Driver Recruiting Happy Hour Podcast

Darin:
Cheers everybody. And welcome to the Recruit and Retain podcast, Happy hour edition. My name is Darin Williams. I'm the president of CDLjobs.com. And I would love to introduce you to my cohost, the president of Ten4 Recruiting and the Tennessee chapter secretary of the Justin Bieber fan club.

Beach:
That is true.

Darin:
Matt Beach

Beach:
That is true

Darin:
Beach, say something nice to the people.

Beach:
Well, the fact that you said that I would love to introduce, I think that's the first time you've ever said love.

Darin:
I'm excited for people to meet you.

Beach:
I know, I know. I know I'm excited to be here. Darin. I'm super excited, especially who we have as a guest today

Darin:
Because of our guest. You're super excited. You've never said you were super excited. So it's a bit of a slap in the face to everybody who else who's ever been on this program.

Beach:
Well, but well, no, hold on, hold on. Hold on. The fact that I'm super excited is everyone would understand once we tell or once they know who it's. Cause as soon as you say the name, as soon as we bring, bring this individual on, everyone's gonna go, oh yeah. Now we know. I, yeah.

Darin:
And they'll be equally as super excited.

Beach:
Yes. Because they love, they also love this individual. Just probably just as much as every, I mean, as me, anyone else does

Darin:
Well, do you wanna unlock the door and uh, and let her in and introduce her?

Beach:
No, not ready yet. I can see her face right now. See this again? This,

Darin:
It looks cold out there. I'll tell you, it looks cold out there. Maybe we should, maybe we should let her in.

Beach:
No, you go ahead. It's cold. Bring her in.

Darin:
Well, the person that we're all super excited to talk to, uh, is a, as a, is a world traveler. Holy cow. Every time I see her, she's traveling somewhere and by world, I mean, you know, Southern United States, uh, it's Marilyn Surber with Tenstreet, Marilyn, come on in.

Marilyn Surber:
Hey guys, how's it going? Thank you for having me.

Beach:
Oh, you're acting like this is kind of FA we just talked like 10 minutes ago. It's like, come on.

Darin:
She's going along with

Marilyn Surber:
This is how I sound Matt Beach. Listen, listen,

Darin:
We don't need to tell everybody

Marilyn Surber:
We will put you off the show

Beach:
Like, hello, welcome. So glad to have. You're like the,

Darin:
I love that, Marilyn. Thank you for playing along. Holy cow.

Marilyn Surber:
Thank you. I mean, Beach, you know, I mean, we tried not to make Beach super excited, really? You know, that's, you know, that's certainly on my list of things, um, that I try not to do general as a general rule. Yes. Um,

Beach:
I'm I am like from the movie Up, have you ever seen Darin?

Darin:
It's been a long time. I don't remember.

Beach:
He's like squirrel that's me.

Darin:
<laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
It is. It really is. Um, I found, you know what I did, I was going through, uh, my backpack, as you mentioned, Darin, as I travel all around the Southern United States, I gain a lot of business cards and I met our, your wonderful co-host Matt Beach circa what year? Beach? 2015. Maybe.

Beach:
Yeah, it was.

Marilyn Surber:
in, in Scottsdale, Arizona at a NAPFTDS event. And I found,

Beach:
Remember Darin, I said NATA on one of the, one of the podcasts and it's the alphabet super trucking, just because of their name.

Darin:
I'd remember.

Beach:
All right. So can you get it right Marilyn?

Marilyn Surber:
National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools.

Beach:
Yeah. I'll always say nationally accredited. I gotta say nationally.

Marilyn Surber:
You're wrong.

Beach:
I know I'm I'm, you know, I know.

Marilyn Surber:
Okay. National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, I went to Scottsdale in 2015 and it just, it changed my life. I met Matt Beach there. I found his, that bus, your Covenant business card today, Beach <laugh> Director of Recruiting for Covenant Transport. And I was just transported right back to 2015. And so, you know,

Beach:
That's so much.

Marilyn Surber:
my life has never been the same

Darin:
What I'm. So what I'm, what I'm gaining from this little brief story is that when you met Beach, you were so impressed that you didn't look for his business card until seven years later.

Beach:
Exactly. Yeah. She didn't have to

Marilyn Surber:
Didn't have I didn't have, I didn't have. Yeah, no, because he dug, you know, as soon as he met me, he was stalking me right away

Beach:
And we were, we were,

Darin:
Did he send you a sticker of his face?

Beach:
Oh.

Marilyn Surber:
yeah.

Beach:
We were in Scottsdale and this is the, this is so Darin the other day, when I was, you were in Scottsdale and I was mentioning the, the bar, what was the bar?

Darin:
The Rusty Spur.

Beach:
Yeah. The Rusty Spur. We all went to,

Marilyn Surber:
Oh, I forgot about that.

Beach:
Yes. The one <laugh> the first night went and then it got Marilyn went back. This is Marilyn Marilyn. We went back to the, to the hotel and to the event that next day Marilyn starts telling everybody, oh, we found, we went to this place. It was a, you know, Beach kept calling it a honky tonk. Not sure what that is. And, and I didn't want everybody to know. I was just like, you know, I'm having a good time. I found a good little quiet place. Of course. Marilyn was like, Beach has a minivan. He's taking everybody. And everybody shows up at the Rusty Spur that night. It was a good time.

Marilyn Surber:
It was, I think I sang karaoke and it wasn't even karaoke.

Darin:
Sang karaoke, uninvited.

Marilyn Surber:
on the stage. Yeah. With the band.

Darin:
Now one, one flaw in that story, how's an Oklahoma girl not know what a honky tonk is?

Marilyn Surber:
I know what a honky tonk is. Beach is just trying to, you know, build himself up a little bit.

Darin:
Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. That's he had

Beach:
We had a guest on our last one. And the question was, was Greg Iverson. Greg had all these questions of what would be your baseball intro song. And he had all, he had some crazy, some crazy

Darin:
Iverson turned it around on us and made us think. And we don't like that. We may, he may never get asked back,

Beach:
But here's the, here's the here's the good question. Brings up a good one for karaoke. So like when you're traveling and like Tenstreet got the, when, when is the Las Vegas Tenstreet,

Marilyn Surber:
The user conference, April 20th through the 23.

Beach:
So there is a piano bar, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Marilyn Surber:
Oh, I do.

Beach:
I love, absolutely love, but if you had a go what's a go what's your go to karaoke song

Marilyn Surber:
Me.

Beach:
Yeah.

Marilyn Surber:
Uh, I got friends in low places by Garth Brooks.

Beach:
Oh my gosh.

Darin:
Sticking with the Oklahoma theme.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. Mm-hmm <affirmative> or Hit Me with your Best Shot Pat Benetar.

Beach:
Oh, that's a nice one. What, what you, Darin?

Darin:
Uh, it's an old song. It's called Hooked on a Feeling.

Marilyn Surber:
Oh.

Darin:
Ever heard that?

Marilyn Surber:
Can we get a little preview?

Beach:
Yeah, no, I'm gonna give you my preview.

Marilyn Surber:
What's yours. Rocky Top?

Beach:
No, no, we did do that that night.

Marilyn Surber:
We did. We did what?

Beach:
Yeah. Before, Before I get to my song, we were at, uh, Tenstreet comp. Was it the Ten? It was a Tenstreet Conference?

Marilyn Surber:
No, it was CVTA. It was CVTA.

Beach:
It was. And we went to, uh, we went to the, I, I, I love the New York, New York piano piano bar. And we get in there and I drop a few bucks for them to play Rocky Top. And course they played it and I was, of course the only one singing it to the top of my lungs.

Darin:
Might have been the only one there that knew it.

Beach:
Yeah. But dadgummit, they played it.

Darin:
<laugh>

Beach:
But, So my go to Kenny Rogers.

Marilyn Surber:
Oh, I

Beach:
Say it.

Marilyn Surber:
You know when to hold em, right?

Beach:
Lady.

Marilyn Surber:
That's not the song? Oh, lady. I thought was that the other song? I don't even know that song.

Darin:
Well, you're the guy that stops the party. Everybody's karaoke and having a ball, you get up and sing Lady by Kenny Rogers?

Beach:
Lady, I'm your knight in shining armour and I love you. And here's a high note. No one else. I did it so good that my computer is picking up. Are you playing music?

Darin:
<laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
It's like, please stop playing now.

Beach:
Are you playing music? Are you just stepping on a cat's tail?

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah.

Darin:
Oh, there you go. Holy cow. Well, there there's a, that's a todo list for the, uh, Tenstreet conference, which, uh, is in April. And so Marilyn what's going on in the world at Tenstreet. I mean, how are they doing in their, uh, world domination plans? They seem to be spreading everywhere, man. It's like, uh, you know,

Beach:
World domination world

Marilyn Surber:
<laugh> um, we're doing great. So Tenstreet is great. It's, you know, it's, it's growing it's happening. We've really, um, focused a lot, um, on moving into the post-hire aspect of, uh, driver management and driver retention. So we're offering carriers the, um, opportunity to manage the entire life cycle of their driver in one platform. And, um, we're really excited about that and all the the new stuff we have to offer and the things we're gonna launch at the, the user conference. And it's just really, it's just really exciting stuff. Everything that we're able to do. I don't, I don't know about world domination, just, you know, quite yet. Right. But definitely, um,

Darin:
It's on a five year plan though, right?

Marilyn Surber:
That's right. Five year plan, five year plan. Um, definitely moving, um, into areas of the business, really, to, you know, to help clients and remove some friction, um, and create, help them create workflow and processes that just aren't really possible within any other system because of the interconnectivity and how everything operates within, within Tenstreet.

Beach:
Cool. So how's our how's, how's our boy Coble doing.

Marilyn Surber:
He's doing good. Mike's doing great.

Beach:
He's over there.

Darin:
I do know Mike Coble,

Beach:
Do you know? He is over at Tenstreet?

Darin:
I do. I, uh, yeah, I saw that, uh, probably on LinkedIn, I think, but yeah, I do.

Beach:
So that man has the best suits I've ever seen.

Darin:
He is a snappy dresser.

Beach:
Yeah. So

Marilyn Surber:
At TCA, we were calling him eye candy. He was the eye candy at our booth

Beach:
Really imagine, but he's got that. He's that when, if you hug him, I mean, I hug and I hug him. He's just got that cologne. It's like a, it's not a channel number five smell, but it's a, it's

Marilyn Surber:
A channel? Yeah.

Darin:
<laugh> very, very popular. Chattanooga cologne.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah.

Beach:
Channel Number 5, Please tell him I say, I hope he watches. We gotta get them. The fact that

Marilyn Surber:
Are you wearing channel number five and eating a pimento cheese sandwich?

Beach:
<laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
Cause if you are, you might be from Chattanooga Tennessee.

Beach:
<laugh> I did another thing last night, Darin.

Darin:
I'm sorry. What was that?

Beach:
I did another TikTok last night.

Darin:
You did?

Beach:
oh Yeah.

Darin:
I haven't been on

Beach:
<ringing> Gosh, I'm a

Marilyn Surber:
That's really unprofessional Beach. I'm gonna need you to silence your phone before we get started.

Darin:
We've had this time slot scheduled. It it's. It's what I deal with Marilyn. It's it's a,

Marilyn Surber:
It's kind of amateur, Darin, if you need to kick Him off I will be your co-host.

Darin:
it's my cross to carry. Yeah. It's my cross to carry I'll. Uh,

Beach:
Marilyn, do you

Darin:
you succeed in spite?

Beach:
Yeah. Do you use, uh, Tenstreet or Tenstreet? Do you use TikTok?

Darin:
Marilyn? Do you use Tenstreet? <laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
I do. Um, I do not really use TikTok though. Not yet. I haven't, uh, I haven't made the crossover. I know.

Beach:
you're gonna,

Marilyn Surber:
I know, you know, I do. I'm gonna, Beach is the one who got me on Snapchat all those years ago. I didn't, you know, so yeah. Now funny follow you right onto TikTok

Beach:
Its 2015, we all got on it at the, the NAPFTDS convention.

Darin:
Everybody got on Snapchat together.

Beach:
Well, we heard that there was millions of drivers using it, so

Marilyn Surber:
That's why we yeah, that's right. Yeah's good.

Darin:
Just aggravation people tried to talk to me on Snapchat and it aggravates me. I don't, I don't, I don't use it often enough. I don't get it. I don't wanna get it. That's why I have text.

Beach:
I'm gonna find you and I'm just gonna start snapping and stuff.

Darin:
I'll I can, I'll have one of my kids figure out how to block you.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. Look forward to that. All the videos of Beaches, dogs that are gonna clog up your, your news feed.

Darin:
I see a lot of Beach videos anyway.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. <laugh> don't don't worry

Darin:
So Marilyn, what's next for you? Where are you traveling next? Obviously Las Vegas, right? I mean,

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. Las Vegas. So yeah, last week was a really busy week. We had TCA, um, which is an amazing event out in Vegas, um, for their annual meeting at the Wynn. Um, there was about 1400 people there. And so that was an awesome event. And then we went of course to the Mid-American truck show in Louisville, which was, again, I hadn't been obvi this was the first time they had it since 2019. I think I had only been one or two times before, but it was just, it was really awesome. It was a great turnout. Everybody was excited. Um, and next week I am headed to, um, Indianapolis. I'm headed to Indianapolis next week for Greatwest, um, leadership symposium in Omaha.

Beach:
What is that about?

Marilyn Surber:
So Greatwest. Um, the insurance company, they have regional, uh, leadership symposiums all over the country. So we have the one when I came

Beach:
That, is that where you came through Knoxville? That one

Marilyn Surber:
When I came through Knoxville. Yeah. And then I was had one in Omaha and then next week it's in Indianapolis and I'll be taking SJ with me again. And then we're gonna also

Beach:
Her rides, her daughter. How old is SJ?

Marilyn Surber:
S J's four.

Beach:
So Marilyn is flying into, uh, Chattanooga and she's driving to Knoxville. And so she calls me and she goes, Hey, I'm coming through. Can we do lunch? I'm like most definitely. She goes, well, by the way, I've got SJ with me. I'm like, perfect. So I come up with a place just right off the beaten path, off the interstate. That's like a phenomenal, um, cafe for, for adults and kids. And it's like these monstrous milkshakes, monstrous milkshakes. So I'm talking like a half thing that like a slice of cake is stuck down inside. Milkshakes.

Marilyn Surber:
Really obnoxious. Yes.

Beach:
Cause it made My mind

Darin:
Where do you take a four year old.

Beach:
Yes. I'm gonna get hurt. This kid all jacked up on sugar. She's gonna have a great time driving another hour and a half for this rest of the day. So we get that kid. I swear to you. I'm thinking she's gonna crash. Not one time, not one time.

Marilyn Surber:
She's a champion.

Beach:
I mean, she was just wide open from the time she got there till the time I left and I still have the drawing, she made me, but my goodness, where does she get it from? It's not you, Marilyn. Is it is that you?

Darin:
It's champion bloodlines. What are ya kidding me? Marilyn's always on the road nonstop.

Beach:
She is a pistol loved every minute of it, but oh,

Marilyn Surber:
What was she calling you? Uncle? What?

Beach:
Poophead.

Marilyn Surber:
Poophead. Yeah. Uncle Poophead. Cause I was like that's uncle Beach and she's like, no, no we're uncle Poophead.

Darin:
Hold. I'm gonna write that down.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah.

Beach:
<laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
And she just did. She had, uh, as you know, as all the ladies, do they start giving Beach a hard time immediately, right? I mean she's only four and all she had to do see him and she started giving him a hard time. Oh yeah. I mean that was it.

Beach:
People behind us were like the heck what the hell is that? What's going on? Yeah. What Kids were like holy. Yeah. Cause their kids were like, I wanna go over there. I mean, literally our table went from nice, calm, clean to like a monstrous kindergarten finger painting of milkshakes and ketchup.

Marilyn Surber:
Yes.

Darin:
It sounds fantastic.

Beach:
It was perfect. It was perfect. One of the last event that Marilyn and I, I think it was the last event Marilyn, we, we met was in DC. That was the last time

Marilyn Surber:
For CVTA

Beach:
No, no, it was for the

Marilyn Surber:
Uh, oh, Wreaths across America.

Beach:
Yes.

Marilyn Surber:
mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative>

Beach:
Have you ever been to Arlington cemetery for the Wreaths across America?

Darin:
I have not

Beach:
Hands down.

Marilyn Surber:
Oh, you gotta do it.

Beach:
Oh my goodness. That's gotta be on your to-do list. I went, so I've always it.

Darin:
It is and CDLjobs.com did some sponsorships this year for the first time.

Beach:
Yeah.

Darin:
Um, and I really kind of did a deep dive into it and it, uh, yeah, I was fascinated and by the time I did it, it was kinda late to get involved that I, I have plans next year.

Beach:
Yeah. We did. Uh, took my son to it. Uh, Marilyn, um, graciously invited us to sit at their table and we got there and the speakers were just absolutely phenomenal at that event. The night before. And then the next morning, get there early, get everything set up and just it's it's it's hard to explain. It's just

Marilyn Surber:
Pretty powerful. Yeah. It's

Darin:
It's a fantastic organization.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah, for sure.

Beach:
Yeah, it is.

Marilyn Surber:
It really is. And what they're doing the way they're expanding.

Beach:
Yeah. I'm excited about

Marilyn Surber:
Seeing you, you heard from them last week. Me.

Beach:
Yeah, I

Marilyn Surber:
Am. Where are we gonna see each other?

Darin:
He's not talking to me.

Beach:
No. Tenstreet.

Marilyn Surber:
Oh, are you coming?

Beach:
Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Marilyn Surber:
Okay. Okay.

Beach:
I got spots I go to New York, New York and what's the, oh, what's the place that does the eighties live band music, Circus Circus.

Marilyn Surber:
I don't think I've ever been there with you.

Beach:
Yeah. Circus Circus. I have this, they have a, an alley, a back alleyway. <laugh> where they've got a, an eighties band that goes out there and they play till, you know, of course, five o'clock in the morning, but I'm never up that late.

Darin:
I say I would never know that. How, where are we staying or have stayed this year since, depending on when this airs, we may have already come back from Vegas. Is it at the Bellagio?

Marilyn Surber:
Is that correct? At the Bellagio? Yeah. The Bellagio this year. Yep. Yeah. And we're headed, um, straight from the user conference. We're going to the, um, the NAPFTDS is back in Scottsdale, um, this year at the end of April. So we got that event and then, uh, Tank Truck at the same time in San Diego. So there's just a ton of events.

Beach:
Yeah. When I think of like, you know, like CDLjobs and vendors similar to them, do you think that's a benefit for them to be at like the CVTA or the, the NAPFTDs events?

Marilyn Surber:
I think it depends. I mean, I think so. I, what, well, you know, Beach Beach, and I have both benefited tremendously from those associations, you know, in our business career and um, in our personal, just personal lives too, the friends we've met there and yeah. Um, I think what's untapped about CVTA and NAPFTDS is the schools. Right? Which is great to know and understand where our workforce is coming from. I think that's really important, but the carriers, I mean the access to the, you know, there's some good carriers, large carriers, you know, mostly right? But you're in front of the VPs of recruiting, um, VPs of sometimes the COOs CEOs and just some up close and personal in both. I don't see at any other events, frankly, besides CVTA, um, and NAPFTDS. And so I think if, if that's important to you, then I think it's important for you to be there. You know, my, my philosophy is if you're not at the table, you're on the menu, so

Beach:
Yep. That's a good point. Very good point.

Marilyn Surber:
Why, what do you think?

Beach:
I definitely think so. I'm all about any type of anybody that can be there to be able to A, help a help a driver. So they think of, I mean, a lot of phone calls made, I hear from recruiters across the board, whether it be Ten4 recruiters or other carrier recruiters, it's like all these apps I'm getting are people that don't have a Class A and they need a, they get a, they need to get a class. A and I think that's huge just for CDLjobs though, we got this large database and, you know, can schools benefit from that? Can carriers who have these programs benefit from that? And I think it's huge. I think it's just another bucket that I think just simply of just the relationship side, as well as a connection. And what's the next rock that I can look under to be able to help a driver out or be able to prosper in some way, just to be able to say, Hey, here, here's, here's a, here's, here's a list of stuff drivers that I might have that I can help you out with. Or here's some info that I've got that I'm hearing that I can share with you in this group. And I, I think it's tremendous. I think it's probably one of, one of it's a, let's just say it's the CVTA NAPFTDS events are a fantastic fishing hole in a sense, right? Watering, watering hole, more of a watering hole to go, okay, this is where we need to be each and every time they have these events for whatever business you're in the trucking industry, I think you gotta be there.

Marilyn Surber:
I agree. And I would also say what we're working on now. Um, last well you were there in DC when we had CVTA and we started a technology committee. And so, you know, kind of some of the things that you're mentioning, um, Beach is, is one of the reasons to participate is, you know, cuz we're trying to figure out how do we tie all those things together. Right. You know, when we have these leads and schools need them or carriers need them or, you know, we need all these different things and, and us as vendors, right, We have to figure out how to all work together, um, to get the client what they need, you know, whether that's the trucking company or the school. And I think that those conversations are had at those meetings.

Beach:
Yeah. That's a good point. You know?

Darin:
Yeah. I, I agree. And I think it's, you know, I think, and I think both everybody involved here, it does a good job of in some sense or fashion getting involved with an organization that you believe in to give back a little bit. Right? No matter what that might be.

Beach:
Yeah,

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah.

Darin:
Whether it's Wreaths across America, I mean obviously we do things for sponsorship. Um, but I'm talking about maybe serving on boards that, uh, that are just silent things. Right. Nobody you don't really, it's not out there, nobody knows, but um, you're doing it to give back to the industry.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. Yeah.

Darin:
And I know that you both do that.

Marilyn Surber:
Well, we do. I, I mean, I, uh, am just really lucky. I feel really lucky and proud to be in this industry. I, I love it so much. I started out as a driver recruiter when I was 25, um, at Melton Truck Line, that's where I started my career. And uh, I just fell in love with the game and fell in love with drivers, you know? And so

Darin:
Did we all three start as driver recruiters? You did too right Beach?

Beach:
No, I was, I was, I was pretty excellent at what I did. They just immediately put me in management.

Marilyn Surber:
He was old whenever he started in trucking. And so he came in as a manager.

Darin:
Wow.

Beach:
<laugh> I'm making myself laugh at my response. I thought that was pretty good.

Darin:
Well, anyway, Marilyn, I also started as a driver recruiter. <laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. And you know what, it's the, I mean, if anybody wants to get started in trucking at all, I feel like it's such a great place to get started. I still reference every day, 15 years later, right. I'm turning 40 this year. God helped me and I still reference stuff and experience stuff from whenever I was recruiting drivers and processing applications. It's like, it's just such a great foundation for everything else that you can go on to do

Beach:
You're 40 or gonna

Marilyn Surber:
Be. I will be, I will be in September. Yeah.

Beach:
So Darin's 38. I'm 37. So you're the oldest one on this call, huh?

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. Lucky me. I love it when I'm the oldest.

Beach:
So, uh, so another little sidebar quote or, or concept that Marilyn does on the side, we can, I'm sure our, I mean, we've got what 200,000 listeners probably that that'll hear all this. I mean, it's just

Darin:
Somewhere between there and three. Yeah,

Beach:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somewhere like that. Uh, we could be pushing 400,000. Thank you everybody. Please make sure you hit the right button and subscribe the uh, every, I would say a lot of our listeners love wine

Marilyn Surber:
Wine. Yes.

Darin:
Okay. Holy cow. That, uh, that got a reaction.

Beach:
Yes, exactly. So tell, tell, tell 'em about your wine little project that you, are you still doing it or, or where where's that at right now?

Marilyn Surber:
Uh, yeah, I'm still doing it. I'm not doing it as actively as I was because I, um, when I started it, we weren't traveling yet. Right. So now it's harder, but it's called Scout & Seller. It's a clean, crafted wine.

Beach:
How's it? Why is it called clean, crafted wine? Why?

Marilyn Surber:
Because it's grown locally, wherever, wherever in the world it is, it's local, uh, local wineries and the whole process is clean all the way through the growing process, the barreling process, the bottling process, all of it

Beach:
At these people like washing their feet, they get in the grapes and they're mashing the grapes.

Marilyn Surber:
That's exactly what it means. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and then they, we have, we have people to make sure and cover up their beards too, you know, if they're gonna be working with the wine. Um, and so yeah. Yeah. The whole process that's clean, which the reason it matters if it's clean is for you. Right. Go ahead. Yeah, take it,

Darin:
Take it, take it a step back. I don't, what is it that you're actually doing with this clean wine? You're selling,

Marilyn Surber:
Drinking. I'm drinking it.

Darin:
I'm drinking. I'm the whole sideline. Just

Beach:
There.

Marilyn Surber:
It's

Darin:
Hell, I guess I have a hobby too.

Marilyn Surber:
<laugh> yeah, no, no. I, uh, we do sell it. We do sell it. Um, Melissa Stephan, uh, the director of safety at Melton Truck Line. She's one of my wine sisters. Uh, Natalie Burt. My that's my real sister. She works at Melton too. She's one of my wine sisters, Monica Lopez. She's a wine sister.

Beach:
So is that y'all have shirt, y'all have shirts that are, that says wine sisters, like in the same font of like you see Live, laugh, love

Marilyn Surber:
Not yet.

Beach:
I've mentioned live laugh love a lot. I'm trying to bring that back into the industry. I think we need a lot of live laugh love right now. But when I think of wine sisters, I see that little font on the shirt, you know, with your tongue and all that

Marilyn Surber:
I was hoping you could design one for me so it would be as cool as that SeatMyTruck shirt that I'd get you so much crap with

Beach:
it looked great on you.

Marilyn Surber:
Thanks.

Beach:
I know. Look great.

Darin:
Hang on. We gotta, we gotta back up and talk slow for the Iowa farm kid. You are wholesaling Iowa, or ah, good Lord. Your wholesaling, clean wine and reselling it. Cool.

Marilyn Surber:
Mm-hmm <affirmative> Well, it's a it's Scout & Seller. It's a direct sales model. So it's like a wine club. You join the wine club and you get wine, you order it and you get it delivered to your door. So, so

Darin:
It's an Amway for drunks.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah.

Darin:
Yeah. I love it.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah.

Beach:
Do you remember the CDs? Do y'all remember, did Darin, were you ever in part of those where you could order the CDs?

Darin:
Oh yeah. A penny for 14 of them? Actually it was cassettes back when I did it.

Beach:
They said not. And then you get them shipped to your house and then you to try to get out that membership was an absolute nightmare.

Darin:
And you're saying, that's what Marilyn's doing with her wine.

Marilyn Surber:
Ours is not like that.

Beach:
No this tastes pretty good.

Marilyn Surber:
Ours is not like that. Yes. It's not that difficult to get out of it. Why would you ever wanna get out of it? I mean, are you gonna stop drinking wine so

Darin:
Marilyn? Is this a local thing or is it regional? Can I get in it? It's

Marilyn Surber:
You can get in it. Yeah. It's national. I'll send you some information. Yeah, you can. I mean, oh yeah, yeah.

Beach:
Is it gluten free?

Marilyn Surber:
Yes.

Beach:
All of it

Marilyn Surber:
Cause I'm gluten all of it's gluten free. I'm gluten

Beach:
Really? What's the, what's the difference tasting from a gluten free to non gluten free and non

Darin:
Zero.

Marilyn Surber:
I wonder that's it?

Beach:
Oh,

Marilyn Surber:
Froze the,

Beach:
You froze.

Marilyn Surber:
I did.

Beach:
Yeah. Yeah.

Marilyn Surber:
Let me, lemme turn my video off.

Beach:
Yeah.

Marilyn Surber:
Can you hear me now?

Beach:
Yeah, we can

Darin:
We can hear you now.

Marilyn Surber:
Okay, good. Uh, the biggest difference with the wine is the sugar, right? So there's no residual sugar in this wine. And so it doesn't taste. It's not as sweet as what you would drink normally or get from the liquor store. But the sugar is what gives you a hangover. The sugar is what makes you feel bad the next day. And so, because it's cleaner, you feel better. I mean, it, it doesn't have that same feeling. And it also doesn't like if you spill it, it doesn't stain. You know, there's all kinds of benefits to this wine. But I would say the main difference is it doesn't taste as sweet. You know, it's not as heavy with that sugar

Beach:
Now on a level like on a, on a scale of Boone's Farm to a box wine, where does this wine fall into place?

Marilyn Surber:
So this wine is gonna be, you know, from a price point standpoint, it's about $20 a bottle. So it's gonna be, you know, it's, it's better than Boone's Farm. I mean, I don't know if it quite reaches Franzia boxed wine, but hopefully, you know, as we continue to grow our, our business, we can, we can be as good as Franzia.

Beach:
Oh, wine sisters. That would be a group. That would be a great group podcast having Melissa, Monica

Darin:
And then, and a great bowling team.

Beach:
Yes.

Marilyn Surber:
Have you met my sister?

Beach:
No.

Marilyn Surber:
Okay. Natalie. Yeah. You haven't met her yet.

Darin:
I don't know anybody that has introduced their sister to Beach. I wonder why. Anyway, we're getting off topic.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. <laugh>

Beach:
We've been off topic for

Darin:
<laugh>. What was the topic again?

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. I did introduce my daughter to him. You know? So if I'm gonna introduce my daughter, I can, I figure I'll introduce my sister.

Beach:
She is, she is a amazing little girl

Marilyn Surber:
Sassafras.

Beach:
Yes.

Marilyn Surber:
Yes. Darin, get us back on topic. Sorry. Sorry. We digress.

Darin:
So well. I'd I'd rather talk about booze. Are you strictly a wine drinker? Marilyn? Do you like bourbon? Beer craft beer. What do you, what do you?

Marilyn Surber:
I like, I like bourbon and I like Titos. I like gin sometimes. I don't drink beer, really. Not since, uh, the Natty light days.

Beach:
I can't get into beer.

Darin:
Oh Lord.

Beach:
I tried to get back into it. I just can't. Can't

Darin:
what? Beer?

Beach:
I can't get into it.

Darin:
Yeah. I anymore. I kinda have kinda a heavy, like a dark beer

Beach:
If, no, it be a, gimme a Coors or a, or a Miller Lite. And that's about, about as far as I go, but I don't remember the last time I had a beer.

Marilyn Surber:
Me neither. I like craft cocktails. I like going to cocktail bars and trying new fun drinks.

Beach:
Like what's your go to cocktail. If you had to go. And you had to, before you even looked at the menu, what would it be?

Marilyn Surber:
Titos and soda.

Beach:
Yep. I have ordered many of those for you.

Marilyn Surber:
Mm-hmm <affirmative> you have

Beach:
With lime don't you like it with lime?

Marilyn Surber:
No, I don't.

Beach:
Oh,

Marilyn Surber:
You probably just screwed that up.

Beach:
<laugh>

Darin:
<laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
Darin. What's your go-to oh

Beach:
Yes.

Darin:
Mine would be, uh, an old fashioned.

Marilyn Surber:
Okay. I love old fashioned. I like old fashions a lot too. I dunno

Beach:
I took a video last night, Darin, but I don't have your cell phone and it's probably a good thing.

Darin:
Yes you do. You do have my cell phone.

Beach:
No, it's the 800 number.

Darin:
No,

Beach:
I don't have your cell.

Marilyn Surber:
Darin. You are the perfect compliment to Beach, I am loving this. Cause he just says something nuts off the wall and you're just like, no, you do. Yeah. You just calm and react. You know? I love it. It's a great balance.

Darin:
One of us has to remain grounded.

Beach:
Yes.

Darin:
It's in our contract.

Beach:
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Darin:
Only of us gets to drink during the podcast

Marilyn Surber:
So when did you guys start this? Podcast.

Beach:
When did we start it?

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah.

Beach:
Uh, about five years ago, it's been going strong, like 300, 400,000 followers. I think so.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. And, and what is the goal of the podcast?

Beach:
Gosh, what the heck?

Darin:
Marilyn's never invited back.

Beach:
Yeah. Can we cut this off? Can we go ahead? And I mean, why?

Darin:
Yeah. Look at the time. Would ya look at the time?

Beach:
Yeah. What are your goals and what would you say your objectives are for that goal to be where

Darin:
Do you see yourself in five years? Matt?

Beach:
No kidding. Geez.

Marilyn Surber:
Well, I mean, I wanna, you know, make sure we address those goals with your audience. I have, you know, give them some relevant info

Darin:
We're making, here's the deal. We're making a lot of assumptions first that we actually have an audience. That's a big assumption.

Beach:
That is a big deal.

Darin:
Second would be that we have any sort of goal whatsoever. Um, and the third would be that we have a plan. We, uh, when you called us today we were as shocked as you were that we answered.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah, that's right.

Beach:
That's true. I will say this Marilyn. I did I'm just gonna tell you, I tried to get <inaudible.>

Marilyn Surber:
Today.

Beach:
Yeah.

Marilyn Surber:
So I was your second choice. I was backup. Is that what you're telling me?

Beach:
Third.

Darin:
Third. Really? Yeah.

Beach:
<laugh>

Darin:
Had somebody lined up and

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. Yeah. You had Rob and then, but you know,

Darin:
A lot of people worked their whole life for that bronze medal. I mean, that's, you know,

Marilyn Surber:
Not me, I didn't work my whole life for a bronze medal.

Beach:
<laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
So you had Rob Hatchett let's yes. Let's share this with the assumed audience that we have. So you had Rob Hatchett lined up and then he, he couldn't make it. He had something come up.

Darin:
He had an epiphany that, it could be career ending for him. So he,

Marilyn Surber:
Okay. Okay.

Darin:
So he, he canceled.

Marilyn Surber:
Okay. And so then you went to our buddy, Don Lafave. Yeah. Who we love.

Beach:
I did.

Marilyn Surber:
And why couldn't he be on? He had a strep throat. Doesn't he, sick?

Beach:
Well, he's always sick. He's always got,

Marilyn Surber:
Cause he has three little babies.

Beach:
Here's my, so if Don ever hears this and Don can, I hope he's drinking if he does hear so he will actually laugh first before get mad at me. You know? It's like, I mean, you know, it's like, you know, I try to do, yeah, I've got, you know, I'm sick. Like, and this is like, and you know, but Hey, I love you. Tell Marilyn I said hello. Like

Darin:
Just like having him here.

Marilyn Surber:
<laugh>

Beach:
pretty good impression? I wasn't bad.

Marilyn Surber:
It was pretty good. Not bad. Pretty good. So he said Beach, I can't do it today. Sorry. I don't feel good. And so then you're like, okay, well,

Beach:
No, he didn't even say he didn't feel good. He said maybe, maybe like some other time, like, you know, like some other time.

Marilyn Surber:
And so you said, okay, I'm gonna text my friend, Marilyn, she probably doesn't have anything to do

Beach:
No, I thought, here's what I thought I'm gonna text her and I'm probably gonna hear about next week. Hey, did you ever find somebody for your spot.

Marilyn Surber:
You're so full of it

Beach:
We've had this talk. I have

Marilyn Surber:
Do you know how high maintenance Beach is Darin?

Darin:
Oh, I I'm very well versed. Yes.

Marilyn Surber:
Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. Yeah. Cause he

Beach:
High maintenance? I don't, I don't appreciate that.

Marilyn Surber:
Why just be just own it? I mean, I always, I say I'm high maintenance, but I'm worth it. You know, as long as you're worth it, it's okay to be high maintenance, but don't pretend that you're not, you know, you gotta own it.

Beach:
Okay. I don't agree with that.

Marilyn Surber:
You don't? Darin, what do you think?

Darin:
I, I think it's last call.

Beach:
<laugh>

Darin:
It's getting out of here before there's a bar fight

Beach:
I, I need to talk to you, You hear me?

Darin:
I love you, man.

Beach:
You're gonna, I love you.

Darin:
Uh, Marilyn, I think that you were our best guest today by far. Yeah.

Marilyn Surber:
Today. Huh? Okay, good.

Darin:
Absolutely. Yeah.

Marilyn Surber:
Good. I like it. I'm you know, even

Darin:
Tomorrow, depending on what goes on

Marilyn Surber:
<laugh> <laugh> if you ever, you know, if you ever need a last minute, fill in again, you know, just, just text me, you know, if I'm not doing anything, I'm always happy to jump on and give Beach a hard time.

Darin:
I'm amazed that we caught you not doing something, not traveling somewhere, being somewhere.

Marilyn Surber:
Yeah. I know I'm in Tulsa today.

Beach:
So I think, uh, I, I, I even think if we could ever manage it, we just need to call Marilyn out of the blue, bring her in and just let, give her the weather. She can be our weather girl, where you at, what's the weather like where you're at.

Darin:
We could do that.

Marilyn Surber:
I would love that. I would love to do that.

Beach:
It's like a five minute spot for you to come on. Hey, I'm Marilyn with Tenstreet. I'm here. I'm in sunny, Florida where it's sunny. It's hot. And that's it. Have a great one.

Marilyn Surber:
Have a great one.

Beach:
<laugh>

Marilyn Surber:
Well, next week I'll be in Indianapolis and Raleigh. So if you wanna know any weather there, you know, gimme a call. So that's that's

Beach:
Well, as always, I appreciate you, you know that,

Marilyn Surber:
Hey, I appreciate you guys. And you know, I'm, I hope that I could live up to the super excited hype that you had. Uh, for me being on the show,

Darin:
I think you nailed it.

Marilyn Surber:
Thanks, Darin. And if you ever wanna have, have on without Beach, let me know.

Darin:
Oh, absolutely. I try to do that with everybody, but he, uh, I show a password. We need to change the password. I gotta remember to do that.

Beach:
I'm excited. Look, look at the each episode we've done. I've connected him with an something new, like this new wine thing. Now, now he is gonna be all about the wine. He's gonna be a wine brother.

Marilyn Surber:
I know I'm gonna give I'm gonna Beach text me his contact so I have it. I don't have your number, I don't think Darin.

Beach:
I've got Hey, by the way, Darin, before we do, I did prank call CDLjobs yesterday.

Darin:
Oh my God. Yes I got, was that you?

Beach:
The country guy?

Darin:
Yes.

Beach:
Who served in Vietnam for two years.

Darin:
You know what? I think I saved it.

Marilyn Surber:
Oh God, please tell me you did.

Darin:
I wonder, I wonder if I'm smart enough to play it. If it would work.

Beach:
That's so good.

Darin:
Hold on. I'm gonna try something.

Beach:
It was, it was just out of the blue me sitting on the back porch and I just pulled that character out.

Darin:
Let me tell, can you guys hear this?

Beach:
No,

Darin:
No. It's not gonna let me do it cuz we're recording. I'm gonna figure out a way to get that on so we can uh

Beach:
<laugh>.

Darin:
We can have everybody enjoy that piece of work.

Marilyn Surber:
I have some great voicemails from him too. If we wanna have like a best of Beach segment,

Beach:
You

Darin:
Totally, it's gonna take us a long time to get to the best of Beach.

Beach:
<laugh> y'all know that there's a, Marilyn. I think knew, there's local radio talk radio station here. Talk radio 102.3 And I call in, I have multiple personalities and I probably have a multiple personality disorder, it's fine. That I call in

Darin:
Probably?

Beach:
So I'm one is soddy boy, soddy boy lives in Tall Ponds trailer park. And he does the weather from time to time. Then I've got Ruby Evans. Ruby is an old lady that's been married eight times that lives up on top of Mont Lake Mountain. And she knows the weather

Darin:
Give us a little Ruby, please. Ruby's got a smoker's cough.

Beach:
She does. She does it. Oh, Hey honey. Oh baby. I can't, I can't even do it right now. <laugh> its the five sips of the Eli its the 125 that's in here right now.

Darin:
For cryin' out loud.

Beach:
Yep. Ruby.

Marilyn Surber:
Oh you guys.

Beach:
I've got, I got a few other voices I do, but I'll call 'em up out of the blue and they have no idea. They're just like, okay soddy boy, we appreciate it. But keep that big block covered up with the blue tarp and hopefully you'll get it going one day. It's a good day. It's a good time.

Marilyn Surber:
It is a good time,

Darin:
Marilyn. Thanks for letting us waste half your day.

Marilyn Surber:
Hey, thanks for inviting me,

Beach:
Ruby loves you honey. Oh, you lookin good honey.

Darin:
On behalf of uh, me and Ruby, be safe and keep on trucking.