This podcast is also available in a video form on the Hometown Hero Outdoors YouTube channel . Welcome to the Hometown Hero Outdoors podcast . Here is your host , Chris Tatro .
Speaker 2Hello everyone , welcome back to the Hometown Hero Outdoors podcast . We're doing a little different setup this time . We're diving into the video world , trying to get some of our podcasts on our YouTube channel . Today we have two different guests here . We have Mike the Cop he's our main featured guest today , also known as Mike Edwards , his real name here and then we have Sean Olsberg , who is our regional director . So I'm going to read Mike's bio here real quick .
Speaker 2So Mike Edwards was an active law enforcement officer for 11 years . During the time he began to create content on social media that was meant to encourage cops and educate non-cops in all engaging , entertaining ways . Mike was co-founder of the nonprofit Humanizing the Badge , which is now part of Relentless Defender Foundation and an ongoing effort to support officers serving in the communities with distinction . Mike went on to engage in the path of entrepreneurship and started a real estate business and eventually helped launch the 10-7 project in nationwide initiative to help 10,000 heroes take better vacations . They help cops , veterans and other public safety professionals supplement or replace their income through their own residential real estate business . Welcome , gentlemen , mike , thanks for being here . Really appreciate you being here . Thanks for having me , man . So just tell us a little bit about what's going on in life these days and what's the current situation looking like with the 10-7 projects and how things are moving .
Speaker 3My life looks like . I had my daughter , my oldest daughter she turned 26 . We had a roller rink murder mystery party at my house on Saturday night , oh wow , and I didn't have to ask anybody if I could have it off , so that's going good . I just did it because I work for myself now , which is a bonus , so that's one of the great benefits of where I'm at in life at this point . And yeah , the 10-7 project is sort of like my day-to-day a lot of my day-to-day my personal business , but then just trying to help coach and encourage other cops to get on board with the project and learn how to grow and manage their own business in this space , and it's going good .
Speaker 2Good , that's awesome . No , I know that there's a lot of individuals out there that have a hard time with trying to figure out what to do with if they're in the public service position either that's military law enforcement any other first responders in that transition can kind of be scary . So it sounds like you're doing it and you're helping other people do it , and it sounds like it's going really well . Yeah , we're having a good time , man , that's awesome . Mr Olsberg , checking with you How's things in the South ?
Speaker 4Hey , everything's good here . It's hot boy , Real hot .
Speaker 2Not up here right now , but it's getting better . So you two got to meet each other down at the Relentless Defender Gala . Do you want to talk about that a bit , Sean ?
Speaker 4Yeah , absolutely . A few months ago the Relentless Defender Foundation had their annual gala held down in Galveston , texas . I was able to go down there and meet and represent hometown hero outdoors and really meet a whole bunch of people that support the law enforcement community from around the country and it was a great event . We had a nice social the night before where everybody kind of got to hang out and become friends and then the next night we had a really great banquet where we raised a lot of money that will be used and for a lot of good from around the country .
Speaker 2And Mike , from what I understand , you were the emcee for that evening . I was .
Speaker 3I was hobbling around because the night before the night we met I wrote a mechanical bull for the first time . Oh man , so my parts were sore .
Speaker 4I have video evidence of that .
Speaker 3It didn't last long , that's what she said , but it happened for sure . So , yeah , it was a great event . Every year it's kind of like it's the one staple event for me for sure , and I've been able to emcee that the last couple of years . I don't know if that's going to continue . I think I'm out of jokes . I think that's it . I'm getting dried up .
Speaker 2You passed the torch Maybe you're next .
Speaker 2Chris , I don't know . Nope , not me , I'm just there to have . I want to go next year for sure and have some fun . But I know this year I really wanted to be there . Unfortunately I missed . But I heard a lot of good things about it in the years past and , as everyone knows , we're pretty good friends with the relentless defender Slater phenomenal individual and we'll get into that a little bit deeper here in a little bit . Mike has had a relationship with them for quite a while . But , mike , for the listeners and everything , we're curious about your law enforcement career , how it began and where it started and what was your interest in law enforcement and why .
Speaker 3Yeah , I came from I wouldn't necessarily say a law enforcement family , but when I was a little kid my dad was in Springfield , well , champaign , urbana area . He was a dispatcher for police and fire there . And so all the time , from being the youngest that I can remember , there was some sort of connection to that public safety world . And then I had done some security work for a department store kind of a thing it's a regional store and I got to meet a lot of cops . And then when I went to college I met a couple of cops on campus and I was just always intrigued by the law enforcement world . So it was always one of those things where I was like , man , that seems like something I would really enjoy doing , I feel like I would be a good fit there , that I would really really have a good time . And it just never , never materialized for me .
Speaker 3Early on in my life I got married really young . I was 19 years old when I got married and I started a family , and so you know , life moves fast like that sometimes and then you're like well , man , now I got to work , you know like I just need a job , I don't need to like try to go down a new career path or whatever . So and at the time that would have been in the late 90s it was very , very competitive to try to get a job where you would get sponsored into the academy and that kind of thing . So I kind of like just put put that on hold as sort of like a wish list that one day , if I could ever do that , that'd be cool . But I just focused on my family for the most part .
Speaker 3My brother became a police officer well ahead of me and he loved it and we had very similar personalities . So I think , like man , I think I would enjoy this . And then the opportunity presented itself . I had a business at the time . The economy took a , took a dump in 2008 . And it had a tremendous impact on my business at the time . So there was a , there was a window to go to the police academy . So I did and started that in 2009 and didn't look back for quite a while , just dove into the career and and it was definitely a good fit for me I really loved , really loved doing the job .
Speaker 2Did your brother and you work for the same department ? Then no , no different departments . Okay , which part of the States Were you in Michigan ?
Speaker 4I like the Metro Detroit area .
Speaker 2Okay , and your brother was somewhere else in the state . Well , yeah , same area . Oh , same close . Okay , yeah , well , that's pretty cool . No , it's . It's interesting to hear how people's lives and how they get gravitate towards law enforcement . What are the things and the circumstances that kind of push you in that direction ? So , on the job , you know , how did you like things to begin with , where you were on patrol , I assume , for a while , did you do any special assignments or anything like that ?
Speaker 3I mean the closest I got to special assignment stuff was I did some highway interdiction , so that was sort of close , but I would still have to shag calls . I would have to come off the expressway and shag calls when I was doing that . But I was trained in it so usually if we had a full compliment I could get away with being kind of released to go do that for the shift or whatever . So I mean that was a focus for a little bit of time in my career . Other than that I just I pushed a scout car shag calls , you know eventually became a field training officer later on in my career there . So yeah , but nothing too crazy . I mean special assignments goes .
Speaker 2Well , it's all work and it's all important . Everyone's got a role to engage in and I know that interdiction there's a lot to interdiction , you know , and the people who do do it are really good at it and but sounds like the training is on the up and up and they actually do a good job of getting people to recognize what they need to engage in with interdiction . Did you enjoy doing that then ?
Speaker 3I did . Yeah , I enjoyed it . I think it was a toss up between that and the times where we would have seasons again , if we did have the staffing , where we would myself and a partner would hunt warrants , you know that kind of a thing . I think I enjoyed that more than interdiction . So my real dream was the US Marshall service , but I was just too old to do that .
Speaker 2Oh yeah . No that'd be quite the interesting law enforcement change , but also really cool , really cool gig , I would think .
Speaker 3Yeah for sure . So if there would have been a local way to do that , that would have been something that I would have been interested in , but that just wasn't in the cards for me .
Speaker 2Did you get to work on any task force with them ?
Speaker 3Occasionally , you know , like we had at our department . We had people farmed out to DEA , fbi , local narcotics , the task force in the state . So I got to help occasionally in that arena , but never on some ongoing basis or anything like that .
Speaker 2So I know that , as you've gone on in your career with your content creation as Mike the cop , what was it that got you into wanting to do that ? What were the things that you really felt like , hey , I need to start sharing some content here about law enforcement and what got that all moving ?
Speaker 3Yeah , so in 2010, . So headed into my first year of policing , or a little bit over , and when I say policing , I mean like from the time that I started the academy , at least , because once I started that , I didn't do anything else . My brother that I mentioned earlier , he was killed with a line of duty in July of 2010 . And so , out of that experience , for years I benefited greatly from the law enforcement community around me showing me tremendous support and offering tremendous support . And sometime in , like spring of 2014 , a couple of things happened , but I saw the media shifting in how they were portraying law enforcement officers , how they were covering things .
Speaker 3And it's not like policing has never had its problems . It has . But there was something like I don't know a unique change or shift happening . It seemed to me , and I felt like , ok , now I have this ability to write or this ability to create , maybe I can help give back to the law enforcement community that's supported me through my difficult experiences . Now , if I can in some way say some things , do some things that can help support the law enforcement community , well then , I want to do that , and that's when I started a blog and started writing and just sharing my thoughts and experiences and that provided some pretty quick feedback and a positive sense from cops who were like I needed to hear that or that thank you for thinking of us or saying the things that we can't say , kind of a thing . A lot of cops feel trapped in silence with policies and putting their career at risk , and I was just in a fortunate place where I was able to share my thoughts and started to put them out there .
Speaker 2No , that's awesome .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think that a lot of what was difficult during those times .
Speaker 2Social media was growing quite quickly and the media does have quite of the power really when it comes to being able to share what they do and don't share and how they portray it , cutting and editing things in certain manners and really just showing stuff that helps them get them clicks or views .
Speaker 2And I think that I remember watching you when you first started your content early on . I thought it was awesome to be able to see that I'd been in law enforcement for several years at that point and I thought it was great just to have not only a little bit of comedy to things , but also to have the ability for people to be able to look into the life of law enforcement in a different fashion , not the authoritative way all the time , essentially , but also to have some fun with it . And I know that you had your social media life flourished quite a bit throughout that . But what are the ups and downs that you found throughout that ? What are some of the high positive things that have came back to you based on your media and then maybe some of the negatives that you've experienced ?
Speaker 3I mean some of the positives . Maybe I'll never even know , because not a lot of people come back and express anything , but I mean , if the people who have reached out are any indication of benefit from what I've done , then I'm happy . That's an indicator that that's more widespread and happy , just to know . I mean it meant the world to me when I would get messages and it's like , yeah , we had a tough shift and we were able to kind of like when we kind of circled up the cars . At the end we just watched a few of your videos and we were laughing and whatever else , if it was able to be cathartic or relieving in some way to
guys . And so I said the purpose of my content was to just encourage cops .
Speaker 3I was a cop . I wasn't just some outside content creator trying to capitalize on a group of people . That was my life . I was just sharing my real experiences and mind with people and wanted to just encourage them . So if they felt a little better about themselves , their career and encouraged to keep going , then I was happy . And I think in large part I was able to do that for a season . I don't know that I'm doing that now in the same ways . My life has changed , so my content has changed , and people don't stay the same forever . They grow and they adapt and change , and I'm no exception to that . But for that season of sort of like the cop era , I had a good time and I think that the highs was knowing and interacting with people in person and online , knowing I'm actually accomplishing what I set out to do , which is to primarily to just encourage cops .
Speaker 4Mike , do you think that your blogging helped you with your mental health and is a way for you to kind of get that out there and help others to join in ?
Speaker 3100% . Yeah . Yeah , it was very self-therapeutic . I didn't set out for it to be that way . I didn't think to myself consciously like , oh , blogging will help me . But when I started writing and sharing my thoughts , it felt good to take what was in my head and my heart and put it out somewhere and share that . Obviously , that's kind of like feels risky to share your real thoughts on something or your real feelings on something . But yeah , absolutely , it was a huge help for me . Yeah .
Speaker 4That's great , and broadcasting to your audience is a pretty closed off individual , so I think that's pretty good to get it out there , yeah for sure .
Speaker 2And I did not mean to gloss over it , but we're sorry to hear about your brother . That's something I did not know , that's a very terrible , terrible thing , and I'm sure that you dealt with some of your own mental health struggles after that . That was probably difficult .
Speaker 3Yeah , I mean I always tell people that , dealing with difficult circumstances , I talk about faith as a huge component for me . Different people have different outlets or different means , and that's a whole conversation . But yeah , I mean I thankfully have never struggled in some of the ways that I know people do and I've been grateful for that . I think that in large part that's because of my faith and then it's connected to my family . So my faith , my family , my fun , my fitness , I've always maintained a life outside of policing .
Speaker 3So when they tell you in the academy to not only have cop friends and not only do cop things , there's a reason for that and so , thankfully , I listened . So I just never . I always stayed engaged in those things and I think that helped me a lot because I didn't feel trapped in just my own thoughts , in just my own experiences . I know that in some sense only other cops will know what that experience directly might be like , but at the end of the day , cops aren't the only ones that experience tragedy and loss and difficulty , and so I think that helped me a lot . But those things really kept me , kept me grounded , I think , and kept me healthy mentally , spiritually . So I'm grateful that I didn't end up in any type of I guess feeling trapped mentally or going down a path that would lead to any kind of diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder or anything like that .
Speaker 2So that's fantastic . It sounds like you did a really good job of actually having good networks around you that were able to help with your mental health and focus elsewhere , which is like you said . A lot of cops have difficulty with having those friends outside of law enforcement , and I've seen it . I've been there too , Even in the military too . You've seen a lot in the military as well , and I do know that the job can consume you . You are married to the position that you're in and that's all you think about at times , and then unplugging is the hard part . I think it's very important to say that finding the outlets out there that are going to help you whether that be , like you said , with faith , working out , going out and finding nonprofits that support people and doing different things that their mission may engage in are very important , which actually brings us up to some of your nonprofit work . Talk about your early stages . I know you did the content creation . I'm sure that eventually led more into humanizing the badge and where that started and how it began .
Speaker 3Yeah , I didn't know what I was doing . I didn't have a goal when I set out to do content other than , like I said , I wanted to keep cops encouraged and quickly realized I need to educate non-cops . People have all these assumptions about policing and things like that . So I wanted to be able to add a layer of what I was doing to help them understand that cops are people and what they're thinking or why they do what they do . So I wanted to add a layer of that , but I had no end game in mind .
Speaker 3But all of a sudden this audience begins to build and then , simultaneous to that , I found another young lady who was blogging as well . Her husband at the time was a SWAT guy down in Texas . Her writing was phenomenal and we connected and started to collaborate a lot more and that's where humanizing the badge was formed . She had already begun that initiative . Her name's Tristie and I came along with that and says I mean , I feel like together we could accomplish a lot of good things , and so that's really where humanized the badge , which kind of had started in name with her . Then we began to grow and accelerate that together for quite a number of years .
Speaker 2And with humanizing the badge , I mean it's grown and transformed quite a bit . I know you have a lot of friends and partners that you have grown these relationships with to have this outreach to others . I know you're pretty close with Officer Daniels and our friend Tretz Cop . He's part of the was a part of humanizing the badge . I think he's transitioned over . I don't 100% know , but talk about some of those partners or friends that you've created and I mean everyone has kind of a different niche too with what they engage in and how they help others .
Speaker 3Yeah , I mean back in 2015, . There was I'm not wanting to slight anybody , because I just don't know . I don't know of anybody else that was doing it before Officer Daniels , online and at any level that I knew about . So if anybody listens to this , it's like I was making content . Cool , that's awesome , good for you . I just didn't know about it .
Speaker 3I feel like as a viewer , officer Daniels was like he was the guy doing it . He was online and he was making these videos and I remember thinking to myself there's no way this guy's a cop , he can't do that , you can't do that . And then I started making content because that was part of the conversation at humanizing . The badge at the time was like what are we going to do next ? How are we going to continue to grow and bring awareness to this nonprofit , to this organization that we're building ? I was like , well , I can try to make these videos like this guy . I could do something like that .
Speaker 3And then , as my stuff was growing , then he actually reached out to me and I felt like I was fangirling because this guy that I watched on the internet where I'm like what the heck ? This is crazy . And I was shocked . I was like there's no way you're a cop . He's like , no , I'm really a cop , no way . How do you get away with this ? Like right , and because the content that I was putting out was more like blogs and other , like I hadn't yet had like too much courage to go all in on like the video stuff you know , because I was like this is , this is going to end bad .
Speaker 2Yeah , worried about it coming back to bite .
Speaker 3Yeah so . But yeah so it was us two like heavy on the video stuff , and then we started adding in all kinds of other people as they came on . As a writer for humanizing the badge and man . Then we started adding in all kinds of other people as they came on . As a writer for humanizing the badge man then . Then we started adding in all kinds of other people as they came along . There was a guy , a square one he was . He was a part of it . Deputies hook him and book them .
Speaker 3They came into the scene so all of a sudden , like we had like this little nucleus of officers that were like making content and having a good time and all of them were like real cops and really good at being cops . It weren't , we weren't just , you know , we weren't all rookies making content , you know . So that was like a lot of the . It was a very , very fun season of life , you know , where a lot of these folks kind of came in and it developed . And now there's oh , no , it's the Pope , oh , and guys like Craig came on and and we're making content . And now I don't know , I look around now and I'm like I look at the sheer volume of cops like on TikTok , and I'm like , man , this is , this is a different world . I'm like I'm basically in a retirement home at this point , like I don't know . Yeah , who's a ? Who's a ? Who's my most kid .
Speaker 2You know , oh , that's funny . No , I know it's . It's gained a lot of steam . I've been watching , you know , humanize the badge since the early days and it's always kind of fun to go over there and it just it's a good place for your , our mental psyche at that moment disconnect and be able to watch the content that things that you guys are doing was . It was fun to watch all that . I mean I've watched Officer Daniels and watch Tammy and them do their stuff together and , yeah , it's just fun . You know your videos are good . You know I know you and Officer Daniels have done several videos . For what's the favorite video you guys have so far that you've done ?
Speaker 3That's a good question , man . I'm not sure what our biggest video is or whatever , but he came to Michigan one time for I'm not sure if it was for a project , project human event or something , but we made a video , something along the lines of like when cops fulfill their dreams and become firefighters , and we went to our department and like woke up in bed together and just like . It wasn't even that long of a video , but we had so much , we had so much fun filming that we filmed several videos , like while he was in town that weekend . Like I feel like those videos that we made like that week were like peak partner videos , like it was good .
Speaker 2I remember seeing that firefighter one . That was a good one . You know it's always fun banter between law enforcement and fire . You know we can't do what we do without each other at all . I mean , even though their second responder still , but not just kidding . We all love you so relentless defender , and your guys' relationship flourish as well . I know that you're pretty close with Slater . Slater and his crew are absolutely phenomenal and they're great to us , yeah .
Speaker 2And they're so all in and everywhere and everything that they do with law enforcement . It's just phenomenal . But talk about your relationship with relentless and how that grew .
Speaker 3Yeah , I mean I met Slater . What was really cool is that , again , when we started humanize the badge , like I didn't know that relentless defender existed , I didn't know , like I wasn't . Yet we didn't set out to like grow to anything like there was . There was no , no clear , no clear path for what we were trying to accomplish other than just like to keep cops and curses . So like we had no end game in mind , like here's , here's what the vision of this is . We had nothing , so we just kind of went with
it . We were , we were like chasing what was happening , trying to keep up because we just didn't know any different . And we ended up at , you know , we were like OK , well , we can make these t-shirts or we can do whatever . We were trying to figure out what causes we were going to put this toward or what was going to happen . And we ended up at police week in like tent city and I just remembered how I guess accommodating Slater was and how the whole relentless crew was just like welcomed us with open arms , Like didn't view us as like competition . You know , we had t-shirts at our booth that were not relentless t-shirts at the time . We were just like I would have printed them locally , you know , here in Metro Detroit , and like , just , I just went to a print shop and like got t-shirts done , you know . And so like we were a competitor , as it were , but like they just supported us Like I think Slater even came over and like bought a t-shirt you know what I'm saying . And so that was like the beginning of that relationship .
Speaker 3And then we just kind of like stayed in contact and eventually I was like man , there's no reason for me to like give my business to non-cop , like just random , like why are ? Is there a way for us to partner together , you know , and so , yeah , that's when the relationship , I guess , got serious . I said things a little spicy . Yeah , yeah , we took it to the next level . We had that defined the relationship moment , you know .
Speaker 3And yeah , that's when , like , like I as an individual became like a affiliate . You know , a promoter of Relentless Defender started getting our stuff printed with them , that kind of thing . So , yeah , so we just stayed in contact over the years and you know , since they started the foundation and had the gala , like I've been at all of them and you know we've spent time together at police week and different events . I mean , we even did a fitness competition one time between me and Daniels and we got pepper sprayed for money . It was terrible and we've done a lot of cool , cool little things like that to raise funds and yeah , it's been fun man , I remember that , I totally remember that .
Speaker 2No , that's awesome , I'll never do it again . I'll blame you . What would you rather do ? Pepper spray or taser , taser all day long ? I know I'm in the same boat . I feel you .
Speaker 1We'll return to the podcast in a moment , but first we want to thank Silencer Central for supporting our podcast . Silencer Central has been making Silencer buying simple since 2005 and works tirelessly on behalf of suppressor owners everywhere . Go to silencercentralcom to learn about how to buy a suppressor and browse their product catalog . Now back to our podcast .
Speaker 2Sean , I know that you've grown with your relationship too a little bit with relentless down there . I know they're in your home state there . Do you want to talk about relentless and just some of your interactions that you've had with them as well ? I know that you had the interaction at the gala with everyone .
Speaker 4Yeah , I mean everybody you know , between Aaron and Danielle and Stephanie , everybody on that team . He's really assembled just an amazing team that are really professionals at their craft . And if anytime we've ever had an issue or had an idea for a shirt , you know we've send the idea down and they take it from there and really produce a product that sells . You know that it's exactly what we are looking for , If not better . And so having them local down here and seeing what they do in the local and the Texas law enforcement communities is pretty amazing . They can reach they're reaches far , I guess I should say . And people at the gala , you know we had people from all over the state . You know West Texas was represented Dallas , fort Worth , houston , san Antonio . I was able to meet cops from all over the place , which gave me a chance to introduce them to hometown hero outdoors . And now we've formed some partnerships with different departments that we can work with their mental health units and try and just be there to provide , you know , for the officers here in Texas .
Yeah , I know , and it's kind of interesting how it came full circle too . I know that , mike , your relationship with Slater's been there for quite a while and I know I've tried reaching out to you and we have emailed and had correspondence on a couple of different occasions . Just the timings never worked quite well . You know , we were gonna try to have you come up to one of our banquets a couple of years ago but you were already booked , I believe had something going on . But it was kind of cool that Sean was able to actually bump in you there and finally get a conversation which led to this podcast and hopefully some additional collaboration down the road .
Speaker 3Yeah , I love what you guys are doing . It's it makes a lot of sense . I'll take some flack for this and I'll preface it that it's me saying it , not you guys . But I'm pretty convinced , after spending a lot of years in this space and very up close with a lot of people who've gone through a lot of stuff , most of the time getting around good group of people who you know what you're going through , know what you're feeling , and just getting to blow off some steam in healthy ways , goes 90% of the way to helping somebody . Like it's a huge , huge help .
Speaker 3And that's not to say that there's not times where people need to see a professional right , somebody who can really help , or if there's really diagnosable issues going on that require more advanced treatment , you know , medication or ongoing therapy of some kind Like that's not to . I don't want to diminish or say that that's never necessary or something , but what I will say is that a lot of what we experience and a lot of the just accumulative things , the day to day of policing , a lot of it can be alleviated with just healthy outlets and getting around a group of people and going hunting and having a weekend away or a season of time away and just being able to just be yourself and blow off steam . That in and of itself is a tremendously healthy thing . So kudos to you guys for just doing what you can do and putting that out there for people in the community .
Speaker 2I appreciate that . Yeah , I know it's . We absolutely love doing what we do and our mission , you know it's kind of changed over the years to some extent the basis of being in the outdoors , always going to be there no matter what we do . But we're trying to figure out ways how to actually be more available to people that we assist as well as ensure that we have enough tools in our bag to help them out . On the mental health aspect , without being mental health professionals , and then trying to leverage individuals who do have those assets and the availability for the professionals that need it , which actually kind of brings it up the topic of the organization call for backup . Would you mind talking about that a bit ? How involved are you with that ?
Speaker 3I'm not like super involved . Currently , I've had varying degrees of responsibilities there . That kind of came out of humanizing the badge , because humanizing the badge when we the very first thing that we set out to do was to help alleviate some of the costs and financial burdens of police families who had children with medical issues , that was the first thing , because Tristi was in that situation my co-founder . So we're like well , you can't be the only one , right ? So we'll do that Again . We were clueless , guys . We didn't know , we didn't have a plan , but what was happening was that we were continually getting messages . My husband was just involved in this incident work . He hasn't talked to me in two days . I don't know what's going on , or we would get a message from a cop hey guys , I'm really struggling right now . I don't know who to turn to Messages like that , and they were all the time . So we were like , okay , I'm not a mental health professional , I can talk to you , I can share my thoughts and my experience , but if you need something more than that , we're not capable of offering that . Very well , and at the time my dad has a lot of letters after his name . I couldn't tell you all what it is , but a much smarter man than I am , and all of that is in sort of like the counseling realm critical stress , critical insight , critical incident response and management , things like that .
Speaker 3And that began to really come to development after the Pulse nightclub shooting . We did an event in Orlando I can't remember how long it was . After that , maybe like a month maybe we kind of went in , we partnered with some other people and we just offered a free stress resilience class and so we saw a lot of people come together for that . And that's when we had to kind of like figure out what are we gonna do here ? Right , and we kind of developed Project Human and that's why , like now it's called Project Humanized with Relentless . But we were doing events in the community where we would partner together with local departments to do something cool in the community together and like inspire that , promote it , give social media stuff around it to get the ball rolling so that they could keep it moving after that project was done .
Speaker 3And then call for backup emerged out of that as like that's like our mental health sort of like wing . So we kind of had two things going on and then eventually we just sent call for backup off like as its own thing , because it was like it had become a thing . So now , like that organization you know my dad will be speaking somewhere like every week doing a training or whatever . That's military bases , all public safety , so like lots of stuff going on there . So that's like its own animal . Now and I've done a couple of the trainings , like I did the train the trainer stuff with them . So I have led some of the classes and stuff like that . But by no means am I an expert .
Speaker 2Oh , it's all like a pretty noble cause and being able to get people together and show them different ways and ways to think about things and approach everything , so that's awesome . That's part of kind of what we're trying to do is with our assist training , our applied suicide and mission skills . Training is to be essentially a first responder when it comes to others in crisis , but then also we're trying to help develop it further on . Where do we go after that when they need more help ? And I think that's one thing that we're really gonna buckle down in the next year here to try to figure out what direction that goes in . But we also we know there's a pile of organizations out there that have that availability . It's just knowing the right ones and what the capabilities are and just connecting with them is the biggest part , and I think that that would be a good conversation for us to have with you or that organization further down the road here .
Speaker 2Absolutely , Absolutely no longer in law enforcement . You were not . You have since left . What did that look like ? What was that transition ? What were the hurdles ? I know that there's a lot of individuals out there that are contemplating on leaving the profession just because of not only politics but just public perception , media , and it's just getting old for a lot of people in that profession . So what are the things that you mentally had to go through , you know , and those hurdles and how you got through those ?
Speaker 3Well , I feel like , because I entered policing a little bit later in life , even though , again , I loved my time in law enforcement , loved what I was able to do , I look back on it with , you know , a sense of pride and enjoyment and no regrets . But at the same time , I had the advantage of I had I had businesses and a life before that and I think a lot of times when you , when you go to , like , high school and then you go get your useless criminal justice degree or whatever and then roll , roll into policing , like it can really become much more attached to your identity right , like you can't see yourself or understand yourself . Apart from that , I think I avoided that hurdle . I think it's a real hurdle . I just think that I didn't have to face it because I had a picture of what life was without law enforcement , because I was lived it right . So for me to think about transitioning out of law enforcement and back into anything else or into something else wasn't a hard mental exercise , you know , because I would just be going back to what you know . In some sense life was like before that . So I don't really I can't say that that was a hurdle that I struggled with . I didn't even feel like I faced it . I just I didn't plan on it . I mean , my my plan was to retire as a cop . You know , like I didn't have goals to leave policing .
Speaker 3But the opportunities that came along for me because of , like the mic , the cop stuff that opened up it reignited in me sort of like that entrepreneurship spirit , the drive to do something more , and that it was like a perfect storm for me because I came to a point in my career where I still would have had to been in patrol for probably like another four , four or five years . I didn't get picked for a task force that I was working toward and it's been a lot of time trying to get , and so I knew I'd be in patrol for longer and had pushed the scout car for a number of years and I was like had another opportunity pop up where I could make more money and transition away from policing . And in Michigan , you know , I don't know , I'm sure at various state to state , you have two years of your certification being good . So I felt like I was in a pretty low risk situation where if I tried something else and I hated it , or if I failed at it or whatever , that I could just come back . You know , I just get another cop job , like whatever .
Speaker 3So I can respect the fact that a lot of people are intimidated by moving on from policing . I just didn't . I didn't feel that because I was like , oh yeah , I just go back to life . You know , like I I did policing and I can do something else . I know because I've done it right . So that was , that was my transition .
Speaker 2Oh , it's interesting . No , I mean it doesn't make sense .
I've heard that with some of the military folks too that joined a little later in life . Is that you know they're , they've got a piece of what life looks like before military ? I mean , I joined when I was 17 , you know , and I was National Guard . But I got to live two lives between military and the National Guard side of things . So I was , I feel , like I didn't really have much to . I got experience both sides of that fence too . But I know , sean , you did your entire career in active duty .
Speaker 4I did , but I also got a little bit later start . You know I didn't come into us with 23 after college and I had already owned a business and failed . And you did a few different , had a little more life experience and having that experience helped me out through my career . And when you got out as well , I relate , mike and a lot of our young , our young soldiers . I get out after one enlistment of four years . They do have a hard time separating and then being successful right off the get , just because they don't have that experience and they just everything's been laid out for them for . You know the last four years that any map Think of what to wear .
Speaker 1Right .
Speaker 4Yeah . So I think gaining experience and offering different options when , when you do transition , is super beneficial to both the police and the veteran communities . Which leads me into the 10 seven project and what you have going there that's from what I see is it's a pretty amazing program .
Speaker 3Yeah , we're surprised by how many things in my life start without a real clear end in mind . We just kind of like get ideas and just try it . You know like , so that's kind of how this , how that was , birth as well . You know like , I did a variety of things when I left policing and took a position in the initially with like a startup company doing some social media marketing and developing influencers for them and different things like that , and I also got my real estate license so I started learning how to do that business and find success there . And then my good friend , longtime humanizing the badge , you know board member supporter , chris Fisher .
Speaker 3He was the guy behind Survive the streets , a page for cops back in the day when that thing like blew up . You know like he was . It was a faceless thing but he was . He was one of the guys behind that , and so he's he's got extensive social media experience as well . And we we were both doing the real estate game and I think one night over bourbon we're like we can't be the only two idiot cops that learn how to , you know , do real estate . So maybe we could help others do the same thing .
Speaker 3And that's where like the 10 seven project came from and we weren't prepared for the overwhelming initial response and we had no systems in place to help people do this . But fast forward about three years , coming up on three years this fall . You know , now we've got all of the systems in place to help somebody succeed and we're we're seeing people's lives change . Man , it's awesome . People who just grow in and their self confidence and their abilities to to take their skill set from law enforcement or military service or just public safety in general and apply it into the business world specifically . For us , obviously , that's like the real estate space , the home ownership space , and they're they're running with it and it's awesome to see .
Speaker 4Yeah , and that's you know . Real estate is one of those occupations that you can , you can ease into it . You know you can still do it part time . You know , while while you're on the job , you can do this real estate part time .
Speaker 2So you're saying that the slow transition over , so if you're law enforcement or whatnot , you can do a part time real estate as you wish and then kind of slowly fully taken on full time .
Speaker 3Yeah , that's . That's like 90% of our success stories start at that point Full time cops that want to test the waters , you know , see if they can do this and and build it over time . And many of them have surprised themselves and decided I don't need to retire from policing , I've got what I need here , you know , and made the made the transition fully . But you know , a lot of times people who do start early in this career if they're still fortunate to have the 20 and out or they do 25 years , they're still leaving when they're mid 40s or early 50s . You know you got to do something with your life and do you want to go do security somewhere ? Do you just want to kind of be a version of a cop again in your second half of your life ? Maybe , maybe you do . You know , I definitely do not and I don't think a lot of people do . They just feel like that's all I know , this is all I'm good for , and that's just not true . That's not true at all .
Speaker 3You know the skills that you learn in policing or in first responder world in general . Those skills translate not just into real estate , I mean any kind of service industry especially . You have a huge leg up on people who are just starting out in that same industry . Because you've you've been through crazy experiences and your ability to communicate with people in really intense situations it's like it's honed in . At that point you know , like you're good , so . But a lot of these people , yeah , they start part time , they get their feet wet and then they're in their mid 40s or 50s and they're retired so that they have a relatively risk free environment to go experiment with this and improve upon it and make some extra money .
Speaker 2I believe I actually have a friend that I know has been communicating with you guys in your project to who's looking to transition out , so we know that it works . How many people have you had go through your program ?
Speaker 3Right now we've got around 190 licensed agents around the country and about another 150 that are actively in real estate school right now . So I would say total in the project 300 and some there . We've got a launch group of probably over 4000 people who are like watching in the wings and and they kind of like , ok , I'm ready to , I'm ready to try this . It's like we get a new person every day kind of checking us out . And yeah , we don't . We haven't done any paid marketing or anything like that . It's just all just been organic word of mouth , like we wanted the results to speak for themselves . We wanted to really spend a lot of time getting our systems dialed in and we're getting there .
Speaker 2You know it's cool . How would people go about finding you with the 10 7 project ?
Speaker 3Yeah , 10 , 7 project calm . So it's like the Word 10 , the number 7 and project to en 7 project calm .
Speaker 2That's easy enough . Yeah , figure that out . Cool , no , that's awesome . You know you've had quite the the life and a lot of ups and downs and different stories , but also at the same time , I've been influential for many in being able to help transition to different things and I know from my aspect I certainly appreciate the things that you have put out there and the relationships and the , the engagement you've had with nonprofit work . I know that you've been to Minnesota , I think , once for sure for our back in the blue line , our spouse group that is in Minnesota here to help with them See what their blue line ball .
Speaker 3That was a fun one . I remember that one .
Speaker 2It was it was great . I think it was in Duluth , if that was correct .
Speaker 3but no , this one is definitely like in the metro .
Speaker 2Minneapolis or something .
Speaker 3Yeah , okay , maybe that's a lot of people there , those like 800 , some people .
Speaker 2Yeah yeah , that group's incredibly active . They do a good job of helping support our law enforcement in the state here and we're actually headed out to one of their events . They're doing something called the blue line bash . It'll be in August in the Noka County fairgrounds and we're gonna be there to help with our Spread our word to other law enforcement officers out there and their spouses . So we're pretty excited about that . But hopefully one day we'll get you up here and you can have me with our group and our people that we have that we help serve . So , sean , do you have any last comments or questions ?
Speaker 4No , you know , God is good . I mean , I'm glad that Mike was your place in my path and we just happened to meet down there and amongst a bunch of friends , and I look forward to Working with you and picking your brain over over the in the future likewise .
Speaker 2Mike , I got one One last question for you . Well , two little two . Number one how can people find you on your social media or communicate with you if they want to reach out to have some questions , depending ?
Speaker 3on when this comes out , I'm I'm dumping the Mike , the cop name and I need to go to just Mike Edwards . So I don't know what user names available yet , so I don't know .
Speaker 2Well , once it , once it does come out , we'll put it out there .
Speaker 3Yeah , if you if you go to , if you go to Mike the cop TV , whatever is there , as I'll probably put it there for a little bit or whatever . So , yeah , I don't know , I don't know how you'll find me once I change my username , but if you , if you follow Mike the cop on on social media , when you hear this , do it .
Speaker 2Do it quick , I guess , before it changes there you go , and we'll we'll make sure we get everything out there too . But then also my last question is what are your favorite things to do in the outdoors ?
Speaker 3Oh , man , put a jujitsu mat down on the ground and do you get outside ? I guess I I've not . I'm not like a major , major , major outdoors guy . You know , in terms of like the typical things . I do enjoy fishing , though , like that was , like that was my thing with . Especially , one of my sons would go fishing weekly during during the seasons in Michigan , when you , when you can . So Fishing is probably something that I enjoy the most , although I do have a goal in life of learning how to use a bow and I'd love to do some bow hunting .
Speaker 2We'll tell you what once we get our team moving in Michigan , we'll get you hooked up over there .
Speaker 3There you go .
Speaker 2I know we do have one team member that is a field staff in Wisconsin and he is in Michigan and he's hoping to Start up a team over there in time . But I know when we were at police week we met a lot of Michigan cops , yeah , and then we're trying to connect back all of them to see if we can get things moving out there a little bit more . But certainly appreciate your time today . I really Enjoyed our conversation and I look forward to doing additional work with you and more collaboration saying appreciate it .
Speaker 2So if anyone of our listeners are looking to find more information on Mike the cop , mike Edwards , in the future , we'll put out that information . But if You're looking for additional assistance with some mental health type stuff , you can reach out with no product human eyes as well as call for backup or always reach out to us . And if you're really in a place where you're having a hard time , our staff are trained in assist and we will help Talk with them to help them get off that ledge and find some additional helper assistance . But also the national suicide crisis and line is 988 , so call 988 if you're looking for additional help when it comes on mental health . So , mike , thank you for your time today . Sean as well , appreciate you both . Thank you guys . All right , everyone have a great day .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the hometown hero outdoors podcast . For more information , visit our website at hometownherooutdoorsorg .