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Taking the Hire Road is a podcast dedicated to providing tips to help manage the driver recruiting process while addressing the ongoing challenges related to the driver shortage and driver retention. Hosted by Jeremy Reymer, Founder and CEO of DriverReach, this bimonthly podcast shines a light on the challenges that carriers are facing and aims to help companies hire quality drivers with greater efficiency.
Jeremy Reymer (00:07):
This is the monthly show for Project 61. We're here to help drivers take control of their health one mile at a time. The reality, the average life expectancy for a truck driver is 61 years old, but it doesn't have to be that way. This show is about simple, practical changes that can add years to your life and life to your years without taking away from the job you love the job that's so vital to our nation's economy. I'm Jeremy Raymer, founder of Project 61. On each episode I talk to health experts, drivers and other industry thought leaders working to create a healthier future for themselves and our industry. Because your health isn't just about you, it's also about the people who count on you. Let's get started.
(00:55):
As a commercial driver, you have one of the most difficult and most important jobs in our nation. The very nature of the job takes a toll on your ability to easily manage proper nutrition, regular movement and exercise and consistent sleep. And if that weren't enough, the stress and anxiety of operating in isolation in an environment where circumstances are often out of your control can wreak havoc on your mental health. Stress and anxiety are rampant amongst most professional drivers and only add to the ongoing and increasing health challenges they face. But what if I told you that there was hope against that backdrop, that a handful of small changes could make a huge difference to your overall health? On this episode, I'm joined by High Impact keynote speaker, bestselling author, mental endurance and Sales Performance Coach and Obstacle course and Ultra Endurance athlete Nick Klingensmith with Stride Motivational. Nick is also a four-time cancer survivor, a type one diabetic and a recovering alcoholic. Together we'll discuss his background and how he's been able to overcome his health challenges and how you can too in order to be a better version of yourself. Thank you so much for joining us today, Nick.
Nick Klingensmith (02:00):
Jeremy, thanks for having me. It's like to be here.
Jeremy Reymer (02:02):
Yeah, likewise. As I shared during our time together, I'd like to talk about your background, especially as it relates to your health and the conviction you have for taking control, right, not only for yourself, but to encourage and empower others through Stride Motivational, as well as through the books you've written. I also want to make sure that we, during our low hanging fruit segment, we can get into some practical takeaways in order to improve the quality of our lives. You and I have been connected for at least a couple years, mostly as a result of our industry networks through LinkedIn and so on, but we finally met in person when you attended and led a keynote at the Broker Carrier Summit in Indianapolis earlier this year, and I really enjoyed just getting to know you and hearing your story. Your raw and passionate approach along with your background is inspiring to say the least. Regarding your background. You've been through the fire, right? You literally wrote the book and I'm holding it right here. You literally wrote the book about going through the fire. Do you mind setting the stage for your journey, the mental and spiritual approach that led you to who you are today?
Nick Klingensmith (03:04):
This story is going to start just over 20 years ago, where over the course of about 15 years, I was diagnosed with cancer four times I became a type one diabetic. I was in two different rollover fatality car accidents that led me to have seven herniated discs and nerve damage in multiple areas. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea meningitis. Well, that was younger. My cat died, my mom died, my sister died, and I spent a considerable amount of my time deep down the bottom of a bottle in active alcoholism, and that was what I spent a lot of my time and career and logistics in. But it ultimately came down to a series of events that led to the person that I became, but at first had to start with getting sober and God willing, I'll celebrate 11 years this time next month. The second thing that happened though was I was living a very good and comfortable life, or at least I thought I was two years sober. I was a VP of sales and logistics, so I was working 18 hour days, but we were crushing it. I had a new girlfriend that's an amazing woman. Now, my wife and I had just decisively beaten cancer for the fourth time, and that's when I realized that I was stuck and my boss had challenged me to do a Spartan race, an obstacle course race, something that I had no intention of doing, but I just needed that one yes to make a change, and that was the catalyst that really started everything that happened. Since
Jeremy Reymer (04:31):
I know we're often our own worst enemy so many times we might know what we need to do or we know the things that we shouldn't be doing, we just can't get out of our own way. Sometimes you acknowledged that before you could make any other significant changes that alcohol you had to stop drinking. That was a decision that you made, a choice that you made conscientiously, and I don't know if you knew at that point that by doing that, that was sort of the tip of the spear for all the other things that you were going to be able to do. What prevents us from being who we can truly be?
Nick Klingensmith (05:03):
The complex answer is that somewhere along the line we started creating false narratives to protect ourselves and mostly to protect our egos. That said, the simpler answer is we create limiting beliefs. We are led to believe that we can't do certain things or that we're too old or too fat or too slow or it's going to be too hard or I'm too injured. I mean, I've literally gone through endocrinologist after endocrinologist. I fire doctors all the time because they don't know how to work with me as an endurance athlete and a diabetic, and a lot of diabetics had it in my head that I couldn't do this type of thing, that I couldn't run, that I couldn't adventure. So we build these things around ourselves. These limiting beliefs just says we can't because, and so that's where it all begins. However, I will tell you that I think a lot of us know that there's more that we can give more, and that's where what I call the tension, that conflict, and you read about this in selling inspired that tension that we often feel when we're sitting on the couch, when we know we can be doing more, giving more.
(06:09):
And I'm not saying for other people the things that we want. We have this inert desire to do more, and yet we are just holding on for dear life, and I'm going to simplify it. It often comes down to just one word that nobody wants to admit fear. We are afraid of what's on the other side, and so we just bullshit ourselves into a staying put.
Jeremy Reymer (06:30):
I want to double click into the fear thing here in a minute. I know I like to read. You've written two books so far. One of those books that I have read, you referenced it, selling inspired, sort of spoiler alert I guess for everybody. I shared my review on Good Reads. I really enjoyed it. It contains a lot of practical, motivational applications for improving sales performance, but also just mindset and fear is such an important part of that. And it's interestingly as not a very religious person, but certainly I have a strong belief about virtue and being righteous and very well-read biblically. And the one consistent statement or action throughout the entire Bible is don't be afraid. That's the one thing that is said more than anything else by far, God saying through a prophet, don't be afraid or directly to somebody. Don't be afraid.
Nick Klingensmith (07:27):
Faith or fear, faith in that higher purpose. I can take a lot of beatings when I know why I'm doing them.
Jeremy Reymer (07:33):
Don't be afraid. And so your point about fear, I have not read through the fire yet. I mean, I know that they're two completely different books. I would expect. So Think Through the Fire might be more double clicking on the first question that I asked you, a little bit of your background. It probably gets a lot more into your story. That's what I gather. But that said, what was it that inspired you to write these books and what would you like readers to come away with?
Nick Klingensmith (07:57):
When I first wrote through the Fire, it's because I like to write and people encouraged me and said, you should write a book about this. So at first, I just wrote it for me. I didn't know if anybody else would ever read it. I just decided to put it out there. And so when it was all said and done though, I decided that there was a message, there was a message worth having that somebody might need to hear it of hope, of inspiration, of just seeing there's a better way, a better that they can get through the fire. And so I decided to publish the book just in case somebody needed the message and they would find it. And it turns out a lot of people did, and random people would actually message me and find me and tell me how they would tell me their story.
(08:40):
And that for me was the ultimate barometer that just when you reach somebody and somebody just starts opening up to you, you're like, okay, this is cool. I have something here now. And so that's ultimately what led to Strive motivation to being a speaker. Selling Inspired though is a little bit of a different, because I actually started writing more of your sort of textbook sales book a couple of years ago. Some people don't know this, but I was a private investigator for a long time, so I was writing a sales book about the investigative stage of the sale, but I was going to do it sort of from the angle of being a private investigator and uncover buyer's true buying motives. Candidly, it was going to be every sales book you ever read with a slightly unique approach. It was a decent book. I had about 25, 30,000 words on my computer, and then my whole laptop got lited and I lost it all.
(09:28):
I literally threw a temper tantrum and I scraped every word that I had written since through the fire. And I mean every post, every note constantly. I have a journal everywhere. I'm always taking notes on my phone. I'm constantly writing and thinking of the things, and I just slapped it all into a document and just every time there was an incomplete sentence somewhere, I just started writing it more. And so it started out with this idea of I was honestly just going to put out sort of a page a day sales type journal. I just wanted to do something. I was mad. But then after there was a couple pages that I just couldn't shorten, I couldn't take away from it without cheapening it. And then I realized I had something different there. And it actually took a while to realize what it was and not the way that you would normally write a book. But then I realized that it is a practical manual of a how to, but by me saying what I did and why I did it, and the very most important thing that had to happen happens in those first two chapters, I had to accept my ego, which was protecting me from fear. And that was a message worth sharing.
Jeremy Reymer (10:32):
Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, some of our ego is the enemy, right? I mean, all of us can relate to that varying degrees, but it's always there. Never conquer it. It's a constant battle. I think. Same with fear, same with all of these things. You're never at the top of the hill and you've won. You're always battling to be better, to be smarter, to be stronger, to grow as a person. I want to talk about Stride motivation. What's sort of the premise of the business, what it's all about? How are you helping people through it? I know that you speak often as a keynote. I'm sure that's part of it. There's probably more to it. Can you share?
Nick Klingensmith (11:07):
So absolutely. I mean, I am Stride Motivation and as Stride motivation, I'm a speaker and I share my story, which is ultimately one of a mindset shift and a transformation from victim mode to thriving. And the stories and lessons that I shared with others are on building resilience, leading with purpose and creating a culture of extreme ownership. But where Stride Motivation came about was about a year before I became a speaker, I just started sharing messages with the world. So when I say the world, I mean all 500 social media followers and the messages that I give and the way that I would even coach individual people. It wasn't about pushing an agenda, it was about helping people to hit their individual and helping people to be the best version of themselves. I even joke with a guy that I coach who sometimes he goes, man, all I want to do is lay on the couch and watch Netflix. And I'm like, if you mean that, that's what we'll do. He's like, no, it's not that. I'm like, I get it. But ultimately it's about helping people find the best version of themselves. And sometimes by the way, that does mean leading them to an area where they think they're comfortable so they can find out for real that they're not. And so a lot of it is about challenging these assumptions that we have each other, challenging those comfort zones and those limiting beliefs.
Jeremy Reymer (12:26):
I always talk about the importance of being intentional During the best of times, we're able to stay motivated, focused on the goals for ourselves that we've set, but sometimes we're on a roller coaster and it's just not that easy to go with alone. And so with that backdrop, I think kind of maybe what dovetails into the path that you might've been going down is just how important is being a part of a community of others who are there for support, for encouragement, as well as accountability.
Nick Klingensmith (12:50):
It's so critical in so many ways. I mean, in my sobriety, I am part of a community that helps me stay sober, and even though I'm physically by myself right now, I am not alone. And I think that is absolutely vital, especially being 46-year-old guy who breaks a lot, being part of a virtual community and fitness, and specifically with people like-minded people who do the same things in Spartan racing, when you get injured a lot, it's so much easier to just stay on track when you're part of a community, when you don't feel like it's passing you by. Plus, I stopped playing beach volleyball after a 20 year career for what was basically like a sore deltoid because I thought I tore my shoulder again. Okay, now you can diagnose that with the internet. Get rehab plans, ask your community and be on your way in a minute and a half.
(13:36):
Alright, so all the resources you have in a community are things that again, can keep you on the road to better health on the road to what the things that you want. But it also goes with the business community, the trucking community. Every time you think you're alone, I guarantee you're not alone. So share the things that we're talking about and we find out that others are going through them and they share their struggle too. We would've never survived this long by ourselves. I'm listening to the audiobook of Sapiens right now. I'm sure you've read it. We would have never survived this long by ourselves.
Jeremy Reymer (14:03):
To your point, open up, share what's going on in your life, surround yourself with like-minded people who want to help. I mean, I think building a community, and that's one of the things I appreciate the most about the trucking industry in general is that as large as it is, it's a pretty tight community. There's a lot of people I've built relationships. I know you have two nick relationships that last a lifetime, and there's a lot of value there. There's some depth, but there's a lot of breadth too.
Nick Klingensmith (14:28):
My wife often, she'll always ask me how it went. If I speak somewhere and my answer is always the same, I don't know. I don't. I never know from the stage, here's what I know. When somebody comes up to me after and they just start sharing their story, that's my barometer for success. Some of the feedback I got from BCS and from some of just the personal stories that people shared with me, it touched me deeply to know that if I'm anything, I hear that I'm relatable. And I love that because it just makes me feel like I'm not alone. And for some way, somehow for that one moment, I used what I had to make someone else feel that they're not alone.
Jeremy Reymer (15:03):
Well, and I think anybody who talks to somebody who's willing to be open and share stuff that's like, this is where I've come from. This is what's happened to me and these are choices I've made, and here's where I'm at today. It's inspiring. You're open that way, you're transparent. But to make those decisions, everybody needs a why. And I talk about this all the time in context of making significant lifestyle changes. My why is my three kids, right? They're still young. I want to see them continue to grow up, perhaps raise their own family someday. I want to be around for that. That's my why for you, and this is a question for you, Nick. What's your why? What keeps you motivated and how important is having a why?
Nick Klingensmith (15:43):
Well, to answer the last part, first, your why is your everything. Your why is your everything. Because it doesn't matter what you're doing, what matters is why you're doing it. I found this time after time again, but here's where the hiccup is, and I like to tell the story from time to time. On January 31st in 2019, I woke up and I didn't know who I was because you see, the day before I had left my position where I had been for 14 years, I had been a VP of sales of a company that I helped to build, and I left to do something else, but I didn't know what it was yet, and I had no idea that I had hitched my entire identity to my job. My why was tied up with what I did. It was about what I do, not who I am.
(16:29):
And so since then I have been sort of on this search about who am I, where do I fit? And I discovered that why when I was writing my book through the fire, because I'm writing about all the things that I told you about as well as a bunch of things that I hadn't even mentioned, and I had asked myself this question and I said, when's it going to stop? So I realized that it wasn't going to stop, but that's okay because I can take it. I understood at that point, when I'm all of a sudden seeing the message to my book and the consistency and the pattern, I realized that I had a purpose. My purpose is to overcome every obstacle and inspired others that they can too, and that is literally my true north on everything that I do now. That's how I did my last two years in logistics before I even became a speaker, because I said, why do I need to be a speaker to fulfill my purpose?
(17:14):
Why can't I help other people overcome challenges? Why can't I overcome challenges and then share how to do with others? It's like a game to me now when I get injured in a race, it's okay, I get to overcome a hamstring injury and then get to tell other people how to do it. When I become successful, wildly successful at what I do, I'm going to tell other people how they can make the leap and fulfill their purpose too. It's literally everything. It's the only way I can deal with the insanity of not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from, where the next crisis is coming from. It's because I know why I'm doing what I'm doing it and I'm willing to suffer for it.
Jeremy Reymer (17:48):
Having a why fundamental is foundational. I think for success, especially when it comes to health and especially for this audience. I say this all the time, is you can have a thousand problems in life until you have a health problem. Then you only have one problem. And so this sort of might be a good segue to the low hanging fruit segment where we get into some specific takeaways for the audience. Certainly for drivers, again, we understand being a truck driver is hard. It takes a toll on your physical as well as your mental health. It takes being very intentional to combat just the inherent challenges that drivers face on a day-to-day basis. So I want to get into a handful of small, impactful baby steps, right? Things that can be incorporated into a driver's day, improve their health immediately, and I know, Nick, you have some ideas of some ways that drivers can be intentional to ensure they're making the best decisions regarding their health when they're on the road for days at a time.
Nick Klingensmith (18:43):
I'm excited to talk about it too. Let me tell you, if I do have a particular skill that's like a superpower, it's breaking things down to the wildly specific and stupidly simple, and I mean so simple that they cannot be ignored. All right, so I'm going to tell you six steps right now. Only one of them's hard. I'm going to save. That's the first step. I'll save it for last. Here's the low hanging fruit. Number one, schedule it. I understand you may not have a regular schedule, but you have a schedule where you're going to be, as a matter of fact, you know, might have a good 10 hours with nothing else to do, so schedule 30 minutes of exercise. The very moment you're powering off that truck, why the first thing? Because get the blood flow and you've been sitting for a better part of the day.
(19:23):
Number two, the specific exercises, and actually this is where I would, I'm going to tell you one exercise, burpees, look 'em up, Google it. It is the perfect exercise. It is a 100% fitness exercise. Do 10, do 30, do 'em for five minutes, do 'em 10 at a time. It doesn't matter. But for more info, I know our friend Michael Lombard's put out some shorts and different content on various things that you can also do from the cab. You can break it down to the simple, but if you can only do one thing, get out the truck and do burpees. Number three, nutrition. If you do anything, protein, you're going to be in the middle of nowhere. There's not going to be the perfect restaurant. Protein can come in the form of nuts. You can pack cheeses and coolers. These are things that you can prepare for a little bit.
(20:06):
Protein bars, even if you have to. There are ways that you can at least dominate that so you're not necessarily eating empty calories later. Second water, avoid sugar. Here's the thing, sugar's not a reward. It's poison, and this is so hard for me to accept because I love sugar and I'm like, oh, I just ran a thousand miles. I can have ice cream. And I'm like, why do I want to punish myself? Anyways, number four, resources reading. I'm currently reading Thrive by Dr. Gina Anderson. This is a good book, a lot of actual practical exercises. I think there's some practical things in my own book. There's a lot of good resources out there. Also, join Jeremy's book club number five, community Lombard Slack Group, project 61, build Your Tribe. You talk to each other all the time anyways, and it only takes two people to start a tribe. Oh yeah, the hard one. You have to take ownership. There's no excuses. That's the hard one. By the way, it only sounds hard because I think you made a comment earlier about decision. It's just a decision. It's one you don't want to make, but it's all that's standing between you and Better Health, better habits, better living, better life.
Jeremy Reymer (21:13):
Yeah, that's fantastic. I look forward to sharing this with a bunch of folks, and again, it is not complicated. You have to do it. You have to make a decision to do it. You have to have a why in order to really help you through the valleys.
Nick Klingensmith (21:28):
I want to add one thing too to that though too, and I left this out as just the absolute power of the consistent effort. I mentioned burpees. I'm not talking about getting out the truck and doing 30 minutes of burpees till you have a heart attack. I swam yesterday, 850 yards, my longest unbroken swim, okay, training for this try. It wasn't that long ago. I was doing 50 yard laps and I mean months, weeks. My longest swim was 500 yards a couple weeks ago. It's stacking winds in 30 minutes a day of something simple as walking will save your life.
Jeremy Reymer (21:58):
Yeah, and you're going to feel like a million bugs, especially if you do all the other things that you talked about, getting rid of the sugar. Make sure you're drinking plenty of water. Eat protein, you're going to start feeling a lot better. You're going to get better sleep, all of the things that you need in order to live a healthy life, because at the end of the day, the job that you have is more of a means to an net and shouldn't define you.
Nick Klingensmith (22:20):
One day you'll wake up and not know who you are.
Jeremy Reymer (22:22):
Yeah, you want to be able to hopefully get to a point where you can retire and enjoy life with people that you love. I'm pretty sure that's the ultimate goal for most people. From a human experience standpoint, we're all going to die at some point, but why don't we try to take care of ourselves so that we can enjoy the time that we have with the people that we love the most, whoever that is. Before we go, for our audience who'd like to learn more about you and Stride Motivation, where should we direct them?
Nick Klingensmith (22:49):
Www stride motivation.com. I am everywhere on social media at Stride Motivation where you can email me, nick@stridemotivation.com.
Jeremy Reymer (22:58):
Nick, thank you once again for joining me. Look forward to spending more time with you again soon.
Nick Klingensmith (23:03):
Thanks,
Jeremy Reymer (23:03):
Jeremy. That's it for this episode of Project 61, but remember, change doesn't happen overnight. It happens in the small decisions you make every day. You don't have to do everything at once, but you do have to start. Try at least one thing we talked about today and see how it feels. If you found this episode helpful, share it with a fellow driver or leave us a review. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and keep moving forward.