Balancing work, family and fun

There are millions of blogs, articles, podcasts, and books on learning how to balance work, home, and pleasure.  We have a different approach to learning how to balancing all aspects of life.  We say that first you have to give it to God.  I know that sounds easy. A quick prayer, “god please help me balance everything that you have given unto me.”  The hard part is not the prayer it is actually giving it to God.  I like to give to god but keep a small line of floss tied to it.  Then when it is not going the way “I” need it to go I give it little tug and take control of the balance. 

Let me start with the fact that I have been traveling 50-75% for the last 3.5 years with my last job.  Let us go back even further than that though.  Exactly 6 months prior to my roll changing at my last “job”, my wife and I turned down the opportunity to travel about 6 times because we would have had to separate. We had been married for 11 years and spent less than 3 nights apart since our wedding night.  In addition, those 3 nights were rough.  In fact, it was supposed to be 5 nights but my wife pulled the kids out of school and drove 8 hours 2 days early because we were both going crazy missing each other.  I’m pretty sure that when god heard us turn down an opportunity for free travel and the ability to get in front of youth to help them grow he said, “Watch this, ya'll are in for a shack up.”  It was not 6 months later, my roll changed at work and I was “asked” to start traveling, if I wanted to keep my job.  It was supposed to be one tour of our company.  That turned into traveling 50-75% time for the next 3.5 years. 

Now do not get us wrong we are not complaining at all.  In fact, I have thoroughly enjoyed traveling.  I enjoyed the attention that came with the traveling; everyone would ask where are you going this week? The would oooo and owww over my life and say man I wish I had a job like that.  Even though I enjoyed going places and seeing “friends” coworkers, I hated leaving my family every other week. Nevertheless, it became a habit for me.  The kids got used to it, the dog got used to it.  My wife on the other hand, she never acclimated to the new roll.  I get it, she was stuck at the house taking care of our four kids, the milk cows, her chickens, horses, the dogs, cats, PTO, volunteering at the school, running the kids to lacrosse, acting, gymnastics, orchestra, dr appointments, and grocery shopping….  I cannot imagine why she hated it every time I would head out of town.  It definitely strained our marriage at times. When that happened, we would eventually pull our heads down to our hearts and ask god for help. 

He guided us to some better time management practices that we want to share with you.  We are not saying that these will work for you, but they did work for us.  We started setting up times to spend with each kid individually to do something they liked.  It might be hunting, going out to lunch, playing a video game, or having a nerf gun war.  Each child is unique and we wanted to make them feel special.  We also took up camping on the weekends.  I would get home Friday head straight for the house where Jenna would have the truck packed and ready to go.  We would load up and go explore a national park, or mountain where we could just set up our tent, and chill for a day.  Another thing we did was make sure that every weekend we did at least one thing as a family.  Sometimes we played a board game. Others we would chill and watch a family movie.  We made sure to make time for our family together and for each kid individually. 

As I said, traveling was hard on marriage at times.  I take full responsibility for all of the fights, all of the hard feelings and every single ounce of disrespect that ever happened during those times.  We found that we were both putting up a shield a distancing ourselves from each other so it did not hurt as much every week I would leave.  So we would have a great Friday, Saturday and by Sunday afternoon we started the distance, so it wouldn’t hurt so bad to leave.  How to help with that?  We ended up spending more time in the evenings….  Talking. (I know what you were thinking) we found TV shows that we wanted to watch together and would spend time just being close as we watched the shows.  We read books to help us work on our marriage.  The five languages of love helped us more than you can ever imagine.  Eventually we get to where we stopped distancing ourselves and started embracing the time we did have together.  We started living for each other. 

We made sure to put priorities our lives.  I know that sounds super easy but it is actually not easy at all.  I have a quick exercise that I am going to ask you to do.  After you get done shoot us an email or leave us a message with our answers.  What are the 3-4 most important things in your life?  Of now, prioritize them.  For me it is God, Family, and Work.  Ok now that you have yours think really hard, are you living with those priorities? I was not.  God and family had taken a back seat to work.  I made goals and took action to re prioritize life and get it back to what I needed.  I started getting up 30 min earlier every day and spent that extra time in scripture and prayer.  Then I made sure that I scheduled work around family.  When the boss said I really need you at this location this week.  I make it clear that I have no issues going there but it will either have to be an extremely short trip, or I can push it back a week and do it right.  My family started coming first.  I should mention how awesome and understanding my wife is.  Last year I missed her birthday because I was told I needed to be in a certain area and my priorities were not straight.  She never complained, but I should have never put her in that situation.

The whole point of this is to let you know that it is ok if your life is not aligned with your priorities right now.  However, do not wait to get it straightened out, because you can always make more money, but you can never get back the time you missed with your kids, wife, and God. 

I would like to take a moment and give full credit to God for everything that has every happened for me in this life.  He is the reason that I live.  In addition, I know that I went through that season of life for a reason.  He needed me to learn something so I can help others.   

CVSA Annual Conference

I will start by apologizing for all of the acronyms in this post.  The DOT techie side came out as I wrote it.  lol

Recently I attended the CVSA annual conference in Biloxi Mississippi.  It was awesome to be able to be in the same room as Deputy Administrator, Alan Hanson, from the FMCSA; Canadian officials from the CCMTA, and General Salomon Elnecave, from the Mexican Motor Carrier Enforcement.  Not to mention enforcement officials from almost every state and over 300 individuals from industry.  If you cannot see value in a conference like that then I suggest that you clean your glasses and try again. 

I would like to give everyone a quick over view of what we covered throughout the week and encourage you to consider joining the CVSA as an associate member.  This is one conference that I do not mind leaving early Sunday morning and getting home late Thursday night for.  The value it provides and the networking opportunities are endless, you are only limited by your own fear.  Let me give you a quick rundown on just a few of the people I held personal conversations with:  PHMSA director Bill Quade and talked about his recent change from FMCSA to PHMSA and how much he has enjoyed the change.  The fact that he recently went to Dubai & some of the new regulations that PHMSA is working towards.  FMCSA director of IT and his wonderful wife.  Major Chris Nordlow from the “republic of” Texas is a slight cowboys fan, lol.  Nicole who works in the motion picture industry and is working with all of the major media studios to help them support and learn what CMV drivers are and what regulations they must follow to be legal.  Dan and Abigail with the American Trucking Association.  Abigail has been to several countries and loves hiking.  She is also a next level expert in OSHA, HOS, and who knows what else.  I can’t forget Mike with the Arkansas Trucking Association.  He is a great guy and very knowledgeable on every topic in the realm of DOT.  I could keep going for days on all of the networking that happened in five short days.

Nevertheless, it is not just about networking it is also about having open honest conversations with the enforcement agencies.  Getting to see their perspective on some of the issues they are seeing on the front lines of highway safety with commercial vehicles.  In addition, when Industry has an issue like being cited for not having spare fuses when the truck I equipped with circuit breakers.  We are taking action to try and get it to where an officer will have to note in the violation what specific “critical” item is powered by a fuse, and that there was not a spare fuse for that component.  It may not seem like much but there are over 5000 no spare fuse violations annually, that is can be a huge help to industry.  We also help to shape the Out of Service Criteria hat officers use to place vehicles out of service at a roadside inspection.

Here is a big one that CVSA voted to support and is going to draft a letter to be sent to FMCSA.  We decided that it would be advantageous to industry and enforcement to have ELD providers in the United States go through a certification process.  This would help industry and enforcement know that the units are functioning properly and by the law.  Currently there are several ELD providers that are not compliant with the ELD mandate, but they are being sold as ELD’s.  To top that off the providers have self-registered with the FMCSA so industry would not know if the ELD is compliance until after the units are installed and in use.  Personally, I support this and was excited to see it come through the committee. Then the board of directors passed the motion as well. 

On the note of Canadian regulations. They have come out with and ELD law and it will take effect 2021.  They will be publishing the law in the beginning of 2020 and ELD providers will have go through a third-party certification prior to be authorized to sell their product to any trucking units running in Canada.  Also note that if you are a USA trucking company and run in Canada then you will have to comply with this new regulation.  They will also be publishing a study on the use of cannabis since it was legalized. 

It is also extremely refreshing to know that FMCSA regulators are common sense driving individuals and are trying to do everything within their power to help de-regulate the industry and keep it as safe as possible.  Hence the reason for HOS reform.  They also take massive amounts of notes from industry back to headquarters to see what they can do to help.  Not to mention if you ever have a question, I now have contacts in every aspect of FMCSA.  Passenger, IT, Weights and measures, Load securement, Vehicle, PHMSA.  How awesome is that to have contacts at the highest level of the administration? 

Currently we have approximately eight working groups and industry holds three voting spaces in each committee.  I am one of those 24 people horned to have a voting responsibility. 

Here is my request from you, if you would like to have a representation at the CVSA please reach out to me.  There is a small fee to be a member of the CVSA; the ROI will come in the first 6 months of membership.  If your company would like to have a voice please do not hesitate to reach out to me.  Second, if you have any concerns that need to be brought up to FMCSA, PHMSA, or the enforcement industry. Please reach out to me and let me know that concern.  I can either get you in touch with the right people from your region, or reach out to them myself to find an answer for you. 

If you would like to know about the conference, reach out to me today I will be more than happy to give you all of the information that I have.  

Making those tough decisions

How many decisions do you make every day?  I would say on average we make over 500 decisions, before we ever get to the office in the morning maybe even before we leave the house.  We decide to hit the snooze button or jump out of bed. We decide to brush our teeth, to pick up our phone, to kiss our spouse, which tooth paste to use, whether we make coffee, tea or drink water?  I think you get the picture; we make tons of decisions every day.  Why is it that we struggle so much with certain decisions though?  Should I quit my job, should I start my own business, should I buy a car, should I ask her to marry me?  All right, the last one is an extremely important decision.  The others not so much. 

I struggled for months with the decision of whether I should leave my job of over 5 years to pursue the growth of a company we started.  All kinds of thoughts filled my head every time I would think about it.  What happens if I fail? How will the boss take my leaving? If I stay just a little longer then I get more vacation. I love the people I work with, well most of them, do I really want to leave? I struggled with the answers to those very questions plus so many more. 

Then this amazing thing happened. One day my wife asked if I had given these concerns to God.  I looked at her like a dog listening to a high-pitched noise and answered, “No, it never occurred to me to ask for help from him.”  I stopped in my tracks and asked God to take those worries away from me. Not only did the worries go away, but I was filled with joy for the opportunity that was right in front of us. The best thing about the whole situation was that God started giving me answers to the questions that I couldn’t answer myself. 

What happens if I fail?  So what if you fail, you can go back and get a job flipping hamburgers if you need to.  You have so many skills to fall back on, you’ll be just fine.

How will my boss take it? Well we all know that people all react differently to change, sometimes they are glad to see you grow, other times they are selfishly aggravated that you left.  Never leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth if at all possible.  Personally, I told my boss, “Hey man you know that I loved working here and absolutely learned so much from you.  I can’t thank you enough for everything that you have done to help me.  I hope that it’s ok if I keep your number and you keep my personal cell. Please call me if I can ever do anything to help you, business or personal.” 

If I stay, just a little longer I get more vacation.  If I go, I won’t have to ask for vacation, I can take it when I want / need it!

You get the picture.  No decision is hard to make once you stop worrying about it and take that leap of faith. 

One of my favorite quotes comes from one of my outstanding former leaders, Ezra Lee.  I asked him what it took him to start his own business, how he was brave enough to go out on his own and then grow it into the empire that it is today.  He looked at me and said, “You know there was a time in my life when I didn’t have the money to buy shoes. I’m not scared to go back to that time again if that’s where I’m supposed to be.”

When he first told me that, I was perplexed and again looked at him as if a dog listens to a high-pitched noise. (seeing a pattern yet? lol)  I was lost.  Who would be willing to go back living off nothing? After I thought about it for a while, I realized what he was truly saying.  You have to trust that everything is under control and out of YOUR control.  The second part to that is you are never ready. Once you realize all of that, those difficult decisions aren’t very challenging anymore.

We can justify anything that we want in life, good or bad.  The point I’m trying to make is, to not sweat the small stuff.  All decisions are small when you realize that nothing is permanent.  Even tattoos can be touched up and changed.  Think about that for a second.  Not the tattoos thing, but nothing is permanent.  If nothing is permanent then what’s holding you back from taking that leap of faith.  Go ask that girl out, take the interview, apply for the job, go back to school, start trying to have kids, start your business, enjoy life!

Break out of the office and get some ACTUAL work done.

Earlier today, I was in the office pounding away on the keyboard, knocking some good ole work out.  Not really but it felt like I was really accomplishing things. I bolted out of the office early to grab my youngest son and take him to lacrosse practice.  As I sit here in the cooler part of the day, on a trim green lawn, watching and listening to parents talk about how busy they are at the office and what degree they need to get a promotion. I can’t help but be thankful for the life style we are about to move into.  Working from wherever, whenever.  Why does the corporate world think that offices are a necessity?

The thought that you have to be in the office to accomplish tasks is as outdated as the payphone that most of the managers grew up thinking was awesome new technology.  If you want to keep great employees and make sure, they are happy you have to loosen up and give them the trust they deserve and need to function at peak levels.  Let your employees work when and where they want as long as they accomplish their tasks.  Experiment with a group of those who are interested in working remotely three days a week to begin with.  Don’t watch their every move.  Your test should be “graded” on not only the amount of work they complete but the quality.  When your employees know that they are trusted and that they have some freedom watch their creativity soar and their quality and yes even their quantity increase.

I know there are many arguments about how being in the office is the only way that some can be productive.  Or the thought that you get more done in the office where the manager is watching the employees every move, or even worse coworkers that feel that they are better than the remote counterpart because they are in the office from 8-5.  All of these myths can be debunked with great leadership tactics.  The new generations don’t and won’t work an 8-5 “job”.  They want a place where they can take off and go to an appointment in the middle of the day.  The thing is that most of them work later in the evening again to finish their day. 

Let’s talk a little bit about the different generations from my point of view, if you don’t agree that’s ok.  That is one of the best things about living where we live, we can agree to disagree.

Baby-boomers want to work from 8-5 every day with a 1-hour lunch.  That time had better be spent in the office or at the shop.  If your salary you need to spend a minimum of 50 hours a week working.  If you’re the boss you need to be there before any employees and stay later then all of the employees to ensure that you are leading by example.  Remember that the 8-track was the “bees' knees” to most of this generation when they graduated high school.

Gen x’ers are similar to the baby-boomers they feel that their employees should be at the office from 8-5 as well, but they are a little more lenient you can leave early the Friday before a holiday. They are trying to be more open but have a hard time with it because they had to endure the baby-boomers mentality of work.  Gen x’ers are the ones who first got the phone in a bag as an awesome way to stay in touch.  Remember they would hook it up to their car and when the phone would ring the horn would honk!  Stylish.

Millennials get a bad rep all the way around.  They are accused of being offended constantly.  If they don’t get what they want they throw a fit.  While that is true with some of them, there are many others who are the top producers’ in the world.  Some of the biggest and most successful companies have been created and operated by this generation.  Millennials don’t like being confined to hours that they must work, and they definitely don't like working in an office.  They like to get up, work a few hours from the house, head to work (only when they have to go to office) then take a nice lunch. Get some more work done, then go work out, grab a quick bite to eat, and finish the night by working a little more.  No office required.

There are positives and negatives for each generation. 

I’m here to tell you that if you want to keep happy younger employees the office mentality needs to disappear.  With new generations and technology, that we have today there is no reason to time track or micro manager your salary employees.  There is no need to even have an office space for most of those individuals.  Really all that you need is a place to have meetings.  Guess what there are tons of places to have informal meetings and presentations in every town.  Even in rural America, I’ll bet you can find a library, a school, or a Grange hall that will be plenty big enough to house your meeting.  Be creative.

Remember your test should be “graded” on not only the amount of work they complete but the quality, not by the physical hours they spend behind a desk.

Let’s break out of the office and get some real work done.

How to fight distracted driving, and WIN

Hey guys when was the last time you checked your phone while driving?  Were your kids in the back seat?

It is not a big deal that I checked my phone while I was driving; nothing happened I did not swerve or crash, no one got hurt.  Maybe that is the case this time and every other time before but it will not be the case every time.  Distracted driving is the fastest growing cause of automobile accidents around the world.  We don’t want you or your loved ones to become another statistic so we are going to give you some easy to follow distracted driving tips that we try our best to follow every time we get behind the wheel.

One. If you are going to use your phone while driving, make sure you use a hands-free system.  That means that you don’t have to touch anything to use the phone.  It’s been proven that just talking on the phone while driving increases your chances of getting an accident.  The National Safety Council reported that cell phone use while driving leads to over 1.6 million crashes each year.

Two. Never text while driving, it’s not worth it to take your eyes off the road at all.  Nearly 390,000 injuries occur each year in the US from texting and driving.  When you text and drive you are increasing your chances of getting in an accident by over 400%.  400% that’s HUGE!!  Also think about what you just taught your kids in the back seat?  Do you want them texting and driving when they get old enough?

Three. Your attitude makes all the difference in the world, especially behind the wheel.  If you are emotional it’s not the time to get behind the wheel.  Take a few moments to get your thoughts collected before you take off.  Think about how hard it is to see after you’ve been crying.  Tears blur your vision, thoughts cloud your judgment and your body isn’t prepared to go to work.  Driving with any kind of emotional stress is the exact same way.  That emotion clouds your vision while your thoughts run wild making it extremely difficult to focus.  More likely than not if your anything like me you can’t even think straight when your emotionally distressed.  Heck, my wife might even say that I’m irrational at times. Lol.

Four. Plug your phone in and put it in the console so it’s not distracting.  I used to not only tell the people that I trained to drive trucks but also lived by this when I was driving.  I would place my phone upside down on the floor between the seats so I would ensure that it wouldn’t distract me. 

Five.  This is our last tip.  Avoid multitasking while driving.  Let’s face it you are already multitasking every time you get behind the wheel.  You have to move your foot on the accelerator, turn the wheel, use your turn signals, dim and brighten your lights, check your mirrors, all of that is plenty to do without adding more to it.  My favorite story about multitasking is when I was running a heavy haul across the Western US.  I hit Salt Lake City at morning rush hour.  As we were all driving bumper to bumper in stop and go traffic, I glanced out my driver side window.  What did I see? A woman changing her clothes while she drove.  Now there were at least two of us on the road driving while distracted. Lol. This lady got down to her skivvies and changed her shirt, skirt and shoes all while she was driving.  Then she proceeded to put on her deodorant and makeup.

The big thing to remember is that I guarantee that someone wants you to make it home safe tonight and every night.  Don’t take the unnecessary risks associated with distracted driving.

Buckle up and stay safe out there.

Everything In life happens for us not to us.

For the longest time I have believed beyond a doubt that everything in life happens for a reason.  We don’t always understand the reason why it happens right away, heck we may never understand why something happened. None the less it happened for a reason.  Sometimes the reason is because we needed to learn from the mistake. It might be because we weren’t ready for that particular promotion or job.  Or maybe it was because God used us to help someone else learn the lesson due to our faith being so strong.

As I look back on my life, I see many times where God guided my life without me ever knowing it.  I’d like to start with the choice of not enlisting in the military right out of high school.  I was on track to enlist into the Army the day I graduated, go to basic training straight from there go into warrant officers' school.  Then graduate and start flying helicopters for the military.  I would have enlisted at the beginning of the war on terrorism, don’t get me wrong I would have loved to serve my country, but during that period more helicopters were shot down than almost any other time period in American history.  God was looking out for me.  Let's not forget that the whole reason I didn’t enlist was because I met my now wife.  I most likely wouldn’t have the kids that I have now or the life I currently have.

Let's take a look at when I didn’t get a job working full time for the paid fire department.  At the time I was devastated, how could I mess that up? I mean I was already working part time, I worked on most of the shifts and most of the squads really liked me. Now I know that if I would have stayed there, I would have never moved to where I live now, I would have never got my CDL, and I would never be starting my own business.  Most likely I wouldn’t be as close to God as I am now either. 

How about when I was let go from a job for working too many hours.  I was young and couldn’t understand that one.  God used that experience as well as the next 3 years working for a different job to humble me and bring me closer to him. He taught me how to truly forgive.  He encouraged me to lean on him; he gave me a horrible boss so that I could learn how not to act and how not to treat others.  He gave me the passion to find a need a fill that need, no matter how difficult it was.  It was during that period that I discovered the need for CDL testing in our area.  I worked diligently for 1.5 years to get through the process and become one of the youngest testers in the State of Colorado at the time.

How about here recently when I was faced with yet another horrid boss.  The company leadership was awesome but my direct supervisor was audacious.  God was teaching me to let go, forgive, learn how not to treat others, and how to stay humble.  That instance really pushed us to start Eclipse and take those steps of faith. 

You see as I look back on my life, I could be full of regret.  Regret that I missed a chance to serve my country, regret that I messed up so many job interviews, regret that we were dirt floor poor for a while, regret that I had some atrocious bosses.  Or I can look at those instances where things didn’t go the way I expected them to and say, “Thank you God for helping me!” I don’t live my life in regret because I know that there is a supreme being that has my back.  He will never give me more than I can handle.  If we believe that things happen for us there is no regret.  Because it was supposed to happen that way and it is shaping us to become the best version of us that we can be.

I believe now more than ever that everything in life happens for us and not to us. 

Leave the Caveman Days of Implementation Behind You

Are you having issues implementing new processes in your organization?

Most companies know they have issues that need to be addressed. What they don’t know is how to effective implement the “fix-it” solutions. This blog will you revolutionize your strategies on implementation. It will take work from the leadership within your organization but it will be worth the result. 

Lets get started. You have come up with a fresh strategy to help your DOT program but you are having complications implementing it. The hardest part of anything “new” is the implementation. We have all had great ideas and we are going to share some of them with you in the blog. Personally, in the past I have allowed great plans to unravel because there was too much resistance from others. I am here to tell you to persevere through the resistance, put extra fuel to your plan, and make it work. Let’s go through the process for creating a new strategy and exactly how to implement it in a way that won’t allow the new process to fall flat.

The first step to refresh your current situation is to find the problem. Are your driver files taking too much time to maintain, is the onboarding process too lengthy, are you continually getting vehicle maintenance violations, the list goes on and on. After you identify the issues, yes I said issues, plural. Pick the most pressing one and create a strategy committee that consists of individuals from all levels of your organization. Include people who are natural leaders, the ones that other employees look to for help. Do not forget to get out of the office setting to find people to join the committee. By doing this your committee will have interest from across the company and have a better foundation to build on.

Now that you have selected the “right” team to help formulate the strategy, it is time to start brainstorming. Set aside about 10 min a week for a personal conversation with each member and see exactly what they have come up with. By adding this small personal touch, it shows that you care about what they are working on and that they have your support.

The team has been working diligently on a way to improve your current process. They have many good ideas, now it is time to help them select the right path. Remember as a leader you need to make yourself invested in their new strategy. Your confidence in their actions will go a long way in the implementation process. Add your input to their meetings and help them to refine the new strategy so it can be the most cost effective and positive change conceivable. Guide the team to look at it from different vantage points. If it will be a major transformation, I would invite a third party who is not involved with your businesses day-to-day operations in and acquire their view. The revision portion of any fresh strategy should take a while. Don’t forget to take time and several build a roll-out plan. Try to think of every possible thing that might get in your way during the implementation process.

It has been a long haul to get to this point but we are finally ready to implement our new process. Implementation is probably the hardest part of any new strategy. The good thing is that we have already built a foundation across the company on many different levels with our committee. Now all we have to do is build on our already created foundation. Throughout the roll out process, keep the ability to adapt to changes in the plan. We all know that no matter how good of a job we do brainstorming possible complications we are bound to find a few more during the actual implementation. Continue to have your committee meet until the process is fully implemented and running smoothly.

Here the last thing as a leader of any organization you NEED to do, reward those who helped with the process. Recognize everyone that plays a role in the process. If it was a field / office clerk call them and say thank you, or if you don’t feel you the time to accomplish that send out a mass email thanking everyone involved with the transformation making sure to highlight your committee and all of their hard work. Take a moment to visit with each member of the committee and get his or her thoughts on the entire process. Remember your implementing a new process yourself with this. Look for constructive criticism and truly make the changes recommended, if they fit your organization.

Good luck!  Do you have interest in being in a coach?  Lets talk.