The Voicemails I Don't Send

By Millisa Nwokolo, Founder of La Crown Inc. — May 10, 2026

Ten messages I leave in my head and never deliver. To the SaaS vendor. To the customer asking for best price. To Jim Evans. To my eighteen-month-old. To the operator reading this right now. Some are funny. Some are not. All of them are honest in a way the email version never quite is.

There is a particular voice you develop after twenty-six years in any industry. It is the voice that does not say everything it actually thinks. It softens the email. It smooths the meeting. It stays professional. Stays collaborative. Stays available.

I have that voice.

I also have a second voice. The one that talks back to the first voice in my head before I close the laptop and walk to the kitchen. The one that drafts the voicemail I will never actually leave because the cost of leaving it is higher than the cost of holding it in.

These are some of those voicemails. Drafted this week, in my head, in between actual phone calls. Some are funny. Some are not. None of them have been sent.

To
The SaaS vendor whose contract is up Friday
0:38

Hi. I got your email about the renewal pricing. The new tier puts me at fourteen hundred a month. I'm passing. I have replaced about eighty percent of what your platform does with builds I made myself in a few weekends, on top of an MCP server that talks directly to my TMS. I appreciate the years of service. The pricing model just does not fit a brokerage that has finally gotten honest about its own costs. Have a good rest of your week.

— M
To
The customer asking for "best price"
0:54

Hey Frank. Got your message. So — best price. I cannot give you best price. What I can give you is a carrier who shows up on time, will not double-broker your freight, will still be in business in eighteen months when half the cheap brokers will not, and will pick up the phone at midnight when your driver gets stuck at a closed receiver.

If that adds up to best price for you, we are a fit. If not — and I mean this — I wish you all the success in the world working with someone else. Take care.

— M
To
The carrier who flaked on my load Friday
0:19

Hey. I see you have bid on three of my posted loads this morning. After what happened Friday — no. Not today, not next week, not next year. Take care.

— M
To
The freight tech VC in my LinkedIn DMs
0:33

Hi. Thank you for reaching out about funding. I'm not raising. I'm building. They are not the same thing. The customers I am building this for do not read TechCrunch and they do not care if I have a Series A. They care if their freight gets where it is going. Take care.

— M
To
The person who tells me I should "just hire some humans"
0:48

I hear you. I have hired humans. I have trained humans. I have lost humans to better-paying jobs after I trained them. I have replaced humans who quit on a Tuesday at 11 AM with no notice and a cup of my coffee still on their desk.

The voice agents I built do not quit, do not call in sick, do not need health insurance, do not need me to manage their feelings, and do not stop working at 5 PM. You are welcome to keep hiring humans. I'm doing both.

— M
To
The new broker who DM'd me asking if she should go out on her own
0:04

Yes.

— M
To
Jim Evans
1:14

Jim. It is Millisa. I know we do not talk much these days. But I want to say something I should have said a long time ago.

You took a chance on me in December 1999. I was twenty-three. I was four months pregnant. I had no degree and a résumé that should have gone in the trash. You hired me anyway.

I have spent twenty-six years thinking about what you saw in me that day. I still do not fully know. But I have tried to pay it forward in every direction I could. I am building things now that I think you would be proud of. I just wanted you to know.

Thank you for the door.

— M
To
The software developer who told me I needed a computer science degree
0:24

Hi. It has been about two years. Just an update. I have shipped fourteen Claude skills, three voice agents in production, an RFQ engine that quotes a twenty-lane bid in under an hour, and a custom MCP server connected to my TMS. I dropped out of high school at sixteen. Have a wonderful day.

— M
To
My eighteen-month-old
0:08

Hi baby. Mama is in a meeting. Daddy will get the cheese. I love you.

— M
To
The operator reading this right now
0:42

Hi. I do not know you. But I know you have a voicemail in your head right now. The thing you have been wanting to say to a customer or a vendor or a carrier or a software company or your former boss or your younger self.

The world rewards specificity, not politeness. Whatever the voicemail is — send it. Or do not, and write your own version of this post next Saturday. Either way, stop pretending you do not have one. Take care.

— M
◆ ◆ ◆

If you are reading this and you recognized one of those voicemails as one you have been drafting in your own head — here is what I will say.

The world rewards specificity, not politeness.

The voicemail you have been holding back is, almost always, the one that — if you sent it — would either save a relationship worth saving or end one that has been costing you for years.

Send it.

Or do not, and write your own version of this post next Saturday. Either way, stop pretending you do not have one.

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