February 11, 2024 For months I’ve been looking through videos and images (many of which were shot with the intention of getting back to posting to YouTube again!) ever since my last video was uploaded on the LovinTruckin YouTube channel, January 1, 2019. There’s a lot of it. It’s hard to believe it’s been that […]

Chapter TWO: The Team That Disappeared?

by | 02, 2024 | News Archives | 0 comments

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February 11, 2024

For months I’ve been looking through videos and images (many of which were shot with the intention of getting back to posting to YouTube again!) ever since my last video was uploaded on the LovinTruckin YouTube channel, January 1, 2019. There’s a lot of it.

It’s hard to believe it’s been that long…

If I had a nickel for every time I asked myself, “what should the first video I post on YouTube be called?” I would be knocking elbows with Mr. Musk and all the other billionaires!

Nevertheless, it has been a consistent thought in the back of my head all of this time… and so it is today.

What I did realize toward the end of posting consistently for nearly 5 years on YouTube — was change was coming. Something was going to change on the channel even though I didn’t know exactly what that would look like.

The LovinTruckin YouTube channel started out as a diary of our adventure into trucking together. A daily or weekly and sometimes bi-weekly overview of us dealing with a world completely unfamiliar to both of us — and well outside of our personal wheelhouse.

Looking back, I am beyond grateful that I created the channel. It truly is a diary of our first steps into the trucking world and much more.

For one thing, it serves as a record of how we managed to rise to some pretty demanding challenges along the way — even if the down-n-dirty parts weren’t all included in the edited version of the videos (for the sake of being PG!) — we remember those moments vividly.

Another reason I’m grateful I started the channel is the conversations, opportunities and lasting friendships that have blossomed out of it.

I genuinely adore our true fans and subscribers. I am grateful for EVERY SINGLE PERSON who hit that subscribe button… and for everyone who reached out over the years to say hello or have a conversation and some we have met IRL.

The amount of work involved in creating a YouTube channel isn’t something anyone could possibly understand unless they’ve done it.

In our case, being on a truck 24/7 – doing a job that has a 14 hour work day involved – there are days you definitely do not feel inspired.

The longest and most tedious part is the editing process.

There were many times that getting a video edited was the hard part. Had to figure out ways to divide sleep, eating, doing laundry or some other necessary task —  so I could carve out the time to get the videos completed. It wasn’t easy. If there’s a passion you find a way. For as long as you can 🙂

At the end of the day, it was that underlying passion to create that made me know things had to change on the channel. I knew I wanted to go farther than “a day in the life” type of video.

I noticed toward the end of 2018, that I was holding back. Editing myself and editing ideas to avoid topics that weren’t directly related to trucking.

THEY (whoever they are) say it’s important not to dilute a channel by introducing ideas that go outside the niche.

I was choking on what they thought and I knew it — but didn’t know how to solve it. That was part of what was happening. Not all of it. But definitely part of it.

So… back to what happened with that last posted video…

Within 24 hours of uploading the last video on the channel, James and I went into the hiring-on process with a company that handles extremely high security freight.

Literally within 24 hours of posting, we were on our way into a maelstrom…

Let me put it this way… there were things we didn’t know that we didn’t know. Things we weren’t told before we were hired.

In case you’ve never gone through a hiring-on process that includes orientation, background checks AND training… it can feel like being in a class 5 hurricane. There are a lot of things covered in a VERY short period of time.

Unlike any other company we had applied to — in this case, we had to fly to orientation. James does not care to fly. And that’s putting it mildly. That’s where things started.

Upon arrival, we went through an intense series of background checks including DOD, FBI (which included a trip to the local field office) and others. Had to get drug tested and go through a multiple-day firearms training program.

All total… about 10 days.

I thought I would be allowed to continue making video, as long as company business was not mentioned, recorded or discussed… that assumption was incorrect. Not because we were micromanaged or anything of the sort. It simply became obvious.

Before we were actually hired, we were not told much about our truck. In no uncertain terms, it was a surprise.

Absolutely beautiful. Comfortable. An amazing truck in every respect… it just had a lot of components we weren’t told anything about up front.

I can talk about some of the equipment and the job now — to a reasonable degree. There are things I can say and things I won’t — simply because people are out there doing this job today.

I can tell you that James and I were armed 100% of the time, in and out of the truck. Since the job comes under the auspices of the U.S. Marshall’s Service, we went through the most rigorous background checks ever.

We both carried 9 millimeters on our hip with a shot gun, in the cab in a fully armored semi.

Here are a few shots I can share…

 

 

A unique schedule.

Even if I could have done video, there was no way to carve out the time to edit and post.

I realized things had changed and the pace at which life was moving that year… well… it was hold on baby!

I did post one “hello” video about 2 minutes long on Facebook. The fact that I couldn’t talk about where I was, what was going on or happening in our world at the time, made it feel strange and impersonal.

I knew I had to bide my time.

The first couple of months with any new company come with a straight up learning curve. We were deep in those trenches by mid 2019.

This is one piece of the puzzle. There’s more.  Right now I have to take a little step back and share this next part with you…

The interesting thing about over-the-road trucking.

It isn’t a j-o-b exactly.

It can especially not be a ‘job’ when you’re out there with your life partner — your husband, wife or significant other — the person with whom you share everything.

What I mean by that is…

There’s no hard separation between your “work life” and the rest of your life.

You don’t “go home” and spend time with your family outside of your work environment. Not in the ordinary sense.

In an OTR truck…

👉 you live in the place where you work
👉 you sleep in the place where you work
👉 you relax in the place where you work
👉 you read, converse, argue, share ideas, enjoy things in the place where you work
👉 the place where you work goes with you everywhere you go AND…
👉 you work in the place where you work

In other words…
…your life is simply happening. It’s not your “work life”. It’s your life.

Just before posting that last video, I knew the channel would be changing. Without realizing it, I was leaving the messy parts out because the messy parts —- the LIFE parts —- aren’t directly related to a so-called “trucking” niche.

You and I both know that a life worth living is never all about one thing. I’ve come to see a YouTube channel shouldn’t be either.

It leaves too much on the table.

In next week’s LT News, we’ll go a little deeper.
— Andrea

P.S. If you have an amazing title for the first video posted on YouTube since Jan. 2019, I’d love to hear it!

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