00:05 My god, that— Oh, it was so loud in there. Oh, we was going crazy. This is Oh, man. There was trails was getting knocked down and people were dumping up on savings like—

00:25 Welcome to Six-Figure Trucker, the podcast where we share advice on how to be successful in trucking and have fun while doing so. We’ll share stories, news, and advice on how to earn six figures in trucking. And we’ll speak to guys and gals that are already doing so. Let’s get to the show.

00:44 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Of course, this is an a space, an area where we elevate and celebrate the drivers that work for Norton Transport, all drivers in general, everything they do for our company, our livelihoods, and everything they do for America’s economy. We are very grateful for them. And of course, many times a driver will pop into the office and say hello, get some supplies, get some swag, whatever the case may be. And last week, well actually two weeks ago now, Tracy Jackson stopped into the office and I just happened to be there early in the morning, let him in and we sat down and chewed the fat for a minute. And Tracy, thank you very much for joining us. How are you?

01:26 I’m well, John. How you doing?

01:28 Oh man, if I were any better, I’d have to sit on my hands to keep from clapping.

01:34 No, I’m doing well. I’m doing well. We have a good time at Norton Transport, if you haven’t seen that already. And we like to make sure our drivers do as well.

01:43 Yeah, I do. I do. I’m glad I came on board.

01:47 Oh, we’re thrilled that you came on board. Now, last week we were talking to Tracy and we talked a lot about his driving career, how he got involved in driving. Started back in 1993 and Tracy laid it out for us back then because he wanted to provide a better life for his son. Kind of tell us a little bit more about that as far as what you I think you had said last week you wanted to provide for your son, give him things that you didn’t have. Obviously, that was important to you.

02:14 Oh, yeah. He’s a junior. Tracy Junior. Oh, and man, I actually I was in the room when he’s born, you know, and I was so excited about seeing him that I kind of walked off from his mom holding her hand and went down there to watch him come out. So, And oh man I get too emotional. I talk about him. He’s just he’s awesome, you know. And when he was like a baby and when he started getting a little older, I started thinking like, you know, I just want him to have a good education. I don’t want him to be, you know, wanting for anything. I want him to be able to, you know, do trips and whatever he need to do for school and, you know, of course, clothes and, you know, I just want him to be feel free and be able to just go through life without all the worries and hassles of or, you know, finances or thinking or lacking anything when it came to finances.

03:20 Gotcha. Gotcha. And it sounds like you’ve been able to fulfill that for him. From what you’ve been able to do, was he able to go on into college or another vocation coming out of high school?

03:33 So, I’m laying on the bed and actually watching the Super Bowl and he called me and you know, cuz I used to be a little I used to be a little stern on him about his grades because I knew he got it from me because I was a straight A student in school. So, you know, and he called me. He said, “Dad, guess what?” And I was like, “What?” So, he got a full— He got a scholarship to Christian Brothers College in Memphis.

03:58 Oh, okay.

03:58 Private school.

04:00 Yeah. Yeah. And he said, ” now I see what you were doing when we were sitting at that kitchen table.”

04:08 Man, that is awesome. I said, “Oh,”

04:11 Cuz Christian Brothers, Christian Brothers, for those of you who may not know of this private school in Memphis, it’s a very prestigious school and obviously very academically respected and very rigorous upon the students. So, that had to make you proud.

04:28 Oh, yeah. So, but a year later, he came to me and said, “I don’t want to go to college anymore.” I was like, “Really?” At that time he was he started rapping and then he started doing his YouTube thing. Everyone got a job. And I was like okay, you know.

04:52 Well, if it works out for him, it works out for him. Sounds like it has.

04:55 Yeah. I never always told him. I said, “Son, I can’t live your life. You’re the one going to have to make those choices.” So, you know, he told that and I always backed him. So, he done pretty well. Okay.

05:07 Now, we said last week when we were talking with Tracy, we were going to explore his career in the US Navy, serving this country as a veteran. Now, Tracy kind of walk us through how you got into the Navy and how that shaped you as a man.

05:25 So, it kind of started like a trend in my neighborhood. I think Darl Adams, Donnie Adams, Ken of Adams, they brothers and cousins, Michael Nash, there it was like 10 guys, maybe 12 12 or 13 that was older than me, like one grade or two grades ahead of me. And they started going to the Navy. You know, when they come back, they was like telling us how I was and know how it was. You know, take on trips and go around the world. And it’s like, “Oh, really?” So I was like, “Huh?” And one of my favorite movies of all times is Top Gun. So my dream was to try to work on a F-14. I got to be around them, but I work on A7s. But, you know, to have a bunch of guys that, you know, you can depend on life or death and it doesn’t matter about color, doesn’t matter about age and the camaraderie.

06:31 It’s like I know you got my back no matter what.

06:34 It sounds like you had a rich experience in the Navy. Like I say, it’s something that you I think everybody should experience because of the disciplines and the you know the structure and the organization of it. You know, it was hard when I came out because, you know, going on jobs and, you know, people would kind of like just stand around. You didn’t know when you’re in the service, you know, you don’t stand around. You know, you find something to do and you know, people don’t have to like ask you three and four times to do something. They just say, “Okay, and we know it’s our job. We do it.” And if you need help, I’m going to help you. It don’t matter what’s going on. So, and that’s how it taught me how to be a the best truck driver I could be, too. Cuz it’s like the discipline doing certain things every morning, certain things before I get in my truck, certain things, you know, after I get out of my truck and make sure things is in the proper form and filling out the paperwork that we need for noise and I try to keep that all in a certain like package cuz that’s what they taught us, you know, keep things neat and in order—

07:48 Right? That’s—

07:49 And follow leadership. That’s a valuable skill to have. Good character trait, too. And I was going to ask you I’m kind of guessing, but I don’t want to guess. When did you go in and when did you come out?

08:01 When they 17, came out 20.

08:04 Gotcha.

08:04 I got in love.

08:08 Hey, the taste of lipstick will pull you away from a lot of things—

08:13 Right? Taste it to your mother had a little more power than the navy.

08:19 I hear you, brother. I hear you. I hear you, brother. Now, tell us about in those three years that you were in the Navy, where were some of the places you went to?

08:28 Oh, so when I got to my I only got to go to Florida, Virginia Beach, and Washington because actually when I got to my base, it was actually a smack brand new base. So, we was it was building— So I never even get got to go overseas. That was I regret that. But you know it was still fun though.

09:00 Tell us just share with us one of your fondest memories you know that you can share with us that you had in the Navy.

09:08 Oh I can tell you one of the best ones. We all got together at the E Club the night that Top Gun came out. Oh man, that’s awesome.

09:19 Oh. Oh my god. Oh, it was so loud in there. Oh, we was going crazy.

09:31 When Marvin came and we when it come back around. Oh. Oh, this is Oh, man. It was ter knocked down and people was jumping up on t like—

09:48 Yeah, that was Yeah, that was awesome.

09:50 Now, have you seen the second Top Gun?

09:52 Oh, man. Now, that’s the only time I can say that the second was almost better than the first.

09:58 It was good. They were both good.

10:00 I was like, “No way.”

10:01 I was just going to say my brother and I took our father to see the second one. He’s a Navy veteran as well, and he was impressed. He was very impressed with it. Was it you get the old time like they’re impressed by about a movie about this service. It’s got to be good.

10:18 Oh yeah. I mean we were sitting there debating it afterwards. We’re like is that better than the first one? I don’t know. It’s hard to say cuz I hadn’t seen the first one all the way back to when it came out. I guess was in the mid 80s 86 or something like that. 85 86.

10:32 Yeah. Yeah. Now you were telling us in when we visited with you last week that the Navy kind of led you to your passion for skydiving. How did that happen? Oh, so I don’t know. Just watching the cuz I have been on air carrier and doing tournament. It was Oh, I don’t know. Just watching that F14 take off and seeing it go up in the sky and just like, oh my god, I wonder how it look up there to be, you know, in an airplane like that or just be outside of the airplane. And that’s when I was like, “Oh, you know, I think I want to try that.”

11:19 Well—

11:20 So my greatest dream was to fly F-14, but I never got to do that.

11:25 Well, that that would be awesome. That would be awesome. So, when did you take your first skydiving mission? When was your first one?

11:32 In Arizona. And I was out there to watch the Steelers play the Cardinals. So, yeah.

11:41 How long ago was that? And—

11:42 Five years. Five years.

11:44 How many jumps have you made? Do you have— Do you keep track of how many jumps you’ve made?

11:48 Probably 13 or 14.

11:53 Do you have a— How long will you keep doing it? You’re 55. I saw you in person. You’re in great shape. How long will you keep doing it?

12:02 Yeah, I don’t know. Probably about five or six more years.

12:06 Okay. All right. Have you ever had any tough landings? Ones that you felt.

12:12 Oh, yeah. Yeah. The first one. Yeah. I actually missed my feet and hit the butt.

12:20 Oh, well, you had a fortunately you had a padded landing there.

12:28 Oh boy. That was funny.

12:31 I’m tell you though, John. So, I’m tell this now. When I went up, okay, I’m okay with planes though. I love planes. When I went up, I’m up. Me and me and the young lady, we talking and they get ready to open the door. First of all, she was like, “Nope, I’m not going.”

12:51 Oh, man.

12:51 She didn’t go. So, when he opened the door, I got afraid. I was like, “Oh, it’s for real now.” And he’s like, “Yeah, you really?” I was like, “It’s go time.”

13:07 Yeah.

13:08 Were you scared? I was like, “Okay.” Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was terrified.

13:12 I’m sure everybody is on their first one. I’m jumping out into the great unknown here, the wide open space. And you know, we were talking a little bit last week. You have a passion obviously for being up in the air and you also like to be on the water and I think a jet ski.

13:33 Yeah, absolutely. Tell us about that. Woo. That’s almost like skydiving. But you gotta— It’s like horse— It’s almost like horse riding because you got to know how to ride the waves.

13:46 Which one do you like more, skydiving or jet skis?

13:49 Jet skiing.

13:52 Jet skiing.

13:53 Really?

13:54 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had to say jet ski.

13:58 Gotcha. Now, you live in Memphis, so I’m sure there are many places around Memphis that you can jet ski.

14:05 I’m in Columbus, Ohio now.

14:07 Oh, that’s right. You’re from Born and raised in Memphis.

14:09 From Memphis. I’m sorry about that, Tracy. From Memphis, but you live in Columbus. What Where do you take your jet ski out in Columbus?

14:16 Well, usually when I go jet skiing, I It’s like when I’m in Florida or I go up to Cedar Point. I just don’t do anything over in Columbus. Yeah. When I’m in Columbus, usually it’s just relaxing.

14:32 I got you.

14:33 I probably go home. And when I go home, I just go on get on the couch and put the TV on.

14:37 I got you. You know, we were joking when you were in the office a couple weeks ago. Living in Columbus, big Ohio State fan base there, obviously with being the home of the campus. But you’re not a Buckeye fan.

14:51 Oh, no.

14:53 Do you have a college team you pull for? And they actually think I started this because of Nick Saban. I said, you know, I’m down with Kenny Stapler. Y’all don’t realize that the Snake played for Alabama.

15:05 Oh, yeah. The old left.

15:07 I’m like, so— Oh, yeah. I’m way back. So, I’ve been a Bama fan for a long time.

15:13 I got you. How do you what do you think about the new coach? I think he’s kind of like Jon Gruden when he went to Tampa Bay. It’s already set in place for him. You know, when John went to Tampa Bay and won the Super Bowl—

15:33 Right—

15:33 On the Raiders.

15:34 Mhm.

15:35 Tony Dun had already built the team up.

15:38 Yeah, I got you. You’re looking at it optimistically. And of course today being national signing day, I think he closed pretty strong.

15:49 Uhhuh.

15:50 I think you got a really standout wide receiver. So you got to be happy about that. But Tracy, I just wanted to wrap it up here and say first of all and most importantly, thank you for your service to our country.

16:01 Oh, thank you, John.

16:03 We really appreciate what you’ve done for our country and what you do for our company. Now, we’re lucky to have a driver like Tracy Jackson. And Tracy, I’ll usually wrap up these sessions by asking if there’s somebody out there who’s considering moving into driveaway, what would your counsel, your advice be to that person? To research, ask questions, and really get numbers and talk to people to find out how to be a driver and not to get out here by yourself and try to wink it and try to figure it out. Cuz I think when somebody does that, they get frustrated and they get overwhelmed. And talk to your dispatcher.

16:50 And talk to your dispatch.

16:51 Yeah—

16:52 I got you. Rockolid advice from Tracy Jackson. Tracy, thank you so much for joining us here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And last thing I had was not a question, just anything you want to send us out with. I just want to thank— No for allowing me the opportunity, man, to be a part of y’all company and that I try my best to be the best person that I can be in order to make the company look good while I’m out here.

17:19 Well, you certainly do. Tracy Jackson, one of our shining stars here with Norton Transport. Tracy, thank you so much.

17:25 All right, John. Thank you.

17:27 All right.

17:30 Six-Figure Trucker is brought to you by Norton Transport. Norton Transport is a driveaway trucking company that customers can rely on. It offers excellent independent contract driving opportunities to professional, courteous, and qualified drivers that can provide the kind of service we deliver. If you’re interested in learning more about Norton or just want to subscribe to the show, check out Six-FigureTrucker.com. That’s Six-FigureTrucker.com.

18:13 Up—