00:04 I get frustrated because I get tired. And when I get tired, fatigue sets in and I we need to stop. I just, you know, I’m tired. I’m ready. And she’s like, “Oh god, if we could just make it here, then tomorrow we can do this.” And in other words, she’s your typical crappy damn boss that you got to follow and do what they say. You can’t. You’re cussing her behind her back. You got no leverage because there’s no one else. It’s the dog and the master all that.

00:32 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.

00:52 Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport and you guys that join us each and every week. You know this is where we elevate and celebrate the drivers that make the wheels go round and round for Norton Transport. They do so much on and off the road. And we have learned over the last couple of years here as we’ve had this podcast. They lead some very interesting lives. And joining us for the second part of their appearance here on the Six-Figure Trucker is Mark and Michelle Schleier. You heard them last week. Now, this is a couple. They met a couple years ago and they ride together. They’ve been married for about a year and a half, I believe it is. How are you guys—

01:34 Doing? Great. How are you today?

01:35 Wonderful. Doing wonderful.

01:37 Now, I’m doing great. Doing great. Thanks for asking. And you explained to us last week about how you guys met and you’re a towbehind couple. You tow the car behind you. You travel together and you’ve been able to see some fascinating places and I just wanted to recap a little bit from last week’s episode. Mark is a very experienced driver. He kind of walked us through what he’s done. Kind of get us back up to speed, Mark, about your experience as a driver. 12 years which moving combination vehicles with auto truck doing the Freightliner and western sars also we would go to Canada and bring back the Peterbilt and Kenworth. So, have probably delivered I don’t know 2,000 trucks over those number of years. And met Michelle dissolved decided to give up the traveling and flying and doing all that stuff. And then Michelle something bit her and she decided she’s going to up and quit her 15-year State Farm insurance agent position and convinced me that we can go off and do this alone.

02:48 And we’ve been doing it for a year and a half. I guess now together and no looking back. We’re just pushing forward. You know, the whole idea was to semi-retire and not work so hard, but we’re having such a great time and they’re throwing crazy money to get these trucks moved that it just makes sense to keep going and, you know, make retirement even better in the future.

03:11 No regrets and loving life. Now you guys right now presently as you joined us last week were on the road making your way to your delivery and then on to home. Now home is Leavonia, Georgia. Is that right?

03:25 That is correct.

03:26 That’s right.

03:27 But you guys have a very—

03:29 Unique home. Many other people don’t live in the type of dwelling that you guys have. Kind of walk us through where you live and how you got there.

03:38 All right. Well, I’m a almost a private pilot. I’ve got my check ride in two weeks, but I’ve been flying ultral lights and different kind of aircraft for about 40 years. And my dream right before actually for forever, but especially after I met Michelle was to sell up my big house and to move into or build a house on an air park. And so we live in our airplane hanger. We’ve got an apartment and a motor home and literally and we’ve got a small I’ve got a 1958 Cessna 172 that and a 54 ft hanger door and literally when we’re home we can I can raise the door and push the airplane out and take off and that’s where the real adventure for me begins.

04:27 What’s that like for you, Michelle? It’s like I sure never expected anything like that. We are we’re living in our motor home right now. We’re working on building the apartment. So, can’t wait for that to get finished for sure. But, it’s going to be awesome when it is. It’s really amazing. I love flying. So, it’s really cool to be able to just fly right from your house. And there’s not that many people in our area. So, you know, it’s really nice. It’s cool. I mean, you tell people and they kind of look at you like you live where and they kind of don’t get it, but or they think it’s really cool either way. But yeah, it is really cool.

05:29 Have you guys made some very memorable trips in that Cessna? Well, I’m I again I’m I get my I’ve got my check ride to get my private pilot in a couple of weeks. Actually, two weeks from today, the 15th of December. So, I’ve been flying solo. She’s flown with me a few times with other with in other planes, with other people, but that whole adventure is about to unfold. We I started back flying again after stopping for so many years and a little over a year ago and then right before I was going to get my test the plane I was renting had some problems and I had to cancel and right now getting a check ride to get your private pilot’s you know license completed is a four to six month advanced notice.

06:17 So, we got through that one and then nine months ago we were I was took a week off and was going to go back up to Charlotte to finish and wrecked the motor home on the way and had to cancel that check ride. Well, then we bought the hanger and moved down and got all that redone and now it’s finally come back around again. So, we should have already been flying with her, but hopefully during Christmas we’re going to if I can get the license completed, we’ll start that that flying adventure together. Do you have any destinations in mind?

06:47 Oh, destinations.

06:48 The first one is Kittyhawk where powered flight began with the Wright brothers. That’d be about a you know sixth hour flight from the North Georgia to get there. That we want to go to Oshkosh, Wisconsin where the largest air show is held every year and then down to Senate and every other kind of destinations. I’ve actually got we actually have a hanger in Gastonia which is a kind of a suburb of Charlotte and our plan is since a lot of our loads start in the Charlotte or High Point areas to have a car parked we have multiple tow vehicles to where we can have a tow vehicle parked at our hanger in Charlotte which is a three-hour drive from Georgia but it’s only an hour flight and that we’ll be able to pull out of our hanger in Georgia, fly to Charlotte, put our plane in the hanger and then jump in the car and then go, you know, go deliver trucks. Try to minimize the amount of how over the road driving we got to do, especially in our car.

07:47 You guys are taking it to a new level.

07:49 Well, the, you know, we started an LLC which is all kind of recommended as you get into this and diversify it. So, the airplane is owned by the LLC. The cars are owned by the LLC. All that stuff we write off, write off all of the majority of the travel expenses. Our cars are actually owned by the LLC. The insurance is a little bit higher, but you know, you got to protect yourself, your assets, and also, you know, maximize the income opportunity and potential and all of this stuff. You literally can go to any H&R Block tax prepare thing, sit down with them, and for $200, $250, you can get your corporation set up, you can get your LLC set up. They can guide you through what’s deductible, what’s not. They give you advice. Say I would do this, I would not do that. I mean, it doesn’t take a huge, you know, wallet and a lot of money to jump into this and to get—

08:46 You know, the knowledge base. H&R Block is on every town has one and those people are all so helpful. It’s not as big of a crazy adventure—

08:58 As it sounds like when you—

09:00 Have the right tools in your tool belt and are willing to have the gumption like Michelle does to step out and say, “You know what? I know nothing about this, but it’s in my heart and I want to do it and I’m going to do it and we push through it and we make the things happen.”

09:16 That’s fantastic. And talk about I mean the obvious thing here it’s like not only are you able to have those protections but how much have you been able to you don’t have to name a monetary figure but been able to minimize your tax burden by doing that LLC.

09:33 Michelle I’ll let you talk about that. H—

09:35 That does help because what we do is we have our pay goes into our LLC. So, and then we just cut ourselves paychecks from the LLC. So, then we pay quarterly taxes on our paychecks. So, then we’re not paying any kind we’re not paying like lumpsum taxes at the end of the year either.

10:00 So, I mean it just helps all the way around when you do it that way. And then you can write off all these things. Which me being having my background in insurance that’s where I knew that was the way to go with the LLC because you know you want that protection for your assets obviously because we’re we live in this new happy world and anybody’s looking for any way to make a fast buck and so you know they’re going to go after whatever they can and we’ve seen it so many times— And so, you know, the LLC is that that protects you and you know, you get your insurance through the LLC and, you know, you’re just you’re perfectly covered and you don’t have to worry about everything that you’ve worked so hard for just going up in smoke over some silly frivolous lawsuit.

11:07 True. And one other thing about that is that when you form an LLC and you I think like we get paid oh we get paid like $1,000 each every two weeks. So we’re not getting paid huge amount of money but we’re no longer just self-employed out there entrepreneurs trying to make it happen. We’re employees of a company and we’ve get a paycheck and we’ve got deductions made just like anybody else. So when you go to the bank and you try to get a loan after you’ve been employed somewhere for six months. Well, who do you work for? Well, in our case, our LLC is called Maxification LLC. And oh, yeah, we work for Maxation LLC. And how long you been there? Well, I’ve been there for 6 months, and here’s my paycheck stub thing. And it’s just like you work for Walmart or any big company. You’re no longer this, well, I’ve got my own business and I just started it.

11:54 So, a lot of the crap you have to go with proving that showing your records and profitability, it’s gone because we now we work for a corporation—

12:04 Just like, you know, so many other Americans. And—

12:07 I mean, unless you’re going for something, you know, outlandish—

12:10 You know, a $80,000 car, truck, but even that you can get after, you know, being employed for the company for a year and you have steady proof of your income. That’s a huge thing that it’s that’s somewhat of a deterrent I would think for some people trying to start their own company because you don’t you know again talking to Megan with Norton and she was telling me you know not many people have their cars and you know we were in Quebec and Montreal and a young lady was there waiting on you know to pick up her vehicle. I guess she had flown herself there—

12:43 To get a truck and to keep going on things. So, I mean, you don’t have to have the big expense of the car, yet you can put yourself out there and still take advantage of growing a business without really having to come up with a whole lot of money. I mean, $250 to start a company, a corporation—

13:00 You know, that’s not a lot of money to me, but I know some people might struggle, but I think after two or three months of doing it, you could do that. Set it up. Like I said earlier, get with H&R Block. That was a that blew my mind because I had very expensive accountants in my construction company and Michelle had a similar construction company with her husband for all those years. And to think that this little neighborhood H&R Block thing can have you so incredibly set up and looking, you know, like professionals for god next to nothing. M—

13:33 Huge plus when you talk about this whole conversation of getting involved and getting the training and getting the tools and finding out and getting the gumption and taking that step. You know, it’s really easy when you find out who’s out there and what their tool bags have and how they can make it happen for you. And they’re all just so incredibly ready to help you. Speaking of tool bags and taking it to the next level, I thought of something that you guys were just talking about there, the towbeahhind car and you guys going to Canada a lot. Just share with people some of the things you got to do to cross the border, not only in the truck that you’re transporting to deliver or the reverse coming out of Canada, but you’ve got that towbehind car. What kind of paperwork or procedures do you have to go through for that towbehind car?

14:26 Well, there’s nothing really special with the toe behind car. When we go when we cross into Canada, of course, we have to have our manifest for the truck or the bus, whatever we’re taking in. And, you know, they just ask us if we have anything to declare. And occasionally, well, actually going in, we’ve never had them check, but coming out, we’ve had them actually, you know, look in our trunk and, you know, kind of glance through the car because they’ll look in when they hear us say, you know, well, we just came through this morning and we’re coming back out. Well, why do you have so much stuff in there? Well, because we transport vehicles and we usually come out on the road for, you know, a week or two at a time. So we have a lot of, you know, enough things for, you know, a couple weeks on the road.

15:16 Sure.

15:16 And they kind of look at us like, you know, we’re kind of crazy or something. So, you know, a couple times they’ve had us pop our trunk and look in our stuff and, you know, but it’s not been a big deal, you know, cuz we don’t have anything to hide. But, but yeah, they do just kind of ask the basic questions. Do you have any weapons or drugs or anything like that? But, you know, they kind of just look at our passports and want to know what we were doing there, where we’re from, and how long we were in the country, that sort of thing.

15:53 Gotcha. You’re listening to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And we’ve been so so blessed to have Mark and Michelle Schleier joining us on this episode and last week’s episode where they talked about the beginnings of how they came together, how they spent the time on the road, and now we’re hearing about their life living in an apartment in an airport hanger with an RV and a Cessna there. It’s fascinating stuff. I wanted to ask you guys this question. Mark had mentioned it about the air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Michelle, I believe that is a big passionate part for you.

16:30 Yes, I was actually born in Oshkosh. So, yeah, we used to go up every summer. We moved to Florida when I was young, but we spent most every summer up there and we would go to the shows and you know, it’s it was a huge thing growing up. So I have always loved it. And so when we first met and Mark asked me where I was from, I said, “Well, I was born in Oshkosh.” And I thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head. He was like, “No, you’re kidding me.” And I, “No, I was born Oshkosh, Wisconsin.” And most people look at me like, gosh, you know, like, is that a real place? I didn’t know that was real. And he just couldn’t get over it. And he’s like the Oshkosh where they have the biggest hair show in the world. Yeah, that Oshkosh. And so that’s how you know we kind of really connected in the beginning too about you know the flying thing because then he started telling me about his love of flying and his passion for it and everything.

17:40 So you know that turned out to be a big bonding thing for us too. Now, yeah—

17:47 You guys have been able to do a lot of the things you’ve wanted to do and we talked about off air before we started recording your top three desires. If you guys can each kind of lay those out and how you’ve seen them come into fruition, what are those top three things?

18:05 Well, that’s interesting. I think we were actually I think we weren’t even married. We’re still dating. And I asked her, “What were your top three things?” And she had mentioned that she wanted to quit her job. She wanted to get and she didn’t want to quit her job. She wanted to get out of corporate America. She wanted to get off behind the desk and do something different was number one. Number two was to be able to travel. And number three was to be her own boss. And that was great. I was all, you know, excited for until it kind of entrapped me in what having to give up my top three things which were get off the road, stop driving, get away from that, be able to semi-retire, and then purchase, get an airplane, and end up building or acquiring an airplane hanger home. And obviously my tree and her tree overlap. But the problem is is that she wants to continue working and to do this job to be really successful, she needed me to do it with her.

19:08 And so that’s kind of how that whole thing came together. And actually it came as we had this conversation early on and I agreed and we’re going to do it. Well, I’m kind of a type A personality controlling, management, educated, driven, and I was driving this just like it was a, you know, like I was a still with the other company. And it’s not like that. You’re not a big fish when you’re no longer one of 390 drivers in a, you know, hauling for Freightliner and you’re all of a sudden just working for Norton Transport and you’re pulling your car behind you. And her and I we kind of got into a big f probably the first big blowup we ever had and I decided you know what—

19:51 We both can’t run this thing. She ran her office for 15 years. I’m trying to run this and I said you know what I said you know what and those three and three those three desires of mine, three desires of hers came right back together and I thought you know what I’m doing what I want to do. I’m flying every day and I’ve got the hanger home over whatever else and you need to if you want this, you’re the one who wanted this desire with the own business and doing it. You need to take it. I’ll support you. I’ll just be your employee. And that’s kind of how it all started. And actually, I mean, going back with the struggles competing with different companies and trying to whatever, two people can’t run something, but especially two strong people can’t run something. When I kind of stepped back and just kept my position of authority on hooking up vehicles and knowing the best runs, knowing the different regulations, the different permits, the chain laws, all the stuff that I know about that the actual physically driving it. When I decided that that I would continue to do that, but step away and let Michelle have the day in and day out, I don’t see I mean, she has little baggies from H&R Block that we she puts our printed delivery receipts and all their fuel receipts go into it.

21:04 She’s got it all organized. She deals with all the accounting, the issue. I mean, I don’t have to do any of that stuff. I help her pick loads or I’ll throw in my opinion, but you know, a lot of times when it comes down to it and it’s well, I want this and she wants that. Someone’s got to lead and you know, a lot of times we work that together, but somebody’s got to run it and basically this is Michelle’s company and I’m along for the ride and along for the good and the bad. I get frustrated because I get tired and when I get tired, fatigue sets in and I we need to stop. I just, you know, I’m tired. I’m ready. And she’s like, “Oh god, if we could just make it here, then tomorrow we can do this.” And in other words, she’s your typical crappy damn boss that you got to follow and do what they say and you can’t. You’re cussing her behind her back. You got no leverage because there’s no one else. It’s just the dog and the master. And I’m not the master anymore. Oh, all that.

22:00 From what I’m hearing, from what you guys do, what you’ve been able to do, putting it all together, you’re the definition of a union and you’re having the time of your life in this in the skies to be on the road wherever you want to go. I think that a lot of people when they hear this are going to be jealous, envious of what you guys have been able to do and what you’ve been able to accomplish. And in a word, how were you able to do it all? Pull it all together.

22:29 That’s you, honey. Boss lady, go ahead. I think we just work together. We know each other’s strong suits and you know I defer to him on a lot of things because I don’t know you know different things about the job and I definitely you know I can’t do it on my own and I do know when he does need his downtime and he definitely has to have that. So I don’t mind going out and I do feel comfortable now going out and doing it on my own, you know, here and there and you know, we just kind of we give each other our space when we need it and it just we make it work.

23:22 You’ve listened to Mark and Michelle Schleier here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. They have just told you how they share the best of each other, make it work, and have an incredible time across this nation up into Canada, which Michelle loves so much. And I just got to tell you both, thank you so much for joining us on the Six-Figure Trucker, brought to you by Norton Transport. And I hope you have the best weekend and a very happy holiday season.

23:50 Thanks, John. I wish you the best with your family, too, and all the Norton drivers and people out there. Thanks for having us again.

23:58 You bet. Thank you very much. And thank you guys for listening to us each and every week here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport.

24:09 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.