular other drive to my self talking and it's a good enough point, I'll let it play.

 

And if it's a stupid point, I'll delete it. Yeah. You know That's a good idea. Yeah. And as I think about stuff, it's a sentence at a time. It's not a 5 hour recording, but and then you No.

 

That's that's a great idea. I have that same problem out here. You're thinking you got a lot of time to think. Yeah. So you're thinking, like, oh, I'd like to do this with them. I'd like to do that. I'd like to teach them this.

 

But then you get home and you're like, oh, what was I thinking? Oh, okay. Never mind. Just go on to another project. Yeah. Must not be that important. It happens all the time. Well, actuality, it's actually really important.

 

I just forgot. Yeah. And it might it might be as simple as, you know, like you were talking about with grandparents or with Elma or these random memories that creep up don't think about telling your kids that, yeah, I had this uncle.

 

He did these things like mine who was driving road trains. Know? Maybe I just don't wanna talk about it, haven't processed my emotions around it, or don't think to bring it up in conversation.

 

Unless like this it happens to come up. So there's definitely got to be ways and maybe that's how we reach people. You know, it may not be in our time but it's got to be in theirs. Yes. Yeah.

 

And that's all that really matters finding a way for them to understand it at some point because like you said, what's the hurry in my time? Conversely, I might need to get something done like we see if the wash is leaking or whatever.

 

But if we get it done now and they forget, they at least have something to fall back on. Who knows? You know, maybe you dictate yourself a book and have somebody else write it later.

 

Who knows? Yeah. I appreciate your time. I don't wanna take you too much away from and distraction. I'm sure you wanna stop and go pay you, do whatever you gotta do on the road.

 

But I I really appreciate you taking some time out of your drive to be able to talk, and I'm glad you had good enough reception we could do it. As it turns out we had a lot more in common than I realized. Definitely. Definitely.

 

Yeah. So thank you for coming in. If you find yourself more Hey, I appreciate you having Yeah. Me too, mate. Hey. Anytime, man. Anytime. I enjoyed this. This was fun. Yeah. This was good. No. I was a little apprehensive about first.

 

I'm like, oh, what hell am I gonna talk? Oh, boy. Yeah. It actually no. It worked out beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. Well, it's like you say, you know, you never really think that you know much that's of value, then you find out. Yeah.

 

No. That's God's honest truth. If if anybody wants to reach out to you maybe on the road or or whatever for advice or how to get into the business or they're also drivers and they just wanna get in touch with talk to you in the area.

 

Is there any way they can do that? Well, they can hit me up on my cell phone or they can send me an email. Alright. Well, I don't wanna have you put out your cell phone here on the air, everybody in the world will have it at that point.

 

If those are the only 2 options, then let's just say anybody that falls into those categories, get in touch with Subbival Dead Y and we'll reach back out to Aussie.

 

That sounds good. That sounds good. Or are you catching me on the road somewhere?

 

Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Coming to a town near you. Right, mates. I understand there's a little bit on Facebook. Maybe we could even track you down as well. We could try to tag you in some of those posts.

 

But what about Maybe any organizations at your sponsor, I see these tractor trailer, trucks with banners and whatever on the sides. Do you do you support any organizations as you're driving around?

 

What are the biggest organizations I support is toys for tots. I I believe in this program, every child definitely deserves it Christmas. You know, I I take I take my weekends right around the Christmas time.

 

I go up to their facility. I grab 1 of their trailers, and I I go out with I go out with the marines. I go out with my brothers, and we deliver these toys to the children that need it.

 

This is 1 of the most heartbreaking things you will ever see. Is when you pull up to these places and start handing out toys to kids that probably wouldn't have a Christmas.

 

It it it it will break you. And if it doesn't break you, you don't have a soul. Yeah. That's tough now. That's tough. I mean, if you see a toys for Todd's been Please donate.

 

Please. These kids deserve it. Yeah. I like that. Well, I I appreciate you bringing that up, mate. It's not something that gets talked about often unless you happen to come across it.

 

No. No. Not at all. I mean, it this is an awesome organization. I I've been doing this for about 3 years now with them, and I've been blessed to be able to do it.

 

2 2 years, I I did local deliveries for them, just drive around the capital region, going to their spots. But we got an emergency call 1 year, New York City, they ran out of toys.

 

Oh, hell no. Well So they got the phone call. They had a surplus. Me and my wife, we hooked that trailer. We ran it down to the Marine Corps reserve station down on Brooklyn and delivered down theirs to to help them out.

 

Sure. I mean, it's it's you do what you gotta do. I like that, mate. Well, keep at it. Keep at it. It sounds like it's a worthwhile cause. I don't know much about it, but I'll find the website.

 

Make sure Porter puts it in the description for this interview as well. On Spotify or iHeart Radio wherever he puts his things. And then that way people can generate a bit more traffic and could check them out as well.

 

Upstandard. Yeah. Outstanding. It'll be great. It'll be great. Hey. Real quick -- Yeah. -- before I go, I wanna put out a PSA there. When you're around a big truck, Get away from us, please. We don't like you. We don't know you.

 

Go. Either just step on the gas and get away from us or stay behind us. You don't need to ride alongside us at all. That is a really bad place to be. You're either gonna be in 1 of our blind spots or worst case scenario, a tire blows.

 

And now it just destroyed your car. So please get away from us. If you see a driver with his 4 ways on trying to back into a spot, Give him a few minutes, pulling up as tight as you can to him, just took away all his maneuverability.

 

It just away all that space, and now you 2 are sitting there staring at each other like dummies. Just give him 5 minutes. Guaranteed, it'll take him 1 and you'll be on your way.

 

Your Starbucks mocha latte is not that important. Oh, you never know, Mike. You never know. Believe me. I love hey. I love my coffee too. But just give the guy just give the guy a second.

 

He'll get it in there. He will eventually. Jesus. Yeah. Oh, it it put put put your cell phone down Please and thank you. You swerving and nose diving me, that that's not cool either. Yeah. You're a big 1 mate. Yeah? Not at all.

 

Well, for more tips, tricks, and words of wisdom, call back to grandpa Aussie. Oh, yeah. Believe me. I can give you all day long of things I don't like about people. Jesus. Maybe maybe we'll have that for another episode then.

 

That'd be great. Oh, man. I'm full of PSAs. I really am. I appreciate it nonetheless, Mike. I'll get you back on your way. Alright. Sounds great, brother. I appreciate it. Yeah. No worries, Mike.

 

No worries. And for anybody else listening, again, thanks taking your time, stopping in to listen to this conversation. If you had a good time, you got any advice, you got any insight, you got any topics you want us to cover as well.

 

Feel free to send an email to dared y t at gmail dot com, send a direct message on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, or Twitter. Otherwise, folks with it. I'm Jonesy. I'm your host, and this was the transacting Value Podcast.