EPISODE 8: TRUCK MAVEN - KIL LER

Heather Newman: Hello everyone, you are here on the Mavens Do It Better podcast. I'm Heather Newman and today we have on Kil Ler that I know her by and she is a truck driver, works for Mack Trucks. She's amazing. She's been doing a lot of really great things on tour in the country and in North America and she's a good friend and I'm so excited that you're on the podcast and go ahead and say hello to everybody. 

Kil Ler:Hi everybody. Heather, it's good to talk to you. I miss you. It's been a long time.

Heather Newman: I know, been way too long for sure. So, I know that you, you're an eighteen -wheeler driver. Yes?

Kil Ler:Yes, yes. That's correct.

Heather Newman: Absolutely. Yeah. And how long have you been driving trucks? 

Kil Ler:  I actually got my CDL on a chicken farm in North Carolina in my early twenties, so I've been driving over 20 years. So, I have driven, currently right now I'm driving eighteen wheelers, but I got my CDL, in fact, to drive for musicians. So, I've driven everything from tour buses, to eighteen wheelers, to cranes, to pumpers, to dump trucks, mixers, you name it, I get to drive it and it's awesome and it's empowering and a ton of fun. 

Heather Newman: So, it sounds like if it's got wheels you can drive it? 

Kil Ler:If it’s got wheels, I can drive it. Anything from two to eighteen. I'm not too good with the unicycle but I can do it at two. 

Heather Newman: Fantastic. So Kil Ler and I met through a mutual friend of ours, KC Mancebo at an event here in Los Angeles. Was that a year ago or maybe two now? Almost, I think. 

Kil Ler:I think it was two years ago. 

Heather Newman: Two years ago. Yeah. And we got to talking and I just was fascinated with her background and I just so exciting to me. My uncle, I think put me behind his eighteen-wheeler, Steven's Van Line truck when I was a kid and it scared the hell out of me. "Drive it!" and I was like aghhh! But it was also awesome. So, I was like, oh my God, tell me more about this. So, you have a relationship with Mack Trucks and you've been doing so much with them, will you talk a little bit about that and tell us all about Mack Trucks because that's such a huge brand in the world and everybody knows what a Mack Truck is. What are you doing with them? 

Kil Ler:So, the cool thing about Mack is Mack is made in the USA. So, it's one of the only trucks that can boast that fact that it is made in the USA. And I actually am contracted to Mack and the company I work for called (inaudible)and we work for all the major OEMs, which are the original equipment manufacturers, and the marketing department. So, what we do is we actually work all the truck shows and special events. So, Mack has actually come out with a new truck called the Anthem and it's been about 19 years since Mack has put a competitive highway truck on the market. So, they are known for the dump trucks and the power of their vocational trucks, garbage trucks, dump truck. So, to actually have a competitive highway truck that has the comfort level and still carry the power behind it, we've been touring around the country and we are getting ready to go into Canada. And what we do is we have a, I pull a demo trailer which is a simulated load of about 67,000 pounds and I have the ultra-package interior and I'm going to bore people with probably these numbers right now. I love it so much.

Heather Newman: That’s super cool. Bring it, bring it. It's all good. 

Kil Ler:And I have the MP8 445 HP engine, which is their high efficiency engine, so it's running at lower rpms and giving you a higher fuel mileage, which is fantastic. It's basically in my sweet spot I can get 11.2 miles per gallon, which is basically unheard of when it comes to pulling trucks at that weight.  I have so much pulling power, like when it comes to climbing the hills, when it comes to passing, when I step on the gas, I go. To me to drive something that has that much power, it's like nobody can touch me. It's just the most exciting thing ever, especially when you get out on the west coast, like pulling those hills is like “Later guys. I'm going to have your coffee waiting for you at the truck stop when I get there.” So, it’s awesome. And so, what we're doing is we're going from dealer to selected dealer around the country and then like I said, we're going to Canada and then we have another trailer that's the display trailer that opens up into basically a triple-wide. So, if you took three tractor trailers and put them next to each other, that's what that trailer basically essentially opens to. So, it's like three trailers parked next to each other. Once it's open, they basically have taken the customer care center from Mack and consolidated it into this trailer. So, everything's virtual and interactive. We have virtual reality where you can actually get a tour of the truck virtually.  We have a simulator where you can actually come in and build the truck that you want. The specs. We can print that out for you and you can bring it into your, into your salesperson, into the dealership and say, this is what I want. There's interactive videos and screens that tell you all about the chassis and the drive. We even give away an Anthem. They just came out with a Lego set. It's the fifth largest Lego ever built, and it's got the bulldog on it. It's a custom piece built by Lego it's 2,596 pieces and you can actually build two trucks from it. It's so cool. Like I can build the Anthem truck or you can go. Yeah, it's insane, it's like every time we go to a show and there's a Lego set just look for the Lego and everyone playing with it. It's insane.  So, what the customers can actually do is they can come in and walk through the truck and the trailer and they can see the different interiors and how they want to build their truck and what they like. And then we can actually take them out of the trailer, bring them into the trucks because we have four trucks on tour and each one of them has a different engine and a different package, so the customers are actually able to get in the truck and drive them after they've actually seen it. So, I've been doing that since, let's see, the end of January we left Allentown and our first show was February eighth or ninth I believe in Amarillo, Texas. And then we just looped around the country and I'm finally on a little bit of a break here before we go into Canada. And that's kind of a rundown, real quickly, what I've been doing the past eight months. 

Heather Newman: That's amazing. So, it's this Mack Anthem live road tour trip. Wow, and that is amazing that they have all of that technology inside the trucks. That's so cool. Love it. 

Kil Ler:The trucks are insane. I mean they have predictive terrain, they have predictive cruise control. They are seriously, like driving Cadillacs and they're extremely driver friendly. The control for me, especially as a female, they're very ergonomically designed that everything is at my reach. They've spoke, Mack went out and actually talked to different, to their customers before building this truck and that's what took so long for them to build this truck was because of the fact that they wanted to hear from the people that actually drove them. What are you looking for? And you really feel a difference while you're driving the truck. And I love driving trucks and I'm just having a ball driving. This one especially. 

Heather Newman: Yeah, that's cool. I love that. When people build things all the time and never ask anybody their opinions about, you know, what do you like, what's your favorite, what would make this better? And that's cool, that Mack as a company, Mack Truck does that, you know? That's nice to hear because a lot of people just don't do that, you know, that's really very cool. And you're the first female driver in the history of Mack Trucks to be on their super popular wall calendar. Will you talk a little bit about that too? How'd that happen? 

Kil Ler:Yeah, totally.  So, with the company that I work for, part of the special events that we do is we do marketing shoots for the OEM. I got called out to do a photo shoot with Mack, and that was in 2015, that's when we started shooting the calendar for 2016. I am actually the first female driver to be featured on the cover driving the 2016 Pinnacle truck. And then I was actually in December and then throughout the, and then I just kept doing more and more photo work with Mack and through that I've been on the back cover of a number of different magazines. I've been in the centerfold of different magazines including Mack's own Bulldog magazine. And again, you can see me driving anything from a tanker to a dump truck to a truck and trailer to a flat bed. And it's just insane because I don't think people realize what goes into these photo shoots. I mean the photo that I'm in the December 2016 calendar, I'm driving, and they shut down the highest-grade road in the country for me. I'm driving a tractor trailer up these switchback turns that are shut down. I’ve got police escorts bringing me up and they shut that whole road down for me. I mean you're doing these crazy things where the camera man is literally hanging out the back of a car with his knuckles almost like scraping on the asphalt and you hear the walkie talkie and they're saying, and you can't see because you're that close to them. They're like, okay, hold it there, hold it there, back it down, back it down. So, we get to do these crazy photo shoots. And like in the one that I'm driving, I'm actually driving a dump truck that was going to, it went to South America. So, it was a super heavy-duty dump truck. It only went about 55 miles an hour. It had more gears in reverse than it did forward. It was just a really heavy-duty dump truck. And so, when we're doing the photo work in Dallas and they're like, "Okay, we want to get the shot of you kind of coming up this hill between two bridges, how do you feel about that?" And I was like, "Yeah, totally. This is great. I can do it." So, I walked up to the top of the hill and once you got to the top of the hill, on the other side, it completely dropped down to nothing. So, there was a big embankment that just rolled out. If I miss my turn, I'm basically gonna roll over the embankment. But if I make the turn too late or too soon, the bridge is right there and I'm going to rip the top of the truck off. 

Heather Newman: Oh, my goodness. Wow!

Kil Ler:It's insane. I'll have to send you the pictures, it's so crazy. So, I get up there and I look at it and I'm like okay. So, I get in the truck and I get up there and I hit that mark and I just did it a little too slow the first time. So, by the third time I'm like hammering down, like grabbing gears, going up this hill, and just finally made the last turn and they got the shots that they wanted. We do these crazy fun, I mean we have drones chasing us, and they shut highways down for us. I mean, it's crazy the fun stuff that we get to do for these shoots. But the thing that makes this so great is that Mack is the actual, the first one to recognize me as being the first female. So, I think that's really huge on their part as well. So, they recently just did an episodic documentary style series called Roadlife. I'm sorry if I'm just running away with this. 

Heather Newman: No, you're totally fine. I love it. I mean, first of all you're like a Mack Truck stunt woman, but also a real driver. You know what I mean? Like that's amazing that you get to do these. I mean, it's kind of like stunt driving, if you will in a way. Right? 

Kil Ler:Yeah, that’s how I feel.

Heather Newman: Yeah, right. So, you get that experience plus just driving in general and then being kind of an evangelist, you know, for other people and the marketing bit. And then yeah, it's on prime video, right? The Roadlife. It's a little sort of documentary series, right? 

Kil Ler:Yes. So, it's on Amazon Prime and it's also, I believe you can watch Mack Roadlife TV and it's also on YouTube, so you can watch it in three different locations now. And I’m the fourth episode which just came out last week and the cool thing about this is that they focus on, like it's real people, real stories, real lives. I've been finding the whole series so intriguing because the first episode is of the garbage truck drivers in New York City. And I had no idea that not only did they pick up the trash, but they also plowed. Like no idea. And so, they give you all these fun facts of like there's, you know, all the streets in New York basically can bring you to the tip of South America and they're plowed within 24 hours. And then they bring you into the hub center. Basically, you can tweet to them and be like, "Hey, I'm on fifth street and it's not been plowed yet." And they're keeping real time track of all the stuff to make sure. So, I was just blown away after the first episode of how much. Because driving truck, there's. So, there's so many different things you can do with your commercial driver's license. I don't think people realize or recognize what you can do or what each job entails so that there's so much like, even when it comes to driving eighteen wheelers, like you can drive a flatbed, which is completely different than driving a dry box, which is completely different than hauling a reefer unit, you know, a refrigerated trailer. Learning all these skills and understanding them. To me it's just like, Whoa, I had no idea. So, it's been really fun to watch the series and they just did one with Richard Petty because Mack Trucks is the official sponsor of Nascar, so we got to actually go up to, I've never been to a Nascar race in my life and I had a ball. So, on October 2nd you'll be able to see that on Amazon Prime as well. The final episode, the reunion episode of all the people who were involved in Roadlife and all the episodes. We get to come together and meet each other, which is so amazing because you're like meeting these people who are, like the family from Canada. I mean they're hauling these oversized heavy trailers, to talk to them and what they go through every day. It's completely different, you know what I mean? Because everybody's day is completely different. So, to get together and be like, “Whoa, that's really cool!” 

Heather Newman: Just listening to you talk. I think it's really interesting. You know, we don't always think about, something shows up in front of us, say at a restaurant or in a store or whatever. We don't have line of sight and we don't think about the fact that somebody has to be proficient in, you know, driving or hauling or moving or whatever the thing that it is and it's 100 things and thousands of people and miles and machinery and everything to get things done. You know, and I love that, that there's all these different glimpses in the series. It's so cool that. And I love it that they brought you all together. That's so neat. Like what a cool idea, right? Yeah. 

Kil Ler:It was amazing, yeah. Because everybody it's just so genuine. There's such a pride with driving a Mack, like there's such a bulldog pride. I mean it's made in America. I feel a sense of pride versus when I, when I drive that truck a lot and it means it means something. It's made in America.

Heather Newman: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, things that are made here, like the great stories of all the different things, you know, things that came out of the West. Levi's, you know, that's a great story of people's pants were falling down and so he put some rivets in there. You know what I mean?

Kil Ler:Yeah, I remember that story.

Heather Newman: Yeah, absolutely. You know, that's a great story of two people coming together. One person had the ideas and the other person had fabric and everything and that became what we all wear now, you know. Lots of people wear those driving trucks, I'm sure you know. 

Kil Ler:Exactly! I wear them.

Heather Newman: I find it interesting too, when you say driving truck, not driving trucks. Is that a thing? I mean that seems that must be the way that you talk about it, you know what I mean? 

Kil Ler:I never really noticed that. Yeah. I just say driving truck. That's interesting, I'll have pay attention to that. I guess it's because I just drive truck. 

Heather Newman: Do other people say it like that? 

Kil Ler:You should hear me on this. I don't know, maybe it’s just the lingo. You should hear me on the CB. I'm all of a sudden super southern, like I don't know where I get the twang from when I'm on a CB. My whole language just changes. There's a whole language on the CB that you have to learn. Maybe it comes from that. 

Heather Newman: I think when I was a kid watching Smokey and the Bandit with Burt Reynolds and Sally Field, right? That was like the CB. Then my dad ended up getting one and we did a lot of road trips as kids and I loved the CB. Like I thought that was the coolest thing. And then, you know, when he was going inside to get a coffee or whatever, my brother and I would turn it on and we would be like, "Breaker one-nine blah-ble-bla-ba", you know, and truckers were sort of like, "Hey, now get off the line". And we were like, "No! Hahaha!" 

Kil Ler:It's so funny, we did a show up in Arkansas and one of the salesmen, his son, his name is Isaac, I think he was seven and he just loves Mack Truck. He even asked his dad if he could change his middle name to Mack. This kid is just, we pulled in, he knew everything about the truck, he knew everything about the M Drive, which is the transmission in the Mack Truck, which is like the most fluid shifting transmission as I recall in my life.  He knew everything from that to like what the controls were on the dash and you know, the new flat steering wheel and that's how we now have a smart wheel, you know, we control everything from the steering wheel when we drive. So, I said I had to ask, "Have you gotten to ride in one yet?" And like he looked at me all big eyed and he was like, "No." I said, "Do you want to go for a ride?" And he was like, "Can I ask my dad?" And I was like, absolutely. So, he asked his dad and he's like, "Yeah, you can go for a ride." So, the first thing he did when he got in the truck, because he kept looking up at the CB, looking up at the CB. So, I go "Do you want to talk on the CB?" He goes, "Can I?" and I go, “Yeah.” He goes, "What do I say?" I said, "Breaker one-nine for a radio check." So, he goes, "Break, break, break one nine for a radio check. This here's rubber ducks." And he was like, "I'm going to pull the plug on your drain." And I was like, "What!" He totally quoted the whole movie. And I was like, oh my gosh. It was hilarious the most hilarious thing. And the drivers, the other drivers that heard him and that we're talking back were very, very sweet to him. Sounds like we have a little duckling on the radio. So, then someone was like, can I have a radio check? And he looked at me. He goes, "What do I say, what do I say?" I said, "You tell him that the check is in the mail driver." Then he goes, "Break one nine your check's in the mail driver." And it was the cutest, cutest thing in the entire world. I actually have a little video of him doing that. Just stole my heart. 

Heather Newman: You've got a wee duck in the truck there, luv I think. That's so funny. Oh my God. That's hysterical. You have such an interesting name and when I met you, I was like what's your name? And I know that you have this really interesting background before sort of the truck life and that, but that includes driving. It's kind of where you got your start. Will you talk about how you got your nickname or it's not really even a nickname, it's your name? I mean that's what you go by, right? 

Kil Ler:Yes, it's what I go by. Like I said, I got my CDL in my very early twenties on a chicken farm in North Carolina and I graduated with a degree in music management. Well, I minored in music management. So, I immediately got out of school and I started my own company and I was doing booking and production and I was working for a company in North Carolina called Lady Slipper Music, which is the oldest and only nonprofit organization that solely distributes independent women musicians and it maintained its nonprofit status because its catalog was considered a resource guide. So, through them I started working with music and then I started traveling, through my production company at the time, I started traveling across country with musicians and I was doing tour managing and all sorts of things. So, I realized how can I make myself more valuable on a tour and that's why I got my CDL. I was like, well, I can drive a tour bus and what if we're hauling stages and something happens, I can literally jump in and do anything that needs to be done on the road. And that's what initially made me want to get my CDL is to further my career in music and which it did. I drove truck, can't remember, I'm horrible with years and how long I've done things, so forgive me on that, but I was driving for a couple of years and then I bought a truck and I was living out of my truck for three years. And literally, I was, my dog and I just never went home. We just lived out of my truck it was awesome. And so, my truck, there was an electrical fire in the engine and my truck broke down. So, I moved home to Massachusetts and just kind of was gathering myself like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do now? And I ran into Kathy Guthrie who is Arlo Guthrie's daughter and Kathy and I went to high school together. So, Cathy was like, "Hey, what have you been up to you?" And I kind of gave her a real brief rundown of what I just said to you, you know, blah, blah degree, music management, blah, having my CDL. She was like, "Hey, my dad is looking for a bus driver." She's like, "Do you want to come up and interview?" And I was like, yeah, absolutely. So, I went up to the house, which is, you know, again, like we all grew up in the same town, so I was like, just going up the road. I ended up becoming Arlo's bus driver, tour manager, the executive assistant to the vice president of his record label and basically Jane of all trades and he is the one who nicknamed me Kil Ler. So, when he first named me Kil Ler, I was kinda like, "Oh my gosh, I don't know if I can take this. I guess I'm Kil Ler." And now it's like, "Hey, I'm Kil Ler." Like it's just, it's just who I am. And it's like I'm more of an ankle biter and people are gonna say, "Oh Kil Ler, I'm never going to forget that." It's like, okay. Then I see them again and it's like, "Tiger, Monster! How are you doing?" And it's like "Close enough! Good. How are you?" 

Heather Newman: Tiger, monster. So, Arlo Guthrie gave you your nickname. That’s amazing. Did you know why? Like did he ever say why or was it, this is it? 

Kil Ler:So, I'll tell you why. If you tune in, this is such a plug, which is not even something I do. If you tune into Roadlife, Arlo actually says how he nicknamed me on the episode. 

Heather Newman: Oh fun. Okay, let's do it that way. I love that. Why not? More from Kil Ler on Roadlife.

Kil Ler:Tune into Roadlife on Amazon Prime. You could hear Arlo himself tell you how he named me Kil Ler. 

Heather Newman: Holy cats that's so cool. Oh my gosh. I can't wait. That's so awesome. All right. She didn't ask me to do that by the way, just so we're clear. 

Kil Ler:I know, it just worked out that way. That's great. 

Heather Newman:Oh, my goodness. So CDL is commercial driver's license, right? Just so that we're clear with everybody on the podcast. Yeah?

Kil Ler:Correct.

Heather Newman: Okay, cool. Just to be super clear. You've had this great relationship with Mack Truck and you know, all of that. Are there, are there a lot of other female drivers? I don't know the stats on that. Do you have a lot of other women in the industry that you are friends with and that you know and that you have to, you know, when you're on the highway and that kind of thing, or how is that for you?

Kil Ler:So, in the specialty field of what we do at the (company name), I'm the only female driver with (company name). 

Heather Newman: Oh, my goodness. Wow. 

Kil Ler:Yeah. So, when it comes to statistics, I believe that there's over 2 million people that make up the trucking industry and less than 12 percent of them are women, which includes drivers and dispatchers and other people involved in it. So technically less than seven percent of the drivers are women. Those statistics will change and fluctuate so they can range anywhere between four and seven percent. And 20 years ago, when I was driving, it was even less than that. As far as knowing other women out here, I really don't.  the guys I work with, it's a very small group of guys and I love the fact that they treat me like a driver, not as a female or anything else. To me that's the greatest respect that anybody can give me is just throw me in it. Like, let's do it. Let me do my job, you know, if I don't, I'm going to ask and you're going to teach me. Every single one of them are, right there showing me like, hey, you know, this is how you do it, or hey, you know, they're just, they're fantastic to work with. The women that I have met, it's funny because doing these truck shows and these special events, I get to meet a lot of women who are just going to get their CDL. So, I've taken, I've actually been able to stay in contact with a lot of them and they're like, Hey, can you make me some encouragement or a little bit extra support? So, I'll get these texts from these women across the country and be like, Hey, I just took my test, or I have to retake this, or do you have any suggestions for backing up or I'm missing this turn do you have any suggestions on how to do that? And those are the ones that I've actually stayed in touch with. But as far as women driver, other female drivers, I really don't know any, just because I don't work with any of them. 

Heather Newman: Right. Fair enough. I think it's obviously an industry that is ripe for anyone to get into if they have a love of that and you can get your commercial driver's license. I think it's really super cool that you are an ambassador for just driving trucks in general. But also, for, you know, little girls and young women who are like, that looks cool. I want to drive stuff and I want to go fast, and you know, all of that. So, like that's fantastic. Right. So, it's so cool that we have you to look to, you know, that's great. 

Kil Ler:So empowering, and that's the thing, if I could be a voice of anything for the women in trucking, is that, first of all we are statistically safer drivers and it's been proven across the board that women are safer drivers. They are now making trucks better, more ergonomically designed towards women.  They are saying there's such a lack of drivers that they need more drivers. I think if women were educated on the different things that you can do because you don't have to go out on the road. You don't have to be away from your family all that time. You know, there are ways that you can drive truck, make a good living and also still be at home every night or on the weekends. There's different options that I just don't think that they're aware of. And I think that if women realize that you can make a really good living doing this and it’s just, you gotta be able to be a hard worker. And if that was brought to more women, I think there would be more women involved in it, especially with women supporting women. I think it'd be a lot and in different forums for them to go to and which I know that there are and I'm finding them more and more now, researching it. But it is, and the thing is like, I don't necessarily haul freight, but I get to do all these really fun, super fun exhibit shows and truck shows. I get to drive all these crazy things like in Vegas, we do like the World of Concrete show or the Waste Management Show and there's times I can drive up to 65 different trucks in a week.  And so, I maybe like moving them in and out of the convention center or taking them from the Wash Bay into the detailing where we actually hand detail all the trucks as well. So, I think there's a lot of work that goes into that and it's just, but I mean to be able to say that I've driven more trucks in probably one day than most men have in their lifetime. It's pretty cool, you know. You know, it's just empowering. I would love to see more women get out here and do this and just kinda, you know, let them know that girl isn't a four-letter word, you know. Not, "Oh that's a girl?" But, "Damn, that's a girl!"

Heather Newman: Absolutely. She's our girl. She drives a Mack Truck.

Kil Ler:That's right, exactly! So, it’s interesting that people think of, I don't know, I just like to give them a different perspective on truck drivers in that they'll take care of you. And it's funny, a lot of them, when I was working with musicians and that's the one thing I say in the episode, it's like, you know, a lot of people are like, "Why did you stop working with rock stars?" And it's like I really didn't, like the trucks are the rock stars. We get to drive the prettiest of pretty trucks and we get to drive the newest of the new truck. But we're the ones that are making them pretty and shiny, you know, so it's more than just driving, it's taking that pride in making sure they're clean. Making sure there's not a water spot on them really pulling them in so that they are just nothing but shining, you know what I mean? And to me that's a lot of pride, you know, making sure there's not a smear on the windshield or anything like that. And so there are different. I'm kind of going down, I'm rambling. So, go ahead. 

Heather Newman: No, it's fine. It's great. You're such a cool person and I love that we're friends and I just, you know, hearing somebody who's passionate about what they do is what this podcast is about, you know, and your expert opinions and thoughts about all of this stuff is really, you've worked a really long time doing this. So, like of course like you can take anything on wheels and back it up, move it forward, drive it through bridges and do all this. You spent a lot of time honing your craft and that's really exciting and it's so nice to have a company such as Mack Truck let you shine and talk, and I really respect that, and I think that's really something very cool. And, yay Mack Truck. Thank you so much. That's awesome. 

Kil Ler:They are the ones who are breaking the mold, I think. 

Heather Newman: Yeah, I love the hashtag. I see you use that #breakingthemold and you know that's super cool. And I have one more question for you and then maybe we'll wrap it up. What's the trajectory, what's next and what you're excited about coming up? I know you're on a little bit of a break and you're like, I'm excited about like maybe just being by the pool but like what's the next hot thing that you get to put your hands on? 

Kil Ler:We are going to Canada for a month, which I'm so excited about. So, we head to Canada in September. The rest of the stuff I'm working on, we'll have to do another podcast. 

Heather Newman: Not at liberty to say, huh? No problem. I get ya.

Kil Ler:Yeah, can't talk about all the other stuff. 

Heather Newman: That's okay. It's good to have some surprises. We'll come back and do another one for sure. One of these days I want to figure out, you know, you and I keep trying to see each other and stuff, and so one of these days I want to get in the truck with you.

Kil Ler:We are like missing each other by days. Or minutes in some cases.

Heather Newman: We are trucks that pass in the night for sure. Good Lord. We keep doing it.  I want to, I'd love to do a video, one of these, in a truck with you, maybe at some point. That would be fun. 

Kil Ler:Oh my god! Let's do that. 

Heather Newman: We'll do a Mack Truck karaoke. How about that? 

Kil Ler:Oh my God. Can you imagine like Comedians in Cars? We can be like you know, another kind of spin-off on that with us in the truck? Like oh my god! How fun would that be? 

Heather Newman: Totally. Yeah, I'm a very interested, so yes, for sure. Let’s talk about where we can find you out on the interwebs and stuff. So, I know you're on Instagram and you're on twitter and it's hey, h-e-y, underscore, I'm K-i l-l-e-r, Kil Ler. Yeah, for both? 

Kil Ler:Yup. Yup. For Instagram and twitter. 

Heather Newman: Instagram and twitter. Awesome. And then for the Roadlife that is up on Amazon prime, YouTube and where else? On the Mack Truck TV? 

Kil Ler:Yeah, Roadlife TV 

Heather Newman: Roadlife TV. Okay, cool. That's awesome. All right, cool. 

Kil Ler:And when they search on Amazon prime, Roadlife is one word. 

Heather Newman: Okay. Roadlife is one word. Yeah, well that's a hashtag probably anyway now. Right? So that works. 

Kil Ler:It's a great hashtag actually. I follow that Instagram and there's some great, great people to follow on that. 

Heather Newman: Awesome. Yeah. And I love the hashtag #brokethemold as well, and #womenintrucking if you're looking around folks for more information on that area. Oh, my goodness. I'm so happy we finally got a chance to catch up and I'm so inspired by you. You're a bad a**. So, there I swore when we talked about that. How about that? 

Kil Ler:How about it? When we met at the, soiree, I'll call it, with GC, we snapped out and it was like the rest of the evening was just, God, you and I were in this bubble and nobody else was around. It was amazing. It was just like, oh my God, you're my new best friend. It was awesome. So happy we got to do this. And we have been talking about this for a long time. 

Heather Newman: Yes. I'm so happy to just tell everybody about what you're doing and thank you for the time. I know you're busy and I'm really glad you're taking a vacation, a little bit of a break. Good on you sister as they say. That's great. 

Kil Ler:And thank you for thinking of me and considering me. I appreciate that. 

Heather Newman: Absolutely. So yes, absolutely. So, everybody, this was Kil Ler who is amazing. Mack Truck driver. Everything driver. Going around the country and doing these great tours and she's got this wonderful documentary up. She's in the first female truck driver in the calendars with Mack Trucks. So, thank you Mack as well. Way to go again. We will have another podcast up here I'm sure shortly. This was Mavens Do It Better. Thank you.