I made some plans to borrow a truck for a wellness festival in Madison so I could save some money. Then an unfortunate incident happened that has caused a lot of stress and anxiety.
The speaker opens with personal morning details and mentions meeting people at a recent open house before describing a curveball that delayed launching a fall wellness event series. This chapter sets up the topic of navigating setbacks and where to follow upcoming event information.
He tells the backstory about selling his long-running business, acquiring a sauna, and needing a suitable vehicle to haul it for a festival. The speaker describes being careful with spending and arranging to borrow a friend's truck rather than renting.
After picking up the truck, he realizes it's smaller than expected and worries it may not tow the sauna, leading him to inspect axles, call a dealership, and use a weigh station to confirm capacity. The chapter shows the practical steps he took to avoid risking the vehicle or safety.
Despite driving more cautiously and taking longer, they arrive safely and have an excellent weekend that felt personally and professionally rejuvenating. This section highlights the payoff of the effort and care taken to get the sauna to the event.
While making a slow turn at a gas stop, he lightly taps a low trailer and initially doesn't realize it, later noticing cosmetic damage and feeling shame about returning a borrowed vehicle damaged. The speaker describes waiting, checking the scene, and later deciding to tell his friend the next morning.
He gets a repair estimate that is much higher than expected and learns his friend's insurance deductible and potential premium increases, turning what was meant to be a cost-saving choice into a major expense. This chapter covers his frustration, calculations of alternatives, and uncertainty while more estimates are completed.
He reflects on navigating the setback, reminding himself that mistakes happen and choosing to focus on positive actions, his newly launched brand, and upcoming events. The speaker invites viewers to reach out if they're facing similar challenges and closes with encouragement and promotion of future community involvement.
Coming in hot this morning. Actually, I'm coming in really cold because I was just in my cold plunge. I have not quite recovered my temperature here. So I know my stand is going silly. So that's nice. Good start. I saw a number of you at the Cadre Open House yesterday. It was great to see you. For those that I didn't, hopefully I'll see you soon. Before I get into my topic of navigating a setback, I navigated a curveball last night. I was supposed to launch my series or announce my series of fall community-based wellness events and wasn't able to do it.
My graphic designer wasn't able to finish the graphic. It happens. And then I also needed to add an element to my website associated with getting a ticket for the event. So what do you do? Navigate that curveball. Try to stay positive about it. It's not too late. I'll still be able to make everything happen. Just got to be a little more focused. and stick to the remaining plan that I have in regards to promoting these events and getting people out there for them. So if you're looking for a fun event, stay tuned.
I'll put that stuff, I'll put the information on here. Otherwise you can follow my Instagram, Letty Josh, or you could follow my new Instagram, Leadwell, because I just announced my brand a couple nights ago, which is very exciting. man. Tell you what, getting into 36 degrees in the morning is cold. Was it a few days ago I hopped in? It was like 44 degrees outside. So that was a challenge. But my mind is sharp. I'm ready to tackle the day and tell you a story through shivers. So My wife and I attended a wellness music festival that we've attended for the past couple years.
And this year, I had recently moved on from my lake weed removal business that I've been operating for over 20 years. So I sold it to my 2 main guys. And I've always had access to trucks. But with this new sauna that I have, I don't have it. I never had a truck with my for my lake weed removal business that would that would be strong enough to tow it. So as we're navigating this change, not only from my lake weed removal business, but from moving on from the brewery, money is have to be mindful of money.
So I've been, I got a cat over my shoulder. You can say hi. So I've been in the market for a vehicle, but I'm not just going to buy a truck to buy a truck. I want to buy the right vehicle. So this led me on a search. And when it came time to haul my sauna to Madison for this festival, I reached out to a couple of my friends and I was like, hey, Here's my situation. I am really looking to save as much money as possible right now. I would like to avoid renting a truck to haul this down there. Is there anybody who's not going that I could borrow their truck?
So ended up getting a vehicle from a friend of mine. who's more of an acquaintance than a friend. we've spent some quality time together, but he lives on the other side of town. We rarely see each other. And what we do, it's just in a large group. And there's never really been that quality one-on-one time. So this was brokered through another friend of mine. And And I had a truck to use. So it was great. And so I'm feeling pretty good. I'm like, all right, nice. I got this truck. I'm going to bring it down to Madison.
I'm going to bring this owner down to Madison. When I got the truck, it was smaller than I was told. And immediately I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't even think I'm going to be able to bring this truck or bring this owner. This truck might not be able to tow. So what was funny, when I picked up the truck, I stopped by the Cadre office right afterwards because I was driving by. It was a Wednesday and I wanted to say hello. So I go into Cadre, hang out there for a little bit and the whole time on my mind I'm like, man, is this truck going to pull my sauna?
And when I got out to the truck afterwards, My vehicle is parked in front of the library and I'm on the ground under the truck taking pictures of the axles trying to find barcodes to get confirmation on the specs of the vehicle to see if it is powerful enough to haul all the sauna. Throughout the day I end up figuring out that it is strong enough and that required me to call a Dodge dealership and then that required me to take the truck and sauna to a weigh station and weigh it with the truck and the sauna on there and then weigh just the trailer hooked up to the sauna and then unhook the trailer and weigh the truck and go through this whole rigmarole.
One, I didn't want to jeopardize my friend's vehicle. I didn't want to jeopardize our lives traveling. I didn't want to jeopardize the sauna, so it was all necessary to figure out. Ultimately, I learned that the vehicle was, well, this whole tow situation was slightly underweight, but still able to make it happen. They have the weight rating limits for a reason, and it's not like if you go over it 100 pounds, you're going to be in a dire situation. But I had to be mindful of it and drive like 10 miles an hour slower.
So it took us about an extra hour to get to Madison. We made it, made it safe, got the sauna set up. It was awesome. We had an incredible weekend. It was everything I needed personally, everything Melissa needed personally, everything we needed relationally, professionally. Like it was the ultimate weekend. And when we left on Monday, we were there from Thursday to Monday, we were just on a total high, just ready to get back to our routine, dive into the next phase of our lives, and see our passions through.
So we're driving and We're heading out of town and need to make a quick gas station stop. So we stop at a quick trip because quick trips for the win. And after, as we're heading out, you know, I'm taking a turn. I'm looking at my trailer, making sure that it's not clipping a curb, just kind of tight quarters. And I'm going 2, 3 miles an hour. And And then I run in to a trailer in front of me. There was a truck that had an incredibly long, low-lying trailer that I really couldn't see because I was up high.
We were going down a hill. I'm trying to watch my sauna. And I tapped this trailer going like 2 to 3 miles an hour. I hit it so lightly that I didn't even realize it. Melissa was like, Josh, you just hit that. And the trailer was so low that I couldn't even, I didn't even see that it was hooked up. So I realized what happens and the truck and the trailer in front of me pulls out and I can, I see that it's pulled over on the side of the road. So I'm waiting, waiting for my ability to pull out of the lot and go meet this person and see what happened.
And by the time I, I'm getting ready to turn. Hello, how are you? If I'm not mistaken, you're out in. yes, I was going to say Erie P. I was going to say like one of the Great Lakes areas. So thank you for thank you for popping that in there for me. So I'm getting ready to pull out of this lot to go and meet the person and they I can see them, they get out of their vehicle, they look at their trailer, they see that nothing happened and they just they just booked it. So I'm like, oh, well that's a good sign, right?
So I still I went in that direction in case the driver saw me pull out and then decided to wait as well. But they just kept going. So I get to a spot where then I'm able to look at the truck and I see that there's just a little bit of damage on the front bumper. And I was like, okay, that's not that bad. I can manage that. Truck drives fine. just a little cosmetic damage and we're okay. So, but I still feel shame, right? Like I didn't want that to happen. I don't get in accidents. I'm always very, very mindful when I'm driving, especially when I'm driving a trailer, especially when I'm driving a 10,000 pound sauna.
Yes, setbacks are character builders. So, we make it home and I have to, I'm just the whole ride, not the whole ride home, but throughout the ride home, I got this random thoughts in my head of, gosh, how am I gonna, how am I gonna say this to my friend? You know, he let me borrow his vehicle and here I am returning it damaged. So that was just a blow to my, to the high that I was on after having such a great weekend. So I get back, get back home, go to sleep, because I was going to text him in the morning.
I didn't want to text him at night, make it seem like it was an emergency. So I text him in the morning, and he's super cool about it. And then I bring the vehicle to a dealership close by to where he lives, because he's over, I mean, we live an hour apart. So bring the vehicle over there, get a little estimate, guy comes out, I look at the estimate and it says a little over $4,000. And I'm like, what? Are you kidding me? So there was barely anything. Roger. So I'm thinking to myself, this is, that is, that is very unfortunate.
I will say that. So, you know, I dropped my, dropped the vehicle off and figure out plans for what we're going to do. And he we're going to basically touch base the next day. So he talks to his insurance and his insurance deductible was 2500 bucks. So that's that was another blow because he might I was assuming he was the type of guy to not have such a high deductible. So assumptions don't want to ever assume. So I'm like, okay, I guess this is going to cost me $2,500. And then I find out later on that his insurance person's like, hey, if you make this claim, your insurance is going to go up for the next three years.
So now I'm in a situation where I might be on the hook for $4,000, maybe even more. So what went from a scenario where I'm just trying to borrow a vehicle to save some money instead of renting a vehicle for, like I could have rented a truck for anywhere from 750 to 1000, depending on the truck that it was available and for the duration that I rented for it. So not only did my $0 backfire, and then I missed out on the opportunity to rent a vehicle for 750 or 1000 bucks, now I'm paying $2,500 to $4,000.
So that was a blow, needless to say. And I was pretty down about it. when I found out a couple days ago that this is where it's at. And, you know, I tried to not let it bother me, but, you know, like money things are magnified for me right now. So I had to think about that. And, and then, yeah, so I'm still, I'm still in this space. There's still, probably another estimate or two that's going to be done on the truck just to ensure that there's no internal structural damage. They don't make them like they used to.
So yeah, I mean, I'm in the midst of navigating a setback. And I just launched my brand and I'm supposed to be excited about it. And I'm supposed to be, you know, focused on that and enjoying myself. And it's hard to let myself do that because I have a blunder that I am trying to fix. So, you know, what I am doing right now is I am trying to just tell myself that, you know, it's all going to come back around because it always does. When you put good things out in the world, good things happen. And then I always say, percentages don't lie.
You're never going to be 100% in a category and you're never going to be 0% in a category. You just want to be closer to the side where you want the outcome to be. So I'm not going to have a 100% flawless driving record for the rest of my life. There's likely going to be something that happens, whether it's induced by myself or induced by the person. It's going to happen. We just have to navigate that. All right, I got a comment here. I'm developing extreme empathy for humans and similar setbacks.
Yeah, that is, I can, I feel it. You know, I understand when someone gets thrown a curveball like this. and it's not as planned and you're just trying to do the right thing for yourself to be able to make something happen that's going to benefit others. And that's what bringing my sauna down to this event was. It wasn't necessarily for me. I love sauna. It would have been great, but it was providing essentially a container within the container and it was really important for me to get it down there.
So now I'm just going to be a little more out of pocket. When I look at the bright side of things, nobody was hurt. My sound is still standing and opportunities are abound. So that's what I'm trying to focus on. And instead of beating myself up over the blunder, I'm just saying I will do better next time and I'll make this situation right and continue to just do good things because I know that the more good I put out in the world, the more good is going to come back to me. So I'm not going to dwell.
I'm just going to get on with my day here and keep plugging away on my brand, announcing my series of events. And whatever happens with this truck, whatever the ultimate outcome is, So be it. So that's what I got here for you today. Navigating A setback. Never fun. We always try to do our best, but sometimes something happens. So if you are running into a situation similar to mine in some way, shape, or form, send me a message. Let's chat about it. Maybe help provide some insight as to how you can Navigate this with a little less stress and a little less anxiety.
So until then, I hope you have a fantastic day. Now that I have my brand released, I plan to be on Cajre a lot more talking about all the ways to connect with the physical community that I'm building. in support or with support of the digital community that is Cadre because Cadre is going to have a physical presence at these events. It's going to be epic. So stay tuned for all of that. I hope you have a fantastic day and we'll talk to you very soon. Cheers.
