Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome back to that's Delivered. I'm your host, truckin' Ray, and today I'm joined by someone who's truly special. His voice is a staple in trucking Jimmy Mack from Radio Nemo. If you spent some time on the road, chances you've tuned in and heard him bringing drivers news stories and conversations that matter. Jimmy, thanks for being here today and also for having me on your show. It was truly an honor to be on Nemo Nation. Before we dig into today's topic about how truckers get their information and build a personalized listening and news list, let's start with your story how you doing man.

Speaker 2: 0:40

I'm good. I'm good man. It's good to see you. Um, it's good to be here as a matter of fact. It's good to see you. It's good to be here as a matter of fact. It's just. It's kind of amazing to get a chance to be on somebody else's platform because we live, you know, five days a week, seven in the morning, 11 o'clock in the morning, every single day, you know, streaming on our platform and then editing our content and doing all that stuff. So to get a, get a moment to actually come on and get a chance to talk to somebody else who's doing the same work this is the first appearance I've made on anybody else's platform since we started our new platform, so I'm thrilled that you were the one who reached out, and you know I'm glad to be here. You know we've been kind of putting people off and you know, when you guys reached out, I'm like I'm not putting that off.

Speaker 1: 1:28

That's too good of content and too greater people not to not to make time for you. It's good to see you, man. Man, that's awesome, I'm flattered. Thank you so much for mentioning that and having me on Nemo nation. I mean you guys are killing it out there, man, switching it over from radio. I mean, after all those years, I mean that's huge, that's a big transition. How are you guys doing with that?

Speaker 2: 1:39

It's, it's been crazy, it's been, you know, it's three shows. So Monday is Nemo Nation and what we do on that show is we do anywhere from 11 to 13 to 14 guests, and that is a rapid fire. I mean, the first half hour of guests is three, then two, then three again, then two, then one. I mean it's a lot of people we kind of run through there. And so the first like five to six weeks we had to deliberately make sure that we were offering, for the most part, new guests every time. You know it's like, and the idea was to get a stable of 50 or 60 people in motion and then start bringing them back to kind of catch up with each one of them. So, like you know, you've been on the show, you will be back if you accept our invitation, because then you kind of check in, and so what ends up happening is we're I'm a big believer is I don't think that you're competing with me and I don't think that I'm competing with you. I don't think it works that way. I think the only thing we compete with in this sphere is ourselves. That if we give people great content, if we, if we hold up to our highest standard, then you will just end up in the queue with me that truckers, people who want to know about transportation, will sit down and line up our podcast, line up our streaming platform, line up our live shows and just say I'm going to listen to my favorite things over the course of the day. So I'm not fighting for a share with you. We're actually trying to do the best job we can do and promote the best things that we can promote, because they come back to me looking for more recommendations and if you have a great time on my show and you say just got back from the Radio, nemo guys, you guys should check them out Once again. I can hear you on replay. Um, I, you know I can listen. Somebody can listen to you live or you in the moment and then literally listen to a replay of me later. So it's been an interesting kind of switch, um, but you know the thing about the man that sits at the center of a Dave Nemo 55 years in trucking radio, 55 years in trucking radio and you know one of the founding kind of members of it, along with Charlie Douglas and Trucking Bozo and Bill Mack. What's really cool is that he's always been not the first guy there, but one of the first guys there and when we kind of explain what we would be doing and giving him one show at the beginning of the week, a way that people could check in with the old, familiar Dave doing something new and then setting them up for the rest of the week for success.

Speaker 2: 4:08

So that show that you were on Nemo Nation is designed to send people to other shows. It's designed to tell people here are all the things that are available to you, here are the reporters that are available to you, the podcasters that are available to you, the YouTubers that are available to you, the magazinescasters that are available to you, the YouTubers that are available to you, um, you know the magazines, uh, the influencers, the journalists, all the people that you want to know so that when, when you're trying to check out parking issues, you know to check out a different gal and and it gives you all these options so that you can make decisions about where you're going to spend your time for the rest of the week and start making choices. You know, and that you know, like I said, we're no longer in an age where there's some people you might know you might not have had this experience. There's some people who are still playing the old FM radio game, the old AM radio game of I'm fighting for a share and if you fail, I succeed.

Speaker 2: 4:59

We, we don't. We don't think that way, we don't think that way. And it's stupid to think that way, because you're wasting time when you need to be generating content. It's all I mean, ray, you know that right. I mean it's just content, content, content, that's the game.

Speaker 1: 5:14

Yeah, I mean, that's huge man. Let's take us back a little bit. How did you get started? Now we'll go beyond the voice of radio. Share your story. How did you get first in radio and what was the path that led you to where you're at now with trucking radio specifically?

Speaker 2: 5:27

Well, trucking radio. I married into it. I'll straight up tell you that I married into it and I only make apologies for that. The fact that I had radio experience beforehand, the fact that I'd worked in the news industry, the fact that I'd been an editor at large at an American newspaper, an editor at large at an American newspaper, the fact that I've covered events overseas, the fact that I've written both fictional and news stories for different outlets, made it very easy for my father-in-law to make the ask. But it's an interesting story. What happened? A regular host of Dave's weekend show simply walked off the job. He just walked off the job and Dave said look, I'm not giving you a job, but I will pay you if you'll step in and just kind of act as a steward caretaker for this show. And I said sure, and my wife, claire Marie, who is the sound designer, by the way, we just added all the new sound bumpers for the show, so the show sounds great. My wife is an incredibly gifted sound designer. They do all the programming for the show. They're in the midst of building the new website and all that kind of stuff. We co-hosted the weekend show as a holding pattern. Well, at some point, the guys on our previous platform said he's fine, keep him, let's move on. And that was kind of that. We just kind of, you know, slid into it and all of a sudden we're doing it on a regular basis.

Speaker 2: 6:50

I had a couple of advantages that, while I wasn't completely familiar with the trucking side of the supply chain, my family are railroad people, we come from the railroads. Well, you know, my great uncle was a president of one of the vice president of, uh, kansas city, southern. Um, my entire family got through the depression because they all worked on the railroads. So I grew up in that atmosphere, grew up in law enforcement as well, um, grew up in, you know, in in new Orleans politics, which of course involves teamsters, so there were a lot of connective tissues and then spent the first couple of I've been doing the job I've been doing trucking radio, for it will be my 10th year next year. So by the time, you know, at some point the real big thing I had to learn wasn't the rules and regs. That wasn't what was tough for me, because I've worked in law enforcement, so that was easy. You know the idea of kind of understanding the rules and regulations of the road and hours of service and all that. The thing I had to catch up on was understanding freight rates, was understanding how rates work, and that's where I kind of my dad taught me a really good lesson growing up. He was in law school and he hated tort law. He hated it when it was taking him so he aced it. He got the best grades he ever got because he decided he never wanted anybody telling him ever anything about tort law.

Speaker 2: 8:12

I have a really great piece of advice. I tell truck drivers this all the time. You know, dave gave me a great piece of advice. He said be yourself on the air, that's so important. He said don't be anything, you're not. When he said, when you don't know something, it's so important. He said don't be anything, you're not. When he said when you don't know something, tell the drivers you don't know. He said trust me, they will call you and they will tell you, and they will do it happily because they like sharing their knowledge and their wisdom.

Speaker 2: 8:34

And one of the things I tell people all the time is make a friend of boredom. Whatever about your job even when we have jobs as groovy as you and I have whatever is the most boring part of the job, the part that just you hate doing that makes you like aggravated. That's the job. Everything else is fun, and so once you figure out what the job is inside of, the job is get really good at that so you can do it as quickly and efficiently as possible, so you can get to the fun stuff, and you know so.

Speaker 2: 9:01

When I got into, when I got into this gig, I said the thing I've really got to learn is how the rates work. I've got to really learn about how these men and women make a living. And I got to learn it quickly. And I got a chance to meet two of the best guys in the world, tom Bray of JJ Keller and Dean Croke of DAT, and, um, they just got me up to speed. And the other thing is, too, you're like this as well, ray. So you know this. I tell people all the time. Don't ever be afraid to tell people I don't know, but I would love to please tell me.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Yeah, and that's what keeps me passionate about serving truck drivers through the airways after all these years. I mean, what, uh, what do you think resonates for you?

Speaker 2: 9:38

I like them, I just like them. I just I think they're, I think they're underrated. And what I mean by that is is that you know, one of the things is that you know, uh, very early on in the process, somebody wrote a. You know, we do an interview with a lot of authors, a lot of people audio books and novels and action stuff and all that kind of group of stuff and somebody said, well, you're getting another book report. And I said I have this crazy idea that the men and women who are listening to these shows actually like to read, like to listen to books, like stories, want to know about more than just rates. And I always tell Dave, I say, look, I said 60 to 65 percent of our shows should be about trucking straight up across the board, about trucking in one way or another straight up across the board, about trucking in one way or another. 35% should be about the fact I don't know if you're an NFL fan NFL actually condenses the game to like 10 to 12 minutes so you can watch just the best parts of the game the ability to do that on the air and then to be able to take a caller, a truck driver who wants to call and just find a friend who we can talk to about the bills live on the air. We have a regular caller named Packrat. He's a smart guy, he is an engaged guy, he can talk about rates and he can get really, you know, business oriented and get down to the nuts and bolts. But the fact that he knows that on Monday he can give me a call and either lament the fact that his bills lost or celebrate the fact that they won I'm always going to love that about people.

Speaker 2: 11:04

Or the fact that we had an author named Ryan Pote on the other day and he wrote this wonderful book. He's an army veteran I'm sorry. He's a naval veteran. He's a helicopter pilot. He's worked a lot of special ops. He wrote a wonderful book called Blood and Treasure and then he came down to the studio in New Orleans and he gave away free audio books online and buying his book and they're sharing it online and they're telling people you should read this and you should listen to that.

Speaker 2: 11:31

And so many of them are veterans, right? So many of them served, you know, and it's a story that they can relate to, about, about, about a veteran struggling to make it in the real world and you know, and having PTSD and kind of moving through life, and they want to hear that story, they want to know they're not alone. I mean it. Just why do I love them? I love them because they pay my bills, um, and they do it joyfully.

Speaker 2: 11:52

And I don't mean that cynically, I don't mean, but I mean it's like I I get a chance to talk. To end of the day, we deal in facts, we deal in fellowship and we deal in fun, which is what I think people get into trucking for. You know the idea that you know you need the information you need to make the living you got to make. That's a community. It's only bearable if you have yeah, and it's only bearable if you have fellowship, exactly if you're not enjoying a job that requires you spend that much time away talking directly to them and knows them and who really plays by Will Rogers great adage that the stranger is a friend I just haven't met yet.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Nice. All right, I love that. I mean it's countless conversations with drivers. I mean you guys are sharing moments together. Like you said about the bills, I mean that's huge. What do you think stands out where you realize this is why we do what we do? Is there a moment that you you can remember or recall and say, man, this is this really sets home with me. I don't want to let this go.

Speaker 2: 13:17

I think sometimes when people call in are honest about their loneliness you know Dave has talked about some of his great moments have been back in the day when he would actually be able to say on the air you need to call home. He would tell a driver on the road pull over, find a pay phone, call home, there's a surprise waiting for you. And somebody had given birth. You know that they were picking up the phone to be told that their wife had given birth to their baby girl or their baby boy. I know that really lands with Dave a lot For me. You know we do a lot of work with.

Speaker 2: 13:48

One of our sponsors is Reeds Across America and they do the. You know the convoy to Arlington. And when people call up and say I've been driving for Reeds Across America for five years, six years and of course you know you admire them deeply, but then you find out they tell you oh, we did it because of you, we found out about this because of you, we're involved in this because we heard you guys talk about it and we've joined this movement, we've become part of something. Or, like one of our listeners, this guy named Forod, he has over 650 audible books he's listened to and he's openly said that it all begins with the recommendations I started to make, and then he would find one book and then they recommend more books. He has downloaded 650 Audible books 650 of them and that means the world to me, that it's like you're reaching somebody, you're speaking to somebody Awesome.

Speaker 1: 14:48

That's for me. That's huge, that's a great contribution to humanity, helping individuals deal with loneliness and also being a part of something greater than themselves, because that brings happiness right there. Of how has this way truckers get their news, their information, changed over the years? You know, get that lineup and decide what they want to listen to and what they want to hear. How has that changed?

Speaker 2: 15:22

Oh wow. Well, the thing is too is that here you know this as well as anybody else used to be that a regular listener would actually turn you on and until they lost their signal, they were yours. And what a lot of people don't understand is it's really interesting that you've got to work in bites. You've got to acknowledge how people are getting there. I mean, look, you can give people other stuff. There's an audience out there who want to hear 30 and 40 minute conversations. They really do. They want to dig in, they want to go long form. I mean, after all, look at Joe Rogan, four hours we do four hours, not the way that he does, but a lot of people want to get their news. You know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, bang, want to get it done like that.

Speaker 1: 16:00

Headlines.

Speaker 2: 16:01

So you got to figure out ways to kind of give people both where, if you stick around for the long haul, you get the full kind of picture. But you want to make sure that you have bits and pieces that you can then put out there that contain facts and information, because I saw somebody write something the other day just broke my heart. This guy basically went on Facebook and he said guys, I'm getting off of social media for a while and it wasn't one of those I'm getting off of social media. I hate this. This is terrible. It was. It was sadness, you could tell.

Speaker 2: 16:29

He said I, I don't see a lot of my friends anymore here. It wasn't like talking about how people sucked or people were mean. He was saying that people are great. I'm going to go meet some. Uh, I'm going to go see some again. I'm just I.

Speaker 2: 16:41

He said there's so much AI slop here. You know so much, you know so much repetitive stuff. I feel like that they've got this algorithm down in regards to like what I want to buy that they're just flooding my zone and I have to go almost take a bath, and it made me really sad. I mean, there are some tricks, as we know that you can do to your internet and your feed and all that kind of stuff that can limit that. But I understood this. This is a guy who just wanted to go on and check to see if his friends were having grandkids, if people had bought new puppies, you know if somebody had a great hunting trip, if somebody actually made the thousand miles in the allotted time. All that stuff and all he was getting was kind of overwhelmed by a sea of you know algorithms. You know that. You know that. You know that the book of face had had read him so to a T that he didn't like looking back in that mirror and he's taking a walk from it and I was actually happy for him.

Speaker 2: 17:36

But it's interesting because the biggest fight we're going to have moving forward, ray, is convincing people. What I'm telling you is simply facts and you might not like these facts. You might not like what this means for what you believe politically. You might not like what this means for what you want to be real, but this is real. And to remind them, we have a pastor that comes on every morning. Pastor John of Bennett Trucking Companies comes in and gives a word of affirmation at the beginning of our show it's really loving, it's ecumenical, it's for everybody.

Speaker 2: 18:10

And to kind of convince people you might not like what I'm telling you, but sometimes that's what the news is is things you don't want to hear. But then to kind of remind them at the end, the way he says it's bad news, but guess what? I love you and there's nothing you can do about it, you know? And and just to kind of remind them that look, I'm not, I'm not trying to sway you, I'm not trying to look, I'm not trying to sway you, I'm not trying to move you, I'm not trying to editorialize to you, and I'll tell you what I'm editorializing.

Speaker 2: 18:39

But the information that I'm telling you right now, when I give you numbers, those are real numbers and I don't care if they hurt your feelings. You're entitled to your feelings, but you're not entitled to your own facts and that's the biggest challenge for us, for all of us. You know, I mean, you know, I mean I'm not going to tell you that eggs don't cost, what eggs cost. I'm not going to tell you that a storm isn't going to hit your town. I'm not going to tell you that people are doing good when they're not. And I'm not going to tell you people are doing bad when they're actually doing good. Don't lie to people. Don't lie to them.

Speaker 2: 19:13

I like that I'm not sure what it kind of comes down to, I mean, we have to value it.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Do you think trust trust on certain platforms, uh that truckers are looking to a certain area more than others. What do you think is the more trustworthy one right now?

Speaker 2: 19:27

Oh, I, you know what. There are a lot of people out there. How about we just talk about people that are speaking the truth? I mean you're speaking the truth, our good friend Chuck Snow. Like I said, there are people. I would say it doesn't matter what people's political beliefs are. If you're finding that the people of different political beliefs are giving you the same information, then there's probably some truth to it. There's a lot of folks out there Chris Orban, dean Kroge, you know, know, there's a number of people I mean in terms of entertainment.

Speaker 2: 19:54

Dale Summers, you know, I mean, you know his son is still out there keeping people entertained, giving people a good time. You know there's all kinds of places where you can get good information. You know there's all kinds. I mean you. I mean you know it's just like it's happening everywhere. It's like the only thing I would tell listeners is yes, it's important to find somebody that makes you feel good because you want to. You know you got to spend time with us. So we, you know we're making people, but it's important that you don't find somebody who lets you believe what you want to believe. There's a big difference between that, between somebody telling you you don't want to find anybody telling you what you want to hear. You want to find people that are telling you what you want to hear. You want to find people that are telling you the truth. Now, that's where the real talent comes in right, because can you tell people the truth in a way that makes them still want to spend time with you, yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:41

Even when they don't like that, Can you deliver. That, you know. I mean.

Speaker 1: 20:45

It's a reason why I came up with the name of the show and that's delivered, because that's just what it is. You know, uh, you get a, you get a package on your, on your, on your doorstep, and it's all damaged and you hey, it's uh, you got it, but we got to file a claim. It's not yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:03

I mean, and that's I had it happen with FedEx, yeah, just last week. They're telling me it's been delivered. I'm like no, it hasn't. Like it's in Memphis, I'm like no, it's not. It's been crazy. I've had. Like me, I've had like bad experiences. Like I will say in defense of both Home Depot and FedEx, I've had bad experiences in the last two weeks.

Speaker 2: 21:24

The final step of that experience has been extraordinary, like once the problem was caught, both companies stepped up amazingly. But I literally had somebody telling me over in India that a table from Home Depot had been delivered, it's delivered. And it was the last Indian gentleman I talked to who said it's obvious, my colleague hasn't been to the United States, he's like that's sitting in northern Mississippi, in the Memphis suburbs. He said you're down in New Orleans, let me get somebody on who can actually help you. And they delivered it and I got the table for free. But then FedEx, just two days ago, told me that something had been delivered. They gave it a duplicate tracking number and sent the two numbers in different directions and couldn't distinguish which one was which. It was the craziest thing. It got resolved and when it got resolved I got the phone calls, I got the apologies. Like I said, it's. Yeah, I mean it was crazy.

Speaker 2: 22:18

But I will say this, though in both cases, the final pieces of customer service were extraordinary, because that's the other thing too about a lot of these men and women out there. You know this they don't mind if you screw up, they mind if you don't take responsibility for it. Both companies took responsibility. That's really what it kind of comes down to. When you make a bad call, you admit it. You know what I'm saying. When you screw up, you tell people. When you don't know something, you say I don't know, guys, I don't know, or you know, you come back. That's the power of the retraction A ret and actually reestablish his trust. I'm sorry, ray, I'm going on. I ain't got things you want to say.

Speaker 1: 22:53

Yeah, I mean that's huge. I mean, no, I love it that you keep going. That's what the show is about. That's kind of it, yeah, you can keep going as long as you got time.

Speaker 2: 23:00

I want to ask you the question, though, man? Where do you go? What do you trust? Right now, though, who are you looking towards when you want to hear news?

Speaker 1: 23:15

Yeah, I mean that's. I guess I have to leave it up to myself to distinguish if I feel like the story's not finished. Sometimes the story is still ongoing and we want to draw conclusions, so I may hear something from this channel or from that source, but yet is it actually done? Do we feel like it's still something that we want to investigate more? And so that's where we get to keep talking about. That's like the gift that keeps on giving. Sometimes we we draw a conclusion, we don't want to hear anything else, and then there's some new evidence that gets brought to light. We have to kind of sit and think about it. Was that something that we should add into it? You know, I think about this one truck driver that made a U-turn.

Speaker 1: 23:58

We thought maybe he didn't know any English. Oh yeah, and now we're finding out that he actually can speak English. You know, so, the more we know, the better, and you know the underlying current of who are these employers that are, uh, employing drivers like this you know, what's going on when you interview a driver and you know that there's an issue and you just keep going.

Speaker 1: 24:20

So, um, yeah, it's just, you gotta keep your ears open and listen. Um, I don't really particularly say this particular person, or even myself, that you know, cause I can. I can get messed up too. I can get fed the wrong information, um, and I have to, you know, own up to that. So what I do is I just continue to follow the story. I think it lives in itself.

Speaker 2: 24:45

Oh man, I, I 100% you know. The morning after that that terrible U-turn accident, um, we had information that we were almost almost certain we knew where he got a CDL from and we had made arrangements to bring on someone who would be able to talk about that in particular. And he called us up and said and what he said before? He said I'm not yet there. He said I'm almost 100 percent sure. Sure, I know where this is from. He said but tell you what? Let's just talk about the need for better training instead. He said because I don't have. He was right.

Speaker 2: 25:27

The worst part was he was right but he couldn't talk about it because he hadn't confirmed it. And it was like the most the best decision of all time. I told him point blank. I said you haven't done. I said it's great. I said I would rather hold off on the information and get it right, then get there first and be completely wrong. And the one thing that Dave and I kept doing during that whole U-turn incident was we don't have all the facts. We don't have all the facts, and I couldn't agree with you more Right, that's don't have all the facts, we don't have all the facts. And I I couldn't agree with you more right, that's like the crucial thing.

Speaker 1: 25:59

I wait, wait for the truth to arrive yeah, I think parenting teaches a lot of that. You think you got to figure it out and five, five days later, your kid tells you the real story yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:11

Or sometimes you get angry at your kid and then you find out that they made a decision that was actually pretty smart, in retrospect too, I mean, that's, that's a big thing too, it's like, and so it's why you know. And the other thing is to simply waiting. Even if you're right, you're still cooling off, you're still giving time. I've always said that in moments of crisis, the best thing we can always hope for is that cooler heads prevail. We can just hold on and get through that moment of instant panic or reaction to let the adults in the room take control of the room, you know, and that's always a big moment, if we can get. It's always just waiting, isn't it? If we can just wait a little bit longer, we might find out that things aren't as bad as we thought they were.

Speaker 1: 26:53

I like that one too. Yeah, and waiting is hard and you gotta be patient. I mean that's, that's a quality a lot of people don't possess.

Speaker 2: 27:02

So, uh, patience, no, especially in the instant information. Right, I need it now. Where's my information? I need it now, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Where's my next information?

Speaker 1: 27:13

I know, I know and you wonder why your arm is cramping up.

Speaker 2: 27:16

You're like oh man I know, I know it's just, it's just. It makes me like I said, and they're people. They're people who post things that I love, and family members, friends, people I respect, and I look at their post and I go, man, you're going to be taking that down, yep, there it goes. You took it down, yep, there it goes. You were wrong. Yep. Or you're doubling down on bad information, which is even worse, where, no, I'm going to insist I was right. No, no, you won't, but you can keep on saying it and you keep on looking more and more foolish, and that's kind of it. That's kind of it as well, too. So, yeah, I mean, oh, so I told you. So we do. You know Nemo Nation.

Speaker 2: 27:54

On Mondays, tuesday through Friday, we do Road Gang Radio and the first two hours are about trucking. We call it the first two hours about making a living and the second two hours about having a life. So we'll talk about, you know, all kinds of trucking issues from seven to nine, and then my co-host, lindsay Lawler, shows up and we talk to country and Western and Americana performers and authors and cooks and podcasters to give people all kinds you know, and people who run national parks and people who you know, look at old road signs on route 66, you know or tell ghost stories to you campfires and say you know what's going. What are the fun things our friends out there can do when they're out there. Talk to people who know where all the golf. We have drivers who actually know how to plan their routes to get to good golf courses which I just love.

Speaker 2: 28:48

I think they gotta figure it out, they gotta dial it in. That's the second show, and then the last show we do is called we Should Write, where Lindsay Lawler talks to all kinds of creatives songwriters, novelists, people who write for a living. But the point of the show isn't to help people write for a living. The point of the show is to tell people writing is often better than therapy because it costs a lot less.

Speaker 1: 29:14

Yeah, my producer is big into journaling. These professions that we get into, we start earning a living, we get into the groove. This has become our life, but then becomes all we do. Sometimes we got to find a way out, and if we don't have the social network that we need, you have to find a way to channel your thoughts, your energy, and journaling is huge. You think about a lot of people that are incarcerated. They can't do this, they can't do that, but they learn to journal inside there. So if they can do it, why can't we? We can find those ways to bring happiness to ourself and I think journaling is a good way to do that. So, taking the time to write things down um, it's a huge community out there. I can't believe it. It's, um, it's a big deal. So, take a minute or two, write, write something for yourself, um, not always just um, giving you know to others, you can give to yourself, I think that's yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:12

I think journaling is the key, because a lot of times, I said, cooler heads prevail. Sometimes, simply taking the time to sit down and write can make you not say the wrong thing or not do something that you'll regret for the rest of your life, and it's something that I'm just making a list of being like five reasons why I shouldn't yell at this guy, five reasons why I shouldn't get in this fight. You know and it might just be my wife, my kids the fact that I back that in prison they don't serve ice cream sundaes. You know, I mean it's like. I mean you can get really simple. You can get really simple. I mean it's like.

Speaker 2: 30:44

You know, I mean the number of people who you know, because you brought up the incarceration thing, the number of people who are sitting in jail going man, if I'd only just stayed on the damn porch, if I'd only like, if I'd only kept my temper, you know, if I only hadn't, you know, if I only hadn't taken the next step, if I had just taken a moment to be like breathe, because it's in breath the prayer happens. You know, and most prayer is for ourselves. Even when it's for others, it's for ourselves. It's a desperate cry for wisdom which we often don't have, unless we breathe, unless we write, unless we think, unless we practice.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Yeah, yeah, that's part of what I do.

Speaker 1: 31:21

Yeah, I think about it, man. It's awesome, it enriches your life, and then eventually you see the door open up. You see a light in the tunnel. You see people coming towards you because you know they want to be around. You're not this angry person all the time. Right, right, you got this. You got this community that comes towards you. Like, even with podcasting, like you said, you got to focus on getting that content out there or you're not competing with other people. You're kind of looking at yourself as to how you can be more available to the community, how you can be more available to trucking as specifically to what we do, and provide that information for people to be successful out there on the road. I think that's's huge. So, and you're doing that, I think you're doing a great job. You got a great team. Right now, my team is pretty small. One day, you know, my hopes and dreams is to have a huge studio where you can come and visit. I want to come down here and see you guys too.

Speaker 2: 32:10

Oh, and, by the way, we finished the studio this week, the invitation and we extended to all of our friends. But I, this week the invitation and we extend it to all of our friends. But I'll tell you point blank you get down in New Orleans and I promise you you can sit with Dave and I, or just me, if it's just on one of my days alone, and with Lindsey, and you can sit with us from beginning to end. I would love to have you on Love, you and the wife. Come on, come on down, we'd love to have you guys. All right man to do it today. I mean, you know, find it, find it, we're out there, we'll make it happen. Yeah, I just like. I said it just, it's talking leads to more talking leads to more talking, which means less nonsense is going on. If we just all keep talking, we may find we get to the other side in one piece so the big picture, the future for information for truckers.

Speaker 1: 32:54

Where do you see the future of trucking information headed? You know, I know more ai alerts are out there. Uh, sometimes we're trying to do a show and you get those notifications from your phone and like great, uh. Or do you think that the radio will always be a place that people will hold dear in their hearts?

Speaker 2: 33:08

radio is like an owner operator ray. Every five years they tell us it's dying and yet more owner operators and more more radio shows up. I, you know it's like I just the end of the day. People are already getting tired of ai. You know people are already like disgusted by ai, like I don't want to hear this. It's like it's a loser. I mean, in regards to that, there's some stuff it does really great, but in regards to like entertaining people, people like this is horrible. Why are you doing this? To me it's like you're trying to force feed this down my throat.

Speaker 2: 33:37

All they've done is succeeded in reminding people why live stuff, with all its mistakes and all its stupidities and all of its rash statements and all of its, you know, electrifying moments there is no substitute for human beings. I mean, as we go more with ai, we're going to keep heading more towards, more towards irl in real life. People love it. People love it.

Speaker 2: 34:01

There's a reason why people watch stuff like the Bozo Trucker. People watch all that stuff. They want to see idiots in real time. They want to see brave people in real time. They want to see kids having a good time. They want to see Alex Nino, the influencer with his little boys running across parking lots. They don't want to see kids having a good time, they want to see Alex Nino. You know the influencer with his little boys running across parking lots. They don't want to. You know, have some fake voice that talks like this, saying you guys go out there and kick the day in the ass. I'm already tired of that guy, I'm tired of him, aren't you? Yeah, you know the voice I'm talking about, don't you? Hey, you killers, go out there and embrace the day. Oh, give me a break, dude, I'm not inspired, I'm not inspired.

Speaker 1: 34:41

Yeah, you got me. That's awesome so if you find the perfect driver dashboard or information out there. If you just kind of open your mind up your exposure to the price rates and the people you talk to, what would you say about the driver rates and the people you talk to? What would you say about the driver dashboard and what would be on it for maybe one or two?

Speaker 2: 35:01

oh okay, I thought you meant like an actual dashboard, because I get really science fiction on that, tom bray and I actually came up with the idea of having an actual glass, um transparent dashboard where you could literally this is so cool. So tom tom and I are big, big friends of all kinds of trucking movies. Why I'm wearing um the pork chop express, which?

Speaker 1: 35:21

is you?

Speaker 2: 35:21

know big trouble, little china, you know. So I know it wasn't what you asked me, but my idea would be, tom and I want to have a glass dashboard and you know how, when you like, you have a touch screen and you can just move things around. And we would love it the idea of having the dashboard where you can actually move the speedometer the best place for you to see it, you know and actually gps in the dashboard, have the led in the dashboard and be able to move it all around and lay out your dashboard the way we, the way you customize an avatar in a video game, and just lay the dashboard out in a way that maximizes the way you see it, because you know all dashboards are laid out differently. I know it's not what you asked me, but you open the door on it. So I'm going to have my science fiction moment and I just love the idea of it's better for me if my you know, if my speedometer is over here, you know, I mean, and it's like and Tom, yeah, right.

Speaker 1: 36:15

Yeah, I love it. I think that's a great idea.

Speaker 2: 36:20

I even went. Yes, I love it, and so you know, I mean that's my perfect dashboard. Like I just asked him, imagine a dashboard whose color changes based on the level of fuel you have, that the whole dashboard is like green when you're full and then goes to yellow as you begin to midpoint, or that you actually watch the whole dashboard go down and I just I know it's ridiculous, but you asked me about dashboard, so that's my dashboard thing. That's what I got for you, right?

Speaker 1: 36:47

they're working on it as we speak. Yeah, um, I'm back. Yeah, they keep. They keep working on us, man. They keep trying to.

Speaker 2: 36:58

Well, it's the friends of Hugo Chavez. I mean, it's people like our enemies everywhere. Man, I know you do too, because you bring in too much good feeling. I was going to tell you. So you said how can drivers? And then I didn't get the question how can drivers do what Drivers?

Speaker 1: 37:11

still play a bigger role in shaping the conversation about what matters to them. Maybe still play a bigger role in shaping the conversation about what matters to them, you know, maybe they themselves can play a part into it. I know, you know Nemo Nation is going to be the way to go for getting it kicked off, but what do you think?

Speaker 2: 37:26

they can do. Ok, this is so simple and you know we have we once a week we do a segment called Washington Trucking Week. This is so simple. Forget about your US senator, forget about your even your congressman. Learn who your state senator is. Learn who your state rep is. Learn who the head of the school board is. Learn who the councilman is, learn who the municipal representative is. Go to those people Say hi, my name is Ray, I'm a trucker.

Speaker 2: 37:55

Hi, my name is Jimmy Mack, I'm a trucker. Pleased to meet you. If you ever need information about me, about transportation issues, I will give it to you, honest, I will give it to you sane, and I will explain the ins and outs. If you ever need a friend to help you figure out transportation policy, I'm your guy. Here's my number, here's where you can call me. Give me a ring. Even if we don't agree with each other, I will tell you the truth and give you the information you need.

Speaker 2: 38:22

And I'd like you to meet my family, because we're a member of your community and we're here and we're great members of your community. We go to the local churches, we go to the barbecues, parks, picnics. We're present. And even when I'm not here, or my husband's not here, or my wife's not here. Somebody's here who you represent, who cares deeply about this community. Get to know us, use us as a resource so that you can be more informed about what affects you in regards to getting the stuff that you need here in this community.

Speaker 2: 38:54

Let us tell you that, but don't just reserve it for that. Make sure your pastor knows that you are in fact a truck driver. Make sure your neighbors know that you're a truck driver. Make sure that you are in fact a citizen of this here, not only United States, but of you know Orleans Parish, of Jefferson County, of you know of you know of the Hudson Valley, wherever you are, whether it is. You know of you know of the of the Hudson Valley, wherever you are, whether it is. You know Santa Clarita, california, all the way into Columbia Falls, maine. Meet the people who are on the ground, because it's all local and each one of us is a little stone that you throw in the water and it's. Can we make enough ripples to create a way? Stone that you throw in the water and it's. Can we make enough ripples to create a way? That's what we can do, that's the best thing we can do. Don't, don't watch, don't watch MSNBC and Fox and complain, don't complain.

Speaker 1: 39:46

Go talk to somebody. Get out there yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:47

Get out there and do something.

Speaker 1: 39:49

I think that's huge Um that's all I got right.

Speaker 1: 39:51

I love it I mean you think about the disconnect that people have. They get so high up in, you know, those roles, political roles, and you're like man, they really don't know what's going on. Well, maybe it's because we're not talking to them, maybe it was because we're not having conversations and building those relationships with each other and they feel like, you know well, they don't want to talk to me. You know, maybe both sides feel like that, you know. So that's that's huge Thanks, thanks, um. So to wrap it up, um, it was an incredible conversation.

Speaker 1: 40:20

I think you touched on a lot of things that people can go back and and replay this if they need to. I mean, you share not only your story but also some practical ways drivers can take control of how they get their information. And for anyone out there who's listening and hasn't tuned in lately, lately, um, hey, check it out, go to Radio Nemo and catch Jimmy Mack and the whole crew right there on the air. I think it's going to be great for you to have that connection, to have that as your arsenal where you can reach in there and grab a lot of great information. So thank you so much for being on the show.

Speaker 2: 41:09

You just keep doing what being you and continue to do the great work that you do. I appreciate you coming on the show. I really admire what you guys are doing over. We're getting people listening at the time and then we're getting the accumulation. But the number bouncing around we can see it on Facebook. The one we always get last is iHeart. It's the one we can't see in real time, but YouTube and Facebook we can see.

Speaker 2: 41:33

Facebook is like crazy. We're trying to get them off Facebook. We're trying to move them over to YouTube. That's the big. The big challenge we have right now is YouTube on Facebook and I heart it's great. But we want to get them over YouTube because of the monetization possibilities. That's a big deal, big deal to us, but also because there's something you can point to directly for sponsors, where it's harder to kind of show. To show the numbers on Facebook they're great, but it's like you have to go on the backend and you know one of the things we really have to.

Speaker 2: 42:05

The big, big leap for us, ray, is going to come in about a month when we go start doing live video from the studio. We've had to. We wanted to be up faster, but it's going to take us some time. The good news is it's going to give me time because this week I finished the studio, meaning that the studio, in regards to operational, has been operational for weeks. But in regards to looking cool, it's going to look great. It's going to look great. Oh, sorry, I just dropped the phone.

Speaker 1: 42:32

Um, but it's going to look it, um, but it's going to look. It's going to look awesome, um. Well, I thank you so much for being on the show and, uh, man, for our listeners out there, please check out radio Nemo and Nemo nation, dave Nemo and all the great family that he has there Awesome, thank you again.