That’s Delivered Podcast
Welcome to “That’s Delivered” – your ultimate destination for all things trucking and beyond! Here, we take you behind the wheel and dive deep into the world of trucking, delivering stories, insights, and experiences designed to inspire, educate, and entertain.
Our podcast isn’t just about transportation; it’s about reliability, accomplishment, and fulfillment. “That’s Delivered” reflects the sense of completion that comes with meeting promises and exceeding expectations—whether on the road or in life.
Whether you’re a seasoned trucker, a logistics enthusiast, or just curious about the backbone of our economy, this is the place for you. We’ll explore life on the road, uncover how technology is reshaping the industry, and break down the latest regulations impacting drivers and businesses alike.
So buckle up, hit the road with us, and join a community that understands the journey is just as important as the destination. From personal stories to industry insights, “That’s Delivered” brings the best of trucking straight to your ears, promising every mile together will be worth the ride!
That’s Delivered Podcast
Forged Through Fire: Nick Klingensmith's Journey of Resilience
Walking through hell and coming out stronger isn’t just a metaphor for Nick Klingensmith—it’s the reality that shaped him. In this deeply moving conversation with Trucking Ray, Nick shares how he turned unimaginable pain into fuel for purpose. From battling cancer four times and surviving addiction to completing over 100 Spartan races, Nick’s transformation wasn’t just physical—it was mental, emotional, and spiritual. This episode isn’t just inspiration—it’s a roadmap for anyone who feels stuck, broken, or alone.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Survivor Turned Warrior
Nick overcame cancer four times, Type 1 diabetes, alcoholism, and multiple surgeries—and still became an elite endurance athlete.
✅ The Wake-Up Call
A challenge from his boss to do a Spartan race shattered Nick’s limiting beliefs and rewrote his identity.
✅ Mental Health for Drivers
Nick warns truckers about the silent trap of isolation: “Self-inflicted loneliness can kill. You need a tribe.”
✅ Fitness Can Save Your Life
He urges truckers to commit just 30 minutes of movement at each stop—and to stop saying “I can’t.”
✅ Fuel Your Body, Fuel Your Mind
Focus on protein-rich meals over sugar spikes. Better fuel means clearer thinking and better driving.
✅ Resources Exist—Use Them
Nick points to programs like Project 61 for free gear, support, and encouragement to stay active and accountable.
✅ Forgiveness Is Part of Healing
Letting go of guilt, shame, and self-blame isn’t weakness—it’s survival. “I don’t need to win like I did before.”
✅ Everyone Needs a Wolfpack
Find your tribe. Support systems are vital to real, lasting transformation—no one thrives in isolation.
This is more than a story—it’s a survival guide. If you’ve ever told yourself you couldn’t change, this episode proves you wrong.
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What's up y'all? This is your go-to guy, truckin' Ray. You're listening to. That's Delivered, the show where we talk about life on the road, lessons learned and real stories that fill us and get us through it all. Today's guest is man. He's been through it all. He's been through the fire. He came out forged like steel.
Speaker 1:Nick Clemson Smith is a motivational speaker, a former corporate leader, a Spartan race warrior and the author of Through the Fire, a memoir of trauma, addiction and recovery. His story is one that punches you in the gut, lifts you to your feet and says let's do it again. This episode is for everyone who has felt they were stuck, lost or just like giving up, for truckers out there that are driving endless miles wondering if anyone sees the weight that they're carrying. Well, nick sees you and his message is for you. So let's get into it, and his message is for you, so let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Hey, nick, what's happening? Man? So happy to have you on the show, just happy to be here, man, that's awesome and you got a great story to tell man. I mean it's a lot to really absorb that one man has been through so much and has come out. I mean you've changed the game when it comes to feeling bad for yourself. You've changed that up and said hey, I can make this into a lot of things. So, hey, man, I want our listeners to enjoy it and also understand what you went through. So it looks like a lot of it starts with some addiction, trauma and also facing yourself.
Speaker 2:A lot of times people don't want to do that. Um, can you tell us a little bit about what it was like starting out, kind of unravel, what it was? You know the alcoholism, broken relationships and hitting emotional rock bottom? I mean, nobody's story is just one right. Everything has. You've got your backstory, your origin story. You've got your work life, your social life, all these different things, your physical health, your mental health, all going at the same time like chaos theory, and sometimes they intertwine. They intertwine.
Speaker 2:I like to say that one of the most pivotal moments was when my boss, back when I was still working in logistics, he walked into my office and he said hey, I want to do a Spartan race and you're going to do it with me. I looked up at him and I'm like the fuck I am. That sounds terrible to me. An eight to 10 mile trail run with obstacles and I'm supposed to train for this shit. Get in the mud with. No, I had no intention of making myself that uncomfortable. Wow, that's when I went home that night and I discovered the problem. I already was that uncomfortable because get this, I was peaking. I was two years sober at that point I was a VP of sales. I had like a hundred people working for me. We were crushing goals. I was dating an amazing woman that's now my wife and I had just decisively beaten cancer for the fourth time and I realized that I was stuck and I was terrified to do something about it. And so that was one of the catalysts for me, because I just I just wanted to do something different. I just wanted to break the cycle, right, like so.
Speaker 2:I'll go back in time a little bit here. I was first diagnosed with cancer the first time when I was 25 years old and I'm going to give you the abridged version and ask away anything that you want to pick on here, because it's a story. But in that period of time I was diagnosed with cancer four times Type one diabetes. I had shoulder surgery from a beach volleyball injury. I had hip surgery from a beach volleyball injury. I had hip surgery from a beach volleyball injury. I had nerve damage as a result of the first injury. I was in two separate car accidents, one of which was a rollover fatality accident, both of which gave me seven herniated discs and multiple nerve damage permanent nerve damage in multiple spots. I almost died from meningitis damage, permanent nerve damage in multiple spots. I almost died from meningitis.
Speaker 2:I think I'm forgetting something here, and there was a period of time where alcohol wasn't always part of my story. Well, let's not let me go back. Alcohol wasn't always a main player in my story, and when I was first diagnosed with diabetes you know, I guess I'm leaving a few other things out too. So I was a competitive beach volleyball player for about 20 years while I was in sales, both in telecom and logistics, and that was actually a huge priority in my life. That's where I got the shoulder injury and the hip injury and everything like that.
Speaker 2:And when I was diagnosed with diabetes is when I decided that I was going to take control of it. You know, I felt like a victim for a couple of days and then I was like well, I'm diabetic. Whining about it's not going to change anything. I was determined to manage it. So I decided to quit drinking and at that point in my life, alcohol really wasn't that big of a factor for me, you know. It was just something that wasn't like oh, I have sleep apnea too. That's what it is, cause sleep apnea made me not really want to party that much anyway. So it's not like you really wanted more downers when you're tired all the time, and uh.
Speaker 2:So about a year after I was diagnosed with diabetes, my 25 year old sister killed herself and I was back home with some friends and we're I just remember I write about in my book too we were having a few Bud Light limes and nothing bad happened. You know, the floor didn't open up underneath me, blood sugars didn't get crazy, and so I was back and something that was no longer part of my life suddenly became all of my life, and so I became a highly functional alcoholic for about another five or six years. And I say highly functional because my career peaked during that time. And also, I didn't go to jail. I didn't go to hospitals. I didn't lose my car. There was one scuffle, but I didn't get in fights. I didn't. There was one scuffle, but I didn't get in fights.
Speaker 2:I wasn't that type of a drunk, and so it was so easy for me to hide and to lie to myself and to ignore just how selfish and destructive I was, and I think about now too, just so many times that I put my addiction before my job. You know I was doing so well that I had all these ways to continue to lie to myself. And that's when I was diagnosed so well that I had all these ways to continue to lie to myself. And that's when I was diagnosed with cancer for the third time. And that time was different, though, because that time they told me that I have a tumor in my neck and they don't want to operate.
Speaker 2:Now, spoiler alert. Okay, it has been 11 years and that tumor still takes up real estate in my neck, but at the time, all I heard was I had inoperable cancer, and so I crawled myself deep into a bottle until I found myself a bottom. And that happened in July of 2014, where I came to, had a rare moment of lucidity, on the hallway floor of a Las Vegas hotel, surrounded by cops and security, being told that I had to leave because I had been in a fight and I tried to have sex with a hooker in a broom closet while my girlfriend slept in our room down the hall. Whoa, I figured I could talk about drinking 10 years of drinking for an hour and a half, or I could just tell you that story and drop the mic.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is power packed. That's a lot, man.
Speaker 2:I know I gave this a terrible back and forth uh thing here, but all these things are ultimately connected because I went home that next day and I got sober, okay. And you know, god willing, it'll be 11 years next July this July and those first two years were wonderful. I mean, I was just becoming a better person. I was cleaning up the wreckage of my past. I even had other trauma that fell into my life. My mom died the next year. I mean, there was things that I don't think I would have been able to handle if I was still drinking and I'm not saying it was great when I was only a year sober, but I'm reasonably certain that cancer saved my life because it helped me get sober faster. Okay, if I had still been drinking when my mom died, I think I would have drank until I died, wow, wow. So I gave you all the bad shit and then I gave you the turning point.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you putting all of this out there. I mean, you realized you had something to share when you had all these things happening. Some people keep it to themselves and you would never know what made you think that you should share this with other people well, that definitely took a while.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I had to go through my journey and I don't mean the bad stuff, I didn't know what was I, just the mindset that I had throughout all that was a victim. I wasn't tough, I wasn't gritty. I wasn't gritty, I wasn't resilient. I wasn't some positive guy like I am right now. I was a bitch, I was mad and I blamed people and I used it as excuses to not be my best, to not live my best. I used all those things as an excuse to why I could justify my behavior when I was drinking oh, if they only knew and this, and that I mean I was literally digging the hole the entire time and I didn't know that. So what ultimately had to happen is first, I was introduced to a new way of life, and I'm talking about when my boss introduced me to that race because I had created this mental bubble around myself. All right, look, I got up to 240 pounds. All right, I was convinced that I could never run because of my diabetes, my knees right. I could never adventure because of my sleep apnea and diabetes, and I'm out of shape and I could never lose the weight and get fit again. I could never, I could never, I could never.
Speaker 2:And then, all of a sudden, my first race. Here I am running through the woods. And then, all of a sudden, my first race. Here I am running through the woods, I'm tackling obstacles like a little kid. No fear, no doubt, no inhibition. It wasn't me against the world, it was just me in the world. And I'm telling you something I had created such limiting beliefs about myself that I was living in a bubble. And when I jumped the fire that day because every Spartan race ends with a fire jump when I came to the fire that day, I redefined everything that I previously believed about myself and I wanted more. I was like holy shit, I was wrong. What else was I wrong about? Let's go find out, right.
Speaker 1:Let's speak about that. You know being a young one you mentioned being a kid who never felt like he was enough. Now for truckers out there listening, many who carried you know their childhood pain or even into adult life. Alcoholism plays a big part of being a truck driver as well, because we're supposed to have you know. You're not supposed to have that in your system when you're behind the wheel. A lot of people struggle with that. Statistics are out there for truckers, I mean. So how did that early trauma shape your battles later in life? What would you say to those truckers out there?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what you know. I mentioned something about victimhood earlier. It's not entirely true. Sometimes we need to have that victim mindset, and what I mean by that is for a long time, all right Cause I mean we're talking about.
Speaker 2:There are things I haven't talked about here and it's I do mention some in my book, but it's like my life wasn't an afterschool special, but there was plenty of trauma growing up too, like things that led to you know who I am, how I am, et cetera, and train of thought we were just talking about how do we get the victim? There you go. So, anyways, for a long time I needed that, that, that anger, let's call it what it is. I needed that anger. I was angry at the world, I was angry at my parents, I was angry for those who didn't love me enough or didn't meet my expectations. I was angry and I used it like armor and I needed it. That's how I paid my own way through school, that's how I made myself successful, that's how I literally did all those things. But there comes a point where it begins to work against you, and that's what I didn't see the difference in, because me against the world is the rally cry of the victim mindset.
Speaker 2:It sounds counterintuitive because you're like yeah me against the world because you're gearing up for a fight, I get it, but you can't be against the world if you don't feel like you're victimized of the world. It's a victim response. I don't need to win like I did before. I don't need to beat everything the way before. I don't need to beat everything the way that I beat some of the trauma that I have held is finding a way to let go. It's a lot easier said than done. I'm 46.
Speaker 2:We're talking about things that are 40 years old, right, but recognizing it, and you would ask the question that I'm taking a very long winded way of getting to, because of certain parts of the story, of how I had to realize but there was, you know, there was the new way of life, right, but then what had to happen after that was to have it almost taken away. Because that second car accident that I talked about, it came when, after when, I started this endurance racing journey, about six months after that, and in that six month period I felt like I was becoming someone else, like my body and spirit. I liked who I was, and that's when I was hit by a second car. That's what I got Several herniated discs, permanent nerve damage. That night, my cat died. Two weeks later, the lady who hit me died. All I was doing was sitting at a red light, but I felt responsible, and so I mean. All this shit happened in one goddamn day.
Speaker 1:For the most part, and you felt responsible for the cat dying and that lady dying in the car.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm deeply passionate about my pets. I was just devastated about my cat dying, but for the woman even though all I was doing was sitting at a red light and I don't know if she was conscious or what, but she hit me, going full speed, right the last thing that happened to her was me. It doesn't have to make sense, right? If it made sense, it wouldn't hurt so bad. And all that stuff happening at once.
Speaker 2:It was like everything inside of me just wanted to give up. I didn't want to drink, but I just wanted to give up, and I just didn't know what that meant, though, but I had this despair, right, and so the thing that ended up happening here and this is where the mindset shift happened, okay is you start, you keep going back to work, I want to give up on whatever, I quit, but you keep showing up, yeah, and then, all of a sudden, you're like well, I gotta take a shower, I gotta go to work, I gotta eat sometimes we'll buy food I gotta walk the dog, I might as well start exercising and I put another race on the calendar, because you just you keep moving forward, you keep showing, you keep living your life. The other things will get there. But as I'm doing that, you know I was flat man, I wasn't in it and I was listening to this motivational compilation on YouTube like a couple of guys going back and forth about victim or survivor.
Speaker 2:Are you a victim? Are you a survivor? I'm like what's the fucking difference? People have been telling me I'm such a survivor my whole life and I'm like what's the point of just surviving, of just hanging on waiting for the next bad thing to happen? I'm like that is not what I'm here for. That's not why I grinded my way through college and worked full time to get there. I'm not here to survive, I'm here to thrive. And I threw a glorified temper tantrum and said that I will not be defied by my circumstances, but rather my triumph over them. That's one of the reasons I like doing really long, stupid ass distance races because I want to show diabetes. You ain't got shit on me. I've raced with fuck cancer written on my chest. I fundraise for the American Cancer Society. It's the way that I punch back against cancer, right? How do I? With my alcoholism, I help other alcoholics get sober, because that's how I recover, and so I found that throughout this whole journey that I found a meaning to my suffering and a purpose to my life is that I can now use what I have to help others. And so that's when I wrote the book Through the Fire.
Speaker 2:Now, I didn't know what I was going to do with it. I wrote it because I wanted to write it. The first version was like 125,000 word ego manifesto. It was like a movie poster with the Rock and Jake Gyllenhaal on the cover. The second version is when I had to get honest because I still had too much deflection and excuses. Right, it wasn't raw. And so when I cut out 37,000 words and I put this just raw and honest, this is who I am book out there I had no idea if anybody would read it. I just figured I had a message and maybe that person who did need it would find it. And over the next two years they found me and they told me about themselves random ass people telling me their stories and how mine resonated with theirs. And that's when I knew I had a story to tell and something different to give. So 20, 18 minutes later, I answer your question.
Speaker 1:You're great. I love it. People need to hear those struggles. I mean the fact that you wrote a book thinking about could I reach one person you met? Ran into many individuals that had the same impact in their lives and can relate to yours as well. I think that's huge. It's a great way to look at things, for a focal point, to keep pushing, to keep pushing. I got many truck drivers out there. You know they push through every day. You know they're like silent, silent battles. You know there's signs that people should look for. What would you say to these individuals or people that love them, to stop functioning but to start healing? What would you say?
Speaker 2:You know one of the questions you had asked about when I was able to share or start sharing. One of the hardest things I had to when I was able to share or start sharing, one of the hardest things I had to do was the second version of that book, because I had to take a real look at what happened. I had to stop blaming my parents for things I did when I was 35 years old. I had to take responsibility for all of it. And one of the other hardest parts is this when I was going through the book and I'm just looking at all the totality of the shit that happened, including the things I'm not even remembering right now and I started to get a little whiny again and I was like man, when is this going to stop? And I'm like you know what it's not.
Speaker 2:I didn't get bad at Deltantan. This is just a seat I sat in. I'm a poker player. This is life and you know what? You don't get your share. And then, all of a sudden, everything's going to be honky dory, like life will continue to hit as long as you are alive. And I'm like maybe I should look at the fact that I'm really fucking good at this, bring it. And so that's when I realized I'm like, fuck it, I am meant for a long, hard climb, Like let's take it. And so when I that also meant, though, being vulnerable and putting out my fear and talking about the things that I, the raw things that I really did wrong, right, and the why I it? Because I was afraid, because I wanted validation from women, because the real, honest, vulnerable truth and when I realized I put all this stuff out there in the world, you know what I stopped doing. I stopped being afraid of what other people thought about me. It was sort of an eight-mile defense. Remember the movie Eight Mile?
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, you know the last battle rap, right, eminem comes out there and just drops all the shit they're going to say about him and he's like, what are you going to say about me? Well, that was kind of my approach. I'm like screw it, like let's put it out there. And when I realized then because now you know, there was a time where I worked in a building with 300 other people, right, and I had all the social interaction and stuff like that, but now I work from home Truck drivers probably see more human beings than I do, so how often do I get to interact? How often do they?
Speaker 2:When I started just sharing the things, I was afraid of and instead of getting and I mean sharing publicly social media where strangers are going to see it, I didn't get. I mean, yeah, you do. Where strangers are going to see it, I didn't get. I mean, yeah, you do get some idiots, but you know what I got people is. I got people relating back to me. That's it. And you know what it showed me.
Speaker 2:I'm not alone. Whatever I'm going through, I think you know it's funny we talk about. Yeah, I get it. I have been through a decent amount of stuff there. But to be honest, you know what I've discovered by speaking about it. I'm not special. I'm not special. Everyone has their own frame of reference, but I take great comfort now into my lack of uniqueness. I'm part of a tribe, I'm part of something, of something, you know. When I share this, I'm not on my own anymore, and everyone has stuff that they go through. Just because there's different severities, the frame of reference is what really matters. If nobody's ever stubbed their toe before and that's the worst thing that ever happened to them, then that's, you know, that's cancer to them. Who am I? Who am I? I don't have to experience it the way they do. You know I can, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, I like how you said that. I mean, a big piece of the story is your importance that you put on serving or helping individuals. It's a key part of your recovery. So you have to acknowledge the pain that they go through. You can't dismiss it, otherwise they're going to be like who is this guy? He's got something better than me all the time. But yeah, it's not a one up thing. I like that.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you that I just I had no idea what would happen when I finally started speaking. But it doesn't take long for me to see it, because whenever I'm asked like hey, how's this, how'd it go, and I'm like I always say I don't know. I can never tell from the stage. You know like you see, you watch TV where 300 people stand up and jump up and down for you and like, but if it's not that, then I don't know. But my, my barometer this is what I tell everybody is who comes up to me after and shares their story with me, and that's when I know I reach people. That's all I need to know, because by me just opening up and really cause, I like to talk about not necessarily what I went through, but the experience of what I learned about it now, because otherwise, honestly, like commiserating with someone else who's just sort of like I have a friend right now who's going through a tough time with cancer.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to be the one person in his life to not tell him what to do and, at the same time, not allow him to spend too much time feeling sorry for himself. Nobody knows how to deal with a cancer patient and, to be honest, I don't know how to deal with another one either. You know, I really feel like we have our own unique experiences here. But you know and that's where that's how I think I can just the little bit that I can help him is everyone wants to tell you what to do. They always have an aunt or an uncle or a cousin who did this or that and they read this one thing on chat GPT, and blah, blah, blah. Well, you know what? It doesn't matter, he's the one who has to live or he's the one who has to make that decision. So I'm not going to be that guy for him.
Speaker 2:The other thing is everyone just doesn't know what to do. They act like you're already dead. So they let you just mull in it and feel sorry for yourself. But you're not dead yet, you haven't even fought yet, you haven't lost yet. So, no, I'm uh. That said, you're allowed to be in it, you're allowed to process it. It, you're allowed to process it. You need to experience and feel it right. You just can't let it dictate your actions. I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how we kick, kick back Right and we we take our emotions. Instead of letting them cripple us, we use them like power, like like a superhero, like that. I mean, I'm looking back at your wall and you've got a lot of accomplishments there a lot of metals, a lot of ribbons. That's, that's huge. How many you got total?
Speaker 2:Well, this is a outdated background this is actually my old living room, and I moved about six months ago but, um, I've completed 115 spartan races um, six major marathons, everything from boston, chicago, new york and berlin, and then maybe like 100 plus other events and suffer, fests and and counting. Now, as crazy as this is, though, that's like eight plus years of activity and work. I have friends of mine who do that a year, and, uh, it just depends on their lifestyle. Now, like, I've been at this a while, you know. So, of course, like, I have a lot of them, but every year and every race is a little bit different, for me too.
Speaker 2:Um, because it's always about me versus me, and in the first few years it was about defying what I thought I couldn't do, and then it was sort of like just continuously toughing everything out, like I called rocky balboa my way through it, you know, just chin out, and as long as I'm still standing at the end of the movie, um, but now I'm at a phase where I want to get better at what I do, and I'm 46 years old and I still think I have room to improve, and I don't just mean like get faster, I mean get better. I'm going to do my first triathlon this year, something I swore I'd never do With Michael Lombard and Alex Bates another couple guys in and around the industry, and you know that's something else that I'm also finding that I now have the opportunity to influence the industry itself in a way that I never did before. You know, even when I was, even when I commanded the will of 100 other people, it had nothing compared to being able to influence positive habits and others. Amazing.
Speaker 1:How do you coordinate it all? You have someone that helps you. Or how do you get some of that stuff on the books and schedule and show up on time and all that?
Speaker 2:for races or speeches, or for which part yeah, all of them, yeah, how about that?
Speaker 2:well, it's funny, you know, it's like a lot of people that I used to work will sometimes ask me what do I do these days? Like so what do you actually do? Right, because they see speaker, but nobody. Like, what do I do? I do, bro, I do sales, that's what I do. So I do what I've always done.
Speaker 2:Um, my day looks very much like a lot of other people's, right? I get up early, so probably earlier than a lot of other people, um, and I do my training first. Um, my job is a little bit unique because, as you understand, social media is part of what I do. It's so posting videos, for example, is no longer fun. But then you get up in that workday and then it's about prospecting and trying to just I spend my my sales efforts, for speaking are probably different than a lot, too, where I'm really spending a lot of time in the industry that I've spent now 20 years in.
Speaker 2:So mostly what I do is I network my way through and trying to find just organizations and companies and teams and events where a message like mine will really benefit the audience, and then, uh, so that said, the calendar's light and we're in full prospect mode as far as races are concerned, um, a lot of that has to do with time and travel, um, so, you know, for several years, I mean, I was traveling all over the world for these things, um, whereas that was also two years ago when I was an executive in logistics with a nice, with a nice, healthy salary, and now that I'm a motivational speaker, you know, with a fairly light calendar ahead of me, we're going to keep most of our races local this year.
Speaker 1:I feel you that's amazing, yeah, and I love the real talk too. Like you said, it's it's a gradual thing. You can't just jump into it thinking you're going to check all the boxes and you first, like you say, you were me against you or you against yourself. So, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So, to be honest, I'm sorry I was going to say to be honest, like you know, I may replace this background at some point, only because I liked the discussion piece, but I even I posted a video on LinkedIn two weeks ago and it was about failure and I had a point to it, but what it was it was about 45 seconds of me failing obstacles in comical fashion. Nonetheless, all right, because I uh, I don't ever want someone to think that I do what you can't do, right. It's vitally important to me. And because this did not start with this, it started with one. You know, talking to a driver right now, it's going to drive however many miles or sit through all this traffic or do all this bullshit. It starts with one same way.
Speaker 2:I was on this run this morning that I wouldn't even call it a run. It was so damn slow. I'm like I'd be out here for an hour. I'm barely moving and I literally thought to myself I'm like, well, that's the exercise then. I just endure. The hour had nothing to do with anything else, just you have to suck it up. Being out here, period, that's it okay, I like that.
Speaker 1:Hey, you got you're full of a lot of good knowledge and insight for people to apply to a lot of different things. Um, yeah, I, I do the same thing with my podcast. I don't want anybody to think that it can't do this. Yeah, I make mistakes, just like everybody else. I'm a human and I love that. You put that out there. That's great, yeah, and then from corporate climb to a motivational mission. You climb the corporate ladder. It sells leadership at Aramark and Centus Was it Centus?
Speaker 2:Nope, I was on the logistics 3PL side. I was with Blue Grace for a long time. I was a consultant for about a year and a half and then I was with Shear Logistics for the last couple years before I left see some of that area right there. I thought we could ask questions though the message for truckers?
Speaker 1:uh, our community of drivers have you know, goes unseen for long hours, like I said, if it's sleep deprived, far from your family. What message does someone like yourself want to share with them for just surviving right now, getting through the moment? Maybe they're not at that point where they're able to make those transitions. What would you say? Would you say just say, suck it up, buttercup, or would it be a gradual thing?
Speaker 2:You know I would. Actually I would warn people, and what I mean by that is I'm going to out myself a little bit here is I've become increasingly antisocial and introverted. Not even introverted, that's not the right word, that's a personality, that's not an action. I've become increasingly isolated, and I could see it happening, but I think I started to notice it too late. Again, I work from home, like I'm working by the computer, and the fact is like I like talking to people like this, but it's also not the same, you know, and so I'm not leaving the house enough, I'm not going to different and interacting and seeing strangers enough. And it's too easy to justify, like to yourself, that I don't need to be involved in the world, or I don't need to go be in crowds because I don't like them anymore, or whatever, or you begin to lose track with friends because, oh, I have nothing new to say, or all the excuses that we might tell ourselves I can just think of. I've never been a driver, but I can just see the isolationism become self-inflicted at a point. And I think it is imperative that we, I need to make decisive, deliberate actions to go be with other people. Everyone needs a Wolfpack, everyone needs a tribe. Nobody survives alone, and so I mean that's part of the reason why I like to engage online with various communities too, because I mean you do see some of these people in real life. It's not like, you know, we're not gaming here, but still I need to go be part of my actual community everywhere I can. So for those on the road, call a friend, call somebody you haven't talked to in a while, you know, just just exist.
Speaker 2:I was talking about a friend that, uh, going through the tough time with cancer. I hung out with him a couple of weeks ago. You know, half the time I was just sitting next to him and we weren't saying shit. You know, we probably get somewhere. In this day and age, we feel like we always have to be doing something and we're not. You're coexisting with somebody. You're not like spending time with them. It was good to just be there, that's all he needed, you know. So just go be with people. These behaviors isolating adds to isolating. We have to actually take action, deliberate action the other way, and just down the phone and saying, yo, what up is probably something that can change yours or someone else's life.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I remember looking at a movie back in 19, I think it was 1993, the Pelican Brief. I think I had Julia Roberts in there. She worked from home. I'm like that is so weird.
Speaker 2:And we all do it, like a lot of us do it, and it's like all the time now. I mean, for what I do is perfect and I work with the dogs, it's just, and you know, I'm either actively engaging with other people or I'm like sort of doing creative stuff, and so it's like it really is the perfect environment for me. But I don't know, maybe I should just go out for coffee more often, like, yeah, just go be at like again, just because it's not like I have a problem with there, like my, the life is pretty full. But you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:There might, other than seeing some other people in recovery, I might not see another person besides my wife for like three or four days at the time, and again she works from home too and I try to say, hey, just go out, get coffee, just do something, you know, cause she'll get phone calls after phone calls, after phone calls, before you know it was late at night and on the weekend, you know, because she'll get phone calls after phone calls after phone calls before you know it's late at night and on the weekend, you know, if you're trying to get caught up from things too, you can, that can, take your weekend away. So it's, it's, it's a big deal, and I think that's great advice. Or like the warning, like you said, warning people to watch out for those, those certain behaviors that we, we, we start to adopt.
Speaker 2:I see it in myself, because you know I get it. You'd be like man, I have been on the road for two weeks. I do not want to go out tonight. I don't care that it's his birthday. Dude, get your ass up and go, just go Like, just go, just show up. Man, show up. Let that be the message Just show up. It's also a mindset thing, too, because we should do things that we don't want to do, and that's what I remind myself sometimes. I'm like dude, I do not want to go to the sink tonight. Come on, why can't I sit here and do nothing, like I've been at it for like a week and a half straight. Fuck it, you know. No, that means I need to go. It's no different than going for a run when I don't want to like yeah, don't be around other people, because otherwise it gets harder and harder. And don't know, was it this month or last month? It's men's mental health month or mental health either way, it's a real thing, yeah it is man.
Speaker 1:So you, you wrote the book. Um, it's, it's brutally honest, I think, through the fire. Um, what's the hardest chapter that you had to write? What's one of the ones you're most proud of?
Speaker 2:I guess the hardest and the proud uh, the hardest is when my cat died. I never even edited it. For all I know there's I don't know. I've never looked at it since the first time I wrote it, um, so we're not going to talk about that anymore either. And as far as the proudest you know, I like the message at the end I, um, I.
Speaker 2:Obviously it's in the first person and so it could sound like I'm beating my chest a little bit, but I'm really trying to do is set the stage for you. You decide to live your life Like we may have longer to the starting line than we may want. That's what I like to talk, say diabetes, for example. But I get to run the same race and as long as I accept that maybe it's going to be hard, maybe there's going to be failure, maybe there's going to be penalties and setbacks and disappointments, I'm going to come through the fire. One how I know this scoreboard? Because you have every other time before and that's why anyone else right now going through something I guarantee you, I know for a fact you will come through it, and the way that I do is because you come through every other thing. So far there is no evidence to the contrary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Made it this far right. Why? Why give up? If you want to predict the future, they say, look at the past. So if you already did something that's monumental, that you were able to break through, why can't you continue to do that again?
Speaker 2:And at the end of the day, I mean there will be more pain, there will be more challenges, and they manifest in different ways, but the mindset that we use to approach them is the same, in different ways, but the mindset that we use to approach them is the same A physical obstacle versus a mental obstacle, an emotional obstacle, some sort of existential obstacle? It doesn't matter, it's all the same.
Speaker 1:I like that man You're pushing through. I think you're going to help a lot of truck drivers out there or even people in the sales community. I mean that's very stressful. You're always chasing that sale. You're never done.
Speaker 2:You know you, they're, they're, they want to call you all the time that's what my second book selling inspired was really was really aimed at, was developing that mental endurance for a long sales career. You know, we get it in our head sometimes that success is linear or that the mountain is just you just climbed to the top and when you get there you're done Like I climb mountains on weekends carrying heavy shit and obstacles. You never just go from up down to the top, you switch backs and up and down and around and there is no peak, there's just another plateau. And that's where I was on the couch, on that plateau eight and a half years ago when my boss walked in my office Because I was peaking and the reason I felt stuck was because there was more to climb and I knew it but I didn't want to, and so I needed that like that catalyst, that first step, just because I knew there was more to climb.
Speaker 2:And now I realize there's always more to climb and I think you know if you're perfectly comfortable where you are in life on that plateau, cool, Good for you. If you start to feel that tension right there, that's what that's when you you know there is more for you to give and you're not giving it, and that's when you need to look to make that other move. I mean, some people can exist on that plateau forever, but the most bitter people I ever met they're not the ones climbing, they're the ones who are on the plateau and they're pissed that they need to climb again.
Speaker 1:Right, I like that, but he pushed through and it proved himself that he could do better, not just for himself, but as for his wife, his future son. So, yeah, it was a beautiful story that a lot of people were motivated by, and now you're living that. You're the real life.
Speaker 2:Rocky Balboa, that's awesome yeah, not exactly.
Speaker 1:That's good man. Yeah, I mean life can be messy. I mean there's still progress to make. Progress to make, um, what's the most important? Um telling your story or your book that, uh, you felt you finished when you got there.
Speaker 2:You reached that moment probably the greatest, you know, fuck yeah moment that I ever really had was running the boston marathon. Um, I've had some awesome races, you know. I've achieved, like through the fire really chronicles my pursuit of a Spartan trifecta, which are those cool red and green-blue medals behind me. But really I ran the Boston Marathon in 2018 for the first time and I mean I probably don't know this, but there was a no-reaster that year. It was arguably the worst weather conditions in the history of the Boston Marathon, but I grew up there. I'd been in the marathon a dozen times. I used to skip school or skip work and go watch the Red Sox and go see the marathon and sort of be there running it. But I never wanted to run it until the bombing and I just I was so mad after the Boston Marathon bombing and I just I didn't, didn't know how to punch back, and so I was like you know what? I'm going to run the Boston Marathon one day, Fuck those guys.
Speaker 2:And uh, when I was actually in 2017, I was supposed to run the Chicago Marathon and that's when I got in that car accident and I was unable to run for a couple of months. So I just got mad and was like, well, I'm going to find out how to get into Boston. And so Boston for me was really. It was sort of choosing to be someone, to become someone else, because I emerged from that that moment of despair where I wanted to give up, you know. And then, six months later, I run the Boston marathon. Uh, I raised $10,000 for charity in the process. Um, it was just such an incredible experience and again I got hypothermia. I mean, it was 18 degrees and sleeting rain. At the start it was 40 mile an hour, headwinds the entire time, torrential downpour. It was a hell of a story. And that one was just, you know, when I crossed that blue and yellow line for the first time. It meant so much to me, Nice.
Speaker 1:What about that? When you're at the start line, you kind of walk me through that. You're at that line and everything's about to happen and you got there and you put yourself there in that moment. Describe to us what it's like to start a marathon and what goes through your mind.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I can't even tell you the Venn diagram and algorithms of thoughts that are going through my head. I'm a type one diabetic. So, number one I am just doing math, I'm doing math, I'm counting my sugars time to when. The last time I ate something, the next time I eat something, how long until the race goes, how much? Blah, blah, blah. I mean it does not stop. It's like a beautiful mind and uh, the hell's his name.
Speaker 2:Uh, will hunting from goodwill hunting. Um, just just doing like this all the time. So that's nerves, because I have to manage my blood sugars and I don't know what's going to happen next. Number two I have to pee. I could have just peed, it doesn't matter, I have to. That's happening in there a hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 2:Um, besides that, there's one ritual. I? Um, my wife is with me, uh, anytime before I. If she's not racing, uh, anytime before I jump in the start corral, I always tell her I'll see her on the other side. Um, I always say a quick prayer before every race. I just get down on the knee and I say I pray for strength and uh, after that I just try to keep it loose.
Speaker 2:Um, I learned this when I played volleyball. I have an incredible heckle game All right. Now, back when I was drinking especially I was just I could talk shit and, uh, most of the time it was for fun. And so if we were like, joking around, we're friends, right, I'm playing against you and somebody else, whatever, and I'm talking all sorts of shit. You're talking shit, we're just having fun, I'm probably playing great, okay, but let's say we don't like each other and it becomes a little more adversarial, okay, a little bit more like you know, not joking and I want to beat you. I don't care if I'm five times a better player, I'm still losing that game. I don't play a little like that.
Speaker 2:And I realized that back in the day. I just need to be happy and loosey-goosey. There was a time back uh, I almost never drank when I played volleyball because I was competitive, but um, one time back in Tampa in like 2008, I remember it rained for like an hour and a half or something in between games, so my buddy and I just got hammered at the bar. We had no idea that we were going to resume the game and we ended up playing this top Florida team who plays on the AVP, and we took them to 18 points. They were so mad when they couldn't put a ball away on us. I think it was just because we were so loose, but anyway. So I realized uh, I had realized a long time ago that I just can't.
Speaker 2:Some people can dial in. That's why I don't really resonate with guys like grant cardone or even, um, relentless the guy wrote the book relentless andless and certain things that are just I need to be in a, I'm competing for me and I really can't have this death to my opponent, adversarial type attitude or you're just not going to get the best out of me, so I need to. I go into that event, into the starting line, and that's when I've done all my prep. I've meditated and visualized every obstacle or every mile where the water stations are. I have a race plan which is going to go to shit. It doesn't matter. But once I get in the corral it sort of wants to just woosah and just unlearn. You know, find a friend, do some fist bumps and just enjoy the community.
Speaker 1:I like that. Enjoy the community. Enjoy the community. I like that. Enjoy the community, enjoy the ride. You know you got to. You can I don't know, you can feel like every moment is just drudging, every moment and you can, you know, hate it and try to look for that finish line. Or you can just like, if you're in a truck, you kind of gaze off and enjoy driving into that canvas, driving into that canvas, and even if it's just a open road and you see the mountains ahead of you, even if those mountains are full of snow, I mean still you enjoy the drive and the moments journey.
Speaker 2:That's good you know you mentioned there was a race in cincinnati, uh, this past weekend. Well, actually it's perfect slopes, indiana but, um, I remember racing there two years ago and this is one of the hardest races I had ever done. It was surprisingly difficult, um, but there was this one area, cause it's a ski mountain and it was like a thousand degrees out and, uh, we just find ourselves along this Creek and I live in Florida. Okay, it's beautiful, but it's flat and boring. Okay, I moved down here before I started racing, I was a house cat, I'd go to the beach and that's it. So, you know, all of a sudden, to find myself kind of climbing up a mountain on the side of this rocky creek, like it was just this cool moment of serenity, like it was just me in the world. And, as you mentioned that, like you know, I'm just picturing, of course, course, I'm sure anybody, any truck driver listening to this, is probably stuck in traffic cursing the thought. But I'm thinking, man, how cool would that be? Like out on that open road, like maybe I'm the only one out there to see that scene for just a moment, and not worrying about becoming a YouTube video today. But it is those, those rare moments. I mean, that's what life is all about. Right, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2:Uh, there's a mountain race that I've been chasing. This is my, this is my big goal. It's in Killington, vermont. It's a Spartan race. It's a 31 mile obstacle course race with about 18,000 feet of climbing. I have failed that race three times. It's got the highest DNF rate in the country. It's the hardest race they have. And, uh, two years last year, um, I DNF it. I uh. As a matter of fact, I got really bad cramps and I had to tap out after 10 miles. But just before that 10 miles, early that morning, I was about 3,500 feet in the air, just above the clouds. When the sun was rising, you could see for miles. It was just the most majestic thing I'd ever seen in my life, and it didn't matter how hard I had to suffer to get there, it was worth it.
Speaker 1:That sounds beautiful, it was gorgeous.
Speaker 2:Like I was grinding up the mountain suffering of this dude's like hey, turn around. Like what Holy shit it was? Like it was crazy.
Speaker 1:That's great, wow, yeah, taking those moments like that really help you, you know, get through life, and you can always reflect back on those and nobody can take those away from you. Those are embedded in your mind and those are yours and um going out, getting those, those races going out, getting it. Hey, you did yourself a solid on that one. That's awesome. I think so many other people can too. I appreciate you coming on the show sharing your story. I can't thank you enough today for the insight, the inspiration that you're able to give from your journey and your obstacles. Your life is like a marathon.
Speaker 2:It's an ultra. This is what I would like to say. Life is like an ultra. Marathons have uh, marathons have clearly marked mile markers. You know they're on pavement. Ultras don't even have maps sometimes, and they could be 30 miles or 250 miles. So it's, and anything that ever could go wrong absolutely will go wrong. That's why I like running the ultras. It's good practice for life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, think about being cancer four times and then now you get to help individuals with that. I mean, that's, that's a lot of unknown factors there that you got through. What, uh? What would you say that someone that's struggling with cancer right now uh, maybe that are listening to the podcast what would you say to them?
Speaker 2:Man, you know my. I decided a long time ago my approach to my disease and to each their own disease and to each their own. However, my approach is that I don't handle my disease. My doctors do. My job is to live my life as long as I can as best as I can, and that's it. I would say that for someone else going through it.
Speaker 2:Something I did not do very well about was talk about it then and I isolated and that was probably the wrong approach. But I don't, I'm not going to tell anyone else how to handle their illness, but I will say that there's nobody who's going through anything right now. Who's the first person or the only person ever to go through it, and whether or not you're somebody who wants to share your story now to get your own support or you're somebody who can share your story later to give someone else support, you have a gift and it may not feel like it and I understand that not everybody's going to make it through either. But those are the actions we can take. I don't get to control the other thing.
Speaker 1:Nice, I like that. I do. You can make it so complicated that you're trying to do too many things and, like you said, you focus on living your life as best you can as long as you can. I like that. I think a lot of people will resonate with them on that. So thank you for sharing that. And to all the drivers out there if you're listening to this in your cab or you're wondering if your life could be different, let Nick be the proof. He's the one that's able to go through these challenges and, like I said, turn lemon into lemonade. You know they can come at you left and right, so he took those and he made a great drink with it. That's awesome, man. Thank you so much. I thank you. Anything else you wanted to share before we go? Maybe it was something I missed or anything like that.
Speaker 2:You know, the only thing that I would want to, one thing, one thing that I'm highly skilled at is breaking things down to the wildly specific and stupidly simple, and usually what gets in our way of taking these action steps towards our life is what you mentioned we overcomplicate it, and so you know there's a few of us have been on this this just large kick of trying to influence and change the culture of health and fitness in the industry. And so one thing I want to tell anyone listening who is thinking that they want to do the same thing schedule it. Step one you may not have a regular schedule, but you have a schedule. You know you're going to have a good 10 to 12 hours when you ain't got shit to do, so schedule it 30 minutes as soon as you get to where you're going, get out the truck and do it. What are the things you can do? Simple shit body weight exercises, squats, lunges. If you follow Michael Lombard, he actually put a bunch of videos up of stuff he used to do in his sleeper glute bridges, stuff like that 30 minute walk is something that will literally save your life.
Speaker 2:Number three nutrition. Again, I'm going to keep talking about Lombard right now and today's 6'9". So he's got the Lombard 69, which is sort of like a 75 hard but far more intro and really a lot of that focuses on nutrition. He talks about getting protein. So I know you know we talked about where you're driving and stuff like that. You may not have the best options for where you're going, but there are certain things you can plan for in advance. I'm not just saying high sugar protein bars, but, like me, I don't travel without nuts. High protein, high good fat. So again, simple steps that we can take to influence our life.
Speaker 2:Number four books and resources. And number five there's lots of organizations out there that are actually trying to promote some of this health right now. Project 61 is one that comes into mind right now. So I just want to keep promoting this message, man, because I have the ability to. This is not something that anybody inside a brokerage knows about or talks about and, as a matter of fact, I don't think enough truck drivers are talking about it themselves and I just want you to know how stupidly simple it can be to take the first action. Just schedule 30 minutes. You're going to be somewhere. Schedule it. If you had a doctor's appointment, you'd go. If your wife or your husband or if your kid had an important thing, you would go. So if it's important, schedule it. The life you save may be your own.
Speaker 1:That's right. I couldn't say it better. I like that. I think that's something we all need to hear Kind of you know, push ourselves to do that. We're all going to be sitting there, you know. You got your head down on the phone.
Speaker 1:It's not helping you. If anything, it's probably making it worse. So, getting out of the cab and being a little uncomfortable, just have some gloves if you don't want to touch the ground. But, like you said, using your body weight, use the truck in itself. There's a lot of hooks on the truck. You can use the tires. You just got to get creative because your life is important and it matters that you make it a top priority. And, like I said, it's too easy just to fall into that rut and I think you're helping. Inspire me. Yeah, I gotta do some more myself. So I used to really do a lot more weights and now I I kind of slump off a little bit so I really want to get back to it. So, weight to really help me a good way to work out when you're not working out, because those muscles are still agitated like that. So, yeah, great job.
Speaker 2:If I was coaching you, I'd say when are you going to do it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, right Today, Right after we get done, right, my man, that's it. Yeah, that's good. So, yeah, I got to do some more myself. I think everybody else out there, we all, can push ourselves to be a little bit better. Even if you're doing great things, like yourself, Nick, I'm sure you're constantly telling yourself you can do more. So find that way, you can do that. So that's great. So we're not stuck, you're not broken and you're just in the fire and, like he says in his book, you can get through it and you forge through and become steel and you're also motivating others. So iron sharpens iron, thank you. So, yeah, make sure we check out the book through the fire on Amazon and also visit your website. Is stridemotivationcom Any other ways that people should get to know you? I mean you do some public speaking.
Speaker 2:I am all over the internet at stridemotivation social media. But absolutely, you can check out my website. I'd love to book a call and see me on stage somewhere.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, I appreciate it, man. Thank you for coming on the show. It's your guy Truckin' Ray, and keep the wheels turning out there. Keep your eyes on the road, off of the cell phone there's too many distractions out there, we don't need any more. And also take care of your heart and your mind, just like Nick. Yeah, so we'll catch you next time, and that's Delivered.
