Let's salute our truckers! Join us with Ellen Voie, president of Women in Trucking…

Well, we're continuing our day of powerful women, powerful women leaders, and we've got a Big treat for you coming up. Ellen Voie from Women in Trucking. This morning we were with Nana Wanjau from Nairobi, Kenya, and you can watch the replay here on Facebook or on YouTube. At 3 PM today, we've got Dr. Jackie Black coming on. She talks about how, how couples can engage in living happily ever after. We're really looking forward to that one. And tomorrow, Judy Hoberman talking about walking on the glass floor. So without further ado, I'm going to introduce you to one of my new friends and someone I've just come to admire in the short time that I've gotten to know her. She's the CEO of Women in Trucking, and we're here to salute America's truckers. They're keeping us going through this whole mess. And here is Ellen Voie. Ellen, thank you.

Good morning, Jim.

Oh, so, so it's, you know, we just talked. It's so cool though to talk to you again so soon. Let's talk about women in trucking.

Okay. What do you want to know?

Tell, give people the whole story. And as always, make sure if you have comments, questions, ideas, anything you'd like to share, just pop on the comment stream. You need to be on the original broadcast. So if you're watching on a shared stream, just click on that. That'll bring you over to my page or Black Belt Jim on Facebook, and you can share your comments. And please do give us some— I keep forgetting to ask, you got to give us your hearts and your likes and your thumbs up and all that. So, so we feel good about ourselves while we're trying to share this with you. Okay, Ellen, tell us how you started Women in Trucking, what's all about.

Well, so many, many years ago— I should say many years ago, it'd be 13 years ago, um, it was March of 2007. Um, I was working for a very large carrier, and I was the manager of retention and recruiting programs. And they said, figure out how to attract and retain non-traditional groups. And one of those groups was women. So I started doing my research in, you know, what do women look for? Why do women come into the trucking industry? Why do women leave? Why do they stay with a carrier? And at the time, I was getting my pilot's license, and I belonged to a women's aviation organization, and it struck me that there wasn't one another association for women in trucking. So I based a lot of, you know, our— the association on their model. And it's— here we are about 13 years later with 5,500 members in 10 countries.

That's just amazing. That's just amazing. What are some of the countries you're in? Because of course we had Nana on from Kenya this morning. Do you have something going on there?

I have members in Ghana and South Africa, Johannesburg. I have members in Sweden. Yeah, a lot of members in Australia and New Zealand, um, Vietnam. Trying to think of some of the countries I've spoken in. So I mean, France, I think we have, uh, Japan, not a lot, Mexico and US.

Well, when this COVID thing's all done, you and I will, we'll head to Kenya. That works.

We have quite a few members in Africa. We've given out scholarships to members in Africa. In fact, at our conference last year, two years ago, we actually had six different countries represented, and Ghana and South Africa were both— and Australia, New Zealand were at our conference.

So, oh yeah, well, I'll tell you what, I know, and I'm speaking for a lot of people because we talked about having you on, and of course you were on Walking the Walk recently, and you know, so many people have responded. We actually put a couple of posts up asking people to to, you know, express their gratitude or talk about, you know, vocations that we normally might not think of as in a leadership position and how we can thank them. And I'll tell you what, the truckers were one of the most popular responses, right? I mean, you guys are keeping, you're keeping us supplied, you're keeping us fed.

Without the trucks, America stops.

Yeah, America stops.

I can't tell you how stressful this has been for our drivers. States are closing their, their rest areas, and so they don't have access to restrooms, and restaurants are no longer allowed to have indoor seating, so you can't drive an 18-wheeler through a drive-through. So they can't, and they're not allowed to walk up to the drive-through without making a mess, right?

Exactly.

So it, it's been even harder, and our members have said that it's harder for them They're expected to wear masks in some locations. They can't find the masks. They want to wipe down the inside of their trucks. They want to wear gloves. They want hand sanitizer. They're having a hard time getting access to those items as well. So here they are out there delivering. They're on the front lines getting our products to the stores, and we need to take care of them.

Hey, and make sure, you know, if you're watching or listening, even on the replay, express your gratitude in the comments, you know, to our truckers and, and we'll make sure they see them. We'll distribute this, and I'm sure Ellen will distribute it through her organization, and the comments keep adding, you know, on the replay too, so make sure you express that, right? Definitely. You know, it's interesting that you bring up those things because, yeah, I hadn't thought of that, and there's other, other vocations talked about that, right, that they're in need of supplies, the people who work in the grocery stores, people that are still working in the food industry, and yet, you know, everything's in short supply right now.

Right, right. I have a— my cousin works at a Walmart, and she, she said, why don't people just stay home? She said they're putting us at risk as well. I mean, I can see people needing essentials. I get it, you know, you have to get groceries and toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I get that. But I certainly hope people aren't just out shopping for the sake of something to do these days, because that's so wrong.

No, you know, I understand it because a lot of people, you know, that's for a lot of people, especially some of the elderly people we talk to, that's their social interaction, you know what I mean, to go to the store and do that. A friend of ours has a dad, an elderly dad, and that's his world. He goes to the store and talks to anybody and everybody, but yeah, you're right, at this point, especially, well, elderly folks, you need to be taking care of yourselves anyway, because, you know, the threat, you know, if I get it, I'll get a bad flu, if you get it, could be, you know, much, much more dangerous. But yeah, no, you know, the idea that— what can we do? Is there anything we can do to help the truckers? I mean, can we— should we be— at least we should be waving to them like we used to do in the old days, right? Wave for the toot, give them a salute.

Yeah, so some people are actually offering to go through a drive-through for them, and so they'll say, would you like me to go pick something up? But some McDonald's are putting an app so they can actually order on the app and then they'll deliver the food to a certain location. But I, I guess it's more, you know, the, the, the positive note is the highways are empty, right, for the most part. I mean, and so our drivers are like, wow, um, the congestion has been relieved a lot during this time. But mostly, I guess, just appreciate them. They— drivers love it when they see someone with a sign that says we love truckers, or, you know, people, you know, even posting on here and people saying You know, we appreciate what you're doing, drivers, because they have always been the unsung heroes and they are truly the backbone of America. Over 80% of, of all cities are dependent on trucks for delivery. And so that means that odds are everybody listening here, um, you, you need trucks to fill your grocery stores, your, your gas tanks and, and everything. So just make sure that you Yeah, you know, give them a thumbs up or just say thanks.

There you go. We're going to put— yeah, you inspired me. I'm going to make a big sign. Here's a question Alex brought in from— it looks like it came from a text or something, but how do women enter into a career in trucking, and do you help develop opportunities for them through Women in Trucking?

Most definitely. So first of all, the biggest hurdle we have is that women don't know that they are wanted and valued in this industry. So we have to let women know that, you know what, you can do this job. And let's talk about the driver itself because it's such a male-dominated environment. So we came out with a Girl Scout transportation patch, and it— girl— over 1,500 girls have now earned that patch about the trucking industry and supply chain. And there's a book that goes with it called Scouting for Cookies, so they can— they learn how the grain goes from the field to the bakery in a truck, bakery to packaging in a truck, and that sort of thing. And it's a fun game. We also came out with a truck driver doll to introduce children That's right.

Where's the doll? Do you have the doll right there?

The doll is right behind me. In fact, if you can see it there, there she is. Yep, Claire's sitting there. And, um, but also, um, we, we need to let women know that they can do this job. So we do, um, a Member of the Month, and we share stories of drivers who are successful in this industry. And not just drivers, but women who are in different roles in this industry. We also highlight, we tell their stories We have a distinguished woman in logistics. We just announced her yesterday. We came up with a— our first time ever, a female driver of the year. So we really have to share, we have to get exposure. And then also we do have a scholarship foundation, and so we give scholarships to women looking at careers in the transportation industry.

Oh, that's nice, and I'm glad you brought that up too. Um, our friends with, uh, NAWIC, the National Association of Women in Construction, they have a similar similar philosophy where it's— yeah, I mean, it's great to get people— I always hated that the trades were so vilified for so long. You know, I grew up in the trades. I was raised to be a contractor, and how valuable they are and how much skill and knowledge it takes to do these things, operating, you know, the trucks that you drive today and knowing the logistics of how to get things around, people to handle hazardous materials. There's all that that goes along with it, and the admin parts, right, the management and the admin parts of it. Uh, you know, our, our transportation infrastructure is a very, very complicated and sophisticated system. So there's all kinds of stuff available there. IT support, right? Am I, am I hitting all? Yeah.

Well, you know, I like to say that we represent the women who design the trucks, build the trucks, buy the trucks, sell the trucks, fix the trucks, drive the trucks. But also I have to point out, Jim, that about 15% of our members are men, um, because anyone who believes in our mission can be a member of Women in Trucking Association. So I would encourage people to look at Women in Trucking and consider joining if you support our mission to increase the ranks of women in the transportation industry.

And we joined. I put the certificate away. I should have flashed it up there again, right? And again, make sure, come on and share your comments. Don't be shy. Share your comments and share your salutes and your thank yous to our truckers, and we'll make sure that gets out to them. You talked a little bit about it. I never asked you, do you drive a big rig? I'm in awe of you anyway. You're a pilot, so that automatically puts you on a pedestal as far as I'm concerned. But have you driven 18-wheelers yourself?

Yes, I went to truck driving school back in 2008 and earned my commercial driver's license. And, um, I don't drive for a living, but I am fully qualified to drive, uh, with air brakes, tankers, and doubles. So yes, and I do know how. I did pass the test, so I know how.

That's pretty amazing. I love that. It was a big regret of mine when I was a firefighter. I had the chance to at least get my Class 2— I don't know what they call it now. I was on a site now they by letters or something, but Class A or Class B.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I, I didn't get it. That was a big regret because, you know, I've driven them before, I loved it. But yeah, yeah, then it was until I was in television production. I used to ride, uh, one of those big production trucks that we used to do sporting events with, right? And I remember one experience where it was the flat front, what they call cab over, right, right, right. Boy, what a rough ride that was. But the seats even had shock absorbers, right?

Well, and the cab over is a very snub nose. I mean, it's actually cab over COE. So, but typically most of our trucks out there now are what we call conventionals with the nose out there.

Much nicer ride, right?

Oh yeah. In fact, that's one of the misconceptions that people have about the industry. They don't realize all the technology in these trucks. I mean, there's lane departure warnings, there's, you know, air ride, everything. And it's all, it's so automated. In fact, guess what? The trucking industry has automated transmissions.

How much of an influence, you know, 'cause you mentioned one of the, One of the barriers, I remember the first time we talked, you said one of the barriers early on to trucking was just the idea. And believe it or not, I'm old enough to semi-remember this stuff. You know, trucks, a lot of especially bigger trucks used to have giant steering wheels because they didn't have power steering. It didn't have sophisticated. I drove a couple of trucks when I was young that were leftovers from the '40s and '50s. There was no power steering. The steering wheel was that wide so you could get the leverage right. And just the the configuration of the seating and the transmissions. But that's changed a lot. Women have had quite an influence in that, haven't they?

The manufacturers are listening. They used to design the trucks for men because men were 95% of the workforce. Now, now women are 10 to 11%. So the truck manufacturers are bringing in female drivers and saying, how can we better accommodate you? And the biggest issue is adaptability. So you have to be able to see over the dash and still reach the pedals. And of course, the seat is adjustable because it's air ride. So you have to have adaptability and, and also be able to see out the passenger side, you know, and just it's all about visibility and adaptability. And the manufacturers are very much trying to make the trucks more accommodating for, I'll say, female drivers and shorter statured people.

Let's make sure we do. Let's go back and hit all the different things that people can do in the trucking industry. Because again, you know, we're talking about the truckers themselves, but geez, you know, we should be saluting everybody involved because the dispatchers are still working, right? Everybody's out there working logistics. Like I said, IT. Why don't you go through some of the things? And yeah, let's do that first. And then there's another question I want to ask you about that.

So I mean, women can do almost— women can do any job in the industry, and there's a huge need for diesel technicians. Huge. And they make the same amount of money as men. And guess what? For women, the engines now are so full of technology that actually women make a better technician because we have smaller hands and we can fit our hands in a diesel engine. So it's not about current turning, you know, wrenches anymore. But also dispatching is one of them. Safety directors— women make great safety directors because we're all sensitive to safety. You can own a trucking company. We've got a lot of women who own, who started their own trucking companies. Um, you could, yeah, the IT department, um, marketing. I mean, just think about the different, uh, roles there are in the trucking industry that help move, uh, move our industry, move the economy.

I'm going to say, I don't remember if we talked about this the first time when we had you on Walking the Walk. And make sure you go over to Walking the Walk, uh, it's walkingthewalkpodcast.com, and look up Ellen's episode because she shared some incredible things. As a woman leader in a predominantly male industry, how did you navigate that when you first got into it? And what advice do you have for people who face that challenge?

Well, I will tell you that once you prove yourself— when you come into a male-dominated environment, everyone's watching you. It's like, does she really know what she's talking about? And they're going to challenge you. But once you prove that you are capable, you really do get the respect and you're part of that network and valued. So I can tell you that the trucking industry really does value gender diversity. It may not look like it, we're not there yet, but I've never felt that I wasn't appreciated when I state my opinions or give a presentation or whatever.

You know, it's funny, I didn't think about this. I didn't think about this until just now. My mom drove big rig trucks. Now, she didn't drive them on the road. She actually worked as a dispatcher and in the office in a trucking company for a while when she was young. And, and she used to have to move the trucks around in their lot, right, to position them for different— bring them in to get serviced and cleaned and whatnot. And I remember her talking about that, and those were the trucks with the big giant steering wheel. Here's somebody— Carol, thank you so much. Carrie, I'm sorry, Carrie, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Uh, And all you— Carrie Durbin, thanks for coming on. Always appreciate your support, your encouragement. You're terrific. I was on a women's panel in DC many years ago, a member of the National Association of Women in Construction. That's right. Have we met in person, Carrie? Post up if we had. I think, I think we might have. I'm not sure, but thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Well, and, and Jim, we actually, um, work with a lot of other women's organizations because we have so many of the same challenges.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. And, and NAWIC is a great one to partner with. I mean, You guys in NAWIC are two of our favorites. Let's see, we got— what's this one? Oh, Alex put— holy cow, you got to put the short link for us. Oh my God, what's that one? Carrie said yes. Yes, that we've met. I think we probably have met. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's cool. Yeah, I love those NAWIC conferences. I haven't been to the Women in Trucking yet. We're talking about that, but I'll tell you what, Ellen, you got some competition for partiers with the Naywick bunch. That first one, I don't care if you were at the Nashville one a couple of years ago, but you guys almost killed us over there. I couldn't run with you. Two workshops. All right, good. I got to look at— I look at your picture. Okay. All right, there we go. Those are the questions I keep forgetting the pictures, right?

You know, I have to tell you, Jim, um, so the number one reason people come to our conference is for networking. And I told my board, I said, well, networking is the number one reason people come. And they said, not working? I said, no, no, no, networking. So I have to be careful how I say that.

Well, that's one of the challenges, you know, today, you know, as the conferences started to shut down. And I remember we talked about this a few weeks ago, and you have a, you know, a really big conference and one that's grown so rapidly. I mean, when you were telling me those numbers, that, that's remarkable for a conference to grow that quickly. You can talk about that, but—

300, yeah, 300 our first year to 1,100 our fifth year. That's pretty amazing.

But it's also amazing, I think, really think you demonstrated, you know, gosh, you know, I admit openly I had mixed emotions about these things at first, not just because of the business, but I was wondering, were we reacting too quickly? Are we shutting things down too quickly? But, you know, when you decided to postpone your conference, you know, you said you can't have— take the chance that you're taking truckers off the road, right?

Right. We didn't postpone our conference yet because that's in September, but we had an event called the Salute to Women Behind the Wheel.

Well, that could work. Okay, okay.

Yeah, and we postponed that to a different truck show. But I mean, at the Mid-America Trucking Show, I think they get like 80,000 attendees. And can you imagine if 80,000 workers in the trucking industry got COVID-19? I mean, we could shut this industry down.

Oh my God, absolutely. Now we wouldn't have food, we wouldn't have— well, we don't have toilet paper yet anyway around here. But Kizzy Ferrer, talk about NAWIC. Kizzy, and Kizzy, consider this a formal introduction to Ellen. You two need to know each other, okay? So make sure you connect. Kizzy is one of the greatest leaders in NAWIC. She's the— I think is it past president now, Kizzy, of the, uh, Orlando chapter? But she's still active in leadership there and just really a remarkable person. So you two guys need to need to put your heads together. I think you can do some great work together. All right, well, where are these salutes to the truckers too? Make sure you post up your— oh, we got— look at this, we got a little hi Kizzy, we got a little hi Alex going on. Okay, that's all nice, I really appreciate it. Let's put up our thank yous to the truckers. Come on, let's post these things up so our truck drivers and the people that are supporting them can see it and we offer some gratitude to these guys. So, all right, so let's get back to this challenge. Now, I appreciate what you're saying about that because I hear that. We do a lot of work with, with women's groups and women's organizations. And so many times in workshops, particularly, I hear, you know, challenges being brought up. And I say, well, men feel that way too, right? But are there some things that you've experienced personally as a woman in leadership that, you know, maybe unique from your perspective?

Well, so when When women look at a job description, they think, we think we need to check all the boxes and be totally ready for that advancement or— There we go. —for that job or that promotion. And it's been said that when men see that they have 60% of qualifications, they go for it. So as women, we need to say, you know what? I can learn this job. I can work in this job. And the other thing is, you know, we really need to be better at negotiating. We need to say, hey, let's talk about my salary or my benefits. Or, you know, let's talk about this. Hey, Miranda, we can— I can get you into a truck, believe me.

But we need Miranda to do our brows, right? Is this the Miranda with the eyebrows and the hairstyle and all that stuff?

So we need to learn how to negotiate and ask for more things. Women typically expect people to notice when we're doing a good job. And so we really need to raise our hands and say, you know what, I just saved the company X number of dollars, or I just added this many employees, or I just— you have to say that. And we're not as good about tooting our own horn because we're so collaborative. We want to be light. We're so team-oriented that we don't want to put people on the defensive by saying, well, you know, I did this. But we need to do that. We need to say, hey, look at— I saved this money or whatever. But just make it factual.

Right. You know, and it's interesting you say that because that's another one that comes up. I hear many men saying the same thing. I think that's a skill we all— and I'd have to say it. I'm probably a pretty bad offender of that. You know, sometimes it does pay to toot our own horn a little bit, and not in an obnoxious way, right? But to make sure people know that we did make contributions. I like the way you express that. Make sure that it's tangible, right? Right. It's one thing to walk in and say, hey, I'm doing a great job. Well, no, no, show me. Yeah, show me what you're doing, right?

And so, um, I, I get the opportunity to train the Wisconsin Motor Carrier Road Team in how to speak in public, and I tell the drivers First of all, I want you to go in and establish your credibility. That's not bragging. If you walk in and say, I have 3 million safe driving miles and I've been, I did this at the Truck Driving Champions or Championships or whatever, you go in, you establish your credibility. That's not bragging. It's establishing credibility because why else would someone believe you or take, you know, your word for something if they didn't understand that you have that knowledge? So it's very important to make sure that people know that you know what you're talking about.

Oh, absolutely. You know, I'm reminded of a quote, uh, one of my heroes, Muhammad Ali, right? He said, "It ain't bragging if you do it," right?

You know what I mean? That's true. That's true.

And that's important. Absolutely. Absolutely. What else? Let's, uh, circle back because I know some folks are joining in now. Let's talk again about how people can get in touch with Women in Trucking and exactly the services you provide and whatnot. And I'll apologize, it looks like the electrons are not cooperating. Ellen's looking a little fuzzy in that feed, but it's just right. We're getting to that time when everybody is on live streams and stuff right now.

So yeah, well, so we're a nonprofit association. Uh, you can find us at womenintrucking.org, but we have a lot of resources whether you're a driver. We have lots of things for drivers. We have our Salute to Women Behind the Wheel. Um, we just announced this morning that we now are giving all of our drivers who are members access to a health coach, mental health coach, because we know that they're dealing with a lot of these issues. But for corporate members, we also have a lot of— we have an anti-harassment employment guide. We have a recruiting guide. We have best practices surveys. We have the WIT Index. And of course, the conference is huge. People come there and learn. Everything at the conference is applicable to men and women. But 85% of our members are, of our attendees are women because it is called Women in Trucking. But the, uh, like Judy Hoberman, who's speaking tomorrow, she was one of our keynotes at our conference. So everything that you learn, it could be about interpersonal communication skills. It could be, uh, branding yourself. It could be negotiating skills, things like that. That's for men and women, but there are things that we've learned that women, um, are very interested in, in moving forward in those areas.

You had asked how long we were going to go for. We're going to probably wrap things up pretty soon, um, but if you've got some comments and streams, I'm just going to apologize in advance because it looks like the electrons are not cooperating over here too. We might have to talk all day because I don't know if I can shut the show down at this point.

And Alex, technology, technology, right?

Alex, if you let me know, come in and just give us a thumbs Pretty sure. Oh, there we go, we just got control back.

How about that? I was gonna say you disappeared for a second there. I disappeared.

We're back again. All right, um, yeah, and again, share your comments, share your thank yous and salutes to the truckers. Also, you know, Miranda, thank you so much, and thanks for your— again, for your support and encouragement. We're seeing a lot of good friendly faces here. Um, the, the conference thing too, I just want to touch on that too because we just talked about this with Nana. We're going to be doing some some live streams to Africa with specific agenda. She asked us to talk more about the human-centric leadership. We're glad to do that. Obviously, Women in Trucking, you know, just as we're members with you, you're members with us, and anything we can do to help out, that would, that would be cool. So we'd love it. Yeah, yeah. Let's see, we've got some more. Oh, we saw that one. I'm going to put these up again though. Kizzy, thank you so much. Salute to the truckers. Alex behind the scenes back there. Well, and Miranda— oh, Miranda's got another question though.

Yeah, yeah, she said, how do you start in this career? So first of all, you need to find a good school, and there's 3 types of schools. There's the publicly funded schools, which would be like a technical college, a privately owned school, and then if you go to a carrier, a trucking— a large carrier, they often have their own schools. And so if you go to a large carrier They'll train you free, but then you sign a form saying that you'll stay there. And if you go to one of the other schools, you can pay for it and then choose which trucking company you want to go to. But come to our website, there's lots of questions on there, like how to choose a truck driving school and then how to choose a carrier. Because you, you, you want to know, like, what is the carrier hauling? Is it refrigerated products? Is it tankers? Is it flatbeds? Because you need to know that What part of the country does that carrier run? Is it, uh, all of North America? Are you going to go into Canada? Um, do you haul hazmat? Are they team driving? I mean, there's so many questions you need to ask, and all that information is on our website to make sure that you're making the best decision. So, but also apply for scholarship. The scholarship is womenintruckinfoundation.org, which is a separate organization. And I think the scholarships are open right now, so we want to help people get in the industry. And the scholarships are not just for driving truck, they're also for technicians, safety, safety area, and then what we loosely define as leadership, which means if you're looking to advance your career in supply chain, we're here to help you.

And it's not just, you know, it's funny because naturally a lot of people want to talk about the long-haul trucking, you know, the last bastion of the Old West, I suppose, for some people, right? But it's also, and we're seeing a lot of advertisements for local and regional drivers, right? And all different size trucks.

Yeah, well, and, and so people don't think about this. So go to a waste hauling company, you know, Waste Management or Republic or one of the waste hauling companies. You put your kids on the bus in the morning, you go pick up trash, and I don't know about anyone else's area, but in mine, they're not getting out of the truck. You know, that trash thing, you know, goes like this, right? Um, dumps into the trailer, and then you're home in time for your kids' ball game. So there's, there's— you can deliver supplies, uh, Frito-Lay, you know, There's lots of jobs out there where you're home every night or every day. And actually Miranda asked how I started in this career. I'll give you the very short version, but I actually went to school for broadcast journalism and ended up working at a steel fabricating plant shortly after high school. And the next thing you know, they asked me to move into the traffic department and they sent me to school and here I am. And this many years later, still in the trucking industry.

When you land on a good thing, you got it, right? You got to stick with it.

Yeah. There's something about when I, when I speak in front of executives, I always will ask them, how many of you in high school or college said, I want to work in the trucking industry? Nobody ever raises their hand. One woman told me that, you know, her dad said she could sell, she wanted to sell. It was either pharmaceuticals or working for a trucking company. Her dad said, you know, you— there will always be trucking, so go there. And so she's still in the industry. So we're, um, we're all, we're all here because we love this industry so much, and the people are just so amazing.

Miranda just gave you a good shout out.

Thanks, Miranda. You don't know the half of it, Miranda.

We, we were on just a social— well, actually, uh, it turned into a social call and, uh, got to hear more about Ellen, and she's a pilot and she's a broadcaster and she's all these different things. Yeah, you are a badass.

Can I put a plug in, um, Jim, for, um, this coming Saturday? Uh, I have a show on SiriusXM every Saturday morning. It's the Women in Trucking Show, and it's on the Road Dog Trucking channel, which is 146, and it's a driver call-in show. And this Saturday our show is dedicated to drivers and it's called Steering Toward Kindness, and that's our hashtag. Steering toward kindness, get the connotation. So this Saturday, Road Dog Trucking Channel 146 at 10 Central, 11 Eastern. And if you don't have SiriusXM, they're actually giving a 6-week free subscription. So maybe if you can post that as well, or Alex, there you go. Yeah, that works. And there's a link to how to get the, um, 6 weeks free. So if they want to hear the show, and you get all the channels, not just Road Dogg, but you get Road Dogg and Howard Stern. You get Howard Stern as well. My favorite is, uh, Watercolors. It's, it's kind of a slow jazz. It's good background music. There you go.

There you go. Oh, Miranda. Miranda, thank you so much. Oh, here's another. Oh, good. You got to answer this one.

Oh yes, I love wine.

There you go, there you go. Well, listen, go ahead.

Channel 146, 10 AM Central.

Channel 146 on SiriusXM. All right, okay, hang on a couple more minutes if anybody's got some more comments or questions or anything you'd like to ask Ellen. And of course, if you're watching on the replay, Continue to add your, your comments because people get to see those, and we're going to try to share those with all the truckers and make sure people understand how much we appreciate them out there, right? The truckers and all the support people behind them. And I'm going to say, Ellen, we really appreciate all the work you're doing. This is a fantastic, uh, oh, here's a link for this fantastic, uh, organization that you started. And, and anything we can do to support it, really appreciate your leadership. You're exactly the kind of leaders that, that we like to support around here at Sensei Leader Movement.

Well, thank you, Jim. I really appreciate it. And it's so nice to get to know everybody. You have some great connections as well.

We're very blessed. We have some good folks. Yes, absolutely. And right now, too, I'm going to be remiss to say, if you want to get involved with Sensei Leader Movement, our first level is free, always will be. But right now, we're also offering our Black Belt level, usually $29.95 a month, and that's free right now, I think, through the end of May. And just come on, uh, come on SLM joinfree.com. And if you have any trouble with the free part of that and you're listening before May 31st, 2020, just send us a message. I'm easy to find. You can contact me on Facebook, thesenseileader.com, jim@thesenseileader.com, and we'll make sure you get the proper link to get that membership. OK, Ellen, thank you so much for being with us today. Hang on with us, just hang on just for a couple of minutes afterwards, and we'll chat just for a minute. And again, appreciate it. Later on, if you're watching on April 9th, 2020, and it's around 10:30 real time, um, later on we've got Dr. Jackie Black, dear friend Dr. Jackie Black. She's coming on, she's going to talk to us about couples living happily ever after and how we can all do that. And then tomorrow, Judy Hoberman— Ellen and Judy are friends— uh, Judy Hoberman, Walking on the Glass Floor. So we're going to extend our powerful women into another day. Okay, Ellen, again, can't express my gratitude enough. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Thanks, everyone.